Hey ya'll, it's been a while. If for whatever reason you're not caught up or haven't read the last chapter, please do so. If all that's out of the way, enjoy.

Episode 6: Total Ninjarama Part 2

"Ugh, what happened?"

Rigby groaned as he woke up from a very uncomfortable nap. He was sitting on a cold, orange, brick floor while resting upon an orange brick wall. Rigby also noticed that the room was cold and pitch black. The unfamiliarity of this place quickly caused Rigby to panic. The last thing he remembered was trying to capture a bear, but he had no recollection of ever being in this room.

Rigby began to hug himself and shiver. "Ok, think Rigby. I saw the bear inside the cave. I then… did I even hit it with a dart? Wait, where are my darts!? Where's my blowgun!?"

Rigby quickly looked around the room to see if his equipment was nearby, but he had no luck. Before he could do anything else, something grabbed Rigby's attention. A large figure was lying motionlessly on the other side of the room.

"Hey, is someone there?" he called out, but there was no response. Despite his nervous state, he still insisted on investigating the area. Rigby approached the figure steadily and quietly. With each step, the rate of his heartbeat increased, but his curiosity overcame his instinctive fears. When Rigby was close enough, he easily recognized who it was. "Mordecai?"

Mordecai was asleep, but the effects of the sleeping darts had already worn off. A big enough disturbance would easily get the blue jay's attention.

"Tch, out of all the people." Rigby's expression changed from astonishment to anger, and he began to relentlessly kick Mordecai. Eventually, Mordecai woke up and pushed Rigby aside, causing him to land on his back.

"Ow! What the heck is wrong with you!?" Mordecai cried as he winced in pain. Mordecai got up and realized it was Rigby who was kicking him, much to his displeasure. "Rigby? Dude, what are you doing here!? And why are you kicking me!?"

On closer inspection, Rigby noticed Mordecai was covered in bandages from head to toe. Nonetheless, he didn't care one bit and proceeded to snap back at Mordecai. "How the heck should I know!? One moment I'm trying to track down a grizzly bear, and now I'm stuck with your sorry butt!"

Mordecai ignored Rigby's insults and rolled his eyes. "Well, the last thing I remember was that I was almost killed." Mordecai held his side. "It still hurts a lot, but at least I got my animal before I blacked out."

"Hmph, it should've finished the job," Rigby said mean-spiritedly as he got back up.

At this point, Mordecai had enough of Rigby's taunts. Using his right fist, Mordecai landed a fierce blow on Rigby's chest. The attack sent Rigby flying until he bounced off a wall, and onto the floor.

Despite their obvious differences in strength, Rigby wasn't just going to let Mordecai toss him around like some ragdoll. Rigby lunged at Mordecai, trying his best to ignore the pain, and fueled with childish rage. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

And so, a fight ensued. Normally, Mordecai is the better fighter but was still weakened from his encounter with the Acklay. As a result, he found it very difficult to move, and because of this Rigby managed to get a few hits on Mordecai, but every punch Rigby landed was ineffective. Even so, the two continued taking out their anger on each other.

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Elsewhere, Judai was in a similar room, but he was by himself. Well, at least that's what seemed to be the case.

"Judai, are you alright?" asked a concerned Yubel, continuing to speak telepathically.

"Yeah," Judai replied out loud. "At least I think so."

Yubel projected a ghostly-like image of themselves. Yubel's appearance could best be described as demonic. They had sickly-pink skin, large black wings, blue lips, pointed teeth, heterochromatic eyes, and bizarre, spiky hair that was purple on the left side and white on the right. What was probably Yubel's most distinct feature was that the left side of their body was masculine while the right was feminine. As such, Yubel's feminine side had her breast covered with a black, organic material and it had a much more rounded hip. The masculine side had a chiseled pectoral muscle and a harder, less rounded hip.

Lastly, Yubel's astral projection meant that only Judai could see them, due to his unique ability. Ever since he was a child, Judai could see spirits, and it just so happened that Yubel was one of the first spirits he ever met.

"I don't suppose you have any idea of where we are?" Yubel asked.

Judai smiled awkwardly. "Not a clue. How 'bout you?"

Yubel grinned. "Well you see, once you neutralized your target, a sleeping dart pierced your skin, and you were brought here once the drug had taken effect. I don't know why, but I assume this is probably for the next stage."

"Huh, that's strange. I don't remember finding the yeti."

"Trust me you found it and took care of it. It was a powerful creature, so I helped out a bit."

Judai didn't know it, but Yubel was lying to him. When he was knocked out by the ninjas, Mizuki and Feng, Yubel, being a separate part of Judai's mind, was unaffected by the sleeping agent's effects. Therefore, Yubel heard and saw everything that transpired while Judai was asleep. While they wanted to tell Judai what happened, Yubel realized that revealing this information could endanger Judai's life. One of the ninjas was willing to kill the yeti just for talking about some sort of convergence, so who knows what they would do to Judai if he began spreading this information.

Judai nodded in response. "Um…did you see anything else, Yubel?"

"They just… teleported you here. After that, I've been waiting for you to wake up ever since."

"I see…" Judai rubbed the back of his head as he was trying to jog his memory, but he just couldn't remember no matter how he tried. "I guess there's nothing to worry about."

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Several other campers were in similar cells. They all managed to complete challenges like Judai, Mordecai, and Rigby.

Mandy was sitting in the middle of her cell, waiting patiently for what would happen next. Likewise, she too wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but she didn't have any other options besides waiting. On another note, for no reason at all she rubbed the back of her neck and noticed there was a small bump on it. Given the situation, she figured that a sleep dart might have knocked her out.

In another cell, the effects of the sleep darts had finally worn off for Buttercup. As she woke up, she realized she was resting on something or rather someone.

"Huh?" Buttercup looked to her right and realized she was leaning on Ilana. "Ilana!?"

Embarrassed, Buttercup quickly got off her before she woke up. She then noticed that Ilana was beginning to move, but she was much more worried about the situation she was in. "Where am I!? Oh no, what if I got captured by…. jungle people!? I gotta get out of here!"

"Wait…" Ilana said weakly.

Buttercup froze when she heard Ilana's voice. "Ilana? You're awake! What happened to you and why are we here!? Are we being held captive by jungle people!?"

Ilana raised an eyebrow. "Please slow down. I'm a bit tired."

"I don't care if you just woke up!" Buttercup raised her arms in panic as she spoke. "We might be in terrible, terrible danger!"

Ilana remained calm and collected her thoughts. "I don't think so. The last thing I remember was using a dart on the condor… and Bisky was there." Ilana's calm demeanor was suddenly overcome with panic as she began to search the dark room for Biscuit. "Bisky! Where is she!?"

"She's not here," Buttercup replied. "Why would they pair up the two of us, but break off you and Bisky?"

Ilana clasped her hands and held them up to her lower lip. Unable to discern where Biscuit could've gone, she let out a worried sigh. "I honestly don't know, but I hope she's ok."

"Well, I'm doing the smart thing and getting us out of here!" Buttercup delivered a strong blow to the right wall using her fist. Unfortunately, her efforts completely backfired, and the damage the wall should've taken was deflected back at her. Buttercup then found herself being flung back as if she was a rubber ball. With a loud thud, Buttercup slammed into the other side of the room. "Argh!"

Ilana quickly ran to her aid. "Buttercup, are you ok!?"

Buttercup rubbed the back of her head. While she was in slight pain, she was much more frustrated by her apparent failure. "Of course not! I'm an ultra, powerful punching machine, and I couldn't even smash a wall!"

Ilana looked back at the wall and saw that there were no signs of damage at all. "There's not even a crack on it. Are you sure you used your full strength?"

"Eh, more like forty percent, but there's no harm in trying again!" Buttercup rotated her arm and lunged forward so she could land another blow. This punch was much more powerful than her last, but unfortunately, this act resulted in the same outcome.

Ilana winced after Buttercup hit her head on the left wall. "Ouch."

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"Where the hell am I?" Biscuit thought to herself. "And where the hell is Ilana?

Just like everyone else, Biscuit didn't have a clue as to where she was, so she continued to make sense of her surroundings. As she looked around her cell, something caught Biscuit's eye. "Well, what do we have here?"

What Biscuit saw was a white camera hanging from the ceiling. The blinking red dot indicated that it was either recording or that someone was watching her.

Naturally, Biscuit quickly realized what it was. "Is that a camera? Hey is anyone listening!? If you know what's good for you, you better tell me what's going on here!"

Elsewhere, Jack sat cross-legged as he was deep in meditation. He reckoned that something would happen soon, so he had no reason to panic. His suspicions were proved to be correct when a loud chime went off.

DING DONG

The sounds echoed throughout the entire maze, alerting the rest of the campers. Even Mordecai and Rigby stopped fighting once they heard the alert.

In another area of the maze, Sasha jumped up; seemingly startled by the sudden noise. "Okay. Please tell me something is happening."

Elsewhere, Numbuh 5 was reacting to the alerts as well. "I guess we're getting this show on the road."

"CAMPERS!" Chris's voice could be heard from a speaker system that was being transmitted throughout the complex. "YOU'VE MADE IT TO THE 4TH STAGE! UNFORTUNATELY, GOKU, MAY, FP, SAM, AND MAO MAO HAVE BEEN DISQUALIFIED FROM THE LAST STAGE!"

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Jack couldn't hold back his laughter. "And here I thought Mao Mao had the easiest task."

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"NOW YOU BETTER LISTEN UP, BECAUSE I'M ONLY SAYING THIS ONCE! WELCOME TO MASTER ZHANG AI'S MAZE, IS WHAT I WOULD BE SAYING IF THIS WASN'T THE PRACTICE MAZE FOR THE REAL THING! MAKE NO MISTAKE THOUGH, THIS MAZE IS VERY DANGEROUS! ONCE THE DOORS IN YOUR CELLS OPEN, YOUR JOB IS TO NAVIGATE TO THE CENTER, COMPLETING A FEW TESTS ALONG THE WAY. ONCE YOU FINISH, YOU CAN BEGIN THE 5TH AND FINAL STAGE! ALSO, JUDAI COMPLETED THE LAST STAGE FIRST, SO HE'LL GET AN ADVANTAGE!"

"Sweet!" Judai exclaimed. Just then, Judai felt something lightly bounce off his head. He looked up to see a hole in the ceiling closing and looked back down to see what exactly the object was. It turns out that Judai was given a rolled-up… blank sheet of paper.

Yubel laughed at his apparent misfortune, while Judai had a baffled look on his face.

"This is probably the worst one yet," Judai complained.

"SINCE EVERYONE IS READY, YOU MAY NOW BEGIN!" Chris exclaimed.

After the speakers were turned off, the brick doors rose and each of the campers found themselves in a distinct part of the maze as they left their cells. The various pathways were illuminated by the torches found on the side of the walls.

Judai began to navigate through the maze by going straight for a while and then making a left turn. "You know it wouldn't hurt to have someone scouting out for me."

"Too bad I can't help you with that," Yubel noted. "My range doesn't extend that far."

With Yubel being a separate part of Judai's mind, they are strictly limited to Judai's side. Yubel can only move in her astral form if she's within three to four meters of Judai.

"Don't worry, Yubel. I have a good idea." Judai pulled out a deck of cards he had inside a compartment connected to his belt. The cards had a brown cardback with a spiral design emerging from the center. Judai began to search through his cards. "Let's see… Avian, Grand Mole, ah ha! I could use your help Neos!"

Judai's eyes glowed, and his brown eyes became heterochromatic. Suddenly a monster spirit emerged from the card Judai was holding, Elemental Hero Neos. Neos was a rather muscular spirit wearing a white, skin-tight suit with matching white shoulder pads and a large spike on each of his lower arms. He had red details over his suit, black gloves, a sapphire gem on the center of his chest, and his mask had a white fin protruding back. Like Yubel, Neos could only be seen by Judai.

"It's been a while Judai," Neos greeted. "How can help you?"

"Good to see ya Neos," Judai replied. "Mind checking out what's up ahead?"

"It would be my pleasure." Neos flew forward and turned right at a two-way intersection.

"I figured you'd do that," Yubel said. "But are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Nothing here should be able to hurt Neos," Judai explained. "After all he's just a spirit, an extremely powerful spirit."

Twenty seconds passed and Neos finally returned.

"So, what did you find?" Judai asked. "Or is it just a dead end?"

"Not exactly," Neos answered. "It would seem that there is an obstacle obstructing your path."

"An obstacle?" Yubel inquired. "What do you mean?"

"It would be better if I just show you."

Judai followed Neos into an odd chamber. In front of him was a screen that read, "Do you accept this challenge?" Below the screen was a stand with green and red buttons, both marked yes and no respectively. Judai wasn't one to back down from a challenge, so he approached the stand and pressed the green button with his finger. The screen began to flash and new words appeared on the screen.

"It works hard all its life, counting numbers day and night," Judai read aloud. "But never gets past 12."

"So, the first test is a riddle," Yubel noted. "What's your answer Judai?"

Judai held his chin. "Hold on, I'm thinkin'…I got it! A dog!"

Nothing happened.

"Why was that your answer?" Yubel asked, disappointingly.

"A guy I knew had a dog that lived for twelve years, so I figured all dogs are like that."

"Your ignorance can be very irritating sometimes you know that? I doubt you'll be able to figure out the answer normally, so I'll give you a hint."

Judai squinted his eyes in confusion. "Hey here's a better idea. Why don't you just tell me the answer?"

Yubel smiled. "Trust me this is a good hint. Besides, you wouldn't learn anything. Now, it normally goes tick, tock."

Judai thought for a few seconds. "A watch!"

Once again, nothing happened.

"Argggh…"

Yubel sighed. Not wanting to be stuck here forever, she eventually gave in. "It's a clock."

Judai couldn't understand why that would be the answer. "A clock?"

Just then, a door slowly opened beside the testing station.

"Oh, come on!" Judai groaned. "Those two are basically the same!"

"Not necessarily," Neos commented.

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"Do you want the simple path or the difficult path?" Rigby read aloud from a screen.

Mordecai and Rigby have made some progress in the maze and are now located in a small chamber facing a similar testing station that Judai found.

"We should probably go for the easy route," Mordecai suggested.

"Ha, brainlet."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It's obviously a trap, you turd! Watch!" Rigby slammed his fist onto the button labeled "difficult."

"YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE DIFFICULT PATH," said an automated male voice. "YOU ARE TRULY COURAGEOUS, OR PERHAPS YOU'RE VERY FOOLISH."

After the voice played, a pair of steel shackles magically chained Mordecai's right leg and Rigby's left leg together. Subsequently, a door opened to the right of the chamber. Naturally, the two gasped in unison

"You just had to choose without thinking, didn't you?" Mordecai snarled.

Rigby was speechless. "Well…I thought-."

"NO! Don't even start! This is exactly why I don't work with you, Rigby! You always manage to screw things up, and I always get f'd over because of you!"

"Yeah! I do screw things up, but I'm still your friend! Why do you care so much about your stupid team or some cruddy tv show!? We're supposed to be bros!"

"Rigby, do you realize how much money we could get if we win this thing!?" Mordecai raised his arms out. "If we use the prize wisely, we won't have to work at the park or some other job ever again!"

Rigby scowled and balled his fist. "I do know, but you're still full of crap!"

"Ughhhh," Mordecai groaned. "Fine! Don't listen! Let's just get this challenge over with!" Mordecai began to walk to the door on the right, purposely dragging Rigby along with him.

Rigby found it difficult to adjust to the rate that Mordecai was going. He eventually found himself flat on his back while being dragged along. "H-hey! Slow down!"

Ignoring Rigby's pleas, Mordecai entered the door and noticed the area was considerably dark. Once the two finally made their way through the door, it slammed shut, leaving not a spec of light in the room. Cautiously, Mordecai took three steps forward and abruptly fell off the floor, or better yet the platform.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" he screamed.

"What the heck!?" Rigby found himself being dragged along with Mordecai, but he was fortunately able to grab onto the ledge of the platform. However, he wasn't going to hold on for long due to Mordecai's weight pulling him down. "Climb…up…Mordecai!"

Mordecai quickly climbed over Rigby, crawled back onto the platform, and easily pulled Rigby back up.

"HAHAHA!" Chris laughed as his voice echoed from a loudspeaker. "THAT COULD'VE ENDED POORLY! IF I WERE YOU, I'D WATCH YOUR STEP!"

The loudspeaker sounded off and Mordecai and Rigby were left to assess the situation.

"So, what do we do?" Rigby asked.

"It's easy, you crawl around and find the path," Mordecai answered.

"Are you insane!? There's no way I'm doing any of that!"

"Do you have a better idea? If you haven't noticed, it's stupid dark! I can't even see you properly!"

"What if I fall!?"

"Don't worry I can pull you up. Besides, I'm doing this because there's no way you can pull me up!"

"STOP TALKING!" Rigby raised his fist. "Why don't we play punchies-."

Without warning, Mordecai punched Rigby square in the face. He intentionally meant to hit Rigby on the shoulder, but because of the darkness, he couldn't exactly see him. Nonetheless, he was still satisfied with the results.

"OW!" Rigby cried. "What the heck, man!?"

"I win, now shut up and get moving!"

Rigby grumbled and began to slowly crawl to the left. Mordecai followed along while also making sure that he didn't go past Rigby.

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"This is the most embarrassing…," Rigby growled bitterly. "Why am I being treated like someone's guide dog?

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Elsewhere, Numbuh 5 was carefully walking down a path in the maze, surveying each area she would come across. So far, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, but what bothered her the most is that she didn't run into any of the tests or challenges Chris was speaking of a while ago. Regardless, she continued to stay alert as she wandered through the maze.

Moments later, Numbuh 5 would happen to find herself accidentally stepping on a booby trap. Fortunately, she was able to leap back in time before a set of metal, blood-stained spikes raised in front of her.

"Hey!" she yelped. "I almost got skewered by that thing!"

On closer inspection, the spikes were indeed sharp. If the dry blood stains didn't give it away, any ordinary person would've probably gotten themselves killed if they weren't quick enough.

Two seconds passed, and the metal spikes began to sink slowly. Afterward, the path was finally clear of obstacles, so Numbuh 5 continued to trek onward hopping over the concealed spikes. Even with the danger presented, she wasn't about to call it quits.

"Well, if that's how Chris wants to play it, guess Numbuh 5's just gonna have to play along….hm, I should probably stop talking to myself. Guess the maze is making me go crazy."

Just then Numbuh 5 stopped in her tracks because something caught her attention. It was a soft, rumbling sound that wasn't ahead of her, but was coming from behind instead.

"What the?" Numbuh 5 turned around and noticed the vibrations were getting louder, and louder, until…CRASH. Upon hearing the collision, she jumped up and shrieked.

About five meters away from her was a large sphere, resting on a wall of the maze. It was covered in quadrilateral carvings, colored navy, and cerulean, making a peculiar pattern. On each shape on the sphere was a black marking of the kanji 玉 (Orb). The sphere seemed to be dead in its tracks since it naturally wouldn't be able to turn in any direction.

Likewise, Numbuh 5 took a sigh of relief. "And I got worried over nothing." Numbuh started walking again and began to whistle an uplifting tune. However, this moment of peace did not last long.

Once again, Numbuh 5 was alerted to a loud grating sound. She looked back and she couldn't believe what she was seeing. The sphere was slowly rolling in her direction. It was at this moment that Numbuh 5 understood what she had to do. With no concern for any other possible traps, Numbuh 5 started running. Getting flattened just didn't seem like the better alternative in this situation. Numbuh 5 quickly turned her head and noticed that the sphere was gaining speed. She yelped, turned her head back, and tried to run as fast as possible.

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"I'm gonna do a lot of soul searching after this show," Numbuh 5 said.

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Elsewhere, someone was watching all of this from a cozy little monitor room. It was none other than the beloved host Chris Mclean, who was enjoying every minute of this. Chris was sitting on a black computer chair and holding an open bag of Chris McLean Brand Onion Rings while laughing at Numbuh 5's misfortune. Across from him were a set of twenty 4x5 flatscreen computer monitors, attached to a wall, and a desk that had four unusual, large keyboards, a small screen, and a half-full bottle of sparkling water. Ten of the monitors were on, and each of them was tracking a specific camper.

"Man, it's good to be the host," Chris happily said to himself. "You get to do the really fun stuff and enjoy life while doing it."

On the monitor labeled #5, Numbuh 5 finally managed to escape from the sphere once she entered a testing chamber. The object couldn't fit through the doorway, so Numbuh 5 was able to take solace in that as she caught her breath.

"Heh, lucky for her." Chris popped an onion ring into his mouth while at the same time, a flushing sound could be heard from the bathroom behind him.

Out came a well-groomed, yet elderly, man. He had sharp, brown eyes, slicked-back grey hair, and a grey beard. He wore a black traditional Chinese robe, that had a red 法(Law) kanji on the front, and wooden sandals.

"I assume you're enjoying what the maze has to offer?" the old man asked.

Chris swiveled his chair so that he could face the man. "Why yes I am. Also, I noticed you came out of the bathroom too quickly. Did you forget to wash your hands?"

The old man was embarrassed. "Oh, I did? Forgive me, at my old age I forget sometimes. I was worried about how you are handling our technology. You do realize that you're dealing with very expensive equipment?"

"Relax Master Tokoyami. I know better than to disrespect an instrument of torture like this."

Master Tokoyami walked over to a nearby table and sprayed a bottle of hand sanitizer onto his hands, effectively killing 99.9% of germs. "This maze is not a torture chamber! It is a training ground for ninjas preparing to journey through Zhang Ai's maze! Moreover, it's a sacred relic in our society!"

Chris was set aback by Tokoyami's sudden outburst. "Yeah, uhhhh got it."

Tokoyami took a deep breath and returned to a calm state. "I wanted to mention something. Our guests are strange, but I must admit they are very interesting. Like this one here." Tokoyami pointed to a monitor, labeled #7, and observed Jack easily and swiftly dodging a flurry of shurikens being launched from inside the walls. "Now that is impressive."

"I know right?" Chris agreed. "He really helps boost the ratings."

"Hmmm yes. His demeanor shows that he is very disciplined and quite skilled in the arts. He would make a fine ninja indeed."

Chris didn't really care about any of that, but he decided to humor Tokoyami. "If you'd like I could put in a good word for you."

Tokoyami was delighted by Chris's suggestion. "That would be wonderful." The Master proceeded to put on a sly grin as he continued to spectate the campers through the monitors.

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"I am such a disappointment," Mao Mao gloomily mumbled to himself, slumped on his bed. He was still recovering from his failure in the last stage.

Moments later, Finn entered the room of the cabin. "Hey, Mao."

Mao Mao looked up in response. He quickly got up so he could proudly present himself. "Ah, Finn. How you holdin'?"

Finn smiled in response. He proceeded to put his right hand in his pocket and scratched the back of his head with the other. "Eh, I'm alright. Hey, have you seen Bloo anywhere?"

"No actually, but I just got here."

"Wanna help me go look for that fool?"

"Why not. After all, I'm not trying to take the blame for any trouble he causes."

"Cool beans! Let's skedaddle partner."

Finn and Mao Mao walked out of the room and started to head north toward the communal bathrooms.

"So, Finn, what's your plan?"

"Simple." Finn cleared his throat and cupped his hands around his mouth. "BLOO! BLOO! GET YOUR SORRY BLUE BUTT OVER HERE!"

Mao Mao facepalmed. "That's not a good plan! He might not be close by and what if he can't hear us?"

"Well, what if he can hear us?"

Mao Mao groaned. "Let's try asking Gumball instead. He was here for just as long as you, so maybe he's seen him."

"No, that ain't happening. I asked Gumball too and he hasn't seen him either."

Just then, May began to walk towards the two. She was holding a towel in her hands and was noticeably covered in a considerable amount of green slime. "Hey guys, what are you two yelling about."

Finn and Mao Mao covered their noses because the stench radiating from May was revolting.

"Argh, that stinks!" Mao Mao cried. "What happened to you!? Did you go to a morgue!?"

May frowned. "Have you ever been inside a giant toad? It's the worst thing ever!"

"Honestly," Finn began, "I've seen worse."

"Nope, this is complete torture! I'm so icky, and my hair is ruined!"

"Well anyways, have you seen Bloo anywhere?" Mao Mao asked.

May raised an eyebrow. "Um, no. Why are you looking for him?"

"We figure he might be doing something stupid."

"Well, you're probably right, but I got better things to worry about." May quickly shuffled into the communal bathrooms.

"Guess we're out of ideas," Finn remarked. "Or maybe we should…"

"Good day, men!" Soldier greeted.

"Oh, uh Soldier," Mao Mao stuttered.

"Hey, Soldier," Finn replied. "What are you holding?"

Soldier was carrying a large sack a large, white sack of Mann Co. Corpse-Grade Quicklime. "We presumably had an infiltrator on the island, but unfortunately it was just one of the ninjas. I might have overreacted and disposed of him…with my shotgun. In my defense, he startled me."

"Then what's the bag for?"

"We gotta get rid of the body."

Finn and Mao Mao both had nervous stares. At this point, they wanted to leave this conversation.

"Anyways, I'm off to set a trap for Zoidberg. The little pest will definitely get it now.

Finn and Mao Mao exchanged glances and sighed.

"Soldier," Mao Mao began, "we… have to tell you something important."

"Go ahead. Make sure to give it to me straight, I am made of stern stuff."

"We stole from the kitchen,' Mao Mao said bluntly."

"YOU WHAT!?"

Finn held his hands up. "Well you see, we really wanted to make some cool-looking armor for that fashion challenge. We didn't know where else to get metal, so we borrowed, well not borrow, stole your kitchen pots… please don't kill us."

"You… stole… from… my… mess… hall!?"

Mao Mao gulped. "Y-yes, but we're willing to repay you in any way."

"That's not lethal!" Finn exclaimed.

"I'm impressed," Soldier said, bluntly.

"Yes, and we're even willing to sell our lives… wait what?" Mao Mao couldn't believe what he just heard. The same could be said for Finn.

"I'm still very disappointed in both of you, but I must admit that was a fine piece of equipment."

"So, are we square?" Mao Mao asked.

"Tell you what, every Halloween me and a couple of pals of mine have a party. If you can make me one of those as a costume, then I'll forgive you."

"Radical!" Finn pumped a fist in the air. "We can probably do that right now!"

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"Phew," Mao Mao said as he let out a relieved sigh. "I thought we were dead for sure."

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"Just one question Soldier," said Mao Mao. "Don't you think it's a bit too early to be thinking about Halloween?"

"Of course not," Soldier replied. "After all, it's the day when my life's in danger every year."

"Every year?"

"Yes, my ex-roommate is a powerful wizard who gives me and my friends a spooky surprise."

"So, what's the catch?" Finn asked.

"Well, he normally tries to kill us. One time he invited us to a haunted carnival. Another time he unleashed my best friend's eyeball on us. I understand if this might be too much to handle."

Finn shrugged. "Eh, I've dealt with a bunch of crazy wizards before, so I get how that feels."

"Yes, I agree," Mao Mao added. "So, does this mean Zoidberg is off the hook?"

"Of course not," Soldier angrily replied. "I don't care about what that crustacean didn't do, I care about what he did do, and while he didn't do much, my proud, God-given sense of American morality says he's guilty!"

Finn and Mao Mao let out a unanimous, "Oh."

Elsewhere, Flame Princess was brooding by the beachside. More than anything, she wanted to adjust to the world, but day by day, she felt as if she was slowly losing her grip on her powers. As she continued to mope around, Gumball approached her, though he stood at a relatively safe distance.

"Hey FP," he called out.

"Hey," she mumbled softly.

Gumball couldn't hear Flame Princess's response, but her visible distress was bumming him out. "You mind if I chill for a bit?"

This time Flame Princess didn't respond.

Gumball began to walk slowly and carefully toward Flame Princess. "Ok, I'm coming now. No need to freak out. Everything is super cool-," Gumball was cut off by a loud beep followed by a small explosion.

Flame Princess quickly turned her with a horrified expression on her face. "Oh my Glob! Gumball!"

Gumball landed right beside her. He was covered in black smoke marks, his clothes were singed, and he was coughing up smoke. Despite the horrible pain he was feeling, Gumball still managed to lift his head just so he could greet Flame Princess. "Hey, how's it going, FP?"

"Gumball, are you all right!?"

"Ehhhh….no. You think Chris forgot to disarm the mines last week?"

"Well duh! I just don't know how none of us managed to step on them until now, but none of that matters! We gotta get you to a doctor!"

"Yeahhh, Zoidberg's not here right now. You see since you're such a mental nutc-I mean since you're in such a troubled state, haha. Goku and I decided that the best way to help you out is to get a professional, but looking at it now maybe Zoidberg isn't the best choice."

Flame Princess sighed. "Thank you, I guess, but we should probably get you out of here."

"Good idea." Gumball coughed as he picked himself back up. "You go on ahead. You probably know a safer way back."

"All right," said Flame Princess as she began to walk back to camp with Gumball. "You know, I appreciate the fact that you're calm around me."

"Totally, it's cool." While he was convincing, underneath the mask Gumball was terrified of Flame Princess's capabilities.

"Not really Gumball. I burned down a part of the jungle and killed a dinosaur."

'Ok, maybe that's not cool. Actually… that's not cool, but we're in an alliance, so we're still cool right?"

"Yeah, yeah we're cool. At least I have someone on my side."

"Yeahhh." Gumball turned away from her so he could mumble to himself. "Jeez, man."

Meanwhile, Dan and Bloo had finally stepped out of the Staff house. Bloo was holding the briefcase as he was listening to what Dan had to say.

"And that's that," Dan chuckled.

"Alright!" Bloo pulled Dan's arm, urging him to go. "Come on, let's leave already!"

"Get off of me, blob!" Dan yanked his arm away from Bloo. "Now listen, we can't exactly leave yet."

"Why not!?"

"Ssshhh!" Dan looked up and spotted Jude a few meters away.

"Hey, dude!" Jude greeted as he waved. "I'm just takin' a break!"

"Same here man!" Once Jude walked off, Dan continued. "Look, just tell Chris you want to leave when he comes back. You'll probably have to deal with some consequences though."

"What consequences?" Bloo asked.

"Apparently the contract says you must do extra work if you willingly forfeit the game."

"That's stupid!"

"It's in the contract, plus look at it this way, blob. You'll have half a million bucks."

"Stop calling me a blob; it's patronizing."

"Yeah, whatever. Just keep the briefcase safe and don't screw up."

"Wait what about you?"

"I'll leave later. I gotta wait for a two day's notice from the company before I can leave. Dan strolled off, leaving Bloo to ponder on what he'll do next.

"Hey! Bloo!"

He didn't have enough time to think because Finn disrupted his train of thought. Finn and Mao Mao approached Bloo, noticing that Bloo was holding a briefcase. Has Bloo screwed up already? Will Finn and Mao Mao just not care? Does anyone still read this story? Find out right now.

"Where have you been?" Mao Mao asked.

"Uhhhh, well I was, um, back at the cabins," Bloo lied. "You must have not seen me then."

Mao Mao narrowed his eyes. "Uh, huh. What's with the briefcase?"

Bloo's heart raced. "Well, you see my good friend, I just finished packing my things. I decided I'm quitting."

"Really!?" Finn and Mao Mao said unanimously.

"That's right, I'm saving you guys the trouble. Do not weep for me, for this is a sacrifice I'm willing to-,"

"That's cool, bro," Finn interrupted.

"Yeah, if you quit, you quit," Mao Mao acknowledged. "It's your decision, not ours."

Bloo frowned. "I see. Goodbye,…friends." Bloo walked to the cabins before his teammates could ask him more questions.

"You think Chris will cancel the elimination ceremony if Bloo leaves?" Finn asked.

"I hope so!" Mao Mao exclaimed. "I'm not letting that blob screw us over if that's not the case!"

"Ok, but what if we win the challenge?"

"Then I can care less. Come on, we should inform everyone else about this!"

Elsewhere, Sam was reading a magazine while sitting on the stairs near the entrance of the girl's cabin. The book was called Occult Monthly, and it was the June 4th edition.

"Sam!" Finn yelled from afar.

Sam looked up and saw that Finn and Mao Mao were barreling toward her, much to her surprise. Sam braced for impact, but the two came to a screeching halt.

"Drop the creepy mag and listen!" Finn exclaimed.

"Creepy?" Sam muttered, slightly offended.

"Bloo's leaving!"

Sam put down her book. "He's what?"

"Turns out he's quitting," Mao Mao reconfirmed. "Guess he finally got a clue."

Sam smirked. "Huh, finally."

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"Thank youuu universe!" Sam happily exclaimed.

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"Does anyone else know?" Sam asked.

"Just us I think," Mao Mao answered. "By the way, where is everyone else?"

"I think May is in the showers, but the others are probably at the infirmary. Flame Princess completely lost it back at that jungle."

"WHAT!?" Finn panicked. "WHY!?"

Sam and Mao Mao were surprised at how worried Finn was.

"Um," Sam began, "I honestly don't know. Goku just told me they were gonna look for Zoidberg. Not exactly the guy I'd go to therapy for."

"Oh, man." Finn couldn't contain his anxiety. In a way, he felt that he could be responsible for what happened.

"You think she might have problems up there?" Mao Mao pointed to his temple.

Sam grabbed her magazine and stood up. "I wouldn't be surprised. I just hope she doesn't burn down the island."

Mao Mao proudly put his hand on his chest. "Well, I for one am glad that no mental issues are troubling me."

Sam gave Mao Mao an unconvinced nod. "Mmh, hmm. I'm heading back to my cabin. Feel free to not bother me, ok?" Sam climbed up the short flight of stairs and entered the room.

Mao Mao switched his focus to Finn. "So uh, what's up with you and the fire girl?"

Finn raised an eyebrow. "Flame Princess?"

"That's who I was implying."

"She was an old flame; no pun intended. Phoebe and I had a falling out and-,"

"Who the heck is Phoebe!?" Mao Mao interrupted.

"Flame Princess."

"Oh."

"Look, me and…FP were a thing and I prefer we don't talk about it."

"Finn you can't just deny your past."

"Right, and don't tell me you've never tried to forget anything in your life."

"W-well u-um," Mao Mao stuttered, "You know what look at the time. I'm gotta practice my swordsmanship." Mao Mao hurried off while Finn decided to go back to his cabin.

At the same time, Sam was in the Whoop Butt Squad's girl's cabin. After she put her magazine away, her attention turned to something underneath Biscuit's bed.

"Is that one of my mags?" Sam bent over and picked up the magazine. The magazine was labeled, "Playgirl," and it had a blonde, attractive, half-naked man on the front cover. Sam was utterly dumbfounded. "Well, you don't see that every day."

XXXXXXXXXX

Back in the jungle, Biscuit was easily navigating her way through the maze. She had experienced similar challenges when she was younger due to the nature of her occupation. In the world where Biscuit is from, she is a Pro Hunter; people who often partake in dangerous tasks to achieve what they're looking for. Relying only on her instincts, she chose each path she took carefully.

"So far this challenge kinda reminds me of the Hunter Exam," she said to herself. "It's kinda weird, but what's weird is the feeling that someone is talking about me right now." Biscuit looked up and spotted a camera. "Eh? Maybe that's it then."

Biscuit found herself approaching a 4-way intersection much like any other in the maze. Not thinking much of it, Biscuit decided to keep on going forward. Fifteen seconds later, she found herself at another 4-way intersection. While it was slightly odd, it could've just been a coincidence. Once again Biscuit continued to move forward, but she found herself at another 4-way intersection. This was getting strange, so Biscuit decided to turn left this time. As a result, she found herself at another crossing, but this time there was the number "1" right at the center.

Biscuit crouched beside the symbol and inspected it. She dragged her hand across it to check if there were any irregularities, but everything seemed natural. "Perhaps this isn't just some ordinary maze after all."

Biscuit took the left passageway once again, and when she reached the intersection, the number was gone. Biscuit had an idea of what was going on, so she took another left turn, and the number "1" was there once again. She then theorized that she had to guess the right pattern for this obstacle. Biscuit when straight this time and the number that was at the center of this intersection was a "2".

"So, it's left then forward so far…," Biscuit muttered to herself. She then pondered on what her next decision would be and decided to go right this time. Unfortunately, this brought her right back to square one, but likewise, this didn't stop her from trying again.

Before Biscuit could continue, she paused and realized something important. "Oh my gosh…. I forgot to eat breakfast! Argh, no wonder I'm so hungry…"

XXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, Sasha was partaking in the most atrocious sport known to man, virtual golf. Unbeknownst to the producers, the ninjas set up a golfing simulator in one of the chambers in the maze. Truly it was an unspeakable transgression against the Geneva Conventions of Sports.

Sasha took a swing with a metal golf club and whacked the golf ball right into the Kevlar projector screen. The display showed that the ball landed fifty feet away from the hole.

"This is so lame," Sasha complained. Bored, Sasha lazily walked over to where the ball was.

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"You know, when you go into an ancient, mysterious ninja maze the last thing you expect to do is to play golf." Sasha shuddered. "That was probably the second most traumatic experience I had in my life, so far."

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Eventually, Sasha managed to finish the game, and as such a door opened to her left. Sasha exited through the door, and it shut behind her. As she left, she couldn't help but collapse under the stress of what she had just gone through.

Sasha whimpered in pure agony. Honestly, it was rather overdramatic. "Ugh, how inhumane could these ninjas be." Despite her feelings about the last test, she couldn't help but take pride in her expressions. "I guess theater class is paying off, maybe I should start an acting career."

Just as Sasha was continuing to traverse the maze, elsewhere Mandy was about to engage in her next maze trial.

"I hate reality television," Mandy grumbled.

Mandy was covered in burn marks from head to toe, and she had about just enough of this challenge. As she continued down the path, she approached the next chamber.

"Oh great," she complained.

Once she got inside, she quickly spotted a large stone, humanoid man sitting across from a table. He had an orange jumpsuit, labeled "Prisoner 1961," and a strange metallic collar around his neck.

"Well, well, well," he said in a Slavic accent. "It would seem that small, little girl has come to play." The stone man flexed his giant arms.

Mandy was unimpressed. "Um, what exactly is going on?"

The man confidently pointed his right thumb at himself. "I come from different world where I am very dangerous criminal, Alexei Kamen. You see, these ninjas captured me in my world, and now I'm playing this game to lower my sentence."

"So the ninjas aren't just stationed in this universe," Mandy muttered to herself.

"What are you muttering about, child? Come sit on chair so we can… ARM WRESTLE! But there's nooo way you could ever hope to defeat me! My muscles and upper body strength are incredible! Your feeble mind couldn't understand the power I have! It would take 100 trained men to defeat the likes of me!" Alexei smiled proudly as he continued to flex his muscles.

Mandy couldn't stand to listen to this anymore. "You know, you're not very intimidating."

"W-what!?"

"Yeah, you're actually very boring. It just sounds like you're compensating for something."

"C-compensating?"

"Yeah compensating," Mandy continued. "Also stop flexing your muscles like that, you look like a buffoon."

Alexei lowered his arms slowly.

"Now let's get this arm-wrestling contest over with." Mandy rolled up the skin on her arms like a cartoon character (Wait, what?). "I have a challenge to win, and I don't have time for idiotic, Russian egotists."

Just as Mandy finished her insult Alexei started bawling his eyes out.

"Unbelievable," Mandy groaned.

From a nearby loudspeaker, Chris started laughing. "NOW THAT WAS SOMETHING! FOR THAT, YOU'RE FREE TO PASS MANDY."

As a door opened to Mandy's right, she couldn't help but look back at Alexei. Tears streamed down his eyes as he continued to cry in his seat.

"What's the point!" he cried. "I'm a failure!"

"Yes, you are," Mandy agreed, bitterly. "And you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because you don't know anything about terrorizing people. No one's ever going to be afraid of some guy who likes giving himself a pat on the back. Instead, they would fear an unstoppable force who goes by their own rules alone."

Alexei sniffed. "Really?"

"Yes, so next time you cross someone you don't like, what do you do?"

Alexei thought about it for a while. "Talk about how cool I am so they won't have to fight me?"

"No, you moron!" Mandy clutched her fist. "You pulverize them and force them to do your bidding."

Alexei smiled a bit. "Yeah… yeah! That's good idea! Thank you, little girl."

Mandy glared at Alexei. "What did you call me?"

Alexei shrieked. "I-I-I mean, thank you super, powerful little girl."

"That's better, but don't push it." Afterward, Mandy calmly walked out of the chamber.

XXXXXXXXXX

Elsewhere, Ilana was busy pulling leeches off of Buttercup.

"Ow!" Buttercup yelped. "Careful back there would ya!?"

Ilana yanked another leech off the backside of Buttercup's neck. "Next time you should be more careful."

"How was I supposed to know there would be leeches in there?"

"I understand your willingness to act, but it's still better to survey your surroundings rather than jumping straight into the action." Ilana moved her hand to the final leech on Buttercup's right shoulder.

"Yeah whate-YOW!"

Ilana tossed the squirming leech aside. "Sorry, but that was the last one." She then stood up and shook off the slime from her hands. "Let's keep moving."

"Yeah, yeah just don't go off too far." Buttercup rubbed her forehead. "I think I lost some blood."

Buttercup and Ilana began walking down yet another torched path.

"You know," Ilana began, "It's been a while since we talked."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Buttercup replied.

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"Ummmmmm, oh, what's your favorite kind of music!?" Buttercup asked as she strummed an air guitar. "Mine's rock!"

Ilana smiled. "I truly think any assortment of music is wonderful." She then looked down to see Buttercup's reaction, but Ilana noticed that Buttercup was slightly confused. "But rock is a very good genre."

Buttercup pumped her fist in the air. "Heck yeah it is! Honestly, it was so awesome we went to that music festival! Remember that Dethklok band!? They were sooooo cool!"

"They were… interesting," Ilana said as she looked to her side. "You know what I remember? That one lady who thought Sam was your sister."

Buttercup crossed her arms, annoyed by the thought. "Heh, I guess that was funny, but how about when people thought Bisky was your daughter?"

Ilana laughed. "How could I? Bisky was furious."

"Dead end!" Buttercup shouted.

"Huh?"

Buttercup and Ilana saw that they were nearing the end of the passage and were about to reach a brick wall.

Ilana raised her hand to her chest. "I see. Let us journey back then." Once Ilana turned back, she accidentally stepped on a booby trap. "Oh no."

Buttercup quickly turned to Ilana "What's wrong?"

Suddenly, a compartment opened on the left. Thick clouds of white smoke began to emerge, startling the girls.

"Careful!" Ilana warned.

"Don't worry I got this!" Buttercup proclaimed. She then proceeded to inhale all the smoke. "Easy!"

"Buttercup that might not have been a good idea. Buttercup?"

Buttercup laid passed out on the ground.

"As I thought." Ilana picked up Buttercup and carried her on her back. "She's lighter than I thought she'd be."

XXXXXXXXXX

Elsewhere, Jack found himself entering a new chamber. It was much like the others, but this time a woman was sitting on a couch, oddly enough playing a video game.

"Excuse me!" Jack exclaimed.

The lady dropped her controller and jumped up. "Oh, you scared me, geez!"

The woman was five feet tall and wore an orange jumpsuit; on the back the suit was labeled as "Prisoner #2451." She had brown, messy hair, green eyes, and a lazy smile. Furthermore, she had a collar around her neck, just like Alexei.

"Guess I should tell you what right about now," she said nonchalantly. "You can call me Heidi, and I'm gonna give ya your next trial."

"I see you're not a ninja," Jack pointed out. "Is there a reason for that?"

"Yeah, I'm actually just a prisoner from another universe, see?" Heidi turned around and pointed at the number on her jumpsuit. "These ninjas just use prisoners or other detriments to society as expendable assets for their training."

"They force people to do that?"

"No, everyone just volunteers. In return, we get some time off our sentences."

"Then if you don't mind me asking, what did you do?"

Embarrassed, Heidi began to twiddle with her fingers. "Uh, ten years of tax evasion."

"I see. What shall my trial be then?"

Excited, Heidi closed her fists and grinned. "We're playing a video game!"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "That seems very unorthodox."

"Gotta be ready for anything; at least that's what they drill into these drones they call ni-never mind." Heidi nervously rubbed the collar around her neck right after she said that. She then dug her hand into the couch and pulled out a game case. "We're playing one of my favorites, Sinful Cog Zrd; I wish they gave me Sinful Cog Z2 though. Just grab a controller and take a seat."

Jack was hesitant. "I'm afraid I'm not accustomed to your games."

"Well, you ain't leaving 'til ya beat me, and lemme warn ya I'm a bit of a pro. I used to play this game a lot… before I got arrested." Heidi stared sadly at the floor.

"Very well. I should be able to learn gradually."

"Great!" Heidi took out the last disc that was inside the console and put in a new disc.

At the same time, Jack sat down on the couch and picked up a nearby black controller. He then watched as the game booted up and the words "Sinful Cog Zrd" appeared on the TV screen.

"SINFUL COG ZRD," announced an in-game voice.

Heidi then pressed start and navigated to versus mode. On the versus screen, Heidi was the first to choose and she chose to play a character named "Slash Rose." Jack didn't know whom to choose, but he selected a character named "Skipper Pop."

Slash Rose was a muscular Caucasian man. He wore a black leather jacket and a black top hat, and he wielded a black guitar. Skipper Pop on the other hand was a tan, slender man with slick, black hair. He wore a gold jacket and small black and yellow gauntlets.

"Skipper huh?" Heidi commented. "He's pretty good for beginners."

Next, Heidi selected a winter-like stage called, "Arctica," and the match started.

"The stars are all aligned on one scene," said the in-game announcer. "ACT 1, GET TO IT!"

Instantly, Heidi completely bodied Jack before he knew what was happening. Less than a minute passed, and Jack had already lost his first match.

"Welp," Heidi began, "Looks like someone never played a fighting game."

"Like I said I'm not familiar with these kinds of games," Jack replied. "Also, you never told me how to play."

"Yeahhhhhh, but the thing is I don't have to." Heidi put on a smug grin to taunt Jack, but he was unphased by her antics. "Fineeeee, I guess I'll show you."

XXXXXXXXXX

"This…blows."

Sasha was in a very pitiful position. The girl accidentally activated a trap and found herself locked in a titanium cage. She made multiple attempts to break out, but that was not happening. With no other options, Sasha just wallowed in her misery as she waited for the challenge to end.

"Sasha? Is that you?"

Sasha looked out her cage to see that Numbuh 5 was approaching her. "Hey, Abby. Where's your hat?"

Numbuh 5 wasn't happy about the fact she was missing one of her most essential possessions, which added to her coolness factor. "It got sliced…by a giant axe."

"Well, it's a nice hairdo, I guess."

"Yeah, thanks a lot blondie. What happened to you?"

Sasha rested her head on her hand. "What do you think?"

Numbuh 5 grinned. "Heh, heh. Gotta watch out for those traps. Welp, Numbuh 5's gotta challenge to win."

"Oh come on, you're not even gonna try to help me get out?"

Numbuh 5 brought her hands out. "Do these hands look like they can bend metal?"

"Don't know if you if you don't try."

"Yeaaah, no thanks." Numbuh 5 continued walking and didn't notice that she stepped on a conspicuous rope trap. "You know it's kinda odd that….was that rope always there?"

"Yes."

Instantly, Numbuh 5 was pulled up from the ground and left dangling in the air. "Oh, man."

Sasha started snickering. "Wow, aren't you a winner?"

Numbuh 5 just groaned as she contemplated her misfortune. "You wanna talk so we can pass the time, and also so I cannot focus on the blood rushing to my head?"

"Ummm, what's with the Numbuh 5 shtick?"

XXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile,

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"GO, GO, GO!" Mordecai yelled.

"I'm running as fast as I can!"

Mordecai and Rigby were running from a pack of wild, grey, famished wolves. They had been running for five minutes now and were reaching their wits' end. Furthermore, the severity of the dangers they encountered left them with multiple wounds and burn marks.

"Over there!" Rigby pointed to an exit up ahead, but the door was slowly closing. "It's closing!"

Without hesitation, two leaped through the doorway and landed right on their stomachs. Mordecai and Rigby then stepped away from the door and watched as it closed before the wolves could enter. Not ones to give up though, the wolves started clawing at the door.

Mordecai and Rigby looked at each other and shared a nervous, yet relieved, laugh.

"Dude, we could've died," Mordecai noted as he stood up, rubbing his wounds.

"I shouldn't have chosen the hard path," Rigby said, as he did the same.

"Yeah. At least it can't get worse from here."

"HEY!" cried a deep voice.

"PLEASE DON'T KILL US!" Mordecai and Rigby cried.

On closer inspection, the two realized that there was nothing to worry about.

"Oh, it's just a ninja," Rigby noted.

"Who you callin' a ninja!?" The ninja wore a black gi and donned a headband labeled, "HNIC." Unlike most of the other ninjas who seemed to be of Asian origin, he was of African descent.

"Well, aren't you a ninja?" Mordecai asked.

"That's right! I'm Head Ninja In Charge, of the penitentiary, and I'm here to congratulate you on being the first ones to make it here. Lemme unlock them shackles." HNIC pulled out a key and walked up to the two. He then kneeled so he could unlock both of their shackles.

"Hey, we did it!" Rigby exclaimed.

"Yeah, yuh we did!" Mordecai added.

The two were about to high-five until the two remembered their conflict. As such, they both crossed their arms and turned their backs to each other.

"I mean…. of course we made it," Rigby said, sternly.

"Hmph, yeah," Mordecai replied, in the same manner.

"Heh, I've seen shit like this before," HNIC said. "In my long years of being a highly proficient ninja, nothing is more common than seeing a ninja get tired of another ninja's bullshit. Honestly, it's just petty."

"Right, but if you actually got to know Rigby, you'd know that he's a total pain in the butt," Mordecai said with spite.

"Yeah…what!?" Rigby cried. "You're a pain in the butt!"

Mordecai shoved Rigby. "No Rigby, you are!"

In response, Rigby balled his fist. "No, you are!"

"Shut the hell up!" HNIC shouted. "You're both acting a fool! Now listen up! I'm gonna impart some ninja knowledge!"

"No thanks," Rigby replied. "We kinda got things to do and- "

"Wa tah!" HNIC swiftly karate-kicked Rigby's head.

"OW!"

"Hahaha!' Mordecai laughed. "You totally deserved that!"

"Shut up, man!" HNIC cleared his throat. "Now, ninjas do wrong to each other sometimes, and in that way, the force of the Earth comes around the moon, and at that presence, the dirt, it overshadows the grass, and you like, I can't cut this grass! There's no sun coming through. So in order to enable each other, the two fruits have to look each other in the eye, and understand we can only be ripe as the ripe is wrong. You know what I mean?"

For a few seconds, Mordecai and Rigby were silent, until Mordecai finally opened his mouth. "That…that doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah," Rigby admitted. "You kinda lost me on the first few words."

HNIC folded his arms in disbelief. "Well screw the both of you then; making me waste my damn breath! Anyways, your final trial awaits beyond that gate!" HNIC pointed to an ominous gate a few feet away from them.

"K, thanks!" Rigby scurried over to the final gate. If anything, he wasn't about to let Mordecai beat him to the punch. Once the gate opened, Rigby hurried inside.

"Hey, what exactly are we getting ourselves into?" Mordecai asked HNIC.

"Oh, you'll find out," HNIC replied. "The only question is, are you ready for what's inside? Now get going!"

Mordecai couldn't help but be concerned by what the ninja meant but reluctantly pressed onwards.

"Woah." Once Mordecai stepped inside, he was completely in awe.

The final area of the challenge was a giant, transparent, glass, dome-shaped enclosure. Instead of the dull, brick layout that was present in the maze, the entirety was covered with luscious greenery and bountiful assortments of colorful flowers. The light from the full moon reflected off the dome, shining a bright, luminous glare inside the enclosure.

Mordecai rubbed his right arm. He was already weary due to his injuries, but he came too far in this challenge just to give up. In addition, winning this challenge would earn the respect of his more cynical teammates. However, he was also worried about Rigby as he was nowhere to be seen.

"Rigby!" he called out. As expected, there was no response. "Man, I hope he's ok. He shouldn't have gotten too far."

Mordecai explored the seemingly vast dome, hoping that there will be some signal as to where the final test is. He also hopes to find Rigby before he gets himself into trouble. Occasionally, he would hop over a set of exposed roots, and walk past bushes and trees.

"How big is this place?" Mordecai thought to himself. "It feels like it goes on forever."

Suddenly, Mordecai heard a loud, high-pitched screech. In an instant, he recognized those screams belonged to Rigby.

"RIGBY!" Mordecai cried out, hurrying to where he last heard the screams.

XXXXXXXXXX

Back in the maze, Judai continued to explore the area. While everyone else was bummed out by the network of passageways, Judai enjoyed it the most.

"How much further?" Yubel whined.

"Don't know," Judai replied. "I had to send Neos away because summoning him was kinda putting a strain on my body."

Yubel sighed. "Well, I hope we get this over with soon."

"You know I still have a feeling this is still useful." Judai pulled out the sheet of paper he was given earlier.

"Or maybe it's just a regular sheet of paper."

"No, you don't get it. When a bring this close to the light…" Judai held the paper up to a torch and noticed there were some symbols inscribed. "…there are some weird characters on it. It looks like Chinese."

"I still think you're reaching."

"Hmmm, well I guess you're right." Judai held up the blank paper to his face and ripped it. "So much for that."

Suddenly, Judai was warped out of the maze, much to his surprise. Seconds later, Judai landed in a new chamber.

"Cease, sucka'!" HNIC exclaimed. On a side note, he couldn't see Yubel.

"Woah, who are you?" Judai asked. "And what just happened?"

"I'm Head Ninja in Charge, and you just used the Sealed Mystical Paper of Teleportation," HNIC answered. "With it, you teleported to the end of the maze."

"Are you telling me that I could've- "

Yubel couldn't help but howl with laughter.

"Look who cares!? You made it and now you have one more trial to complete! Now get the hell out!" HNIC pointed to the gate.

"You mean that gate?"

"Man is the mothaf*** serious, yes!"

"I don't like his attitude," Yubel said.

"Don't do anything crude, Yubel," Judai muttered as he walked towards the gate.

"Only if I have to." Yubel snickered. "I still can't believe all you had to do was tear up that paper to teleport here."

"Yeah, it's kinda upsetting, but you know the maze was pretty fun too."

Once Judai entered the dome, he was just as shocked as Mordecai.

"Well, this is a change," Judai noted.

XXXXXXXXXX

For more than thirty minutes now, Ilana has been carrying an unconscious Buttercup. As such, she had very limited use of her hands. Surprisingly though, she's managed to continue even with the handicap. Unfortunately, the journey wasn't easy. Ilana was limping on her left leg due to a recent obstacle.

Ilana winced in pain as she took another step. "Argh! I…gotta keep going."

"Mumrmrr," muttered Buttercup in her sleep.

Ilana's eyes lit up. "You awake yet Buttercup?" Ilana asked aloud.

"I'm…gonna kick…your monkey butt…Mojo."

"Never mind." Ilana was a bit disappointed that Buttercup wasn't awake yet, but she found Buttercup's sleep talk to be amusing and somewhat adorable.

Ilana took a right turn at a three-way intersection and saw that she was approaching another chamber.

Once Ilana got inside, she read a nearby monitor which displayed, "One must go on ahead, one must stay behind instead."

"Heh, that rhymes," Ilana chimed, but after realizing what the phrase meant Ilana decided she should leave Buttercup behind. As much as she disliked that, it was the best choice considering the circumstances.

Unfortunately, Ilana's luck would run out. Her left leg finally gave out and she collapsed. "Ah darn it! There's no way I can go on like this!" Ilana looked over to Buttercup who was sleeping beside her. From the looks of it, Buttercup would probably have to go instead, if she ever wakes up.

XXXXXXXXXX

Biscuit was the next camper to finish her journey through the maze. Proud of her accomplishment, Biscuit dusted off her gloves and wiped off the dirt from her clothes.

"Are you kiddin' me!?" HNIC cried. "They let little kids do these things!?"

"First off I'm not a child," Biscuit began. "And secondly, yes they do."

"That's just a whole herd of messed up." HNIC pointed to the gate. "Well, you can go ahead and start the final trial. Some other weird folks are already in there."

"Who?"

"Some talking birdman and his stupid raccoon friend. Also, there's this guy with weird hair in there. I could've sworn he was talkin' to himself or somethin'."

Just then a door opened from behind, and out came Mandy.

"Damn, you weren't kiddin'," HNIC said to Biscuit.

"What's going on?" Mandy asked.

"The final trial is beyond that gate," HNIC said, once again pointing at the gate. "Good luck."

"That's all?" Mandy questioned.

"Yes."

"Wait what's the trial then?" Biscuit asked. "Don't we have a right to know?"

"No," HNIC bluntly replied. "You'll find out once you're inside."

Mandy and Biscuit begrudgingly walked through the gate.

"Now this is more like it," Biscuit said, admiring the garden. Biscuit took a deep, relaxing breath. Even if they were basically in a glorified greenhouse, it was better than being cooped up in that maze for so long.

Mandy on the other hand could care less. "Meh."

Biscuit began to do some stretches. "Guess some people just don't appreciate the niceties in life."

"I don't have time to debate about this," Mandy snapped, as she ran on ahead.

"For a kid, she's kind of creepy," Biscuit thought to herself as she stretched out her triceps. Biscuit continued to be deep in thought as she began to explore the enclosure. "Now that ninja was probably talking about Rigby, Mordecai, and Judai. So far, that's good in our favor. All I gotta do is try and finish this stage before Mandy or Mordecai can."

Ten minutes passed, and Biscuit felt a cold chill down her spine.

"Something's close by," she whispered. Out of pure suspicion, Biscuit took a right turn and headed toward whatever was troubling her. Biscuit stopped in her tracks as she caught sight of a brutal scene.

In front of her was a tall, muscular wearing an orange jumpsuit, labeled "Prisoner 13". He stood at nearly eight feet tall, had dark skin, a large scar over his face, a metallic collar around his neck, and the most noticeably of all, to Biscuit at least, he was holding Mordecai by the head.

"I'm guessing you're the final trial?" Biscuit asked the man.

The intimidating man took his eyes off Mordecai and glared at Biscuit. "So you're the next fool who wishes to challenge me?" He spoke with a threatening, deep tone. "Do you not see how pointless that would be for someone of your stature?"

Biscuit smirked while she balled a fist. "Don't just judge me based on my appearance. Now let him go and face me!"

"Very well." The man tossed Mordecai aside and held up his fist.

Just as Mordecai hit the ground, Biscuit noticed that Rigby was lying nearby. Like Mordecai, he was badly beaten and bruised. "So you got Rigby too, huh? Well, that's no big surprise….by the way, uh, pal?"

"You may call me Kentaro."

"Nice to meet you Kentaro. Out of curiosity, have you seen a guy wearing a red jacket or an angry little girl around here?"

"No, but I suppose those are the other weaker energies I've been sensing."

Biscuit took a fighting stance by stretching out her right leg, extending her right palm, and holding her left fist to her chest. "Weaker energies, huh?"

"That's right. Your energy is undetectable though, so you must great mastery at controlling it. That's impressive for someone of your age."

"I'm flattered, but…," Biscuit zipped out of sight and instantly shifted behind Kentaro, "Now's not the time to chit-chat!" Biscuit delivered a swift kick onto Kentaro's neck. With a quick spin, Biscuit followed up with another kick, this time hitting him in the back.

Each blow was powerful, however, Kentaro showed minor signs of pain. At most, he just flinched at each hit, and moreover, he was slightly angry. Before Biscuit could make another move, Kentaro hit Biscuit out of the air by swinging his arm back and hitting her into an orchid tree. However, Kentaro instantly regretted the action, but not for the reasons you might think.

"No, I damaged it!" Kentaro cried.

At the same time, Biscuit was surprised by Kentaro's physical strength. Especially since the man had no energy coming from him when he attacked.

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"You know," Biscuit began, "In retrospect, it's a good thing I faced that guy before anyone else could. Though, it's unfortunate what happened to Mordecai and Rigby."

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Biscuit uses a source of power known as Nen in her universe. Like the ancient Chinese concept of chi, also known as life energy, Nen shares similar fundamentals. So when Biscuit first attacked, she didn't use any Nen, but Kentaro was able to endure it. This time, she decided she would increase her Nen output when attacking. More importantly though, aside from the seemingly impressive strength, something else was bothering Biscuit.

"Ok, this guy is no joke," Biscuit thought to herself. "I probably should…no, I don't want to go all out yet. I still want to understand his fighting style and rhythm. But why was he so concerned just now? Is he talking about me? The tree?"

Kentaro started running towards Biscuit, and as such Biscuit jumped out of the way. Though as it turns out, Kentaro was trying to check up on the orchid tree.

"Oh, I see," Biscuit muttered to herself.

Kentaro breathes a sigh of relief. "Ok, it's not so bAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" In an unexpected turn of events, Kentaro began to scream uncontrollably. A powerful electric shock was generated from his collar, and as a result, the burst of electricity stunned the large man.

Biscuit took advantage of this and ran toward Kentaro. Once she was close enough, Biscuit landed a flurry of blows, each stronger than her earlier attacks. Kentaro found himself helpless against the barrage of attacks since he was still in a paralyzed state. Before her opponent could retaliate, Biscuit leaped several feet back.

Once the collar shut off, Kentaro hunched over and took several deep breaths. After that brief experience, Kentaro wasn't exactly leveled-headed. "Damn this device. Damn, these captors!" As he spat his curses, Kentaro began to shake outrageously, but this show of rage had little to no effect on Biscuit.

It was apparent that Kentaro desperately wanted to remove the collar, so much so that even Biscuit could tell. For the moment, this was something that Biscuit could take advantage of. Naturally, Biscuit had some pity for Kentaro, but ultimately, she's more focused on her goals than his feelings, for the moment at least.

As the battle continued, Chris was watching the fight from the monitor room. As a matter of fact, Chris was the one who set off the inhibitor collar. Though, it was under special orders. The ninja master, Tokoyami was right beside Chris, instructing him on what to do.

"That was awesome!" Chris exclaimed, excited at the prospect of torturing someone. "Does this doohickey control every collar here?"

"Yes, as a matter of f-,"

Before Tokoyami could continue, Chris quickly motioned his hand to the touchpad screen on the desk. Without hesitation, he selected Heidi randomly, navigated to a lightning icon, and pressed it. On monitor #7, Heidi and Jack were still playing a video game, but that got interrupted quickly. Heidi's collar activated and she found herself on the ground, and of course… getting electrocuted. Much to Jack's shock, he stopped playing so he could check on her. Unlike the charitable samurai, Chris started laughing maniacally.

Tokoyami quickly tapped the icon again and the collar shut off. Furious, Tokoyami smacked Chris in the head. "Don't do that unless you have to, got it!?"

"Owwww," Chris whined. "Don't you know the head is one of the most valuable things to a famous celebrity?"

The old master rolled his eyes at Chris's vanity. "Same with everyone else. Now there's one more thing I want to tell you. By holding the lightning icon for 3 seconds, you can access the intensity menu."

"Ohhh." Chris rubbed his hands sinisterly. "So, I can inflict even more pain!?"

"Yes, but don't you dare-!"

"Alright, alright." Chris waved his hands up and down. "I got it, Master T."

"Hmpf." Tokoyami crossed his arms and continued to watch the monitor, while mostly focusing on Biscuit's fight with Kentaro.

"Hey, I got a question," Chris began. "Why don't your crooks just take off the collar?"

"Well first off, you would need a lot of strength to remove it, but we often deal with powerful inmates like Prisoner 13 here. In such a case, we have our scientist program these collars to merge with the wearer's nervous system. Depending on the prisoner, we can easily rewire their motor functions and selectively prevent them from using unusual abilities."

"So, you're telling me that we have a potentially dangerous criminal fighting my campers?"

"He is dangerous. He's murdered many innocents in acts he calls vengeance."

"…nice!" As expected, Chris could care less. "This will make awesome television!"

As expected, Tokoyami could also care less. "It's also worth noting if that collar is not properly disarmed, it will severely damage the wearer's nervous system. The effects could even be lethal."

"Wow… I wonder what that looks like? That would make one heck of a show."

"You're very sadistic Mr. McLean," Tokoyami replied. "Though, I guess I'm a bit of a sadist too. Perhaps we should make things more interesting."

XXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, Buttercup had finally awakened from the effects of the sleeping gas.

"Good to see you're back up," Ilana said, relieved.

"Yeah, well next time I'm never doing that again." Buttercup let out a big yawn. "So, where are we?"

Ilana pointed to the nearby monitor. "One of us was supposed to move on while the other remains in this chamber." Ilana held her left leg. "My leg's broken, so you should probably go."

"Oh, sorry Ilana. You sure it should be me though?"

Ilana nodded. "Once again, my leg's broken, but you're a much more qualified choice if you ask me. Sure, you run headfirst into things, but you've endured, and quite frankly I'm surprised you're back on your feet."

"Oh." Buttercup was extremely flattered by Ilana's poor words. Though in an effort not to show it, Buttercup continued to keep her arms crossed and dismissingly turned her head to her side. "Um, thanks."

"Well, you better get going. Go break a leg, alright?"

"Gotcha. I'll be back in no time!" Buttercup gave what she felt was a thumbs up to Ilana, since she didn't have fingers, and smirked. Afterward, Buttercup ran on ahead, exiting the chamber.

"Huh, wonder what that meant," Ilana thought to herself, thinking back to Buttercup's gesture. After Buttercup left, Ilana noticed that a timer appeared on the screen. The screen displayed 30:00 and began to countdown. Suddenly, Ilana realized what she said to Buttercup before she left. "Break a leg, huh? Now that I think about it, that was a poor choice of words…"

XXXXXXXXXX

Back at the fight, Biscuit was successfully getting the upper hand. Though not one to easily admit defeat, Kentaro continued to persevere. Backed into a corner, Kentaro rushed at Biscuit and threw a punch in her direction, but Biscuit dodged the attack and countered by delivering a powerful punch of her own to Kentaro's gut. Kentaro staggered back as he held his gut, and Biscuit followed up with a jump kick sending the man into a white rose bush.

"Argh!" Kentaro cried. "This can't be!"

"Are you ready to give up yet?" Biscuit asked. "I'll be honest, I don't really enjoy fighting you like this." Biscuit may have sounded demeaning, but Biscuit was sincere. She assumed something was suppressing Kentaro, and as someone who enjoys combat, she doesn't find that satisfying.

Kentaro snarled. He was a terrifying combatant once, and now this girl, who is tiny compared to him, is humiliating him. Luckily for him, this fight wouldn't be so one-sided for long. Kentaro's collar activated once again, but instead of an electric shock, a green light lit up; indicating a restraint has been lifted.

Kentaro couldn't help but grin. His power was finally coming back, but he soon realized that there was a limit. It appears the collar only gave allowed Kentaro half of the energy he could use for output. Even so, Kentaro rushed forward and attacked Biscuit. Biscuit blocked the first attack, a standard right jab, but she noticed that this attack was considerably stronger than before. Kentaro alternated with his left hand and performed another jab. Once again, Biscuit blocked it and decided to follow up with a right swing kick. Not to be outmatched, Kentaro quickly grabbed Biscuit's leg, but she managed to free herself. As she flipped back, she landed a clean kick onto Kentaro's face.

"Oof!" Kentaro grabbed his face in pain.

"Haha!" Biscuit couldn't help but be prideful of her last attack. "Boast about your power all you want, but there's no way in hell I'm making this easy for you!"

Kentaro regained his composure. "Heh, that's good. The fight can't be too simple, right?"

While the fighting continued, nearby, Mandy was watching the fight from afar. Mandy has seen everything from when the inhibitor collar electrocuted Kentaro to what's happening now. Based on what she had seen, she didn't think she had much of a chance to take the man down, but there was one cruel idea she thought about. Conveniently, Mandy spotted a nearby hose. It's odd, but if she's lucky she could get good results.

Unfortunately, the hose was near Mordecai and that meant she'd have to get close to the fight without getting spotted. More importantly, it's been nearly four minutes and the collar still hasn't switched on again. It may even turn back on, so this would be a big gamble. Regardless, she had to do something, and so she did.

Mandy started sprinting towards the hose, sneaking around bushes so she wouldn't be noticed. When she was close enough, she grabbed the water hose and prepared herself by placing her hand around the trigger. "That was easier than I thought."

"Mandy?" Mordecai said, weakly.

"Yeah, I'm here," she replied. "And I gotta say, you look like crud."

"Way to put it nicely, teammate." Mordecai coughed painfully. "What are you trying to do?"

"I'm going to try and douse that brute with this hose. I have a feeling he might get shocked by that collar again, and with water added to the equation, well… you probably get the idea."

"Yeah, I do, but don't you think there are a few holes in that plan? That collar might not even turn on again."

"That's where you come in. After I spray him, you start roughing up those flowers. Something tells me he stood out of line when he took a break from fighting, so he was punished accordingly."

Mordecai faintly picked himself back up. "Argh, I don't know. He might just ignore us."

"Well count me in!"

Mordecai and Mandy saw that Rigby was back on his feet.

"What could you possibly do?" Mandy asked, dismissively. "And did you forget that we're on completely different teams?"

"I don't care!" Rigby cried. "I want to make sure that guy gets what's coming to him!"

Mordecai grinned. "I can tell you from experience that you can't change his mind, Mandy."

Mandy gave Mordecai an annoyed look but eventually gave in. "Fine…you can help Rigby, but don't do anything funny!"

"Hmph, Hmph, no promises," Rigby muttered.

Mandy widened her frown "Hm."

The unlikely trio continued to watch as Biscuit fought Kentaro. When Mandy finally spotted an opening, she aimed the hose at Kentaro and sprayed at a high setting. Nearby, Biscuit couldn't comprehend what was going on.

Mandy released the trigger, and the first stage of her plan was complete. Kentaro was drenched in water, and he was significantly irritated. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse for him, Mordecai and Rigby started taunting the inmate.

"Hey, Ken!" Mordecai called out. "Mind if we helped you with some landscaping!?" Mordecai pulled out a small bush and threw it on the ground."

Kentaro gasped.

"Don't worry, we're free of charge!" Rigby joked as carelessly pulled roses out of another bush. "Ow!" His carelessness caught up to him, and as a result, Rigby got pricked by a thorn.

"Stop… it," Kentaro fumed, balling both of his fists.

Biscuit cautiously stepped back from Kentaro. No way was she about to get in the way of what will happen next.

Mordecai and Rigby continued to pull out flowers, break branches, and defile the garden. Rigby eventually took it too far when he decided to urinate on one of the rose bushes.

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Rigby was in a wheelchair and was heavily bandaged. Despite the sorry state he was in, he could help, but keep a proud grin on his face. "It was totally worth it."

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This disgusted Mandy, Mordecai, Biscuit, and even Chris and Tokoyami watching from the monitor room, but for Kentaro that was it.

"ENOUGH!" Kentaro thundered. In an instant, Kentaro rushed over to Rigby and mercilessly beat the raccoon to a pulp.

"That'll do," Mandy said to herself.

"Someone help me!" Rigby cried as he took blow after blow.

Mordecai rushed forward so he could save Rigby. Seeing the guy he had known for years being beaten half to hell lit a spark in him. "Take this!" Mordecai threw a punch directly at Kentaro's chest, but sadly it had no effect. "I suddenly regret doing this."

Kentaro turned his attention to Mordecai and growled. He tossed the battered Rigby aside, and before Mordecai could react, Kentaro punched Mordecai in the face. The force of the sent Mordecai spinning until he wasn't facing his opponent anymore. Kentaro then caught Mordecai in a bear hug and started squeezing his body.

Mordecai couldn't help but scream in anguish. As much as he tried to wriggle himself out, Kentaro's grip was too powerful.

"That'll not do," Seeing that her teammate could use an assist, Mandy started spraying Kentaro with water again to distract him.

Kentaro paid no attention to the girl and continued to torture Mordecai.

"He's gonna kill him!" Biscuit cried as she started rushing over to Kentaro.

As if someone was listening to Biscuit, Kentaro's inhibitor collar activated and instantly electrocuted him. Now that he was drenched with water, the effect of the electricity increased greatly.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Kentaro's ear-splitting screams filled the dome.

Elsewhere, Judai could hear Kentaro's screams from afar. "Something's going down over there Yubel."

"No kidding," they replied. "We should be there, but you're wasting time!"

Judai was holding a random journal he found under a nearby Sakura tree. "I don't know. This book could help us understand who we're facing here. Let's just read one more." Judai picked up one last journal and read some unsettling entries.

The entry read, "The day is January 15, and I've just been transported across the universe into this prison. My captors are terrified of my strength and decided I should be subdued, like a neutered dog. Why don't they understand the righteousness of my crusade? … My cell was very unorthodox. Never in my life have I ever been held captive in a maze. Despite my situation, I will persevere not for me, but for my lover Laura."

Judai skipped to another entry. "It's February 7. My captors listened to my request and transformed my cell into a garden. The process was extremely quick. I didn't expect fully grown trees to be populated all over the place; perhaps it was their sorcery. Still, it will be a good way to remember Laura."

"So that's why this place is a garden," Judai realized.

Judai continued to read another entry. "Am I losing my mind? I could've sworn I heard Laura's voice today as I was watering the plants. Could she have returned?"

Judai skipped over a few more pages. Most of the entries were incoherent ramblings. "Laura and I have finally reunited. She is proud of the work I have done for her, and I promised that I will preserve this garden for my love."

"Whoa," Judai began, "This is nuts."

"This man is dangerous," Yubel noted. "Perhaps we should steer clear from him."

"No, the others are probably fighting him as we speak. It wouldn't be right to just leave them to it." As Judai put the journals back on the ground, he noticed a picture fell from one of the books. The image was of a blonde, beautiful woman, with fair skin and blue eyes. Judai picked up the photo and inspected it. "Is this who I think it is?"

Meanwhile, in contrast to what Judai believed, Kentaro felt as if he was on his last legs. Despite his seemingly immense strength, the man wasn't invincible. However, he wasn't going down just yet.

"Looks like that wasn't enough," Mandy said, disappointingly.

Kentaro's endurance was impressive, but this could only go on for so long. Biscuit finally decided that it was time to end it, but she was interrupted by Buttercup.

"Bisky!" Buttercup cried out. "There you are! What's going on!?"

"I pretty sure we have to defeat this guy in combat," Biscuit replied. "At least before any member of the Lotus does."

"Really that's it? This is gonna be easy!"

Backed into a corner, Kentaro decided that he would have to pull out one last move. These people disrespected him, and he was determined to make them pay. Filled with adrenaline, Kentaro grabbed his collar and began to force it off. Likewise, the collar activated once again, but Kentaro powered through.

"We have to stop him!" Biscuit cried.

"No way," Mandy replied. "Let the guy electrocute himself; as long as I get the assist."

Unfortunately, it was already too late. Kentaro ripped off the collar, but he didn't account for the consequences of that action. He immediately found himself in pain and began to hold his head.

Buttercup turned to Biscuit, clearly worried about the situation at hand. "Can we kick his butt now?"

"Hold on," Biscuit warned. "Something is not right."

Kentaro felt a rush of formerly closed-off power returning to him. He felt as if he was a young boy, who finally got a toy back after being taken from him for so long. "Hahaha! I'm finally free Laura!"

"What is that meathead talking about?" Mandy asked.

"Who cares! He's still gonna lose to me!" Buttercup rushed towards Kentaro and socked him in the face. "What!?"

Kentaro cackled. "Is that all you got girl?" As evident, the attack did next to nothing. He then proceeded to grab Buttercup and throw her up into the air until she hit the ceiling of the dome.

Mandy and Biscuit were in shock as they watched Buttercup fall from the ceiling and hit the ground below.

"Well, uh, I think I know when I've been beat." Mandy quickly ran off before Kentaro could attack her. It may be cowardly, but it's better than being stupid.

Despite Kentaro's awesome display of newfound strength, his movements seemed to be very erratic. As he stood in place, his arms and legs would jerk. Sometimes his head would twitch to the side, and he would mutter to himself.

"Is he ok?" Biscuit thought. "Why is he so spastic?"

Suddenly Buttercup sprung back into action. "That was a nice warm-up dirtbag!" She began to rub her hands intensely, so much so that fire started emanating from her hands. "Eat this!" Buttercup launched a giant fireball. The attack connected and Kentaro stumbled back.

Biscuit followed up with an attack of her own, a swift, Nen-powered axe kick hitting Kentaro right on the head.

Before another attack could be landed, Kentaro closed both of his fists and let out a powerful scream. The blast was powerful enough to send Biscuit and Buttercup several meters away. Afterward, Kentaro took a few deep breaths. From the looks of it, the fight was over, but now he was in horrible distress.

Meanwhile, as Kentaro was having a mental breakdown, Chris and Tokoyami were in a state of panic. Well, Chris was much more worried about his own safety rather than his contestants.

Tokoyami pressed a red button on the right end of the desk. Suddenly alarms went off, in the entire maze. "This should alert HNIC's group, but there's not much to worry about. We might not have to do anything."

"What the… are you insane!?" Chris yelped. "You gotta do something! You're freaking ninjas! Can't you use ninjitsu or something!? Heck, why don't you just use your sleep darts?"

"Prisoner 13 knows of our tactics, and he could potentially counter them. At full power, he can also escape with little effort. Therefore, we have to lock down the entire complex before we can make a move. We can easily escort your contestants that are still stuck in the maze, but everyone in the dome will have to be patient before we can send in assistance. Regardless, there's no reason to act yet."

"So… am I safe?"

"Excuse me?"

"Can't you hear me!? I want to know if you can protect me! No way am I dying today!"

Tokoyami couldn't believe how shameless this host was. "Um, yes. You are safe with me."

Chris groaned. "Oh, great I gotta rely on the old geezer. Sorry Master T, but I don't think your Alzheimer's can beat the raging, hormone-fueled monster out there."

"Such disrespect," Tokoyami muttered. "Let's just watch Prisoner 13 wear himself out."

XXXXXXXXXX

Elsewhere, Sasha and Numbuh 5 were freed by two ninjas wearing black gi's.

"Finally," Sasha said, relieved.

"What's the deal with the alarms?" Numbuh 5 asked. "Is the challenge over?"

One of the ninjas shook her head. "Not necessarily. Our objective now is to send you back to whence you came. A Class-S prisoner has broken free."

"So how bad is it?" Sasha asked.

"Let's just say that you'll get wasted like McGregor when he fought Mayweather."

"Oh… I don't know either of those two," Numbuh 5 said.

"Yeah, same," Sasha agreed.

Elsewhere, Jack had finally beaten Heidi in the fighting game they'd been playing. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to proceed due to the situation.

"Man," Heidi began, "Who broke the rules this time?"

"What is the meaning of this?" Jack asked.

"My guess is that a prisoner escaped in the maze. It's possible that our escapee is too much for the ninjas to handle too."

Jack thought to himself. "The others are probably in danger. I should go."

"Yeah, I don't think so samurai. If it's who I think it is, we're dealing with a Class-S containment breach. You'll be torn to shreds!"

"Yes, and so could my allies, and everyone else. If I could've stopped this and done nothing, I would never forgive myself! Especially if someone is killed in there!"

"Well, uh… I guess I can't stop you." Heidi wiggled her arms. "These toothpicks probably couldn't hold you back even if I tried, heh-heh."

"I believe that won't be necessary," said a female ninja.

"Oh, hey Mizuki! Girl, how's it been!?"

Mizuki frowned. "Silence, scum."

Heidi put her hands on her hips, genuinely disheartened by Mizuki's insult. "Gee, what crawled up your butt?"

Mizuki confidently approached Jack. "Jack, is it? I'm here to send you back home."

"That won't be necessary, I would like to-,"

"Yes, I know of your intentions, and I can assure you we got this handled."

"Could've fooled me," Heidi muttered.

"I thought I told you to shut it! Anyways, this isn't an offer, this is an order. Or do I have to take you down a peg?"

Jack sighed. "Very well, I'll concede with your demands."

"Geez, you seemed raring to go earlier," Heidi said.

"Why are you still here!?" Jack and Mizuki shouted.

"Technically, I live here."

XXXXXXXXXX

Back at the island, nothing of relevance was occurring, except that Goku was eating. That's right Goku is eating bags of potato chips, right in the mess hall. Isn't that funny? It's been funny for nearly thirty-seven years, supposedly. Oh, also May was there.

Goku patted his stomach. "Man, that hit the spot!"

"Good job, Goku," May praised, sarcastically. "You ate enough food to satisfy an entire town. I still don't understand why you do this."

"Sorry, it's a Saiyan thing."

"What's a Saiyan?"

"It's an alien race that was wiped out in my universe."

"Oh… that's bizarre, but a lot of us have weird backgrounds anyways."

"You said it!" Goku let out a belch, causing May to recoil in disgust. "You know, I'm still worried about Flame Princess."

"I'm worried about what Flame Princess might do to us," May gulped. "I sleep with that girl you know."

"Wait, does she sleep on the beds?"

May nodded in response.

"How does she not burn them? How doesn't she burn the whole cabin?"

"It's actually very interesting. You see- "

Suddenly, Gumball barged into the mess hall. "Hey, guys! Everyone's back!"

Goku's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Well, not really," Gumball replied. "Only Jack, Abby, Sasha, and Ilana came back. Apparently, the others are in danger."

"Danger!?" said Goku and May.

At the same time, Jack entered the mess hall, looking for Goku. "Goku, there you are! I need you to teleport us back to the jungle."

"Oh yeah, we can save everyone else if we do that!" Goku stood up from his seat and began to walk towards Jack.

"I thought Chris didn't want him doing that," May pointed out.

"That might be true, but we need to save everyone," Jack replied. "Now how does this work?"

"This technique is known as instant transmission. Instead of teleporting to a place, you teleport to a person by sensing their energy. With it, I can teleport across the planet, or even halfway across the galaxy."

"That's impressive, but also very fortunate. If we can just teleport to one of the other campers, we can easily bypass their security."

"You know," Gumball began, "I think I understand what Chris means now. That move is a huge invasion of privacy."

Goku put two fingers on his forehead and began to concentrate. He tried to sense Mordecai's life energy, but he couldn't sense anything. "Guys… I can't sense Mordecai."

This came as a surprise to everyone.

May looked over to the others, worried. "You don't think he's-,"

May was cut off by Gumball. "No way! Maybe he's just passed out or something. Try finding Mandy, or anyone else!"

Goku nodded and began to sense out everyone else who wasn't on the island, but he got nothing. He even tried to sense out Chris, but it was to no avail. "Nope, nothing."

"So does that mean everyone is dead?" Gumball asked in disbelief.

"Let's not give up hope," Jack said. "Right now, we should hope for the best."

XXXXXXXXXX

Back at the dome, Kentaro had already defeated several ninjas in combat. To his enemies, Kentaro fought like a wild animal with nothing to lose. However, anyone who was fighting him could tell that something was wrong with the man.

From afar, Judai was watching Kentaro breeze through the waves of ninjas. "Yubel, I got an idea."

"What?" they replied.

"Remember the woman in the photo. I think that was his girlfriend or something."

"What are you trying to do?"

Judai pulled out the picture. "It's risky, but if he's that demented, it might work."

Kentaro continued swinging punches at his captors. One ninja tried to launch a sleep dart at him, but he easily dodged it.

"You monster!" the ninja yelled before he was sent flying by a powerful kick to the face.

Once he finished, Kentaro ran to the locked gate.

HNIC was guarding it and was ready to take on the man. "Bring it on big man! There's no way you're stopping NINJA POWER!" With a loud yell, HNIC attacked with a high jump kick. To his misfortune, he was caught in the air and tossed aside. "YOU'RE STILL A BUSTAH!" HNIC slammed his head right into the gate and was knocked out.

Kentaro placed his hands on his forehead, screaming in agony. He proceeded to bang his fist onto the gate, slowly damaging it in the process."

"Kentaro."

Kentaro swore he could hear a woman's voice and turned around. When he saw who it was, he was completely stunned. It was his lover, "Laura?"

The woman smiled and began to slowly walk towards Kentaro.

"It's really you!" For once, Kentaro was showing pure joy.

When she was close enough, Laura extended her arms out as if she wanted to hug him. Kentaro did the same until he was stopped short.

"Hngh!" Kentaro felt something pierce his neck. In an instant, the giant collapsed.

To Kentaro, Laura seemed as if she was right here, but to anyone else, Kentaro was acting like a crazy person.

A few feet away, Judai was twiddling a blow dart in his hands. "Gotcha! That was easier than I thought."

It turns out Judai/Yubel simply created a convincing illusion of Laura. While they didn't know her actual voice, Kentaro's deteriorated mental state made him unable to notice.

"Well of course," Yubel said. "Toying with someone's emotions is the best way to take advantage of a person."

"Of course, you would know that. You know, while demonic abilities are very handy, I can't help but feel bad for the guy you know?" Judai stared at Kentaro's motionless body. He didn't want to come too close, but he could've sworn he saw tear streaks on his face. "All he wanted was to see his girl, again."

"I understand what you mean, but at least the chaos is over."

Watching from the monitors, Chris and Tokoyami were amazed.

"Did that boy just win?" Tokoyami asked Chris.

"I'm not sure what just happened," Chris began, "But that counts as a victory in my book."

"Agreed. I'll turn off the alarms and send the rest of my warriors to recover the wounded."

XXXXXXXXXX

It was now late in the afternoon at Camp Mahpee. With the challenge being over, everyone finally returned to the island. Everyone except for Zoidberg, whom Chris left on purpose. Outside the Mess Hall, Chris had gathered the campers for a brief debriefing that shall be very brief, because if there's anything that a debriefing isn't is brief. Everyone who was seriously injured during the last two phases of the challenge was in the infirmary tent, but with no doctor to tend their wounds you can see how pointless that is.

"Alright campers," Chris began with his trademark catchphrase. Chris was in a much more serious mood than usual, so the campers listened intently to what he was about to say. "Today was a very traumatizing day for a lot of us. I'm fairly certain half of us almost died, and I understand that you're all angry about that."

"You mean the animals we faced, a few of us got injured, and oh yeah almost everyone could've DIED!?" said a very antagonizing Sam. "Honestly, I'm surprised no one here is trying to kill you."

"Hey chill, Sam. I almost died too, and I would like to mention that in Article 3, Section 12 of your contracts, we here at Total Drama are not responsible for any unfortunate injury or death."

"I gotta start reading contracts," Goku said. "But I hate reading."

"Anyways, it is with great pleasure to say that the Whoop Butt Squad wins!" Chris exclaimed. "Somehow, Judai took out a guy nearly twice his size without any effort, so make of that what you will."

"Does this mean we get to eat!?" Mao Mao asked, excitedly.

"No. Our ninja friends were supposed to give you guys the feast, but they decided to cancel it."

"But why?" Judai asked.

"After what happened today, they're not in a very giving mood. Sorry, but you'll just have to help yourself to whatever's left in the kitchen tonight.

Disappointed, the entirety of the Whoop Butt Squad, except for Ilana and Rigby who were at the infirmary tent, let out a mixture of loud groans and awws.

"Hey, don't sweat it guys," Goku said to the other team. "We can all starve together."

"Shut up, Goku!" Mao Mao snapped.

"White Lotus you still have an elimination ceremony to look forward to," Chris noted. "Also, Bloo is quitting if anyone cares, so I guess this is technically a double elimina-,"

"That's right everyone," Bloo cut in. "I'm leaving. Nothing out of the ordinary."

As usual, no one was bothered by Bloo's announcement.

"Okayyyyy," Chris said slowly. "White Lotus, just cast in your votes and I'll see you tonight."

The campers dispersed to indulge in their own activities.

Biscuit began heading to the infirmary tent to see if she could help the others, but she was stopped by May.

"Hey Biscuit, I got a question," the brunette asked.

"Look if this is about me taking money from you-,"

"No that's not it. You see, it's about what you did to me. Once again, I'm very grateful, but ever since then I felt so weird."

Biscuit's eyes shot open. "Describe how you feel."

"Like a rush of energy is surging in my body. Nothing hurts, but do you think this is bad?"

Biscuit looked around to make sure there weren't any peering eyes. Once she confirmed no one was watching or filming them, she addressed May's concerns. "May, I'm afraid I overlooked some of the minor details about my ability. You see when I use my ability, I use my aura or life energy to help you. This awakened your aura nodes inside you."

"So, what does that mean?"

"In my world, there are people with superhuman powers called Nen users. Everyone potentially could become a Nen user, but there are two paths to it. One path can be achieved through a certain training method that unlocks your aura nodes, while the other requires you to come in direct contact with someone else's aura. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"….no."

"I'm saying I accidentally, made you a Nen user."

May panicked. "So, what do I do now!?"

"Calm down. Normally, I shouldn't tell you this, but I'll just tell you the basics. What you need to do is to try and practice maintaining your aura through meditation. This is the first step of any rookie Nen user."

"What do I do after that?"

"That's all for now. Once I see you mastered Ten, I'll tell you." As Biscuit walked off, she began to think to herself. "That should hold her off for now. I estimate it should take more than six months for her to get Ten down. I guess from now on I should stop using Cookie on other people unless it's completely necessary, but this is odd. I've used my ability on people from different universes before, and none of them showed signs of Nen powers."

XXXXXXXXXX

The poor souls at the infirmary tent were in quite a pickle. Each one of them was resting on a medical bed with varying injuries of their own. With no doctor or self-proclaimed doctor to be found, no one would be able to tend to their injuries. Ilana was one of the lucky ones. A broken leg was nothing compared to the shattered bones and bruised tissue Mordecai and Rigby had. The two were covered from head to toe in bandages, but that was all the treatment they got.

Earlier, Soldier was the one who treated their wounds, albeit in a rather sloppy manner. Soldier's philosophy on medicine is to drink copious amounts of beer and hope for the best. Seeing how foolish that was, no one took his advice.

"Hey Mordecai," Rigby began, "You dead yet?"

Mordecai was silent for a few seconds until he answered with a whimpering, "No."

"Good. I kinda want someone to talk to."

"I mean Ilana's over there, if you need an actual teammate."

"Nah….. hey, weren't we awesome out there?"

"You mean the part where we were beaten half to death? Yeah, that was very awesome."

"Aw shut up. I totally peed on that guy's plants."

Mordecai let out a weak laugh. "That's one way you can water plants. I still can't believe you did that on television though. Now everyone in the world… no in the multiverse will see that."

"Hey, what can I say? I'm anti-establishment."

"Whatever. You know, I don't get why that guy took it so personally anyways. I mean it's not like that place was his home, right?"

"I don't know. I'm just glad we got to fight him together."

Mordecai was surprised by that last sentence. "Come again?"

Rigby, while he was a little embarrassed, continued to express his feelings. "I'm just tired of all this stick-to-your-team crap. I just wanted to do something with my bro, that's all. I understand if you don't feel the same way after how I've been."

Mordecai smiled. "Well, I haven't been any better, so I get what you mean."

A small grin formed on Rigby's face. "Hey Mordecai?"

"Yeah?"

"From now on, let's stop taking this show too seriously, and just have fun."

"Good idea."

From afar, Ilana was listening to the conversation and found it pleasant to see the two reconcile.

Just then, Buttercup, Sam, and Judai, who was carrying three bottles of water, popped into the infirmary tent. The trio was mostly just here to check on Ilana.

Buttercup swiped a bottle from Judai and rushed over to Ilana. "Ilana! Take this!" Buttercup plopped the bottle right on Ilana's stomach. "Sorry."

"Oof!" Ilana quickly grasped the bottle before it could fall on the floor. "It's alright Buttercup, thanks."

"No problem!" Buttercup happily exclaimed.

Judai walked over to Mordecai and Rigby and they each received a bottle of water. "Here you go guys."

"Appreciate it," Mordecai thanked.

Rigby let out a weak smile. "Yeah, thanks, man."

Judai smiled and nodded accordingly.

"Good job on winning the challenge today, Judai," Ilana congratulated.

"Yeah dude… how did you win?" Rigby asked. "All of us were struggling with that guy."

"I took a blow dart from one of the ninjas and I just got lucky," Judai said, as he was muddling the truth.

"Oh come on," Buttercup began, "There's no way it could've been that easy."

Judai nervously rubbed the back of his head. "Well…you'd be surprised."

The next people to enter the tent were Goku and Jack.

"Hey, Mordecai!" Goku greeted. "Heh, you look like a mummy."

Mordecai rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks."

Goku awkwardly giggled. "Don't sweat it, buddy. Believe it or not, I've been where you've been once. Do you need anyone to cast your vote?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you later Goku."

"Nice," Goku replied.

"Also, Mordecai," Jack began. "We suggest that you should probably ask Chris to go to a hospital. Same for you Rigby."

"Nah," Mordecai replied. "You see if we did that, we would have to leave the show."

Rigby's eyes shot open. "Wait, what?"

"Isn't that unfair?" Sam asked.

"That's what I thought, but that's on the contract," Mordecai said.

"Well maybe it's for the best," Ilana said. "Zoidberg is nowhere to be found, and you're in much worse shape than me."

Mordecai let out a weak cough. "Don't worry guys, we'll be fine."

Likewise, everyone else had worried looks on their faces.

XXXXXXXXXX

Later, by the campsite, Mandy was searching for an immunity idol. Normally, this would be the least likely place an immunity idol would be hidden, and perhaps that would make it an ideal hiding spot. Then again what if they knew someone searching for an immunity idol would know that and decided not to hide it here, but what if they already thought of that and were counting on the person to figure that out too? Well enough with hypothetical, nonsensical paradoxes, here's Gumball coming on the scene.

"Mandy, where the heck have you been!?" he cried.

"I've been busy looking for another Chris Head," she replied. "Also here, catch." Mandy pulled out an immunity idol from her pocket and tossed it Gumball.

"What? Where? When? How did you get this?"

"You don't wanna know."

"I'm pretty sure someone would like to know; that someone being me."

"You know, furball," Mandy began, "The response most people would like to hear in this situation is 'thank you.' Now why exactly are you here in the first place?"

"I was looking for you because I didn't see you at the Mess Hall."

"But I was there. How did you not see me?"

"You're not exactly the tallest in the class, ok?"

Instinctively, Mandy punched Gumball in the arm.

"Ow!" Gumball rubbed his arm in pain. "Ok, I'll get to the point. Flame Princess is in trouble."

"What did bright light do?"

"She lit up a good chunk of a jungle."

"Huh. Impressive, but I can see the problem. What are they going to do to her?"

"I don't know. She's talking to Chris right now outside the big house."

"Well then, we should probably make our way over there."

"Right!" Gumball pumped a fist in the air. "We gotta preserve the trio!"

"Also, I hope that immunity doll solidifies our friendship."

"Oh yeah, I got immunity, brah. I'm basically set."

Mandy rolled her eyes. "Right. Considering how little people think of you, let's just hope you don't have to use that too soon, right?"

"Righhhhhht." Gumball clutched the wooden idol, nervously.

And so, the duo arrived shortly at the staff house, where they saw Chris finishing his conversation with Flame Princess.

"Well, that will be all," Chris said. "Now if you excuse me, I have a date with my bathtub. Hopefully, I'm not disappointed on the way there." Chris happily entered the building and closed the door behind him.

Gumball waved. "Hey, FP! How'd it go?"

Flame Princess slowly waved back. "Oh, uh Chris sounded pretty chill about everything. I'm honestly kinda surprised."

"So, you're in the clear?" Mandy asked.

"Not exactly. The producers are reviewing my case. They probably think I should be let go."

"Well don't worry, FP" Gumball consoled. "We're here for you."

Mandy caught her fist. "Besides, we can just convince them with other methods."

Gumball nervously turned to Mandy. "I don't think we should be making this worse."

"Who said I'm making this worse?"

"That won't be necessary guys," FP said. "I think it's best that I let this happen naturally."

"Whatever you say," Mandy groaned.

XXXXXXXXXX

Night had fallen, and it was finally time for the long-awaited campfire ceremony. The nine members of the white lotus took their seats on a wooden log by the campfire. Well, everyone except for Mordecai who had to be brought in on a stretcher.

Chris took a deep breath and exhaled. Calm and collected, he then put on a convincing smile. "Man, it feels good to be back here. Hasn't it felt like it's been what… three months since we were last here? Anyways, I got eight marshmallows on my plate, but there are only nine of you."

"Wowwww, really?" May asked, sarcastically.

"Can it, May. It may not look like it, but I'm not having a good day. Some jerk messed up my room." Chris picked up the first marshmallow. "I will now distribute the white, fluffy, chewy, sticky, and tasty globs of goodness. If you do not get one, you are to walk on the dock of shame, catch le boat of losers, and never return. On a side note, here's hoping it's May."

"Hey!"

"The first marshmallow goes to Mandy." Chris tossed a marshmallow to the girl, who easily caught it. Chris continued to toss a marshmallow to each person he called out. "Numbuh 5, Jack, Flame Princess, Sasha, Goku, and May. Lucky you."

It was now down to Mordecai and Gumball. Mordecai was moderately worried. He figured his team cared about him, so he wouldn't expect them to just throw him to the curb because he outlived his uselessness. Gumball on the other hand smiled confidently. He knew that even if he got voted off, he could just rely on the immunity idol, which was… not in his right pocket. Gumball checked the other one but to no avail. Figuring he must have dropped or misplaced it, Gumball began to panic.

"The last marshmallow goes to…."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Gumball."

Gumball let out a sigh of relief and caught his marshmallow.

"Well, Mordecai looks like is curtains for you." Chris motioned his hands to the dock. "Any closing remarks before you go?"

"Yeah." Mordecai cleared his throat. He also wanted to face his team while he spoke, but he found it difficult to turn his neck. "I know I wasn't the best, but I want you all to know that I wanted to help the best I can."

Mordecai was about to continue until Sasha interrupted. "Mordecai, we're not mad about that."

"What?"

Sasha rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry, but since you're out of commission, we thought it was best we send you home, or the hospital."

"The homespital," Goku joked.

"Bad pun," Chris retorted. "Anyways, Mordecai your bags have already been packed, so just walk on over there."

Five seconds passed, and Mordecai had an annoyed look on his face. "Ahem?"

Chris chuckled at Mordecai's misfortune. "Soldier, get our boy on the boat."

Soldier jumped out of nowhere and saluted. "You can count on me!" Soldier lifted the stretcher and hopped on over to the docks and by extension the Boat of Losers.

"Hey, careful!" Mordecai yelped.

At the same time, Bloo was leaving the cabins, holding his suitcase and a metallic briefcase. Instead of waiting for his associate, Dan, Bloo decided it was about time he'd leave. As he was walking down the short flight of steps, he caught sight of Sam standing outside. "Oh, hey Sam. Here to rub it in?"

"Normally, yes," she replied. "But, I figured someone should see you off."

"No one wanted to say goodbye!?"

"Yeah. If you wanted a pitiful farewell, you probably could've waited for an actual elimination ceremony."

Bloo grunted and hurried along. "Well, it was nice knowing you."

"Not really, but hey drop the childish ego and who knows, maybe we can be friends."

As Bloo left, two, hundred-dollar bills slipped out of the briefcase. Bloo failed to notice this and by then he was already near the campsite, but Sam swore she could've saw something fall out of his luggage.

Curious, Sam walked up to the green, slips of cash, and inspected it. Her first thought was, "Where in the heck did he get this kind of money?" Sam's suspicions were just. There was no reason to bring any form of cash to the island, and no one just carries two-hundred, or possibly more, dollars in cash on them. "Wait a minute…"

(Flashback, During the plane trip to the music festival)

To pass the time, the campers were watching past seasons of TDI. Currently, they were watching the season finale of TDWT.

Sam was sitting next to Ilana, intrigued by the events of the show. "So, wait all that money is kept in a briefcase?"

"Apparently," Ilana replied.

"That's so stupid. Who would put all the money in a briefcase when could easily be stolen or lost?"

"The same guy who's willing to endanger the lives of minors despite the consequences."

Sam laughed. "Right, right."

In the background, Bloo was holding a tray of food, waiting for the chance to drop it on Sam.

(End of Flashback. Wait how did she remember that last part?)

Sam quickly put two and two together, and despite being shocked that Bloo managed to pull that off, she was also impressed. "I gotta hand it to that blob, he's craftier than I thought, but I gotta tell Chris quickly!" Sam picked up the money and ran straight for the still lit campsite.

Unfortunately, the Boat of Losers had already departed from the island. Chris was in a conversation with Dan, and the rest of the White Lotus were preparing to leave until Sam stopped them.

"What, do you want to quit too?" Chris asked. "Seriously, what is the point of signing up for something, if you're just gonna quit when you already started?"

"I know right," Goku agreed because he's totally never quit a competition before. "I still don't get why Vegeta quit and all."

Chris grinned. "Oh, trust me, Vegeta's not out of his contract yet."

"What is he doing now?" May asked.

"Oh, you'll see." A small grin appeared on Chris's face, and he faced the camera. "You'll see."

"Where's Bloo!?" Sam exclaimed.

"Gone. Why do you ask?"

"I think he stole the prize money."

Everyone in the vicinity let out a startled, "WHAT!?"

Dan grinned. He was about to ask Chris if he could quit until Sam interrupted. Even so, it seemed that his plan was a success.

Sasha blinked thrice in disbelief before asking, "Is this some big joke?"

Sam handed the money she found to Chris. "It fell out of that briefcase he was carrying, so that's probably why he was so adamant about quitting."

"Wait the briefcase?" Chris asked as he came to a sudden revelation. "Ohhhh, you mean from my trophy room?"

"Come again?"

"Yeah, I dedicated the attic above my room as a hallmark of my TV career. I basically get free stuff related to Total Drama, and that briefcase is just a collector's item, including the fake money inside. By the way, that paper is very realistic."

"S-so you just keep your own merchandise in your attic?" Dan asked.

"That's right, intern."

"My name is Dan."

Sam cut off the slightly irrelevant intern. "So Bloo's carrying a briefcase, with a fake replica of one million dollars?"

"That's right." Chris began to snicker. "Tee higher-ups found it irresponsible and moronic to keep one million dollars in a briefcase. Better to just keep it in the bank, right?"

Dan wasn't just pissed, he was also worried that Bloo might expose him. Honestly, he should be worried about any hidden cameras that might have caught them earlier.

"Wow, that's just sad," Numbuh 5 remarked.

"And extremely hilarious," Gumball added. "Should we tell the guy or…?

"No," Sam replied. "He'll find out once he tries to spend or deposit it."

"Good idea." Chris then turned to Dan so they could continue their conversation. "So, Dan what did you want to talk about?"

"Um… can we get better cleaning supplies?" Dan asked.

Chris proceeded to laugh for fifteen seconds until he replied with a blunt, "No."

"Screw you," Dan muttered underneath his breath.

Eventually, everyone left the campsite, except for Goku and Jack.

"Hey, Jack," Goku began, "You alright?"

"No," he replied. "I'm just thinking about a vision I had in the maze."

"Well, what was it?"

"… it wouldn't interest you." Jack stood up from the log. "Well, let's head back." As the two began to walk to the cabins, Jack opened his fist to look at a small, jade orb.

(Flashback, In the Maze)

Mizuki was preparing to teleport Jack out of the maze. "Before you go samurai, take this as a gift."

Jack was given a mysterious orb. "What is this?"

"As I said it's a gift… from our leader.

Jack inspected the gem and didn't see anything wrong with it. "It's a beautiful gem."

"That it is, but it's no ordinary trinket."

"What?"

"Use it when you need help. You'll figure it out."

XXXXXXXXXX

Sam entered her room in the Girl's cabin and was greeted by Biscuit being the only one inside. Biscuit had her hair down and was wearing bright, pink snuggie pajamas.

Sam looked around the cabin. "Where's Butter-?"

"She's at the bathroom with Ilana," Biscuit replied. "Ilana needed help going, so she decided to tag along."

"Fair 'nuff," Sam replied.

"What were you doing outside if may ask?"

"Someone had to say goodbye to the 'blue menace'."

Biscuit shrugged. "You know I'd figured you'd be the last person on this island to do that, but you surprised me."

"Speaking of surprises…" Sam grinned and pulled out a Playgirl magazine tucked underneath the mattress of her bed. "Guess what I found."

Biscuit gasped and snatched the magazine from Sam's hands. At this point, she was blind with rage. "Give me that! Who gave you the right to look through my stuff!?"

Sam couldn't help but laugh. "Hey, calm down, Bisky. I just happened to find this on the floor. Just be happy I didn't tell anyone else."

Biscuit continued to frown as she inspected the book for damage. "Yeah, like I'd believe that!"

"Whatever." Sam's grin became much more mischievous. "Sooooo, I didn't take you for being that kind of girl. I thought you'd be into more innocent things."

Biscuit pouted. "Oh, laugh it up. I just can't wait to see what deviant you become when you hit your adult years."

"Alright to make it up to you, I'll let you read one of mine."

"Wait, you have dirty mags too?"

"What? No!" Sam took the Occult Monthly magazine from the top of her bed. "I'm talking about these."

"Ohhh, the creepy stuff."

"It's actually pretty cool."

Biscuit began to flip through pages, each littered with unsettling imagery and stories. However, one particular article caught her eye. It was titled, The Last Story.

The passage read as followed:

Like all things on this hurtling sphere. I emerged from the molten center of creation, but mine has been a unique path. Isolated, I developed attributes beyond those of lesser beings. Then the sphere was struck by a vast celestial stone. Black chunks of death filled the skies, and the world became a chaotic garden of doom. Soon the sphere began to nurture new kinds of life, and there was one that stood above all the rest. Its fragile shell belied its vicious nature. And in what seemed like a heartbeat these things proliferated in both number and destructive means. Now they have harnessed the most destructive force, one that branches across the vast multiverse. And I, The Centre, have concluded that they must be cleansed.

Biscuit showcased the story to Sam. "What's this one about?"

"Oh, it's just some horror story a writer made back in May. Sadly, he uh, offed himself after he wrote it."

"Wow. Guess it literally was a last story."

"Yeah." Sam held her arm, as she was slightly uncomfortable with this conversation. "He was a very popular author too, so the publishers decided to publish it in his honor."

"Huh, spooky."

XXXXXXXXXX

(Meanwhile, inside a building on the ninja training grounds)

"I still don't understand why we let this happen," said a man in a black gi. The man was speaking with Tokoyami while walking in a dark hallway.

"I was only doing a favor for our ally," Tokoyami replied. "But I admit, it was a mistake."

"Very!" The assistant clutched his fist and grunted. "We're lucky none of our guests picked up on anything."

Suddenly, Feng appeared right in front of the two. "Master." Feng kneeled and bowed his head.

"Ah Feng," Tokoyami greeted. "What is the status of Prisoner 13?"

"It suffered permanent brain damage after it disconnected the collar. We're keeping him on life support for now as you ordered."

"Good, last thing we want is to have the government involved. Have the remaining beast been sent back to their enclosures?"

"Yes sir."

"And the yeti?"

"It's been handled."

"Good. Now let's chat with our traitor."

The three men continued down the hallway until they reached a regular jail cell. Past the steel bars was a man in a tattered, light-blue ninja outfit, on his knees while his limbs were enchained to a wall. An inhibitor collar was around his neck, and he had visible wounds all over his body and was exhausted from the multiple beatings he took.

Tokoyami frowned. "Traitor."

The former ninja lifted his head. "M-master?"

"I am ashamed. Why would you go against your own brethren and try to expose us?

The imprisoned ninja spat out some saliva and scowled. "Your plans are twisted! You wish to damn an entire multiverse and for what? Power?"

Tokoyami shook his head. "Order. A multiverse this big is too unstable for any government to handle, but once the convergence is complete a universe of perfect order will be all that stands. When that day comes, we shall help lead the people to righteousness."

"Yes, but by killing countless amounts of people."

"Sacrifices must be made for the greater good. You should know that by now, but alas here you are. Now, I could kill you right here for what you did, but I know you didn't work alone on this one; you couldn't have. Tell me who are your acquaintances, and I promise to spare your lives."

"If you think, I'll-!"

"That's enough. I don't need to waste time with someone who doesn't know how to say a simple no."

"Master, if I may," Feng interrupted.

"What is it, Feng?"

"Hanzo was the closest with the traitor. Perhaps he could be involved."

"Anyone could've been involved, Feng. That's why we shall check with everyone, including you."

Feng nodded calmly. "Understood."

"Now let's leave. I must prepare for my meeting with The Light."

"Oh one more thing sir," said the man in the black gi. "It would seem some sort of alien was abandoned here."

"Where is he now?" Tokoyami asked.

"Two of our staff sent him to Interdimensional Customs."

Tokoyami groaned. "Fools. Don't they know we can teleport across the multiverse?"

"Clearly not, but he should be on his way back to his universe, and don't worry he knows nothing about our true intentions."

"As long as that settled, then so be it. Do as you wish Feng, but don't kill him."

The Tokoyami and his attendant left the area while Feng kept watch of the cells. Feng then unlocked the gate to the traitor's cell and slowly approached him.

"Tokoyami might be lenient with you, but I plan on squeezing as much information from you as possible. Don't take this personally, but I do this for our clan and The Light."

The ninja in blue coughed and stared his torturer down. "Do as you please, Feng. I am willing to accept my punishment, but I won't tell you anything."

Feng chuckled. "You're resilient, I respect that. It's a shame." Feng kicked the ninja square in the jaw. "You were quite the ninja."

Ah, what better way to end on a dark note? Anyways, the two-parter is over, and I gotta say this was the longest chapter I've written yet. I originally intended to release this chapter in July, but I found myself scraping several ideas in the process.

Since I still feel like sharing my thoughts, allow me to tell you about some of the details in this chapter. For starters, almost every single character introduced in this chapter is an original character, except for Head Ninja in Charge. HNIC is a character from Black Dynamite, a show that appeared on Adult Swim. He was a one-off character in that show, but I found him endearing enough to use him since he fit with the theme of this episode. Also, before I forget, the story Biscuit read was actually based on one of my favorite DC Comics movies, Justice League: The New Frontier. What does any of this have to do with the actual story, you'll find out eventually.

Next up, I'd like to announce that I am working on something I'd like to call Total Drama Neo: Side Stories, or TDN: Side Stories for short. These will be short chapters that are just meant to expand the universe or better yet multiverse of the story. These stories will have little to do with the actual show, and the events might just be referenced in the main story. The first one will be about the upcoming election for Chancellor of the Multiverse, and it will primarily star Richard Nixon from Futurama.

Finally, I'd like to say that the next chapter will be a shake-up from the status quo, so stay tuned.