Survivor - Heroes vs Villains

Chapter 23 - Day 20 & Day 21 Part 1

(Okay, so I'm still in the editing process so this will be removed when this is finished. My apologies for any grammatical or spelling errors. Ugh...)

Something tells me to for now on leave the author's notes at the bottom of the page and at the bottom of the page only unless I need to say something important. Then again, I'm used to typing author's notes in the beginning so... thoughts?

But I do have something important to say today. You guys pretty much have no idea how I make and plan out these seasons lol. So I'm gonna give you a little behind the scenes insight. Usually I plan the boot list within the time span of up to a few days and the whole boot list is done in advance. I would do it as I go along, you might think, but... it's gonna completely mess up of how I edit these characters regarding what type of edit I'm gonna give them. And I don't want the season to be edited all over the place.

So these days, what I am doing from season six forward is planning one day at a time. For example, Monday, I plan day one. Tuesday, I plan day two. One day at a time. I think it's gonna really help me regarding the decisions these players make. They're more likely (hopefully) going to be more thought out and executed properly. I'll bring this up again soon in the future.

~KF

Darleem

Day 20

Donkey Kong, Bowser, Yoshi, Zelda, Wolf, Ridley, Vector, Shadow, Ryu, Shovel Knight, Plague Knight, Golden, Springtrap

-/-

What a nice merge day for the tribe of Darleem. The remaining thirteen players making it to that stage of the game further motivated them all to do well of course. It was only a matter of time before day thirty-nine was set to happen. Thirteen castaways were still in, ten had to leave...

Emphasis on the 'ten had to leave' part. People were going to be playing idols, backstabbing others, and lying right to peoples' faces in order to win All-Stars. It was their second chance, and it was up to them to take advantage of that.

Now about the whole concept of finding idols, there was a side view of a certain pair of black shoes stomping along the sand near the water. With the camera further going up his body, it was none other than Vector the Crocodile.

#DetectiveVec

He was searching high and low, not even needing to remind Yoshi of the mission for that day upon the two of them waking up.

"That thing's gotta be around here somewhere. I ain't gonna feel any better until the idol is secured in my possession..."

"Yesterday I said something about having folks at home stay tuned, because unfortunately, Yoshi and I didn't have time to even begin searching for the idol. Merge day is kinda like day one all over again. Camp maintenance, checking in with allies who you're closest too, and making sure you're involved with these conversations. Every time I turn around I got this going on, that going on, while I'm over here just wanting to do certain things to achieve my own agenda..." Yeah. Survivor was a really hard game to play and this was only reason number 224. "But hey, it's a new day. Now we both gotta make time until that idol is found. Espio may not be here, but maybe I can pretend Yoshi is a more tolerable version of Charmy (and definitely less annoying for sure). Detective Vec is officially on the case. ...Wish me luck."

Did he really just shade his own real life teammate in Charmy on universal television? What a way to throw an innocent child under the bus!

But anyway, Vector and Yoshi were on the hunt. Yoshi was not seen at that moment due to Vector telling him that it was a better idea for them to split up to avoid the two being seen looking for an idol together... Now if this was a horror movie, splitting up was actually one of the dumbest things to do and Vector would have looked like a major dumbass.

Though for this situation in particular, his reasons were easily justified. And yet as he was pacing along the beach, part of him wondered of how Yoshi was doing.

"Ugh... I'm gonna feel awful inside if I find this thing before Yoshi does, because that idol is gonna be mine if I discover it. Last season in the Caribbean, Ken helped find the merged tribe idol with Simon and he quickly snatched it before Ken even had the chance to really look at it..."

It was rather a bold move from Simon. Yet to be fair on his end, they were his clues by the way. And he most likely knew damn well what he was doing too. There was no way he was just going to let Ken get it. Honestly though, it was all for nothing because Simon later wasted it at the K. Rool tribal when he was not even an option to be voted for at the time...

"The clue said something about me having to reach for something." He slowly rotated his head scanning the place. "But it didn't necessarily say I had to reach up or something... I could reach and grab anything from anywhere."

In another random shot, his head slowly rose from the bushes with his eyes staring down into one's soul. And within a split second, his head immediately dropped from the view.

And in another scene, he was gradually tip toeing his way past Ridley and Springtrap. ...Well at least they were two more of his fellow Caribbean people.

"It's really a shame that Meta Knight isn't here." The dragon shook his head, still not feeling like he heard the full story behind his elimination.

Oh, right. As a matter of fact, Meta was the only contestant from season four that did not make it to the merge. What a shame.

"It really is." Yeah. How shameful. "It really would have been interesting seeing you two work together again."

Now Vector was crawling around in the dirt to avoid being spotted by anyone. ...Okay, the croc made his point. Why was he making himself dirty? He needed to rinse the sand off in the water.

As for Yoshi, it was him that was now on the beach. Him and Vec unknowingly swapped places basically.

"'Hopefully you have grown used to the layout of your beach, as the item you are seeking might require you to reach.'" He repeated the contents of the clue to himself glancing around. "Where would I have to reach, then?"

He found himself standing on a rocky cliff. Yoshi took a glance at the water. If he fell, it was going to be a long way down indeed. The obvious move was to be careful and watch his footing.

So he made sure he was as far away from the ledge as possible.

"I feel like people underestimate out here. Now to be honest, when I played Caribbean, I was just really happy to be on Survivor. It was a dream even since the first season started. It was always something I wanted to be a part of, and my natural first thought was that I needed to survive for as long as I can. And I've made it all the way to the end, but in the eyes of some people, I... mentally, they probably figured I wasn't 'tough' enough."

Not tough enough?

"I gotta a couple jury votes, but people didn't think I really understood the game like that even though I was a swing vote basically every other Tribal Council. But, you know what? I may not as be as tough inside compared to big, huge gamers like Ridley, Foxy, Ryu, or Specter. But... I'm learning. I've realized that I gotta get to the end again somehow. I may not be all the way there yet, but I'm learning as I go. I thought to myself that maybe if I find this idol, it could be a really nice start."

Ignoring the waves crashing down on the large cliff, Yoshi stood right in the center of it with his eyes staring forward watching the ocean.

"It is a nice view from here... Maybe I should come over here more often. The villains really do have a nice lair."

Turning back around, his eyes came across something that made him squint a little. There were a couple large rocks that stared right at him. However there was a noticeable small gap between them. The best way to describe it was that the only smasher that had the ability to properly fit between the two rocks without any trouble was none other than... Mr. Game & Watch, the only 2-D fighter in the entire Smash Bros roster. Otherwise, best of luck in not getting crushed to death between the two of them.

"I wouldn't have to reach in there, would I?"

He scanned the two rocks top to bottom, even noticing the bottom of one of the two rocks being chipped away. Yoshi began to shift his head away, before quickly staring back for a second look... There was something stuffed in that gap that he barely caught with his eyes.

"What in the... Is that it?"

Dashing forward and bending down, he reached forward and pulled out a wrapped up special item he just so happened to be looking for.

"Oh, Star Sprits... Really?" Immediately unwrapping it, he gasped falling right on his bottom. "What!? ...No way!"

Well,... he found it. Yoshi found an immunity idol.

"I... I can't believe it! Is... Is this real!?

Reading the fine print, he confirmed to himself that indeed it was.

But then he was seen constantly rotating his head around all of a sudden, seemingly searching to see if anyone was watching him from afar. Though he was more focused on thinking of one particular person.

"Oh..."

...And he did it again.

"Oh..."

And again.

"...Oh, it feels so wrong. I should really tell Vector about this, but... I... Ugh. I need to get back. I need to put this somewhere so no one can get to it." And with that, he scrambled to his feet to get up.

"There's all this talk of whether or not somebody should tell someone about the hidden immunity idol when they discover it. People at home say all the time that it's best to not tell anyone no matter what unless you absolutely have to. And... this is my very first time getting any sort of immunity or advantage out here. I really really wanted to run up to Vector and tell him about this, but... It looks like I have something to prove to myself out here. There's still a lot more about this game to learn, and so I think that I should keep this to myself. Sorry, Vec. But the whole universe is gonna know whenever this comes out, anyway."

"So we are going to go eight strong for this round." Shovel Knight talked with Zelda walking along in the woods again. "It sounds like a decent plan. Plague and Shadow pretty much have no choice but to be with us since the old villains probably don't want anything to do with them."

"Correct." Zelda nodded her head.

"Hmm... Hopefully this all works out." There was a hint of nervousness in his voice. "The two people that I would be most concerned about are Donkey Kong and Golden."

"...Because they haven't been with us for a while?"

"That and they were blindsided right before we swapped. The team was going to be divided at some point, but at the same time,... we really didn't have much time to see how they were really feeling. I hate to say this Zelda, but even though we know Plague and Shadow the least going into this, it's two of our own folks we should worry about the most..."

"..." Zelda heaved a quickly sigh. "You know, you're actually right about that. That's one part of me that's telling me that something about this is making them not want to work with us. But hopefully we can actually talk to both of them about this and see."

"You know, Zelda has done a good job thus far playing this game in a more strategic way. She's opened to me about it while we were on Valverde and the main thing she wants to do is to fix as many of her mistakes as much as possible... I think that's something all twenty of us have in common." Shovel Knight laughed. "But she's definitely playing a strategically stronger game than our original season. So even though I blindsided Meta Knight, Zelda is another strategist I could hopefully be with for a while. ...However, even I realize the possibility of Golden and DK not working with us. They're not going to forget what happened before the swap and if they turn against us at this upcoming vote, I certainly won't be surprised... I hope they don't, though."

It was now or never when it came to talking Golden straight up about it.

"We want to make sure that you two are with us." Zelda put it plain and simple. "We understand that you two were left out of the picture by us voting out someone neither of you wanted."

And Golden decided to not lie regarding how he felt about it. "It was really someone I wasn't expecting. I was surprised I was not voted off myself at the time, since we were swapping anyway."

"I apologize for that. None of the four of us wanted to do that to you, but that's what we did. But it doesn't mean that we simply can't work together anymore."

"..." The bear shifted his head Shovel's way. "I believe your vote was the most surprising of all."

"Well of course it pained me to do it and to this day I feel guilty of betraying your trust, but I've made up in my mind of what I intended to do. But like Zelda said, just because you don't vote with us one vote doesn't mean we can't work together again for the rest of the game. I did what I felt like doing to protect my game."

"We can work together again." She continued. "Shadow and Plague Knight were just blindsided at our tribal. And we understand that you and Kong have the perfect opportunity to basically swap places with them in the Villains Tribe Alliance, but you don't know them as much as you know us. For all we know, there could be an alliance with Ridley, Springtrap, Wolf, Bowser, and Ryu because all five of them were most likely against Specter Knight to begin with and Shadow and Plague were the only two people that didn't wish to send him home, anyway. The voting results speak for themselves."

"And I guess tribe wise we are still down in numbers, even though things have gotten better for all of us." Golden brought up. "I appreciate you two being open about this all. So your plan is to have the six of us plus Shadow and Plague Knight align together for a majority."

"We're deciding between Ridley, Bowser, or Ryu." Zelda replied nodding. "They are the three strongest villains on that side and they were all notable figures in their respective seasons. In the event Ridley wins immunity, it should be between Bowser or Ryu at that point."

"Zelda and Shovel Knight came up to me apologizing for what went down at our camp before everybody swapped all over the place. But they've shown that they were willing to work with me and DK. And the thing is, I think they are both genuine people. I mean, we were on the Heroes tribe. I don't see one shady thing about them, but it is a game, and we're all two-time players now. It was a 4-3 vote, and the two of us were on the wrong side. And now that the both of us managed to make it to the merge, the two of them plus Vector and Yoshi know that they need our votes, while already aware that they put us on the bottom of the heroes team... I wonder how much of them honestly think DK and I would work with them again, because... I know I would need a good reason to do that."

The two big heroes were now with the two big villains in Ridley and Bowser.

"That's exactly what they said." And apparently Golden immediately told the reptiles the details of that conversation. "They need our votes to make it an 8-5 so they can send one of you home, and I wouldn't be surprised if Plague and Shadow are both in on it."

"..." Ridley stared without even blinking once. "Do you plan on going with them?"

"...I don't." Golden shook his head.

"Good."

"Look, they mean well, but I wasn't born yesterday." Donkey Kong spoke out. "We are not going to just magically pretend that it's still Heroes vs Villains where all of the heroes have to take all of the villains out of the game. Me and Golden got burned at our tribe, you sent Foxy home, you sent Specter home, the villains are clearly on separate pages. The theme of the season is done."

"As we all know it." Bowser laughed. "I still can't believe I did that. But in a weird way, I'm glad it happened because I had my chance to look good once again on television! Bwahahaha!"

Ridley lifted a finger as a signal to Koopa to hold onto his laugh just for a little bit.

"Honestly, there is literally no point at all if you two go with those four heroes. It's pointless. You two are way too intelligent to fall for that. They know damn well what they did. They even told Ryu and I that Meta was unanimous, so that's a big lie right there. And the only reason why they got away with that is because of the fact that neither of you were even there. I'm actually surprised that they seem to have no interest in voting one of you off right now knowing how history so far between you all this season."

"Their overall goal is to stay hero strong." Goldie informed.

"Well, I call bull_." Bowser raised his hands. "I would not fall for that. It wouldn't even matter which of the two of you would go first and that. You both are five and six in that alliance if the heroes somehow overpower us, but this theme is over and done with anyway, we all played a part of that. We just need to solidify this alliance right now."

"We're definitely in, that's for sure. It's DK and I, you, you, and Ryu." He pointed at each individual one by one.

"...So you two really think that Vector is not going to be with us..." That was one major thing Ridley had in mind. "I've been talking with him for as much as I can..."

"I don't see him doing it, Ridley." Donkey Kong shook his head in denial. "He was the main one against playing with Sonic and Isabelle, we both put his old friend's name down, Shovel and Zel are hooked up with him, I'll be surprised if he does switch allegiance because that would be an even bigger betrayal that Shovel betraying Meta Knight."

He groaned in frustration. All that strategy talk for nothing. "You know that the worse thing about this is that this is exactly what he was doing in Survivor - Caribbean. He likes to play up telling people that he's with us and willing to work alongside us for the long run, only to be in a completely alliance that nobody even knew about. He flipped on his own tribe which included Ken, Simon, and Doc Louis just to stick with the Reptile Runaways."

Bowser snickered out loud. "And now that there are two new members of the Reptile Runaways, he goes against that."

"Because he likes to play both sides to save his own tail! It played a big part of me going home!"

"Now that we're merged, me and the other members of the new Strong Guys Alliance finally had the chance to get together consisting of myself, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Golden, and Ryu. I've been wanting Vector to be apart of this, which is why I've been trying to talk to him the moment he came on the Valverde camp. Though apparently, Meta Knight was not unanimous at all. Vector, Zelda, Shovel, and Yoshi all voted for Meta blindsiding Donkey Kong and Golden who just so happened to be the strongest members of the old heroes tribe. It was complete news for me to hear. This goes to show that Vector was basically lying to me the entire time I was with him, and since I've heard of his true intentions, Vector once again has his own plans. This is exactly why he became such a big threat in our season in the first place. My trust in him has completely plummeted. And this time, I was able to see right through him first. So since he's against me, perhaps we should simply swap him out with someone else as long as we can still get enough numbers to control this game. I'd claw myself in the face if I get voted out in this spot again."

Donkey Kong counted on his fingers. "Vector, Zelda, Shovel, Yoshi... You know what, let's just call them the Hero Four. If he's not with us, then that gives us even more reasons we shouldn't be with them."

"Well something tells me you two need to play double agent on him and the rest of those four to see how Vector likes it." Ridley suggested. "We can figure out who's vote we need to collect to have the numbers on our side."

"If Shadow and Plague are with them, they have six. And we only have five..." Bowser turned Ridley's way. "That's eleven of the thirteen of us here. Who are we missing...?"

Thinking for a moment, Golden all of a sudden heaved a brief sigh. "Wolf and Springtrap."

"...Oh, yeah." He scratched the back of his head. "I knew that. Me and Wolf and still cool. If we can get him on board, we automatically get Springtrap. Shouldn't be hard at all for him to be in on this."

"Ridley's been talking to me a lot lately about this apparent new version of the Strong Guys Alliance. Supposedly it consists of himself, Bowser, Ryu, and Golden and DK from the heroes tribe. And he wants the three of us in on it." It was a good opportunity to hear from the croc himself about the situation. "But you know what,... even though I gotta say Ridley is trying to play a better game season,... I can't work with him on that. This is exactly what happened in our season. People keep coming up to me with different ideas and alliances,... but I already have an alliance! I'm tight with Yoshi, Zel, and Shovel. That's my strong four. And then on top of that, DK and Golden are voting with us as well (or at least I hope they are). Somebody's gotta be on the wrong side of the numbers here so we can take them out, and unfortunately for Ridley, he's the one that might have to go."

Meanwhile, Wolf O'Donnell was walking along the sand with Shadow and Springtrap.

"There is no way DK would have played the idol on anyone other than himself if he was not told on what was going down." Now at first Wolf was rather hesitant to reveal his true thoughts to Springtrap the previous day, but that day he decided to let it all out. And in front of Shadow, too, which meant he was most likely going to tell Plague Knight. "I didn't do it, you didn't do it, Foxy didn't do it, so that leaves Bowser."

"Do you really think Bowser would do something like that?" The hedgehog was not so sure. "Not trying to call him... stupid, but last time I checked, he came into this game mainly due to his over the top, arrogant asshole kind of personality that just so happened to be the biggest character from your season."

"That's part of the reason, but he was also asked to play this again because they know he ain't no dummy. He's probably a little underestimated in a strategical sense. This could be an example."

"If this is true, then I'm gonna be pissed." Springtrap shook his head. "He almost killed the games of both of us and we're lucky Valverde went to the last Tribal Council."

"Yesterday I had a conversation with Springtrap about my concerning thoughts of how Foxy went out of the game, and I've made my little hypothesis. ...Hopefully, you all know what a hypothesis is, by the way." Yes, Wolf. People went to school. "My educated guess is that Bowser told Donkey Kong of who my alliance was going after, and it resulted in him playing his idol on Golden sending Foxy home. It'd be a shame if Bowser was behind all this, since I don't want to jump to conclusions. Let's put to a little test of his loyalty..."

"Hey..." He spotted him lurking around in the woods. It looked as if he was actually trying to find an immunity idol (with him obviously not knowing Darleem's tribe idol was already found).

"...Ugh..." The Koopa glanced away out of guilt. "It's not what it looks like..."

"It is exactly what it looks like, but I don't care about that right now." He folded his arms and by the look on his face, he was kind of... glaring. The guy was a badass, remember? He was not really known for messing around like that. "Could I perhaps ask you about something rather important?"

"...I guess?"

Though he did end up sighing, since part of him actually did not want to confront his friend. "Bowser,... did you tell DK we were targeting Golden in that round? There is no way DK would not have played that idol on himself in that situation. He's smart, but not psychic. ...Did you do it?"

And obviously that hit him out of nowhere. Now he had to quickly come up with something on the spot. How fast of a thinker was he? "...Y-You... You think I was the one behind Foxy going home or something?"

"Yes."

"...Okay?"

"Dude, please. You literally talked to me about your concerns of the vote. You found it stupid that we were targeting Golden or DK over Yoshi since Yoshi was the least likely to have an idol played on him. The consensus between the four of us was that Golden needed to go, so you went behind my back and told DK everything and probably told him to write down Foxy while we're at it.

Damn... Caught.

Bowser immediately sighed in annoyance staring at the ground. "Well, I didn't initially wanted to go. I didn't put his name down, Wolf."

"You didn't have to, because I know what it's like to be voted out without the person behind my elimination even writing my name down in the first place."

Ooh...

"So you admit that you told DK the plan because you didn't like that Foxy was against sending Yoshi home, so to get back at him you basically made him look stupid at tribal. And the thing is Bowser, you basically put me and Springy on the line."

That was when he groaned in frustration. "Look, the last thing I wanted to do was to put you at risk, but I was not going to be the one to get idol'd out in that round. My overall plan was to save myself, okay? If Golden was the one who had the idol, or if DK played his idol on Golden anyway, maybe I would have been the one going home in that round and I would have suffered from Foxy's mistake! I didn't want that to happen. And yes, you and Springtrap would have been in trouble, but if we went to tribal a couple days ago, don't you think I would have fought for you?"

"You would have, and I would have done everything within my power to make sure you stayed in the game... or at least as long as both of us aren't detected at the same time. But dude, you didn't inform of your plan, and now we have trust issues."

"Look man, I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do." Bowser was quickly growing more nervous.

"But, what did you gain from that, though? You tell me what was in store for you. What made you do something like that? Because on paper, telling the enemy alliance to get rid of Foxy just because you didn't get your way of who you wanted gone is a rather petty, emotional move. At least in my opinion. And people can say whatever they want about you Bowser, but I know you personally. Longer than most of these other folks. You ain't stupid. I think you have other alliances going on for you right now, and in one of those alliances, I am not apart of."

Koopa groaned immediately covering his face with both of his hands. "Dude, don't make it seem like I'm trying to write you off."

"I didn't say that. Didn't say it." He shook his head, but he was still not holding back one bit. "I mean, it's fine. It really is, because Foxy was one of my allies. We both had different alliances at that point and I know Foxy wasn't that close to you on a gameplay perspective, just how I am not close to DK even though we both played with him before."

Bowser then glared directly folding his arms. "So, what? You're gonna vote me off, now? Because I'm smart and strong at challenges?"

"Those words didn't come exactly out of my mouth, but... Hmph." He placed a fist beneath his chin. "Now that I can confirm that you were behind all of that, it is up to me to decide what to do with you. I already told Springtrap and Shad."

He widened his eyes upon hearing that. "Dude, you're serious?"

"You told my secret back on La Vega, so I told yours. Now we're both even."

"Wolf..."

"I'll talk to you later. If we stay here any longer together the whole tribe might be against us and we're both going home back to back."

He found it to be a perfect time to walk away from the turtle to leave him in his thoughts.

"I... got caught red-handed, haha..." Bowser laughed anxiously. He did not really find anything humorous about the matter, though. The poor thing was performing cartwheels in his mind of not knowing what to do. "Wolf called me out, and... eventually I admitted to doing what I did. I'm the reason Foxy got his torch snuffed. Not ashamed of it, because he was getting on my nerves. And like Wolf said himself, I was never aligned with Foxy and he knows it. I weakened Wolf's game, which you could say it's a good thing, because at the end of the day I'm playing for me first. For Koopa's sake, he outperformed me in our season! So if Foxy really was aligned with him and I squashed that, good for me. I did my own self a good deed, but no good deed goes unpunished. No Wolf's trust in me is in jeopardy, which really irritates me because... now? Really? At a time like this? I literally need his damn vote to save my tail because I could literally be in trouble the next time we go to tribal! And if I don't have him, that means I don't have Springtrap, which puts my whole alliance in danger... _!"

It was the 'f' word, for those wondering in the audience.

Sneaking his way through the trees, Ridley came through.

"There you are." He said. "I've been meaning to talk to you about pulling Wolf aside and have a conversation with him about getting his vote for the sake of us having the majority here."

"Uhh..." Bowser cocked his head to no direction in particular. "I kinda already did... Something tells me this is going to be a little harder than I thought..."

"..." Nothing but a blink.

Day 21

At first glance, people would have thought this was the first individual immunity challenge of Survivor - Heroes vs Villains. Yet due to the immunity challenge where an entire team had to compete for individual immunity, it technically already happened.

"Come on in!"

Shovel Knight, Bowser, Shadow, Zelda, Golden, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wolf, Ridley, Springtrap, Ryu, Vector, and Plague Knight all came into view walking across the sand before they all stood by side.

"Oh, sweet." Vector commented glancing at what everyone needed to do. "It's the one where we have to hang on for dear life..."

"You guys ready to get to your second individual immunity challenge?"

Within a couple laughs in reply, they replied 'yes' in unison.

"First things first, I will take back tribal immunity for good." Wasting no time, he floated right over to Yoshi who happily gave the idol to him. "Alright. Individual immunity will be what you seek from here on out. For today's challenge, the concept of it is rather simple. You will be hanging onto a pole for as long as you can. If you reach above the rope at the top of the pole, you will be disqualified. If you fall off at any point, you are out. Last person remaining wins immunity, safe from the vote. One in twelve shot at winning our first All Star season of Survivor. Losers, somebody will be voted out and will become the first member of our jury."

Ooh. This mean the Ponderosa series for this season was coming soon.

"Now, this is a challenge that about half of you are familiar with. Bowser, Golden, Donkey Kong, Wolf, Ryu, and Plague Knight all participated in seasons one and three. None of you have won."

Nope. Not one of them. Lucario won in Kodai Island (the one time where he actually had individual immunity, rather than placing second for like four times) and Funky Kong won in Mexico (who would have been the one idol'd out in that vote split if he did not had the necklace).

Man... That would have been a whole different story, knowing Funky actually made it all the way to the end.

"We'll draw for spots, we'll get started."

Who had the ability to hold out the longest? It was best to flaunt whatever merchandise the Survivor fans had for any particular player. ...Go, DK! Go, Springtrap! Go, Meta Knight!

...Even though he was not there anymore.

-/-

"Okay... Everybody climb on up..."

What if some folks were afraid of heights? Did the master ever take that into account? Of course, he did not. He had no heart or soul to care.

"Oh, Star Spirits..." Yoshi gulped, using the ladder the producers give him to climb up to the highest possible foothold. "This is gonna be like one of the roller coasters rides where the ride gets stuck midair."

"And it's gonna take forever for help to come and save you. I get it." Springtrap finished for him. "The bad thing is we're the ones that have to hold on like our life depends on it."

"Your life does depend on it." Master Hand talked. "Lose immunity, you have a chance of going home at Tribal Council."

What a way to rub it in...

Once all of the ladders were taken away by production staff, the master was now ready. "Alright. Everybody's in position and this challenge is on..."

...

"The longer you last up here will be the longer you would have to feel whatever fatigue is coming your way. If you plan on being up there for a while, be prepared for the worst. Your body will feel it."

There were quite a few strategies upon first glance. All thirteen castaways were holding on, but each had their own way of doing things. Shadow was actually one foothold down compared to some of the other castaways as it was his hands gripping on the highest foothold. Golden's feet were not even on a foothold at all, as his ankles were crossed assuming that it would have made somewhat of a difference.

Plague Knight did not want to be too high up, so he was the lowest out of everyone sitting right in the middle of his pole.

"...Okay, just a little too high for me." Zelda soon joined him in the middle section, deciding the heights was something she was not completely comfortable with. "There. A little better."

And then there were Survivor folks like Ryu who was seen gripping that pole as hard as he possibly could have. His eyes were closed too.

Donkey Kong was taking the moment to observe everyone around him.

"No room to hide here." said Master Hand. "Survivor always exposes your strengths and weaknesses. Some of you will last a long time out here depending on what happens, some of you will be lucky enough to even make it to ten minutes. Bottom line is that there are thirteen people here, twelve of you need to drop in order to have one person win individual immunity. How badly do you want it? You're gonna have to put up a fight, even if it means just hanging around."

An endurance test, just to put it in more simple terms.

Within just a little bit of time, there were no casualties just yet.

"You have now been out here one minute. Pretty good start for all of you so far. You need to be able to get in that zone where you can feel a little comfortable despite the circumstances you're in right now."

Zelda was also one of those castaways using her hands to grip on the foothold directly above her, even using one arm in an attempt to shake some of the pain away.

But for Plague Knight, he was seen already struggling. His right foot actually slipped on the foothold and he tried to quickly put it back on there. Unfortunately for him, his left foot slipped on the foothold as he slowly began to slide his way down to the point where he landed right in the sand.

"Just like in Survivor - Mexico, Plague Knight is the first person out of this challenge. You can go ahead and take a spot on the sit out bench."

"Hey, last time I only lasted for about thirty seconds." He spoke as he made his way over to make himself comfortable on said bench. "I doubled the time of my own personal best."

"Speaking of time, the winners of this challenge were Lucario and Funky Kong. Funky Kong lasted forty-five minutes, Lucario lasted for fifty minutes. That's the current record of this challenge. And here we have Donkey Kong being familiar with both of them. One of them's a castaway he played with before, the other is his fur, flesh, and blood."

Oh, the FFB. Hmm. Fur, flesh, and blood. Perhaps furry lovers needed to consider to start saying that.

"Don't worry, master. I'm planning on beating both of 'em." The ape spoke with confidence. "You can let me know when we hit fifty minutes and we'll see how many people are left."

There was now another castaway slipping. Looks like there was going to be one less competitor DK had to deal with.

"And just like that, Shovel Knight is out of the challenge. Go ahead and join Plague on the bench." The master pointed.

"It's harder than it looks. I'm a little disappointed, to be honest..." He talked as he walked... Walkin' and talkin'.

Not too long after he dropped, the princess of the tribe could not have held on any longer.

"Zelda is out. Down to ten."

At least she outlasted a couple people.

"The sooner you really get locked in, the more likely you are to last in this challenge for a bit."

Supposedly Yoshi never really had the chance to lock in, slowly sliding down before hopping off the closest foothold to the bottom.

"Yoshi's out. Down to nine."

Sliding down one foothold, Shadow the Hedgehog began to struggle.

"Oh, Shad..." Plague commented from the bench.

Yet he was able to hang on.

In contrast, there were castaways like Ridley, Ryu, and Donkey Kong that were simply watching everybody and waiting.

Was it a possible minor spoiler of who was going to last for a long time?

"This is only slightly better than our first post-merge challenge." Springtrap thought out loud.

"I agree with you on that." Vector spoke, him clinging onto his pole with all of his limbs crossed. "If Ken was here all he would do is laugh."

"It fits him." mumbled Ryu.

Shadow tried his best holding his grip. But before he knew it, his legs gave out and he was unable to recover.

"Shadow is out of the challenge. We are now down to eight. Springtrap, Donkey Kong, Vector, Ridley, Golden, Bowser, Ryu, and Wolf."

Elapsed Time: 14 Minutes

"Been out here for fourteen minutes. You guys are all doing well. Nice work."

He was actually being nice to his castaways for once? That was unusual. Was Master Hand feeling okay?

It was at a point where Springtrap, Vector, Wolf, and Bowser all started to move at least a little bit.

"You're going to start feeling it in your legs first, especially with sweat dripping off your body. Arms will start to get tired, and that will be the true test to see how strong you really are and how much pain are you willing to take just to make sure you have a one in twelve shot at winning Survivor."

Wolf shook his head sighing. "This sucks... This is what monkeys are for."

"Got one right here." Donkey Kong grinned hard his way. "I don't feel anything."

"Yet..." Ryu butted in. "You're not immune to not feeling anything yourself. Your cousin knows first hand."

"Probably. But by the time that happens everyone would probably already be gone."

Ridley did not utter a word. Just stared.

"W-Woah! ...Oof..."

"And out of nowhere, Bowser is out of the challenge."

Most of the players are eliminated from the challenge appeared rather shocked.

"Bowser, what happened?" Even the master was curious.

"At this point I can say that this challenge is not my thing. This was worse than Kodai Island." He shook his head in irritation as he made his way over to join everybody else.

Wolf folded his lips in.

"Alright. Down to seven."

He then found himself sliding down another foothold. Now he was right in the middle of the pole.

"Wolf still struggling. You have to keep that body alive."

The eye patched animal was able to keep his grip for the new few minutes. But eventually, he was not able to hold on forever.

"Wolf is out. We have six left."

Springtrap dropped his right arm to shake the fatigue away a little, Ridley watching all the while as he was basically standing tall on his pole like there was nothing wrong. ...Come to think of it, in spite of his size being decreased in the Smash universe, he was still the tallest of the cast. No wonder Doc Louis always called him 'Big Bad Ridley'.

Donkey Kong simply stayed focus on himself.

"Vector readjusting." Master Hand's eyes were on the croc now crossing his ankles versus having his feet remain on the foothold right below him. "Can he stay put?"

Nope. Because when he tried to move one foothold higher it was just too much for his legs since they did not want to move up anymore. So as a consequence, he ended up sliding all the way down.

"And he's out. We are now down to five... Springtrap, Donkey Kong, Ridley, Golden, and Ryu."

And four of them were in the exact same alliance!

"Hmm..." That was something Zelda noticed, yet she did not want to say anything at the time since Bowser was right there.

Elapsed Time: 22 Minutes

"You've been out here for more than twenty minutes."

Plague Knight shook in frustration. That one measly minute was something that was really bothering him. And he was out first on both occasions.

"Whether you are showing it on your face or not, everybody's gotta be feeling something at this point."

Springtrap and Golden appeared to be feeling it the most out of everyone, being the main two moving around, with Ryu every now and then repositioning himself. The only two left that showed no movement at all were Donkey Kong and Ridley. Possible showdown between the two?

"Springtrap." Master Hand called on. "Do you mainly feel it in your arms, your legs? What's hurting you the most?"

"Everywhere. My whole body." His laugh was out of pain and suffering, if that made any sort of sense. "I have a feeling you just like to torture us on purpose. It's always entertaining for the audience to watch at home, but they have it easy. For everybody doing this, nothing is ever easy out here."

"Well, last time I checked, you guys were the ones to sign up for it."

"Ooh!" Several castaways replied simultaneously, with almost everybody else laughing.

"And the fact that everyone here is an All Star, you've been through this before. Don't expect anything less."

"Just ignore him, Springtrap." Ridley finally talked. "This giant hand over here has pushed my buttons over that double elimination challenge twice."

Ridley! Seriously? Why was he still onto that? Just let it go! He was not even a target at the time this season!

"Ridley. I know you're not talking. Don't even get me started with you."

That earned even more laughs from the other players. Master Hand did not play no games!

But anyway, Golden ended up being the next to drop. His body was officially done for the day.

"And with that, Golden is out. Down to four."

Springtrap tried to hold for as long as his arms and legs allowed him to, but after another couple of minutes, he had enough.

"Springtrap is out. Let's call that karma."

Damn! Poor Springy was being roasted by the master!

"We are now down to three." A more zoomed out view of everyone was left was shown. "Three of our strongest challenge competitors. Donkey Kong, whose cousin won this challenge in season three due to his advantage of having life experience climbing and holding on. Ridley, who has never done this challenge before, but everyone knows how physically capable he is."

Basically, possibly the strongest physical competitor in Survivor history so far.

"And Ryu, who has done this challenge before. He was also shown to perform rather well at endurance challenges. He's probably used to staying in a still position long periods of time due to all that meditation... Honestly, I see any of these three winning this."

Time to see...

Elapsed Time: 55 Minutes

"We're almost at the hour mark."

"Jesus Christ..." Springtrap shook his head snickering out of disbelief. "Just how?"

"All three guys are moving at least a little bit."

They were. Early signs of struggle were finally starting to show. Ridley kept on moving up and down, Ryu was just now starting to cross his legs holding onto his pole for dear life, and DK moved one rung lower.

"I'm still in it, though..." He said. "I flopped when I did this in my season, but I'm doing my best to succeed this time."

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Ryu replied grunting. "I want redemption after I lost to your cousin in my season. You're gonna be out soon."

"Yiou both have already lost." said Ridley. "It is just a matter of how long we are going to stay here. Tribal Council might have to wait until the next day."

"Oh no..." Plague Knight fell on his back in the sand. "Please don't let that happen. I haven't eaten anything today..."

"I'm with you on this one." Vector mumbled. "I performed fairly well, but I'm not gonna get to the point where I should be considering sleeping out here for the night..."

Well there was hope. Slowly but surely, the street fighter finally gave out as he made his way down the pole.

"Ryu's out of the challenge."

He walked over to the sit out bench with defeat, but not without his tribe members clapping their hands out of respect. That was nearly a whole damn hour.

"Great job, Ryu."

"You did great."

"It all comes down to this." The view of the remaining players extended once again. "It is going to be Donkey Kong vs Ridley in a fight to win individual immunity. Donkey Kong has won immunity before on day twelve, Ridley has not. He's been inching to win immunity for quite a while. Is today going to be his day, or will he fall short once again?"

"Where's the popcorn?" Wolf asked.

Donkey Kong glanced Ridley's way. "You ready for this?"

"..." Nothing but a blink. No verbal reply at all.

But this only made DK smirk scrunching whatever eyebrows he had underneath all that fur. "So that's how you wanna play it, huh?"

Elapsed Time: 1 Hour, 10 Minutes

"You have now been out here for an hour an ten minutes."

"Awesome."

"Keep going, boys."

"At least I beat my record." Ryu looked at the bright side.

"Both guys are moving a lot more, now." Master Hand noticed of how DK's les kept shaking, while Ridley was slipping every now and then. But every time it happened he always managed to get himself back together.

He suddenly turned his head away to avoid Kong seeing him mumble under his breath. "Drop already."

His feet were shaking as if the next day was never going to come.

But judging by the state of Donkey Kong's forehead, he was sweating bullets at that point as he kept on trying to reposition his legs in a different way.

"Ridley, you done yet?"

He kept his eyes closed, choosing not to insult him in front of everyone.

"Holy bananas..." Donkey Kong closed his eyes as well.

"I think the both of them are at their breaking point." Zelda figured. "One of them should be dropping any minute now..."

And she was right. Within the next minute, DK was shown to be finally sliding down, suddenly leaping off the last foothold.

"Donkey Kong is out!"

"RIDLEY WINS INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY!"

"Oh my God..."

"He did it."

"He beat Donkey Kong!"

Donkey Kong's body was lying down in the sand as Ridley wasted no time sliding down the pole.

"Great job, guys!"

Ridley had to pass his fellow competitor in order to get to Master Hand to receive the immunity necklace.

"Help me up." Then the next thing he knew, his eyes glanced down at the ape's hand begging for it to be grabbed.

"..." Oh, what the hell. He went for it and pulled DK along making him stand on his own. "You are one tough competitor. I'll give you that."

"Thank you. At least I beat Funky's time..."

"Ridley, here you go." Following a round of applause, Ridley Zebesian was getting the immunity necklace hooked onto him. "You have individual immunity for the first time in your Survivor career."

"It's been a long time coming..." He appeared to be a little exhausted, but he had the opportunity to recover for the rest of the day at the shelter. "Thank you, master."

"You cannot be voted out at Tribal Council, one in twelve shot at a million dollars. As for the rest of you, you are vulnerable at Tribal Council. One of you will be going home tonight. Let's see how this plays out. Everyone head back to camp."

"It's one thing to be finally wearing this necklace, but I have individual immunity and a hidden immunity idol." Ridley was smiling hard as if it was the happiest day of his Survivor life. "I feel powerful and unstoppable. Nobody can take this away from me. But the thing is that now that I am safe, that gives my alliance an advantage. We would not have to worry about the other alliance that is brewing possibly winning immunity, because I want one of them gone. Though apparently, there are some issues with certain people that need to be dealt with. So it's not going to be a simple walk in the lava pit..."

Or as the modern humans put it, 'a walk in the ball park'.

Rather concerning dynamic going on here between Wolf and Bowser. Bowser quickly went from making one of the biggest moves of the game so far to... being on the chopping block. And it seems DK and Golden are done with the heroes so now SGA is ready to make their move, but without Wolf and Springtrap's votes one of them is going home. Uh oh...

Oh, and Yoshi just found the merged tribe idol without even telling Vector. Damn.

Congratulations to... Wario! You are officially the first confirmed castaway from season six!