Total Drama Homespun

by NondescriptNorbert

Another year, another season. Chris McLean is back in command of his prized reality show, returning to the held after an eventful season held by another showrunner. This time Chris has got 23 crossover contestants, a house big enough to create any challenge he wants, and a host that's just a little bit nuts (He's a squirrel). This, is Total Drama Homespun.

9. All I Ask of You

Homespun Episode Seven:

Homeschooled Part 1: All I Ask of You

...

---

Here we are at last, the first part of the patent Norbert episode three-parter. The End of the Beginning.

That Guy: Episode Six was one of the few I felt I got right last time, so it hasn't changed to drastically. I'm glad you still enjoy it

TDI 4ever: I'm very happy you think so! Thank you for your continued support.

Goodguygary: To my knowledge Entrapta wasn't designed with any race in mind, though according to the staff, she is intentionally coded as autistic.

...

---

Last time! On Total Drama Homespun!" Chris begins. "I had myself the best darn time a host could ask for, spending a challenge repeatedly blowing up my cast and the ratings over and over again. True, while some of the other staff and contestants disproved of my methods, by the end of the day I had everyone knowledgeable enough to build their own disaster houses. Just in time for Alucard to obliterate the Supertasks.

Ultimately, it was Herlock, playing his cards a bit too soon that ended up going home, but not before he could pass his legacy onto the trusted hands of his teams' youngest player, Penny. Which I'm sure isn't going to put any sort of pressure on her at all."

…

A little fake sun rises over the cabins. Kissing the fake trees and fake foliage with fake sunlight.

Living in the Rodney House was taking some getting used to, and it came easier for some than others.

"Annie…"

Jack Smith's handwriting, still awkward and blocky at his age dances across the page of the journal he brought from home.

"Things have been developing very interesting… so far I guess."

He crosses the last two words out for being unprofessional. Ever since he and his sister had discovered a magical Arthurian tree house that could travel through time, he'd taken being a professional scientist very seriously.

He pauses, pencil lead bouncing indeterminately on paper as he wonders whether he should voice his next thought

"…But Annie, you can tease me for this late, I'm having trouble making friends here without you. It's so different going on an adventure alone, without you or Teddy or Kathleen or Morgan. I wish you were here. I know you feel the same way. You are probably really bored alone back in Frog Creek. But At least you have everyone back home to talk to. I have been trying to talk with my teammates but it's…" He thinks for a moment trying to find a more professional word than 'hard'. "…It's challenging, finding connections sometimes."

The commotion behind him tears his attention away from the page. He and the Ordinals have moved back into the nicer of the two team cabins, and with the extra space he was hoping things would be less tense. But that might have been naïve.

Katara and Shego's voices ring down the hall.

"Apologize to Meg!"

"Why don't instead you tell me why your four eyed friend why can't move three feet without getting in my way!?"

"You ran into her!"

"You ran into her. Wah. I can't wait to lose again, so we can finally get rid of her!"

"She's not the one going home next Shego!"

"Katara this is probably my fault anyway-"

"Don't concede to her Meg!"

"SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Jack jumps. The voices in the hall go silent, as the entire cabin is filled with a booming cry.

"THE GREAT AND MIGHTY AND ALL-POWERFUL, VULTUREMAAAN! IS TRYING TO NAAAAP! SO KEEP IT DOOOOOWN!"

Theirs a few beats of silence before he hears several footsteps disperse.

Mildly shaken Jack returns to his journal.

"I thought after all our adventures I was getting good at talking to new people. As it turns out I was just good at doing it with my sister besides me. But I will keep trying. If I can find one person to be friends with life will be so much easier here.

The good news for now is no one seems to not like me. Maybe it turns out I am good at this game.

Will write again soon.

Jack."

Jack tears the page from the journal and inspects his letter for spelling errors.

As he does Katara walks into the living room, still simmering. Her mood lightens slightly when she spots him.

"At least I don't have to worry about fighting with you Jack."

"What's going on?"

Their captain Philip J Fry has appeared.

"Why was everyone disturbing one of Vultureman's patented vulture naps?" He asks in a low voice, weary of his monstrous teammate.

Katara sighs annoyed.

"It's nothing." She says shortly. "Just Shego being Shego."

Fry groans. "You two are fighting again?"

"She started it!"

"Katara we need to learn to get along."

"I'm trying." Katara insists impatiently. "It's easy most of the time, but we've got a few people on this team who aren't what I'd call team players…especially that vampire."

All eyes drift to a dark room a little ways away,

One of the nice things about being back in the Good Cabin was having enough space to give Alucard, the resident vampire his own room.

Alucard was out at the moment, sometimes he'd disappear like that, roaming somewhere in the House presumably. Nobody had yet worked up the courage to ask him where he went.

"I know not everyone gets along, but chin up." Fry say. "Our team's still the best and we're going to win this thing. Got it? Everyone else still believes in us Ordinals."

Wallace Wells bursts into the room with usual confidence, packed suitcase at his side.

"Welp, I'm quitting. See you around the multiverse gang."

"What!?" Fry yelps. Somewhere unseen Vultureman makes a grim sound.

"What?" He repeats more softly. "Wallace, what are you talking about?"

"I've done what I came for," Wallace explains. "All that's left to do is find Chris and tell him I want to get out."

With that Wallace steps out the front door of their cabin.

"Wallace wait!" Fry cries charging after him.

"Wait. If you're going to find Chris I'm going too." Jack says, getting up. "I need to find out how to mail a letter back home."

…

Chris McLean yawns and stretches, his mind plagued by a constant foe, boredom.

"Pay attention." Conner tells him, he's standing in front of a slide projector, showing an old engraving of a vampire. Chris groans.

"This is why nobody watched Endless by the way." Chris complains. "Somehow you can even make vampires boring."

"Chris if you didn't want to learn how to control your precious little bloodsucker contestant then you shouldn't have grabbed him in the first place. I mean I've powers that could stop him."

"You not using any of those powers this season." Chris says sternly.

"Yes, you've made that very clear,"" Conner shrugs. "Hell if I care, maybe you're right, maybe we shouldn't focus on reigning Alucard in and just let him off the leash until he wrecks everything. Wouldn't be my problem. You're the one who keeps taking credit for this season."

Chris gives him a sour look.

The door opens and in comes Princess Peach, trailed by some of her toads.

"Hello you two, I hope I'm not disturbing you."

"Never, Peachy. What do you need?" Conner asks.

"Oh, nothing from you Conner. Mr. McLean, Rodney asks me to kindly remind you that he still needs help with today's challenge. He can't work his house's magic without your direction after all."

"Great! That's for the tip your Highness, tell Rod I'll be there. Conner, it's a real shame but I guess we'll have to pick this up later when I've got some free time."

"Yes, because you've famously got a lot of that," Snarks Conner. Chris flashes him a grin.

"Hey, that's hosting for you. I've got challenges that need designing. As you proved last season no one's fit for the job but me."

He makes to leave. Conner pauses for a second, then asks abruptly.

"Princess, you and your friends wouldn't have any ideas for a challenge would you?"

"WHAT!?" Chris yelps.

Peach let's out a high-pitched squeak of excitement.

"Wait there!" She cries.

She darts off to her bedroom, and returns nearly as quick, arms filled with drawings and journal.

"Daisy and I had a sleepover back in the Mushroom Kingdom! We came up with so many wonderful ideas, but I hadn't any idea we'd get to chance to use them!"

"Okay slow down!" Chris says. "What's happening right now?"

"I just got us some extra free time," Conner says. "Peachy, you and your girlfriends come up with any long-term challenges. Something like the Endless merge that could run for a week."

"A week!?" Chris demands.

"Oh, I do like how you think Conner," Peach says, shuffling around her stash of plans.

The doorbell rings. First once, then several times in a row.

All three of them pause and look up.

"What now?" Chris says shortly.

Conner sighs.

…

Lo and behold as with every other time they've been summoned to it, there on the doorstep is Perky the Mermaid. This time she has with her a trumpet and a large bass drum strapped to her front, like she's in a marching band.

"Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? OoooOOoo-oh-oh.
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? For your game!"

"How many times Perky! No!" Conner barks.

"Would you just give me a chance already!"

Perky says, dropping her act and her instruments and begging. "Please, please, please, please let me on your show again! I promise I won't get in the way. Whatever you want from me I'll do it!"

Chris laughs. "Oh really?"

"Really, I swear anything!" Perky says emphatically.

"Dude? Uh, I hate to break it to you but in order to compete, or volunteer, or do anything on this show. You uh, you kind of need working legs."

He gestures to her fish bowl and her little blue mermaid tail. Perky flushes self-consciously.

"But there were like five different guys with wheelchairs last season!"

"It was only two," Conner says. "Neither of them had to drag around a heavy fishbowl."

Perky pouts then crossly she begins shimming out of her bowl.

"Fine! No! That's okay! You don't want the fishbowl! Then I can just hang out on land like the cool kids!"

She slips out onto the ground and starts thrashing around on the ground like a tuna loose on the deck of a fishing trawler.

"Perky would you cut that out!? Cut it out! Get out of here! You're getting water on Rodney's carpet!"

"Too late! I'm already in the house!"

"Conner…" Peach says. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt to give her a chance?"

"No. Someone get the broom."

…

Wallace marches the hall opening doors in search of staff. Fry and Jack trailing.

"I don't understand!" Cries the Ordinals captain. "Why give up when you're doing well!?"

"It's nothing personal Fry, I just didn't come to win. Total Drama has been popular over in Toronto lately. My old roommate Scott was on a season called Bon Voyage, his girlfriend Ramona and Julie or whatever her name is were both on Endless last season. Everyone's been competing, but no one's done well." Wallace explains.

"I bet everyone that if I competed, I'd get further than they did, and as of last episode, I officially have. My purpose has been fulfilled."

"Wallace, think about this!" Fry begs. "I mean… we're talking about you potentially losing five million dollars here! Even I wouldn't blow that much money…. Expect that one time I lost 4.3 Billion. But that was different! And besides, I wouldn't do it twice."

"I've done my research on this show," Wallace says blithely. "Even if I did win half the time people don't get to keep the prize money. Now that I beat my buddies, the only thing I have to gain from sticking around here is humiliation. So, I'd like to leave on my own terms, ideally before any more sexually charged women hurl themselves at me."

Something slams into Wallace, knocking him to the ground.

It's Perky.

"Oh, hi there, fellow contestant!" She says batting her eyelashes at him. "Hey you're kind of cute ain't ya?"

"Are you kidding?" Wallace demands to the heavens.

Perky laughs flirtatiously, then stops abruptly, looking up at Wallace, Fry, Jack, and the hallway behind them with an odd sense of shock.

"Uh hi?" Jack says. "Are you part of the house? Do you know where Chris and Rodney are?"

Jack turns to look over his shoulders and discovers Alucard is standing further down the hall, surveying them in the distance.

"What's wrong? Are you scared of Alucard?"

"Keep your hands off him, he's mine," Wallace tells her.

She begins to stammer something but doesn't get a chance to say it. The staff have caught up to them. Chef grabbing the Mermaid by her tail and hauling her off Wallace.

"You heard the hosts. This show's for people with legs only fish girl."

"Wait!" Perky says, tone now urgent. "No! Wait you have to listen!"

"The heck I don't! Everybody duck your heads! TEN HUT!"

Returning to the front door, he pitches back and kicks Perky out to the door. She goes sailing off the asteroid and into the darkness of space. Crying out as she goes.

"Waaaaaaait!"

"Wow! She when far!" Daisy cries.

Chef looks proud.

"Haven't sent something that far since my old college football days."

Peach shakes her head.

"Poor thing. I'm sure me and Daisy could have found use for her in our challenge."

"We get to do a challenge!?" Daisy exclaims, looking excited.

"No!" Chris says loudly. "You're not! Don't listen to Conner!"

"Oh, but Mr. McLean!" Peach begins.

"Save it Peachy. It's not happening, I'm not giving you my show for the week."

"Hang on a minute," Chef says. "You're telling me, the girls are willing to give you a week's worth of paid vacation time, and you're not interested."

He waves a hand in Chris's face.

"You feeling okay?"

"It's not vacation time, and it's about principal Chef!" Chris insists. "I just got this house to work for me, and I intend to capitalize on that by giving the viewers what they want! High-octane actions, explosions, super extreme gross-out, humiliation and above all-"

"Chris! Buddy! Can we talk a minute?" Wallace Wells interjects, placing a hand on Chris's shoulder and giving his host an overly friendly smile.

"As one of your active contestants this season. I've really admired the creativity you've displayed with all these fun ideas of yours. But while me and the gang have been thoroughly enjoying the last few days of fighting mythical monsters, being trapped in the fleshy bowels of an eldritch horror, and being caught in fifty natural disasters at the same time, maybe, just maybe we could slow it down for a week? Just to help better pace things out for the viewers at home?"

Chris begins to protest.

"…Also, if you don't listen to these people, I'm quitting the show right here and now," Wallace says quickly.

"Wait?" Fry says. "If we got this long episode, you'd stay Wallace?"

"I'd consider it at least."

Fry grabs Chris's shirt.

"Please give us the special episode!"

Chris looks around at all the expectant faces surrounding him and moans bitterly.

"Fine! The Princesses can do their episode."

The group cheers.

"Nice job Wallace," Fry says.

"Do you think these guys are going to go easier on us?" Jack asks.

Wallace smirks.

"Hey, it's Princess Peach, everyone's favourite non-offensive video game female. It can't be that bad."

He turns to Peach.

"Let's hear it Princess, what've you got in mind?"

Both Peach and Daisy let out a very Entrapta like giggle.

…

A few hours later, the cast find themselves gathered in a large school gymnasium, complete with bleachers a non-electronic scoreboard, basketball hoops, and even a large mural for the school team The Rodney High Rodents.

"Was, not expecting High School." Admits Wallace, tersely sipping his ever-present cosmopolitan.

"It'll be a cakewalk compared to yesterday," Katara says. "Thanks for blackmailing Chris into making this happen Wallace."

"Let it be said I'm a man of the people."

The staff enter, Peach and Daisy leading the pack for once. The two have dressed up for the occasion.

The princesses look like they've stepped out of a 1980s fashion magazine, Peach wears a bright broad-shouldered pink blazer with a matching skirt, a white blouse with a ribbon on its collar, and dark leggings with white pumps. Daisy has on an oversized orange power suit, again with massive shoulder pads, and a loose cream-coloured blouse. Both women had their hair teased up into big gravity-defying curls and waves, and their make-up and jewelry were just as big and loud.

The only things about them that don't seem era accurate are their headwear, in lieu of their normal crowns, Peach now dons a pair of pink cat ears and Daisy for reasons that surely make sense to her and her alone, now has an upside brass teapot perched atop her head.

"Ta-da!" Peach chirps. "Principal Peach and Vice-Principal Daisy reporting for duty. Welcome everyone to Rodney High!"

"Ugh, why high school of all things?" Miko asks.

"As some of you already know, Mr. McLean was kind enough to let me and Daisy pick a special challenge for you," Peach explains. "I thought 'What nicer thing to do to our lovely competitors than to give them a cozy school experience. Just as we had in Endless."

"I'm surprised you look back on your time at Hogwarts so fondly Peachy," Conner says, amused.

"I look back on all my time on your season positively," Peach insists. "Now where is our other vice-principal?"

"Rosie get out here!" Daisy calls.

They hear Rosalina shuffling in the hall.

"I've changed my mind. The stars do not look brightly on this change in fashion."

"Oh yes, they do!"

Daisy rushes back into the office and drags out her friend. Rosalina appears, similarly dressed to her two friends head to toe in 80s business attire, her quirk seems to be that she's wearing the ears, tail and mask of a raccoon dog.

"This was a mistake…" She whispers, much more self-conscious than usual.

"Oh, don't be silly Rosie, you look wonderful." Peach insists. She turns back to the contestants.

"I suppose you're still wondering what the rules of this challenge will be. Christopher, perhaps you'd be so kind?"

"Wow, do I get a chance to actually do my job?" Chris asks. "How thoughtful. Anyway, houseguests you probably get the gist of this already. For this "Challenge," it's basically just the normal school experience, you'll be going to classes, doing homework, making friends blah, blah, blah, boring, boring, boring for a whole week until you get to prom."

Meg looks excited. "We get our own prom?"

"Oh yeah, it'll be great." Chris snarks. "You guys get to dance, romance, and wear some tacky dated prom tuxes and little shiny dresses that look like cupcakes, then afterward you'll be crowning a head of class, and a Homecoming King and Queen. I, E person with the best grades and the most popular boy and girl. Just so there's a quote on quote "Point" to all the socializing and studying you'll be doing.

Team with the most teammates crowned gets immunity and a treasure trove of fancy vanity items you get to keep even if your team loses, which seems excessive, but hey! Apparently, my say doesn't matter!"

"So essentially all we got to do for the next week is survive being back in high school?" Sam asks. "Sounds easy enough."

"Sounds like a reoccurring nightmare of mine." Max quips.

"Why's it got to be a whole week man!?" Miko demands. "I came here to get away from school!"

Chris seems to perk up.

"I mean if you houseguests want to do a real challenge, I've got a couple of great concepts I was kicking around you'll probably like. Like a killer buffet full of exotic delicacies that'll make you hurl, or a seventeen-part torture course that'll leave at least one of you bald and three of you naked and covered in sores, or-"

"School's good," Max says.

"Sure, do love me some school," Miko declares.

"Really is underappreciated school is," Penny comments.

…

The staff give them a walkthrough of their new school. The contestants gawking at their surroundings as usual. Steve Harrington takes it all in looking exceptionally impressed.

"Holy shit, this could almost be Hawkins,"

He stops smiling and squints.

"...Except for that."

The other contestants look as well. In the distance, they see the townsfolks and their fellow classmates. More robotic creations of the house. All dressed in eighties attire, and all for one reason or another, anthropomorphic animals.

"Uh… Oh-kay how to say it?" Miko asks. "Chris, why are all our classmates furries?"

"Ask Rodney," Chris insists boredly.

The squirrel chuckles awkwardly.

"Yes, When the princesses gave me the instructions for the kind of NPCs they wanted, my own subconscious audience memories of my school years may have been factored in, resulting in well… non-human townspeople we'll call them."

Severally anthropomorphic classmates pass by, all with perms and acid-washed jeans.

"For whatever reason the house algorithm, also seemed to favour a very later 1980s early 1990s aesthetic for Peach's vision." Rodney says.

"I can work with that," Steve says grinning.

Chris smirks. "Good, because to fit in, you'll all be dressing the part."

"Meaning 80s fashion and animal ears." Chef grunts.

"Is that what's up with you three?" Fry asks the Principals. Peach nods.

"That's right, me and Rosalina had a little help from some items I had brought. She's a Tanuki, I'm a cat."

"And I'm an elephant!" Daisy declares gesturing to the teapot on her head. Rosalina gives her a look of surprise.

"Is that what you are? Daisy, why didn't you import some elephant fruit from the Flower Kingdom? You were just there recently weren't you?"

Daisy grimaces.

"Yeah… no thanks."

"We don't ever need to be elephants again," Peach insists.

"We're good."

"Yes."

"One and done."

"Very wonderful adventure all of us had but I'd be happy to not repeat it."

"Also, a balloon, really, never want to ever be a balloon again."

"No."

"You'd agree if you'd been there Rosie."

"Yes… now!" Peach clapped her hands together. "Get changed, everyone! We're going to have so much fun together!"

…

Steve Harrington emerges from the changing stall. There's a pair of fake dog ears on his head and a belt with a fake tail wrapped around his waist, besides that he hasn't changed his hair or clothes. Already set for the decade.

It's much more entertaining seeing his teammates emerge.

"I must say, Steve, your future seems just as curt with its dresses as it is it's language." Comments Elizabeth dryly. Steve laughs. She's got the ears and tails of a lioness along with a button-down dress with a belt around the waist, sunglasses and a brown jacket. A fairly conservative look, though he guessed any dress that showed ankles was scandalous to Elizabeth's time.

Otherwise, the rest of his team didn't look too far removed from their usual selves. Just a bit more casual.

Penny's must have been from his time as she looks very similar, having only traded her collared shirt and tie for an orange sweater and beaver ears and teeth. Olivia's lab coat, scarf and pencil skirt have been traded in for acid-washed jeans, sandals, a neon-patterned button-down shirt and a vest. She also wears coyote ears and a tail. Tenpenny wears wolf ears, jeans, a turtleneck and a gold chain, and Bruce Wayne now in slacks and a large button-down shirt seems to be deeply conscious of the bat ears and nose he's been given.

"Where's Zelda?" He asks.

"The princess says she'll need more time changing," Penny says. "Sounds like she's bothering over the clothes she's been given."

"Give her time, not like where in a rush." Tenpenny laughs.

"You seem confident as ever Captain." Observes Elizabeth.

"I am Bennet," Tenpenny says. "Holmes turning traitor and that damned vampire may have ruined our day yesterday, but I got a good feeling about this one. High School ain't exactly something Alucard's gonna be able to brute force his way through, so there's no advantage there for the Ordinals. Us Supertasks however got our own ace up are sleave, don't we Harrington?"

Steve shrugs modestly.

"Yeah, I graduated high school like, less than a year ago in June '85, so I can another week of it in my sleep."

Tenpenny chuckles. "That's what I want to hear Steve."

The Ordinals begin emerging, having transformed considerably more than the Supertasks.

Katara's now dressed as an Otter with a denim jacket, white sneakers skirt and a navy-blue top with her people's tribal emblem on it. A pair of rounded brown animal ears, a belt with a short tail attached, and a little tint of grease paint to paint the tip of her nose. Meg dons a pair of denim overalls with a frilly pink T-shirt underneath. Her hair is tied to the side with a scrunchie. Bear ears and tail, grease paint nose. Miko is a seal with, athletic wear, a baggy t-shirt, a headband, legwarmers and dolphin shorts.

Vultureman's a jock in a red variety jacket, jeans and black high-heeled boots, interesting enough it doesn't seem like he's been given any additional animal motives. Fry wears a red tracksuit and wears dog ears like Steve, Wallace is a rooster, with a loud polo, short shorts, and tinted shades, and Jack seems to be the only one on their team that's retained his normal outfit, now with mouse ears and a darked tip of his nose.

"Zelda?" Bruce called. "Everyone else is finished, are you close to being done?"

"No!"

"Everything alright in there, sweetie?" Olivia calls.

There's a momentary pause then.

"Coming," Comes Zelda's curt reply.

A moment later she joins them, the princess's hair curled and teased like the rest of them, her loose blouse sea green and her long, frilled skirt a warm brown, matching the high boots beneath them.

The team squints at her.

"Okay, weird. What kind of animal did they give you?" Steve asks.

Zelda's eyes, now hiding behind blue-tinted gold-rimmed glasses dart away from them. She grimaces slightly exposing two fangs.

"She's a dragon!"

Katara's strolled over, some of the other Ordinals flanking her. She looks at Zelda in great surprise.

"She doesn't look like any dragon I've seen. What's with the antlers?" Fry says.

"That's a feature of Asian dragons," Jack said dutifully.

"That's how dragons look like in my world," Katara says. Zelda looks to her for reassurance.

"In Hyrule as well this is what they resemble. Antlers and manes and long slender bodies. There are some that are permanent fixtures in our skies, all many thousands of years old…" She coughs awkwardly. "I believe I'm supposed to have become the Light Dragon, I, I mean I'm supposed to resemble it."

"Why did you get an animal from back home when I didn't?" Katara wonders aloud. Zelda looks uncomfortable.

"Well, I think it's cool!" Fry declares. "Once back when me and my gang got sucked into Bender's D&D world that one time, I got turned into a dragon and it was awesome! I just wished I had stayed like that longer."

Zelda whimpers.

"I'd thank you folks to refrain from harassing my team," Tenpenny says, shoving Fry away. "Not unless you want to meet out in the parking lot behind the playground."

"Big talk for the team with more losses!" Miko challenges.

"Hey, we've lost one more time than you losers have!" Steve says.

"Well, it'll be two times by the end of this week," Katara says.

"Oh really?" Tenpenny says tone light. "I don't know if you Ordinals notices but we Supertask's got our act together these days. Now that that bastard Sholmes is gone, we're one team with one goal, kicking your sorry asses out of the house!"

Most of the Supertasks cheer. Tenpenny folds his arms.

"You got that kind of cohesion on your team Captain Fry?"

Fry blinks. "Uh…"

"Of course he does!" Katara insists.

"Yeah, we're strong and powerful!" Meg cries.

She steps forward. Not a second later she's thrown to the ground.

Shego's just shoved past her, now a black fox in heavy punk attire, massive frizzy hair, dark makeup, a plaid skirt, torn fishnets, and a studded leather jacket.

"What'd I tell you about being in my way nerd?" She laughs, strutting away in high-heeled boots.

Katara glares after her.

"Shego! Get back here!"

"Are we finally killing Shego?" Wallace asks. "Because I'd like to watch that. Save me a set."

"Guys you're making us look bad!" Fry cries.

Tenpenny chuckles.

"I rest my case."

…

The next day dawns and school begins in earnest. The contestants streaming into school earlier than some of them would like to be awake. Their principal waiting for them happily by the front door.

"Good morning everyone! Welcome to school! Good morning to you Zelda."

"Thank you."

"And to you Alucard!"

"Happy to be here," Grins the vampire, hulking frame so light on his feet he's nearly gliding. He seems to be ignoring the costume rule, and it also seems like no one's had to courage to confront him on it.

"Mornin' Principal!"

Max has just strolled up, looking chipper. The record maintaining the rhythm of Peach's bubbly demeanour seems to skip a beat.

"Max… That is quite the unique costume."

"Thank you!" The rabbit says proudly. His animal costume seems to consist of khaki slacks, a blue polo and a human mannequin head of what looks to be a stereotypical 1950s father figure with a wooden pipe and slicked-back hair. The head suspended between his two ears with a copious amount of scotch tape.

"Max little buddy, you're looking real suave today and all but I thought you had a different costume," Sam observes, wandering over. Sam himself is wearing a pair of rabbit ears and buck teeth.

Max shrugs.

"Yeah, I wasn't jiving with that last outfit they gave me so I made my own. Like it? I've always wanted to be human."

"I couldn't imagine anything that'd suit you more."

As promised the halls swarm with other students. The lifeless automatons chittering away in eighties slang as if they had lived full lives and hadn't just materialized yesterday.

"He asked me to prom, as if!"

"Gag me with a spoon!"

"Yo! You coming to tryouts?"

"Catch you at the Arcade after school!"

"Mom said the ladies at church think D&D is Satanic."

"That is serious bullshit!"

"I'm tellin' you guys, New Coke tastes better,"

"No way."

"Way!"

Several of the machines gawk at Jack as he makes his way to homeroom to get his schedule. He ignores them, already deciding he's not going to worry much about the literal popularity contest. Leave that to someone who got along easily with people, like Wallace, or Katara.

A squawking laugh alerts him to the presence of Vultureman, already chatting ideally with several robotic peers. Maybe he'd be the popular one, surprisingly.

As for Jack, he'd be trying to stay top of class this week. Sure, it was High School and he was still in sixth grade, but he was ahead in his studies back home, and he certainly done a lot harder things than move up a couple grades.

He had a good feeling about this.

…

The cast is split into two different study groups, so every class they take they can expect to see about half of the other contestants.

Jack's first period is history, which he takes mostly with the Supertasks, when he arrives in second-period science, he finds Miko, Meg, and Katara waving to him.

He sits down next to them, waiting for class to begin. In walks, Princess Zelda looking as ever like she'd like to blend in with the wallpaper.

"Princess! Over here!" Katara shouts.

Zelda looks around uncertainly, as if expecting one of the other princesses to appear, before slowly, she walks over to them.

"Do you want to come sit with us? We saved you a seat."

Zelda blinks. "But you're all on the other team?"

"Don't let Tenpenny control your life. You seem nice." Katara says. Zelda sits down apprehensively.

"Are you excited for science class?" Meg asks.

Miko snorts. "Why don't you ask her to her face if she's a nerd?"

"I was just trying to be social."

"Actually, I am very excited for science," Zelda admits. "It's always been a subject I'm rather fond of."

"I just got out of history class," Jack says with a hint of pride. "Toadworth is teaching us, he said he'd go easy on us because he's learning the subject at the same time as we are. Most of it was American history. Toadsworth was very impressed with my knowledge of the American Revolution. He said sounds it almost sounded like I knew George Washington personally."

He smiles then stops, noticing the four girls grinning at him.

"What's up?"

"It's cute when he talks like a grown-up," Meg says.

"He's our cute little smarty pants." Coos Miko.

The others giggle. Jack deflates.

"I'm ten years old," He says defensively. He looks to Zelda, hoping the Supertask girl will feel differently about him.

"My team can be like this, unfortunately. There was a whole incident back in the Permian Basin Superorganism they won't-"

"Those little mouse ears are adorable." Zelda squeaks.

The other girls giggle.

Jack lets out a long sigh.

The door burst open and in comes their teacher. Entrapta's seems to have some liberties with her fashion sense. She had previously voiced to aversion to different outfits and had tepidly agreed to one if she had been allowed to choose it. Entrapta's resulting interpretation of 80s fashion was characteristically odd, consisting of a lavender Greco-style minidress, gloves and thigh-high boots more befitting a supervillain than a teacher.

"Ah, subjects!" She proclaims. "You've gathered, how wonderful!"

She slams down her notes on her desk emphatically

"Today I'll be attempting to share some of the vast array of things I've learned in my many, many experiments! Hopefully, some of it will be of benefit to you, maybe even enough so that you'll one day be where I am. Eliminated from the game and volunteering as an intern!"

"Sorry again for voting you out!" Meg calls.

Entrapta waves her off.

"Nonsense, I'm much happier on the staff NOW! Let's get some brain exercises going so that I can ascertain where your skill levels lie.

Three types of rocks! What are they?"

"Oh I know this," Zelda says quietly. "Ig-"

"Igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic." Comes a voice not her own. She looks and her heart sinks. Sitting at the front of the class is a familiar face.

"Very good Doctor Octavius!" Entrapta beams. "Noble gases! Name 'em!"

Again Olivia answers before Zelda can.

"In descending periodical order, Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, Radon, and Oganesson."

Entrapta scratches her head with her pigtail. "What was that last one?"

"New synthetic element, they created it in a lab a few years ago," Olivia says pleasantly.

"Very good, now why don't we let someone else answer one?"

Zelda sticks her hand up.

"Ah, fellow princess!" Entrapta says. "Tell me! The fundamental forces of the universe."

Zelda's mouth is suddenly dry. "The universe?" She repeats mystified. They hadn't even mapped their entire planet back in Hyrule. The stars beyond were a mystery.

"Don't know them? That's all right! Olivia, care to fill us in?"

"Gravitational Force, Weak Nuclear Force, Strong Nuclear Force, and Electromagnetic Force."

"Excellent work Olivia, top of the class as I expected you to be." Entrapta beams. "Even if you did forget about Magical Force."

"I would have mentioned magic," Zelda says glumly.

Olivia leans back in her chair to face them. "Zelda honey, I always appreciate the enthusiasm, but how about you worry about the popularity contest, while I get top grade for us? That fine?"

Zelda nods and slumps her shoulders. Katara looks sympathetic.

"Don't let her get to you. There's people that try and get under your skin like that on our team too."

"And whom might that be?" Crones a voice behind her. Katara jumps. Entrapta looks up.

"Ah, Alucard! You finally made it to class."

"Of course…" Purrs the monster, floating through the wall and into the classroom. "Wouldn't miss it for the world, after six centuries I believe I'm overdue for a well-rounded education."

He floats down into a desk.

"My most sincere apologies for being tarty, professor. I've been busy lately keeping an eye on our hosts. It seems lately they've been conspiring about ways to limit my power."

He laughs darkly.

"It'd be amusing if it wasn't so pathetic."

"Ah, so this is the famous Alucard!" Olivia says, eyeing the vampire keenly. "So nice to see you up close for once, normally the challenges make that difficult. Disappointed by the lack of costume though."

"I could change my look whenever I please, but I'm happy with it as is."

"I'll say, do you mind? There's not a lot of vampires in New York to study… unless you count the rumours about that Doctor Morbius."

She gets up and examines him appraisingly, circling around to see him from each different angle before settling in front of him, eyes swimming with excitement.

"Yes, you are something magnificent aren't you Alucard?" She breathes "…Especially if that name's not just for show. I haven't seen the last season, but I'd be willing to bet you are the single most powerful specimen to play this game, aren't you?"

Alucard sneers. "Yet our so-called hosts think they can put a leash on me like I was their dog."

"Conner says he has ways he could do that with some of his more special TV powers," Entrapta says brightly, seemingly forgetting she's supposed to be in the middle of teaching class. "But apparently he's not allowed to use them."

Olivia smiles. "They must be desperate, Our captain over on the Supertasks's been complaining a lot recently about how unfair you've made things. Almost nice to hear Conner and McLean have taken notice, but… I don't think it'll make much of a difference. Will it?"

"That's one of the smartest observations I've seen all game," Alucard says, grin broadening. He casts his opaque cast out the window.

"If there's anything in the world that can match my power, you won't find it here amongst you people. You'd have to search much more thoroughly and much farther away."

Jack sighs and looks out the window to the fake sky beyond.

"Maybe there's a friend I can talk to out there too, that'd be nice."

…

The Karliq screamed through the endless void between realities.

Though Perky's master Yerdey Yisme isn't particularly large, about a metre tall at best, his personal ship is anything but. Two kilometres long and just as tall, little about it matches any preconceived notions of a starship, in part because it isn't one. It was a transdimensional craft before all else, built like a cathedral designed by a mad surrealist then flipped over on its head.

Sitting in its brightly lit bridge, At his command chair Yerdey massages the squishy mollusk-esque flesh of his head with a tentacled forelimb. Above him swimming freely Perky has worked herself into a fit, flitting around in circles like a guppy just given their fish flakes.

"…and maybe, maybe I got to shake up my approach. He's got a big cast! And it's a big house. I bettcha Yerdey if I get in there and squirm my little self through a window, they won't even notice they've got a sexy new player. Or maybe…"

"Yerdey…"

One of Yerdey's men, his head priest Yalan approaches. Like everyone on the ship besides the mermaid, Yalan was one of Yerdey's own squid-like race, the Fiseng. Stationed with him aboard his war cathedral to give spiritual guidance to the penal legion of soldiers Yerdey so gloriously leads.

"What's the good word Yalan?"

"Could you get your pet to stop making its little human noises? It's been whining like that for quite some time."

Some of the bridge staff nod discreetly. Yerdey groans.

"First of all rude! Rude… Perk's only kind of looks human, but it's like really not cool to just openly call out her disability like that. She can't help it if she was born a degenerate from the waist up. Secondly, we've been over this how many times now? She's not a "pet" she's a henchwoman, and she has a right to complain! She's been done dirty."

"That's wonderful. Tell your 'henchwoman' if she keeps complaining like that she's going to mess up the choir's concentration and it'll be a problem."

Yerdey sighed again. The Karliq like all Fiseng craft propelled itself through the extradimensional void through carefully trained Fiseng Voidsingers that could manipulate the endlessly malleable fabric of unreality with their songs.

Needless to say, this was much easier than using something as primitive as a physical engine.

Fiseng ships almost never used engines unless they were travelling to more difficult-to-access universes, and even they didn't do so lightly.

Reality engines being such dangerously volatile things.

"Perk…" Yerdey says, speaking in a conciliary tone. "Can we put the breaks on this for a bit?"

"Not until I'm back on that Total Drama show!"

"Perk, don't you have better things to do than hanging out on set of some half-rate timeslot filler where the cast doesn't even like you?"

"NO!"

She was in his face now, eyes blazing.

"It's not about the show anymore!" She shouts. "It's about who's on it! Not that I know he's there everything different!"

Yerdey blinks under his veil.

"Okay. Not sure what's getting you all weird, but I'm not helping with this."

"Whhhhy!?" She wines.

"Forget it Perk, you're too excited about this."

Yerdey ignored her and hopped out of his seat, intent on being anywhere else, Perky, tails him, swarming around his head like an irate insect.

"Master, Please! Please! Pleeeeeeease! Help!"

"Let it go Perky."

He made a turn into the Hall of Aenirs, where the ship held various shrines, all cluttered on small pedestals. Each devoted to one of the lesser deities of the multiverse that served beneath the Fiseng God-King, Ulvi Mubarek.

"But I need to be there. I want to, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I WANNA, I WANNA IWANNA IWANNAIWANNAWANA-"

"PERKY!"

The mermaid flinches and goes quiet, Yerdey jabs a disciplinary finger at her.

"Zip it before I get Gilqameş to peg you to the console and leave you there until you've cooled down. I already said to forget it, and you know what else I say Perky?"

His henchwoman slumps disappointedly.

"You're always right about everything Yerdey."

"Correct!" Yerdey emphasizes the point by rolling his Rs, an impressive feat when one considers his lack of teeth.

"Now don't let me hear about this again-"

"But Yerdey-"

"Shush! We're done with this. You're going to behave now like a good little henchwoman, also stop touching that! It's got a minor chaos god trapped inside."

Perky pulls away from the little stone statue of a one-eyed pyramid she'd been prodding with her finger. Then moans and sinks to the floor moping.

A larger-than-normal Fiseng arrives at the door, clad in battle armour.

"I heard my name, followed by a promise of violence, who do I get to hurt?"

"It was an empty threat Gilqameş," Yerdey snaps.

"But I have unsatiated bloodlust."

"I'll deal with it. Perky! Stay here and don't mess with anything until you're ready to be chill okay? If you're good I'll give you a Perky snack."

"Sure Boss…"

They exit, leaving Perky alone, wallowing in a pity of frustration amongst the statues.

"Well… It appears you have got Tarnaq very upset." Laughs a little voice.

Perky sits up.

"What?"

"That is right. I forgot. It is Yerdey Yisme you serve in these parts."

There, above her, in some amongst the dancing colours of the ship's warm lighting, amongst the distortion of the water. There's a flash of green, then a tiny figure grinning down at her from something near the shrine room's tall ceiling.

"Oh, it's you." Perky breathes, relived. "How did you get in here?" She squints. "Is that a new portal gun?"

Her friend swirls a portable gadget in her hand.

"Do you like it? I found it in the ashes of a hidden room in a magic castle. It is quite useful no? I think I am going to get a lot of use from it"

She giggles then places her hands under her chin.

"But I am not the interesting one for once. What was it you said to Yerdey?"

"I have another one!" Perky said excitedly. "It's one we've been looking for forever I found him! He brought him to me!"

She gestures to one of the shrines. Where a bust of a familiar man stands. Under it, in shifting gold tiles of Fiseng script reads.

"Conner O'Gleeson, Aenir of Late-Night Television."

Perky's friend squints.

"Strange. I thought he had a different name too." She shrugs. "No matter. Where is our prize?"

"The Rodney House!"

"In the Unusual Nickelodeon universe?"

"Yeah! But Jerkface Conner O'Jerkson's not letting me in! … The jerk. And now Yerdey's doesn't want to help either!"

"Such a tragedy. I guess without your precious master you will not be helping us."

"No! Please!"

Perky clasps her hands and begs. "I don't care! I don't care if I get in trouble! I don't care what Yerdey says! We can't let this one slip away! You have to help me if you can! For our universe!"

"If I can?"

Her friend laughs.

"Perky mon cher, You should know by now I can do anything I want to."

She twirls her stolen portal gun.

"What is your plan?"

…

The rest of the day passes uneventfully, and the inhabitants of the Rodney House retire for the evening.

Long past evening, when the last of them has drifted off. A door creek open.

A shadowy figure looms over Chris and Conner, asleep in the midst of their research on Alucard.

Carefully they slip out some of the notes from beneath the sleeping television hosts, before drawing a device glowing with a sickly green light.

Elsewhere in Rodney's study, the room sits empty, the great array of screens trilling neutrally as they display a map of the High School.

The computers click and whirl, as an error message flashes on screen.

Back in the contestants' chambers, the figure now stands over the coffin Alucard sleeps in.

…

Day two dawns and some of the novelty has faded for this new school challenge. At least for the contestants that is. Principal Peach still seems more than elated about the whole business. By lunch hour she stands in the corner of the cafeteria, grinning broadly at her school.

Conner walks into the room, Chris trailing behind him, scowling out at what his games becoming without his say. Her eyes brighten at the sight of them.

"Oh hello Conner, Christopher!"

"Hey, Princess,"

"It's Principal now," She says with a wink. Conner chuckles.

"Right, how you enjoying that?"

"Oh, it's been a joy," She says earnestly. "I'm so used to ruling the Mushroom Kingdon on my own, and don't get me wrong, I love my dear little toads more than words can say, but is it great fun to run somewhere different for once with the help of all my friends, even if it's just for pretend. This 80s theming is very fun. I'm really enjoying the music."

"Good, good… Glad you're having fun."

"Yeah…" Chris says bitterly.

Conner shifts his weight.

"Uh, Principal you haven't seen Alucard anywhere, have you? We can't find him."

"You can't?" Peach asks surprised. "Not even with your camera powers Conner?"

"I can't seem to see him."

"How strange… has that ever happened before."

Conner grimaces. "Normally if I can't get a shot of something on production it means that me not knowing about it is going to narratively pay off comedically or dramatically. So uh either way, mildly concerned."

"I'm sure he'll turn up sooner than later," Peach assures him. She gives a little laugh. "He has an education to attend to after all."

"Yes, one can hardly imagine why he'd want to skip out on such a riveting episode of television." Chris muses dryly.

A little ways away Miko slumps into her seat next to some of her fellow Ordinals, looking just as put out as her host.

"UGGH! I take back everything I said yesterday. I forgot how much school suuuuucked!" Whines Miko, sitting together with Meg, Katara and Fry.

"I don't mind it so far, it's kind of neat," Katara says brightly.

"This is already much better than my old high school!" Says a very happy Meg. "I've got all you guys to hang out with and everyone's way nicer than they are back in Quahog!"

Two weasels slip by the table snickering.

"Hey Barfarella! Someone barf toxic crud in your gene pool lately?"

They scamper off laughing. Meg waves at them happily.

"See? Back home they would have said I looked like if Hitler and diarrhea had a baby."

"You worry me sometimes Meg," Katara admits.

"Still, it's good we're all making friends," Fry says. "Look how popular Vultureman already is!"

He points to the popular table, where their most obnoxious team mated is seated amongst throngs of Jocks and Cheerleaders like he's Jesus Christ in the Last Supper.

"…And then Vultureman said! 'Thundercats!? HA! You are more resembling Dundercats! You know what Vultureman's saying!?"

"AHAHA!"

"Oh Em Gosh! Like Vultureman you're so hilarious!"

"You gotta try out for the team V-Man!"

"Your proposal is agreeable Shoebill Braeden!" Squawks Vultureman

The Ordinals watch as his table erupts into another fit of laughter, as they do Jack enters the cafeteria, his tray in hand, looking rather lost.

"Jack!"

Katara waves to the boy, he briefly makes eye contact then shuffles off in the opposite direction. She frowns.

"What's going on with him?"

Jack surveys the bustling cafeteria, heart set on sitting alone to eat and getting lost for a while in the book he borrowed from the cafeteria. Unfortunately, private seating seems hard to come by, but he seems to find out. Only once he's already sat though he releases his mistake.

"Hello!"

He looks up to see the British girl from the Supertasks smiling at him. Not Elizabeth, the one his age. Penny, he thinks her name was.

"Sorry," He says apologetically. "Was this seat taken? I can move."

"Don't worry about it, you're fine to sit with me."

"Thanks," Jack says quietly. Intent on staying quiet for the rest of the lunch hour. Penny it seems has other ideas.

"How come you're not sitting with the rest of your lot?" She asks conversationally.

"I um… I just want a little break from them." He admits. She sighs.

"I can relate to that. Things have been tense with my team lately, and to be honest I'm sort of at the centre of it."

"Really? What's going on with the Supertasks?"

She shoots him an annoyed glance. "Well, I can't tell you, can I? You're the competition!"

"Of course," He says sheepishly. "I'm sorry."

She shoves him playfully.

"There you go apologizing again! It's no big deal really. Honestly, are you from Canada or something?"

"I'm from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania."

"Brillant!" Penny cries. "Don't know anything about that place, you can tell me loads about it. What book are you reading by the way?"

Back with the rest of the Ordinals, Fry's got his head turned, spying on Jack and Penny.

"…Now he's talking to that girl from the other team. What's going on with him?"

"Ah, dang. You think it's puberty?" Miko asks.

"It can't be, Jack's too young," Katara insists.

"You don't think we did something to hurt his feelings did you?" Meg asks.

"Like what? We're basically his three protective older sisters. He's gotta be super grateful to have us around." Miko says.

"I'll go talk to him," Katara says.

She gets up and near instantly brushes past one of Vultureman's girlfriends, causing her to drop their tray. The girl, a terrifying-looking condor squawks in outrage.

"Watch where you going freak!"

"Calm down it was an accident," Katara says.

"No one with hair like yours gets to tell me what to do!"

From the corner of the room, Chris McLean, watching the whole affair casually picks an apple off a student's tray and whistling nonchalantly hurls it at the popular girl, striking her in the back of the head. The cheerleader lets out a squawk of agony, the rest of the room gasps in horror.

Nobody does that to the cool kids!" Shouts a hornbill, pointing an accusatory at Katara.

"Food fight!" Cries someone.

All hell breaks loose in the cafeteria, as a second later half the student body is flinging their meals at one another, while the other half cowers and plots revenge. Most of the contestants joining in with little hesitation.

Chris chuckles.

"Alright, now we're showing some promise here," He nudges Peach. "Nice students there your Highness."

Peach merely stares out at the scene, deeply confused about what to make of this.

"About time, these kids remembered what lunch hour's supposed to be for!" Max exclaims to the Supertasks sitting with him. "You joining in or what?"

Steve seems caught off guard.

"I would but, like I don't think Elizabeth would be down,"

"Let the lady speak for herself," Sam says.

Steve turns and to his immense surprise finds Elizabeth on her feet and laughing, edible projectile in hand.

"I say, Mr Harrington, surely you're not intending on letting our foes' transgressions go unanswered?" She calls.

Steve gawks at her a moment before laughing.

"Let loose the dogs of war and all that!" Penny cries. "You're missing out Jack!"

"Oh, man!"

"What's wrong!?"

"I don't want to ruin a library book," Bemoans Jack, shielding his book with his body. Penny snaps her fingers.

"Never fear! Magic crayon to the rescue!" She cries.

Quickly she sketches them a Roman-style Scutum shield to hide behind.

"Come on then! On your feet solider! Exit's that way!"

The other Ordinals meanwhile have flipped their table and have entrenched themselves against The Supertasks.

A watermelon shatters against the Supertasks table.

"Surely that can not be all your group is capable of?" Elizabeth challenges.

"You wish suckertasks!" Miko shouts.

Now Katara!"

A flick of her friend's wrist collects everything and anything viscous enough to be considered liquid off the tiled floor, conducting it into a large ball. Then with another quick motion from Katara, she sends it rocketing towards the Supertasks.

Max leaps up into the table.

"Human powers! ACTIVATE!"

Max with a great cry of intended heroism leaps into the air, and kicks the ball of soup and sauce away from his team, sending it careening sideways where it splatters onto the back of the variety jacket of an imposing rhino.

The jock swivels around, beady rage-filled eyes settling on the two figures right in front of him, which just so happens to be Jack and Penny.

"Ah, bother, talk about bad timing," Penny says ruefully.

The rhino's jaw clenches.

"You're dead runts!"

Penny beams at him.

"Right, well. Think about that is RUN JACK!"

The two of them bolt out of the room, The Rhino lets out of roar of fury and charges after them. All the while Max cups his hands to his mouth (Real one, not the mannequin's) and shouts.

"My bad!"

Jack's sides are burning, as his legs spirit faster than they have since the time they carried him away from an erupting Mount Vesuvius. The rhino fast on his heels.

"Normally I keep school and danger separate!" He pants.

"Lucky you," Penny says. "I've made a proper mess of things during my lessons once or twice."

"Here!" Jack says, spying the door to the science class and veering into it, then ducking into the teacher's office and baring the door. No sooner as he has he can hear the jock on the other side ram into it.

"When I get in there I'm using you nerds at toothpicks!"

"What's your plan now?" Penny asks.

Beads of sweat run down Jack's forehead. His eyes find another door, one placed awkwardly behind a filing cabinet.

"Here! Help me!"

They both struggle to push it out of the way. Behind them, he can hear the door to the office begin to buckle.

"Oh, man…" He mutters. "The teacher's going so upset with us for destroying her office,"

"Don't worry, It's Entrapta, she'll think nothing of this," Penny assures him.

"I hope you're right."

They shove the cabinet aside, Jack grabs the dusty door handle, it doesn't budge.

"Great! Locked!"

"Is that all?"

Penny quickly sketches out a key and inserts it in the door, it clicks open.

"Go!"

They practically tumble forward into the next room, panting. As their heart rates slow, they sit there silently, listening. Everything seems to be quiet.

"Is he gone then?" Penny whispers.

Suddenly the door's thrown open and the rhino roars.

Jack and Penny yelp in horror as it lunges forward. Then stops.

A curious blank expression overtakes their schoolmate as it robotically stiffens, eyes flashing in error signs.

"Character out of bounds. Return to designated room. Character out of bounds. Return to designated room."

It shuffles around and leaves without acknowledging them. Jack and Penny turn to one another, mystified.

"What was that about?" Penny asks. Jack gives her a helpless look.

"I don't know."

Jack looks around, getting a proper look at their surroundings for the first time. They've entered into a long room, covered wall to wall in hamster cages. The rodents squeak at them as they scurry about, travelling around the room in a highway of colourful plastic tubing that connects their enclosures.

"Weird," Jack says quietly.

"Look over here! It keeps going!"

"Penny?"

Penny's rushed over to the other side of the long room, where another door is waiting.

"Penny, wait, we don't-"

She opens the other door, they both gasp in surprise.

A narrow steel walkway leads down another hall, enclosed on either side by torrents of falling dragon fruits.

"Do you reckon this is still part of the school?" Penny asks.

"I guess?" Jack says, deeply confused now. "Maybe it's another mistake by the house?"

"You mean like the manatees and the Tom Hanks and all that in episode three?"

"Maybe they didn't think to… what's the word they use, program something behind this door and the house is filling it in itself?"

"Wicked," Breaths Penny. "If that's the case, let's see how deep it goes."

"Wait, Penny!"

He chases her as she runs off laughing, first through a snowy Roman ruin, then a museum dedicated to ferret breading on Neptune's moon, Triton, an abandoned railroad tunnel filled with flowers, a large concrete space with graffiti depicting spiders, an airport terminal populated by statues of triceratops, and a forest made of playing cards, each time, Penny finds another door, to lead them further onwards.

Jack running after her desperately.

She finally stops in the midst of an abandoned tech store, grown wild with plant life and with Neolithic paintings scrawled on the walls.

"It just keeps going." She declares. "It's like there's no end to it."

"No, so let's go!" Jack says, tugging on her hand. She pulls away.

"What's wrong with you? Don't you find this exciting?"

"No!" Jack says. "Come on, we have to go!"

"Why?"

"Penny I don't know where this is, but it doesn't feel like part of the challenge. The staff are going to be mad if they find us here."

"Well that makes it all the more exciting doesn't it?" Penny laughs.

Jack doesn't respond, he's suddenly frozen in place.

"What?" Penny asks.

"Do you hear that?" Jack asks.

"Here what?"

She pauses and listens, for a second she hears nothing, then, quietly, there comes the echoing sound of approaching footsteps.

"In here!" Jack whispers, ducking into behind a display of TVs, there's a latch on the floor, he opens it and shoves both of them inside, they land in a concrete room filled with large colourful pom-poms.

The two sit silent and wait.

The footsteps grow louder, until the latch sags slightly. For a few heart-stopping moments, someone or something stands right above then.

Just when Jack expects the latch to be thrown open, they hear the stranger leave, footsteps echoing away.

Jack reminds there, unmoving for an extra minute.

"Are they gone?"

"Should be," Penny says.

"Good."

He flings open the latch, and with reflects well practiced with his sister, takes Penny's hand and rushes her out of danger.

He doesn't stop running until they've made it back to Entrapta's office.

"Who do you figure that was?" Penny asks, eyes back in the direction hence they came.

"I don't think we want to know." Jack says out of breath, "Help me with this."

He grunts trying to move the filing cabinet back into place.

"Hang on." Penny says. "What if we want to go back in there later?"

"I don't! We shouldn't have been there in the first place!" Jack insists.

"Surely you can't not be interested in exploring more of the House?" She demands. "Think of the potential! The adventure!"

"The only adventures I go on are the ones my mentor Morgan Le Fay needs me for," Jack says dutifully. Penny cocks an eyebrow.

"The mean old hag from the King Arthur stories? With all the wild magic?"

"She's not mean! She's a nice lady!" Jack says angrily. He takes a moment to control himself. Morgan wouldn't want him to lose his cool on her part. He was a professional explorer, darn it.

"Thank you for saving us from that bully,"

Penny smiles.

"Happy to lend a hand, or crayon that is. You're alright for an Ordinal Jack, anytime you change your mind about exploring…"

"Thanks, but no thanks," Jack says. "I need to focus on my studies."

He gives the science room a final look. Already trying to forget about the door.

…

In Rodney's study some of the Toads are making themselves useful.

"Wah, what's wrong with your computer?" The titular Toad himself squawks.

Rodney who's just entered the room with a hazelnut latte looks puzzled.

"Beg your pardon dear friend?"

"I see it to!" Toadette says.

Rodney looks up at the display. The layout of the High School still on screen, flashing its error message. He gasps.

"Oh dear…"

He scurries over and types severally things into the controls quickly. Red flashing pop-ups appear before them. The most prominent proclaims in bold lettering.

"WARNING, ROOM OVERLAPP FOUND."

"What's that mean?" Toadette asks.

"Should we panic?" Toad asks.

Rodney looks grave.

"That might be necessary."

…

The afternoon's classes drag. But the time the final rings at three, Jack's got nothing on his mind but finishing his homework and sleeping.

For the duration of this challenge, the contestants have been removed from their little fake Wawanakwa and their cabins there, instead each of them had been given their own private house. There own little private piece of white-picked slide of Americana to hangout after class and have sleep overs together with their fellow contestants. There was a whole town out there for them to explore in their free time, complete with several arcades and an indoor shopping mall.

Personally Jack really wished they had kept things to the high school, this fake small town made his heart long for Frog Creek.

"I'm home!" He calls to the empty house.

A robot with a mouse's head whizzes out of the kitchen to greet him.

"Hey there slugger! Did you have a nice day at school?"

"I guess?" Jack says dishonestly. Somehow the fake father figure made the house feel lonely than if it had been empty.

He heads upstairs and dumps out his backpack. One of the pom-poms falls out of it.

"Great." Jack grumbles. "Just what I needed from that place, a keepsake."

He tosses it in the trash bin and makes the washroom to wash up before supper.

"Jack…"

Jack freezes.

"What was that?" He calls down to the machine, then adds awkwardly. "….Dad?"

"Jack!"

He looks down, the pom-pom he just threw away at his feet, he picks it up and examples it. It's larger than a normal pom-pom, about the size of his head, and covered with orange fuzz.

"How did, you get out here?"

"I followed you silly!"

Two eyes pop open, and the pom-pom opens it's mouth, beaming at him.

"Hi Jack! Remember me?"

"AAAAAAGH!"

…

By the third morning Alucard's still missing. Peach, and her staff have resorting to putting up missing posters of him around the school.

"What crummy luck." Fry says moping in front of one of them.

"Damn shame about the vampire skipping out on us ain't it Captain?" Tenpenny says, patting him on the back.

"You said it, and just when he kept carrying whole challenges for us."

Tenpenny smiles and nods.

"Well, I assure you, Fry, nobody's more upset to see him disappear than I am."

Fry smiles.

"Thanks, Tenpenny."

He pauses.

"Wait…"

…

Penny Crayon stuffs her hastily finished homework into her locker.

"Penny!"

She yelps and drops her books. Jack's appeared behind her, looking like he hasn't slept.

"What's the big idea!?" She demands. "You're nearly as bad as Detective Sholmes was."

"We have to talk somewhere private."

"Why?" Her eyes narrow. "This isn't a puberty thing is it?"

"What? No, No!" He lowers his voice. "It's about that weird door."

Penny's expression changes at once. She's beaming knowingly by the time he's pulled over to a quiet section of the library so they can talk in private.

"Changed your mind, did you?" She asks smugly. "Decided you want to go back?"

"No," Jack says urgently. "Look!"

He pulls the orange pom-pom out of his backpack and shows her. She squints at it.

"What is it?"

She prods it with her finger.

The ball of fur vibrates, then suddenly two smaller balls of fur on springs emerge from it, then two hairless legs with taloned feet like a falcon, finally two, large, innocent eyes open, and a fang-toothed mouth to go along with them.

"Hi there!"

Penny yelps in fright and drops the thing. It lands on its feet, still beaming up at them.

"Boy, you're friend spooks almost as easily as you do, huh Jack?"

"How do you do my name?" Jack asks. The little creature giggles merrily.

"Ah Jack! You old kidder you! Always asking the serious questions!"

Penny looks to Jack, who shrugs helplessly.

The creature yawns and scratches itself with a claw.

"Boy, that backpack makes for a comfy snoozing spot! What'd they line those things with?"

"Here's a better question; What in the world are you?" Penny asks.

"A smuzzy-fuzzy!" The creature says brightly. Penny's even more confused.

"A muzzy-wuzzy?"

"Smuzzy-fuzzy," Corrects the creature, extending her a claw. "Name's Flash!"

Penny shakes his claw, still perplexed.

Jack pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose and inspects the creature. "After we left that room, he hitched a ride back home with me."

"Uh no, actually I followed you out. There's a difference."

"Why did you follow me out!"

"Why wouldn't I?" Flash says innocently.

Jack begins to pace. It feels like a weight's been dropped in his stomach.

"You're sure you came out of that door? You're not a science experiment from Professor Entrapta or something?"

"Or you're another robot then that it?" Penny asks.

Flash shakes his head happily, sending his springy little antennae bobbing about.

"I am 100% made of real stuff!"

"Hmm, he might be honest about that?" Penny says to Jack, "If Rodney's robots can't get out of bounds and he came from the other part of the house-"

"But Rodney said his house can't make intelligent life on its own," Jack counters.

"Well, where'd this guy come from then? I didn't draw him."

"I don't know, but he's going back where he came from."

"You're joking!" Cries Penny, looking cross. "Honestly that's two mysteries now you don't want anything to do with. Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Back home," Jack says. "And that's where Flash needs to go too, tonight. You and me will take him back into his part of the house after school, and he'll be gone,"

…

Rodney rushes through the school hallways in a rush, crossing paths with a female student.

"Watch where you're going rodent!" She snarls in an unfeminine tone.

"Yes, yes, my apology Shego!" Rodney says distractedly.

The girl watches him leave, nostrils flaring, then continues down the way she meant to go.

She isn't in fact Shego, she seems to be new, and she also seems to be turning heads.

"Who is she?"

"I don't know!"

"Man is she hot though…"

Rodney finds Peach, Daisy and Rosalina busy hanging up fliers. He tugs on Peach's skirt.

"Your Highness, might I burrow you a moment? We have an issue."

"Yes, I know Rodney," Peach says. "We're doing everything we can to find Alucard?"

"Actually my dear, this is about-"

"Hey, what's everyone staring at over there?" Daisy says.

They turn, to observe a crowd beginning to grow. At its centre, the girl Rodney was nearly run over by. She's adorned entirely in white, her suit, long coat and fur hat all the colour of freshly fallen snow.

She waltzes over to the poster they'd just hung and rips it from the wall inspecting it with two piercing red eyes.

Then she lets out a deep sinister chuckle. One that sounds deeply masculine, and deeply familiar.

"What sort of joke is this?" She demands. Holding up the picture of Alucard on it.

"…This doesn't look anything like me."

Rodney and the three ladies stare blankly at him.

…

An hour later Chris finds himself being all but shoved into Rodney's study by Daisy. Peach, Conner and Rodney himself already waiting for him.

"What's so urgent I have to drop everything and me here!?" He wines. "I was in the middle of na-I mean searching for Alucard!"

"No need," Conner says. "We found her."

"Her?" Chris repeats.

The girl in white sits, arms folded. The staff gawking down at her. Chris stares in disbelief.

"Her? He repeats. "Uh dude? Why is my vampire a girl now?"

"The trappings of mortal forms mean nothing to me Nazi!" Sneers the vampire.

"Nazi!?"

"My apologies, I forget you dogs of the SS like to be addressed by title," Alucard says sardonically.

"I'm not following," Chris says.

"Neither am I," Conner says. "Alucard are you feeling alright?"

Alucard eyes them suspiciously.

"You all seem to be operating under the misconception we've met before." She shrugs. "Perhaps we have, I don't bother memorizing every kraut I have the misfortune of meeting." Her red eyes flash sinisterly. "Although I'm normally not sloppy enough to leave any of my prey alive!"

"Really starting to seem like they don't remember us?" Entrapta says.

Slowly, Rodney, Chris and Chef all turn to look at Conner, the latter two glaring.

"Oh no! Wait a minute!" Conner says, throwing up his hands defensively. "I didn't do this!"

"You when too far this time O'Gleeson!" Chris shouts an odd gleam of triumph in his vindictive eyes. "Just wait until the network here's about this!"

"I didn't use my powers!" Conner insists.

"Wait a minute?" Daisy says. "Conner's got powers that can turn people into girls?"

Chris scowls. "No, but they sure can make people forget what he needs them to, can't they Peach?"

All eyes turn to Peach, who looks quite distant.

"I wouldn't use those powers again," Conner assures her. "Not after last time. I wouldn't risk that happening to another contestant."

"When you're finished…" Alucard interrupts. "This little performance was amusing at first, but I'm growing tired of this Nazi nonsense."

She pulls a twin set of machine guns out of her coat and cocks both of them.

"Perhaps it'll be easier to get answers if I redecorate the walls with your Aryan blood!"

Conner sighs.

"Sorry Princess, Alucard for god's sake just shut up and be civil!"

A strange look overtakes Alucard, she drops her guns and nods. Conner turns back to Peach.

"See that was my powers. But that was self-defence, you saw that."

"Cool, now you're in massive trouble," Chris says folding his arms.

"Mr. McLean!" Peach says sharply. The princess frowning at him.

"It's alright. I trust Conner's judgement."

Conner looks relieved.

"Thanks, Peachy."

"Don't use them again."

"Soooo what happened last time?" Daisy asks innocently.

Peach stammers.

"Nothing that hasn't been sorted out already right Princess?" Conner says. Peach nods forcefully. Conner to turn Chris.

"Speaking of sorting things out now, we're going to have to take some drastic measures to fix your problem."

"None of this is my fault!"

"So I guess bringing the vampire here in the first place, and putting him inside a giant monster filled with blood and guts has nothing to do with our current fiasco that right?" Conner demands. "Because it really seems like that's the root of the problem here."

"I'm never the problem! Every single idea I have is perfect!" Chris insists stubbornly. "You people love to forget it, but I'm the core of the show, I know what people want to see O'Glesson! Forty-nine seasons and nearly as many years I ruled television with this thing, then you take over for the fiftieth and the show nearly gets cancelled!

I'm the Total Drama expert here!"

"But you sure as hell aren't an expert on the multiverse, are you?"

Chris opens his mouth, then closes it several times, before finally giving up and glaring at Conner.

Conner rolls his eyes and turns towards the door.

"When baby McLean's done his tantrum, I'd like to get moving here."

"Where are you going?" Rodney asks.

"Back to Alucard's home reality, I may not know anything about the anime he spawned from, but someone there probably has more answers than we could find on our own."

"Great, have fun with that," Chris says.

"You're coming to."

"What!?" Chris yelps. "No, I'm not! Who's gonna run the show while I'm gone!?"

"Peach," Conner says.

Chris nearly explodes with indignation.

…

It takes several hours for Chris to be ready to travel, when he finally emerges from the Rodney House, he's ladened with several bags of luggage, and still complaining.

"She can't host!" He cries for what is perhaps without exaggeration the hundredth time.

"She's practically been running things for three days already," Conners says exhaustingly.

"Yeah, she's doing a stupid challenge, that I'm supervising!" Chris insists. "That's different from being the Host!"

Peach herself walks out of the house, carrying some of Chris's bags.

"Thank goodness I think that's the last of them."

"Thanks," Conner says, taking them from her with a smile. "Look I'm sorry about earlier for bringing up some less than fun memories…" He grimaces. "…or lack thereof."

"That's alright Conner, like you said everything is all better now. I've grown a lot since those days," She smiles. "And I have your game to thank for it."

He gives her a serious look.

"You're sure you're alright with it? This is a big responsibility here. Thinks will mostly run themselves but no joke, you will technically be running the whole show."

"Well, that will be a change won't it?" She says with a giggle. "But If I can manage the Mushroom Kingdom, I can manage Total Drama."

"I know it's nothing you can't handle," Conner assures her. "Just keep the challenge running while we're gone and keep an eye on Al, will you? I can't bring him with me, some studio bullshit about a grey area with this, and whether it counts as a medical evac. The studio sucks basically, and I have to leave Al with you guys, even though he's a little out of it let's say.

Hopefully, things should be fine but it does get out of hand, I trust your judgement. Make whatever call you got to make and don't worry about the consequences; I'll vouch for you."

Peach gives him her best reassuring smile.

"No need to worry Conner. I'm sure everyone will be on their best behaviour while you're gone. Oh and of course I'll have all my friends and subjects by my side to help."

"I know, but I figured I get you a little extra help just to be sure, so I asked an old buddy to stop by."

Chris leans out of the ship scowling. "Seriously?"

"Who?" Peach asks.

A brightly coloured ship jumps out of warp drive, blaring 70s rock and roll into the void of space, which is apparently just something you can do in this reality.

It lands on Rodney's asteroid. A man walks out, his clothing sleek and futuristic, combat boots, tight pants and a red leather jacket, he walks stoically up to the table, face obscured by a grey breathing mask with red eyes.

"Somebody order a TA?"

Peach nearly shrieks with joy.

"Peter!"

The man removes his mask, revealing a dirty blond thirty-something-year-old man, his face lit up with boyish glee.

"Long time no see Toadstool!"

They shake hands.

"How did you get here on such short notice?" She asks.

Peter gives her a coy smirk.

"Actually funny story I'm involved-"

He notices both Chris and Conner giving him a warning look.

"-Involved in the area yeah! I just happened to volunteering out in this corner of the multiverse when I got the call."

"Quill! If you're going to be a liar the least you can do is be a good one, like I always am."

A second man steps out of the ship. He's shirtless and hairless, dark grey skin iridescent, eyes a piercing pale blue, red fractal patterns weave over his imposing muscles. He wears blue cargo pants and carries two cutlasses.

"You must be the Princess…" He says immediately sighting Peach. He approaches and cups her hand in his.

"You are even more beautiful in person than Quill said you'd be."

Peach smiles. "That's very kind of you to-"

"Even before he knew you as a real person, he'd talk about knowing you as a child,"

"Yes he's-"

"…and of the unceasing sexual fantasies you provided him in his teenage years."

"DRAX!" Peter Quill bellows, both him and Peach having turned bright red. "What's the one thing I told not to talk about!?"

"I don't remember," Says the grey man stoically. "It seemed unimportant so I chose to forget it."

Peter groans. "Princess, this is Drax, he insisted on coming."

"If Quill is to run out on us again it seemed like someone should be there to watch over him. Make sure his weak Terran flesh isn't damaged." The Grey man says dutifully. "I am known as Drax the Destroyer. Bravest of the Guardians of the Galaxy."

"Stupidest Guardian of the Galaxy," Peter murmurs under his breath.

"There is no one that calls me that."

"I called you that right now you big idiot, and Rocket calls you it all the damn time."

"Curse that rodent!" Drax anguishes. "If he wasn't so tiny and adorable, I would have slayed him long ago."

"Don't worry we've got another rodent inside," Chris says, face twisted with disapproval at Drax and Peter. "But you can't slay that one. Not that I'm gone he and Chef are going to be the only competent people in there."

"Mr McLean!" Peter says offering his hand to Chris. "Nice to finally meet officially. Conner told me a lot about you back in Endless."

"I'm sure he did," Conner says sourly. "…and I heard a lot about the second-rate interns he hired. Now are we going or what?"

Conner shakes his head. "You're just going to be a barrel of laughs to travel with, aren't you?"

He turns to the others.

"You guys be good while we're gone. Remember keep the contestants running smoothly, keep Al under control and don't start any fires."

"What if we need to set something on fire to control this Al?" Drax inquires.

"Then keep the fire under control."

"Wise thinking."

Conner gives them a final wave and steps into his Wax Lip Ship.

"Stay out of trouble you crazy knuckleheads! We'll be back as soon as we can!"

The ship pulls away.

"You sure your Princess has things handled?" Chris asks.

"We trust each other," Conner says. "Someone that ends up happening when you're actually nice to your cast."

"You were anything but nice to that girl," Chris says. "And your trust isn't anything to brag about. You remember the last time you trusted your cast to get by on their own."

"Yes, you people just love to keep reminding me of that."

He flips on the console on the bridge and the ship's engines come alive.

"This will be different; all she has to do is look after your cast. Besides Al what's the worst trouble they could get up to?"

He pulls forward on the throttle. The engines glow blue. A blinding crack of light appears before the ship, like a hole in reality. There's a great jolt the ship spaghettifies into the light and then vanishes.

…

That evening, Jack and Penny find themselves standing once more before the mystery door.

Jack secures Flash, The Smuzzy-Fuzzy, making sure the little creature's still safely in his backpack, then turns to Penny.

"Ready?"

"Last chance to not do this, keep our new pet, and continue exploring this place?" She offers. He gives her an unyielding look of resolve. She sighs.

"Right, on with it then." She says disappointedly.

They enter once more into the room of hamsters.

"I suppose it'll be nice for you to be going home won't it Flash?"

"Not really," Flash says, looking up at them both with an innocent confusion. "Why are you getting rid of me? Don't you want to be friends? I want to be friends."

Jack intends to answer but he stops abruptly.

Penny's just opened the door at the far end of the hamster room, A factory full of spinning looms greats them.

"Hang on! Where's all the dragon fruit that was here last time?"

"Oh man," Jack whispers. "I think it changed."

"It what?"

"I think the rooms change," Jack repeats, already he can feel his insides twisting into knots. Everything suddenly seeming more complicated.

Penny scratches her head.

"Maybe the familiar rooms are still in here? I mean surely they must be."

"Wait!"

She's just made to walk forward towards the next door, he pulls her back.

"What if the rooms change behind us?" He asks nervously.

Penny thinks for a moment then snaps her fingers.

"Leave that to me!"

She grabs a spool from one of the looms, tying one of it around her waist.

"There!" She says brightly. "Now there's no worry about getting lost! We've just got to make sure we don't close the doors."

They continue on, passing more spaces they hadn't encountered last time, but just as bizarre. A snowy playground in an urban courtyard, A valley full of lush ferns, A room covered floor to ceiling with the tentacles of a sea anemone, A rocky beach beneath a cliffside Vietnamese village.

As they pass place after place, Jack can't help but shake a strange feeling. It reminds him of the Flesh Pit. It hadn't really sunk home what an infinitely sized home meant until now. The house seeming suddenly like a great monster they were journeying deeper into the belly of.

"Any of this look familiar Flash?" Penny asks, hopping from rock to rock.

"I don't know?"

"What do you remember seeing before us?"

"Oh, tons!" Says Flash enthusiastically. "I remember lots and lots of really cool things, like this, but different."

"Let us know if any of this rings a bell."

Flash salutes her obediently.

"Aye Aye Captain!"

Jack stares at the little creature more confused than ever.

"You really are alive, aren't you?"

"Yeah, why?" Flash asks innocently.

The weirdest part about all of this was that Jack believed him. There's a spark in his eyes too natural to be a machine.

"Maybe Rodney's wrong and his house is creating thinking things without knowing," He says to Penny.

She doesn't respond, he looks up and finds she's disappeared.

"Penny!"

"Jack come quickly you've got to see this!"

He rushes over to where Penny's called, finding her through a door in the cliff.

"Penny don't scare me like that!" He says angrily.

"Take a look at this will you?" She urges.

He squints and looks around.

They've entered onto the stage of a cavernous opera hall.

"Cool isn't it?" She asks him, voice reverbing through the massive room.

"It's just a theatre," He says.

"Yeah, but this is what I mean by how cool it'd be to come exploring here more," Penny says excitedly.

She spreads her arms and twirls on stage like a ballerina, laughing.

"Honestly, I never really got what that Rodney bloke was on about building this big place he's got, but I think I get it now. Forget all the rubbish Chris has been having us do, this is what's brilliant about the house, having any sort of space you'd ever want whenever. I mean who else has their own private opera hall? Just Rodney."

She looks at him excitedly. "But now that we know the way in it could be ours too, couldn't it? Ah, think how grand that'd be. The whole house as our own private clubhouse where we could get away from schoolwork, or Chris, or trying to figure out how on earth I'm supposed to deal with Tenpenny! I mean we're the youngest ones here, the underdogs Jack. Surely we deserve a little fun?"

"No!" Jack says firmly.

"Why not!?" She demands. "What have you got against this place?"

"I don't know," He says. "I just feel like we're not supposed to be in here!"

"You're not!"

Both of them and Flash freeze in place. A voice has just come echoing down from the rafters above them.

Jack looks up, and nearly faints Looming in the shadows, a masked figure stares down at them. The now deeply complicated knots in his stomach ruefully informed him that he had failed to consider whether or not Flash might not have been the only person the house had created.

"Who said that?" Penny says nervously. She looks up and spots the figure.

"Ah no! That better not be that dratted Phantom of the Opera bloke again back after me for revenge."

"Pardon?" Jack asks.

"I've a life outside of you." She says.

The figure swoops down from the rafters and lands before them, body in a billowing black cloak. Face and head concealed by a hooked mask and tricorne. In the midst of Jack's fear, a memory of being in 17th century Venetian Carnival came back to him.

The figure bores into them with its black eyes. Jack backs away in caution.

Penny gasps.

"Wait, Jack! You don't think this is the person we ran into earlier, is it? Do you know Flash?"

"Penny," Jack hisses "Desperately. I think this guy wants to talk."

She gives him a cross look. "Well, that's not very nice, is it? You can't just make assumptions about people."

The figure laughs coldly, a sword appears from behind their cloak. Penny gulps.

"…Unless they're armed that is. I think we should be on our way!"

The figure lunges at them, the two children cry in alarm and make a beeline for the exit. The next moment they're spiriting as fast as their legs can carry them.

Jack chances a glance over his shoulder and sees what he was dreading to see.

"He's following us!"

"Well, if it's any solace, I think you were right about not mucking around in here!" Penny pants.

"The apologies nice, but you using your crayon magic would be nicer!"

"Double right you are!"

She quickly sketches them a scooter. The two of them still following the path of string tied about their waists.

"Ah hey, it's the sewing room!" Flash cries.

"How do we stop!" Jack shouts.

Penny's eyes go wide.

"Might have forgotten about that part! Brace for impact then!"

They come careening into the room, the scooter slamming into a loom, shattering both. Jack feels several bruises forming, he pays them no attention and leaps to his feet, operating on pure adrenaline. The sound of the approaching stranger still behind them.

"Come on!"

They sprint through the hamster room, through Entrapta's office, through the science lab, and out into the dark school hallways. Then hunch over panting.

"Never…again!" Jack wheezes. "Man, oh man oh man. We can never go back in there. That was too close."

"What about Flash?"

"Those this mean I can stay?" The little creature asks hopefully.

"I don't know," Jack says. "For now. I just want to go home and never think about that guy in there again."

"You remembered to shut the door on him, didn't you?" Penny asks.

Jack goes pale.

They hear a distant thudding sound, and his heart misses a beat.

Penny throws the both of them into a locker and slams it shut. Just as the door to the science lab is kicked open the figure bursts into the hallway.

Through the slots of the locker, they watch as the stranger freezes, as if confused by their surroundings.

"What is this?"

Jack and Penny hardly breathe, the stranger rooted in place, taking in everything. Then abruptly it takes off deeper into the school.

Penny, Jack and Flash exit their locker.

Jack stares off in the direction the stranger left.

"Oh, man…"

"Think we're going to get in trouble for letting a monster into the school?" Penny wonders.