Total Drama: Battle of the Generations

by StayOuttaMyShed

After rebuilding the Jumbo Jet, Chris is ready for another tour around the world, this time with competitors from all three generations! Can Scott earn his team's trust? Will Shawn and Jasmine dominate the competition? And the Drama Brothers are back together? It's an all out battle for supremacy!

16. Friday Night CrackDown

Rather than the usual Jet in mid-flight shot that accompanied Chris' narration, this time it started by showing the plane departing from LAX.

"Last time on Total Drama... Los Angeles! Land of the paparazzi and home of the celebs. We let our contestants get a taste of the high class life by putting them on an intense game of hide and seek that spanned the entire city! In theory it was supposed to be everyone for themselves. However, after a nasty blowup between sisters following Cody's elimination, Team Old School and Team Radioactive took advantage of the rising tensions by calling a truce so they could team up and make sure Team Explosive lost. At the forefront of the deal were DJ and Dawn, who spent the entire day getting all comfortable with each other. Steamy as it was, even once Dawn spilled her guts, DJ decided they should take things slow. Smart move on his part or fumbling the ball? You guys be the judge!"

Footage continued to show various events from the challenge, from the captures to the chases. "Despite the best efforts from the likes of Jasmine and Sammy, Team Explosive buckled against the handicap match. The stage was set for the twins to finally have their epic tie breaker with each having three votes to their name. However, in a twist even Amy didn't see coming, Dave went rogue and decided to backstab her after overhearing how she really felt about him. That sealed her fate, crowning Sammy as the last sister standing."

Back at the cockpit, Chris and Chef were both in casual touristy ware, sunglasses, colorful button up shirts, the works. "Now that our mini LA vacay is up, the show must go on! How will the game change in the wake of Amy's elimination? What surprises do I have in store at our next destination? Find out right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Opening Credits ***

For once the episode opened on the contestants a few days after the last elimination rather than immediately after. Their California pit stop over, they loitered around the dinning room, some clad in tourist gear of their own like Sammy with some mouse ears, Leshawna inspecting a replica Oscars statuette, or Lightning sporting a Lakers themed jersey. The mood was jovial and friendly, with a scowling Sugar standing out as the only one brooding among a sea of positivity.

"Why don't they give us these pitstops more often, it's a heck of a morale booster," Brick mused, sipping from a souvenir cup. "Lemme tell ya, it was way more fun actually riding that tram thing instead of running through all the set pieces"

"Speak for yourself, mate, I'll take tangling with that robot shark over sitting there and watching a bunch of crummy 3D screens try and trick me into thinking anything is actually happening." Jasmine shook her head in disappointment. "I swear they made that bloke from the car movies look as big as a helicopter at one point."

"Oh right, that's where he's from." Beardo looked down in deep thought, recounting a hazy memory from the Samoa challenge. "I could have sworn he was familiar from somewhere else..."

"Wish I could have hung with you guys, but it would have been a pain having people come crowding around for an autograph at every ride we went to." Trent shrugged and exchanged a grin with his teammates. "But hey, the beaches were great and the food was choice, no complaints here. Thanks for being my makeshift bodyguards, guys."

DJ chuckled. "Don't mention it, man. And you ain't kidding about the grub, dang was it good to finally have some decent meals to pick from!"

Finally fed up with all the mushy camaraderie, Sugar let out a loud huff. "Not me! I had to get my gosh darn stomach pumped and everything tasted all yucky after that."

"Yeeeeeah, drinking hand sanitizer will do that," Dave quipped. "But at least you cleaned out 99.9 percent of those germs!"

Though the others laughed at his joke, the pageant queen wasn't amused. She locked eyes with her teammate and gave him the most spiteful glower she could muster. He chuckled nervously and quickly turned to talk with Beardo so as to avoid soaking in any more of her stinkeye.

*** Confessional: Sugar ***

"I can't believe it! That darn dirty Dave spins one little tale and he's got the rest of these chumps hootin and hollerin along with him like he ain't been more ornery than a cat in a rainstorm all season." As dumbfounded as she was, Sugar was choosing to channel all that frustration into a determined rage. "Well I ain't gonna let it slide! Maybe I didn't give a hoot if Amy got eliminated or not, but I do got a problem with twiggy boy going turncoat on me and thinking he can just get away with it like it ain't no thang. Fool's gonna get Sugar'd hard, I just gotta find the right time to do it."

*** Literally just outside the confessional ***

As soon as she stepped outside, who else would Sugar bump into but Dave himself. Her brow furrowed even further in annoyance. "Well speak of the two timing devil."

To his credit the germaphobe managed to remain relatively composed, though it was hard not to feel at least a bit unnerved with someone glaring right at him. "Look, I don't have time for this, I just wanted to make a confessional. So if you don't mind-"

Apparently she did mind, since Sugar pinned her arms to the wall on either side of Dave, trapping him between. "You made enough confessionals already! No talking, now's when you listen! You're gonna regret pulling a fast one on us, ya hear?"

Guess there was no avoiding this. Dave gulped and quickly scanned the area to ensure no one else was around to hear them. Still, he'd keep his voice low just in case. "Why are you so mad over it? Amy took the whole fall, not you. I did us a favor, she was a liability and now we can restart the game with a clean slate."

"Don't you try to BS a BSer! You didn't give one hooey about no strategy, you just got pissy because y'all realized Amy took you for a ride. If you didn't overhear her, you'd be wrapped around her finger."

Now it was his turn for his expression to turn sour. He ducked under one of the arms and put some distance between the two of them. "Guess she should have kept her mouth shut then. Why I did it doesn't matter, the point is that it had to be done. I get that you're upset about being blindsided, but it's time to get over it! Keep your head down and don't make any waves and I'm sure you can keep coasting along just fine."

She snorted in defiance and stormed off. "You wish. I'll get you back for this one, sonny, just you wait!"

Once she was gone, Dave rolled his eyes and continued into the bathroom. "Oh no, I'm really shaking in my boots."

While he was venting whatever was on his mind, things were much more upbeat over in first class. DJ, Leshawna, and Trent were all lounging around the bar area, caught up in a friendly debate between munches of delectable brownies.

"Ain't no way B's the one coming back, you know that's cap," Leshawna protested.

"I'm telling you, that guy's craftiness is being slept on," the guitarist defended. "And if Harold is still down for the count with his injury, he might just sneak on by."

"And I'm telling YOU that it'll probably wind up being Dakota or Shawn. One's got strength for days, the other's got all them crazy survival skills."

DJ chuckled and shook his head. "How do you guys know we'll even have a returnee? The cast was big from the start, they don't really need one."

"It's tradition at this point, easy guaranteed ratings boost and they can always toss in more double eliminations if they need it," Trent pointed out. "Pretty much every season has had at least one, I think All Stars is the only one that didn't."

"Well this is pretty much just All Stars 2, isn't it?" the gentle giant pondered. His lady teammate stifled a laugh.

"More like Some Stars. I mean come on, they were out here putting first boots like Staci and Beardo on the cast." Unseen by her, Trent frowned a bit at the beatboxer being mentioned. "World Tour 2 sure, but All Stars? That's a stretch."

"Now now, let's give the guy credit. Beardo's doing better for himself this season than you and me did last time we played. He ain't no Ezekiel at least." DJ held up a glass of sparkling cider. "But no one's going to beat us again. Team Old School for life!"

Leshawna was quick to return the toast, with Trent joining in as he shook himself back into awareness. Elsewhere, Economy class was bustling with activity. Sammy and Jasmine could freely chat without any jeers from the former's sister to worry about, Beardo had found himself a nice secluded corner to practice some new beats he'd been cooking up. Even Team Radioactive was in high spirits despite no longer occupying first class.

"You shoulda seen it, Scary Girl! Lightning was flipping through the air like some kinda graceful air dolphin! I nailed that perfect landing and scored the shot before nice twin even knew what was happening." The jock sighed in satisfaction. "It was downright beautiful!"

"I'm sure things were pretty tense on her end too," Brick offered. "DJ must have had a heck of a hiding spot to outlast you!"

Anne Maria snort laughed, looking up from her nail filing. "Yeah, sure, a good hiding spot. As if homegirl here didn't let herself get caught as soon as Sammy was out so she could butter him up with first class."

Dawn kept a stoic expression despite her cheeks subtly turning a shade of red. "I have no idea what you're referring to, I simply got found moments before he did." Was her team convinced? Absolutely not. But hey, they didn't seem mad, so that's an upside.

*** Confessional: Dawn ***

"Obviously there's a selfish side of me that would have liked things to go different when I let DJ know how I feel. But it certainly could have gone much worse, so I won't question Mother Earth's plans for me." She stared at the passing clouds, mind running through different thoughts. "But now that it's done and I've let my feelings be known, I'll let DJ decide what he wants to do. For now, it's time I focus more attention to the game at hand. For example, as much as I adore Brick's genuine kindheartedness, it's clear that the bond he's forming with Lightning may soon become too formidable to overcome. Perhaps the first step is to make friendly with Anne Maria. Though I can't help but shake the feeling that something unexpected is rapidly approaching us..."

*** The Next Day ***

Sometime later, the contestants were having their standard breakfast, mingling in the dinning area. Everyone had gone back to sitting at their respective team's tables, though that didn't stop those who wanted to converse with people from the other teams from doing so. DJ and Dawn were happily recounting their experiences from the previous challenge, while Anne Maria chatted with Sammy about makeup tips. Overall the vibe was pretty nice, would be a shame if anyone barged in to put them on edge.

On cue, Chef waltzed into the room with a guitar and an intern on both of his sides. One wielded a trumpet and the other a violin. All three were dressed in the standard black and gold mariachi outfits. At the cook's command, the trio errupted into a very loud, very bombastic rendition of El Jarabe Tapatío. If you don't know that song by name don't worry, it's almost certainly exactly the tune you think it is.

This also meant it was Chris' turn to emerge, shimmying his way from behind Chef while shaking maracas. He had on a comically large sombrero, a clearly fake scruffy mustache, some western style cowboy boots. He even had on a poncho of red, green, and yellow hues.

"Órale, amigos," he bellowed in the most scuffed Mexican accent you've ever heard. "Quien esta lista para un muy bien fiesta?"

Everyone stared in disbelief, some scrunching their face in disapproval, others shaking their heads.

"Is this the most racist one yet?" Sammy asked.

"I think it's the most racist one yet," Trent confirmed.

"Bro is so getting canceled on Tweeter dot com," Anne Maria added.

Even Chef seemed to be looking conflicted, leaning over to whisper at his co-host. "I don't know man, this bit does feel a little over the top. You sure we're all clear to be doing this?"

"For sure dude, don't worry about it." He patted the larger man on the shoulder. "The author's half Mexican, so we can get away with it."

"Huh?"

"The head of network's half Mexican, he said we can get away with it."

"Oh."

With the hat dance finished, Chef stomped off to attend to something else. Chris smiled through his fake moustache, not bothering to acknowledge any of the other's reactions. "As you've probably gathered by now, today we'll be going to Mexico! Specifically its capital, the very cleverly named Mexico City. Now I'm sure you must be wondering what kind of challenge will be in store for you there. Having to put on a mariachi performance of your own? Eating deliciously spicy food? Creating Day of the Dead decorations? Maybe-"

Sammy looked off behind him and raised an eyebrow. "Breaking open piñatas?"

"Nice guess, but no. All of those would be wrong, instead-" Suddenly he noticed what the others were looking at. Chef returning with two oversized piñatas, one blue and the other green. "Uh, dude? Where'd you get those?"

"They were back there with the mariachi getups." He jutted a thumb towards the hallway and shrugged. "Had a note on it that said you'd want to smash em open ASAP."

He handed Chris a wooden bat, but the host was more confused than anything. His reaction wasn't lost on the others, now further intrigued at what could be inside. Making things even more mysterious was when the blue piñata started shaking.

"There wasn't supposed to be one of these to bust open until we made it to the challenge site..." Cautiously, McLean approached the paper-mache containers, poking at the blue one with his bat. Once the shaking ceased he charged up for a swing... only for it to explode on its own. It was Izzy, having punched her way out, giving Chris and Chef one hell of a startle.

"Surprise," she cackled, grinning innocently at the host. "Come on Chris, everyone knows you're supposed to hit these way harder than that if you wanna get to the candy inside! Sorry about eating it all by the way, a girl gets hungry being cooped up in that thing for so long!"

Chris stared in disbelief for a moment. "Where the heck did you even come from?!"

"Well from what I'm told it was an action filled night in Ottawa, and my dad spotted a smoking hot dame across the way in a bar-"

"No Izzy, I meant why are you here on the plane?"

She blinked a few times in realization. "Oooooh, gotcha. Because of the second chance challenge, obviously! You should have known about that happening, surely."

"Uh yeah, but we took off as soon as I got the call about it being done." Chris motioned towards the windows. "We've been in the air since then, the piñata was supposed to be waiting for us down in Mexico!"

"I got bored of waiting." Izzy shrugged.

That just raised further questions if anything, but Trent butted in before anyone could dwell on them. The relief in his expression was apparent. "So wait, this means she's back in the game? We're back to four members?"

Chris opened his mouth to respond, but got distracted when the green piñata also began to shake. "Hold on. If you were in the blue one... then what's up with second?"

On cue the green container also exploded, with none other than Jo falling alongside a pile of candy. Seems she hadn't anticipated the dynamic entrance in the way Izzy had, so she quickly had to pick herself up. "Would it have killed you to make those things a bit bigger? I damn near suffocated being cooped up like th... wait, am I on the plane? How the fu-"

"Jo?" the members of Team Radioactive yelled out simultaneously.

"What the- There was only supposed to be one winner of the second chance thing," the host protested, his confusion turning to frustration. "Why are YOU here?"

"Same as her, kicked too much butt in that dumb challenge and they just let both of us come back when they ran out of time." She dumped out the last bit of candy hiding in her pockets and cracked her back. "Guess they didn't think you were important enough to get the memo, McLame."

"Hold up, she wasn't even PART of this season when it started," Lightning pointed out. "She can't just join halfway through, can she?"

Chris sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I told them it was fine to let any Aftermath guests be eligible since it'd be good for ratings, but I explicitly also said that there was just supposed to be one winner! Ugh, I need to have a word with the producers."

"But yeah, if they both got the pass from it, they're both back in the competition," Chef confirmed.

Team Radioactive went through a wide spectrum of reactions. Brick gulped and lost his previously excited attitude from earlier, Lightning was visibly annoyed, Anne Maria actually smirked over the idea of a potential new teammate. And of course, Dawn was mostly neutral.

"Hey, no fair, how come both of them get someone back but we don't?" Sugar yelled. "At least give us the wizard or somethin!"

"Who said anything about Izzy and Jo joining you guys?" Chris folded his arms in a huff. "They're on their own."

Everyone gasped, though the psycho hose beast's was more out of excitement than anything. "A super tight team of two? Coolio! I've actually been thinking over some names in case he decided to switch up the teams when we got added. Since we're both some kick butt women, how about something like The Dominate Mothers! They could call us Dommy Mommies for short."

Jo's eyes went wide. "Good God please tell me I don't have to go along with that."

"You don't. Because neither of you are going to be part of ANY team." In case some of the others hadn't realized it yet, he surveyed the crowd and grinned mischievously. "In fact, as of right now, NO ONE is on a team anymore! Welcome to the merge, people!"

Soon enough the room erupted into cheers. Even the crankier or more on edge contestants couldn't help but pop off over news of reaching the milestone. Sammy and Jasmine embraced, DJ and Dawn exchanged smiles, Trent and Anne Maria especially looked incredibly relieved and excited. Obvious next boots who? They don't know her. Of special note was Beardo, who was holding his head in disbelief and making heart monitor beeps.

"The merge? I made it... TO THE MERGE?" And just like that, the heart monitor sound turned to a flatline as he fell backwards.

"Yes yes, congratulations, now it's everyone for themselves, blah blah blah. You guys feel free to celebrate or whatever until we land." McLean glared at one intern, then the other. "In the meantime, you get the producers on the line so I can have a chat with them. And you, figure out some ideas on how we change up the schedule to accommodate having a tagalong."

He stormed off towards the cockpit, Chef trailing behind and offering a reassuring shoulder rub. A few more high fives and fist pumps later and it was time for a series of confessionals.

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"Talk about some lucky timing. Even IF Izzy had just been added to our team there was a decent enough chance I still would have been the next one targeted anyway. Now I pretty much get a fresh start! Time to scope out the other teams and see who I can pick up as an ally."

*** Confessional: Jo ***

"What, you think throwing us straight to the sharks with no team makes things more difficult for me? As if! If anything, this just makes it better. Now I don't have to worry about any weak links holding me back, or having to pull anyone's weight for them. I see this as an absolute win."

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"Obviously I'm pumped to make it here, but I don't think it's fully sunk in yet that this is really the merge. Probably because there's as much as us now as there was at the start of our last season. No complaints here, though. Now that Amy's gone, I can tackle this without any baggage to worry about!"

*** Confessional: Izzy ***

"Aw man. And the Dommy Mommies would have been such an unstoppable team..."

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

With the plane landing soon, many were hopping into action to establish some merged bonds early before the challenge was here to distract them. DJ and Leshawna could be seen in one hallway solidifying their partnership for the coming events, in another room Jasmine and Sammy listened as Dave brainstormed what they should do next. And one such man on a mission was Beardo, mumbling metal detector beeps to himself and intensifying them once he spotted his target.

"Yo, Trent! You got a minute?"

The musician looked up from his guitar, conflicted. "Er, I guess so. What's up?"

"Look, I know you might not still fully trust me after what went down with Cody. But when I looked the other way in the last challenge, that wasn't the only thing I wanted to do to try and make up for it." He darted his eyes around, making sure there were no eavesdroppers. "Since I helped screw you out of an ally, I wanna offer giving you a new one. I think we should team up."

Trent blinked in surprise. Sure, he wanted to scope out some allies now that the merge was here, but he didn't expect to be approached with an offer so quickly. But the fact that it was Beardo made him cautious. "Dude, I want to trust that you were tricked just the same as me and all, but you've gotta understand that I'm still not fully sold. How do I know this won't just be a setup for a betrayal down the line?"

Beardo's shoulders slumped. He'd been kind of banking on the guy just going along with it immediately. "Er, I guess you just gotta let me prove myself? I helped make sure Amy got voted off after all. The way I see it, we could even try to finish the payback by voting Sugar out next! But if you'd rather do something else, I'm down. I just want you to know I got your back."

Hmm, well surely there was no harm in at least giving him a try? Worst case scenario, Trent could just try and get him voted off. Best case scenario, he finally gets an ally after being in the danger zone for so long. "Alright, I guess I'd be pretty stupid to turn down a free vote on my side. And don't worry about me wanting to do anything else, as far as I'm concerned Sugar is just as in need of paying as Amy was."

"Heck yeah!" The bigger guy pumped his fist and let out a celebratory victory fanfare. "I ain't gonna let you down."

Speaking of alliances being established, or in this case reaffirmed, Brick was wrapping up showing Lightning a secret handshake he had learned from his buddies in basic training.

"Then we tap elbows like so, go in for a chest bump," the cadet walked him through, demonstrating each action. "And finish with a salute!"

To his credit the uber athlete returned the gestures, though he was clearly perplexed. "Man, ain't that a lot to remember for a dang handshake? Why not a sha-fist bump and be done with it?"

"If we just did that, it wouldn't be a secret handshake! It's gotta be something special, ya know? I mean look at us, we've made it to the merge and we're gonna keep working together as a platoon all the way to the finale. I'd say that's worth investing in something more unique."

Suddenly a hearty laughter rang out from behind him and an arm slid over Brick's shoulder. He stood at attention, sweating bullets.

"Finale? It's a wonder you doofuses didn't manage to get yourselves eliminated before Staci." Jo pulled her fellow Gen 2 alumni closer, reveling in his flustered reaction. "Only reason you two might make it far now is because no one wants to waste an elimination on you."

Lightning scoffed and pulled Brick away from her. "Sha-please, we ain't in the business of taking lip from the chick who got a free merge pass without doing anything. Ain't nobody invited you to be here!"

"Didn't need an invite, Lame-ning, I won my way on to the cast myself. Isn't my fault the competition was lacking." She leered at the duo, perhaps sizing them up or maybe just enjoying messing with them. "And what, am I supposed to be scared with THIS as what I have to go through now? Money's good as mine, as far as I'm concerned."

Brick was finally able to compose himself and stood firm. "I don't appreciate the way you're underselling us, ma'am. I'll have you know that I've led my squadron well this season! And now that Lightning's been shown the value of teamwork, he's even more of a force to be reckoned with than ever!"

"In other words you've made him go soft," she heckled, getting a glare from the jock. "Plus that makes you, what, his manager? Sounds like the only thing you're captain of right now is Captain of the Second Bananas."

"Tch, man is there a point to this or are you just trippin?" a fed up Lightning demanded. "You trying to convince us we need you in the alliance or something? Because Lightning don't know if he's down for a Team Dude reunion."

And now Brick was back to being hesitant. Memories of his time sharing a team with Jo came flooding back and they weren't exactly all pleasant. "I suppose if your intentions are genuine we could at least consider it, but-"

"Ha! You guys WISH I wanted to buddy up with this Bozo Brigade. I just had to see for myself how far you guys sunk since the last time I saw you." She brushed past the duo, ignoring their narrowed eyes. "Have fun with your little alliance, I've got bigger fish to catch."

Both boys exchanged an annoyed glance and tried to pretend like the interaction didn't happen. Rounding out the ROTI crew, Anne Maria was in the next room over. She was making herself discreet and kept an eye on Leshawna. Just had to wait for DJ to leave, probably to go talk with Dawn or something, and she could finally move in to strike up an-

"Yo, tan in a can! Just the girl I wanted to see."

The Jersey Girl flinched and tried to play it off like she had just been minding her own business, filing her nails and such. "Oh yeah? What's up?"

Once again the culprit, Jo popped a squat next to her. "I'll cut to the chase. Couldn't help but notice you seem to be doing the whole lone wolf thing. That whole under the radar schtick may have got you by up to now, but in the merge? That ain't gonna fly. But guess what, it's your lucky day! I'm in the market for a partner I can trust to not be a weak little liability, and you fit the bill."

Anne Maria continued to file her nails, smirking in amusement. "Lemme guess, you didn't want to be the third wheel with Brick and Lightning, didja?"

Her cocky smirk faltered, but Jo managed to keep her cool. "Those dweebs? Please. Sure they've got muscle, but Brick-for-brains is a coward, and Jockstrap's stupid enough to flunk out of daycare. You're legit my first choice for an ally, I'm low on people here I actually know and I've never trusted Pixie Chick's weirdness."

"Hmph, well at least someone around here has some taste in who to work with." Still, this wasn't the original plan the beautician had been thinking up. But hey, this was her first time in the merge. Looks like she'd just have to learn to be flexible. "If you wanna work together, I ain't gonna say no."

*** Confessional: Anne Maria ***

"Ugh, finally. It's about time I started getting some of the respect I deserve! I'm way too hot and important to still be feeling like I'm in danger of getting kicked out." After applying a fresh coat, she tapped the spray tan bottle against her lip in contemplation. "I guess I can work with this. See, I've been planning to ask Leshawna to buddy up. If I'm gonna finally get an ally, it may as well be another classy lady with style, yeah? But it looks like she's in cozy with DJ. So hey, if I can finesse my way into a team up, then I got TWO allies! Then add Jo to that? Betta than what it's been like for me so far."

*** In the streets of Mexico City ***

Soon enough the plane had landed, flying over various city landmarks like the Palace of Fine Arts or the Angel of Independence. Chris and Chef led the line of contestants through the busy streets, everyone staying close together while taking in the views. With the time needing to be passed, a curious Leshawna drifted towards one of the returnees.

"Say Izzy, you and her had to win your way back in on the aftermath, right?" She motioned her head towards Jo. "Same as what they tried back in World Tour?"

"Eeyup! Everyone that got kicked off, the hosts, and the guests all got a chance to qualify. That's how Jonsey back there got in too!"

"Call me that again and it's on sight," the jockette warned.

Leshawna chuckled and quickly changed the subject. "So how much of the show have you been allowed to watch? Everything, or did they just have you all keeled up in some apartments with no TV access?"

"Naaah, I got to see it all! Harold's gnarly injury, Dakota nearly killing her team, Rodney quitting through the power of being down bad. Never a dull moment with you guys!"

A few of the contestants tensed up at the idea of these two having bonus information the rest of them didn't, but it seemed no one wanted to push that matter. For now at least. After a bit more silence and a lot more walking, others were getting antsy.

"You never did tell us what we were gonna be doing," Jasmine pointed out. "What's the plan? Doesn't feel like you're leading us to any of the really significant landmarks."

"Who's to say which landmarks are or are not significant? I had you guys do the county fair challenge in a random park in front of a monument that didn't even belong to that country!" Chris chuckled to himself. "But if you must know, we're heading to one of the city's finest indoor arenas. And it's called... Arena México. They really cut to the chase naming things around here, eh?"

"An arena?" DJ took notice of a certain uber jock immediately perking up. "So it's gonna be a sports challenge?"

The host shrugged. "Eh, kinda? Adjacent to it at least. Let's call it sports entertainment."

"Heck's that supposed to mean?" Leshawna asked. "It's either sports or it ain't."

Chef grunted in frustration. "Use your gosh darn noggins! Something that's kind of a sport but not really? The fact that we're in Mexico so it must be important to the place? One of you must be able to connect the dots."

Izzy gasped dramatically as the realization hit her. But just as it did, they had arrived at the arena and Chris threw the doors open. Once they entered the main room, they'd walk down the aisles, hundreds of chairs lining the way, leading them to what waited in the center. A extra large four sided canvas, ropes, steel chairs, turnbuckles. It wasn't a boxing ring, but instead a-

"It's a wrestling challenge," the wildcard finally exclaimed.

"Professional wrestling to be more specific," Chris clarified.

Indeed, it was a wrestling ring waiting for them in the middle of the arena. Though it was notably about twice the size of the kind you'd see at a standard event. Even the ring ropes seemed particularly thick and reinforced. Reactions were mixed among the contestants, with Dave the first to voice the typical reaction you'd expect.

"Pro wrestling? Really? You know that stuff is fake, right?"

Before the hosts could retort, Lightning beat them to the punch. "Scripted, yeah. But they still gotta train, take crazy bumps, all sorts of stuff."

Dawn raised an eyebrow. "Oh, are you a fan? I would have thought the lack of actual competition wouldn't qualify as part of your interests."

He shrugged. "Sports entertainment is still sports related. Which means it's got Lightning interested! And it ain't just their training that's cool to study. They got some pretty insane injuries that go down in the ring. This one time a big dude jumped off the ropes to do a kick, landed wrong, and wound up snapping his leg in half!"

Many of his fellow competitors winced or recoiled in disgust. Naturally, it only served to further amuse Chris.

"Fun, right? The workers willingly beat themselves up for half the pay and none of the respect as athletes from a normal sport, storylines are weaved from a mix of comic books and soap operas, bosses get to pick and choose whoever they want to win and lose, leading to an industry full of corruption, controversy, and drama. Oddly enough, it's a business that's always appealed to me. Not sure why." He noticed his co-host giving him an odd look. "What?"

Chef shook his head. "Anyway, the challenge itself is pretty simple on paper. Y'all are gonna be doing a battle royal style match. Ya get in the ring and the only way to be eliminated is going over the top rope and both feet hitting the floor. Whoever's the last one standing wins."

"But of course we can't just let it be as simple as putting all 14 of you in the ring at once to have at it. We've gotta make things interesting," Chris continued. "So the match itself is only part two of the challenge. To explain part one, we need to bring out... our special surprise guest. A former contestant who's well versed with fighting!"

Suddenly loud stomps echoed throughout the arena, the floor vibrating which each heavy impact. Coming from around the ring was a shadowy figure that caused chairs to shake and nearly fall over. The others looked around in confusion, minds racing as they wondered who this could possibly be. Perhaps Eva? An angry Dakotazoid? Owen after one meal too many? Eventually the mystery person finally stepped into the spotlight, revealing... a red and yellow metal suit much in the style of a popular comic book hero. The chest of the armor popped open, revealing a scrawny bespectacled black guy piloting the whole thing.

"What the- you hyped up someone who knows how to fight only to give us Urkel?" Sugar protested. "How's a runt like that supposed to be relevant to wrasslin?"

"Cameron! Nice to see an actual friendly face from our cast show up," Brick added, though equally as confused. "But uh, yeah I don't think I get it. Wouldn't bringing him in as a guest make more sense for an academic challenge?"

"Not in this case." Chris walked over to the Iron Cam suit, patting it hard on the back and accidently knocking Cameron out in the process. "You guys remember the finale to season 4? Cameron squared off against Lightning in the ultimate battle of brains vs brawn. That challenge was essentially an extreme rules wrestling match where the winner had to pin their opponent for the three count. Ordinarily poindexter over here should have had no shot at winning. However, thanks to whipping up some nifty power armor like the one you see here, he could hold his own!"

Lightning seemed disgruntled at the hamulating battle being brought up. "Tch, whatever. If it was a normal fight I totally would have had it WON in three seconds!"

"Darn right," Chef barked. "And take a look around. We got skinny dorks, ripped athletes, chubby people, and everything in between. A normal wrestling match would mean some of you wouldn't have a chance at winning. And that would make for a boring watch! That's where this kid comes in."

"Guess that's my cue," Cameron grumbled as he picked himself up, wiping away any glasses smudges with a rag. "You see, the power armor I made way back then was rudimentary at best. In my defense, I only had a pile of garbage to work with. But still, it was in dire need of improvement. So once I got home, I started making upgrades! At some point I wound up getting a fairly lucrative job offer from a robotics company after they saw my work on TV. These days I've gone beyond just adding upgrades to it. I've also been hard at work designing versions of my suit that could be used by people with motor issues, missing limbs, so on and so forth."

Beardo whistled. "Well with that kinda tech it'd probably cost them an arm and a leg." He did a rimshot sound effect, looking around at the others in hopes of a laugh. Instead they shook their heads in disapproval.

"Poor taste, man, poor taste," Trent scolded.

This was all well and good, but Chris needed to get things back on track for the challenge. "Which brings us to why he's here. Cam's tech is in need to testing to see what kind of abuse and damage it can withstand, and I was in need of a way to put you dudes on an even playing field so this match can be more interesting. The solution? I offer you guys up as crash test dummies!"

"In other words, I'll be providing suits for you all to use, " Cameron clarified. "The nanotech will allow the suit to fit all of you, but with the material being consistent across everyone it'll mean you all output the same amount of strength. Making for a more evenly matched fight."

"Guess that explains why the ring's so big," Leshawna observed. "Harder to fit a bunch of heavy metal suits inside than it'd be with just us like normal."

The host shot a finger pistol and nodded. "Correctamundo! So with that all established, part one of the challenge will be allowing you guys to customize your suits to create a wrestling persona. Any of you remember the make your own superhero challenge from season two? Think of this as a successor to that. Paint, capes, tights, and whatever else you may want will be provided so you can create something that would get the crowd cheering. After time's up, me, Chef, and Cameron will judge your characters."

"And you don't wanna slack on this part," his co-host warned. "Because it'll decide what order you compete in part two. The two people we think dropped the ball hardest will start the match. After one minute passes, the next suckiest person gets sent out. Then the next one a minute later. Y'all get the idea from there. Whoever does the best in part one gets to come out last. You already know the rest, last person standing in the match itself wins immunity."

Chris let all the explanation process for a minute in silence. Some of the contestants looked lost, others intimidated, a few even excited.

"I know, it's a lot to take in. That's the beauty of the merge, people! Some of these challenges are gonna be big and beefy. But hey, maybe you guys need something to get your heads in the game so you can tackle your designing a bit easier. I've got just the thing!"

*DING DING DING*

Groans filled the arena, not the least of which rang from Jo. Excited as she was to compete, the whole forced singing stipulation had slipped her mind until now.

"Give me a break, why don't you just cut the namby pamby singing crap now that we're in the merge? Wouldn't you rather spend the screentime on something people actually WANT to see? Listening to the singing is just a bunch of cringe."

Various others piped up to voice their agreement, much to their host's amusement.

"You know what? Just because you guys are so worried about making the song cringe, let's go ahead and double down by making it a rap! You're welcome."

In a chorus of whines and complaints, one small cheer stood out and all eyes turned to glare at Beardo. "Heh, well I mean, SOMEONE'S gotta be the one happy to rap, right?"

---

Song Start!

"Merge Mixtape." Parody of "The Time Is Now," by John Cena ft. Tha Trademarc

[A dramatic, bombastic hip hop tune introed the theme as spotlights flickered over various competitors posing against a concrete wall while pretending to look tough. They snarled at the camera, cracked their knuckles, the works. As the music quickly intensified in volume, shots of Sugar and Jasmine glaring were accompanied by a nearly incomprehensible yell that sounded vaguely like "Brrrrr apple dough!", followed by loud horns. Fun fact, it's just a combination of the intro to "Ante Up," by M.O.P. and "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," by Vicki Lawrence. Brick and Lightning emerged from the shadows, both clad in baseball caps and gold chains, spitting the chorus in unison.]

"Playtime is up, it gets real now. The gloves came off, the merge is now!"

[Next it showed Sammy and Jasmine, standing back to back with hoodies draped over their heads.]

"Stakes just raised, it's a whole new game now. So get ready, the merge is now!"

[As the girls finished the chorus, the perspective switched to Beardo bathing in the spotlight. His usual attire was switched out for a blue and white jersey, with a matching baseball cap turned sideways just poking out of his afro. He grabbed a mic from out of nowhere and got ready to lay down some fire.]

"It ain't a fluke or a mistake. This first boot's still wide awake. Proving doubters wrong, knock em flat like a pancake."

[To prove his point he held his eyelids open, then for the next line did a few punches toward the screen.]

"No stop now, outlastin' your favs, feel the pain. Y'all gonna remember my name. Cut Beardo the check, get him paid."

[Beardo allowed his tone to get cockier as he got into the flow, miming as if he was filling out a check and making the finger rubbing money gesture. In stark contrast the shot then changed to Brick, saluting towards the camera.]

"This soldier? Call him a star how he's shining. Want a duo that can't stop? Brick McArthur and Lightning!"

[Why yes he got that pair of lines because the original contained both the words 'soldier' and 'lightning,' how could you tell? Brick stomped off to the side until he reached the ally in question. He gestured towards the uber jock, then fist bumped to pass off the singing.]

"Gonna keep sha-racking up wins, just simple as that. Some fool steps up to me and it's already wrapped."

[Though Lightning was the one singing, both boys were flexing and seemingly hyping the other up to emphasize how unstoppable they were. He was practically still in the middle of his line when Izzy immediately cut in to follow it up.]

"Down to the mat, loss position. Inform my competition, made it my mission to fold them into submission."

[Some poor intern had gotten in the way while she was spitting her bars, and before he knew it blud was getting twisted into a pretzel shape. He tapped on the floor furiously in an attempt to break the submission to no avail.]

"No dead weight, to spit all her hate. I know that I'm great, Me and the win has a date."

[Sammy was singing next, kicking a cardboard cutout of her sister away and stomping it for good measure.]

"Don't feel no pressure, your boy got better, DJ's no flop. Every day closer to tasting that cheddar."

[Missing the point entirely of trying to look intimidating, DJ was sporting mouse ears and a tail, pointing enthusiastically to a comically large hunk of cheese.]

"First I loved, then I lost. Must not meant to be. Now my mind's on the prize, loverboy's free."

[Dave clearly wasn't all that hung up at all about the Amy thing, but he had to keep the façade up even while singing. He motioned like his heart had broken and was about to collapse, only to stop himself from falling and rising up triumphantly while finishing the verse. The returning "apple dough" soundbite transitioned back to the chorus.]

"Playtime is up, it gets real now. The gloves came off, the merge is now!"

[DJ and Dawn sung the first line of the chorus together, seemingly gazing into each other's eyes before promptly turning away with their game faces on. Victory was more important right now!]

"Cash on the menu and we're starvin now. We're here to slay, the merge is now!"

[Beardo and Trent were the ones serving up that line, the former holding up a fork and knife while the later mimed like he was making it rain on the plate in front of them. But really guys, "here to slay" as a line in a Total Drama song? That'll never work.]

"Yeah. Uh. From arenas to your TV. Your boy's gonan keep singing, till the check clears easy. Yuh."

[Clearly out of his element with this genre, Trent was giving it his best. While rapping he held his guitar over his shoulder, brandishing it as if it were a baseball bat.]

"We struggle in a game that's so wack. Yet I still rep Mother Earth and I'm on the attack."

[Somehow looking more awkward here than Trent was Dawn, just sort of awkwardly swaying and darting her eyes around as she suffered through her lines of the verse.]

"Listen up, peep this, Sugar Silo! The queen of Craptry's mad, and raring to punch a fool square in their dumb nose."

[Bursting on to the scene and decidedly not awkward at all in comparison was Sugar. She was rocking her iconic Sugar Silo getup and stomped around with authority while spitting her bars.]

"Y'all a bunch of squawking dodos, I'M a rhino! I don't stop, you'll get got, take you out back like ol' yellow!"

[Dave had started to step into a spotlight like he was about to rap another line, only for Sugar to violently push him aside and continue her part instead. She flapped her arms like a bird when mentioning dodos, charged at the camera with a pointed finger for rhino, and finally did a gun cocking motion for emphasis on the Old Yeller bit.]

"This robbed queen is coming back for the crown. The only one who's servin, screw all the others, they're going down."

[Mercifully sparing the viewing world from her infamous dancing, Leshawna's rap saw her snatching a crown from off screen and literally cooking up some fire on a skillet at the mention of serving.]

"No diamond in sight temptin me outta the game. I'll put all these bozos to shame. Pay up already, bring me the fame."

[After shattering the cubic zirconia stone that previously caused her to quit, Anne Maria lathered on a fresh coat of hairspray before diving into a pool of cash Scrooge McDuck style.]

"My mind's been clouded in anger and spite. Gonna quit barking and show off my bite."

[Jasmine showed off that she really did have that dog in her waiting to be unleashed. Or in this case, that dog next to her, posing next to a vicious pitbull only to scare it off with her own snarl.]

"This whole singing schtick sucks, and you all sound like ass. But for now I'll deal, and take you dorks to class!"

[Jo very reluctantly finished off the verse, scolding a few of her fellow competitors and getting hurt reactions from the likes of Sammy and Trent. She then pushed them into suddenly appearing school desks and thwacked a ruler against a chalkboard that read out "Jo Equals Money." Another call of the "apple dough" soundbite and the chorus could return.]

"Playtime is up, it gets real now. The gloves came off, the merge is now!"

[Speaking of Jo, her and Izzy sang the first line together. The wildcard's happy grin contrasted greatly with her partner's teeth clenched aversion.]

"Yeah the song's done, but the fight's on now. We stay busy, the merge is now!

[Next up was Leshawna and Anne Maria's turn to duet a bar, sort of giving off the impression they were trying to get something out off the top of their head so the song could wrap up.]

"Playtime is up, it gets real now. The gloves came off, the merge is now!"

[The final two in need of pairing up for a line in the chorus, Sugar and Dave glared at one another and squared up like they were about to throw hands.]

"Stakes just raised, it's a whole new game now. So get ready, the merge is now!"

[But before any fists could fly, it was time for the final line of the chorus. With everyone having taken an individual turn, this time everyone sung in unison, with the Team Explosive rivals giving each other uneasy looks. The trumpet played in a background for a bit to finally close out the song.]

---

Sometime later, everyone was hard at work in the arena's backstage area. Most were working individually since the everyone for themselves portion of the game was now in effect, though it was clear some were sticking close to their allies for any advice. Jasmine helped Sammy choose between two different colors of tights, Brick helped Lighting fashion some chain mail to the head of his armor. Leshawna wasn't far from DJ, but was giving him plenty of space. Didn't want any of the others catching on that they were working together to paint them as early targets. Best to lay low and not talk to any-

"Hey Leshawna," Izzy suddenly called out, power armor dragging alongside her. "Are you putting hair on your mech?"

Indeed, her suit had been given a rather long wig that Leshawna had been hard at work braiding before being interrupted. There was probably no harm in talking to Izzy at least, right? She hadn't been back long enough for anyone else to get the wrong idea about allegiances. "Mhm, I'm gonna put it up in one big thick braid so it can be swung around like a weapon. Probably wouldn't do squat against the metal, but it's all part of the character I'm going for."

"Smart thinking! Giving yourself a signature weapon is a surefire way to get a bit of notoriety going. Maybe they'll let you use it on Chef to sell how dangerous it is!"

Yeah, she doubted that. As the crazy girl started to ramble a bit on the dos and don'ts for a wrestling gimmick, Leshawna took a peek at how her armor was coming along. It had face paint, a cape, boots. Seemed pretty far along, as if she knew what to be looking for with the designing. "Don't mean to interrupt, but I've been on four seasons with you now and this is the first time I've heard you talk about wrestling. If you're such a fan, how come you ain't ever mentioned it?"

Izzy darted her eyes around and leaned in close for a whisper. "You didn't hear this from me, but I actually moonlight as a masked wrestler down in Puerto Rico. They call me La Águila Loca. Couldn't risk exposing the business and letting my identity slip, ya know?"

"... right. Makes sense." Did she believe it? Not really. But she knew enough crazy truths about the girl that she couldn't fully rule it out as impossible. "So did you just come to chat, or..."

"Nah, I'm just going to all my former teamies to let em know there's no hard feelings about the whole voting me out thing! Already told Trent, next I gotta cross Deej off my list."

"Glad to hear it! Wasn't personal or anything, we just had to vote for someone and it wasn't your best challenge. Plus I kinda had to help keep Harold safe, ya know?"

Izzy did a finger gun and tongue click. "Totes! And don't worry about what they're writing on the TD fanpage tabloids, he's totally faithful to you and not making moves on Dakota. That's just a bunch of libel. Anyway, fun chatting, but I gotta go!"

Leaving Leshawna no time to process the comment, she skipped off in DJ's direction. It was only once she was gone that the sassier girl shot up and went bug eyed.

"They're writing WHAT?"

"It's just a bunch of dirtsheet gossip, like 99 percent of that stuff is a bunch of bologna," Anne Maria pointed out, now standing next to her. Curiously, unlike everyone else, she was wearing tights to match the set she had adorned her power armor with.

"Where the- What's got everyone wanting to talk to me today?" An incredulous Leshawna asked. "Were you eavesdropping the whole time?"

"Nah, I only caught the tail end of it. And unlike her, I got an actual important reason to chat." Much like the last girl, she leaned in to whisper, making sure they weren't being watched. "How's about you and I strike up an alliance now that the teams are over? Ya girl's been needing one for a while, and I think this pair would kick some butt."

Leshawna blinked in surprise. Damn, just coming out with it straight up? She could respect it. "Homegirl, no offense, but we ain't exactly spoken much. What makes you want to link up with me out of everyone else?"

She shrugged. "I like the way you roll, it ain't much deeper than that. And hey, I know you might already got something on your plate, but think about it. What if you need an extra partner in your back pocket to make sure you ain't getting left out to dry for someone else? That could be me!"

Left out to dry, huh? She resisted the urge to cast a look towards DJ, but couldn't help from catching a glimpse of Dawn walking across the room with some face paint. The longer she stared, the more confident she felt in her gut answer.

"You know what? Sure, I can get down with that." She shook Anne Maria's hand and grinned. "But let's keep this agreement just between the two of us for now. Agreed?"

"Oh yeah, for sure."

*** Confessional: Leshawna ***

"Was that random as heck? Sure enough. Am I complaining? Nah. I know DJ says there's nothing between him and Dawn right now besides them being friends, but I just can't shake the feeling that if it comes down to a me versus her situation, I ain't the one getting those peanuts. It can't hurt to have Anne Maria on the side to keep things balanced, yeah? Sure, I barely know her, but there's worse options for an alliance." With that said, her mind started to wander to the previous interaction and her brow furrowed. "That gossip BETTER have been bologna or else not even Dakotazoid is gonna stop her from catching these hands-"

*** In the Arena ***

Back with the girls, it was only now that Leshawna realized her new ally was also in flashy wrestling tights. "Uhh, not that you ain't rockin it or anything, but you do realize we were only supposed to decorate the armor, right? We're gonna be inside these things during the match, we don't gotta dress ourselves up."

Anne Maria scoffed playfully. "Yeah yeah, whateva. This is the closest thing they've given us to a fashion challenge, so I'm taking what I can get to look fab. No half assing it from me, if my robot's gonna be serving looks, I'm gonna be right there with it."

There was no objecting to logic that flawless. Meanwhile, nearby Beardo was feeling the struggle. Try as best as he may to stay focused on his suit, he couldn't stop glancing over towards Anne Maria in her attire.

"Truly we've been blessed. The world is a beautiful place. Life is good. DANG good. Dare I say it, life is-"

"Hey man, how's the costume going?" Trent suddenly cut in, not realizing he was interrupting the quiet rambling. He raised an eyebrow at his ally's record scratch sound. "Uh, you alright?"

"Me? Pfft, yeah, for sure man. All good here, no problems." He cleared his throat and whistled awkwardly. "Just touching up the details on my persona thing, you know how it goes."

"... riiiight." Deciding not to press matters further, Trent turned towards Beardo's work in progress and immediately took notice of a prop animal tail attached to the backside. "Are you making some kinda cat suit?"

Beardo chuckled awkwardly. "Not exactly. See, I don't know a whole lot about pro wrestling itself. But I DO know about video games, and wrestler characters in fighting games are always super hype. So I'm pulling from that kinda energy for my persona. How bout you? Let me guess, it's gonna be some kinda musician character that hits people with guitars?"

Trent recoiled in offense. "Hey come on, you don't think I'm THAT predictable, do you?"

"My bad, man. Didn't mean to offend. So what kind of character is it?"

And then he slumped his shoulders. "It's... a musician that hits people with guitars."

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"Dang, am I seriously THAT predictable?" He gripped his head, mind swirling with existential dread. "No. NO! Guitars are objectively cool. Just because it's predictable doesn't mean it's bad... right?"

*** In the Arena ***

It wasn't long until time had been called and everyone was ushered back towards the ring for presenting. Chris, Chef, and Cameron were sat behind a folding table next to the ring, notepads at the ready.

"Let's make this snappy, people, I'm raring to see the carnage," Chris called out. "And in case any of you need a punching bag for your presentation, we have some local talent that's volunteered to help you demonstrate your characters. Try not to maim em too bad. Or do. They signed waivers, so it doesn't matter too much either way."

A row of buff Mexican luchadores lined up next to the ring, each wearing a different colorful mask. Once Chef rang the ring bell, one slid under the bottom rope to await the first contestant.

"We're doing this in alphabetical order," the cook bellowed out. "Anne Maria, you're up!"

The Jersey girl jumped into the ring and posed against the ropes so the judges could get a good look at her power armor. It had a wig that resembled her iconic poof, though this one had been dyed blue on one side and pink on the other. It had boots and wrestling tights matching the same colors with a few dollar signs sprinkled over the pants. Even the head of the robot was rocking gold dollar sign sunglasses.

"Hey yo, check it out, you can call me The Boss B.I.T.C-"

"Watch yer gosh darn language," Chef barked out. Cameron raised an eyebrow beside him.

"Um, I've been watching the show at home. You guys have actually been very lenient with cursing this season, why does it matter now if-"

"Shut up, Cameron," Chris interrupted. "We'll just stick with The Boss for now. Continue!"

Nodding, The Boss took out one of her hairspray bottles. "Ya girl's all about that cash. My gear? Costs more than you make in a year. Everywhere I go? I get showered in dough. Everything I do? That MAKES money flow! And if any bozzo wants to try and step my way? They get one of these."

Suddenly she sprayed a cloud in the luchador's face before straight up thwacking them with the can itself. As they staggered backwards, she finished things off with a clothesline to send them packing before they even knew what happened.

"Simple and effective. Not too shabby." Chris jotted some notes down and motioned for a new punching bag to get in the ring. "Next!"

That was Beardo's cue. With nimble athleticism he'd only be able to pull off thanks to the suit, he pounced over the top rope and struck a pose. His attire had yellow boots and elbow pads, plus purple bottoms and gloves. There was also a message of "KoJ" across the belt area. But much more notable was the lion tail trailing from behind, and a mask over the robot's head that straight up just looked like a realistic snarling lion.

Just making things more confusing was when he grabbed a microphone and pointed dramatically towards the hosts to say... well, nothing technically. Instead he bellowed out lion noises, various roars and growls that vaguely sounded like he was trying to speak. But before he lost them, a green laser shined from the chest area, creating a hologram to display words.

"Behold. I am the mighty King of the Jungle! Mexico's greatest masked hero."

Chef seemed more preoccupied with the hologram than anything. "Your suits have subtitles built into em?"

"Yes actually, I thought it would come in handy for clients with speech issues."

Enough of that nerd crap, now Beardo had to show what he was made of. He grabbed the nearby luchador and flung them into the ropes. When they came running back he planted them with a dropkick before climbing to the top rope and delivering a moonsault. With his opponent dispatched, he let out a victory roar.

The sadistic host grinned in satisfaction. "Guy's committed to the bit, I'll give him that. Let's keep it going, people!"

A montage followed showing each of the contestant's acts one by one in a more quick succession. Brick was "Corporal Carnage", a mean army instructor character in camo pants with a green hat and top. He sold the character well, channeling his years of having drills yelled at him to dish it out, though he was visibly taking it easy on his opponent with a light headbutt before locking them into a flimsy cobra crutch. Chef was unimpressed.

Dawn's persona "The Oni" was going for a Japanese inspired aesthetic. The power armor's face was given kabuki style makeup, a green and blue wig, plus flasy red tights with various tassels. Her luchador laughed mockingly only to get sprayed in the face with some sort of green mist for his troubles. He wailed and pain and rolled around on the ground as if he'd been burnt.

For his character "The Cleaner", Dave went rather generic. The robot had fairly basic black wrestling tights, plus a matching jacket for good measure. Chris made an offhand comment about him looking like a vanilla manlet, which shorty Cameron took offense to. Thankfully Dave brought a bit of favor back with a rather passionate angry promo and wailing on his opponent with a flurry of punches and superkicks.

DJ, or rather "DJsaurus Rex", entered with power armor sporting a red reptilian mask with horns. Not to mention pants with a scaly pattern to resemble that of a dinosaur. He pressed his opponent up for a powerslam and stomped around with authority. All three judges nodded in satisfaction. Dinosaurs are objectively cool, there was nothing to complain about here other than the lack of talking.

Unsurprisingly peculiar was Izzy's character. She forgoed her supposed pre-existing Puerto Rican gimmick in favor of a new one. Dubbing it "Gingerhaus", she stormed the ring with power armor sporting black pants and a blood red cape. And of course white and black facepaint. She confidently claimed that a demon had possesd the Izzy they once knew and that she'd place a curse on the luchador with her. To show this off, she simply gestured oddly towards him. The hosts were ready to write it off as too weird, only for the wrestler to suddenly trip. This opened him up perfectly to get a knee strike to the face courtesy of Gingerhaus. Had the curse actually worked? Who knows.

Thinking outside her comfort zone, Jasmine's persona "Riptide" was actually going for a punk rock goth chick sorta vibe. All black everything, from the tights, to the jacket, to the boots, and even the makeup. Her promo was boisterous and cocky, and the wrestler stood no chance against the pumphandle slam she sent his way. All three judges seemed pleased.

Oozing confidence, Jo wasted no time immediately sucker punching the luchador as soon as she entered the ring. While he recovered she introduced herself as "The Jock(ette)", a sort of cocky Hollywood showboater rocking shades, a silk jacket, jeans, and so on. Once the mic came into play she signaled out Cameron to go on an in depth and intricate verbal beatdown. Chris and Chef were loving it to say the least. By the time her opponent finally returned to his feet, she promptly slammed him back down and hit them with a theatrical elbow drop.

Leshawna was also fittingly playing a confident persona. "Shawnie Showtime" had on colorful red gear adorned with patterns such as lipsticks, roses, and so on. But most notably was the wig, put together into a thick massive braided ponytail. After kicking her wrestler to the ground, she proceeded to whip the ever loving crap out of him utilizing the hair, getting a wince from her fellow competitors and an entertained grin from Chris.

But perhaps even worse off was the luchador tasked with Lightning, getting absolutely pummeled as the jock showed off his full athleticism even while in power armor form. Suplexes, power bombs, you name it, Lightning was dishing it out. His suits head was rocking chain mail, and the wrestling pants an intense red. He also seemed to give the robot a sweet blonde goatee with a streak of black. When he was finally done brutalizing his opponent, he got on the mic to enter a borderline incomprehensible promo about how great "Big Protein Pump" was. It was hard to decipher, but entertaining to listen to.

Last in the montage was Sammy's character. Out of her element having to tackle a macho topic like wrestling, she had banked on everyone else trying for some bombastic intimidating character. That way her comfort zone of trying out a heroic kinda persona would stand out. Simply going by "Samantha" she was trying for a friendly demeanor with bright pastel yellow colored tights, tassels, a hairband. Even her finishing move started as a hug to her opponent, though immediately followed by a belly to belly suplex. The gamble didn't pay off and the judges seemed bored.

"Alright, we just have two more and we can get this match started," Chris announced. "Let's see what Sugar's been cooking up."

"Rednecks love them some wrasslin," Chef added. "This should be good."

Just as soon as he had entered the ring, the next luchador ate an immediate boot to the face courtesy of Sugar's power armor. Her getup was just as loud as her personality. Red, white, and blue adorned every piece of her outfit. The boots, the pants, a bandana, even a feathery boa of all things. She also gave the robot a shirt, but immediately ripped it off dramatically. She aimed for a leg drop and came crashing down until it hurt inside.

"That's right, brothers! Watcha gonna do when Sugarmania runs wild on you?" She stuck a hand to her ear and listened at the nonexistent crowd, before then pointing at the other side of the ring and repeating the process. "I need all my Sugar Maniacs out there in the crowd to make some noise!"

While the lack of audience made things a bit awkward, her high energy was infectious and enthusiasm was showing.

"Hmm, she's got the attitude down for sure," Chef observed. "But I don't like the colors. The patriotism would be fine if it was for Canada, but since it ain't that gets a cringe from me dawg."

"And didn't the person she's basing this character off of get outed as a massive racist?" Cameron added.

"Oh word? Hmm, racism is pretty cringe too." Chris scribbled down some notes. "Gonna have to take points off for that one."

"Wh- you're one to talk mister," Sugar yelled out. "What with your darn outfits and accents! Plus what happened to separating the fart from the artist?"

The bubbled boy blinked in surprise. "How does someone mess the phrase up like that when they were already so close?"

"Shut up, Cameron," Chef grumbled. "Our say is final! Now bring out Trent so we can end this darn part of the challenge already!"

Sugar groaned in frustration, violently pushing aside her luchador just as he had been getting back to his feet. And with that the guitarist could take the stage, doing what he did best. Strumming the guitar proved a bit more awkward while controlling the power armor, but he made it work. He casually strolled across the ring while playing, his suit clad in the rare ripped blue jeans, black t-shirt, and a fancy scarf.

"My name? You can just call me... The Vagabond," he drawled in a nonchalant accent. "And as you all walk with me here today, I've prepared a very special song just for you. It goes a little something like this. Wh-"

"Hard pass, we already filled the singing quota for this episode," Chris interrupted, throwing Trent off his mojo. "That all you got for us?"

"Well I mean, it was gonna be a really good song. Uh..." He looked towards the recovering luchador from earlier. Without much else to do, he wound up and smashed the guitar over the poor guy's back, knocking him out once more.

"Lame. Bro could smash 6000 guitars and still wouldn't ever draw a dime."

Cameron furrowed his brow in confusion. "Isn't he part of a famous boy band? Objectively speaking, he already DOES draw money."

"Shut up, Cameron," the hosts said simultaneously.

---

After a bit of deliberation, the cast had been assembled next to the ring. A few interns were passing out slips of paper to most of them.

"Alright, the three of us had to do a bit of debating to sort things out, but we have most of the results in!" Chris pointed one finger at Trent and another at Sammy. "Samantha and The Vagabond were the suckiest gimmicks, so those two are gonna start the match. The rest of you are getting numbers to decide when everyone enters. With two exceptions."

"We couldn't decide who won between our two highest ranked performers," Chef continued. "Jo and Lightning! Y'all tied for the top spot."

"Tied?" both yelled out in offense.

"Nah, Lightning don't share 1st place. Not with her at least." The turbo jock snorted in contempt. "I should get the win since I've actually been here the whole time!"

"Actually, we have a tie breaker planned to sort this out real quick, but you're more than welcome to go first." Chris whipped out a microphone and tossed it his way. "While staying in character, the two of you each get a minute to cut a wrestling style promo against each other explaining why you should win."

"You want Dimwit to try and out talk me?" Jo burst out into laughter. "Don't get me wrong, I want the win, but you could have at least made it a fair fight. Something like this requires smarts and he's well... you know."

Lightning grit his teeth in determination. "Oh yeah? Think I can't be smart? Lightning'll show you! Watch and learn how it's done."

He cleared his throat and cracked his neck. Game face on, eyes piercing her with his intense stare. Everyone leaned in and listened with baited breath for what poetic roasting he was about to unleash...

"You know they say all men are created equal. But you look at me, and you look at Jo, and you can see that statement IS NOT TRUE! See normally if you go one on one with another wrestler you got a 50/50 chance of winning. But Lightning's a genetic freak, and I'm not normal! So you got a 25 percent AT BEST at BEAT ME! And then you add Corporal Carnage to the mix?"

Brick blinked in confusion, looking around to see if anyone else was following all this. Judging by their flummoxed expressions, probably not.

"Your chances of winning drastic go down. See with this battle royal in Mexico, you got a 33 and 1/3 chance of winning. But I got a 66 and 2/3 chance of winning, because everyone else here KNOWS they can't beat me, and they ain't even gonna try."

Beardo scratched his head and motioned towards Lightning to see if Trent was just as confused as he was. The guitarist could only shake his head in disbelief.

"So then Jo, you take your 33 and 1/3 chance minus my 25 percent chance. And you got an 8 and 1/3 chance of winning in Mexico! But then you take my 75 percents chance of winning, if we was to go one on one, and then add 66 and 2/3 ch- percents. I got a 141 and 2/3 chance of winning in Mexico! See that, Jo? The numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for you in Mexico!"

Nearly out of breath, Lightning finally dropped the mic and crossed his arms in satisfaction. His grin was proud and bright, expecting an outpouring of applause. But instead everyone just sort of looked around in confusion, not the least of which was Cameron with his dropped jaw.

"Somehow his math was more or less accurate, and yet his logic..."

"Yes, well, thank you for that Big Protein Pump, that was very... it was something." Chris picked up the mic and handed it to Jo. "The Jock, your response?"

Jo's grin turned to a cool stony resolve once she had the mic. Borrowing the sunglasses from her power armor, she lowered them just enough to show off a raised eyebrow while giving her opponent an amused scoff. "You know, it's weird. I don't hear anyone laughing, and yet here I am looking at one gigantic joke. What is this, charity? Because I can't wrap my head around how this jabroni thinks he's worthy to share a ring with The Jock, share a microphone with her, I mean hell this guy couldn't even lace up my boots! You put me up against a nobody like Big Protein Chump?"

"It's Big Protein Pu-"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER what your name is," she snapped back before he could finish. "Tell you what'll happen if I hear one more thing out of you, I'm gonna take that goofy codpiece glued to your robot's head, lube it up real nice, stick it sideways and SHOVE IT right where the sun don't shine. Funny that you're literally named Lightning, and yet I'M the most electrifying person in this building. You should be down on your knees thanking God himself, because it's nothing short of a miracle that you get the honor, nah, the PRIVILEGE of having your candy ass beat me me! So when I inevitably toss you over that top rope, and you're staring up at the lights and hearing me celebrate, you should be grateful that you got even the tiniest whiff of what a real star is like!"

Odds are she could keep this going for minutes on end, so Chef took that as a perfect opportunity to swipe the microphone away before she could continue. "That's time."

Flustered and trying not to show the part of him seething, Lightning turned to Chris. "How long until we know who won?"

"You're kidding, right?" The host chortled in amusement. "Jo wins, you go second to last."

Some of the others clapped, genuinely impressed with Jo's performance. Though of course Brick came to offer Lightning a reassuring shoulder pat, not that it'd lift his sour mood.

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"Pfft. Whatever. I let her win because Lightning don't need to come out last to win. Heck, I coulda got sent out first and I'd still toss everyone over anyway! That's all." He pouted and gave the camera an unconvincing glare.

*** Confessional: Jo ***

"You grow up in a household that watches that crap on TV all the time and you pick up a thing or two of how to lay a good verbal smackdown. Then again, it WAS Lightning. He could probably get out talked by my grandma. WITHOUT her dentures!"

*** In the Arena ***

Armed and ready inside their suits, Trent and Sammy stood on opposite sides of the ring awaiting the signal. A few interns had been given referee shirts and were positioned around the outside of the ring to watch for feet hitting the ground. The hosts and Cameron had returned to the judging table so they could commentate the match... though something was different. Chef now switched out his usual headgear for a black cowboy hat and also sported some glasses. Meanwhile Chris was wearing a regal red and gold king's attire, complete with sparkling crown. And Cameron... was just wearing a normal business suit.

"Ladies and gentlemen this one is sure to be a slobberknocker," Chef commentated. "We have 14 hungry competitors vying for the win. As a reminder, the winner of this match WILL be immune at tonight's ceremony."

Cameron adjusted his glasses. "And it looks like we'll be starting things off with The Vagabond and Samantha. Ironic, Cody was close with both of them and now-"

"Enough of that nerd crap, let's get the carnage started," Chris called out happily. "Ring the bell!"

Ask and he shall receive. An intern rang the bell, leading to... a whole lot of nothing. Trent and Sammy cautiously approached each other, but neither seemed eager to throw the first punch.

"Yeah, I don't really feel comfortable trying to fight my bro's girlfriend, robot suits or not," he noted.

"I guess we could always work together instead," Sammy suggested. "It'll definitely make it easier for Cody if he's watching at home. Then he doesn't have to choose one of us to root for!"

While they shared a laugh, someone in the crowd let out a vicious boo. Unsurprisingly, it was Chris. "Boooooring! It's supposed to be a free for all battle royal, people! Where's the mayhem? Where's the violence?"

"Technically there IS valid benefits to calling a truce during the match," Cameron pointed out. "Plus as the only two in the rings right now, it gives them a numbers advantage that-"

"And here comes entry number 3," Chef interrupted, a loud buzzer signaling the new arrival. Sugar stomped down the entrance ramp looking for a fight. Had it not been for the power armor, they'd be able to see the pissed off sneer she had over entering so early. Once she hit the ring she immediately shoulder tackled Trent before he could react, then turning around to whack Sammy with a boot to the head.

Chris sighed in relief. "Now business is picking up!"

"Looks like Sugarmania is stomping a mudhole in Samantha and walking it dry," Chef added. Indeed, Sugar was really testing the durability of the robots, putting as much oomph as possible into stomps towards the prone Sammy. Suddenly Trent got back to his feet and gave her a receipt via a clothesline. He bounced off the ropes and dived into an elbow drop, but she rolled out of the way at the last second. He managed to sidestep a kick and the two began just trading punches.

"Bit of fight in ya, huh? I like that." Sugar tossed him into one of the corners and switched to kicking.

"God I really hope that's not flirting," Trent mumbled to himself before dishing out a headbutt. While they continued back and forth, the buzzer rang out again.

"Ugh, our next entrant is Corporal Carnage," Chris commented while Brick ran down the ramp. "This guy's such a chump I hear that the only army he's allowed to command is the plushies that keep him company at night."

"There is... nothing wrong with having plushies in your bed," Brick mumbled defensively. He quickly tried to shake it off and set his sights towards the others. By now Sammy was beginning to get up, so Sugar caught Trent with a knee and flung him towards Brick. Instinctively the two locked up, getting them out of her hair for now.

Sammy had a split second to react as Sugar charged her, just enough time to put her arms up to block the face. As she began to panic, wincing at each punch her opponent delivered, Trent managed to get Brick in a headlock and noticed her predicament.

"If you're having trouble fighting her, just remember. She was helping your sister out all season!"

That did the trick. Feeling a new fire lit in her, Sammy swiped away the incoming punch and tackled Sugar to the ground before unloading a series of blows herself, going too fast to allow the country girl time to respond.

"Bah gawd they're beating each other like a government mule," Chef bellowed. "But no one's going for an elimination yet!"

Yet again the buzzer sounded off, with Izzy taking her time to prance down to the ring.

"That may change with this new wildcard in the mix," Cameron observed. "Gingerhaus claims to be possessed by a demon, though I highly doubt she has any evidence to back that up."

"Clearly it isn't a speed demon with how long she's taking to get into the match."

On cue, Izzy finally rolled in and observed the playing field. Brick had turned the tides on Trent and had him leaning against the ropes trying to heave him over, but the guitarist was holding on tight and not giving an inch. So instead she approached the girls and gestured oddly towards Sammy in an attempt to afflict her with a curse.

"Wh-what are you doing?" the confused twin asked. Unfortunately for her the brief distraction was all the time Sugar needed to shove her off. Angry and not about to give her time to react, Sugar tested the extent of the power armor's strength by hoisting Sammy over her head. Try as she may to flail her limbs and get down, the pageant queen flung her over the top rope and she came crashing down hard outside. One of the interns confirmed the result by speaking into a mic.

"Samantha has been eliminated."

Izzy looked down at her hands and cackled in satisfaction. "Hey cool, the curse worked! You're welcome, Sugarmania!"

As thanks, Sugar promptly stormed Izzy and drop kicked her in the face.

"One down, twelve more eliminations to go," Chef confirmed. "And Sugarmania is running wild."

After the buzzer rang, out next was Dave. He was wielding a broom and swung it around like a staff before charging the ring while furiously sweeping.

"Ugh, here comes The Cleaner." Chris rolled his eyes. "This guy's so short, I hear his hair smells like feet!"

Tossing away his broom before entering, Dave jumped on to the apron, stepped through the ropes... and was IMMEDIATELY clotheslined by Sugar, sending him dazed and confused over the top rope.

"The Cleaner has been eliminated."

"Huh?" Bro was flabbergasted. He stared up in disbelief, Sugar waving tauntingly down at him. "I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think that may be a new battle royal elimination record," Cameron announced. "I'm getting word from our time keepers that The Cleaner was in the match for a total of .75 seconds."

"Get Sugar'd ya little-" Before she could continue Izzy was suddenly up and pouncing on Sugar's back for a sleeper hold. Normally it'd be more effective, but the power armor just made it an annoyance more than anything.

Over with the boys, Trent had dazed Brick enough to hoist him up to the top turnbuckle. But just as soon as he tried to push him over, the cadet cut him off with a kick and hit him with a diving tackle. All four continued to brawl without issue until the buzzer sounded off.

"Here comes The Boss B.I.T- and you know the rest," Chris said, Anne Maria hopping around and posing as if there was a crowd going wild for her. "I hear that hair spray can wake the dead with how strong it is. Wonder if it can still effect the others even with the suit on?"

"Unlikely, the material is made in such a way that-"

"Good God almighty, she's going straight after The Vagabond," Chef cut off.

Utilizing her hair spray can like a weapon, Anne Maria was laying into Trent with blow after blow. Brick got up to try and participate, but he was met with a kick to the crotch strong enough that the man himself felt it and he tumbled back down. Over with the girls, Sugar happened to actually hurl Izzy over the top rope, but she managed to hold on with one hand on the way down and hung precariously with her feet inches away from the floor.

"Would you just fall already?" she grumbled, punching at Izzy's grip to no avail. Eventually the wild child managed to swing herself back to safety, much to Sugar's chagrin. Soon enough it was buzzer time, leading to echoes of lion roars.

"Don't worry Trent, I'm coming," he called out, jumping over the top rope and entering a battle stance... only to freeze up when he saw Anne Maria's character staring back at him. "Uh..."

Trying to play it off, he instead kicked at Brick's head just as he was starting to pick himself up. But it was no use, Anne Maria tackled him to a corner and began punching. It continued long enough for Trent to finally get his balance back, though when he looked over he caught an odd sight. She had her legs wrapped around Beardo's head, and was trying to use momentum against the ropes to send him over that way.

"Damn it... why did we have to be in stupid robot suits for this," Beardo mumbled to himself as the thighs began lifting him up. She was cackling like a maniac, so much so that by the time she realized Trent was running her way it was too late. He blasted her with a haymaker and grabbed on to Beardo before he could get sent over with her. She hit the ground and groaned in frustration.

"The Boss has been eliminated."

"Excellent teamwork by The Vagabond and King of the Jungle," Cameron complimented. "See? It really is beneficial to work together in-"

"No one cares," Chris cut off.

The buzzer returned and next out was Dawn, walking gracefully to the ring in no hurry to fight. With Izzy and Sugar busy rolling around on the ground, locking each other in submission after submission, Trent and Beardo were the only ones up to oppose her. Once she was in, both boys stood their ground and waited for her to make the first move.

"I really detest how barbaric this challenge is," she offered. "But I suppose I knew what I signed up for, so my apologies for this."

She then let loose with the poisonous green mist spray... only for it to fire the moment Brick got to his feet with him just so happening to be between them. Thankfully the metal prevented any actual damage, but now his visor was completely covered.

"AH, I can't see!" He ran headfirst into a turnbuckle, falling over yet again.

With Dawn distracted by the unexpected interruption, the newfound allies exchanged a nod and took their opportunity. Beardo was the first to charge, running full steam ahead... only for her to nimbly sidestep at the last minute. His momentum carried him over the top rope, but he was thankfully able to hang on.

... at least until Trent also ran. Once again Dawn managed to step away in the nick of time and the musician collided with his ally. Trent was fine, but Beardo went flying to the outside.

"King of the Jungle has been eliminated."

"I'll be a son of a gun, he eliminated the wrong person," Chef exclaimed. "The crowd here in Mexico City is going ballistic."

Nearby an intern coughed.

With another buzzer came a new contestant. DJ stomped towards the ring, exaggerating each step while really getting into the dinosaur character. At least until he pounced over the ropes and found himself getting Izzy flung into him. A pissed off Sugar slid up next to Trent.

"Him and shorty girl is in cahoots. I say me and you should team up and get em out."

"Uuuuuh." Trent looked around for his other options. Brick was beginning to stir, but Izzy was loopy after that latest collision and wound up tripping over him. Both were down for the time being. "Guess I don't have a choice. You take Dawn."

She didn't need to be told twice. Sugar ran towards her prey, Dawn unable to do much else but try to evade her. Trent went for DJ's legs while he was still off guard and tried to lift him over. Unfortunately for him the big guy was quick to react, picking Trent's suit up by the head and tossing it backwards. The musician slid under the bottom rope, still safe but dazed.

"Sorry man! Uh, I mean, roar!" Setting his sights on Sugar, DJ tried to cut her off before she could get to his friend. However, once his back was turned, Trent rolled back into the ring with a trusty guitar in hand. He smashed it across DJ's back, knocking him down. Now in her path, Dawn tripped over his prone body. Before she could get up, Sugar finally caught up and delivered a devastating suplex. Making matters worse was the fact that Brick had crawled into just the perfect spot to be where Dawn landed.

"Bit much, don't you think?" Trent asked.

"It's wrasslin, sonny, there ain't such a thing as too much," she grumbled back. To prove her point, she grabbed hold of Dawn and flung her up into powerbomb position. She hoisted her a bit higher for added effectiveness and slammed her over the top rope. There wasn't much of anything the aura reader could do to stop things.

"The Oni has been eliminated."

"Tch, showoff." Trent picked DJ up by the head and started running towards the ropes to fling him over... only for the giant to catch himself and turn it into a throw of his own. Taken off guard, the momentum carried Trent over and he couldn't grab at the ropes in time to stop himself.

"The Vagabond has been eliminated."

"DJsaurus Rex reverses it into an elimination of his own." Chris laughed. "I guess you can teach an old dino new tricks."

Sugar snorted in contempt. Good thing he was just a temporary ally, she couldn't be associating with someone who made a screw up like that. She cracked the metal knuckles and started to run... only for Izzy to jump in from out of nowhere with legs wrapped around her head, flinging her into a corner. DJ just stood there watching awkwardly until the buzzer rang. Jasmine rushed the ring, wasting no time taking a swing at the gentle giant who only narrowly ducked.

"Whoa whoa, uh, truce?" He offered, pointing towards Izzy and Sugar's brawl. Was he just buying time since Leshawna was out next? Perhaps. But he also genuinely didn't like his odds in a fight against the Aussie, robot suits or none. "Those two have been kinda hard to eliminate, so..."

"Sorry mate, no can do." She lifted her leg and DJ braced for impact... only for nothing to hit. Once again Brick chose the exact worst time to stand up, getting the big boot to the face for his troubles. "Crikey, you'd think the bloke would just stay down at this point."

DJ utilized the distraction to push her towards the ropes. But she was prepared and stood her ground, locking up with the animal lover in a test of strength. Something that was virtually useless when their suits put them on equal footing, causing a stalemate. Meanwhile over in another corner, Izzy had disoriented her opponent for the time being and managed to hoist Sugar up to the top turnbuckle. She flexed her matal arms happily.

"Neat! These suits are real handy."

She jumped up to deliver a big hurricanrana to finally eliminate Sugar, but the recovery was too fast. She caught Izzy by the waist and thrust her up into a powerbomb position just as she had done with Dawn.

"Yup," the country gal purred. "Real handy."

Jumping off the rope, she slammed Izzy to the mat with as much force possible. Izzy's suit bounced off the mat and rolled limply under the bottom rope where she splatted to the outside. The shockwave from the slam managed to nearly trip up DJ, allowing Jasmine to whip him into the ropes and put him down with a dropkick. Just in time for a new buzzer to ring.

"Hold on DJ, I'm coming." Leshawna sprinted to the ring, grinning in anticipation. " Ooooh I've been waiting to have this showdown. This'll be fun."

As Jasmine started to try and hoist DJ over the rope, his ally came swinging with a sick elbow to the head. The Aussie staggered back, tanking kick after punch until she was the one now on the ropes. But she was able to strike away any attempts at elimination, turning the tide with knees and stomps. Both girls were at a stalemate, but before any progress could be made Sugar came charging in from out of nowhere to tackle her former teammate. Even if it'd be smarter to go after the former Old School pair, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to get one up over on Jasmine.

"Huh, alright guess that works." As Leshawna started to get her bearings, Brick had just managed to crawl over and meekly tried to pull himself up using her leg. She yelped upon noticing him. "Watch where you're grabbing!"

She proceeded to wield the hair whip on her suit and began battering him with it. At this point all he could do was groan and just wait for it to stop.

"Corporal Carnage has had the almighty crap beaten out of him all match," Chef noted. "And yet he still manages to stay in."

"Pfft at this rate he'd probably be better off just jumping over the rope and eliminating himself," Chris quipped. Suddenly the buzzer sounded off and Lightning sprinted down the ramp at record speeds. "Oh great, here comes Big Protein Pump. This guy's so stupid, I hear he once took an IQ test and it came back negative!"

"How old is Chris at this point?" Cameron whispered to Chef, getting an angry glare for an answer.

But back to the ring. DJ recovered in time to see Lightning coming full force and rushed to Leshawna's side to help her prepare. The jock vaulted inside and made a beeline towards them. Both allies took a swing, only for him to duck under and continue running. He bounced off the ropes and shoulder tackled the two of them just as they turned around. And he just kept going, running until he bounced off again and came swinging full force with one arm outstretched for each of their heads. Between the momentum and the strength, gravity would do the rest. The allies landed violently against each other, their feet decidedly on the floor.

"DJsaurus Rex and Shawnie Showtime have been eliminated."

After a well deserved pop off, bicep kiss to the metal arm included, Lightning slid over to Brick. Poor guy was barely conscious at this point, groaning in pain. "You ok, man?"

"... no, not really," he managed to force out. "Am I still in?"

"Just tall girl and the redneck fighting it out," he confirmed, watching Jasmine deliver a gnarly chokeslam that put Sugar out of commission for the moment. "I'll deal with them, then we just gotta get out Jo!"

Lightning jumped into the fray, giving Jasmine no time to rest as the two wrestled against the ropes in an attempt to tip one another over. Brick blinked in surprise, managing to crawl his way to the ropes facing the entrance ramp and slowly pulling himself up. "Then we just gotta get out Jo... yeah, I can do that."

For one last time the buzzer blared through the arena. Jo sauntered down to the ring, looking straight at Brick who was by now to his feet with his arms up.

"And the hierarchy of power is about to change in this match, because here comes The Jock." Chef paused and looked towards his nerdier commentater. "Or is it The Jockette?"

"I suppose either could work. She's used the later more often, but jock is a gender neutral term so-"

Chris shushed them. "Quiet down, we're about to see a showdown."

Jo slid in and stared Brick down. Despite the power armor's blocking their faces, it felt like the two had locked eyes. He took a step towards her, and she responded in turn. Soon enough the foreheads of their suits were touching as they sized eachother up.

"Bring it on," the cadet mustered out. "I'm not... scared of you."

Jo snickered, unimpressed. "You should be."

Brick grit his teeth and wound up for a mighty blow. Putting all his power into it, he swung wildly... only for Jo to sidestep and stick a leg out to trip him. He stumbled into the ropes and without any stamina left to save himself, he was helpless as she hoofed him over the top to send him packing.

"Corporal Carnage has been eliminated."

Satisfied, Jo dusted off her hands and leaned against one of the corners to look at her opposition. In the second corner was Sugar, picking herself up and breathing heavy. The amount of time in the match was taking its toll, but she was still in. Lightning and Jasmine pushed against each other, both staggering to the other corners. Jasmine was a little roughed up, but still hanging in there relatively well. Meanwhile Lightning noticed the lack of his ally in the ring and let out a battle yell.

"Gentlemen, looks like we have our final four-" Lightning dove at the The Jockette, both exchanging punch after punch. "And Big Protein Pump wastes no time getting into it!"

With them occupied Jasmine focused her efforts on Sugar. The country girl knew she had to fight smart if she wanted to outlast three much fresher opponents than herself, so she tried attacking her taller opponent's legs to ground her. Unfortunately she was sturdy as hell. Instead of going down or even being moved, Jasmine was able to stand firm and grab at Sugar's waist. Soon enough her opponent was hanging upside down and at her mercy, so she drove Sugar's head into the canvas with a vicious piledriver.

"You got a heck of a lotta fight in ya, I'll give ya that you drongo." Just as she was going to pick her up, she noticed how the battle of the athletes was going. Lightning had managed to get Jo over the top rope and on the other side. However, Jo fought back and beat Lightning away, ultimately delivering a kick to the groin to incapacitate him. But her focus was on him, and she was standing precariously over the ropes... "Jackpot."

Jasmine took off in a sprint and reared back an elbow. She was seconds away with connecting, but Jo caught sight of her just in time. Taking a step back, she waited for the blow to go swinging. Then she grabbed hold of Jasmine's shoulders, jumped, and pulled down on her opponent with all her might. Utilizing the top rope as a fulcrum, the seesaw effect did the rest. Jasmine went tipping overboard and was going too fast to stop her feet from hitting the outside.

"Riptide has been eliminated."

"Hah! Nice try, Lowtide." Jo stepped back into the safety of the ring... only for Lightning to be waiting, locking up with her.

"Just sha-beat it already!"

"How about you make me!"

All three commentaters were on their feet, leaning forward in anticipation. Referees stood outside the ring ready to count the elimination. Both athletes yelled in determination, trying in vain to overcome the stalemate. Until suddenly, a crazed holler echoed from the other side of the ring and what felt like a train began barreling towards them.

"Get Sugar'd!" Aiming for Jo's legs with one arm and Lightning's with the other, Sugar took advantage of their distracted state to hoist BOTH over the top rope. Between them being too interlocked trying to eliminate the other and the fact that they just straight up forgot their third opponent was still there, neither could react in time for safety.

"Big Protein Pump and The Jock have been eliminated."

"Yes! Hahaha, boom! I did it!" Sugar posed across the ring, soaking in every last bit of glory. Once she was done showboating on the canvas, she then hopped up to one of the turnbuckles and flexed at the eliminated contestants.

"Bah gawd what have we just witnessed?" Chef called out while clapping. "It looks like Sugarmania has won the whole gosh darn thing!"

But while the older men cheered, Cameron scratched his head in confusion. "Hold on, the bell hasn't rang yet. And if I'm remembering things correctly..."

While Sugar continued to boast, Izzy poked her head up from outside the ring. She rolled inside, happily skipping towards the turnbuckle.

"Huh?" Chris asked. "But didn't she-"

"She went under the bottom rope," Cameron pointed out. "She was never eliminated."

"Thank you thank you, I deserve this," Sugar cheered, unaware of the opponent now directly behind her. "Watcha gonna do, when Sugarmania runs wild on-"

"Boop!" Izzy suddenly pushed her forward, making Sugar flip midair and land violently outside. A referee intern pointed to the timekeeper and they rung the bell. Another intern rolled inside the ring and lifted Izzy's arm.

"And in a twist, Gingerhaus wins the match! Which means Izzy has immunity at tonight's ceremony. No Eva treatment for her."

"Jury's still out on Jo, though," Chef grumbled.

"Magnificent!" Cameron gave the group a standing ovation. "This was so much fun! If you guys ever need another set of eyes for a future challenge I'd be glad to-"

Chris held a finger up to his face and shushed. "Yeah, not gonna happen."

*** Confessional: Sugar ***

"Ugh! Well screw her, who was the most awesome and entertaining person in the match? That's right, ME. So I shoulda got like, honorary immunity too or something." She folded her arms and grunted in frustration. "I blame the dumb robots, if we could have just fought as ourselves I never would have been tipped over. Oh well, guess it's time to go do some work."

*** On the Jet ***

Not long after exiting the confessional, Sugar was on her way to the dinning area when she heard a few distant voices. As she crept closer to the entrance, she could make out what sounded to be Trent talking.

"I know that we've had a long day, so I'll make this quick for you guys. Things are kinda crazy with the teams merged, plus Jo and Izzy, and we haven't really had a chance to process it. So I propose we make this easy and all call a truce for the ceremony. Sugar was involved in all of Amy's BS, plus today's challenge proves how much of a threat she is. We'd be doing ourselves a favor voting her out."

She gasped, poking her head around the corner to spot everyone else sitting around him.

"Who died and made you the shot caller?" Jo demanded. "We can vote for whoever we want."

"You sure it's a good idea to ignore a free pass for the ceremony?" Brick shot back sternly. She merely scoffed in response.

"You guys can do whatever you want, I'm just letting my intentions be made up front." Trent shrugged. "She's a total jerk and tough to beat in challenges, that's good enough reason for-"

"Now wait just a gosh darn minute!" Sugar made her presence known, storming into the room and glaring down her detractor. "Y'all really gonna collude about getting me out behind my back? None of y'all got the balls to say it to my face?"

Beardo suddenly shot up, scooting away his chair and getting right up in her face. The pain and anger in his gaze was enough to briefly take her by surprise. "Oh I'll say it to your face! I'm voting for you tonight. You're a liar, you're a jerk, AND you're a manipulator. It's just like with Amy, you gotta go."

Sugar stepped back, taken off guard by the bluntness. Others in the room started whispering and she felt the sweat forming. "N-now hold on. You guys need to think this through."

"What's there to think about?" Sammy asked. "Everything they said is the truth. Why wouldn't we vote you off?"

She grit her teeth, pointing a glare at one person in particular. One person who had gotten her in this mess to begin with. The one person who deserved to be in the hot seat instead. She wasn't about to go down without taking him with her.

"Because if you lot are so dang hangup about everything Amy was doing, it ain't me you wanna be booting." She pointed a finger defiantly at Dave. "It's HIM!"

Dave stiffened up, looking around and feigning confusion. "Me? What did I do? Amy manipulated me, we've already been over this."

"Cut the crap! Amy's a gosh darn moron, everything she did was because you came up with the plan. Shawn? Cody? That big hot silent guy I forget the name of? All your ideas!"

Others started to look at him funny, getting some sweat out of him in turn. "No! Amy forced me to go along with her plans. Heck, maybe some or all of them were YOUR plans and it was just her job to manipulate me. I bet that's what she was doing with Rodney before he left too!"

Sugar banged a fist on one of the tables. "Can't own up to it like a man? Alright, that's just fine and dandy! Because I don't need you to admit it anymore. I got an ace in the hole you couldn't prepare for, and now you're done like dinner, buster!"

Naturally everyone was confused, so Sugar pointed her finger this time at... Izzy.

"You! When we were walking you told us you've been watching the whole show. Every episode since you got eliminated. That means you've seen everything!"

"Yup, every last minute." Izzy tilted her head. "By the way, you guys were acting kinda weird in the episode after Colombia. What was up with that?"

"It ain't important," Sugar yelled. "What matters is that you can settle this right here right now. You've been watching, so you can expose Dave for the lying sack of crap that he is. So go on, tell em! Let em know who REALLY came up with all them plans."

Dave was silent, paling a bit. It took every ounce of power to keep his poker face up since how was he going to get out of this? Assuming she was telling the truth about watching, she knew every step of what he'd been up to. Backstabbing Shawn, suggesting tampering with B's device, even betraying Amy herself. His mind raced with potential explanations, but nothing seemed believable. Everyone waited for her response and finally Izzy smiled.

"Alright, alright, fine. I can give you guys the deets. And the truth is... Amy and Sugar planned out everything! Rodney, Beardo, and Dave were all pawns they manipulated to go along with everything. They were doing pretty good until he overheard Amy spilling the beans, aw well."

Sugar rubbed her hands together, cackling. "Yeah, that's right! You tell em th- wait, huh?"

She stared in disbelief, only getting a cheery grin from Izzy that wouldn't falter. "Yeah, sorry about spilling the beans. Your bribe to go along with the lie was really good, but I decided to turn it down. Probably shouldn't have low balled it."

And with her job done she left the room. Dave and Sugar both looked on in bewilderment, though the former quickly composed himself while focus turned back to the later.

"Really? You tried to bribe her so we'd believe your stupid little story?" Jasmine shook her head. "Unbelievable."

"But... but I..." Sugar looked around desperately, eventually settling on Jo. "What about-"

"Nuh uh, leave me out of this. I didn't even know I'd have a chance to join before I got to the Aftermath set, so I didn't bother keeping up with the show." A boldfaced lie, but they didn't need to know that. Jo didn't want to be involved with this drama, nor did she care about it.

More and more people began getting up to leave, some looking on in disgust and other pity. Trent just rolled his eyes.

"She's crazy if she thought we were actually gonna-"

"I am NOT CRAZY!"

Everyone froze, startled by the outburst. She huffed and puffed in a rage, a few contestants feeling the need to slide in front of Dave for his protection.

"I am not crazy. I know he made those plans. Something as extra as Cody's? As if we could ever do something so complicated? Never. NEVER! I just- just can't prove it. He covered his tracks, must have got the idiot red head to lie for him. He's the one behind this, all of the chicanery! Are you telling me Amy just happens to stop voting for her sister like that? No! He wanted Shawn gone. Dave!"

Jasmine looked down, Dave furiously shaking his head No and pointing back at Sugar.

"And we saved him. Took him into our own alliance. Ooooh, we shouldn't have. And now he gets to stay here? What a sick joke. Should have eliminated him when we had the chance. But you, your guys need to do it, you-"

Finally she paused, looking around at everyone. Beardo and Trent's stern glares, Sammy's disgust, Anne Maria and Brick's doubt, Leshawna wincing at the awkwardness of it all. No one. Not a single person was buying it. One by one they all filed out of the room, Sugar only able to stammer out gibberish in vain. When it was all said and done, only her and Dave remained in the room. Shell shocked, he finally recovered and took his own leave. But not without one last pitiful glance.

"You should have just kept your head down."

---

"Welcome everyone to our first merged elimination ceremony!" Chris looked around, soaking in all the upset expressions. A few leers here and there, some panic. All the good stuff. "Had a long day, huh? Well let's get this show on the road. If I call your name, you're safe and can enjoy some nice barfy peanuts. As our immunity winner, Izzy gets them first."

The wild child clapped happily and swallowed the immunity mid-air, bag and all.

"Also safe are... DJ, Anne Maria, Sammy, Beardo, Leshawna, Dawn, Jasmine, Trent, aaaaaand... Brick!"

One by one each were tossed their puke packets. Most just held on to them and watched those remaining without one, though Beardo added in a little Final Fantasy battle victory jingle. Jo and Lightning glared at one another, while Sugar did her best to stare a hole through Dave. The germaphobe himself kept calm and collected.

"Next two to be safe are... Lightning, aaaaaand... Jo!"

Both ignored their wretch receptacles, continuing to glare but now with a cockier aura over being safe.

"And now I only have one barf bag left. Sugar, you're here because everyone hates you and thinks you had a hand in Amy's shenanigans throughout the season." He paused to let her react, but her eyes were glued to the back of her opponent's head. "And Dave, you're here because she claims that YOU'RE the true mastermind. Who knows, maybe she convinced some people that she's telling the truth?"

He didn't seem convinced, merely rolling his eyes.

"Only one of you can stay safe, the other becomes out first merged elimination. And that final person... safe for tonight... and not going off the plane...will... be...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

... Dave!"

Now that he was in the clear Dave indulged himself in a smug smile, made even bigger when the likes of Beardo and Sammy cheered at the results. To her credit Sugar was avoiding any loud outburst, just stomping over to Chef for her parachute.

"Chris you might wanna get this place checked out," she huffed. "I THOUGHT we were on an airplane. But clearly we must be in a candy store. Because everywhere I look alls I see are a bunch of suckers!"

Jo snickered a bit, getting a glare from Brick. "What? It was a good one."

"And I'm gonna be on the other side waiting for each and every one of y'all," she warned, her volume quickly increasing. "And I'm gonna laugh in everybody's face and tell ya I told you so, because all of y'all are a bunch of stupid-"

Finally the Boot of Shame came swinging down, hurling her off the jet with a scream. Dave took in a deep sigh of relief at another hurdle cleared.

"That may conclude the ceremony, but we have one more matter of business before I can dismiss you," Chris announced. "With the teams disbanded, obviously most of you will be sleeping in economy class going forward since most of you are losers. The only exception is the challenge winner and one guest of their choosing. They get to ride first class. Which means Izzy, you get to choose the first guest who will be joining you."

"Fun! Hmm, let's see." Although she looked around at everyone, her mind was already made up. "Obviously I'd bring along everyone if I could! But since I can only choose one... how about Dave? Sugar kinda put him through the wringer today, I'd say he's earned some relaxation."

Just like that the smug confidence was gone and now Dave was filled with confused skepticism. "Uh... thanks?"

Things switched to the cockpit later that night, Chris and Chef in their pilot seats.

"Well well well, looks like there's some new developments going on in Dave's neck of the woods." Chris chuckled ominously. "Why did Izzy save his skin? And better yet, what will they talk about now that they're alone in first class together?"

"Plus we got some new alliances at the table," Chef pointed out. "Jo and Anne Maria, Trent and Beardo, Anne Maria and Leshawna. How the heck are they gonna play into all of this?"

"Merge season is in full effect people! If you wanna know the answers to all of these questions and much more, you're gonna have to come back and join us. Next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

Shrugging, Anne Maria stamps Sugar's passport. "I don't got a stake in none of this drama, but better her than me. Plus I got like, what, two new allies today? We're living the good life, baby!"

"This is for lying and using me like I'm just some kinda puppet." Beardo cocked the stamp back and brought it down on Sugar's passport, making the sound when Mega Man dies. "Karma sucks, don't it?"

After a bit of deliberation, Brick grunts in frustration and stamps Jo's passport. "I just... don't need her energy around right now. Sure people are probably going to vote Sugar off, but this is a personal choice."

"Do I know what just happened with Izzy? Nope. Do I care? Not at all!" Dave happily stamped Sugar's picture. "I would have gladly worked with you but hey, your dumb choice to make."

Dawn looks conflicted, eyeing Sugar's passport for some time... but eventually hitting Dave's instead. "There's no denying that Sugar is an unpleasant person, but she spoke with such conviction earlier that I can't help but wonder if there's some truth to what she said. I'll need to look further into this."

As for DJ, he had no qualms immediately casting a vote for Sugar. "I mean it ain't like we were gonna be working with her anytime soon. No big loss here."

Izzy chuckles ominously before stamping Sugar's passport. "Sorry, Sugar! Izzy has plans of her own, and Dave going so soon isn't part of them. Wish you didn't have that outburst, you seem really fun to hang out with. Maybe after the season, yeah?"

"And with this, Shawn is fully avenged." Jasmine gives Sugar's picture a firm stamping. "On to bigger and better things. Momma's got her eyes set on the million now!"

"I don't give a damn about any of this dumb Lame-ve and Sour nonsense. But jockstrap cost me the match and I was looking forward to flying first class! So my vote's obvious." She gives Lightning's passport a stamp.

"Is it me or did waaaaay too much happen all at once today? Gonna get some damn whiplash from how many twists got thrown at us." Leshawna casts a vote for Sugar, shaking her head. "We kinda needed an easy vote to balance all this out."

"What, Sugar? Don't care." Lightning stamps Jo's passport a few times, each time with more oomph. "Lightning woulda won that match without her there! She's gotta go."

"Obviously I have less of a personal stake in this compared to how it was with my sister. But it still feels good to help take down both girls who screwed over Cody." Sammy casts a vote to Sugar. "Good riddance."

Finally Sugar herself got a chance, enthusiastically hammering the stamp on Dave's face. "I ain't crazy, I ain't crazy, I ain't crazy, I ain't crazy, I ain't-"

And last was Trent, keeping it short and simple with yet another Sugar vote. "Flew a little too close to the sun with that Izzy plan, eh? Guess you're down for the count."

Votes for Sugar: 9 (Anne Maria, Beardo, Dave, DJ, Izzy, Jasmine, Leshawna, Sammy, Trent)

Votes for Dave: 2 (Dawn, Sugar)

Votes for Jo: 2 (Brick, Lightning)

Votes for Lightning: 1 (Jo)

After the Boot of Shame:

As she continued plummeting, Sugar's screams of terror quickly turned into one of frustrated fury. She angrily punched at the air, imagining Dave's face in a futile effort to blow off steam. "I can't believe it! That scrawny little weasel actually tricked them fools into thinking he was innocent. What are they, stupid? And just why in the Sam Hill did ginger girl lie for him? Ugh! This wasn't a robbery, it was a whole high profile heist complete with helicopters and a high speed chase. I deserved better!"

Oh yeah, still quickly approaching the ground wasn't she? With a yelp she finally deployed the parachute, just in the nick of time to land safely in the rocky dirt. "Tell you one thing, I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they find out they're being sold a bill of good... also, where the heck in Mexico am I?"

Scanning around it seemed she was in the middle of nowhere. Just a whole lot of rocks, dirt, cacti, the occasional bush or small tree, two guys sitting on large duffel bags, the occasional snake or-

"Oh hey, people. Let's see, uuuuh, yo pablo de englishio?" She approached the men, unfazed by their bewilderment over someone dropping in from the sky. One was a bald old guy decked out in green outdoorsy gear. The other was a middle aged man is more business-esque attire, orange dress shirt, black slacks, matching shoes. Though he was covered in dirt and had his undershirt wrapped around his forehead like a bandanna, looking dehydrated. "Yo llama knowsio where I can findio civilizationes?"

"We speak English," the older man grumbled, hand hovering over a longer bag sat next to him as he eyed Sugar skeptically.

"We're, uh, trying to find our way back to civilization too," the younger guy added.

Sugar snorted in annoyance. "Well fine! I need some people to listen to the bullcrap I just went through anyway. You boys have NO IDEA what a crappy day I've had. Here, I'll even carry your bags for you as a trade off."

She yanked the duffel bags up, heavier than expected but nothing she couldn't handle. The older guy stepped forward, clearly annoyed. "Listen kid, you don't know what you-"

"Don't give me no lip, old man! I've had a crummy day and y'all are gonna stand there and hear about it!" She also noticed a bottle of yellow liquid nearby and swiped that up too. "Ol' wrinkly dude lookin like a thumb. I outta call you Finger walking around with a mug like that."

Not about to hear any objections she took a swig from the bottle and stomped off defiantly. The two men exchanged a look and shrugged before following.

Remaining Contestants:

Anne Maria, Beardo, Brick, Dave, Dawn, DJ, Izzy, Jasmine, Jo, Leshawna, Lightning, Sammy, Trent

Elimination Order:

14th: Sugar

Merge, Izzy returns, Jo debuts

15th: Amy

16th: Cody

17th: Beth

18th/19th: Courtney and Scott

20th: B

21st: Shawn

22nd: Dakota

23rd: Rodney

24th: Harold

Eliminated: Izzy

25th: Staci

Author's Note:

And so we begin a new arc of the story. All sorts of stuff to cover this time, perhaps most notably being the merge! Honestly I'm kind of surprised it wasn't automatically assumed by everyone that it was happening here. The chapter was originally going to be titled "Mergeday Night RAW" but I changed it when I realized I could let it actually be a surprise for people as they read. I guess it wasn't more predicted since World Tour did the fairly late merge, not happening until after Aftermath 3. But what can I say, I personally think a TDI style halfway point merge is better. The team portion of a season is obviously very important, but it's easy to fall into the trap of characters ONLY interacting with their team. Things like the zombie checks (anyone remember those? No? just checking) were an attempt to add more interactions for people outside their teams, but the merge lets the gloves come off so that anything goes. Hope you guys are excited to see how the game changes going forward between that and Izzy/Jo now being in the fray!

On to the elimination, yeah... Some of you may be sad. Others happy. Maybe at least one downright heartbroken. I think it's probably been clear reading this that I really enjoy writing Sugar. Low key she may be one of the most underrated characters in the fandom, you can really give her any role you want and she'll kill it. Slimy villain? She can do it. Comedic early boot? She can do it. Redeemed weirdo? Why the hell not. Obviously she's a blast to write, so eliminating her isn't easy, but like how I view Amy's boot as a big closer to the pre-merge, I also view her going here as a big start and tone setter to the merge portion. Sure in theory she could have tried to go under the radar to recoup, which would have been the strategic thing to do. But while I've tried to depict her as a competent player, strategy just doesn't feel like it should be her forte. Sugar's petty, volatile, and stubborn as hell. Ergo, she wouldn't take Dave's double cross and trying to play it off lightly. She'd be out for blood and wouldn't back down for a moment. Add in how her burning Beardo had made a legit enemy out of him and she was always sort of doomed to be out in the early merge. Though had she gotten luckier with the returnee she might have at least successfully dragged Dave down with her. Most others would have gladly exposed Dave. Unfortunately for her, she got Izzy. Here's another reason why Izzy ultimately got in over Staci, she would have had to fill the same role Izzy will with this episode being the start. And while Izzy is her own can of worms, Sugar would have had a much easier time convincing people to her side if the one backing Dave up was the literal compulsive liar. I'll go more into what's up with Izzy next time since obviously her and Dave are gonna have a talk. But yeah, as you can see I didn't bring her back for no reason. Anyway, big F in the chat for Sugar. I think she had a great run and if you're upset to see her gone then hey, I consider that a win since it implies I made her fun to read. Give her more respect in fic people, she deserves it!

The other big thing to talk about is the theming of the chapter's location/song/challenge. Why did I go so hard on a pro wrestling based episode? Because fuck you, I really like pro wrestling. Remember when I went all out on the Persona 5 song parody? Here's that turned up to 11. Today we visited Mexico, which is indeed a country visited in RR (and technically World Tour for like 10 seconds of screentime). But it's one I felt kinda obligated to visit for personal reasons. Plus it's the perfect location to facilitate the challenge. You're hard pressed to find another country where wrestling is so ingrained in their pop culture. In their golden age Mexican wrestlers were basically the country's biggest celebrities, and the luchador is probably the most iconic wrestler stereotype in the mainstream. Then we have the song, which allowed me to pull from the niche well of bangers that is wrestler entrance music. I did consider songs made by artists known outside of wrestling ("The Game" by Motorhead, "Rollin" by Limp Bizkit). Or just straight up songs that were already popular before being used as an entrance theme ("Cult of Personality" by Living Colour). But in the end, John Cena's theme was kinda the perfect choice. It's an iconic theme, sung by the wrestler himself, and better yet has plenty of mainstream notoriety as a meme. I was bound to make the cast have to rap at some point, and since it was going to be cringe why not lean into it by utilizing a meme song?

As for the challenge itself, I went with a Royal Rumble kinda thing since I thought it made the most sense for having this many people to work with. A large part of the challenge is actually recycled from my defunct SYOC fic where every episode was themed after a video game genre. The fighting game episode was going to involve Cameron providing the suits for a fighting tournament, so I utilized that here. Because A: It explained why characters like Sammy or Dawn could stand a chance against the powerhouses. And B: It meant Chris and Chef could bully Cameron. The commentater that gets picked on by the more colorful ones is a reoccurring trope in wrestling. Decorating the suits was also going to be a thing in the SYOC, but with the characters basing them off fighting game characters instead of wrestlers. As you can imagine, each contestant had an existing wrestler I had in mind when giving them a character (or a video game character in Beardo's case). Some inspirations may be more obvious than others. Overall, I'm aware it was probably a lot for a challenge regarding a topic most readers might find odd. But I apologize for nothing, I had fun writing it and hope it was at least entertaining. Plus I think a large challenge for kicking off the merge is justified. Still, I'll try to go light on the challenge next chapter to balance it out. Speaking of which, next time we're going to Asia.

This chapter is already long enough as is, so why not dig a little deeper with this long AN? What can I say, it's the merge, we gotta start things big. I published last chapter when I was sleepy so I wound up forgetting to mention a few things. Giving the usual hint for this chapter's location was one of them. Another is apparently FFN has a character limit on chapter titles. The previous chapter's proper title is "Aftermath: The Good, The Bad, and The Scourtney." But things got awkwardly cut off, forcing me to abbreviate it. I only bring it up because the awkwardly abbreviated title made it on to the TV tropes article in a spot or two. Finally, I forgot to mention the poll on my profile like twice now, lmao. Yeah, I have a profile poll up allowing you to vote on some of your favorites still in the game. Feel free to go vote on it now while you can. I'll be replacing it with a new poll once the next chapter is up, one that will actually somewhat affect the story. But more on that then. Oh yeah, and the new season is good btw. No spoilers for those of you waiting for an official release (or perhaps even unaware that Italy already leaked the whole thing to begin with). But I'd probably rank it 4th or 5th, gotta do a ROTI rewatch to decide if I place it above that or not. Aaaaand my favorites of the gen are Zee and Bowie. Alright, NOW I'm done. See you all next time for the (probably) much shorter chapter.