"Previously on Total Drama Battle of the Generations," Chris began in his usual narration. "Our teams touched down in Ireland for a good old fashioned gold hunt! After kissing a stone for luck, Cody nearly fell off a tower, but eh, no pain no gain right? After dealing with our very own leprechaun played by Ezekiel, it was a race to deposit everyone's gold into their own pots. Team Explosive ended up cinching the win once again, while Team Old School lost in a photo finish. At the elimination ceremony, crazy Izzy was voted out for nearly injuring Cody and having a bit too much fun playing around with Zeke. Which didn't sit well with Courtney, now that she, Beth, and DJ find themselves on the outs of their team. What torture is in store next for these victims? Is Team Explosive going to win again? And who's next to get forcefully kicked off the plane? All that and more, right now on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"
*** Opening Credits ***
Things opened sometime after Izzy's elimination, but rather than opening on Team Old School, it opened in the cargo hold. Members from both Team Radioactive and Team Explosive were going through their now routine check to ensure no zombies had found their way on the plane. Shawn was obviously the one taking the search most seriously, but everyone else was mostly doing their best to be thorough. With the exception of Scott, who seemed mildly frustrated to be there.
"Alright, we're getting this knocked out pretty quick today, just a few more boxes in the back there and we can call it a day," Jasmine observed, the group moving towards one of the back corners of the room.
"Having you guys along really speeds this up." Shawn hopped down from a box, landing next to Dawn and Brick. "Thanks again for the help."
"It's no trouble at all!" The cadet smiled, getting to work on searching another crate. "All things considered, it was more than worth it for the help you gave us with B's doohickey."
The silent genius in question flashed a thumbs up, also resuming his search. A nearby Scott rolled his eyes at the exchange, haphazardly looking into a new crate of his own only to wind up screaming as a stowaway raccoon jumped out from within and latched itself to his face.
*** Confessional: Scott ***
Scrubbing his face that was now covered in a few claw marks from the raccoon, he looked on in annoyance. "So from what I understand, at the start of the season some of my teammates struck up this weird deal with the Explosive guys to do a 'zombie search' whenever we get back on board." He used air quotes to emphasize the zombie part, scoffing. "It sounds annoying, but the way I see it we got the better end of the deal. They forced the other team into helping Beverly make that thing keeping him from getting disqualified, and all we have to do in exchange is make sure zombies aren't on the plane? Ha! They aren't even real! I mean, if we were searching for an actual monster like werewolves or a wendigo I'd understand, but believing in zombies? That's just dumb."
*** In First Class ***
Once the search was over, the members of Team Radioactive were the first to file out of the cargo hold. They had to cut through first class to return to economy, with Brick and B looking on longingly at the snack bar while passing through. Dawn was pretty much stoic, while Scott was dealing with the pain from his claw marks.
"See you guys after the next challenge," Sammy called as they left, a cheerful tone to her voice that seemed to irk her nearby sister. But there was no reason to speak out about it. In general most of those from Team Explosive that didn't contribute to the zombie search were all lounging and relaxing in peace. Though when Shawn and Jasmine finally reentered first class, the conspiracy nut couldn't help but notice a sort of dejected expression from Dave.
"Geez, I'm getting kinda worried about the guy," Shawn said in a low voice so as to not be heard by anyone other than his girlfriend. He motioned his head toward's Dave direction to confirm who he was referring to. "You think he's holding up alright?"
"Well he did end last season on a pretty ugly note," she answered, looking over cautiously at the germaphobe. "Honestly, I'm still a bit on edge around him after how gung ho he got trying to take you and Sky out in the finale."
"To be fair, you contributed a bit to that yourself." Shawn chuckled, elbowing his girlfriend playfully.
Jasmine did a snort laugh, but quickly regained her composure. "Well you got me there, but still he was a little TOO eager to try to injure Sky. It wasn't even about the money with him like it was for me, he came across pretty spiteful."
Shawn looked on, pondering. "I guess, but he did kind of get strung along too. It was just a pretty crappy situation all around. I'm gonna go check in on him, see if he's hanging in there."
Nearby, Dave sighed from boredom as he watched out the window, chin rested in his hand. Only the sound of someone sitting next to him got him to sit up straight and look over. "Oh, hey Shawn. What's up?"
"Just wanted to check in on ya, bromigo." The scruffier boy chuckled awkwardly. "We haven't really had a chance to talk yet this season, and I was just hoping you were doing ok."
Dave shrugged. "I guess. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well... Pahkitew Island did end kind of awkwardly. And while Jasmine and I don't really use social media, Sammy mentioned fans have been pretty hard on you after everything with-" Shawn stopped himself, realizing the potential awkwardness of it all.
"Everything with Sky?" Dave finished, sighing. "Yeah, it's been rough. But I'm trying to move away from it, it's in the past ya know? I'm fine, honest." His friend smiled hearing this, prompting a small smile from Dave as well.
*** Confessional: Dave ***
"Ok, that was a lie. I'm NOT doing fine. Do you have any idea how relentless people have been towards me after that falling out with Sky?" He groaned louder than ever, burying his face into his hands. "Here I am, the VICTIM that had his heart played with all season, and all I ever hear is how everything is my fault! Like yeah, I made my mistakes and should have heard her out more, but cut a guy some slack! Now I can't go a day at school without hearing, 'Hey look, it's friendzone Dave!' 'How's it hanging, Dave the dateless?' 'Watch out everyone, Dave the Incel is coming through!'"
Glaring at the camera, he folded his arms. "What does incel even mean? Totally a made up word. But I am telling the truth when I say I want to move past this. The sooner people stop remembering me just for my thing with Sky, the better."
*** Outside the Confessional ***
As Dave exited the confessional, he bumped into Beardo as he was attempting to leave a message of his own. Being the smaller of the two, the impact knocked Dave to the ground with a grunt.
"W-whoops. Sorry man, didn't know you were in there." Beardo offered a hand to help his teammate up, which he hesitantly accepted.
"Huh, so you CAN talk." Dave dusted himself off. "It's fine, the confessional is all your's."
With his scrawnier teammate returning to first class, the beatboxer looked on with a smile. "Hey, that wasn't so hard. Might just get the hang of these social interactions yet."
However, upon turning around it was Beardo's turn to fall to the ground, as he turned to see Harold suddenly in front of him and the startling of the appearance caught him off guard. Though Harold was smiling and also offered a hand to help him up. "Beardo, right? I've been meaning to talk to you since the season started."
"F-for real?" Beardo replied, flustered since he had spent even less time around the older competitors. "What for?"
"After I saw Pahkitew Island I checked out your album," Harold explained, eyes glowing with excitement. "Now I've always considered myself something of a mad beatbox legend, so take it from me when I say you have some of the maddest skills I've ever heard!"
"You're serious?" Beardo smiled. "Shoot, that means a lot coming from you."
"For sure! I've been meaning to talk to you since I think we could totally make some wicked stuff together." Harold took notice of Beardo's shocked expression. "You know, if you'd want to. Be it with the Drama Brothers or like a purely beatbox album."
*** Confessional: Beardo ***
"Geez, talk about a blindside." He scratched at his afro, looking out the window. "I mean I've always wanted to elevate my music career, but Harold and his boys have been on world tours and junk. This is a lot to take in at once, man."
*** Confessional: Harold ***
"I've got a lot of plans this season. Beardo is probably the most talented musician I've seen on the show since me and the boys, and those sound effects of his could help give us an even more unique sound. And yeah, I think if the two of us made a pure beatbox album, it would be some straight fire." Trying to look cool, he crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat. "But even past the band stuff, this is gonna be the season where Leshawna and I finally happen! Groupies are one thing, but no girl has ever stole my heart like her. Add in winning this thing, and I'm seeing big things for me this time around."
*** In Economy Class ***
The unpleasant sound of static filled the room as the intercom roared to life. "Get your game faces on, passengers! We'll be touching down in Kyoto shortly for your next challenge. Look sharp!"
"First Ireland, and now we're going back to Japan? Awesome!" Harold exchanged a high five with Cody. "And this time no Alejandro to mess with my mojo."
"Hopefully this time we actually get to enjoy what the country has to offer," Cody added. "World Tour's Japan challenge was kinda lame."
As the two nerds began a Japan themed conversation that turned to video games and anime, nearby a disgruntled Courtney sighed. Beth and DJ took quick notice.
"So, uh, sorry that we didn't listen to you about the whole Drama Brothers thing," Beth meekly stated, twiddling her thumbs nervously.
"Yeah, we really underestimated the fact that they'd be voting together," DJ added, rubbing the back of his head. "My bad."
Sighing once again, the former CIT shook her head. "It's fine. I know I haven't exactly built up the best reputation over the years so I'm sure you two had reason not to listen to me. We'll just have to keep going and try not to get eliminated now that Izzy is gone."
"But what are we gonna do if they outnumber us?" The geeky farmer was growing more nervous, fearing that she'd be at the bottom of the food chain among her and the other outsiders. "Between the three of them and Leshawna we're kind of screwed."
"We'll worry about that when we come to it. For now we focus on winning so it isn't an issue." Glancing over at the Drama Brothers, Courtney took notice of the still ongoing Japan talk. "We have two Japan loving nerds on our team, hopefully that'll help us out. At the very least, let's hope it gets us to avoid last place."
*** Somewhere in Kyoto, Japan ***
Some time later, the plane had successfully landed at their destination and the contestants were led to the start of their challenge. They found themselves outside a large traditional Japanese looking building, with brown slanted roofing. Chris emerged from off screen, decked out in his best monk attire. This included a black set of monk robes, wooden sandals, and a circular straw hat.
"Welcome to Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan, and the former capital of the country as a whole," the host began, motioning towards the nearby building. "Right now we're at the imperial palace. This building here is where they used to hold all their fancy schmancy state ceremonies before they moved the capital over to Tokyo. You'll actually be visiting a bunch of historical sites like this over the course of the challenge, which will be a spiritual successor to Revenge of the Island's graffiti tagging race."
"You want us to deface beautiful cultural landmarks with spray paint?" Dawn looked both shocked and appalled at the idea. "Surely you can't be serious, the city would never allow you to let us do that."
"You're right, unfortunately. So instead of tagging each landmark with spray paint, you'll instead be planting one of these easily peeled off stickers on team signs at each." Chris held up an example sticker, which depicted the host in a chibi anime style, complete with large eyes and flashing the peace sign. Chef, clad in purple samurai attire, passed out stickers to everyone. Similarly, everyone's stickers depicted them in exaggerated chibi style. While they were mostly flattering, certain details like Dave's chibi self crying and Courtney's depicting her with devil horns earned noises of disapproval.
"Yo, these things are pretty stylin," Anne Maria noted, approving of the curvy features on her stickers. "Can we get some of these to keep?"
"Sure, if you go to the merch website after the season and buy them like anyone else," Chris answered, grinning.
There were some annoyed groans, with Sugar being the one to vocally express her frustration. "Y'all would think they'd treat us better and give us our own merch for free if they're selling stuff that looks like us."
"Bold of you to assume we won't cut costs wherever possible." Whether everyone enjoyed their chibi self or not, once they were all passed out Chris continued his rundown. "You'll be visiting five historic sites where you must place your sticker. First Kinkaku-ji, otherwise known as the Golden Palace. Then Arashiama, the monkey infested bamboo forest. After that we have Nijo Castle, pretty self explanatory, and then Toji Temple which houses the country's tallest pagoda. Finally, you'll end your race at the Fushimi Inari shrine. Ya can't miss it, you'll know you're there when you see a bunch of endless red gates. First team to get all stickers stuck at each site wins first class. And as should be obvious by now, the team that does it last is kicking someone out."
"Didn't we JUST do a race challenge two episodes ago?" Jasmine pointed out, arms folded. "You'd think there'd be a bit more variety before we did another one."
"I'll have you know this one is totally different," Chris insisted, taking a key from out of his pocket and twirling it around his finger. "For example, instead of everyone riding together in a snowmobile, you'll all be riding separately in go karts. But these aren't just any normal go karts, because as you're racing you may see squares with a question mark on the path. Drive over one, and it'll outfit your kart with some sort of weapon. They could be as useful as a bomb, to as useless as a banana peel!"
"Hey, I've actually played this game before," Brick objected. "And those banana peels aren't useless, they take me out all the time!"
Ignoring the interruption, Chris finished up his explanation. "So first things first, all you guys have to do is find the key to your go kart somewhere here at the palace grounds. Once you have the key in hand, you can find the go karts right outside. They're decked out with a GPS so you'll know which way to drive."
"Searching for keys doesn't sound too stressful," Trent pointed out to his team in a whisper, everyone grouped in a huddle. "This should be easy."
"You bring up a good point, Trent," Chris yelled, sticking his head into the huddle and startling the members of Team Old School. "So instead of just letting the viewers watching you key hunt, we'll keep you occupied with something else in the meanwhile."
* DING DING DING *
"A'ight, seriously, we should be the last part of the cast that forgets he can jinx us," Leshawna noted, shooting an annoyed side eye Trent's way. The musician could only smile sheepishly.
"Less talking, more singing," Chris commanded with a clap of his hands. "Preferably something Anime-y. Hit it!"
Harold was the one starting us off, while on screen the flash of a blue circle gave way to a red cloudy backdrop. An outline of the season's logo appeared and faded into the background. "We are searching for a precious go kart key," he sung quiet and somberly despite the mundane lyrics. On screen the text 'Fresh TV' displayed in white, and above it was the name translated to Japanese.
"Once we find one then we can drive awaaaay," he continued, now with Leshawna joining him in song. The red background changed to a blue one, and a sort of tree outline appeared. It quickly panned up the tree, each branch leading to a logo of a former Total Drama season with the current season's at the top. The tree quickly faded away, returning to white text that now said 'Project Drama' on the top and the Japanese translation on bottom.
As soon as the two had finished their line, the background went to black as the music swelled with brass accompaniment. In bold white text read 'Total Drama,' and below that in orange was Japanese that translated to 'Battle of the Generations.'
Now it was Trent's turn to sing, and against the backdrop of a blue partly cloudy sky, a faded zoom in of Trent's face looked off into the distance. His face slowly turned to the right as he sung. "We'll leave the others in awe, while we burn some rubber here in Kyoto." Halfway through his line a pitch black Trent silhouette stood towards the right, fading when he finished.
As this all was going on Japanese credits would pop up here and there, though when translated they were all credits towards Chris for things like 'Best Hair,' and 'Hottest Host.' When the Trent silhouette disappeared, two new ones appeared on each side of the screen. On the right floating up was a silhouette of Beardo, and on the left was an upside down one of B sinking down.
"They'll be in the dust when we go, no time for delay," Beardo sang.
"WE'LL WIN WITH THE SPEED OF A CHEEEETAH," B added from his singing device.
Trent's face finally faded away, now replaced with another silhouette. This one was a zoom in of Lightning's arm, while the sky background turned a shade of orange. "Easy win, them losers are slow," the jock sang, his silhouette inexplicably making the circle game symbol, effectively making all viewers at home lose the game. Meanwhile that season tree symbol quickly appeared and faded again.
"That's big talk when our team keeps winning the day," Sugar pointed out, a faded zoom in of her face similar to Trent's looking forward. To the right of that was one of those black silhouettes of the pageant queen, which disturbingly leaned back in an attempted seductive way. Meanwhile the face of Sugar looked up.
With that horrific sight gone, next was one of the silhouettes of Courtney. She was sat on the ground, her head on her knees and arms wrapped around them. She eventually looked up while a returning Trent head stared off and drifted to the left. "Is there a key in this pond, or hid behind a bonsai?"
While Courtney sang the last line alone, Scott joined her for the next. Meanwhile Courtney's silhouette disappeared and a new image appeared of Scott standing behind a window, looking at the camera. "Or is one hidden up in a tree!"
Next was a quick succession of different shots. First a zoom in of Scott's eye. Then a shot of the jumbo jet turbine. Next a shot of the jet's side, displaying the aviator Chris symbol. The broken clock in the plane's dining area. Last a shot of Chef pushing the plane's controls forward, making it go into a dive.
"We'll search here and search there, we'll look high and look low," Beth and Cody sang in tandem, though the visuals didn't match much since we had now moved to a shot of Chef in some sort of body suit and in a bizarre pilot seat. It zooms in on his eyes and he looks up at the camera, determined.
"Our sleuthing will leave you in awe," sung Jasmine and Shawn together. Meanwhile, some sort of shadowy robot began to rise into frame, with intense glowing eyes. This was followed by four quick shots. First of Beth, adjusting her glasses like an anime villain. Next was Jasmine, giving the camera a determined glare. Afterwards came Cody, with a simple smile. Last we had Shawn, who stoically looked on with no emotion.
It was after these shots that it was revealed the mysterious robot from earlier was non other than the Jumbo Jet, now in mecha form and presumably still being piloted by Chef. It twitched violently, while now Amy and Rodney sung over it. "Our mind's on the challenge so please mind the singing."
"We're making this up as we goooo," added Anne Maria and Dakota, the four of them stretching out the note while the Jumbo Jet mecha seemed to sprout many energy wings.
It was at this point the video portion of the song became almost entirely incomprehensible, being a multitude of back to back quick shots. This started with many shots of the mech, its mouth opening, one arm raising, its eyes glowing, and a shot of its hand covered in blood. But because this was a PG show and realistic blood was no bueno, the blood had been colored pink.
The text 'Chris McLean' flashed on screen while Brick continued the song. "And yet we push on, no matter what dumb things we say." While he sung more rapid fire shots went by. The now bloody foot of the mech. The text 'Jumbo Jet' flashed by. The mecha shot up and seemed to roar. A close up of a creepy Chris mask. The mech standing in the distance behind a fiery foreground. Just straight up the sun. Text saying 'Brilliant Sadistic Host.'
"We'd rather not sing, but our contracts force us to," DJ continued while more craziness went by. A pan up of an annoyed Courtney. Text that said 'Hot Chicks.' City skyline view of Toronto. Text that said 'Made in Canada.' A shot of the icy Antarctica landscape. A quick red logo that said 'Hot Dudes Too,' followed by shots of Trent, DJ, Shawn, Lightning, and Scott. A shot of Jasmine at the end stopped the combo. Shots were changing so fast at this point that things like the season's map, the first class cabin, some weird eye things, and a shot of a smirking Chris were easily missed.
"Chris makes these dumb rules, if only he would go away," now sang Sammy. The continued myriad of rapid shots went by. A sinister shot of Amy wearing a visor. A sign fully in Japanese, that when translated rewarded viewers with the message 'Congrats, you wasted your time translating this.' A sketching of Rodney. Some sort of mystery meat Chef meal. A shot of Chris' mouth and hands folded. A new shark like mecha, which was followed by a text screen that said 'Fang.' After that was a purple ape like robot, which then saw the text 'Sasquatchanakwa.' Footage of Dawn looking serious. Sammy wincing, then looking to the side to yell. Shots of DJ, then Harold, then Leshawna. A huge shot of wreckage. The Jumbo Jet mech firing a gun, then an explosion knocking it back. Chris looking on, menacingly.
"Let's just find these keys, tell this place sayonara," Dave sang as a final burst of back to back shots continued. Dave himself was the first shot, him crying next to a duffel bag. Next was, oddly enough, a pan by of a shirtless Cody. A zoom in on Lightning's necklace. Red text saying 'Boot of Shame.' The glowing silhouette of one of the mechs. The earth itself, being struck by some large impact. Dakota sitting with her arms around her legs, next to a glass of water. A sketch of Trent. One of the mechs glaring at the camera. Text that now said 'Barf Bags.' Anne Maria looking down at the ground seriously. The elimination area. Izzy standing up and looking off into the distance somehow, despite not being in the game anymore. And finally, a sketch of Shawn, with Jasmine to his left and Sammy to his right.
Dawn was the final contestant to have a dedicated line, starting while Japanese text filled the screen that when translated came out to, 'Wow this part took way longer to write that you'd think, didn't it?' The Jumbo Jet mecha struck a pose while a faded image of Chef in the bodysuit came towards the screen, all while Dawn sang. "Because this is part 1, there's more challenge to get to."
"Will it be safe? Probably not but let's pray!" The final line was sang by everyone together, with the video portion ending on various shots of Chef. Looking up in determination, crying, shielding his eyes from blinding light, and finally an almost creepy smile.
With that... ordeal finally finished, we returned to see the entirety of the cast now outside of the imperial palace. They all had keys in hand and had taken their place inside their go karts to await Chris' signal. Some were looking a bit disheveled, with Cody in particular sporting some scratches and bruises.
"And just like that through the power of editing, it looks like everyone has their keys without us having to show you all getting them," the host cheered, joining the cast.
"Wait, you're not going to show any of the key hunt?" Cody asked, flabbergasted. He held out his arm, revealing even more cuts. "I had to go through some serious crap to get mine!"
"Whoa, that's interesting. But I sure don't care!" Promptly ignoring the tech geek, Chris motioned down the road they would be taking. Their GPS' flashed on to reveal their path, leading to the first marker at the Golden Palace. They also noticed a few squares with a question mark along the path, with the first being close enough that they could see it up ahead. On the road, it was merely a painted square.
"Your karts have a sensor on the bottom to know when you've driven over an item block," Chris explained, as if he knew many of them were wondering how this was going to work. "So simply drive over one and you'll be given a random item. Miss the square and that sucks for you, as you'll get nothing."
"We should wait and let the others take the lead," Harold whispered to his team. "In the game you get better items the farther back you are. If we can take them out early it'll hopefully give us a wide enough lead."
"Lets book it and stay on our toes," Shawn directed towards the others. "Things are going to stay hectic and the items could change things on a dime, so we don't really have any reason to dillydally."
Meanwhile with Team Radioactive no one was really making any plans, they all seemed content to do their own things. Only Lightning felt the need to give words of encouragement. "Y'all just be sure to sha-keep up." Well, at least he thought they were encouraging.
"On your marks," Chris started, holding up the airhorn. "Get set. Go kart!"
With a blast of the horn, everyone was off. Teams Radioactive and Explosive took off at high speeds, but per Harold's suggestion Team Old School waited a few seconds before also starting. Things became instantly cramped as the various karts barreled through the streets of Kyoto, even more so as the first item block approached. B and Scott seemed to have the same idea as both rammed Dave and Sammy out of the way respectively just as they were about to drive over the mark, causing them to miss getting an item.
"Not too shabby, Beverly." While Scott had attempted a genuine compliment, B's scowl gave the impression he had missed the mark. "Er, B."
Looking down at his screen, the devious farmer saw that he had been given what appeared to be a green turtle shell as an item. Curious, he clicked an arrow facing backwards which caused his kart to shoot the item behind him. Just as an unsuspecting Dave tried to catch up, the shell came flying back and sent him screeching off track with a yell.
B observed the item usage, noting how things seemed to work pretty much exactly as they did in Mario Kart itself. His screen displayed the banana, so when he looked back as Jasmine behind him preparing to fire a shell of her own, he was ready. Once she fired the weapon, he deployed the banana peel behind him in the nick of time. The shell somehow shattered against the peel, leaving the silent genius none the worse.
In general things were getting chaotic. Shawn had been lucky enough to receive the red shell, so without needing to aim he easily hit Brick in front of him. Anne Maria had been given three of the bananas, which she promptly dumped all behind her. Amy had little time to react before spinning out as she drove over one. Beardo and Dakota both received the triple green shells, and somehow all three of their respective items shattered against the other's as they attempted to hit the other driver.
At the front of the pack was Lightning, who was initially confused when his screen displayed a coin. Sure enough, his kart made a belching sound effect and spat out a coin into the jock's face. It was a simple gold coin with Chris' smiling face on one side and a picture of the Jumbo Jet on the other. Effectively worthless, but he was none the wiser. "Sha-score! Lightning is getting richer already!"
But now chaos was truly about to unfold as the members of Team Old School crossed the item block. While some merely got triple bananas or shells, Cody was the first to get a true game changer. The bomb. Smirking, he lobbed the bomb forward, just missing Sugar who squealed in shock at the explosion.
"Hey! Why the heck didn't this dumb thing give me one of those?"
She didn't have much time to complain as one of Leshawna's three shells nailed the pageant queen in the back, spinning her out. DJ had received three mushrooms, which gave him a wicked speed boost. But Harold was most satisfied, as he was shown an image of a blue spiked shell with wings.
"How are they getting away with using these images without dealing with copyright laws?" he pondered out loud, touching the screen to deploy. "Oh well, enjoy this whoever's in first!"
From the front of his kart it shot the blue shell into the air. Unlike the games it was clearly mechanical of some sort, as it whirred loudly while soaring over the various racers. In particular, Brick looked above in shock. "Uh oh. Lightning, watch your six! Enemy strike is inbound!"
Unfortunately for the cadet his warning fell on deaf ears. Or rather, Lightning just wasn't paying attention to anything other than trying to remain in first. For what it was worth, Rodney was on his tail and keeping him distracted. This was about to end badly for both of them.
"What the heck is that noise?" Rodney asked, looking up in time to see the blue shell hover overhead once it was above Lightning.
"What are you blabbering about back there, country boy?" The turbo jock turned his head to look back at Rodney, but in a flash the blue shell suddenly came careening downward right on top of him. The impact caused an explosion that took out not only Lightning, but Rodney as well. Both boys were knocked to the ground in a daze, their go karts on their sides next to them while they groaned in agony.
"Booyah! A direct hit." Harold exchanged a quick high five with a passing Trent as the squad inched closer and closer to the other teams. Nearby, Courtney smirked mischievously.
*** Confessional: Courtney ***
"Eh, taking out two enemies is alright I guess. But how about taking out all of them?"
*** In the streets of Kyoto ***
Courtney looked down at her screen, displaying a lightning bolt. "Don't look know, guys. I think the other teams just had a change in forecast!" Hitting the item, suddenly everyone on teams Explosive and Radioactive saw a flashing lightning bolt symbol on their own screen. However, this one was much larger and accompanied by a beeping noise.
"This... seems like it's going to suck," Sammy observed ominously. Sure enough, the rapidly increasing beeping came to a climax. Since they had no way to cause actual lightning bolt clouds to appear above everyone, instead all of the karts for Team Radioactive and Team Explosive became electrified. Many screams of pain filled the streets as the electrocuted contestants spun out wildly. This was especially unfortunate for Lightning and Rodney, who had only just flipped their karts back into position and got in.
When it was all said and done, Team Old School had found themselves in the lead. They maintained it all the way to Golden Palace, and as they drove up they noticed three wooden signs planted before the building. Each had a team logo at the top and eight squares, almost all of which were empty save for one spot on Radioactive's sign with a chibi Staci sticker and a similar square on Team Old School's with an Izzy sticker.
"We're killing it," Beth cheered, the first to jump from her kart to slap her sticker into one of her team's squares. One by one everyone else did the same before returning to their vehicle. "Lets keep this up, guys!"
As that team left, the others starting piling in one by one. It became quite cluttered in front of the palace as many karts parked at once while the drivers put their stickers on, turning their vehicles into bumper cars as they tried to get back into the race.
*** Confessional: Dakota ***
"I've played this game with Sam a few times. If there's one thing he taught me about it, it's to not sweat it if you get behind early on. More often than not, things start to go badly for whoever is near the front."
*** In the streets of Kyoto ***
Because the stretch between the palace and bamboo forest was one of the longest of the race, there were two item block spaces en route to the next destination rather than just one. As expected, when Team Old School went over the first one they received mostly standard items. DJ and Leshawna were the least lucky since they just received the coin.
Many opposing team members started to close the gap when they received mushrooms from the item block, but others weren't far behind. Brick raised an eyebrow curiously when his item revealed itself to be a picture of a squid. "Hey, isn't this one kinda useless? What gives?"
Pressing the button anyway, all the opposing team members were alerted with a blinking picture of the item similar to the lightning bolt. But this time, rather than become electrified, a nozzle flipped up from the dashboard and sprayed everyone in the face with ink.
"Gross gross gross," Dave screamed frantically, letting go of the wheel to try and wipe away the ink and sending him off road into a tree. Others from Old School and Explosive got similarly sent off course thanks to the ink in their eyes, which was now putting Team Radioactive near the front of the pack. Cheers were exchanged among the new leaders as they approached the second item block. Meanwhile, after a few seconds had passed a new nozzle appeared for those affected by the ink, spraying them with water to wash it away.
Shenanigans continued to ensue with the second item block passing. Shells were flying, banana peels soaring, bombs flung. Lightning sent a green shell backwards that was getting ready to strike Beardo, but lucky for the beatboxer he had received a star from the item block. Upon clicking it his kart began to glow and a sort of electrified force field surrounded him that protected from any item. The shell shattered harmlessly against the force field, and it also allowed him to drive over a banana peel with no issue. Chuckling at the lucky break, Beardo did a perfect imitation of the Mario star theme for as long as it lasted.
Near the front of the pack Dawn was driving relatively peacefully, using her items mostly to deflect rather than go on the offensive. Suddenly a banana peel was tossed in front of her kart, much too quick for her to react in time. She spun out, looking around to see who the culprit thrower could be. It was only after hearing an animal-like cackle that she gazed up to realize the one responsible was a monkey hanging from the bamboo. As it continued to laugh at causing Dawn's wipeout, more monkeys appeared from within the bamboo. Each threw their own banana peels, raining down on the course in front of the unsuspecting contestants. While some did their best to swerve out of the way, most fell victim to the potassium based assault and swung out of control. The more chaos caused for the teams, the more the monkeys cracked up at watching.
*** Confessional: Dawn ***
"What mischievous creatures," she said with a smile, petting a monkey that had somehow found its way into the confessional with her. "But then again, considering the things monkeys usually like to throw at others, it could have been much, MUCH worse."
The monkey chuckled in agreement, wiggling its eyebrows.
*** In the streets of Kyoto ***
While the drivers did their best to get past the banana littered chaos in the bamboo forest, Team Radioactive found themselves at the front. Perhaps it was due to Dawn's presence, but regardless they were the first to reach the second sign and plant their stickers.
"Three more to go, let's move it along people," Anne Maria cheered on, everyone returning to their vehicles and setting course for Nijo Castle. Team Old School was the next team to reach the forest signs, with Team Explosive not far behind.
"Geez, we're still pretty behind," Jasmine noted, the first of her team to plant a sticker while the others rushed to follow. "We really gotta pick up the pace."
"Well being in last means we should have better items," Sammy pointed out. "So it's not over yet!"
With everyone now on their way to the next checkpoint it was a mad dash to the next item block. Once again the stretch between destinations was long, so two item blocks were passable on the way to the castle. Shells and bananas flew between Team Old School and Radioactive, distracting them while Team Explosive got their turn with the items. Sugar raised an eyebrow when she was given a picture of a fireball. Clicking it curiously, it shot a single fireball forward that harmlessly extinguished when it failed to hit no one.
"Well shoot, it gave me something useless, what a dud!"
"Sugar you can use those over and over," Shawn replied. "Just button mash."
"Oh." Grinning, the pageant queen cracked her knuckles and hovered a finger over the button while the other hand steered. "Out of the way, y'all! Sugar's bout to smoke them harder than a roadkill dinner."
Her teammates complied and veered out of the way from Sugar's wrath. The country girl let it rip and button mashed as hard as she could manage. A flurry of fireballs were shot from her kart, and while many shots missed, the sheer amount of attacks ensured they were hitting the marks. As the fireballs connected to enemy karts it not only spun them out but often ignited clothing, causing the shocked drivers to try and mash out the flames in a panic. Once they were ahead of the pack, Amy dropped a bomb behind her that helped widen the gap as the explosion stopped some of the fire victims from recovering.
Now Team Explosive was at the front when the second item block was passed over. Team Old School was trailing behind, but a certain team member grinned when he noticed how closely together the leading team was racing.
"How nice of them to bunch together so snugly," Cody observed, chuckling as he deployed a blue shell. "Here's a little present for their teamwork."
The blue shell soared through the air, making a beeline for Jasmine as she was the one in the lead. Many of her teammates gasped when they noticed the item hovering above her head, but somehow she could only smirk.
"Sorry, mate," she yelled back, clicking her screen just as the blue shell prepared to explode on top of her. She deployed a loud horn, producing a shockwave strong enough to harmlessly shatter the blue shell and prevent an explosion. "But you'll have to do better than that!"
Unmoved by the enemies, Team Explosive were the first to arrive at Nijo Castle. Crossing moats and going through the inner walls to find the third set of signs in front of a palace building, they quickly planted their stickers and returned to the race. Team Radioactive followed close behind, and Team Old School wasn't far off. While the placements were visible, it was still anybody's race. The stretch to the Toji temple was much shorter than the last two, and as such there was only a single item block. This one had to count.
As the item space approached Team Explosive was at the clear disadvantage. Three of their members got the useless coin as their item, so the others had to make their defensive resources count. Beardo, Beth, Trent, Anne Maria, and Rodney were among those stuck by shells. B was unable to react in time to avoid a banana peel that had been precisely tossed in front of him by Courtney. Even after a lightning bolt from Lightning himself seemed to turn the tides, two bomb throws Sammy and Cody kept things even. As the chaos subsided, things were pretty even and the teams grouped closer together.
*** Confessional: Leshawna ***
"Ya know, I've never been much for video games. But as it turns out, when you go from racing on the TV to doing it in the streets with explosives and crap involved, I can kinda see the appeal."
*** In the streets of Kyoto ***
With everyone pretty much mashed together with no definite team now in the lead, most made it to the Toji temple checkpoint at the same time. The signs were in front of the five story pagoda, and much pushing and shoving was involved as people dismounted to put their stickers on their respective team's sign. All that remained was the finish line checkpoint at the Fushimi Inari Shrine. As it turned out, it wasn't too far away, so only one final item block remained between the contestants and the end of the race.
Of particular note while the racers made their way to the final destination was a chorus of loud cheers coming from the streets. Odd, considering how they had mostly been empty throughout the challenge. The source of the cheers seemed to be from a group of Japanese school girls, all clad in black and white uniforms. They were most excited to see Trent, Cody, and Harold, nearly screaming as they pointed at them.
"It's the Drama Brothers," one with long black hair cheered.
"They're so cool," another with short brown hair added.
"They speak oddly fluent English," Cody pointed out in a whisper to Trent, who nodded in agreement. It was then that the guitarist felt an addition of weight to his vehicle. He looked to his side to find a grinning schoolgirl with pigtails flinging her arms around his neck.
"Marry me, Trent!"
Before Trent could even respond, a banana peel from up ahead somehow came flying back and nailed the girl in the face. She was sent flying from the kart, to who knows where. All Trent could do was shrug. "Welp, guess that takes care of that."
*** Confessional: Trent ***
"Fangirls. Let me tell ya, the life of a music star isn't always so easy. Especially these days after we got back together. Is it me, or were the fans we had last time... more normal? These new ones insist that we keep calling them Stan for some reason? I don't really get it. They keep trying to 'cancel' anyone that doesn't like out music, whatever that means. In general they seem way more ravenous than they used to, way more unhinged than the last batch." He tapped his finger to his chin, looking deep in thought. "Then again, Sierra was one of our original fans, so maybe I just wasn't paying as much attention back then."
*** In the streets of Kyoto ***
Many people were now bumping into enemy team members, trying in vain to send them off course. Glares were sent, insults flung, and tempers flared. Things were almost entirely neck and neck as the final item space approached. Most preemptively hovered their finger above their screens, ready to let loose whatever weapon they got. This would prove to be a mistake as many various shells and peels were shattered before they could be used when two more bombs went off courtesy of Brick and Sugar.
As the smoke settled, anyone with a mushroom immediately used it to jump right back into the fray. Things were mostly still neck and neck, but six contestants in particular now found themselves trailing behind the rest as they had been at the epicenter of the explosions. Exchanging glances, Harold, Leshawna, Scott, Dakota, Shawn, and Jasmine knew the race was coming down to them. And as luck would have it, they all each still had an item.
Finally the Inari shrine approached, sending the racers through countless red gates. The finish seemed to be at the top of the mountain at the site of a former shrine. Things were tense but otherwise quiet as the six racers trailing behind were sizing up the right time to use their final item. Shawn glanced over at his girlfriend, silently mouthing 'What item?' at her. Making sure the others couldn't see her, she silently mouthed back 'Banana. You?' Since Harold now seemed to be looking at them, the zombie nut instead made a subtle zooming motion with his hand to indicate he had a mushroom.
Meanwhile, Harold and Leshawna has tried to communicate through hand signs that they had a green and red shell respectively. Dakota also had a green shell while Scott had a bomb, though neither had communicated as much to the other. With the finish coming up sooner rather than later, it was the sister with 'tude that decided to act first.
"Alright, white boy," she called to Shawn, as he was the one in front of her. "Let's see you try and dodge this."
As she prepared to deploy the red shell, the zombie nut quickly assumed that would be the item she had thanks to her phrasing. "Jasmine, quick, drift in front of me and drop your thing. I have a plan."
"What, getting yourself hit with that instead of her shell?"
"Just trust me, I got this."
Not sure what he was planning but trusting him regardless, Jasmine got in position in front of her boyfriend and dropped her banana moments after Leshawna had sent the red shell Shawn's way. He glanced back to confirm the attack coming towards him and drove straight at the peel. "Three... two... one... now!"
Just inches away from the peel, Shawn steered wildly towards the right before roughly correcting his path. Because the shell had also been mere inches behind him, it didn't have enough time to hone in on Shawn's new direction as it shattered harmlessly against the banana. Once Shawn had corrected his direction and got behind his girlfriend, he deployed the mushroom to push himself into her kart and send them both screeching ahead of the others. The speed boost widened the gap quite a bit, effectively putting them far enough away to ensure they would win before the remaining four.
"Well crap," Leshawna grumbled, looking back to see Scott and Dakota on their tail and her now without an item. "This can't be good."
"Yeah, sorry but you're right." Grinning, Dakota shot her green shell at her opponent. Leshawna braced for impact, only to hear a screech of tires and the sound of a different kart spinning out. Opening her eyes, she saw that Harold had swerved into the shell's path, preventing it from hitting his crush.
"Harold, baby, you alright?"
"I'm fine!" Once he was done spinning out the geek corrected himself and took off. Though he was now solidly at the back of the pack with Dakota and Scott between him and Leshawna. "I've got this, just finish the race."
Nodding, Leshawna focused on making it to the end. By now most from the front of the race had made it past the finish line and planted stickers on the final checkpoint. Shawn and Jasmine were close, and once they did their part it would ensure another victory for their team. By now those that finished were cheering on their teammate, hoping to at least avoid elimination.
"Sorry, dork, but any plans you had to catch up are about to blow up in your face," Scott taunted back at his fellow ginger, grinning wickedly as he prepared to deploy the bomb. Unfortunately for him, the comment gave away too much.
"So you have a bomb for your item, huh?" Harold whispered to himself, a smirk of his own forming. "I can work with that."
Keeping a close eye on Scott's arm, Harold positioned himself behind the former villain. His finger was mere centimeters away from the green shell button, with Dakota and Scott none the wiser as they inched closer and closer to the end. "Almost... almoooooost... now!"
Seeing Scott's arm move towards his screen, Harold acted quick. With his shot lined up perfectly, he sent the green shell careening forward. Scott deployed the bomb, but in what felt like a mere second later, the shell connected with the bomb. With the bomb just barely behind both him and his teammate, the ensuing explosion knocked Scott and Dakota both away. They crashed roughly into one of the vermilion gates, dumping them from their karts and allowing Harold to pass them.
"Booyah! Thanks for the assist with the bomb," he called out, zooming past his opponents while Team Old School cheered from up ahead. While Scott was still dazed and groaning from the impact, Dakota growled in frustration.
"Uggggh, Scott! Why did you have to taunt and let him know you had a bomb?" She chastised her teammate, pushing him away.
"What, you're blaming me for that? How was I supposed to know he could hit the bomb with his own item?" The farmer folded his arms, huffing. "It was a freak accident!"
"Sam would have known better, he's played this game hundreds of times," Dakota shot back, her voice growing louder and angrier.
"Well sorry that I'm not your dang boyfriend." Scott turned his back to his teammate, not noticing as her shadow began to grow drastically. "Seriously, you can't expect everyone to have the same amount of dumb video game knowledge as him. Especially when we're doing it in real life! Like come on, cut me a bre-"
"SHUT. UP." Suddenly, a large orange hand squeezed around Scott and picked him up. He had no time to react as the breath was crushed out of him. Darting his eyes up, he confirmed that he was in the clutch of Dakotazoid now, who looked ahead at the finish like with venom in her eyes. "WE NOT LOSING!"
In a flash, Dakotazoid took off in a full sprint, knocking over many of the red gates as she went. This initially went unnoticed by the others as Jasmine and Shawn had just crossed the finish line and secured their team's victory with their sticker placement.
"And Team Explosive wins... again," Chris announced, ignoring the mix of cheers and groans from the others. "And it looks like Leshawna is up next! Things aren't looking too good for Team Rad... wait, what's causing all that mayhem back there?"
Everyone looked at where the host was pointing, seeing the image of the hulking mutant barreling her way up the mountain at record speeds. Some gasped, while others watched in awe. Leshawna was particularly confused when she crossed the finish line and no one seemed to notice. It was only after she had placed her sticker that she too had seen the cause of their distraction.
"Oh shoot... Harold, watch out!"
Her yell unfortunately went unheard by the geek as the noise of his go kart and the odd rumbling behind him drowned it out. "Finish line is so close I can almost taste it." The rumble became louder and louder, shaking the ground around him. "What the heck is going on back there? They should be out of items."
Harold tried to look back but it was too late, Dakotazoid's massive foot came stomping down on top of him as she had effectively caught up. She didn't even seem to notice that she had stepped on the nerd as she continued sprinting for the finish line. Chris and the others had preemptively dove out of the way to avoid being in Dakotazoid's path. She screeched to a halt across the finish line, finally letting go of Scott. His limbs were mangled in awkward positions, but as luck would have it the arm holding his last sticker was the one facing his team's sign and it barely stuck to the square as his limb body plopped to the ground. Dakota then tried to place her own sticker, though the force from her mutant strength caused the sign to snap in two in the process.
"Yes! We win!" Dakotazoid hopped up and down, fist raised in the air victoriously. Scott could only groan painfully, his body briefly lifting up every time his teammate came back down from her massive jumps.
"Well that was an... abnormal way to finish the race," a dumbfounded Chris finally continued. "But, you can't argue with results! Team Radioactive is safe, Team Old School is sending someone home."
"What? Those two didn't even cross in their go karts," Courtney pointed out, irate. "How is that fair?"
"I never said you HAD to finish in your karts, it just made things a lot easier for you kids." Chris chuckled. "Do you have any idea how long the challenge would have been if you had to walk the whole way? Booooring."
"Oh give me a break, you can take your stupid loopholes and shove them straight up your-"
"Excuse me, but I believe this can wait," Dawn interrupted, suddenly appearing between the arguing host and latina. "I believe the condition of your teammate is the more pressing matter at hand."
Dawn motioned past the other side of the finish line, where Dakota had accidentally stomped on Harold. The mighty step had obliterated the go kart, with bits and pieces of it strewn about the small crater-like hole her foot had left. In the middle of the wreckage was Harold, groaning in agony with his face buried in the dirt and his body bruised up.
"Harold!" Leshawna ran towards her former flame, the rest of their team following close behind. Other contestants looked on in shock, with the most wide eyed being a now reverted Dakota.
"Ugh, my legs! My neck! I think I broke my coccyx! Oh man, it hurts so much."
With each pained sentence from the nerd, more and more eyes of fear turned towards Dakota. All those standing near her gradually scooted away, with the heiress herself having her hand to her mouth as the feeling of dread filled her. The only one who didn't move away was Scott, merely because he currently wasn't in a state to do so.
*** Confessional: Dakota ***
"Crap, crap, crap, CRAP. I was afraid something like this would happen with Dakotazoid." Her face was buried in her hands, and she shook her head in disbelief. "M-maybe it wasn't as bad as it sounded?"
*** Confessional: Harold ***
The dweeb was now in a wheelchair, casts around his legs and a brace surrounding his neck. His left eye was bruised to the point of nearly being closed and an ice pack was being applied to the precious coccyx. "... well this sucks."
*** Confessional: Scott ***
"All I got to say?" the dirt farmer started, lifting up his shirt to show the bruises left on his torso by Dakota's vice-like grip. "Sam, you got WEIRD taste in girls."
*** At the elimination ceremony ***
While there may had still been debates sent Chris' way on the legitimacy of Team Radioactive's safety, at the end of the day it was Team Old School who found themselves at the ceremony. As he was unable to sit in the bleachers, the wheelchair bound Harold merely sat next to them.
"Man, Team Old School, tough break," Chris began in a fake tone of sincerity. "You started out the race so well! Almost even beat Team Explosive to first class. But now here you are, the first team to send a second person home. Twice in a row, no less!"
"I'll have you know I'll be looking into the legitimacy of allowing someone with Dakota's condition to be on one team but not the others," Courtney threatened sternly. "It creates an unfair competitive environment!"
"Yeah, good luck with that." Merely shooting a finger pistol and smirk her way in response, Chris then presented the plate holding six barf bags. "Anyway, may as well get this moving along. Cody, Beth, Leshawna, Trent, and DJ are all safe, since they didn't really do anything to warrant being on the block."
Everyone caught their respective barf bags, no one really celebrating due to the awkwardness of the ceremony. They merely nodded in acknowledgement and looked towards the remaining two without one.
"Harold, you're on the chopping block because you're kinda useless to your team now." He looked down at his wheelchair, sighing in frustration. "And Courtney, you're on the block because you're still kinda a Meanie McBossypants."
"Real mature," she grumbled in contempt.
"But only one of you Killer Bass alumni get to stick around, and that person will be...
.
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... yeah, no use dragging it out too much. It's Courtney."
Chris tossed the final barf bag to the CIT, but to her credit she practiced restraint and didn't celebrate the safety to rub it in. She merely sighed in relief and caught her bag with no comment.
"GOSH! This is even more unfair than how I went out in World Tour," Harold complained, Chef approaching from behind to strap the parachute to him. Once it was on safely he wheeled the ginger over to the open hatch.
"To be fair, you kinda quit that one on your own there, hombre." Noting the annoyed glares sent his way, Chris put his arms up innocently. "But hey, feel free to say your goodbyes and whatnot."
The rest of Team Old School got up to see Harold off, DJ and Beth being the first to give him a hug.
"Sorry things ended up like this for you, Harold," Courtney said, going for a handshake instead. "Even I'll admit you didn't deserve to go out like this."
"I guess that means a lot coming from you, all things considered." He returned the handshake, smiling. "Thanks."
The outsiders of the team stepped aside to allow Trent and Cody to approach their bandmate next. Neither were particularly affectionate, but both were clearly upset over seeing their friend leave. "Man, this really bites," Trent commented. "I really thought the three of us would go far together this season."
"Take it from me, I know how it feels to get screwed over in an elimination like this," Cody added, patting him on the shoulder. "So I know how frustrating it's gotta be. Still, at least you can help Justin with his album when you get back."
"Pfft, you know he never takes my advice." The three shared a laugh, with Harold looking towards the exit to the rest of the plane. "By the way, I let Beardo know about our offer to have him on board earlier. So if you see him around let him know the offer is still there and junk."
"Can do, bud. Take care." Trent gave his friend a playful punch on the shoulder, he and Cody stepping aside to let the final team member talk to him.
"Tch, Harold baby, you gotta stop getting yourself into these messes," Leshawna chided playfully, both chuckling. "And here I was actually looking forward to spending more time with your scrawny behind this season."
"As much as it stinks to disappoint you, I guess I can take solace in knowing I've left you wanting more," he replied coolly, actually managing to get a blush for his troubles. "But yeah, this is probably the biggest thing that sucks about going so early."
"Whadda ya mean?"
Harold looked towards Cody and Trent, who both flashed thumbs up and motioned for him to continue. "Welp, I may as well get this out there before I go. This was gonna be the season where I tried to make things work between us. You're an awesome friend, but I think you'd be an even awesome-er girlfriend."
"Is that right?" she asked, raising an eyebrow with a hand on her hip and a smirk forming.
"We've beaten around this bush for years now," Harold continued. "And I know we're a lot different. Weird guys like me don't usually date radical girls like you, but I've toured all around the world with my band and I can say with certainty that you're the only one that totally rocks my world."
Leshawna was impressed, her blush deepening. "Shoot, Harold, when did you become such a sweet talker?"
*** Confessional: Cody ***
"He practiced. A lot. Pretty much every Tuesday and Friday on the tour bus he'd go over it again. Plus Trent gave him some advice. Justin too, but his pointers were a bit too focused on Justin himself and that didn't really make sense."
*** On the Jumbo Jet ***
"So yeah, I know things ended pretty shortly when we tried this back in season 1, but how about we give this thing a shot for real this time?"
"Shoo. This is a lot to take in all at once, Harold." Leshawna fanned herself, the watchful gazes of the rest of her team not helping calm down the situation. "I don't know what to say."
"Then how about instead of saying anything," Harold replied without missing a beat, "You give daddy some sugar."
Harold leaned forward, eyes closed and lips prepared. Leshawna followed suite, also leaning towards her rekindled flame. It was as the two were mere inches away from a kiss that the click of a button was heard. His eyes shot open and he gasped, quickly pushing her to the ground. "Look out!"
Only just barely pushing Leshawna out of the way in time, she had narrowly avoided the Boot of Shame that swung down and hit Harold square in the face. The impact sent him rolling out of the hatch, plummeting to the ground below.
"Chris, what the heck man?" Trent yelled, everyone on the team wide eyed at the moment being interrupted.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Leshawna added once she had regained realization of the situation, looking ready to give Chris the beatdown of a lifetime. "I was gonna tell him yes!"
"Yeah, and it was all sooooo romantic," the host taunted in a sickeningly sweet voice. "I was like, so swept up in that moment, oh my gosh you guys... buuuuuut now I'm over it!"
Returning to his trademark cocky grin and cool demeanor, Chris patted Leshawna on the shoulder. "But hey, at least he pushed you out of the way so you didn't get the boot with him. A real gentlemen that guy, he's a keeper. Now get to scooting, I got an outro to do."
Everyone, Leshawna especially, still seemed flustered at the whole situation, but they knew there was nothing that could be done. They reluctantly made their way to economy class, leaving Chris and Chef by themselves in the elimination area.
"That WAS pretty wack just blue balling the situation like that," Chef pointed out, though grinning mischievously.
"I know, I have the best timing ever!" Turning to the camera, the host held up the trusty button that allowed the boot to do its thing. "Will I get to ruin any more moments with the Boot? How will Leshawna recover now that her newly found old boyfriend is gone as soon as they were back on? And seriously, can ANYONE stop Team Explosive from steamrolling the competition? Find out the answers to all of this and more, next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"
Voting Confessionals:
Beth awkwardly stamped Harold's passport, frowning. "This kinda feels wrong, but it wouldn't be fair to anyone else if we kept an injured teammate over them anyway. Sorry, Harold."
"It would be pretty hypocritical of me to vote someone off due to injury considering season 1 for me," Cody pointed out, stamping Courtney's passport. "So I won't do that... but yeah, he's pretty much screwed.
"Is it messed up that I'm kinda relieved this happened?" Courtney looked down at Harold's passport awkwardly before giving it a stamp. "I mean, I'm not happy that it happened like this. Even if it was to him, I don't feel like I really won anything this way. Just got stupidly lucky. But I'd probably be going next if the Drama Brothers weren't separated, so I guess this worked out in the end."
"Man, this is all kinds of messed up," DJ noted as he stamped Harold's passport reluctantly. "I mean, I know me and Beth agreed to try and help Courtney even the odds between us and the others, but it feels cheap doing it like this. Oh well, guess that's life."
Harold grunted as he stamped Courtney's passport, rubbing the back of his neck brace after the fact. "Though I may not have steel claws, I do like to think I have a pretty wicked good healing factor. So hopefully my team lets me stick around and walk this one off. Sure I may have jammed up legs, a messed up neck, and also my coccyx. But that's not enough reason to get voted off... right?"
Leshawna looked on at the Harold passport, almost considering voting for it but ultimately deciding on the Courtney one. "Sorry, I know it ain't fair to Courtney since Harold is injured and it makes more sense to vote him off. But I don't got it in me to vote for the string bean. Shoot, am I falling for his weird behind again? Well at least he isn't springing some crazy confession on me for now. That would be pretty awkward in front of everyone."
After looking back and forth between the passports for Harold and Courtney, Trent eventually sighed and stamped the one belonging to his bandmate. "I'm sorry, Harold, but it's only going to injure you worse if you stick around for more challenges in this state. Really sucks too, because I know he was gonna ask out Leshawna again soon. Maybe he'll luck out and everyone else will vote out Courtney instead?"
Votes for Harold: 4 (Beth, Courtney, DJ, Trent)
Votes for Courtney: 3 (Cody, Harold, Leshawna)
After the Boot of Shame:
Harold struggled a bit to deploy the parachute, grunting in pain when he finally got it to go as it agitated his neck. While rubbing it, he looked on at the camera with a wince. "You know, when guys like me say we want monster girls to step on us, I don't think we really take into consideration just how much it'd ACTUALLY hurt. Gosh."
He sighed, leaning back in his wheelchair while the parachute floated him down. "I guess things could have gone worse. I was totally about to score me some sugar before Chris had to go and do a guy dirty like that. What's that guy's problem? Duncan and Gwen kiss and it's good for ratings, but I can't even have mine? Talk about picking favorites."
"Anyway, I'm starting to think me and Japan together is cursed. First Al tricks me into quitting last time, and this time I get taken out by injury due to a kaiju? I can't catch a break here. I guess all I can do is go heal up, maybe hang with Justin, and hope Leshawna is still up for giving things a shot when the season is over. Or if she gets eliminated. Whatever comes first."
With that all said, he finally harmlessly came to a stop on a random Kyoto sidewalk. He removed the parachute with ease, looking around in shock. "Huh, a normal landing with nothing gross or injury inducing waiting for me? Maybe my luck is turning around already!"
Perhaps instantly regretting his jinxing words, he was caught off guard by an ear shattering chorus of screeches. He looked nearby to see the group of Japanese fan girls, now tripled in size. "It's one of the Drama Brothers! Get him!"
"And I spoke too soon. GOSH!" With all his might, Harold furiously wheeled away from the mob, looking on at the camera desperately. "Leshawna, if you're watching I know this may look bad, but call me-" He was unable to finish his sentence as he had to scream and increase his speed to get away from the rabid fan girls now chasing after him.
Remaining Contestants:
Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Leshawna, Trent
Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dakota, Dawn, Lightning, Scott
Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Rodney, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar
Elimination Order:
22nd: Harold
23rd: Izzy
24th: Staci
Author's Note:
I'm sure many of you are shocked. Blindsided even. So yes, we'll start things by addressing the obvious elephant in the room.
Yes... I know it was said I'd be prioritizing new locations but here I am doing a Japan chapter only three locations in. It may seem contradictory, but I'll remind you that I actually said I was prioritizing specifically new locations. Revisiting countries themselves is fine as long as they have a new place to visit. So for example, next chapter will take place in the United States, but you can be assured it won't be Hawaii, New York, Area 51, or Las Vegas. Originally this chapter actually took place in Tokyo, the Japan challenge in World Tour never specified where in the country they were as it took place entirely in the game show studio. But upon consulting the wiki, apparently official word says the challenge WAS in Tokyo despite it never being specified in the episode. So to keep up with my own rules, the locale was changed to Kyoto. Japan was one of those countries I had to revisit, there's no way a weeb like me couldn't do it. Especially since the World Tour episode kinda did Japan dirty by showing no landmarks and having many jokes about them mixing up Japanese and Chinese culture. So you know I had to do it to em.
... oh yeah, I should probably also talk about the whole eliminating my favorite character thing. Yeah, Harold is out. I love the guy, he is quite literally my favorite Total Drama character. Nothing irks me more reading a fan fic than when I catch someone not putting some RESPEC on my man's name. So what gives? Well, the reasoning for eliminating Harold early may seem dumb since it doesn't really have to do anything with this story specifically, but more my past. I've written two main comp fics before and Harold makes it to the final four in both of them. My bias towards the character definitely played a role in that. So needless to say I've given the guy plenty of exposure, hell Underdogs is by a wide margin the most popular story in the fandom with Harold marked as one of the main characters. It was just a matter of, "Harold, I love ya man, but I gotta put the bias aside and give myself a chance to write other characters." Looking at it objectively, Harold could have stuck around. He had his friendships with Cody and Trent, the storyline to finish with Leshawna and potentially other friendships to form like the one teased with Beardo. But they were brought up this chapter as a sort of red herring because it's time for me to bench Harold earlier. I suppose I should note this originally wasn't his placement, he was always going out pre-merge but he originally made it a bit farther, but I ended up swapping his placement with someone else. I'll acknowledge who when we get to that elimination. So yeah, sorry for people who wanted more of him, obviously I can sympathize since he's my favorite character, but this was a personal decision of wanting to spread the love to other characters. He will at least be a vocal and active part of the aftermaths like he was in World Tour.
So a few more notes before we go. This chapter's song, "A Cruel Host's Thesis," was a parody of the infamous Evangelion opening theme. Considering the location this chapter was always going to have an anime theme parody for the song. I did consider doing more recent big name intro themes like the first themes for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or My Hero Academia. I also considered doing a parody of a well known dub theme like the 4kids Pokemon or One Piece openings for the memes. But ultimately it felt the most fitting to use Eva. It's pretty much the definitive anime opening, and is always the one people use when they make joke anime themes for things like Cory in the House, plus it's been referenced in things like Regular Show. I actually Total Drama-ified the entire opening with the song, so by all means feel free to go back to the song with Eva's opening in another tab to compare how I handled that clusterfuck. It was really fun to write and imagining it in my head amused me. Not all songs will parody the actual source video, the Let it Go parody obviously didn't, but sometimes I'll also parody the visuals like I did here.
I don't have much else to talk about. I'll leave the poll up for one more chapter asking people what their early favorite team is. Team Old School is still winning, which is amusing since they're now currently the smallest team. I also was originally going to update my story Total Drama Level Up before this but as I got a quarter of the way done with the chapter I just lost all drive to do it and ultimately came back here to get the creative juices flowing. Hopefully I can finish that chapter now. So for now, feel free to leave more reactions and predictions. Did Harold's elimination surprise you? Who else could be a shock elimination in the pre-merge? Where in America could we be going in the next chapter? Leave me those reviews! Like seriously, please, help a guy out. Those reviews fuel my life force.