Survivor - Heroes vs Villains

Chapter 22 - Day 19 Part 1

Alllright, folks. Today is the day that the next phase of the game begins. The teams will be merging today and if your fave was lucky enough to not be voted off, he/she made it whether they have been voted for already or not!

Though there were seven All Stars that were unable to make it to that portion in the game, and big names had to be sacrificed in order for the rest of the cast to advance. Major bummer. But hey, it's an All Star season. What else did you expect? Every All Star season in Survivor history, there were always going to be some shocking eliminations from people that had a high placement before. That was a given. But hey, seven people had to go home and it is what it is. It's a game. That's the price of having an All Star season. And I wish that all twenty players made the merge, but there is only room for thirteen people.

But the next season is going to be a newbie season, and the second generation will officially start with season six... which will officially be announced by the end of this chapter!

~KF

EPISODE SEVEN: We All Have Our Scars Somewhere

Valverde

Night 18

Zelda, Ridley, Shadow, Vector, Ryu, Shovel Knight, Plague Knight

-/-

So,... it happened. It finally happened. And it only took eighteen days.

"Well Ryu, congrats." Vector spoke first. "You finally got revenge on Specter. He is not going to bother you anymore."

The street fighter leaned his torch against the tree. "I couldn't have done it without you all. Thank you so much. I was beginning to think that I was a goner if he managed to convince you all to vote me out."

"Haha!" Shovel grinned under his helmet. "He told us to split the votes between you and Ridley in case one of you had the idol."

"Really?" Ridley was glad he was not even thinking about playing it, then. "And I suppose the three of you were told to vote for me?

"Correct."

"What made you three keep me in over him?" Ryu asked out of curiosity, nobody except for Shadow noticing Plague Knight shaking his head in absolute irritation.

"You just seem to never know what that guy's gonna do." Vector explained. "That guy is good at being unpredictable. If we didn't get rid of him now, I don't think we would have ever been able to. He was somehow able to survive as long as he did in his season and we can't afford that to happen again."

"Good." That was very pleasing for him to hear. "I'm glad you guys were able to see right through him."

"I'm in disbelief... Is he really gone?" Yes, Ryu. He was gone. Good job. "...He's gone! I... I can't believe this! One of the main things I wanted to do was to get proper revenge and outlast Specter, and... I actually pulled it off. It was a struggle, but it worked. Now that he's out of the way, I can really start to give everything my all out here and keep my focus. Tomorrow is a new day, and the only way to go is up. I thank the heroes for taking the time to notice what Specter was capable of, and I thank Ridley as well. I was a little concerned when he decided to keep Specter in over Sheik and was pretty annoyed at him about it, but today he stuck his neck out for me. And if he ended up being in trouble at any point, I'll do my best to protect him given the opportunity. Maybe he does know what he's doing."

Upon people separating from each other to have their own conversations, Ridley knew Ryu wanted to talk to him about the recent events. So he made sure he pulled him away.

"I really mean it. You saved me, man..."

He formed a small smile. "This is interesting. Last season I caused a lot of problems for a friend of mine and really did some damage to his game. I've never been told that I saved someone's game before."

"Well, you did. You really put yourself out there for me, and I thank you for it." He placed a hand on his shoulder. "I gotta say... I've seen your season from start to finish. You've really grown, man. You changed."

That made Ridley's smile disappear, but it was more so out of surprise. "...Think so?"

"I don't know how the edit is gonna turn out for you this season, but I'd encourage you to watch your run on Caribbean and then watch this one. Back to back. You are really showing some growth here." Ryu folded his arms and leaned his head forward smirking. "You don't suppose this is lowkey Meta's doing?"

"You know, it's not often that I get genuine appreciation and compliments from other people. Normally when they happen, it's just so that my minions can try to get on my good side. Ryu came across very sincere. ...I don't want to feel too spoiled, though. All I did was save an ally that is going to benefit my game. So I figured he saw something in me today, and that led to him asking me if Meta Knight played a factor in all this."

He paused for a moment in thought. "And to that I say,... let's just say that Meta Knight stuck by my side in spite of everything that went down. I almost tanked his game completely by putting the two of us on the bottom of the entire tribe, and he still saw something in me even though I kind of put him through hell... Me realizing that,... I guess it played a part of changing my outlook on those around me. Now with Ryu today, he probably saw this whole thing as me supporting him and throwing myself out there just to save his own skin... You know what, yes. He's right. I'd still be the same man I once was if it wasn't for Meta Knight. Still bummed that he's not here right now, but I know he's watching... I'm trying, Meta. I'm still here and I'm trying."

Valverde

Day 19

The morning was mostly cloudy, with it currently sprinkling at the time. Thankfully for the players, they did not wake up to a complete rain storm. Otherwise, a lot of contestants would have shown attitude.

Yet inside the minds of certain players, they were feeling rather moody...

Plague Knight had his fist resting against his mask, the hood of its cloak hanging behind his back.

"Do you guys think the other team is gonna come here for the merge?" Ryu asked the tribe as a whole.

"I'll be surprised if we're the ones that have to move." said Vector. "You guys are the ones that have everything."

Plague was too upset to care. The events of the previous night was the only thing going through his mind.

"It took everything in me to not blow up at everyone. I wanted Ryu to go home, not Specter! And once again, he gets blindsided out of the game. The last thing he said to me was to make sure I got revenge for him, and that I was going to be on my own, now. ...Except for Shadow, who was the only one here that voted with me, I'm on my own. Again... Come to think of it, for the longest time I was wondering who needed who more. Specter needed me so that I could have some shot at this, but... I always felt like I needed him more. Now that he's gone, I don't know who I am going to rely on whenever I need help... It's... kind of frightening. I wish Specter was still here..."

He then took it upon himself to get up from the shelter, motioning a certain hedgehog to come with him. Sure, it was worth giving him the side-eye to do it in front of everyone and he knew it.

Though since he was well aware of it, that went on to show that he really did not care.

"...I'm sad."

"That we're both on the bottom of this tribe, or just because Specter's gone?"

"Both." He crossed his arms and stared at the ground. "Like,... if this was gonna happen, he could have just been voted off a couple rounds ago. Not now..."

Now to Shadow, that made absolutely no sense to him. "What are you trying to say? If you needed him as much as you say you do, you'd want him to be here as long as possible."

"Well,... let's just say that even though Specter and I bump heads most of the time, for some reason we just can't help but be there for each other. It seems that every time something gives us a hard time, we're... pretty much all we both have. It happened in our season and it happened out here. Specter played his idol on me, I helped him make a big move. We were forced to work together again, and his life was on the line yesterday... And unfortunately I wasn't able to get the votes to save him. I feel terrible about that. I guess the more he stayed here, the more I wanted to make sure that he was here just so I could tell him that we're both still here together."

"...So you're saying that you were growing closer to him." He thought for a second, but he picked up on what he put down.

"In a weird way, yes. I don't really like talking like that, because I don't like most people and you don't either. But,... who am I gonna go to for help? The game ends in twenty-one days. Three weeks is still a long way to go."

"Ugh..." Shadow was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. The content of the conversation was something he was not used to one bit. "Look, if you want me to be an ally for you, just say it. That's all you have to do. I was out of the loop as well, but we're gonna have to move on and find a way to somehow survive this."

"Sorry, I... I just... I just miss having him around." His eyes remained staring down, shaking his head in the process. "I have to deal with his lectures and he kinda puts up with me a lot..."

That caused the alchemist to be silent for a while, but eventually he found more words.

"Every time something happens, we always end up coming right back to each other, knowing what we have to put up with one another. The only other person I could really talk to in regular life is... well,... Mona."

Shadow brought a hand to his face. "Look, we'll just make sure we're not the ones going home next."

"Look, I'm sorry. Okay!?" Plague finally eyed him directly. "It's just that now that he's gone, I gotta have someone!"

Shadow just turned on his heel and started to walk back. "Let's just head back to the shelter. We should have never came out here like this anyway, and I have a feeling it's gonna rain harder."

"..." He exhaled watching him leave, something telling him that he was probably not the right person to talk to about the situation. Yet at the same time it really showed that aside from Shadow, he had no one left, basically.

"People have come up to me saying that I would be useless without Specter, because they felt like he was carrying me the whole time in Mexico. I do know that I would not have been in the final three if it wasn't for him, but he needed me as well. I was the one to convince him that we needed each other to stay in the game. I came up to him... And now he's gone... already. He wants me to avenge him, and... I don't have that much left. But you know,... the main question I have to ask myself is if I would be able to handle it. I don't wanna go home, but I don't know what else to do... Specter,... no matter what happens to me out there, I'll do my best to avenge you. Thank you for everything you've done for me."

Day 19

The rain cleared up for the time being, but it was cloudy. Though no matter what mother nature had in store, nothing was going to stop the show from going on. Including day nineteen, there were exactly three weeks left before the season was finished filming.

"Come on in!"

The six winners of the most recent immunity challenge all came through. Three heroes, three villains...

"La Vega, get your first look at the new Valverde tribe." There they came. "Specter Knight voted out at the last Tribal Council."

"About time..." said Wolf. "Took him long enough."

Yoshi smiled in reaction, only being pleased to find that all three of the heroes survived tribal just as the heroes on his beach did.

And so, as far as the red team was concerned, there remained four villains and three heroes...

"Specter going home last night probably just hindered my game." Shadow spoke out. "He was one of the two people in this game I felt like I really counted on, and now he's out of here. At this point all I have is Plague, somebody that can't ever keep his damn mouth shut... But I know that there isn't anywhere else I can really go. Those other villains aren't going to align with me because they're going to realize me and Plague are the only two people that voted with Specter. Worst case scenario, we're both seen as untrustworthy. And sometimes when it comes to the merge point in Survivor, the most untrustworthy are targeted first, because they are the ones that no one wants to work with. Katt and Ridley proved just that in the past two seasons. All I could hope for is that since my game is weakened, there should be even bigger problem people should take care of because I don't have any alliances right now..."

"Now,... before you all get too comfortable, everybody,..."

They all stared knowing what was coming.

"Drop. Your. Buffs."

People were already beginning to talk out of excitement.

"We are merged!"

They did it! Seven villains, six heroes altogether. Each and every last person remaining in the game was absolutely relieved to hear the great news. They all threw their buffs on the ground as they all came together for meeting and greeting. Ryu and Golden reunited, Golden reunited with Plague, and Yoshi and Vector both reunited with Springtrap.

"We made it!" Springtrap shook hands with Vector completely ecstatic.

"Finally get to live with you out here." Donkey Kong smacked Ryu's hand and embraced him. "We've made it."

"Another accomplishment. Something else that I can check off my list." Yup. Golden managed to meet the halfway point in his second Survivor season. "For me, this season so far has seen very high highs and really low lows. I'm sure some of these other folks can say the same. It can be overwhelming sometimes, since we all know how insane this game can get. But upon Master Hand saying those words, I suppose everyone just kinda took a breather and let it soak in. Some of us have really been through it,... but we made it. We're here. We all made it to the merge, we all made it to the jury, and no matter what happens to us, we're guaranteed to be a part of Final Tribal Council. Whether you're a juror or a finalist, you get to play a role in that. ...Hopefully I'll be able to make that final three, though."

"Here are your new buffs." Master Hand approached them with a basket in hand with fresh black buffs his castaways had to wear for the rest of the game. It was up to one's imagination on what the old ones smelled like. "Now, before we get any further, you guys know at this stage in the game, we have the merge feast."

Bowser stared blinking.

"It's happening, but for the sake of this being an All Star season, we're doing a little something more."

The entire group was so quiet, one literally could have heard a pen drop.

"We are bringing you... Rightback Steakhouse to the Caribbean."

! ! !

Suddenly it went from absolute silence to all thirteen remaining survivors shouting out of excitement in unison. For the first time in Survivor history,... Master Hand was promoting a popular restaurant. He probably earned himself a deal with the big corporate giants... And obviously the name of the famous restaurant was a little different regarding the real world.

But anyway, business was business and the restaurant had to be promoted. Though there were no complaints on either side, especially regarding the castaways.

"Seriously!?" Vector yelled in disbelief.

Bowser was jumping up and down like a little girl.

"I'm gonna eat everything!" Well,... Yoshi was already known for eating everything. Did he actually expect everybody to be surprised by him saying that?

Wolf had both of his hands on his head in utter sock. "Am I dreaming? ...Am I? This can't be real..."

"..." Plague Knight actually went out of his way to pinch him on his side.

"Ow!"

"Hmm..." With a finger beneath his chin, he shook his head in denial. "Nope. You're not dreaming."

"What a kind soul... Master Hand... took time out of his day... to make a deal with one of the most popular restaurant chains in the universe. Now in my world, we have our own version of Outback. But my whole family is obsessed with the place, especially me..." Whatever music that was currently playing paused. "Does this white glove really like me that much?"

The newly merged tribe was now going at it, everyone eating as if they never ate before a day in their lives. Cheeseburgers, potatoes, ribs, full combos, and obviously the steaks themselves were being devoured by hungry Survivor players.

In addition to that, the group as a whole was rather noisy, but that was an absolute given as they all sat down in front of a long table with a white tablecloth.

"Keep it coming, baby!" Bowser grinned.

"Dude, how many did you order so far?" asked Ryu from a few seats over.

"I'm getting ready to order a third one!"

"Did you think about how much your stomach can take before you ordered another one?" Vector smirked his way, already know his answer before he even replied.

"Uh..." Yeah, if that ever counted as one. Even though someone such as small as Plague eating a lot of food at the time, everybody had their own limits in the Smash-Survivor universe. And yes, even such a glutton as Yoshi.

"So Wolf, how many steakhouse locations in the universe have you been in so far?" Zelda asked out of curiosity.

"Panther, Leon, and I were planning on hitting up Mute City next. I know they have a lot of good food down there." He answered between bites, cutting up his steak seemingly as fast as someone blinked. "But,... ugh. I don't even know. I was not known to ever keep count for that. But I've kinda been everywhere. Even the damn Mushroom Kingdom."

That made Bowser laughed out loud in front of everyone. "I hope you didn't run into Mario."

"Nah, I ran into his brother and Daisy just so happened to be paying him a visit from Sarassaland."

"I've made it to the merge, the food was amazing, and I'm still in this game." Much to Vector's relief. "It's been even more of a struggle this season comparing to my last, but I'm making it. That merge feast though was something that I really needed. Due to this being an All Star season and all I had to deal with, the stress is real man. In Caribbean I learned that I had to... kinda smarten up and learn how to adapt with the craziness of the competish."

Vector... that was not even a word.

"This season is even more overwhelming! But the only thing that keeps my sanity in check is small moments like this where I can actually just be myself and just chill a little. Folks on the street are telling to never let your guard down, but... I'm just as much of a being like everybody else is. It's not the end of the world to take a breather once in a while."

"You know,..." The croc chewed whatever steak he had in his mouth. "-even though I voted him out, I kinda wish Sonic was here. He would have loved this."

"You sure about that?" Shadow asked without even looking his way. He was too busy eating his potatoes as a side dish. "Last time I checked, he's allergic to anything but chilidogs."

That snarky remark made Plauge Knight laugh so hard he almost fell backwards with his chair. Careful, Plague. It was best to not let that fork of his choke him like Squidward Tentacles from Spongebob. ...Good thing Patrick Star saved his life that episode. Whew...

"I'm pretty sure he eats things other than chilidogs, Shadow." said Donkey Kong. "He's just not known for eating certain things such as salads for example."

"Oh, so he has my taste, then? He's a meat lover as well?" Wolf butted in. "Now he's talkin' my language and should definitely be here."

Well, what did people want? A memorial service? He kinda already had one after his Tribal Council.

Suddenly some Caribbean lady came by.

"Hello, everyone!" She spoke gleefully with her charming Dominican accent. "My apologies, but I've forgot to bring you all some napkins."

That made almost the entire group turn to face one another. Apparently they were so involved with their food, nobody ever noticed. And in the chance someone did, who cared? This was Survivor.

So the lady went out of her way to pass around rolled up napkins for each of the players. Golden, Plague Knight, Donkey Kong, Shadow, Yoshi, Shovel Knight, Ryu, Vector, Springtrap, Zelda, Wolf, Bowser, and Ridley all in that order.

The order itself was significant for a reason. In the midst of all the talking, laughing, munching, and chewing going on, Yoshi was seen unfolding his napkin...

Though when it was nearly halfway open, he all of a sudden paused without even blinking, even widening his eyes at whatever he was looking at... What was he looking at?

...And then after a couple brief moments, he proceeded to take his entire napkin to shake whatever was inside on the ground before placing the napkin back on the table.

The dinosaur then glanced around to see if anyone was staring at him. He knew he had to act a certain way as he sat between Shadow and Shovel Knight.

"And so while I was doing my usual meditation session," Ryu spoke to the latter. "Ken out of nowhere barges into my room and decided that since it was a Saturday night, he thought it was a better idea for the two of us to go bar hopping."

Nope. No one was giving him the time of day at all. Not a bad sign considering the circumstances.

"I... kinda think the lady forgot the napkins on purpose." Yes, Yoshi. That assumption was one hundred percent accurate. She did forget them on purpose. "When she gave us all the napkins, one of them had something in it. And guess who ended up getting it?"

He raised his hand, Yoshi continuing to eat rather uncomfortably, with the occasional shifting of his head as he was still nervous of the fact that he now knew something literally nobody else did at the time. "I was panicking! Whatever it was had something special inside, and I had to quickly hide it in front of everyone! No even looked at me! To think that the Survivor team had a secret out there that only I knew about is absolutely incredible! ...Of course I just didn't have the time to read it..."

Merged Tribe

Day 19

And yes, everyone ended up coming back to the Valverde beach... Or, the old Villains' camp... Or, the lair...

Or whatever the hell they wanted to call it. Literally. That just so happened to be exactly what they were trying to do at the time.

Zelda was seen using a paintbrush as she was decorating the new black tribe flag.

"Thoughts on a new tribe name, Zel?" Golden stared at her progress.

"I have actually already planned on how are tribe name is going is going to be." Oh? "When we first discovered the theme of this season, one of the thoughts that resonated within my mind was that if I get to the merge, we need to have a tribe name that sounds rather fitting."

Springtrap cocked his head. "Yin yang? Combination of good and evil?"

"I'll admit, that's the first thing I thought of. Though not only is it generic, but it is also rather... controversial."

'Controversial'?

"There are some opinions out there that Yin and Yang do not even represent the concept of Good and Evil." Ohhhh. Zelda did her homework. "Whether the concept of it is true or not, I wanted to do something different. Anyone ever took the time to learn about the origins of this world?"

"You mean 'this world' as in you talking about the origins of this place, or are you talking about the origins of This World?" Shovel Knight pointed at the ground.

She chuckled a little at that. "It can be either just to avoid any awkwardness. Many years ago there was quite a battle between the Lord of Light and the Embodiment of Chaos and Darkness."

"Oh, I know of the tale! I discuss it with Shield Knight sometimes."

Zelda was pleased to find out that somebody else appeared rather interested in topic. "It was quite a story. Galeem was dominating quite a bit in the beginning, and then all of a sudden Dharkon took over."

He nodded as if he heard it a few times over, now taking direct words straight out of the legend. "'With Galeem, the lord of light, defeated, darkness takes hold'... It's a really interesting story!"

"Why didn't he just call him himself the 'Lord of Dark'?" Shadow felt that someone lacked common sense.

"It beats me." Zelda shrugged as she continued. "But anyways, it was a great battle indeed. It was a story of light and dark, and both of them were extremely powerful."

"Shovel, I'm surprised to see you knowing stuff about this." Wolf snickered shaking his head. "My world is much closer to This World than yours and I don't actually know too much about it."

"He's a nerd." Plague insulted. "That's why."

"Well, there isn't anything ever wrong with knowing your history and performing a little research." Shovel then turned Plague's way. "The concept of research isn't so foreign to you now, is it?"

"..."

Yup. That was enough to keep him quiet.

"Not too many people are actually aware of the tale of the World of Light." As much as it was rather surprising to Zelda, it was a bit disappointing to her at the same time. "It is called the World of Light nowadays. But back in the day, it was called This World first. Both names are acceptable. Though,... this is quite literally the center of the universe where all worlds could come together. And honestly, it plays a large factor to us survivors playing together today. I believe if people look at it that way, more of them would be intrigued to learn all about how everything came to be here."

Well, an even more modern version, ones called This World simply 'The World of Smash'. But that was too canon for this.

"So I'm assuming the tribe name has something to do with Galeem and Dharkon?" Shovel Knight asked Zelda. "Are you planning on combining the two names together?"

Right on it. "Exactly. I feel Darleem would be an appropriate name form this tribe."

"'Darleem'? Psh..." Shadow turned his head side to side in disagreement. "Sounds more like the name of a woman, rather than a place. Darlene is a name that actually exists."

"Well, I could have tried Galron, Dareem, or Dharkleem. Darleem works out the best in comparison."

Yes, so Shadow had to deal with it whether he liked it or not. Darleem it was.

#Darleem

-/-

Standing by the water well were Springtrap, Shadow, and Wolf. The middle man of the three motioned their way to follow him along to have a conversation. And of course any game talk was too big of an opportunity to pass up.

"So how did Foxy get voted out?"

"Donkey Kong played an idol on Golden and the two of them and Yoshi sent him home." Springtrap answered with a sigh, still disappointed at what occurred. "...How did Specter get voted out?"

"Ryu and Ridley used the heroes to blindside him. Plague and I ended up being on the outs of that and now Plague is upset that Specter's not around to babysit him."

"Specter had what was coming for him, but let's focus on the Foxy blindside for a second." Wolf wanted to get something off of his chest. "Maybe I should have brought this up a long time ago, but... something seemed a little fishy."

"What is?" Springtrap blinked.

"All I gotta say is that even though it's grateful for Donkey Kong to show his loyalty to Golden by saving his life, it was a good idol play, but at the same time I... I dunno. If I was on the bottom with Golden and Yoshi, with a one in three chance of me getting the boot, and... if I had no control over my fate, and if I knew could have been any of the three of us,... why would I not play the idol on myself? Like, if you had an idol and you had no clue of who was getting the boot, I wouldn't have blamed you saving yourself over me. If we voted for Donkey Kong and he played his idol on Golden, we would have had another Espio situation and DK would have made one of the stupidest moves in Survivor history, right behind Ike rocking himself out of the game."

"So why do you feel like he played it on Golden, then?"

"That's the question I wanna ask myself, but we obviously ain't align together as far as him and I are concerned... DK's hella smart, so it fits him."

"I just need to know where the hell I stand with the rest of you. I don't feel like I'm in a good position in the Villains Tribe Alliance at all." Shadow turned the conversation back to him. "I do not know what the future holds for me, and whatever you all are planning on doing with me, I just do not wish to be the first to go here. The heroes are quickly catching up in numbers now, so I'll do whatever anybody wants."

"Shadow's concerned about him being on the bottom of the villains with Plague Knight, but I was mainly thinking about that idol DK played on Golden." He apparently thought about the situation for quite a bit. "Did DK know to play his idol on him? If so, how did he find out? ...Did he eavesdrop on a conversation? ...Or did someone tell him about it? That's the only other explanation to think of. DK's a smart guy, but I think he would have been selfish if he knew he was on the chopping block. He knew he was the biggst threat on that beach, and if we voted him out, the man wouldn't have known how to live with himself. Somebody leaked our plan telling him that Golden was going to be our vote, and I need to narrow it down who it is."

He counted on his fingers. "I didn't do it. Foxy couldn't have done it, since he was the main one that wanted either DK or Golden to go home anyway. Springtrap's my right hand man and he knew it wouldn't have made sense for him to do it, so... who's left? ...Did Bowser do it? We have no issues with each other, but we never actually told each other that we're aligned together. So if anyone, Bowser's most likely. He probably told Donkey Kong that Golden was the target, and that in turned harmed my game. I need to have a serious conversation with him about this..."

Uh oh... Somebody needed to watch out...

Anyway, walking along a path in woods were Zelda, Vector, and Shovel Knight.

"The three of us never really had a chance to talk to another until now." Shovel Knight spoke first. "I couldn't find Yoshi, but one of us will fill him in later on."

"The main thing we need to do here is to make sure another villain goes home." Zelda thought out loud. "Three have left the game already. And if one more leaves, the numbers would officially be dead even. That is something the four of us want."

"Correct." Vector was in agreement nodding. "In the hopes that we still have DK and Golden, we would need at least one more vote to have a majority for this one. Ridley, Ryu, and Bowser could be our top options right about now."

He was probably thinking of all the talks he had with Ridley in the back of his mind.

"That does seem to be in our best interest." Shovel replied. "It will do good to get rid of someone physically capable, and Ridley would be the primary target here."

"That'll be just fine." nodded Zelda. "Only thing that could go wrong if he wins immunity. And if he does win immunity, it's going to be either Bowser or Ryu. We recruit Shadow and Plague, it can be eight against five."

"But,... does it feel a little... strange for us to suddenly need those two even though we burned them last night?" That was the one thing that was rather weird for the resident of Shivaland.

"Maybe a little, but it's not like they have much of a choice, anyway." Vector shrugged his shoulders and kept walking. "They're probably on the outs of the whole villains tribe. They wanna stay in the game, so they need us or else the whole tribe is gonna vote for one of 'em. But getting rid of Specter completely weakens that alliance, they have no idol, so we'd deal with them at a later time."

"We've made the decision to write off Specter over Ryu." Zelda was finally going to explain how it all went down on night eighteen. "Yes, we acknowledge Ryu possibly being a physical contender in the individual immunity challenges. And on paper, since he is aligned with Ridley, that would be more we would have to deal with. However, three is bigger than two, and Specter, Plague, and Shadow all put together? ...That would have been too chaotic of a situation in front of us. Normally one would say that it is not possible to have it both ways in certain case scenarios. But for this one in particular, even before we went to tribal, Shovel, Vector, and I hatched up a plan to weaken Specter's alliance by voting him out, and then save Shadow and Plague Knight for later so that we could use them to get rid a couple more villains. They wouldn't have anything else to lose, anyway. I highly doubt many people would want to align with them, especially since both of them have been targets the moment the season started."

"No matter who we choose, we need to keep our voting block of four, while making sure Golden and DK are still with us to guarantee six votes for the same person." Shovel Knight hoped. "Add in Plague and Shadow, we have the majority."

"I think I need to have a couple conversations with both of them. Let me just figure out the time and the place for that." Vector felt that it was a minor mission that he needed to do... for personal reasons. "We have to make sure that they're still solid, or else we have some convincing to do."

But first, Vector the Crocodile found himself reading whatever Yoshi received during the merge feast.

"'Congratulations. You have found the clue to the hidden immunity idol.'"

!?

"I can't believe it!" The dinosaur was almost laughing at the possibility of him of all people finding the clue to an immunity idol, let alone him receiving pretty much anything. "I mean, I guess it was kind of a random chance, but that only makes me even more surprised. I found the clue to the merged tribe idol! But, I've read the contents of it like five times because I have a hard time understanding it. ...And even though people usually find idols on their own because they're scared of telling anyone about them since they put their ownselves on the spot by doing that,... there is no way I'll ever be able to figure this out. But if I'm gonna tell someone, it has to be the one person I absolutely trust the most. Why not Vector?"

"'Hopefully you have grown used to the layout of your beach, as the item you are seeking might require you to reach. Keeping your eyes open and maybe it will be your find, or else you will be out of time and the Survivor devil will not be so kind..."

Alright... On a scale of one to ten with one being the worst and ten being the best, the audience might as well have rated the rhyming there. Sometimes the producers themselves did not know how good or how bad the rhymes were.

"So where do we have to reach?" Yoshi immediately asked barely letting the croc get a chance to think. "High in the sky or in the trees?"

"The trees would be the first guess, but then again, they could literally mean anything."

"That's what I was thinking and that's why I came to you!"

He then placed a friendly hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, pal. We'll look for it... But I don't think this could go any further than the two of us. I like the rest of our hero folk, but the more people that know, the less power this has."

"Don't worry." Yoshi shook his head. "That's why I only wanted to come to one person because I knew I was gonna need help."

"Hmm..." Vector was showing a sneaky grin in his confessional. "Maybe some sort of strategy can be fun at times. And you know what? I actually got the experience for something like this. I'm a literal detective for crying out loud, so I have no excuse to not be prepared here. Yoshi and I can strategize together of how we're going to find this idol. And I never found an idol before, so this is completely new to me. But hey, if I find the idol myself, it could mean one step closer to me getting that paper. And I suppose I did make the right call aligning with Yoshi again for this season despite us being known for being part of the Reptile Runaways together in Caribbean, 'cause now look what happened. He trusts me. So Detective Vector is going to be on the case for now. Stay tuned. The only disadvantage I have right now is that I don't have a magnifying glass."

(Forgot Specter's extended final words. Those are up now.)

So what are your thoughts about this season so far? Do you like it? Do you hate it? I want you to be a hundred percent honest in your reviews. So far I'm predicting that I will like more than Kodai Island (obviously), I think it beats Mexico and Emperors vs Knights, but... I don't see it beating Caribbean for me. Maybe it could when I'm finished, but Caribbean is going to hold a special place in my heart.

There have been fun character moments from players and some of the comments thrown between the teams was something that I laughed at, and there have been big blindsides such as Shovel betraying Meta, Sheik going home early (which in her eyes she found rather unfair), Bowser indirectly voting out Foxy, and Ryu getting revenge on Specter Knight. There was talk about the boot order (which I can understand, but at the same time like I said in the beginning, this is an All Star season) and about the heroes' losing streak. I can also understand that, but in actual Survivor seasons teams have gone on much worse losing streaks and some of those season are regarding as the best seasons of the show.

But, you know what? Kodai Island is so cringeworthy for me, I feel like I gotta go through death to read through it again. I don't hate it, but if that was an actual season, it has the sloppy editing of Game Changers, the over abundance of twists (also like Game Changers), the dry storytelling of Cambodia, and Micronesia's level of DUMB moves (I love Micronesia though). But seriously. Mewtwo NOT getting a SINGLE confessional before the merge is CRAZY and he almost got voted out in that final round right before it! (Luckily Captain Falcon who unfortunately ended up being kind of a dud got voted out instead.) And one more thing... Samus Aran... most screwed over player in Survivor history of all time. And yes, I still stand by that.

Now moving on... Unscramble these words for me...

nsoesa ixs si ggnoi ot eb ouvvsrir dniia. rtfri ayacstwa ilwl eb edalveer xtne kwee.