Chapter 26: Jungle Jeopardy
Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Before we begin, I must apologize for the massive delay in the publication of this chapter. I've been through hell and back while writing it, which greatly slowed my progress down, and some...personal events regarding me and Matt have slowed us down as well, which is why our collab is delayed as well. Nonetheless, I can assure you that it's slowly being worked on, and that you will enjoy it once it comes out. I can also assure you that I'm not losing passion for any of my stories, in case any of you were theorizing that was the reason for the delay. Well, it wasn't, and I'll tell you that all my stories will eventually be finished in one way or another. Now, with all that out of the way, let me respond to your reviews.
Softkitty55, thanks for your review! I'm really happy that you think I improved on the original chapter! As for the Licorice Rainforest, I really liked that idea and couldn't resist using it. You'll find out what'll happen inside in this chapter. :D
Matt, as you know, I fixed the error with Chris mumbling. Thanks so much for pointing it out. Mike Teavee being Daniel's father? That's an interesting theory, but in order to find out whether you're right or not, read on! I'm also glad that you liked the return of the milkshakes room, this time with even more varieties instead of simply chocolate, unlike Where All the Bad Nuts Go. As for the Licorice Rainforest, as I said to Softkitty55, read on! :)
emeraldphan, I'm glad you liked the description of all the new rooms! I had a lot of fun ressurecting a bunch of old ones, specifically with the aforementioned Marshmallow Marsh (which, in case you're curious, originally appeared as the Edible Marshmallow Pillows room in Where All the Bad Nuts Go). Daniel certainly is a party pooper compared to Charlie and Willy's imagination, isn't he? As for whether or not he'll adapt, read on!
Guest #1, and so they are! Nice observation! :D
Gage the Hedgehog, I'm glad you liked it!
Guest #2, seeing Tyler in his underwear would be really awkward for our tourgoers, wouldn't it now?
Guest #3, hm, I'll consider that, but I will tell you something will happen to Willy in this chapter.
charlie bucket, thanks for pointing that typo out! I fixed it.
JOHNHAMMOND1993, I'm glad you liked the Cow Ranch, as I had a ton of fun writing it! Thanks for the compliments on the hints...
As for your room suggestions, they'll definitely appear! Thank you!
Guest #4, I already got Matt's permission as soon as I saw your review, so it will appear! Thanks for the suggestion!
Guest #5, that's perfect! I'll for sure consider that suggestion.
DeCypherrrr5, thanks so much for being concerned about me. The next chapter is finally here!
Guest #6, I'll for sure include that! XD
Guest #7, that's going in the story! :D
MOUseonION, thanks for your suggestion! I'll consider it.
Tessa, hello, and thank you so much for your concern! The next chapter is finally here!
MotherOfVampires, thanks so much for the compliments!
Guest #8, what a good suggestion! I'll consider it.
Guest #9, hm, I'm not sure if the characters involved would like to permanently have cancer and other defects after the tour...
Now, with all the reviews responded to, enjoy chapter 26, everyone! I did insert a few references throughout, so see if you can spot them. Onwards!
The group entered inside the Licorice Rainforest, and they saw the most astonishing sight. They were looking upon a stunning jungle, and every single one of the plants were actually green licorice. Various sounds surrounded them, such as hoots, chirps, and roars. Everyone, even Daniel Sparkman, was left in awe by what they saw.
"Welcome to the Licorice Rainforest!" Mr. Wonka beamed. "A life-size replica of the Amazon rainforest, completely made out of various colors of licorice!"
"How on earth did you visit the Amazon rainforest?" Daniel Sparkman asked. "From the way you described Loompaland, the two sound remarkably similar."
"My travels for candy have taken me all around the world, little boy," Mr. Wonka smiled. "I've travelled everywhere you can imagine trying to perfect my recipes."
"Everywhere?" Daniel said, raising an eyebrow.
"Everywhere," Mr. Wonka repeated. "You see, little boy, chocolate-making is much more than sitting in a lab. It's trying to become the best ya can be. I've travelled to Italy, Montreal, the United Kingdom, and anywhere you can ever imagine!"
"Don't talk to me about winning like that!" Mindy Bell snapped. "I know much more about that kind of thing than you do!"
"Quite right," Mrs. Bell beamed proudly, placing her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "My daughter is the very best that you can possibly be, and nobody can say otherwise!"
"Otherwise," Daniel snarked, and the two Bells looked at him with an irritated glare.
Charlie cleared his throat, and the group looked at him.
"Anyways," Charlie explained, "to get through the Licorice Rainforest quickly, we devised an obstacle course of sorts, where you'll be swinging around on vines, jumping over lemonade rivers, and more, so go enjoy yourselves, everyone! In fact, the course starts right over there!"
Charlie turned and pointed to seven long, red vines that were dangling down from a group of trees.
"Why are there seven vines?" Chris asked.
"For seven families, of course," he answered. "It's unfortunate that Antonio and Yuna had to leave us after such a short period of time, but that's what happens after you don't listen to instructions."
The five remaining children, as well as their respective parents, glared at each other, but said nothing. Then, the children walked over towards a vine, gripped it, and stepped back. Running forward, they swung through the air and landed on the other side of one of many lemonade rivers in the room. The parents followed shortly afterwards, as everyone made their way through a large clump of green licorice plants.
Looking at each other, Charlie and Mr. Wonka decided to take the remaining two vines, and they swung across the river with no problem at all.
"If they like this room," Mr. Wonka whispered to his heir, "they'll certainly like the Oompa-Loompas' hangout later on in the tour. That is, if we have a group by then."
"Right," Charlie agreed. "It really is a shame what happened to Antonio and Yuna, but they didn't listen to our instructions, and paid for their actions by getting themselves in trouble."
"Just like the original tour, eh?" Mr. Wonka remarked, and Charlie nodded at him as they climbed over a grey rock that was made out of the toughest licorice imaginable.
"I wonder what'll happen next…" Charlie whispered to himself as they continued their trek, wondering what the children and their parents were up to.
Tyler and Kitsune had allowed the remaining members of the group to pass them up so that they could finally be alone. Now that they were, the two of them chuckled as Tyler unzipped his backpack.
"Man, Kevin would be so proud!" Tyler chuckled as he took out another one of his signature smoke bombs, then zipped it back up.
"He sure would," Kitsune smirked as the two zig-zagged through the jungle, eventually finding a shortcut to get themselves ahead of everyone else.
"He even gave me a variety of his pranking supplies before I entered the factory," Tyler said with a sinister grin. "I wanna test some of those babies out. As long as we conquer this factory in any way possible while having fun with our pranks, nothing can stop us. Kevin also told me the reason he gave me the supplies was so that I could beat Willy Wonka and his stupid heir for him since he couldn't do it himself, because he didn't win a Golden Ticket."
"Quite unfortunate if I do say so myself," Kitsune frowned. "Can you imagine how much fun the lot of us could've been having together if he got a Golden Ticket as well?"
"That would've been the best day ever!" Tyler admitted with a hint of sadness in his voice. "But we mustn't let that dwell on us now; the others are coming up by us even as we speak!"
"Right!" Kitsune nodded as Tyler held out the smoke bomb, and she lit it with the signature lighter she always carried around. It began to flare to life, then she rolled it gently under another red vine that one Golden Ticket winner was reaching for- specifically, Chris Davidson.
"Hehehe," Tyler chuckled to himself as he watched Chris reach for the vine. As soon as he did so, the smoke ejaculated from the bomb, covering the entirety of the surrounding area in green smoke.
"Ah!" Chris shouted, his group loosening on the vine in a panic. Everyone else saw this as well, and swung back on the ground to check what was going on, including Willy Wonka and Charlie.
"Chris!" Jenna said, running up to her friend. "You're hurt! What happened?"
"Is something wrong?" Mr. Wonka asked, extremely concerned. As soon as he said this, he saw Chris gripping his leg in pain, and heard laughter coming from behind a nearby licorice bush. All he did was cup his head in his hands in sadness and shake it in disappointment.
"Are you okay, Chris?" Charlie Bucket asked, looking at Chris in concern. His leg had a cut on it, and there was a drop of blood coming out of it.
"It hurts," Chris said sadly, gripping his leg in pain.
"No worries," Charlie smiled, taking out a white strip of gauze from his tour coat. He wrapped it around Chris' leg, and immediately, a green glow was seen where his injury was. Charlie smiled once more, then removed the gauze. To everyone's surprise, the cut was nowhere to be seen.
"What was that?" Chris asked, his mouth open in shock.
"That's part of our Life Candies," Mr. Wonka explained. "Even though it looks like regular gauze, it's one-hundred percent edible, and even comes in many varieties, including bandages, and even some that resemble actual candy. Life Candy heals any injuries that it touches, and can even be used to bring people back to life. They'll be a medical breakthrough once they're released to the public! We're also working on a variation of our Life Candies to repair broken electronics as well."
"As for you," Charlie said angrily, staring at Tyler and Kitsune, "you are either going to give us that backpack of yours, or stay with the two of us for the remainder of the tour."
"How about...neither!" Tyler laughed, opening his backpack in a matter of seconds. "Happy prank time, suckers!"
Everyone looked at Tyler's hand, and they saw two clear capsules shaped like pills. Inside was a bright red liquid that resembled tomato juice. Tyler threw them down onto the ground, and immediately, the liquid flew into the eyes of everyone involved except for Tyler and Kitsune, who had put on clear goggles seconds before the incident occured.
"Ow!" Jenna screeched, bumping into Chris and causing the two of them to collapse on top of each other. "It burns!"
"Pepper spray!" Charlie screamed, rubbing his eyes in pain. "This is insane!"
"Look!" Mr. Davidson said, pointing towards the sound of footsteps. "Tyler and Kitsune are getting away!"
"Hahaha, another prank victory!" Tyler was heard laughing as everyone was rubbing their eyes in pain. "Now this factory will be ours, and I'll make it into the ultimate hub for pranking, the biggest prank hub the world has ever seen!"
Taking his hands off his eyes for a couple seconds, Mr. Wonka whistled with two fingers, and immediately, a large jaguar made entirely of tan and brown licorice jumped out of the jungle and began chasing after Tyler and Kitsune.
"Yikes!" Kitsune shouted. "Son, you got any more of that pepper spray?"
"Sure!" Tyler said, tossing his mother a bottle of the chemical agent. She sprayed it, but it did nothing to stop the jaguar from running after them.
"Rats!" Kitsune said. "Everything in here is made out of licorice, which means the pepper spray has no effect!"
"Try my smoke bombs!" Tyler said in a panic, tossing his mother two of the pranking items. "Those gotta work! They always do!"
"Roger!" Kitsune said, igniting them and throwing them towards the jaguar.
As soon as she did, they flared up once again, covering the area up in white and brown smoke. This confused the jaguar and caused it to bump into a tree, and the two of them laughed victoriously as they ran back into the jungle in order to devise a plan for taking over Mr. Wonka's factory.
"Kevin would love this chaos!" Tyler laughed while he and Kitsune were hiding. "This is awesome! Kevin may be the Pranking King, but man, would he be so proud of me! I'm one of his biggest fans, and rightfully so! Ryan has nothing on me! And once I win this factory, Kevin will be the ruler, and I'll be his right-hand man! It'll be beautiful, a dream come true!"
"Quite right, my darling," Kitsune smirked evilly. "We will take over this factory, and nothing can stop us!"
Author's Note: Wowee! Tyler has struck again?! Will he ever be restrained?! Only the next chapter has the answer, so stay tuned, everyone!
As for other elements of this chapter, did you spot the references I included? If you did, good for you! I hope that you're looking forward to the next chapter, where the cliffhanger will be answered! You can also expect the third elimination soon...
Until then,
Gabe S. :)