A/N: Next up, Project Exonaut, a game that is still one of my favorite Cartoon Network games and online games ever! If FusionFall can get a revival then I hope this game gets one day as well.(No, I am not joking, FusionFall was revived by fans. Played it myself. A solid and faithful revival of the original)
Quite a decent bit of reviews to address this time! Definitely don't mind it though! Just like you guys have quite a bit to say, so do I!
Reviews:
(Including AO3 reviews this chapter bc my gmail is reading these emails weird for some reason, so I can't tell what's a new or old comment)
PotentialStock: Thanks! Also, like I said, really appreciate the offer regardless. It's nothing against those types of things at all. I think they're cool. It's moreso me not believing I'm capable of handling things like that the way others could. At least in that magnitude as both TD stories I made are a part of my own timeline/universe. But I'd just rather keep it that way as I'm more comfortable handling that instead of trying to figure out what's going on with a character I used in another season. I know there's ways to get around that but I'd rather just not have to deal with thinking about that at all and make things easier on myself. Pretty crazy there's an entire discord server dedicated to a whole universe for these types of competition stories. I wonder how it compares to what's being made by Jaw, Norbert, Kat and MemeKing.
Trex: Unfortunately submissions closed like a while ago lol. But, some of the characters you've suggested are already in this story! As for Nate, we'll see how far he gets when that time comes.
Luckyhill: Forgot to address your review for the chapter before last. You're very welcome! Good luck with the rest of your story! I'll try my best to keep up with it. Don't know if you were around when I said it in the discord, but I usually don't have too much to say when it comes to these fics unless it's something that really surprises me, for better or for worse(and it's very rare that I have something negative to say). Hence why it's rare that I ever leave reviews even after reading a chapter. That includes stories that are personal favorites of mine. It's hard to put my thoughts together into something meaningful and not generic most of the time lol.
Superwheeltires: I've watched a bit of both the first season and All-Stars. Not gonna lie, all-stars could have been better. But I suppose it would have been better for me to watch the seasons in between before doing that lol.
As for thinking about challenges for another season, I'm not concerning myself about making another season when I need to get this one finished first and foremost. I may do a smaller-scale third one, but I doubt it'll be immediately after I finish this one as there's other things I'd like to work on/finish outside of Total Drama stuff. This still doesn't guarantee I'll do one. I'm just saying there's a chance I may do it. I understand some of my newest readers discovered me because of my Total Drama seasons, but that's not all I want to do from now on. I don't want to limit myself or any future plotlines I have to just being done in a Total Drama season(I'm sorry but the TMNT Turtles Forever 2 and RWBY x He-Man 2021 storylines I want to do is not working in a TD season. At least not for me.). It's easy to forget that these seasons are still connected to previous stories I've done. The references are peppered in throughout some chapters.
Teams:
Radical Rats:
Bennett, X, Zero & Axl, Albedo, Rick & Morty, Sendo, Akko, Sucy, Lotte & Diana, Blaze, Puss, Rally, May & Becky F., Yulaw, Tangle, Lanolin & Whisper, Adrien, Hiruma, Sena/Eyeshield, Kurita, Monta & Mamori, Natsu, Lucy & Happy, Kagami, Kise, Zee, Murasakibara
Storm Kings:
Jotaro, Todd and Riley, Paul, Sophie, Courtney, Rex and Bobo, Reimu, Razer, Din Djarin, Team RWBY and Penny, Ben and Rook, Octavia, Eliza, Huey D., Dewey and Louie, Aomine, Akashi, Sebastian, Isagi and Bachira, Sly, Mayuzumi, Maki
Wave Breakers:
Dwayne, Urien, Ayame and Ryoma(Power Stone), Toxsa, Reagan, Jenny, Julie, Launch, Randy, Team JET: Kaz, Fiona, Diego, Myron and Shiro, Hailey and Scott,Zak M, Hanamiya, Hinata, Kageyama and Tsukishma, Eijun, Miyuki and Furuya, Kunigami, Bakura, Bass, Asta and Noelle
Eliminated:
165th- Dragonfly Jones(Radical Rats)-Martin Sitcom
164th- Richie and Virgil(Wave Breakers)- Static Shock
163rd- Cameron(Storm Kings)- Total Drama
162nd- Duncan(Wave Breakers)- Total Drama
161st- Chris P.(Wave Breakers)- Dan VS
160th- Mona(Storm Kings)- Mona the Vampire
159th- Owen(Radical Rats)-Total Drama
158th- Zoey(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama
157th - Tetsuya Kuroko(Radical Rats)- Kuroko's Basketball(Quit)
156th-Shintaro Midorima(Storm Kings)-Kuroko's Basketball
155th-MacArthur and Sanders(Radical Rats)- Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race
154th-Luz Noceda(Storm Kings)-The Owl House
153rd-Priya(Radical Rats)-Total Drama
152nd- Shogo Haizaki(Wave Breakers)-Kuroko's Basketball
151st- Edward Falcon(Radical Rats)-Power Stone
150th- Shawn and Jasmine(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama
149th- Zak Saturday(Storm Kings)- Secret Saturdays
148th - Nimona(Wave Breakers)- Nimona
147th-Rocky Rickaby(Radical Rats)-Lackadaisy
146th-Huey Freeman(Storm Kings)-Boondocks
145th-Cicini(Radical Rats)- Rabi-Ribi
144th- Blaineley(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama
143rd- Heather and Alejandro(Storm Kings)-Total Drama
142nd-Karin Kanzuki(Wave Breakers)-Street Fighter
141st-Ruby G.(Wave Breakers)-Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken
140th-Noah(Radical Rats)-Total Drama
139th-Marinette Dupain-Cheng(Storm Kings)-Miraculous Ladybug
138th-Dawn(Radical Rats)-Total Drama
137th- Dan Mandel(Wave Breakers)- Dan VS
136th- Ryoma Echizen(Storm Kings)- The Prince of Tennis
135th-Rei Hino(Radical Rats)-Sailor Moon
134th- Johnny Bravo(Wave Breakers)-Johnny Bravo
133rd-Skipper(Storm Kings)-Madagascar Movies/Penguins of Madagascar
132nd-Bren(Storm Kings)-Monsuno
131st- Kurt Wylde(Radical Rats)-Hot Wheels: Acceleracers/World Race
130th- Molly, Libby and Scratch(Wave Breakers)-The Ghost and Molly Mcgee(Quit)
129th-Becky Botsford/WordGirl(Radical Rats)-Wordgirl
128th-Mr. Wolf(Wave Breakers)-The Bad Guys
127th-Emma(Radical Rats)-Total Drama Presents The Ridonculous Race
"Last time on Total Drama Across the Multiverse! Back to Japan! A pretty popular location this season so far. This time they go there to play volleyball in the Karasuno Gym, the school where Kageyama, Tsukishima and Hinata attend and play volleyball for."
Footage of the contestants entering the gym with the members of the Karasuno Volleyball Club introducing themselves is shown.
"The teams got ninety minutes to practice, learn and/or warm-up. And of course, socialize. Or in some of their cases, goof off."
Footage of the teams practicing, socializing and in the case of Miyuki, showing pictures of the Seido baseball managers to Nishinoya was shown.
"As for the game itself, it would be double round-robin tournament style. Meaning that each team would play each other twice, all in first-to-three matches. The team with the most wins at the end would win the challenge."
Footage of the teams' matches was shown.
"I'd assume they'd have some type of tiebreaking procedures in place in the chance there was a tie. But, it didn't matter anyway as there wasn't one. It was the Breakers that came away with it, winning three in a row. With the Kings getting second place. Which leaves the Rats. Who would they send home this time? Emma, ending her first stint in a Total Drama season. A real Total Drama season."
Footage of Emma's elimination was shown.
"Ohhhh! Almost forgot! Todd and Lucy made a bet. One that the latter lost. If you haven't seen the last episode to see what the consequences were to the loser, just stay tuned. You'll find out now on this episode of Total….Drama…..Across the Multiverse!"
*TD: ATM Intro II Plays*
Today's Challenge Inspirations:
Cartoon Network Project Exonaut Online Video Game
And by extension: Ben 10 Bounty Hunters, the game above's precursor
The first thing that was shown was Lucy sitting down at a table in the main lodge, sighing as she put down pieces of paper and a pen. The only positive she could create out of the situation she was in was that she didn't have to wear a maid outfit. Though the substitute wasn't exactly something she was a fan of either, having to get her good clothes dirty and stinky when doing the tasks that Chris assigned her. When he said that she would have to clean and eat the last place team food every day until episode 40, he meant it.
The second she was about to start to ease her mind and write, that was ruined the second she idly looked to her left and saw Mayuzumi sitting next to her, scaring her.
"You picked the worst time to do that!" She said to him, to which he gave no response. Although he had a book with him, he wasn't reading it, as instead he had a plate in his hand to eat. She looked at the chicken nuggets, fries and macaroni on his plate along with the vegetables and brownie. It was like a Kid Cuisine meal, but it looked and smelled even better than that. At least to Lucy, even though she had no clue what a Kid Cuisine was.
"If you think I'm going to help you for being a fool, you can forget it." Mayuzumi said bluntly, catching her staring. "You brought this on yourself, so I don't have any sympathy for you. And apparently, neither do some of your teammates."
"And you wonder why people don't want to talk to you around here." She replied in a rather monotone/deadpan tone, seemingly no type of energy in her voice.
"I could care less."
"Then why are you here? To make fun of me? We've already got people here that do a better job at that than you."
"To ask you a question. Why do you want to write?"
"To destress." She answered. But he could hear the sarcasm in her voice.
"You could do whatever you want to pass the time. But you….. you choose this. To write, of all things. Why?"
"It's a mystery how you're here but Kuroko isn't. You're literally the opposite of him."
He frowned after hearing that.
"Did I push the wrong button? You wouldn't have to worry about me saying things like that if it wasn't the truth. I didn't say anything last time for multiple reasons: one, your tone from then compared to now. Two, how I was feeling back then compared to now. And as you can see, I'm not exactly in the mood to deal with your prejudiced-" She stopped herself, leaving it up to the imagination of what she was going to say next. "I said what I said about Kuroko was because if it was him, he'd be a lot more understanding with people. Even ones that are pretty much the exact opposite of him when it comes to personality. It's the reason why he gave up his spot for Tangle and Priya to stay. Compared to you, who is being pretty prejudiced right now."
"All of that, and you still never answered my question." He said as he finally began to eat the food on his plate, the steam already gone from it, though still pretty warm.
Another plate was heard being put on the table. The plate belonging to Lotte.
"Hey Lucy." She said, a smile on her face.
"Hi Lotte." Lucy replied, giving her a soft smile. Seeing her always seemed to give her a good feeling on the inside. "Guess Morty's pretty busy huh?"
"Oh. A-actually, I talked to him a bit earlier today." She replied, a small sliver of red on her face.
Lucy could see this but decided not to tease her about it, knowing exactly why she looked that way, even if Lotte never told her anything about it.
Lotte looked over at Mayuzumi and gave him a friendly "Hi" as well. Seeing him was partially the reason why she chose to sat there, surprised that he sitting with Lucy of all people. Knowing that he might have been apprehensive to talk with her addition, she decided to try to break the ice.
"Getting some writing done, huh?"
"Yep. Definitely need it too." Lucy replied.
"I wish I could do something to help you."
"I wish you could too Lotte. But, just gonna have to get through it." She said. "And boy, writing can definitely get you through it."
Mayuzumi was about to get up and leave, not feeling that he needed to stay there and hear this conversation. Lotte saw this and acted quickly.
"I've never read any light novels before. I don't think the library I went to ever offered any."
"Depending on the library, it's hard to find those types of books. You have a better chance of finding mangas than these. If you want to really go out of your way to find and read them, then go to a bookstore. Or you could order them online."
"If you don't mind, may I borrow one of yours? I promise to bring it right back when I finish."
He looked apprehensive about doing that. Everything from his mind to his body made it look as if he was going to tell her no as he clutched the book tightly. But for whatever reason, he said the exact opposite. "Fine. I'll let you come with me to choose one as I have quite a few. But only one. Understand?"
Lotte nodded. "Yes! Thank you so much! I promise to bring it back whenever I finish and take good care of it!"
"Reality can be starkly different from expectations. We'll see soon enough." He said, looking forward as in front of him he saw Razer talking with Rook about something. But he wasn't really paying attention to them. Or the others as he silently ate. Not even saying a word since then. Lotte and Lucy continued to talk, with the latter talking about what she's been having to do. He was completely zoned out from the conversation. They didn't even notice him leaving eventually.
"Why? Why did I do that? That should have been a 'no'. Quick and simple." Mayuzumi thought before sighing. "Absolutely peachy."
"So, any interest in anyone around here?" Lucy asked Lotte as the subject began to slowly but naturally change with her able to smoothly get that question in.
"Interest? Well, I think for the most part, everyone here is interesting in their own-"
"Let me be specific. By interest I mean anyone here you think that's caught your eye. They'd be lucky to have someone as sweet as you."
When she said that, that was when Lotte figured it out and her face turned red. "Oh! I-" She didn't know what to say.
"Oh jeez. Now I kinda feel bad. Look at her!" Lucy thought before Lotte got up.
"Sorry. I-I have to go to the bathroom. I'll talk to you later!" She said before quickly walking away. Seeing this caused Lucy to only sigh in exasperation.
"Whoops."
Lost in her head, she accidentally bumped into Jotaro and fell to the ground.
"Watch where you're goin' kid." Jotaro said, standing over her, his stature terrifying her as she yelled a little when she looked up at him as she had never really interacted or was really up close to him until now. "Good grief, relax. It's just me."
"S-sorry." She said, standing up, calming down.
"I can definitely see why you and Libby are friends."
"What do you mean?"
"With how both of you act. Intimidated by the slightest thing that might looking imposing. If I was going to hurt you I would have done it by now. Hell, I would have done it a while ago. If that doesn't get you hurt, you not using your eyes definitely will." He said before walking past her.
"What a strange guy." Lotte said to herself before deciding to go find Mayuzumi to borrow one of his light novels, until she suddenly noticed the book that he had in his hand. It looked to have had several fish on them. But it didn't look to be some children's book. That was also when she realized that she had the problem of not knowing what room he even stayed in. Or where he goes when he's not in his room. And it didn't help that she didn't exactly have a close relationship with anyone on his team either.
"Hmm…."
She trailed behind him, finding where he went before she smelled something that she never smelt before. And it made her feel sick smelling it so she immediately covered her nose. When she slowly moved, she found Jotaro, who doubled as the source of the smell as he was smoking a cigarette, looking out ahead. She was confused as to why Jotaro would smoke. But wasn't going to follow through on that and ask him as she immediately started to leave, only to be knocked down and picked up by Jotaro seconds later.
She was terrified again.
"I'm sorry! I- I- I- I wasn't trying to-"
"Save it. It'll save time for both of us if you tell me what you want."
She only blinked as she was still in the air, causing him to sigh before putting her down, seeing that she was still clearly scared. "Alright. No one would follow someone without a reason to do so. Especially you. So what do you want? I don't even think we've even directly talked to each other before today, which makes this even more out of the ordinary for you."
She straightened her crooked glasses back. "W-well, I-"
"Come on, speak up. I already told you that I don't have any intentions on hurting you so why are your legs still shaking?"
She looked down at them, not even realizing she was doing it. She tried to stop the shaking but couldn't.
"I was just wondering…. If you knew where Mayuzumi's room is?"
"Why?"
"He said I could borrow one of his light novels after I asked him if I could. But I don't know where his room is. And he didn't tell me either."
"Two doors from ours. I'm surprised he was actually okay with that. But then again, I can see why he said yes in this case."
"What do you mean?"
"You should be able to figure it out. Now, what else do you want?"
"Actually, that was-"
"You wouldn't have gone through this effort, trailing behind me if that's all you wanted. I'm not the only one on this team. You could have where his room was to anyone else."
Already seeing that trying to beat around the bush wasn't an option, she came out with it, going straight to the point. "What book were you reading?"
When he heard this answer, he already knew it was the truth. And he shouldn't have been surprised that that was the reason. "It's not a novel if you're wondering. This book focuses on the emphasis of preservation of ocean life. Everyone talks about the preservation of wildlife on land, but marine life is just as important. Ocean life is actually disappearing twice as fast as land wildlife. But it's harder for people to notice that because most aren't around them as often as land animals for obvious reasons. Which is funny, considering we eat seafood often."
"Considering how much water makes up the Earth, you'd think people would be more conscious of that. But I guess not." She gets ready turns to leave before Jotaro says something else.
"71 percent to be exact. Also, one more thing."
"What is it?"
"This would have been a lot easier for you if you would have just came up to me and asked me that instead of trying to sneak around. And you see how that went. Everyone has fear. But not everyone does the same thing with it." He left to go back to read.
"Thank you! It was nice talking to you!"
"Good grief Lotte, you got what you wanted, right? With the time you're wasting he just might end up changing his mind."
Realizing that possibility, she quickly ran to find the room.
Jotaro realized something else and tried to call out to her. "Hey!"
But she didn't hear him. He only shook his head. She didn't even bother to ask where his own room was to even be able to find the one she was looking for. But, he wasn't going to chase after her. He figured that she'd figure it out.
After calming herself down, Lotte went to go and find Mayuzumi to borrow one of his books. While she was hoping to get him to really open up by mentioning light novels, her interest was genuine in them as she never read one before. So perhaps, this is another opportunity for that to happen.
*Confessional*
Lotte(Radical Rats):
"Interesting. I would have never thought Jotaro would be that interested in something like that. I guess everyone can be pretty judgmental of people even if it's unintentional. Myself included. I wonder why he's that interested in marine life? Or…. maybe I'm overthinking it again. Not everything needs a complex backstory. Maybe it's just something he's interested in."
*End Confessional*
Once she got to the house, she realized that she made that exact mistake of not asking which room Jotaro was in. But was able to figure it out regardless and saw him watching TV. It looked to have been some type of anime before he turned it off when he saw her.
"About time you showed up." He said, looking at her.
"Sorry. I didn't know which room you were in." Lotte said.
"Doesn't help that you don't have a relationship with anyone on the team either."
She was wondering how he would have known that but didn't question it. With her not saying anything else, he went to open a drawer. In it was several light novels.
"Here. Pick any one you'd like. I don't care. All I care about is you making sure you bring it back when you're done." He said to her. Which she inferred was an indication of an okay to walk in the room. She looks in the drawer at the different books, sifting through them before finally choosing one.
This one had a cover of someone with a reaper scythe looming over a castle.
"Don't worry, I learned some Japanese, so understanding it shouldn't be too much of an issue." She said to him before looking as if she was unsure if she should close it.
"Go ahead." He said, referring to the drawer. Hearing this, she closed it. "Like I said, as long as you bring it back, I don't care."
"Right. Well, thank you anyway!" She said before leaving the room.
He looked back at the closed drawer. "Interesting. I would have never thought she would have chosen that type of book. But what does it matter to me? It's none of my business in the first place." He thought before thinking about reading again but deciding not to. Instead electing to find something to watch.
Meanwhile, another one of his teammates had just finished his search for someone not on his team. The former being Isagi, the latter being Kunigami, who was by himself doing sit ups.
"Honestly, it's pretty impressive that your muscles haven't ripped in two." Isagi remarked as he approached him, which got his attention as he stopped.
"I'm busy. Get lost." He said to him as he was resting before preparing for a set of push-ups.
"If you're a lot more closed off than even Paul, Shiro and Bass, then-"
"I SAID GET LOST!"
"Alright! Alright! Can't say you've let this place change you at least."
*Confessional*
Isagi(Storm Kings):
"From an open book to a completely closed one. What a heel turn. I only wonder what would have happened to me if I got put through the Wild Card like he did. Nothing I picture in my head would probably be even close to what really happened in there. But, that might be all I can go off of at this point. I mean, I could maybe ask Ego about it, but he'd either tell me no or give me some weird, crazy answer."
*End Confessional*
Aomine, just finishing a workout by himself, drenched in sweat, was drinking a bottle of water and was texting someone. That someone being Kuroko.
Kuroko: Glad to hear it. Do you have any ideas of where you'd like to go?
Aomine: Idk
Kuroko: Perhaps you could work at the bookstore? Or work at the 'White House' at the beach.
Aomine: I'd rather not take a job where I'd fall asleep and get fired lol. White House sounds interesting though. What is it?
Kuroko: It's the beach house that an acquaintance of Kiyoshi owns. I think Momoi and you actually went there from I heard from Kiyoshi.
He mad a look, realizing exactly what place he was talking about. And he wasn't happy at all.
Aomine: On second thought, I think I'll pass on that too.
Kuroko: I see. I'm surprised you would. You'd be around food. And there's lots of girls at the beach too, naturally.
Aomine began to type before Kuroko added on to his message before him.
Kuroko: Of course, not much of this matters due to Kagami.
Aomine: What's he got to do with this?
Kuroko: Well, he was there. At least that's what Momoi and the rest of Seirin told me. You try to disassociate yourself with anything involving him. Yet you also are set on proving you're better than him as well.
Aomine: There's nothing for me to prove lol
He then turned off the phone afterwards, stomach now grumbling after thinking about when he served him a plate back at the "White House" beach house.
He heard his phone vibrate a couple of times, more than likely from Kuroko, but he wasn't even going to turn the phone back on as he had a feeling there was probably going to be a message or two from him that he didn't want to see.
And speaking of Kagami, he was talking to Kise about something with Sendo and Adrien also there. The first two had just finished some light weightlifting and the latter pair had just finished fencing with each other and all four of them had happened to have encountered each other in the main lodge to get an extra meal. Even if they knew it wasn't going to be good, they also knew that they couldn't just starve either.
"Now I get it. It makes sense." Kagami said to him.
"You don't get jack. He didn't even explain anything, he just said one word." Sendo said.
"Yeah, and what I did is called 'inferring'. Ever heard of it?"
"Take it easy you two. Alright, keep going." Adrien said, the first part to Kagami and Sendo, the second part to Kise.
"I don't know if you guys could tell from when she was on the talent show, but the first time I saw her, I already liked her. But, doing that off purely appearances is one thing. When you actually get to know them and still feel the same way, if not moreso, it's another."
"Wait a second, you mean to tell me, that you got like that over a girl? It took that for you to actually stop playing the nice guy act!?" Sendo said in disbelief.
"Sorry to hear that. I know that has to be tough." Adrien said to Kise, seemingly ignoring Sendo's outburst.
"Sorry? Wait, I think you guys misunderstand. I didn't get rejected. I haven't even said anything to her yet that's the problem. I'm worried that'll ruin our friendship because that'll always be something that's lingering if she doesn't feel the same way about me. But it's lingering for me right now. Playing volleyball just reminded me of her because that's the sport she plays at her school. Pair that with the fact that we weren't exactly doing that well and… you know the rest."
"Tch, bein' in the middle sucks. In some cases, you could say it's worse than being at the bottom. You try to make sure you don't fall to the bottom but you can't seem to climb further either in the standings. Best way I can describe where you're at right now." Kagami said.
"Why not just get it over with and tell her if you're feelin' like that?" Sendo suggested to Kise, bluntly.
"That's easier said than done." Kise said.
Sendo suddenly got up and grabbed his shirt. Adrien was about to stop him until he saw that Sendo didn't look to be gearing up for a punch. "Look, if you're gonna continue to feel like this then go ahead. You just better hope that crap doesn't carry over into the games or else." He said before letting go of his shirt, getting his plate and leaving to go eat outside.
*Confessional*
Sendo(Radical Rats):
"I said I could care less about romance. I didn't say I was oblivious to it. When I was younger, I had a bit of a crush on one of my teachers in middle school. And of course, during my boxing career now, at one point, I thought Kumi was cute too. That was obviously before I realized the relationship she and Ippo were brewing. But anyways, as for Kise, if he's gonna get anywhere with her he needs to be direct. Attack. Be aggressive, not defensive. In a boxing sense…. Not hurt her obviously! You know what I mean damn it! I'm just not about to sit here and watch this guy weep every damn challenge over that. Already bad enough I got to sit through that with Lotte. What, you think I didn't know? I told you I'm not stupid! It ain't any of my business so why would I try to butt in like it is? The only reason I said anything here is because one: This could actually affect whether we win or not. With Lotte, that's how she acts consistently. And two: I actually just happened to be sitting there when it happened. What kind of a teammate would I be to see someone needing help, be sitting right there and not lift a finger?"
*End Confessional*
"Dude just says that and leaves. And people say I got a problem with my attitude." Kagami commented.
"He's not wrong though. I can't let outside things like that affect how I play. Especially when there's people that are going through way tougher things than that right now. Like I said before, I'm not going to let that happen again." Kise said.
"Oh I'm not sayin' he's wrong on that. I'm just sayin' how he just does stuff like what he just did."
Kise had a comically disheartening look on his face after hearing that. "Oh thanks a lot. Well, at least I know I have one person here that won't do something like that." He said, looking over at Adrien.
"Just do it whenever you're good and ready. There's a time and place for things like that. And I think you'll be able to find yours." Adrien said to him.
"Thanks."
When they got outside, Adrien sensed that he had something else to say but was holding it in and asked him about it when Kagami left to do something else.
"Well, you got me. To be honest, it goes a lot deeper than that for me." Kise admitted.
"I'm all ears. We've got all day."
"The last time I had a girlfriend, it was all the way back in middle school. I won't go into the details, but, everything was fine and dandy until the one time I wasn't seen as this great model, basketball prodigy, nice guy. All it took was for me to be seen losing once, in a pretty embarrassing fashion I might add, for her to say it's over. And things didn't even last that long that's the crazy thing. At least to other people. I thought things lasted a decent bit of time. But hey, when you're in middle school, of course you're going to think that. Crazy how the things I cherished most had nothing to do with modeling and my appearance. It was that one relationship, people like Kurokocchi and Aominecchi and basketball that I loved. Never been in a relationship since. Moreso because I got busy with other things. That just got thrown on the backburner. And the whole situation with Teiko didn't exactly do things to help either."
"First off, I understand why you'd feel bad about what happened between you and her. But don't. If she would do something like that to you, if anything, I'd say she did you a favor believe it or not. That was a cataclysmic catastrophe waiting to happen the longer you two stayed together. Puns intended. But seriously though, if that's the way she thinks, it's going to be hard for her to keep friends, much less a date."
"Tch, you just had to sneak that in. I bet you were waiting for an opportunity to do something like that." Kise was trying to be fake annoyed but couldn't do it, unable to hold in the grin he had.
"No. Maybe. But anyway, second thing. And this one's an inference. I'm guessing that's why you're so hesitant on revealing your feelings to Minako. You're afraid it's going to be worse this time if things don't exactly turn out well."
"First thing, trust me, I don't feel bad at all. Looking back, just like you said, she did me a favor. Don't know the exact moment that I realized it, but just know that I did. Which leads to the second thing. Like I said, it's one thing to just be attracted to someone because of their appearance. It's another to be because of their appearance and them as a person. And that second thing is what matters to me the most. I want the people that I'm around to be able to lift me up, not drag me down. I know that sounds harsh, but I mean people that aren't actually around me to support me, but for me to support them."
"Makes sense. Okay, cheesy alert. And don't even think about it Plagg. But, I get it. To me, for a date to really work, you have to get through the friend zone first. Hence why 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' have the word 'friend' in them."
"Honestly, this is probably one of the least cheesiest things you've said. No offense of course."
"None taken."
"I'm serious. She's the exact same way with me that my teammates at Kaijo are. She got upset with me for being way too passive and called me out on it. Which, when I really think about it, was the exact thing that caused me to lose against Aominecchi. I had the opportunity to win in my hands after I did the one thing no one thought was possible to do: Copy his style of play. I could have either tried to win myself or pass to a teammate. I wanted to prove an ace that's a team player could win over one that focused on himself. So I passed. And he already knew I would and stopped the pass. And lo and behold, I was doing the same thing here, letting others play when I had the opportunity to. Prime example of not learning your lesson."
"Well, better late than never."
"At the cost of how many people leaving when I could have potentially stopped it?"
"We'll never know. But, we can't focus on that now. What you can and should focus on, is being better for the future. Remember, every day is a new chance to change, improve and better yourself. In this case, you had a chance to change that. And, even though I wouldn't say your personality last game was great, I'd say you definitely learned your lesson this time around."
"Yeah…."
*Confessional*
Adrien(Radical Rats):
"You know what? I just thought of something. If she knew all that about him playing, wouldn't she be watching right now? I'm not going to tell him that though. If I did, he'd probably freak out. "
*End Confessional*
"WOOOO! Ladders, ladders, I love me some ladders!" Courtney celebrated, dancing as she and others were playing Snakes and Ladders.
"Yeah, don't ever do that again." Randy said to her.
"Well, if I keep getting ladders like this…."
"I hope you don't think I'm talking about the cheering."
"Whatever. I know I've got good dance moves."
"You just keep getting lucky that's all. Eventually, that luck will run out." Noelle said, shaking the dice she had before rolling. Unfortunately, the four she got landed her on a snake.
"Yeah, I honestly think you spoke that into existence." Diego said, also playing as he had earbuds in, listening to music as he played.
"Ugh, you're listening to that crap again?" Fiona said to him in disgust, hearing his music.
"What you call 'garbage', is actually some of her best work yet."
"Exactly. The critic ratings further prove this. I think it's still weaker than Dance With Ya, but it's still not bad." Myron said, earbuds also in his ears.
"Anyone have any clue who they're talking about?" Axl asked.
"Titi. The cat pop star that was singing in the racing challenge. At least that is what I am assuming." Rook said.
"Yep! She just dropped a new album!" Myron exclaimed.
"This is crazy. We're competing here on Total Drama, and here she is dropping a surprise album on us!" Diego added.
"I know right!?"
"Which is even worse! Because now I have to listen to you guys constantly talking about it for the next few days."
"It's not just us. It's everyone! Personally, seeing the reactions of others listening to it is probably one of the most fun parts." Diego said.
"Yep! From casual enjoyers to music professionals to even big fans of her like us. It's really great to hear those diverse opinions and their explanations of why they feel that way. After all, music connects with people in different ways, just like any other form of media, and by extension, art." Myron said.
"You want to hear my opinion? Roll the dice." Fiona said.
"Okay, I'm kinda lost. I don't really care about her since I don't listen to her music, but why do you have this much contempt for her?" Courtney asked.
"It's because she can race and do music on the side. Something Fiona's jealous of." PEL remarked, playing as well.
"Why would I be jealous of her!? Now you're just coming up with boldfaced lies!" Fiona said. "Look, admittedly, she's not too bad of a racer, but at the same time, I'm not supporting a rival. The only person that's worse than her is Hebina. And I will never under any circumstances, be caught dead endorsing anything that a known pirate and cheating racer does." She then grunted and grit her teeth in anger as she shook the dice in her hand. "This just reminds me of when she tried to sell merch in our name, taking advantage of when we were impersonated by some Fake Team JET." Her anger boiled over to the point that she threw the die harder than intended, hitting Noelle in the head.
"That actually hurt!" She said, grabbing her head.
"Huh?" Fiona looked over and saw her grabbing her forehead.
"That dice! You hit me in the head with it!"
"Oh. Sorry." She said, now slightly embarrassed before getting gradually more angry seconds later. "Just thinking about the crap Hebina pulls ticks me off!"
"Fiona, take a chill pill girl, jeez." Diego said.
"DON'T TELL ME TO TAKE A CHILL PILL WHEN MONEY IS MADE OFF MY NAME AND I'M NOT RECEIVING ANY COMPENSATION!"
"But, they're just buttons…." PEL said in a deadpan tone.
"SO!? I DON'T CARE!"
"Hold on a second, you mean you were this angry over buttons?" Noelle said before laughing.
"THERE'S NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT THAT! STOP LAUGHING!" When she continued to laugh, Fiona grabbed her and shook her. "HEY! DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME!?"
"I can understand the money thing, but this is too much." Courtney whispered.
"Yeah. Like I can understand t-shirts, pants, hoodies, shoes, tv shows. But a button. Like, girl… who wears buttons other than during presidential elections?" Randy replied. "School elections. I'm not old enough to vote. And I'm glad I'm not."
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!? DID YOU GET HIT ON THE HEAD OR SOMETHING!?" She continued, shaking Noelle as she continued laughing.
"Why? You get to have a say in how your country is run. That should be a great day for you."
"Yeah, but that's also another realization that I'm closer to having to pay bills. And if I have to pay bills, that's less time for me to play games or watch movies."
Courtney scoffed as Noelle was still heard laughing with Fiona yelling out "You're impossible".
"You have a lot to learn."
"Duh. Otherwise I wouldn't have to go to school."
This only caused Courtney to facepalm.
*Confessional*
Randy(Wave Breakers):
"Wow. Look, I know it's easy to say the energetic, not so smart guy are the loud, angry, hotheads of the team, but Kaz does not get like that. Fiona's the hothead and you can't tell me otherwise? Has Kaz gotten this mad over someone selling 'buttons'? I'll wait. I got another one for you. Explain Kageyama? He's supposed to be the quiet, cool guy. But he's not. He's the quiet, angry guy. Or Furuya? Well…. actually both Furuya and Eijun are like that. Furuya just keeps it low-key."
*End Confessional*
Eventually, Fiona seemed to have calmed down with Noelle no longer laughing.
"I just cannot believe you would get this upset over something like that. For you to be from the future, your problems don't seem to be…. how should I put this." She started.
"Don't even finish that sentence. Or I'll just get mad again. Roll the dice Axl." Fiona said.
"Okay, so here's what I don't get. What do you mean by support? I don't think anyone's asking you to root or cheer her on like some cheerleader." Axl said.
"Well, I'm not going to really do that either. But by support I mean merchandise. I'm not buying anything that she makes or listening to it. Even if it's just downloading it, I'm not doing that either."
"Can't say you're not dedicated." Randy remarked.
"Yeah, dedicated hating." Diego said.
"How is saying I'm not listening to any of her music or buying any of her merch considered hating?" She asked. "Now you're just being overdefensive and overreacting."
"It's one thing to say you're not interested in something, or not a fan of a fan of it. You can even say you don't like it. But to go that far is utterly ridiculous." Myron said.
"No, but seriously though, you've definitely got hater energy." Randy said to her.
"Whatever. I don't care what you guys say! I'm standing by what I believe in. The real hater is Hebina! You just haven't been around her to see it." Fiona said.
"I win!" PEL exclaimed.
"What? There's no way you won!"
"Read it and weep!"
She looks at the board.
"How!? When-"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out as well. You had to have cheated!" Noelle said, back of her arms on her hips.
"Or, you guys just weren't paying attention." Randy suggested.
"Don't be ridiculous. I've been paying attention to the board the whole time."
"Actually, if you were, you'd see he was consistently moving well. Maybe not as much as Courtney, but still pretty well. Who got sent back a couple of times. So, I guess her luck did run out." Axl explained.
"I demand a rematch!" Both Noelle and Fiona said simultaneously.
"Nope! Next game!" PEL said, folding its arms smugly before being drenched and shocked by both of them, sending it flying.
"So you're telling me that's not something a hater would do?" Randy said.
"Do you want to be next!?" Fiona said, a slightly disturbing smile on her face as she turned towards him.
Randy looked around before looking back at her. "Who, moi?"
The next thing he knew, his hair was standing up and his skin was ash black, no longer in the same area as everyone else that he was playing with.
"They crucify me because I speak the truth!" Randy shouted out.
"Belt to a[censored, b[censored]!" Rick said to Reagan. Inside the house, the two were playing Mario Kart.
"As the kids say, keep that same energy grandpa." She replied as they prepared to start another match.
A knock was heard on the side of the entrance where the door was.
"Yeah, you wouldn't do that unless it was something important. Let me guess, challenge?" Rick guessed.
"Darn it! You ruined it." He replied back.
"Only thing you ruined was the chance of me further cementing that she's garbage."
"Uh huh, yeah. Outside." Doyle said, thumbing behind him, seemingly not caring.
*Confessional*
Doyle:
"Didn't want to say anything, but this is one step in the right direction. Love it."
*End Confessional*
Once everyone met up with Chris, three tubes were seen along with 12 exosuits.
"Alright, before we start, delivery for Weiss. This was of high priority. So much so that they asked us to deliver it personally to you, before the challenge started."
"Ooh, what is it? Engagement ring?" Ruby joked.
"Ha. Ha. So funny. Wait, you didn't-"
"No."
She grabs the box from Chef and shakes it.
"Hmm, sounds way too big for it to be that…."
"I said I'd get a job. Let's not get crazy here."
"Wait, you're getting a job. That's great!" Kise exclaimed.
"Yeah, when were you going to tell me this?" She asked him.
Realizing what he just did, he cursed under his breath before putting a hand on his head after realizing his mistake.
"Hey kid, here's an idea. You could always just open it." Bobo suggested to Weiss sarcastically.
"I'd rather do it in private."
"Whatever you do with it, that's none of my business. The guy that sent it wanted to make sure it got delivered to you, and that's done. So I got nothin' to do with anything else that happens."
"Alright, how much did whoever this is pay you? Because you'd never just do something like this without a benefit." Louie asked.
"All I know was that there was a decent amount of zeroes. Otherwise, yeah, I'm not going through that much effort just for a package. But if you want to be nosy, this ain't the time to do it, because it's go time." Chris said before gesturing to the suits.
"For today, you're going to be battling in these exosuits. Fun fact, these were prototype designs for the suits you use now. So why am I bringing this up? Because today's challenge was actually a challenge that was supposed to appear in Multiverse Editon as one of the final challenges before the merge. Until I got that call from Ego for the Blue Lock stuff. But, it wouldn't have been as developed as it is now. You see, in Total Drama, we don't waste, we reuse! Reduce, reuse, recycle baby!"
"Do me a favor and don't ever in your life say that again. Thanks." Huey said to him.
"I mean it's true. What's wrong with what I said?"
"A lot! I mean it's true but for all the wrong reasons. You're ruining the phrase! It's intended for a synonymous link to recycling and preserving resources to preserve the world and the future. In your case, it's recycling money and preserving resources to preserve time and thought into coming up with completely original ideas."
"Completely original he says. You do realize that every new idea has some type of inspiration from something before, right?"
"Yes, but that's not the point."
"Well you wanna know my point? It's be quiet. Because I said so. So I can explain the challenge. Now, compared to when we were originally going to do this on the island, it was going to be smaller scale. Oh, and you were going to use green slime guns. Neither of these apply in this case as this idea was further developed. How? For one, the suits you're going to use are going to take your own skills, abilities and talents into account as boons for them. And second, you'll be fighting in different locations in each game as well. Simulated locations that is. Heck, there may be a chance that a few may be familiar to some of you."
"Now, compared to when we were originally going to do this on the island, it was going to be smaller scale. Oh, and you were going to use green slime guns. Neither of these apply in this case as this idea was further developed. How? For one, the suits you're going to use are going to take your own skills, abilities and talents into account as boons for them. And second, you'll be fighting in different locations in each game as well. Simulated locations that is. Heck, there may be a chance that a few may be familiar to some of you."
"So when you mean simulated, that sounds like VR, right?" Morty asked.
"Kinda. Think of what we're doing as very similar to the Mayhem Crucible matches."
"You'll have four weapon choices, each having their own strengths and weaknesses. I'm sure our resident gun expert here will hate this, but for accessibility's sake, they're simple and easy to use and understand." Heloise said, referring to Rally.
"I don't know. Let's not make any assumptions. Let's hear it." She said, already knowing that Heloise was talking about her.
"The wildfire is fully automatic. Point and shoot, spray and play. Just don't expect it to do that much damage. Even the pistol does more. The marksman is, well, exactly how it sounds. It's a marksman's weapon. Long range, good damage if you're accurate. But it shoots pretty slow. Only the shotgun rivals it in how slow it is. Tridex is your all-around weapon. Three-shot burst, mid-range, middle of the road rate of fire. Don't expect anything amazing with this because it's not supposed to be amazing at any one thing. That's kinda the point. And finally, the Ballista. The shotgun. Dominates at close range with a large spreadshot. But, like I said, it fires slow, its range is short and its reload isn't exactly great either."
"What about the pistol?"
"What about it? It's a pistol. Literally the only reason I'd see you ever using it is if you run out of ammo since it has infinite ammo."
"Honestly, this doesn't even sound that bad. It's just basic. A case of easy to learn, but hard to master."
"Now, let's get started! So that you all can get a good feel for how the suits operate, the first battleground will be a simple one, created exclusively for this game, taking place in a secluded base. After that, the rest will be in a random queue. Each match will be a 12-player match. Four from each team. You only have one objective, be the first team to get 40 takedowns or get the most within ten minutes. You'll know when you've scored one because your victim will be down and unable to move, indicating that their shields are disabled." Chris explained. "Now, who wants to give the suits a try first? Any takers?"
"Okay, so we can avoid the situation that happened last time, let's get the people that one: Did not play the last challenge and/or two: Did not play the Kungfubot challenge. Sound good?" Rally proposed.
"Fine with me." Hiruma said.
"That's perfect, actually." Lanolin agreed.
"Agreed. Since I know he'll already want to, Axl, want to give it a try?" X asked.
"Do you even have to ask?" He replied.
"Alright, that's one. Anyone else?"
"Guys, let's do that idea!" Huey suggested to his own team.
"If it avoids what happened before, I'm all for it. That was a mess." Sly agreed.
"Okay, anyone have record of who played and who didn't?" Dwayne asked.
"I got it." Myron said before bringing up a list on his laptop.
"Dude, you need something way more portable than that." Toxsa said.
"Why? I don't see the big deal with what I'm using now."
"You mean to tell me you don't see a problem with you lugging around that laptop with you everywhere? What about when you need something during a challenge, what then?"
"Hmm….. well, I suppose you have a point there."
"Forget a tablet, just use your phone. You use it to listen to music so why not?" Randy suggested.
"Entertainment and analytics are two completely different things."
"Okay, well, just use a tablet. Just, please don't lug that everywhere like you do now." Toxsa said. "Seeing that just bothers me dude."
"I would if I had one."
"Look, we can talk about this stuff later. Let's get our picks in. The other teams are waiting on us." Reagan said.
The Rats' chosen four was Puss, Axl, Whisper and Rally.
The Kings' chosen four was Huey, Louie, Sly and Reimu.
The Breakers' chosen four was Bakura, Randy, Myron and Jenny.
"All right! Suit up and get ready to throw down!" Chris exclaimed.
The 12 went to the exosuits before a few of them changed a bit. Puss', Huey's and Louie's suits adjusted to their size while Axl, Jenny's and Toxsa's seem to have merged to their already robotic bodies and in the case of Toxsa, his core brick.
"Alright, into the simulator you go." Heloise said as the twelve, one by one for each team, went into the tubes. Tubes that sent them flying to an unknown location. All three teams of four were separated, seemingly on some sort of elevator that was descending.
Music was heard playing in each, but it wasn't your typical elevator music.
(Project Exonaut Banzai's Squadron's Theme Plays in the Rats' elevator)
(Project Exonaut Atlas Brigade's Theme Plays in the Kings' elevator)
(Project Exonaut's Title Screen/Main Menu Theme Plays in the Breakers' elevator)
A/N: Each playable character in the game was split off into two teams, the Atlas Brigade and the Banzai Squadron. Obviously those teams won't be present here, but I did want to explain why this reference was used. I was personally Banzai Squadron, but I gotta admit Atlas has a good theme from the time I did decide to switch for a little bit to try out some of the characters there lol.
Rats Team Passives:
1. Rally: Backup Plan: The Bulldog Pistol does increased headshot damage, has increased reload speed and auto-reloads on takedowns.
2. Axl: Axl Bullets: Axl can use two Bulldog Pistols instead of one at a time and can fire them at a faster rate. Roll distance is increased and he is completely invincible when rolling.
3. Whisper: Variable Weaponry: The stats of all weapons, with the exception of the Bulldog Pistol is increased. Takedowns create a random buff for her allies and teammates.
4. Puss: Small, but Fearless: Puss' size is decreased, reducing all of exosuit stats. However, all stats when near an opponent, including weapon damage is increased(Long ranged weapons such as the Marksman and Longshot Sniper DO NOT get this benefit. However, this benefit affects the Bulldog pistol the most.).
"How's everyone feeling?" Rally asked the other three as she was looking around and moving her arms and legs, trying to get an idea for how the suits feel. And while they're definitely bulkier than the ones used in the Crucible challenge, they're still not unusable.
(Also, picture each suit as having a very similar, mecha/iron man type look to them. The official suits used in the game may give you a better idea for how they look)
"Admittedly, this is strange. But, I will get used to it with time. I must, if we hope to win." Puss answered.
"A little heavier than I expected, but I think I can manage." Whisper answered.
"Doesn't seem to be much of a problem for me. My suit actually feels a little light." Axl said, feeling a little weird in this position without any type of weapon in his hand from the jump.
"Good to know. Then you should be able to help out a lot this challenge I hope." Rally said to him.
"Just put a gun in my hands and watch me work."
Kings' Team Passives:
1. Sly: Master Thief: When Sly is cloaked, firing does not make him partially visible. Defeating an opponent from behind allows him to steal any weapons and buffs they had before defeat. Any stolen weapons have increased stats(including damage), but ammo is limited to one clip. Buff benefits are increased but have a shorter duration. Defeating enemies when cloaked increases the duration.
2. Huey: Junior Woodchuck Genius: With his skills as a junior woodchuck along with his genius intellect, Huey's binoculars allow him to mark enemies and pick-ups for he and his teammates to see for a few seconds. This also applies to any enemies hiding behind cover or cloaked during that time.
3. Louie: Clever Trickster: After getting a pick-up, Louie leaves behind an almost perfect counterfeit that is rigged to explode if an opposing team member picks it up.
4. Reimu: Spell Cards: Getting a pick-up greatly increases its benefits. Using the Wildfire increases the spread of its bullets, especially when airborne.
"Does anyone else's suit actually feel lighter than expected?" Sly asked his own three teammates.
"No." Reimu answered.
"Nope." Louie answered.
"Unfortunately, no." Huey answered.
"That's gotta be a you thing bro." Louie said to Sly.
"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing now." Sly said.
"Well, we're about to find out." Huey said.
Team Passives:
1. Randy: Ninja Nomi-awesomess!: As the 9th grade Ninja, Randy's speed and agility are greatly increased along with his reload speed of ANY weapon he uses. This benefit is increased with the Wildfire weapon. Also, all grenades thrown by him are replaced with Smoke Bombs(teammates are unaffected by the smoke and can still see through it). However, his shield defenses are decreased. (Passive is inspired by the Starter Ninja suit passive on the Banzai Squadron)
2. Myron: Analytical Advantage: Myron can instantly pick up weapons and other pick-ups on the battlefield(There is a delay in picking up weapons and pick-ups in the actual game).
3. Jenny: Robo-Protector: With her state of the art design, Jenny has unlimited use of her jetpack. Also, the stats of all weapons used are increased.
4.Bakura: Hidden Darkness: When Bakura is defeated, he leaves behind a parting gift, cursing any opponents nearby. Any opponents he defeats stays down for an additional three seconds and does not have temporary invulnerability on wake-up.
"A…. little hard to move." Bakura said, having trouble controlling his suit due to how unexpectedly heavy it was to him.
"It's something we'll have to adapt to if we hope to win." Myron said, constantly making a gripping gesture with his hands, still trying to feel things out.
"Don't worry, while you guys figure that out, you can just lean on us. We've got this." Randy declared confidently as he looked at Jenny, who nodded.(A/N: Randy's suit is actually one that would look like the Ninja, not Randy himself)
The elevators began to open up after they stopped moving. Their battleground was revealed, and so were their respective opponents, appearing on different parts of the arena.
Battlescape Alpha(Project Exonaut Original)
Some of the platforms that were available to walk on were wooden boardwalks, with several boxes littered throughout, making it a relatively simple arena, as Chris had already explained.
The second the teams were released from the elevator and dropped from the ground, their suits suddenly shut down.
"What? What's happening?" Jenny said.
"Don't worry, you're not the only one. Everyone else is down too." Myron said, as he was disabled at an angle where he could look downwards and see that Whisper was down.
"Weapon select! Guys, pick your weapons!" Randy called out, seeing the menu with the four weapons being displayed along with his suit's passive ability.
Seeing what his passive favored the most, he chose the Wildfire. And not long after, anyone that didn't already choose a weapon had made their pick.
Project Exonaut Soundtrack- Battlescape Alpha(BattleScape Gamma) Plays
It didn't take long for the teams to get into battle. And surprisingly, it wasn't as rough as you'd think it'd be. Mostly because instead of everyone just running in head-first, they tried to make sure they played to their strengths while also not taking moves that would probably guarantee them being the first to go down.
The first person to draw the first score would be a tie between Rally and Jenny, who used her infinite jetpack to her advantage to get a consistent aerial advantage over everyone else. But the bounty hunter was determined to not let that stop her from landing the headshots she needed to shoot her out of the air.
"So, what's getting shut down feel like?" Axl asked, using a roll to evade shots from Reimu and Sly before firing behind them. The latter was able to react fast enough and jump over some of the shots while the former jumped back a bit to try to avoid the shots, which didn't work as she was still in range to get hit.
"Nothing too crazy. It's literally the same thing we felt when we first started the game. Looks like we do get a pick of our weapons again though." She replied, already back in the game as she chose another weapon rather than just using the pistol. That weapon being the Marksman. And with her using that, she made sure to try to get some distance to use it and play into its strengths.
The challenge for her would be finding a way to take out constantly moving targets. Ones that weren't even intentionally trying to dodge her as they were occupied by others on her team or opposing team members.
A grenade was thrown by Randy and rolled downward on one of the platforms.
"Grenade!" Whisper warned. While everyone heeded that warning and was able to evade the explosion, some of them weren't so lucky with the after-effect as red smoke was seen coming from the grenade, gradually increasing its spread in the area.
"Get out of the smoke!" Huey called out to his teammates. Everyone that was in it, with the exception of Rally, instinctively used their jetpacks to try to get out of the smoke, which made them all easy targets to be shot down by Randy and the rest of his team. Everyone, except for Puss, who used his small size to his advantage along with rolls, to prevent from being noticed by the four.
Using the Wildfire, Puss was able to take out an unsuspecting Myron from behind first, who panicked and wasted a grenade, throwing it completely in the wrong direction and distracting Bakura with the explosion, allowing Puss to take out Bakura as well. Luckily for him, he was out of range of the curse effect that he created. Though that was inadvertent.
Both he and Jenny threw grenades, hoping for direct hits, but they cancelled out as they were both airborne with their jetpacks, with Randy joining in as well.
"Yeah, you're not beating both of us at once." Randy said to Puss as he looked at the minimal suit damage he was taking due to Puss not being close enough.
"Who said I was trying to?" Puss said as he was taken down seconds later.
Randy was able to figure out exactly what he meant too late as he and Jenny were sniped out of the air with two perfect headshots from Rally, who found and used the Longshot Sniper against them.
It didn't take long for the three to get back in the fight, though.
"Remember, know that you are fighting the team, not just me." Puss said to the two.
"Noted." Jenny said before going to find wherever Rally was set up to snipe.
With the most points being scored by the Breakers in the first minute, the real fight began afterwards, with everyone now getting a good feel for how the suits were along with how their passives worked, for the most part.
"I guess actually getting up close and hitting them is out of the window." Natsu commented. The teams were able to keep an eye on the action on all twelve players on a TV screen, as the screen was split into twelve, one to focus on each player from a horizontal third-person side view. (A/N: This was the perspective that the game used in-game, so I'm trying to simulate the feel of that)
"Yeah, no point. Unless you can get behind them, you'll just get shredded if you try. And even then, you'd just be better off shootin' em." Murasakibara said.
And fittingly enough, Randy got to see this firsthand as he was shredded by Reimu. Both were using Wildfires with bullets spraying everywhere, but Reimu was ultimately able to win out.
"Jeez. You think you gave her enough spread with that?" Randy commented as he chose the shotgun next.
"Less whining, more shooting." Jenny said as she was now dealing with Axl on a completely different area of the field, already having taken care of Rally earlier.
"Maybe take your own advice?" Axl said, jumping back and constantly shooting at her from below, only stopping to reload.
"Me telling you to stand still is not whining."
"When you sound like that, I can't tell the difference." He said, rolling as he reloaded his pistols, using his invincible roll to his advantage on the firing downtime. "Then again, this is what you always sound like in challenges it seems."
A homing missile came out of nowhere, hitting Jenny right in the face and taking her out.
"Don't know who did it, but thanks a lot." Axl said, not even noticing that there was a section for the scoreboard on the top right of the onboard interface that the suits had. And it wasn't increasing for his team. Something that he would find out when another rocket came towards him and almost took him out if he wouldn't have rolled out of the way in time.
"Okay, definitely not a friendly." He remarked before immediately going on the move to avoid being taken down.
But he would be taken down several seconds later when he tried to explore the field for any extra pickups he could use. The culprit being Sly, who used the shotgun to make quick work of his armor and took him out.
"Should have known it was you." He said to him, while preparing to pick his weapon.
"The one to take you out? Well duh." Sly replied before giving him a saluting farewell as he flew off, knowing that Axl would probably follow him.
"Sly, there's a cloaking power-up you can use. Just take a few steps forward and jump down behind one of the crates." Huey called out, using his binoculars to see from the pick-up from afar. He was actually hidden along with his brother, Louie, who seemed to have had some type of tablet on the ground next to him along with a joystick, seemingly controlling something. That something being a remote rocket that was travelling somewhere else, revealing him to have been the one that took out Axl.
"Are those two just camping? Lame." Toxsa said.
"Camping? I don't understand." Razer said.
"Game term. That's used for when you intentionally stay in one place to try to get the jump on unsuspecting players." Heloise explained. "Though in this case, I'd say it's actually being used in an effective way to be honest and not in a cheesy one. Huey can use his passive to support his team from a safe distance and Louie can use the remote rocket to get easy takedowns from a safe position."
"Good points. Using both of those, especially the remote rocket, makes you a sitting duck." Doyle said.
Case and point, Louie was able to take out three more opposing team members with the remote rocket launcher before he ran out of ammo, with Huey able to call out and mark weapons and other pick-ups for his teammates to use, along with marking any hidden enemies, allowing their team to take the lead.
"Exactly, so stop complaining and just figure out a way around it." Todd said to Toxsa.
"Okay, you got a point there. Still doesn't mean they won't resort to legit camping though." Toxsa replied.
"And? Who cares? It's not cheating, even if it is 'looked down upon'. When you get eliminated for trying to play 'the right way', I bet you'll be singing a different tune. Doing that is exactly why Jack got booted when he could have gotten to the finals." Zak said.
"He's got a point. If that was me, I wouldn't have helped him, I'm sorry." Heloise said as Sly had made quick work of yet another opposing victim, that one being Bakura, taking him out from behind while cloaked. What he didn't expect, was the parting gift that he left, cursing him and giving him a temporary debuff, this one removing his cloaking and actually making him very slow and unable to even use his jetpack.
"Not good." Sly commented the second he realized what just happened. Knowing that Bakura would probably see this and come after him, he turned around, shotgun in hand while also being prepared to throw the two grenades he had left.
Seeing that he was in a completely vulnerable state, Bakura quickly used the Marksman to make quick work of him, countering Sly's attempted counterplay to his curse and avoiding the grenades. At least for the most part anyway, the second one was still able to catch him, leaving him a little low on shield energy, as indicated by the orange and yellow sparks coming out of his suit.
"Well, that was a close one. Not bad counterplay though." He remarked before quickly flying away, knowing that he was probably going to be pursued, only to get smacked by a sudden burst of damage from Puss.
As the battle continued, with the Kings still leading with a total of 28 takedowns, the conversation back on the island about Multiverse Edition's final four continued.
"Forget context, I'm still not doing it." Zak said to Doyle, who said that the context in that case was different.
"You know, sometimes it's easy to forget that you came from the shadow world." Ben said to him.
"Why, because I'm not going to make decisions that would hurt my chances of winning? You act like there wasn't a chance he couldn't have avoided the sharks."
"And what if he didn't? What then? I'll tell you what, good chance the Huey from this dimension gets trapped with no way out."
"So? That supposed to be my problem? He was told not to look into the mirror."
"Actually, no he wasn't. How could he be told that when no one knew in the first place? Shows how much you actually watched the season." Courtney corrected.
"So because I genuinely forgot one thing, I didn't watch the season. Okay then. Everyone's supposed to be perfect just like you."
"Calling a cheater 'perfect' is kinda crazy." Miyuki remarked.
"Yeah! Serves them right!" Toxsa said, getting everyone's attention that wasn't watching the game.
Huey and Louie were both found and taken out by Puss, who cleared his throat as they turned and saw him before he made quick work of them.
"I suggest you get a new strategy." Puss said before taking off with the jetpack.
"Fire!" Myron called out, shooting grenades with the grenade launcher weapon he found at Whisper and Sly, with Randy accompanying him.
"You realize you don't have to call out when you're firing, right?" Randy said to him, rolling out of the way of the three shots sent from Sly via the Tridex he was using.
"Sorry. Force of habit."
"Force of habit from what? No offense, but you don't look like you've ever used a gun in your life." Sly said to him, sliding under a grenade that Whisper threw.
"What's that supposed to-" The grenade that Whisper threw hit him perfectly and shut down his suit again.
"That's what that's supposed to mean."
"Yeah, looks like you have a force of habit of dying too." Randy said to Myron, using his jetpack to strafe around the Tridex shots from Whisper.
"I'm not even that bad! I'm trying my best here!" He called out, clear frustration building in his voice.
"Well try harder!" Jenny said, jumping down from above as she began to fire the Bulldog at Whisper and Sly. The three sides continued to move and fire at each other, but eventually, numbers won out, but barely, with Jenny being the only one left standing. Before she could even fly away though, she was shot mid-air by Reimu, who was already seemingly frustrated that she got duped by her own teammates' counterfeit pick-up. Thankfully for her, picking it up had no consequences since she was an ally. A stray of bullets flew past her.
"Going somewhere?" Axl said, running in with his with his two bulldogs and firing them with Rally not too far behind. But in her case, she hung back to get shots on Reimu, who was already firing back.
She clearly wasn't happy, but she took her aggression out on Axl pretty well, dodging all of his barrage of bullets and taking him out.
"Darn it!" Axl said, on the ground, being forced to choose a weapon. Rally was a different animal though. She calmly took her time with her shots. Although the spray of bullets back from Reimu didn't make things easy, she wasn't about to be distracted so easily, who jumped back quickly with her jetpack, took a deep breath, reloaded, and started firing again.
It was close, but Rally's accuracy was what gave her just enough of an advantage to win over her former teammate.
She breathed a sigh of relief, reloading. "Just like you taught me." She thought.
But she couldn't even smile for that long as suddenly, her suit shut down. But no one was in sight.
"What? What the hell?"
A message on her suit was displayed that the game was called for the Storm Kings. Retrieving Battle Data. Please Stand By…
The twelve were brought out of the simulated arena before they eventually returned back to the island.
"Okay, can someone explain what just happened?" Axl asked, taken out of the middle of a gunfight.
"Uh yeah. The Kings won. It literally said it on your screens." Heloise said.
"Let me be more specific. How did it happen?"
"Oh that. We can show the replay." Chris said. Bakura was seen going to pick up a power-up, having to wait a few seconds to grab it, naturally. Until it exploded, causing his suit to get shut down.
Several people looked at him. "Whoops" was the only thing he could say.
The scores and the leaderboard was shown for the game. The Kings were obviously first with 40, with the other two teams, the Rats and the Breakers being behind them with 34 and 31 respectively.
"Wow Myron. I didn't think anyone could be that bad." Louie said, seeing that he only had 3 total knockouts.
"Look, this is not my forte, alright!?" He yelled out, clearly frustrated at his awful performance.
"Clearly." Urien said.
"Don't worry though. This isn't a one game make-or-break type of deal. You'll get another crack at it. This time on another battlefield. Now, who wants to go next?" Chris said.
"Let's just do the same thing again we did before. If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Tangle proposed.
And everyone seemed to have agreed with that as the same thing was done again.
The Rats chose Bennett, Lotte, Morty and Sena.
The Kings chose Din, Rex, Penny and Bobo.
The Breakers chose Reagan, Zak, Diego and Ayame.
"Let's go! Get your butts in there and ready for battle! As they went in the suits and were deployed the same way the other twelve were, the location was being chosen. Multiple were seen on a wheel on screen, but the wheel was moving so fast, that no one could make out any of the locations until it eventually stopped on a room that was made up of segmented paper-white cubes.
"The Perplexahedron? I literally just talked about The Forge of Creation last challenge, that is crazy convenient." Ben commented.
"Is this it? The Forge?" Courtney asked.
"No. This is a planetoid, built by Professor Paradox to hold the fourth piece of the Map of Inifinity. It is known for being a labyrinth planet and led people into the wrong paths, protecting the Map of Infinity from intruders." Rook explained.
"So, in a way, it's like the Labyrinth of Daedalus. The Labyrinth, as we had seen in the voice acting challenge, acted as a maze to protect the Key to Pandora's Box from anyone that would attempt to obtain it." Sophie inferred.
"That's a good comparison, yeah. In my case, Kevin, my Cousin Gwen and I had to go there to stop Aggregor from getting the final piece of the Map of Infinity. This was before….oh crud." Ben said, coming to a realization, putting his hands on his head.
"What?"
"I just remembered. All those traps. Of course that's why Chris would have this in the rotation…."
"Traps huh? This'll be interesting then." Chris said.
"Wait, you didn't know? Baloney."
"No, I actually didn't. I just asked Heloise to make sure some cool places were in the map rotation and that was it. So, if you're to be believed, it looks like she did a good job." Chris said as the elevators were getting ready to slow down for the teams.
Rats' Team Passives:
Bennett: Past and Present: Bennett's Older Self can move on his own and mark up to 3 objects, enemies and other points of interest for him. These markers stay indefinitely until Bennett either reaches the location or he marks more when 3 markings are present. Bennett's Older Self cannot be seen or attacked by enemies.
Lotte: Spiritual Connection: Collecting pick-ups creates music notes of her singing to ancient spirits, passively boosting the speed of all her teammates for a few seconds(this is stacla
Morty: Sci-Fi Explosive Technology: Morty's Grenades regenerate over time. Any grenades thrown by Morty have a delayed detonation. Shooting them instantly detonates them. Passing by allies will automatically pass them a delayed detonation grenade as long as he has one to give. (Direct inspiration from his Multiversus passive)
Sena: Lightspeed Runningback: Sena's flight and ground speed along shield regeneration rate is greatly increased. However, his armor is significantly reduced. His roll is replaced by a lightning-fast dash that allow him to pass through enemy projectiles and opponents.
Kings' Team Passives:
Din: Weapons are Part of My Religion: Din has unlimited ammo on all weapons except pick-ups. Pick-up weapons have an additional magazine reserve.
Rex: Punkbusters: Rex's jump height is greatly increased. The rate of fire for the Ballista shotgun is also increased. He can also pick up weapons and pick-ups faster. (Inspired by his weapon mod in the official game)
Bobo: Double Trouble: To simulate Bobo's dual laser pistols, he can use two Bulldog Pistols instead of one. Each round landed also has a slight explosion on impact, increasing it's damage. (Inspired by his official weapon mod)
Penny: I'm Combat Ready!: Penny's jetpack fuel life is increased. Wildfire bullets have slight tracking on enemies. Weapons can be instantly picked up with no delay.
Breakers' Team Passives:
Reagan: Power Glove: Reagan's shields are increased. Shield power-ups grant her an overshield instead of extra damage resistance. The Ballista Shotgun is now tuned to pack more of a punch with the double fire.
Zak Monday: Anti-Kur Reincarnate: Zak can steal weapons other than his own, including pick-ups, increasing their damage but his stats will be reduced. Zak receives no benefits from team pick-ups, but receives double the benefit from individual pick-ups.
Diego: Elephant Strength!: Diego's shields are greatly increased. However, his jetpack life and speed are greatly reduced and he cannot roll or slide. Ballista and pick-up weapon damage is increased but the magazine and ammo reserves are reduced.
Ayame: Cherry Blossom Ninja: Ayame's speed and jump height are increased but her shields are reduced. She also cannot use pick-ups or heavy weapons and instead will convert any she finds into Power Stone energy that stays even on shutdown. When charged, her suit changes into her Power Change form, overcharging her weapons and giving her increased shields and unlimited jetpack life for ten seconds. Helix Grenades thrown are now smoke bombs.
Perplexahedron(Ben 10: Ultimate Alien)
Once the teams were brought down into the arena, they all chose their weapons and were ready for battle.
Project Exonaut Music- Perplexahedon Plays
Everyone was on the same level playing field. Literally in this case as there were no platforms for higher elevation unlike in Battlescape Alpha.
"That's it? Oh you're gonna regret putting me here." Rex said, Ballista shotgun in hand, already knowing he was about to wreak havoc.
But, he only thought about what he had. He didn't think about what the others were going to use. And almost everyone chose shotguns. Everyone except for Penny, who used the Wildfire.
Almost everyone was taken down except for Diego, Reagan, Din, and Sena, with the latter using his dash to steer clear of some of the shots.
Knowing that he couldn't get close without risking getting shredded, he changed weapons to his pistol.
"Uh oh, grenades!" Sena said, seeing them rolling before he immediately dashed quickly to avoid them. But the second he came out of his dash, he was blasted by a shotgun to the face from Bobo.
"Don't feel bad kid. Ain't no one leavin' hear untouched." Bobo said.
"Okay, you said there were traps. Where are they? Not as if I want them to appear or anything." Hailey asked Ben as the chaos on the flat area continued. The Breakers were currently leading due to the extra resilience Diego and Reagan had to allow them to take more punishment compared to others.
"Not sure. To avoid speaking anything into existence, that's all I'll say." He answered.
"Okay, does anyone else think this is getting annoying?" Rex asked.
"If it's because we're losing, yes." Bobo said.
"If this continues, I-" Penny started.
"Before you say anything, think about this: Is it gonna make me more mad than I'm already gettin'?" Bobo asked after being shutdown again by Zak.
"Likely, yes."
"Then don't say it. Please."
"Okay."
"Thank you."
"You're very welcome!"
"You know kid, you're one of those people that'd probably be in the category of 'too nice for this world'."
"Coincidentally,-"
Before she could finish, the entire room started to change, creating platforms from out of the ground, ceiling and walls.
"Okay, this is a little different. I think I can work with this." Rex said.
"The platforms just changed. You didn't have to grab on to me." Morty said to Lotte, who quickly let go.
"Sorry." It couldn't be seen because she was wearing the suit, but her face was completely red.
"You're good. Now let's turn this game around." He said before running to get back into the action.
"R-Right." She immediately ran after him.
"Alright kid, now that these platforms have been raised, there's a good chance some items are going to appear. I'll go look for them." Old Bennett said to his younger self.
"Got it. Thanks." Young Bennett replied.
"Don't thank me yet. I haven't even done anything." He said before running off.
"Alright, now we're getting somewhere. Just need the traps now." Chris said, already rubbing his hands in anticipation.
"Okay, so on a scale of 1 to 10, how dangerous are these traps?" Aomine asked Ben.
"Don't know if I'd say 10 but, pretty high. I already told Sophie that the Labyrinth of Daedalus and the Key to Pandora's Box was a good comparison to this place, and you saw a bunch of scorpions come out of nowhere to attack everyone. That should tell you everything you need to know." Ben replied.
"Right. Good point."
"But just so you know, there are no scorpions. At least I don't think."
"Thanks for the info. That makes me feel so much better." He said sarcastically.
"But you're not even in it." Todd said to him.
"So? But they are." He replied, having a really worried look now.
"Not like Chris didn't say it wasn't simulated, but whatever."
"Huh. That's the second time he's looked like that. And that was only after scorpions were mentioned." Weiss thought.
Returning back to the battle, it looked as if the change in scenery allowed the other teams to make up ground on the Breakers. Neither of the other two teams were able to overtake them, but the margin had gotten smaller.
"Grenade!" Din warned as Morty had thrown out one of his grenades. He was already aware of their delayed detonation so he made sure to continue to keep his distance as he fired at him and Lotte.
"Do not worry Din! I am here to assist you!" Penny exclaimed, flying upwards on the platform that they were on after getting a damage booster pick-up.
"Just watch the grenades."
"Affirmative!"
"Her shots don't have perfect tracking, we should keep our distance." Lotte suggested.
"Read my mind. But uh….. easier said than done for me." Morty replied, looking at the Wildfire he had in his hand compared to the Tridex she was using.
"Then, just make do with what you have."
Meanwhile, it was a battle of jumps as both Rex and Ayame used their extra jump height to try to get the higher ground on each other as they fired at each other. With Ayame's lower armor, it should have been an easy win for Rex, but the results showed otherwise as she threw at smoke bomb at the wall behind him, obscuring his vision and allowing her to get a trade. Sure, it wasn't the same thing as a victory, but it was better than losing.
"How these things don't have some type of vision setting to get around that is beyond me." Rex said, picking his weapon, this time, choosing the Tridex as Bennett was seen below them hitting Reagan with a rocket shot but it still not taking her out because of the overshield she has.
"Okay, that is just unfair." Bennett commented.
"Passive. Nothing unfair about it kid." Reagan replied before she was hit by another rocket as she fired pistol shots at him. Shots that he was able to dodge thanks to the speed boost from Lotte. "If anything, that's unfair."
"Weapon. Nothing unfair about it." Bennett replied before flying off to the next spot that his older self marked.
"Don't use my own words against me! Come back here!" She said, hurrying and choosing the Tridex to try and go after him.
"You're only saying that because you're on the receiving end." Ayame said as she and Rex battled again.
"You're partially right. 75%. I still think it's weird."
"Well, that's probably even weirder." She said, looking behind him, that distraction being enough for Rex to win the firefight.
"Come on. Did you think I was gonna stop firing at you just to see what was behind me." Rex said, turning before seeing exactly what she was talking about. That something being a completely white humanoid robot with two dents in the shape of eyes.
It put out one of its hands and sent him flying back with an energy beam.
"Okay, I don't think I can work with this." Rex said before it was stomped on by Bobo, who short it in the back of the head, causing it to completely melt into the floor.
"You're welcome." Bobo said.
"Techno guards. Pretty annoying, but not too much of an issue." Ben commented before the room started to change again. Snow also started to fall, with it starting to pile up rather quickly. "Okay, I'm going to be quiet now."
"For what? It's just snow." Todd said.
"Todd!"
Zak, Diego and Sena all got stuck in the snow and seemingly couldn't get out. Their jetpacks helped, but not that much, as the fuel was gradually melting the snow that was around them.
"What the heck kind of snow is this? Quicksnow?" Zak remarked before turrets started to be revealed from the walls.
"That's not good." Diego said.
"You think!?"
Sena had a look of horror on his face as he realized the turrets were aiming directly at them before he felt the weapon in his hands and remembered that he could try to fight back and shot at the turrets. Seeing him do this made Diego and Zak do the same, even though the former had to switch to the Bulldog to do it.
"Don't you think there was a reason why I stopped talking?" Ben said to Todd as the teams now had to deal with both each other and the defenses of the Perplexahedron.
"Look, how was I supposed to know the snow was going to be basically quicksand? Or quicksnow, like Zak calls it." Todd replied.
"You didn't. Which is exactly why you shouldn't have said anything."
"Can you stop overreacting? They look like they can handle the traps. That's all that matters." Todd said as Din and Penny shot down a Techno Guard and turret respectively.
"For now."
The snow completely melted into the ground in an instant about thirty seconds later. And about another thirty seconds later, acid started to spill into the room from a wall that opened up.
"Acid! Get off the ground kid!" Old Bennett warned as he was on the ground, getting a laser gun.
"Just a couple more seconds!" Young Bennett said.
"Forget those seconds! Or do you want your suit melted away?"
He still tried to get the weapon anyway. And was able to and took off immediately. Any hesitation from him and he would have probably been caught in the acid.
"Kid, you don't realize how much that scared me."
"Judging from your face, I can definitely tell it scared you a good bit."
Seeing that the acid was only on the floor, the teams made sure to steer clear from falling to the floor.
Using the power of the Ballista shotgun to his advantage, Sena was able to take out both Ayame and Din in a double KO. He thought about going after Rex next but decided not to push his luck and regrouped with his team.
"Nice shots." Bennett said to him.
"Thanks. But, we're still not done yet." Sena said, looking at the score. The Rats were still in last, but the scores were 30, 33, 34 for the Rats, Kings and Breakers, in that order.
With the teams being in close quarters like the beginning of the match, it was going to be a source of easy shutdowns, meaning that this match could very well be decided by who fires the fastest.
"This is when I'll need to use my speed. Here goes!" Sena thought before using his quick dashes to try and rack up takedowns, all the while avoiding getting knocked out himself.
"Missiles incoming!" Penny warned before sending a swarm of micro-missiles out from the swarm missile launcher she had.
"Watch out!" Morty said before trying his best to get away from the tracking of the missiles that were on him but couldn't before Sena grabbed him as he was dashing, bringing him to the ground to avoid the missiles.
But the two Techno Guards that appeared weren't lucky enough to have that luxury and were turned into scrap.
"Thanks." Morty said to Sena, who only nodded before immediately getting back into the battle.
"I don't think friendly fire's a thing here. You don't have to call that out." Din said to her, firing his Marksman from the air, taking out Diego, who was occupied with Sena.
"I was unsure if that was the case. But noted for next time."
Lotte breathed a sigh of relief, eyes closed until Zak bumped her.
"Oops." She lost her balance and looked as if she was about to be pushed off to the floor where the acid was. Until she used her jetpack to bring herself back up and started to immediately shoot at him.
"It's one thing to try to win, but it's another to do a dirty move like that!" Lotte said to him.
"You guys call anything that's trying to win, 'dirty'. The point is to win you idiots!" He said before he was able to eventually win the gunfight against her and take her weapon. "If you don't like it, cry me a river or try to stop it."
A spider was suddenly thrown in his face, scaring him at how sudden it was before Bobo dropkicked him off.
"Yeah well, I just did. Now what ya gonna do about it?" Bobo said before Bennett suddenly flew past him and off the map.
And that was to take out Zak and score another point for the team. And it didn't stop later. He was blasted from behind by Reagan, who immediately took the opportunity to get him when she saw the opening. Immediately after, the game was called.
"Hah! That's what we're gonna do about it!" Reagan said as they began to return to the island.
"Forget I ever said anything." Bobo said.
Compared to last game, the leaderboard was a lot more balanced in terms of knockouts from each team member.
"14? Not bad." Old Bennett said, referring to how many points his younger self was able to score.
"Wait a second, we lost!? How? When I got Bobo, the game ended!" Reagan said.
"Looks like someone wasn't paying attention to the screen. The game was called for the Rats when Sena was able to do a super-quick jump behind Ayame and take her out.
"Wow. Alright, I guess."
"It's like they say, cheaters never prosper." Morty said to Zak.
"Again, not cheating." Zak said.
"But you did that, knowing what was down there. Simulation or not, that could have ended badly." Sena said to him.
"Look, I'm not gonna sit here and argue the same point with you guys."
"Man, this could have gone either way." Rex said.
"And it could have gone ours if we would have continued to play like how we did every other second." Akashi started.
"So in other words, it's his fault." Rex said to Bobo, pointing to him.
"Hey! This ain't all just on me." Bobo said.
"Things like this is exactly why we failed to win the Fry Cook games when we had a stranglehold on it. Knocking him off was sufficient enough, even if I personally would have gone after him just to make sure as we saw with Lotte. But the afterword remark was completely unnecessary." Akashi said to him.
"Alright buddy, looks like that one good game you had last challenge is startin' to get to your head."
"I can assure you it isn't. I was just stating an observation. But, if it will do anything, I will participate in every match this challenge from this point forward, including the next one, until the challenge ends."
"How many games do we even need to win anyway?" Akko asked.
"Four." Chris said. "But uh, as much as I'd like to see that Akashi, these next few games are going to be randomized. Now, let's get going!"
"Fair enough."
A montage of the next few games started. This time, with Doyle, Heloise and Chef all joining in to play as well, each granting double points if a player is able to successfully take them out.
The next locations being some notable locations that some of the contestants recognized, and some that they didn't, including Bling Bling Island(Johnny Test), Elmore City Carnival(The Amazing World of Gumball), Stormalong Harbor(Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack), Weird World(Secret Saturdays) and Finn and Jake's Treehouse(Adventure Time). In the case of Bling Bling Island, the teams had to deal with the island's defenses, Weird World, the different traps inside Argost's domain, and a simulated Finn and Jake in their treehouse. Stormalong Harbor and the Elmore City Carnival were the only locations with no type of hazards in them.
And, Akashi was actually able to play in one of those games, having a solid showing, only behind Din, who had a second go at playing, and being in front of both Sophie and Razer on the leaderboards.
"Looks like you had quite a bit of trouble seeing out of just one eye." Tsukishima taunted Sucy in another game.
"Shut up. You won one game and you want to taunt when the challenge isn't even over yet. Stop it." Sucy replied, slightly annoyed if she had to admit.
"But it's alright when you do it. Insane double standards."
"Never did that. But okay."
After these games, the Breakers were up 3 games to the other teams' 2.
"Alright, this is match point, if the Breakers can put this one away. Let's see if they can. Next game!" Chris announced before the next twelve were chosen.
Becky, Yulaw, Rick and Blaze were the Rats' next four.
Rex, Ben, Eliza and Todd were the next four for the Kings.
Urien, Hanamiya, Zak and Bakura were the next four for the Breakers.
Rats' Passives:
Becky: Information Broker: Becky can see when and where the next pickup will appear and relay this info to teammates.
Yulaw: Power Absorption: When Yulaw defeats an opponent, his attack, shield defenses and speed increases. This resets upon shutdown.
Rick: Portal Theory: Rick can use his portal gun and can summon a maximum of two portals at a time that he and allies can teleport to. Team projectiles can also be teleported into these portals.(Portal Cooldown: 30 seconds after use)
Blaze: Controlled Fire: The Wildfire's spread is reduced and its accuracy and damage are increased. However, it's rate of fire is reduced. Blaze's roll is replaced with a lightning fast dash that can go through enemies and projectiles.
Kings' Team Passives:
Rex: Same as before
Eliza: Bloodthirsty: Defeating an opponent immediately restores her shields to 100.
Ben: Omni-Boost(Ben is using the official game's Atlas Prototype Suit, rather than one of his aliens): All weapons are boosted by the power of the Omnitrix, overflowing the entire magazine of all weapons into one clip, completely removing the need to reload. Status boosts automatically become team boosts.
Todd: Work Smarter, Not Harder: Completely catering to his desire to do the least amount of work possible, the Wildfire has been modified to have shots that track and has no reload time.
Breakers' Team Passives:
Urien: Aegis Reflector: When Urien is invincible or he picks up a defense boost, weapon damage is reflected back to the opponent.
Hanamiya: Mad Breaker: When Hanamiya defeats an opponent, the use of any weapons benefitting from their passives are disabled until their next shutdown, so long as it isn't him that shuts them down again.
Zak: Same as before
Bakura: Same as before
The next location was one that Rex knew all too well.
Van Kleiss' Castle/Abysus Castle(Generator Rex)
Project Exonaut Music – Abysus Castle Plays
"Van Kleiss' Castle. Simulated, real, this place still gives me the creeps. Maybe even moreso because I know Van Kleiss himself isn't around anymore." Rex commented as they explored the exterior of the castle. Abysus' sky was crimson red and much of it was a forest with several tall leaveless trees and branches.
"Yeah, I'm not really a fan of this place. Can we get a requeue?" Todd asked.
"You wanna know a real nightmare?" Ben asked.
"No, I don't." Rex said.
"Look out!"
A rocket flew at all of them before it hit the ground and exploded. The source being Rick as he and his three other teammates were behind him and began to descend from above. And not too far from where they were was the other team, coming from the opposite side of the castle.
Now it was no longer a time for sightseeing. It was time for battle.
"Alright, humor me. What were you gonna say earlier?" Rex asked Ben as he was using the Wildfire to fire at Yulaw and Zak.
"You would ask that in the middle of a firefight!" Ben replied, rolling out of the way of Becky's Tridex shots. "But, I was just gonna say, a team-up of Vilgax, Van Kleiss, and Argost."
"Okay, now that actually is kinda scary. Even if it's just the first two, since I don't really know much about Argost."
"Boo!" Zak said before coming out of nowhere, cloaked and shooting at both Ben and Rex with the Ballista shotgun. Their armor was good enough to survive the first hit. Unfortunately for them, they were caught in the crossfire of other battles and both were inadvertently taken out by Hanamiya and Yulaw respectively.
"What? All of my weapons are disabled? What am I supposed to use then?" Ben said as all weapon options, including even the Bulldog had a red over "X" them, preventing him from selecting them.
"I don't know, go fisticuffs?" Rex proposed, running past him.
"That'd be great, if there was a no weapon option here!" Ben said, trying to find one but unable to.
"Chris, he'll be able to get up and out of this, right?" Huey asked.
"Dunno honestly." Chris answered.
"So now there's a chance we'll be down a player the entire game. Wonderful." Sophie commented sarcastically.
"Don't think I forgot what you did." Eliza said to Hanamiya, joining in on the firefight between him and Yulaw which now began to take place on another level of the castle now.
"I did a lot of things. You're going to have to be more specific." Yulaw said, strafing to the left to avoid Hanamiya's Tridex shots.
"I was talking to him. But I'll deal with you after."
"And what exactly did I do to make you upset?" Hanamiya asked.
"The Fry Cook Games. That should tell you everything."
"You're mad at me because you lost?" He said before laughing. "Get real. You all had that game in hand. No one to blame but yourself."
"He has a point." Yulaw said before tossing a grenade.
"We'll see how much of a point either of you have when this is over." Eliza said before Doyle dropped down, joining the fight.
"I don't know, maybe it'll be double the points. If you can get me, that is." Doyle said, Wildfire in hand before beginning to fire at the three.
"Don't mind if I do." Yulaw said before shooting at him along with the others.
As their battle went on, Rex and Rick were on the lowest level of the castle, shooting at each other.
"Portals or not, unlike me, they can't move. Or jump as high as me." Rex said, shooting at him from above after jumping to avoid his portal attacks.
"But unlike you, I got control on where I'm aiming." Rick said, continuing to fire at him. Until Blaze, boosted by a damage boost power-up she was able to find, was able to help him finish Rex off.
"There's a difference between stable high ground and being airborne." Blaze remarked.
"Could have just went with 'High ground's overrated' but sure." Rick said. "And don't expect me to thank you. I had it under control."
"Then I'm sure you'll be able to take care of him on your own while I go and help Becky." She said before flying upwards to try and find her.
"You have gotten way too overconfident for someone that's not even the most useful in their own group of three. When this is over, you'll know your place again." Urien said to Becky as the two were in a gunfight.
"I know my place buddy. And that's here to take down jerks like you!" Becky said, firing her Wildfire at him. Ultimately, Urien was able to win though, despite her fearlessness in taking him on. This was due to him getting a team shield boost from Bakura finding said power-up, allowing him to reflect the damage he would have taken back at her.
"Wrong. Your place is beneath me. You worm."
"Bast*rd…." She said under her breath. "I will get you before this game is over with. Mark my words!" She declared to him as she was choosing her weapon. Though it wasn't known if he didn't hear her or ignored her as he didn't say a word as he flew downward.
"She needs to keep a cool head. I get it, he's annoying. I'm not exactly fond of his attitude either. But mindlessly chasing after him to 'teach him a lesson' isn't going to help." Rally thought. "Wish I could tell her that but, communications have been cut off so, that's a no go."
It seemed as if both of them were on the same wavelength however, as instead of going after Urien, she decided to give Todd a hand, who was battling against Zak.
"Alright, tell the truth. Did you actually draw on Lucy's face?" Zak asked.
"No. And even if I did, I wouldn't admit it here. They're still watching remember? She'd kill me if I said yes." Todd replied, jumping up backwards on one of the dead trees to get higher ground.
"She'd probably still kill you anyways. Or in her case, really hurt you. Because, you know…."
"The killing part was figurative." Todd said, stopping fire to reload.
"I find it pretty hilarious that the person that is clearly supposed to be the opposite of the person that most people like is less hated than some ordinary kids." Zak said, using the environment to his advantage to try to avoid the tracking bullets. What he couldn't avoid, were the grenades and the Marksman shots that Becky shot at him with from an angle above that she could see him from but not vice-versa.
"And I find it pretty hilarious that you were okay with pushing someone into acid." Becky said before laughing a little and adding, "Sarcasm".
"But it was a-okay when Bobo did it. But oh wait, I guess it's fine because he's supposed to be a likeable hero." Zak said as Beccky was able to take out Todd, even though he let her do it, firing a little slower and reloading a little earlier than usual to pretend he ran out of ammo.
"First off kid, I never came here wantin' to come off as 'likeable or unlikeable' at any point since I been here. I just wanted to come off as a guy that's a winner. That's it. So get ya facts straight." Bobo remarked, pointing at the kid.
"You do realize he can't hear you right? None of them can." Ruby asked.
"Shut up! I knew that! I'll just tell him that when he gets back here."
"So uh, any updates?" Rex asked Ben, running past him as he, Blaze, Rick, Urien and Bakura were battling against each other, with Heloise and Chef being in between.
"Nada. I think I'm outta luck." Ben said.
"Heloise, any clue on what's going on?" Rex asked her.
"No clue. The suits were designed to not allow you to move until you chose a weapon since, you know, this is a weapons-based game. Not sure why he can't pick a weapon but, if he really can't choose any one, not even the bulldog, then he's stuck. Sorry." Heloise said.
"You mean you didn't think of that possibly happening?" Chef asked her as he rolled back to avoid Ballista shots from Rex.
"Nope. Not at all. Best I can do is take a look at the replays and see why it happened to just Ben of all people."
"Yeah, we're probably screwed. But, gonna pretend try anyway." Todd thought.
"If that's the case, there's not much of a chance of us winning. I could try to help mount an improbable comeback….. or….. allow Urien and the others on his team to get easy points off me and get Ben eliminated. Though obviously, I'd have to make sure it doesn't look easy." Eliza thought as she was grabbing a rocket launcher.
"What is up with my bad luck when it comes to these things? First the robots, now this. Heck, even Albedo got a chance to do the robots."
"Why is it bad luck? I don't get it."
"I don't know. It just….. feels like I've done this before. I know it's weird and it doesn't make sense because I know I've never done it but…. yeah. And no, it's not déjà vu. At least I don't think."
"Now that you think about it, I kinda had that weird feeling too. On both occasions. But I just ignored it as just that, a weird feeling. You're overthinking it man." Rex said, jumping high and using his jetpack to avoid being caught in a crossfire that he knew would take him out.
"You know, I thought I was the only one that felt like that." Chef said.
"No clue what you guys are talking about." Heloise said, switching weapons to the Tridex now(She, Doyle and Chef had the ability to switch to any of the primary weapons at will without having to be shut down to do it and had unlimited ammo to compensate having no passive abilities themselves).
"Same here. Just sounds like some pre-built excuse for when you lose." Rick said, suddenly portaling behind Urien.
"What?" Urien said in surprise, unable to react in enough time to avoid going down.
"Portal gun, that's what."
Todd suddenly jumped in the fight with his tracking bullets.
"Jesus, even your abilities are lazy. No one should say anything Murasakibara when there's s[censored] like this." Rick said to Todd.
"To be fair, Penny had a similar ability." Blaze said, dashing through his tracking bullets.
"Do you see Penny acting how Todd does? No. Completely different situations. This is cumulative, not a one-time thing."
"Okay, completely fair."
"Just like you acting like some know-it-all is consistent too. At most, people say I'm annoying. Same thing with Hiruma, Louie and Miyuki. If anything, I'm on the same level as most people here. I found Becky annoying with her definitions. Doesn't mean I hated her. There are guys here that straight up don't like you gramps. Just sayin." Todd remarked, throwing a grenade as he used his jetpack to catch air.
"Huh. I thought I was the only one." Bobo commented.
"What, that doesn't like Rick? I never thought you had an opinion of him." Tangle said.
"What? No. I couldn't care less about him. I mean the robots and these exosuits. Having that weird feelin'."
"You too? Now I kinda feel like I'm missing out on something." Kise said.
"Strange. I do not have the slightest clue in what you all are referring to." Rook said.
"Weird….. I would have said it was just because of Ben and Rex knowing each other in the past but, if Chef's involved, I don't know." May said. "What about you Albedo?"
"What about me? I don't have the slightest idea what you all are talking about." He replied, trying to pay attention to the game.
Focusing things back on the game, Bakura, Becky, Hanamiya, Zak, Yulaw, Eliza and now Urien and Todd were all in a battle in the middle of the castle.
"Why does that fight feel like it has a case of 'which of these guys doesn't belong'?" Hinata asked.
"If you think that, then it's Todd, obviously. No offense to him of course." Myron said.
"Is this the point that Todd finally gets eliminated?" Lucy remarked, seemingly in a highly anticipating tone with some people looking at her afterwards. "What? You people act like you don't want that to happen too."
"Yeah, but we're not as giddy about it as you." Ayame said.
"Look, if you had to do the work I've had to do, you'd feel the same way too."
"And again, who's fault is that? You could have easily backed out. No one forced you to take the bet." Chris said.
"Exactly. Which is why case and point, I don't feel sorry for you in the slightest." Sendo said.
"Please let them lose, please let them lose, please let them lose." She said, putting her hands together as if she was praying for it to come into existence.
"Wow. I think you've driven her to insanity." Hailey said.
"I don't think so." Happy said.
"Thanks. At least someone-" Lucy started.
"Doesn't make sense to be taken to a place she was already in before." He finished.
"You know what? I don't even have the energy to respond to you at the moment. I'm putting all of it into manifesting a loss."
"Manifesting a lost. Wow. Somebody end her suffering already." Toxsa said.
"Self-served suffering." Chris added. "Just wanted to make I corrected you on that."
With Eliza using her passive to her advantage, she was able to outlast everyone else in that chaotic and prolonged firefight. Well, everyone except for Urien and Yulaw. Not to mention the fact that she was cursed from Bakura. Though that part was completely intentional as she saw the score as Urien's team was nearing victory.
She tried to fire at Urien, but pretended as if her accuracy was affected by the curse, when in reality, that particular curse on her disabled the use of her jetpack. This allowed for Urien to take her out before the reverse happened. All that was needed was a couple more points to insure their victory.
And those points were acquired in the form of Urien beating Chef, whose shield energy was low after barely escaping from a battle with Rex.
"YES! It worked! I can't believe it wor-" Lucy cheered before several people looked at her again. "Okay, bad timing. We lost. But, it's second place, right?"
Sendo could only shake his head as he seemed disgusted.
"Okay, now we won. Is it okay for me to taunt now?" Tsukishima said to Sucy, who only rolled her eyes(one eye could still only be seen obviously).
"Cheaters never prosper huh? Guess this win proves I never cheated." Zak said, shrugging as he looked at Morty, Sena and Becky as he said it before having his foot be stepped on by Miyuki, shaking his head at him in a disapproving manner as he did. "You know, you were better when you were making people mad." The catcher's face never changed even with that remark from Zak.
"And you were better when you were quiet and just played the game." Fiona grumbled.
"Like I said, know your place." Urien said to Becky.
"I'll give you this game. But this isn't close to being over. I'm not going anywhere." Becky said to him, seemingly unfazed by his remark.
"Regardles, his team won the game and first place. Last place goes to the Kings. So Lucy, you manifested that loss. Get ready to manifest that last-place food to. Now, we'll cut to commercial and then get to the elimination. Roll those ads baby!" Chris exclaimed.
*Commercial Break*
"And now, a Total Drama Across the Multiverse Fun Fact!"
Focus: Project Exonaut/Ben 10
Fun Fact: For any Ben 10 fan well-versed in the universe, it is a well-known fact that Alien X is his most powerful alien and there's almost nothing that it can't do. So much so that Ben himself has only ever used it when no other alien can get the job done. And even when he does, he has to convince Bellicus and Serena to agree. It's easy to imagine that with how powerful he is shown to be, it would be hard to design and balance him in a playable game setting compared to others that have been playable such as Heatblast, Way Big, some of the Ultimate Forms, and even Clockwork. But even so, Alien X still the achievement of being a playable alien in one video game. The only game in question being Project Exonaut, his suit being available for players who are on the Atlas Brigade team, with his ability greatly boosting the damage of the Marksman rifle into three powerful shots.
He also made a non-playable appearance in other games such as Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks and Fusionfall, the latter as a Nano, smaller versions of characters that are designed to assist the player in different ways. He notably beat out Way Big in terms of player voting in the final round of the game's Face-Off Contest voting with many of Ben's other aliens, which was the cause of him being added to the game.
"This has been a Total Drama Across the Multiverse Fun Fact! Stay tuned for more!"
"And now a Total Drama Across the Multiverse Video Message from Home! To Weiss!"
A picture of Weiss, with her arms folded, Myrtenaster in hand was shown.
Sender: Winter Schnee
Winter, Weiss' older sister, had slate-blue eyes, black eyebrows and long white hair. She wore a white long sleeved coat with a single dark blue clasp around the center waist holding it shut alongside a red jeweled brooch on the collar. She also wears a white pleated sleeveless blouse, a dark blue waistcoat and a pair of gray thigh boots with black forearm length gloves.
"Good morning sister. I hope this message has reached you well. If it hasn't, I'll be sure to give Chris a very emphatic call." She cleared her throat. "I apologize for being unable to keep up with some of your progress in this season so far compared to the last. But I must say that I am glad that you're still in the running regardless. I just wish I could do something about improving the eating conditions but…. I suppose this prize system will have to be enough. Of course, being in the running isn't enough. I would like to see you win, obviously. And judging from the teammates I see you are with, for the most part, I'd say you have a very good chance of at least being in the running to win. Obviously, being with such good teammates is a double-edged sword when the merge is reached but, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
"I'd also like to send my deepest condolences to everyone that was injured, regardless of if they're on the same team or not. Everyone deserves to go out in a fair manner, not injury. And I hope for no further injuries going forward."
"I've also heard that you have gotten yourself a….. boyfriend? Aomine is it? I'm glad you are training him well, but…. I'll….. talk to him personally when the time comes. Until then, make sure he stays out of trouble."
"Until then, I wish you and the rest of your friends good luck. I look forward to seeing you all up close."
*End Video Message*
"This has been a Total Drama Video Message from Home! Stay tuned for more!"
*End Commercial Break*
When the break ended, Weiss looked to have been a lot happier coming out of the house than usual.
"What's up with you? Considering we lost, you'd think you'd be a little more neutral in your emotions." Maki said to her, staff in hand.
"Oh trust me, I'm not exactly thrilled about the loss. But, this is at least some good news for the day."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yep. It was from my sister."
"Well, I'm glad to hear you can take something positive out of this. Me? Not so much."
"Oh…. Right. I completely forgot. I'm sorry. That was-"
Maki held a hand up to stop her. "That's not what I meant. I'm happy for you about that. I'm talking about us losing, that's it. You're not the type of person to be insensitive about that type of stuff intentionally so you're good. Now, wanna burn off some of that energy on a sparring match? Because I sure don't mind burning off some steam myself."
"Sure. I won't go easy on you though."
"Of course you won't. I'd be p[censored]ed off if you did. Now let's go."
The next scene that was seen was Octavia going to her room to get something until she heard a bush rustle. "Look, you said you wanted it, now go ahead and take it." One voice was heard saying that she could identify as Natsu, even though he was trying to keep his voice down.
"Wanting it is one thing. You don't have to put it in my mouth. I can do that myself. And please watch your hands." Another voice said that she could tell was Lucy's.
"I'm not trying to put it in your mouth. I'm holding it so you can grab it. Look, can you just take the wiener already?"
To avoid herself from potentially being more disturbed, Octavia quickly left as if nothing happened.
"It's hard to do that when we're cramped in this one spot."
"You were the one that wanted to hide out here from the cameras to do this. I said we could have did this in my bedroom or yours. I don't think anyone would have told, or heck, they might have not even caught us if we made it quick."
"And risk someone telling. You know Sendo hates me right now, right?"
"Okay, maybe he isn't exactly fond of you, but come on, he's not heartless. He wouldn't want to see you starve."
"With how he looks at me, I can't tell." Focusing in on the bush, she was seen eating a hot dog that Natsu gave her. "Only look that would probably be worse is the one he gave Slyger when he was angry. And I'd probably have to hurt him or his family for that to happen.
"Oh that." Natsu whistled in astonishment. "Man, was he ticked. Speaking of family, I wonder how his grandmother's holding up."
"Grandmother? Is she not feeling well?"
"Oh no. I think she's fine. At least that's what he- whoops."
"Let me guess, you weren't supposed to say that were you?"
"Eeyep. He'll probably kill me if he finds out I did. You're not gonna tell him are you?"
"As long as you keep giving me this and don't tell anyone, my lips are sealed." She said before eating more. "You don't understand how good this tastes."
"I'm sure it does taste good. It's meat." He said in a seemingly confused manner as to why she was acting like this over a simple hot dog.
Another casual passerby, this time, an initially confused Ryoma, blushed from only hearing Lucy and Natsu say those last two lines before immediately speedwalking away, trying to cleanse the image of hearing that out of his head. He only heard the last four lines out of context and took it the wrong way.
He breaths a sigh of relief. "But anyways, glad to hear it. That was an honest accident."
"I'm guessing he's not a person that's open about his personal life outside of boxing. Then again, other than the few times he plays games, he's rarely doing anything other than working out or watching TV. Basically just a social Kunigami."
"Well, that's one way to put it. I gotta respect both of em though. Kunigami stays to himself, but I'd be lying if I said he didn't look serious about his training the times I did see him. That's definitely not for show."
"In Sendo's case, I think him not wanting to be open about his personal life to a lot of people and family is so no one will feel bad or sorry for him. You know, keep the image of a guy that's consistently tough. Like how Aomine wants to keep up his image of some cool guy. Which, doesn't work might I add…. But Kunigami, I don't know. He hasn't a said a thing about himself, at least to my knowledge."
"Maybe, I don't know. He talked about wanting to win the money for his grandmother and for the kids back at his hometown that are fans of him. He's not gonna keep any of it for himself."
"Who Sendo? Or Kunigami?"
"Sendo, duh."
"Aww. That's real nice of him. Hey wait a minute, what happened to not telling about his life?"
"Well I mean I already started, so, might as well go all in. Besides, as long as we keep all of this as a secret, it's all good, right?"
"Yeah, that's true. Now…."
"Now what? You want more food?"
"As nice as that would be, no. Now we've got to get out of this bush. I'm starting to really feel cramped in here."
"If you say so." He said before already getting out.
"Get down you idiot!" She immediately said, immediately pushing him back down.
"What? You just told me we had to get out."
"Well yeah, but there's a certain way to handle it."
"What do you mean 'certain way'? You just get outta the bush."
She wasn't in the mood to explain what she meant with how dense he was being. "Just wait."
"Fine by me. Man, you make things way too overcomplicated sometimes."
She grabs a key. "Open! Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!" She whispered out.
Virgo appeared outside of the bush. She looked around, confused.
"Did my princess summon me? Where are you?"
"Psst, in here!" Lucy whispered.
"Oh? Why are you in this bush?" She peeked in and saw Natsu with her.
"Long story. Just dig a tunnel from here and back to my room."
"I see. Of course." Virgo said, blushing before digging a tunnel as instructed.
"Okay, now hurry up and get in." She whispered to Natsu.
"I still don't understand why all of this is necessary just to-" He started.
"Get in the hole!"
"Alright I'm comin'!"
Mamori, passing by, heard this along with their "AH"s as they fell through the hole and covered her mouth, completely red before running away.
They came out of the other side of the hole.
*Confessional*
Virgo:
"I cannot believe that I am assisting in such an….. intimate act. I should be ridiculed for even being here!"
"Hey! Somebody in there!? I don't think I can make it to the bathroom!" Scott called out, knocking on the door frantically moving around.
"Oh no!" She squealed and immediately panics and digs another hole.
When he opens the door after not hearing anyone, he sees a large hole where the toilet was supposed to be.
"Oooh….. that's not good…." He commented.
*End Confessional*
"You're really getting a job huh? That's really nice. Glad to hear it." Weiss said to Aomine as they were idly sitting together outside.
"Yeah. I was gonna tell you later as a surprise but uh…. accidentally spilled the beans early." He said.
"And in front of everyone might I add."
"Yep. Oh well….."
"What made you change your mind about getting one?"
"Well for one, if Tetsu and Kise can do it, then why can't I? Heck, I bet Akashi, Murasakibara and Midorima got jobs they do in their free time too. And second, I'd just want to have the money in my pocket and not have to ask for someone for it. That includes you."
"I'll still swipe my card for you if you ever need help. Don't think I was ever telling you I won't help you."
"Wait, you have a card?"
"Yes?"
"Holy s[censored]…. That is awesome."
"I don't understand why but….. I guess."
"Considering I don't have a card myself, I personally think it's pretty awesome."
"Well, a card does have it's benefits. And drawbacks….." She said, idly looking forward.
"Alright, I think I just opened a can of worms. Tell me what's up so I can try to close 'em again."
"Nothing. It just….. reminds me of family." She answered, but it wasn't exactly for the right reasons. "Speaking of which, I got a video message from my older sister!"
"Really? That's great! I didn't know you had a sister."
"Yep. You know, I personally think she'd dominate a Total Drama season."
"Who knows, maybe she's in one. Did you try to find her?"
"Actually, I did. Out of curiosity. And slight boredom sometime around the beginning of the season. Nothing."
"Huh. Pretty interesting. So uh, she anything like you?"
"In terms of skill, she's a lot better than me. She was the one that helped train me. Personality, you'd have to see her for yourself. But she's great. I look up to her a lot."
"So basically I'm gettin' some hand-me-down training."
"No. I know you're joking but there's things in my training that is impossible for you to do. And there's things I'm willing to do for you that I doubt she would."
"What happened to the confessional!?" Asta yelled out, getting their attention.
"What do you mean what happened? There's nothing-ohhh." Hinata said, looking at the hole in the ground. "That's not good. Well, you're screwed."
"But I didn't even do anything! I found it like that!"
"Hope you can explain that to Chris."
"What's going on? Did you break the confessional?" Weiss asked as she and Aomine joined them.
"No! I promise it was already like that!" Asta insisted.
"What the hell did you guys do?" Aomine asked.
"I didn't do anything! Tell that to him." Hinata said, pointing at Asta.
"Look, easiest thing to do is pretend like none of this happened and stay far, far away from the confessional."
"None of what happened?" Mayuzumi asked, scaring all four of them as he was suddenly behind them before he got to see what the commotion was. And could only sigh and leave.
"As I was saying, just walk away, pretend none of this happened."
Everyone looked at each other and collectively agreed.
A few minutes later, Akashi was about to enter the confessional to discuss his reasoning for why Ben should be eliminated now as he discussed with some of his teammates, until he saw the gaping hole in the ground. "Wonderful." He said sarcastically before closing the confessional and leaving.
Several hours later, into the night…..
Total Drama Elimination Theme Plays
The Kings were gathered for tonight's elimination. But voting devices were in their hands.
"Alright Kings, obviously, you're going to have to send someone home. But, if you're wondering why you have these voting devices in your hand, then you probably haven't been listening around the island or opened the confessional. Because I'm sure someone said something about it and it spilled over to more people talking about it. But if you don't know, there's a large gaping hole in the ground. Why, we don't know. But, we'll get to the bottom of it soon enough." Chris explained. "Please don't make this an occurring thing." He said to himself before clearing his throat.
"Next thing you know, there's gonna be a hole in the ro-" Yang started.
"Don't, speak into existence. Joking or not. Thanks."
"But for today, you all are going to have to use the voting devices. The same way the Rats and Kings did when Bass decided to punch a hole in the wall of the confessional. The usage of it is simple. Just tap on the face of the person you want to get rid of. There's a confirmation screen to confirm that this is the person you want to choose. Tap yes, if that's who you really want, and no if not. Like I said before, this is to prevent another Lindsay situation where she voted herself off, for those that are uninformed. Do not look at each other's votes! You do that, your vote's voided. Understand? Now, make your votes!"
And Bachira was the one to test the waters by looking at Isagi, which caused Chris to void his vote.
"Bachira, why in the world would you do that?" Isagi asked in disbelief that he would even think of doing something like that.
"I just wanted to see if he'd actually do it." Bachira said, shrugging.
"Yeah well, I did. Hailey getting voided should enough of a warning. But, I guess not. Now, unless you want to be voided too, don't do what he did."
Everyone made their votes, with everyone finishing a little over a minute later.
"Alright! Everyone's votes are in! Great! Chef, read the results. As for the safe contestants' prize, it'll be these little Exonaut Keychains. Cool, right?"
"Why couldn't it have been food again?" Dewey asked, raising his hand. "Just a question. Really wanted a cookie."
"Well, I guess we can do cookies again next time." Chris answered.
"Yes!"
"Anyone have any objections?"
None were given.
"Alright then! Chef?"
"I'm only gonna do the last four." Chef said. "Todd, Akashi, Ben and Rex."
…
…
"Todd, you're safe!"
"Yes!"
…
…
…
…
…
"Akashi, looks like you proved a lot of people wrong with your performance today. That's gonna be rewarded with you also being safe."
"Thank you." He said, catching the keychain.
"Ben and Rex. Down to you two now."
"Man, really? I hate this." Rex said.
"If you hate it so much, can you maybe….." Ben started.
"No, I'm not gonna go that far." Rex said, already reading Ben's mind.
"The final keychain goes to….." Chef started.
….
….
….
….
….
….
….
….
….
"Neither! It's a tie!" Chef announced.
"Wait, are you serious?" Chris asked. Chef nodded.
"Wow. Alrighty then. Well, well, well, looks like we're gonna have to do a tiebreaker between you two." Chris said, grinning.
"What? You're not gonna kick both of them out?" Courtney asked.
"Nope. This time we've got the budget. Now, to be honest, I didn't see this coming. So, I don't have anything ready for you tonight. I could do something simple like rock, paper, scissors or thinking of a random number, but for you two, I'm gonna do something different. It'll be ready tomorrow. But until then, you're all free to go. I'll see you guys tomorrow!"
"Who would have thought…. Me against you, in reality TV." Ben said to Rex.
"Me, but a lot later. In the merge." He replied. "Well, at least there's no EVOs this time around. So, we can really do this for real."
"One word: Clockwork."
"Woah, woah, woah, who said I was just gonna do fighting? I've got some ideas planned. You'll see tomorrow. That's all I'm gonna say. Now seriously, go to bed. Last thing I want is to see anyone complaining about being tired. But hey, if you still stay up, don't say I didn't say anything. Because it's on record." Chris said.
"Good to know." Ben said. "I'm still gonna win regardless."
"We'll see mi amigo. We'll see." Rex replied.
"So, who wants to take any bets? Rex or Ben?" Bobo asked.
"Shouldn't you be betting on your partner?" Rook asked.
"Yeah." Rex said, giving him a look.
"I was just askin' a question." Bobo said.
"Well, we'll find out tomorrow. Be there or be square on Total….Drama…..Across the Multiverse!"
A/N: Sudden death! Ben vs Rex! What will Chris have in store? And who wins? You'll find out next chapter. I decided to just make it another chapter entirely, since this is the first time sudden death to decide an elimination for one team is done. And it'd be way too easy to just make it fighting only. You'll find out what they'll have to do soon enough….
Also, I had an idea for a short, but I literally forgot it. The most annoying thing ever because now I'll have to really try to remember what it was. -_-
See you there!
Placements:
165th- Dragonfly Jones(Radical Rats)-Martin Sitcom
164th- Richie and Virgil(Wave Breakers)- Static Shock
163rd- Cameron(Storm Kings)- Total Drama
162nd- Duncan(Wave Breakers)- Total Drama
161st- Chris P.(Wave Breakers)- Dan VS
160th- Mona(Storm Kings)- Mona the Vampire
159th- Owen(Radical Rats)-Total Drama
158th- Zoey(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama
157th - Tetsuya Kuroko(Radical Rats)- Kuroko's Basketball(Quit)
156th-Shintaro Midorima(Storm Kings)-Kuroko's Basketball
155th-MacArthur and Sanders(Radical Rats)- Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race
154th-Luz Noceda(Storm Kings)-The Owl House
153rd-Priya(Radical Rats)-Total Drama
152nd- Shogo Haizaki(Wave Breakers)-Kuroko's Basketball
151st- Edward Falcon(Radical Rats)-Power Stone
150th- Shawn and Jasmine(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama
149th- Zak Saturday(Storm Kings)- Secret Saturdays
148th - Nimona(Wave Breakers)- Nimona
147th-Rocky Rickaby(Radical Rats)-Lackadaisy
146th-Huey Freeman(Storm Kings)-Boondocks
145th-Cicini(Radical Rats)- Rabi-Ribi
144th- Blaineley(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama
143rd- Heather and Alejandro(Storm Kings)-Total Drama
142nd-Karin Kanzuki(Wave Breakers)-Street Fighter
141st-Ruby G.(Wave Breakers)-Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken
140th-Noah(Radical Rats)-Total Drama
139th-Marinette Dupain-Cheng(Storm Kings)-Miraculous Ladybug
138th-Dawn(Radical Rats)-Total Drama
137th- Dan Mandel(Wave Breakers)- Dan VS
136th- Ryoma Echizen(Storm Kings)- The Prince of Tennis
135th-Rei Hino(Radical Rats)-Sailor Moon
134th- Johnny Bravo(Wave Breakers)-Johnny Bravo
133rd-Skipper(Storm Kings)-Madagascar Movies/Penguins of Madagascar
132nd-Bren(Storm Kings)-Monsuno
131st- Kurt Wylde(Radical Rats)-Hot Wheels: Acceleracers/World Race
130th- Molly, Libby and Scratch(Wave Breakers)-The Ghost and Molly Mcgee(Quit)
129th- Becky Botsford(Radical Rats)-Wordgirl
128th- Mr. Wolf(Wave Breakers)-The Bad Guys
127th- Emma(Radical Rats)-Total Drama
126th- Ben and Rook/Rex and Bobo(Storm Kings)-Total Drama(Will be decided with tiebreaker)
Upcoming Episodes:
Episode 39: Here we go A-Gen: Compete in trials cultivated by Gen, Mr. White and the rest of the Tenkai Knights(Tenkai Knights)
Episode 40: Total Drama: Cul-de-sac Ed-ition: Help the Eds in making the best scam(Ed Edd n Eddy, an idea from G-Man 2.0 on FF Dot Net)
Episode 41:In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Battle in Simulated Star Wars Battles(Star Wars Battlefront Games)(An idea inspired by a challenge idea from Ginrai12 in another season)
Episode 42: Hold the Fort!: Compete in a Fortnite Squad Battle(Fortnite)
Episode 43: TOTAL KOMBAT II: Test your might and mind in the Test Your Might and Chess Kombat mini-games(Mortal Kombat, with the second game being based off a game mode in Mortal Kombat Deception)(Double Elimination) A/N: Elements from other fighting games will be seen.
Episode 44: You're History!: Help Supreme Kai of Time/Chronoa, Trunks, and the rest of the Time Patrol stop a crisis and save history Across the Multiverse!(Dragon Ball Xenoverse)
(More than likely, the time placement will be post-Xenoverse 1 so only aspects of that game will be used)
Episode 45: Gotta Catch Em All!: Train and Catch Pokemon. Then use them to compete in a Pokemon Battle(Pokemon)(Yes, the Indigo League theme will be used unlike the Bakugan episode where I scrapped it. Haven't decided on whether it'll be a montage or musical yet)
Episode 46: Wherever the Wind Takes You: Visit the Air Temple island and play a game of Airball….. and learn a bit of Air Nation history!(Legend of Korra)