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Chapter Text

There was a sharp crackle of thunder as a bolt of lightning struck the earth below. High atop a long forgotten abandoned hill in the middle of Ontario stood a castle. Within its walls were two figures, one a hulking man shrouded by a cloak, standing next to a lever. The other figure was scrawnier, also wearing a cloak and disguised by the shadows. Cackling to himself, he approached a massive slab in the middle of the room. The room was lined with various torches to illuminate the area. Throughout were many pieces of equipment and batteries, most attached to the slab the figure looked over proudly. What was on the slab could not be seen, as it was covered by a very large sheet, though it was certainly massive. The figure continued to laugh sadistically as the thunderstorm intensified.

"The time has come for you to finally live once again," he told whatever was on the slab, oozing with excitement as he grinned wickedly. Turning to his companion near the lever, he pointed dramatically to the heavens, where a hole was in the ceiling large enough to accommodate the slab. "Now!"

Nodding silently, the larger figure slowly flipped the switch. The machines throughout the room beeped and booped to life, mixing with the sounds of the storm to fill the room with noise. As the lights from the devices flickered, the slab in the center of the room slowly began to rise, supported by heavy chains at each corner. As the slab continued to rise, so too did the laughter of the figure as he watched the ascension with the utmost glee. When the slab had reached the top of its climb, it lied prone to the mercy of the storm raging above. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck whatever was beneath the cover, causing the machines in the room to surge with power. Another bolt struck, and the devices would intensify even more. After the third bolt had struck, the figure held his hands up joyously, filled with euphoric glee.

"It's alive! It's alive! It's aliiiiiiiiiive!"

"Chris, this is a lot of got dang fanfare over a stupid airplane," the other figure in the room suddenly cut off, removing the hood of the cloak to reveal himself as a large, bald, muscular black man sporting some sweet facial hair. Indeed, it was the one and only Chef Hatchet. Annoyed at his counterpart's antics, he flipped the lever once again, and the slab began to descend.

"Uh, it's not an airplane, Chef," the first figure corrected, their hood finally falling off to reveal a handsome Caucasian man with stubble and windblown hair. Reality TV's most infamous host, Chris McLean, in the flesh. The slab had finished his descent and Chris eagerly took hold of the cover, yanking it off of whatever was beneath. "It's a jet!"

Indeed with the cover off, the massive figure underneath was revealed to be a jet. But not just any everyday ordinary jet. No, this was THE Total Dram Jumbo Jet. Last seen in Total Drama World Tour before being blown up to kingdom come by Sierra, it was now perfectly rebuilt and in working condition. At least, as good a condition as it was for World Tour. That being, not very good condition at all and with questionable safety. But by damn, it was rebuilt all the same.

"Whatever, man." Chef threw his cloak over his shoulder, walking over to join the host in looking over the colossal airliner. "Did the lightning even do anything? I mean really, why couldn't we just rebuild the darn thing and leave it at that?" He threw his hands up, rolling his eyes. "But nooo, we gotta drag it to a gosh darn castle and get all Dracula on the stupid thing."

"First of all, that's the wrong story," Chris corrected, still choosing to leave the cloak on for dramatic effect. "And yes, it was very much necessary. A return this great deserves a grand entrance." Suddenly, he turned away from Chef and towards the camera, flashing a bright grin as it panned out to get him, Chef, and the jet all in shot. "It's time for another World Tour, baby! All Stars part two! And it's coming at you right now!"

The host posed dramatically, motioning at the Jumbo Jet as a crack of lightning emphasized the segway. Chef, meanwhile, simply groaned, rolling his eyes as the show finally went to intro.

*** Opening Theme ***

*** Outside an airport somewhere in Toronto ***

Now cloak free and in his classic normal attire he had worn for all previous seasons he had hosted the show, Chris walked into frame. While he tried to always have his cheeky grin, he had a special sort of smile that only came with the excitement of a fresh new season. That meant new drama. New grueling challenges. New pain and suffering. All some of the host's favorite things.

He stood outside the entrance of an airport, standing in the middle of a road meant for shuttles to load and unload passengers. Eager to get into it, Chris wasted no time. "Long time no see! No, your eyes don't deceive you. It's really me, your favorite loving reality show host with the most! And this is the start of the newest season of Total Drama!"

Taking a quick pause to let it sink in, Chris motioned off to the side where a shuttle bus strolled in from off screen, coming to a halt next to the host. "We're bringing back the World Tour! We're bringing back All Stars! But this time it's gonna be bigger. It's gonna be better. It's gonna be totally freaking awesome!" Smiling as the doors to the shuttle squeaked open, Chris approached the door. "So how about we start out by seeing who's joining us this season. First up, from Total Drama Island, welcome back Izzy and DJ!"

First off of the bus was a flash of green and orange. The red headed girl landed into a cartwheel, spinning up to the host as she exuded her limitless energy. Making a simple, normal entrance was something out of the question for her as she grinned wildly and waved for the camera. On the other end, behind her came a large, muscular, yet kind looking man, stepping out of the bus carefully. He had known better as to try and depart the bus before her, knowing fully well that it likely would have led to him being sent tumbling down the shuttle's stairs due to her pushing her way out from behind. The boy of Jamaican-Canadian decent gave the camera a warm smile, but was quickly thrown off guard as the girl emerged from behind and jumped on to his back spontaneously.

"Woohoo!" She cheered loudly, not considering how her scream was right next to the boy's ear. "We're finally back! Can you believe it, Deej?"

DJ grimaced at the loud noise that was suddenly assaulting his eardrum, but he was too kind to chastise her, knowing her well enough to realize she wasn't intentionally meaning harm. This was just how she was. "Yeah, it's pretty cool, Izzy. Feels like ages since last time."

As Izzy jumped off of her fellow cast mate's back, Chris wouldn't miss a beat as they took their place next to him. The introductions continued on. "The ever sassy Leshawna, and always long winded Harold!"

"I'll have you know that many people find my trivia both interesting and mentally stimulating," an offended nasally voice answered from within the bus before the source stepped out. A scrawny red headed nerd adjusted his glasses, leveling a glare the host's way. "You clearly just don't know how to appreciate expanding your knowledge, gosh!"

"You tell em, honey!" The speaker with the much louder voice was out next, a curvy sister that radiated sass and confidence. She patted the nerd on the back while he grinned and his cheeks blushed red. "Only things McLean knows about in the noggin of his is beauty products and how to torture people a third his age."

Chris' eye twitched a bit, but he would not let his trademark grin falter so soon on the first day of a new season. "Yes, you all should be quite familiar with the later. Care to volunteer as an early reminder, Leshawna?"

The soul sister rolled her eyes, paying him no mind as she turned back to the nerd. "Don't let Chris' salty behind get ya down, Harold. You keep being you."

Harold nodded in understanding, still blushing due to not having seen Leshawna in so long. "But of course, m'lady. He's just jealous of my wicked skills. What else is new?"

Ignoring Chris, Harold and Leshawna gladly went to chatting up DJ and Izzy. Annoyed, but not about to let the young adults sense it, Chris kept the ball rolling. "Up next, we have a former finalist, farm girl Beth! As well as lover boy turned wackjob, Trent."

First of the pair off of the bus was the male of the duo. Normally with a cool, calm, and collected demeanor about him, the musician exited the bus with guitar case in hand, his expression showing disgruntlement. "Gee, thanks for the killer introduction, Chris. I totally appreciate the constant reminders of something that only happened in one season."

"Says someone who was only in two seasons," Chris shot back without missing a beat, still grinning while Trent's expression soured further. His attitude was calmed, though, when he was approached by a short bespectacled girl with an odd sense of fashion.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with having only been on two seasons," she pointed out, patting Trent on the back reassuringly. She smiled, motioning at their luggage. "Plus now we're about to be on a third, right?"

Indeed, Trent's attitude was helped immensely by her kind comforting. He chuckled, nodding in agreement. "Fair point, Beth, fair point."

The two approached the growing crowd of familiar contestants, Trent immediately offering a high five to Harold after spotting his former band-mate. Beth exchanged a hug with Izzy, though quickly found out it was more than she bargained for when the red head picked her up and squeezed tight.

"And last but certainly not least from this lot," Chris announced. "Fan favorite geek Cody, and everyone's favorite uptight CIT, Courtney!"

Letting out a small cheer as he jumped out of the shuttle, another scrawny boy, though this one with brown hair instead of red and a gap in his teeth instead of glasses, raised his fists to the air. "It's good to be back! I was starting to think it was never going to happen again."

He rushed off immediately to join Harold and Trent, both giving a greeting of "Codemeister!" as he approached and shooting the nerdling finger pistols. As Cody started to greet old friends, the aforementioned final member of the group exited the bus. An attractive Hispanic girl dressed professionally and glowing with confidence, she looked on with a mix of emotions as she surveyed the cast of former players she hadn't seen in quite some time.

"Hey, guys," Courtney greeted, giving a small wave as her fellow veterans looked her way. "Long time no see."

Some of the fellow TDI alum weren't too sure how to react to Courtney's arrival. Harold rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, recalling their storied history of not exactly liking one another. Beth similarly looked away and tapped her fingers together, remembering the times they had butted heads during her second season. DJ was the one to eventually break the silence, offering a kind grin and wave back.

"Yeah, it's been way too long," DJ greeted, looking around at everyone. "It cool seeing y'all again. We should really start doing reunions or something every once and a while."

The mood lighthearted and fun, Courtney smiled and entered the chit chat as the eight former TDI competitors began conversing together. They talked about what they had been up to, and reminisced on the old times from past seasons. It was a feeling of camaraderie and friendliness that, quite frankly, made Chris feel sick to his stomach.

"No worries," he thought to himself. "They'll be at each other's throats before they know it."

Clearing his throat loudly, the host got the attention of the eight young adults, some looking annoyed at the interruption to the conversation. Clapping his hands together, he looked them over with the grin they had long since grown to hate. "Now then, let me be the first to welcome you guys back to Total Drama. For some of you, it's been quite sometime since we last saw you in action."

"Yeah, uh, not to butt in or anything," Cody said suddenly, butting in anyway. "But isn't eight people kinda small for a full season?"

Normally Chris would have enjoyed this opportunity to lambaste the geek for interrupting him so rudely, but they were on a schedule that he didn't want running late. "Well, Cody, the response to that is quite simple. This is only the first group of victims being brought back into the fray this season." He looked off to the side, beaming as he saw a second shuttle approaching. The first had departed after all contestants had exited, and this one now took its place. "And here comes the next group now!"

Once the bus had halted to a stop, the fumes from the exhaust caused the eight contestants already present to cough and hack. The door creaked open once more. The host rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"Now this second group of players, for the most part, might not be quite as high profile as you lot," Chris introduced, getting looks of intrigue and confusion. "But that just means they'll be all the more thirsty to prove themselves! Up first, the suffocating Jersey girl Anne Maria, and the pants wetting private, Brick!"

As soon as the introduction was done, the first of the bus' inhabitants practically jogged down the steps, standing up straight and putting his right arm up in a salute. With a buzz cut, army boots, and dog tags, he was unmistakably an army cadet of some sort. Though at this point it was possible he had advanced farther than simply cadet. "Sir, Brick McArthur returning for durty, Sir!"

His tone was loud and stern, and he stood up straight with the poise that only a military buff could accomplish. His composure was thrown off, however, when he was suddenly barraged with a cloud of hairspray that sent him into a coughing fit. While Brick clutched his throat for air, the next contestant casually scooted him aside, continuing to apply hairspray to her hard-as-brick mane.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know who you is," she said dismissively, taking a break from her hairspray application to strike a pose to show off her features. "And we all know who I am!"

Indeed, she was a hard sight to miss. While she was arguably the curviest of the lot, perhaps only challenged by Leshawna, her skin was an unusual Oompa Loompa orange, a result of fake tan overuse. And her face was smothered in enough makeup to make a professional clown jealous. In the sea of Canadians, her thick New Jersey accent stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Finally, someone not so eager to be all nostalgic and goodie two shoe," Chris exclaimed, beaming with satisfaction at Anne Maria's display. "Great to have you back, Anne Maria."

"You know it," she replied, a cocky air to her as she took a place on the other side of the host. Brick had since recovered enough to be down to slight coughs and followed, taking care to stand on the side of Anne Maria where the hairspray wouldn't flow.

"Next," Chris continued, "We have the cool and silent B, and the uncool and chatty Staci!"

Chatty quickly proved to be an accurate descriptor. As if on cue, with the introduction done Staci had jumped straight into a tirade to the silent comrade behind her.

"Did you know that my great great grandfather Eustace was the one to invent buses?" She asked her counterpart, though she didn't pause for an answer, not that he would have given one. She was a rather large girl, wearing a bow on her head and speaking in a sort of German accent. "Yah, before him if a bunch of people needed to go someplace at once they'd all have to cram into a car like clowns."

The boy exiting the bus behind her listened to the tall tale, mostly because he was more of a listener than a talker. Like Staci he was rather large and chubby, though he did have an air of coolness to him. With dark skin and a large coat, he offered the camera a simple finger pistol before going back to hearing the end of Staci's story.

"And he probably got the idea from my great great great great aunt Ingrid, who invented the bench." Staci nodded in a matter of fact way that made it seem like she genuinely believed the obvious baloney that she was spewing. B simply looked at her, slightly annoyed and slightly amused. "Yah, before her-

"As riveting as this is, Staci, we do have other contestants to get through," Chris barked impatiently, signaling for her and B to join the rest of the Revenge of the Island alumni. After they had done so, the host cleared his throat. "As I was saying, next we have fan favorite weirdo Dawn, and one of our resident mutants, Dakota!"

No one really reacted to hearing Dawn's name, but hearing the host mention Dakota raised some serious eyebrows from the TDI vets that had watched the season. The last Dakota had been seen, she had been mutated into a hulking Goliath with super strength. Where would the fairness be for anyone not on a team with her?

As they pondered this, the first of the two off of the bus was instead a short, pale blonde wearing a green sweater. When exciting the bus she had her hands up in a meditative pose and her eyes closed, though she eventually opened them and waved politely to the others. "Hello, friends. I hope you're all doing well. The tea leaved predicted that today would be a rare day of calmness before great hardship, so it would be best to savor it."

Chris chuckled, the others exchanging looks of fear or nervousness as the reminder of the show's intensity dawned on them. "For once I can get behind some of the craziness she spouts. First time for everything, I suppose."

Paying the host no mind whatsoever, Dawn stepped aside for the next competitor to exit. To their surprise, what came out was not a mutated behemoth, but, well, Dakota. Or at the least, it more closely resembled Dakota before she had suffered her body changing. She no longer sported a tail, spiked teeth, or spikes protruding from her limbs. She wasn't without reminders of what once happened to her, though. Her hair was still a toxic waste colored green, spiked but shorter than it had been on Dakotazoid. Her skin had a bit of orange hue still, but it looked more normal than what Anne Maria's tan had going on. Perhaps most curiously was her change in attire. No longer did she have her former pink pants and shirt. Instead she wore a sort of jumpsuit, though it was still pink and made stylish in only the sort of way someone like Dakota could make work.

There was stunned confusion among everyone but Chris and Dawn. Anne Maria eventually broke the silence. "Yo, what happened to her? She actually looks normal... ish."

"Heh, yeah, I figured you guys might be confused," Dakota answered innocently, looking around awkwardly at all eyes being on her. At the start of Revenge of the Island this would have been exactly what she desired, but that was quite some time ago. "So to make a long story short, I was actually kind of enjoying the mutant life. But it turns out it's really really really hard to find clothes that fit someone that size. And it makes going on flights sort of impossible." She looked down at her hand, counting off on her fingers. "And riding in limos. And going through doors. And... well, you get the point."

"Fair enough," Cody replied, still a bit disappointed since he had watched Revenge of the Island and had momentarily been excited at seeing Dakotazoid in person. "But that doesn't explain how you changed back to normal."

"I sense a dark red aura dormant deep within," Dawn suddenly added, leaning in and looking at the former Fame Monger in concern.

Dakota chuckled awkwardly, taking a step away. "Yeah, I wouldn't exactly say completely normal. Daddy got together with some of his scientists friends and they worked on helping me get back to how I was. I knew Sam really liked my mutant form, but he was still supper supportive about me changing back. That's why he's the best!" She sighed dreamily, staring off into space before snapping back to realization. "Oh yeah, but anyway, those scientists were able to get me back to normal for the most part, but I still have the hair and my skin is still kinda orange."

A few of the others gave a side glance Anne Maria's way, all thinking something along the lines of "You're not the only orange one."

"And uh... well even they MOSTLY got rid of Dakotazoid... I still sorta... kinda go back to it sometimes." She noticed everyone giving her concerned looks of panic, and she waved her hands dismissively. "But it only happens when I get too angry! And I change right back afterwards. That's why they made me this outfit, it doesn't rip in the off chance I accidentally become Dakotazoid."

"Wicked!" Harold's huge grin and twinkle in his eye showed just how excited he was. "So you're just like The Incred-"

Suddenly, the nerd's mouth was covered by Chris' hand, the host staring daggers down at the dork. "Finish that sentence and you're the one that has to pay copyright infringement fees."

Not in any sort of financial security to do so, Harold shut up as he was told. Since Dakota's situation seemed to have been thoroughly explained, her and Dawn joined the other season four alumni, allowing Chris to finally continue.

"As I was saying," he said. "Rounding out this group, some definite familiar faces. Former finalist and turbo jock Lightning, and our scheming dirt bag turned lovable oaf, Scott!"

At hearing the later name, Courtney's eyes went wide and she buried her head into her hands. "Oh lord."

Those that had watched Total Drama All Stars, the poor souls, turned to face Courtney after her reaction. Some looked on in sympathy, others in amusement. She heaved a sigh, raising her head just in time to see the farm boy exit the bus. Wearing his same usual white wife beater and blue jeans, he had a bored sneer when exiting the bus. That changed when he took notice that Courtney was among the crowd. Flustered, he began stammering to find something to say. It was futile, as before he could get out anything resembling words, he was pushed aside by the final shuttle occupant.

"Sha-score," he exclaimed, the origins of why he adds Sha to the start of words remaining a mystery to this day. He was of similar build to DJ. Tall, muscular, clearly athletic, and with dark skin. The difference was that while DJ radiated an air of kindness and positivity, Lightning expelled cockiness and competitiveness. Either unaware that he had shoved Scott aside or just not caring, he flexed his arms and grinned for the camera. "The Lightning is back for round three! Y'all may as well get back on the bus and leave now."

Lightning's comment probably would have come across as cooler had the bus not already departed as soon as he had exited. Unfazed, he simply went and joined the remaining season four alumni next to Chris. Scott followed behind, exchanging an awkward look at Courtney as he passed by. Chris took notice of the exchange and grinned devilishly.

Soon enough, a third and final bus appeared before the contestants. Once again the fumes seemed to nearly suffocate all there, with the exception of Anne Maria who was unsurprisingly building up an immunity to such fumes. The door popped open and for the third time Chris began his introductions.

"And finally, we have our third group of contestants. You can probably already guess what kind of group it'll be if you've been paying attention." Chris chuckled, motioning to the shuttle exit. "Let's get to it. Up first, we have the southern pageant queen Sugar, and the love struck farmer Rodney!"

First off of the third bus was an absolute mountain of a man. Struggling to even squeeze his hulking tree trunk-like arms through the door, he nearly stumbled once he finally worked his way outside. Between the freckles, gap in his teeth, and worn overalls, the farmer moniker shouldn't have come as a surprise. Getting his bearings, Rodney had intended to greet his fellow cast members, but something made him freeze.

There were a bunch of smoking hot babes here that he'd never met. Sure, as someone that tried out for the show in the first place he had watched seasons of Total Drama before, but seeing them in person was something else. Should he look at Leshawna? Perhaps Anne Maria? What about Courtney? It was too much beauty for his small mind to comprehend.

"Uh... umm... p-puppies and... daffodils and chocolate-" Rodney began to stammer, probably trying to envision what he wanted to say but unable to figure out how to speak properly. Since his gibberish made Staci and Izzy sound sane by comparison, he was thankfully cut off by the loud cheer of the next Pahkitew Island alumni.

"Yeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaw," an even thicker country accent than his called, jumping out of the bus with a toothy grin. Speaking of which, like Rodney she had a gap in her teeth, though while she sounded to be just as country as him, her oddly small pink top was more suited for the beach than a farm. Also like her fellow farmer she was large, though not with muscle like her counterpart.

"It's about gosh dern time we had another season, what took ya so long?" she barked at Chris in annoyance, fists on her hips. She didn't wait for an answer, as once she noticed Rodney next to her she scooted him along. "Well don't just stand there, Rodney, you already had yer screen time."

Chuckling at the newcomer's antics, Chris motioned for Rodney to stand behind him to start the third group of players. "Glad to see the enthusiasm, Sugar. But I have some more victims to introduce, so if you'd be so kind as to join us." Seeing the pageant queen fold her arms and narrowing her eyes in rebellion, he had to keep it going. "Not to worry, you'll have plenty of screen time to take in soon enough."

With a huff, but knowing there was nothing to be gained from holding up the show, Sugar slumped over to where Rodney stood, arms still folded. "Fine."

Satisfied, Chris motioned everyone back to watching the bus. "Moving on, here's two contestants that know each other very well. The popular, talented, and successful cheerleader Amy... and also her sister Samey, I guess."

"It's Sammy," a voice corrected, part annoyed and part hurt. Out stepped a petite blonde in, what else, a cheer leading outfit. She was frowning from Chris' remark, but her mood wasn't going to get any better when she was promptly shoved out of the way by someone who looked almost exactly like her, save for a mole Sammy did not have. And unlike her twin's more kind and timid demeanor, this one gave off the air of someone who cared for no one other than herself.

"No, he got it right the first time," she spat dismissively, giving her sister a sinister smirk. "Unless you would have preferred Sparemy."

"You can't talk to her like that!" A sudden third voice boomed from behind the meaner twin, taking Amy by surprise. Chris too, since this messed with the two at a time mojo he had tried to establish. But sure enough, out now was yet another large contestant. Though unlike Rodney and Sugar she was fairly lean, the size came from her immense height that caused her to tower over the rest. Her attire made it seem like she was ready for a safari, and she spoke with the lone Australian accent of the group.

"Uh, Jasmine, I didn't introduce you and Shawn yet," Chris pointed out, irritated at the flow being disrupted.

"Wait, did he just give me my cue?" Another new voice asked, stepping out of the shuttle suddenly. He was a scruffy looking boy, also looking dressed like he was about to spend the night in the woods. Once exiting the bus, he darted his head from side to side. Those that knew him figured he was likely scanning the surrounding area for zombies. "I thought he had some sort of pairs thing going on."

Not amused, Chris's happy expression finally faltered to narrowed eyes and a frown. "I DID, but I guess that's gone out the window now." Sighing, he gave a lackluster motion towards the new arrivals. "The Zombie Nut Shawn, and the Amazon Survivalist Jasmine, everyone."

"I'm from Australia, ya wombat," the survivalist snarked back, knowing fully well what the host meant but feeling the need to give him sass anyway. Turning back to Amy, she jabbed a finger at the mean twin. "And as I was saying, if you think you're going to get away with torturing your sister for another season, you've got another thing coming."

"Oh yeah?" Amy challenged, stepping forward defiantly. "And what are you going to do about it?"

Not expecting her to actually do anything, Amy's eyes went wide when Jasmine stood up to her, glaring down at the mean twin and showing off just how drastically she towered over her. Shawn scooted up to the scene, looking on in half concern and half entertainment.

"You sure you want to challenge her like that?" he asked, exchanging a smile with Sammy. "Because believe me, she'll take you up on it."

While Amy thought quite highly of herself, even she wasn't dumb enough to fool herself into thinking she stood any sort of chance against Jasmine. Feeling a rare sense of defeat, she mumbled something under her breath while storming off to join the other Pahkitew Island veterans. After giving her tall friend an appreciative smile, Sammy followed with Jasmine and Shawn in tow.

"And finally," Chris continued, returning to his former happy demeanor now that the situation had blown over. "Last and... well, arguably least. The human soundboard Beardo, and the friend zoned romantic, Dave."

The first of the final two contestants exited the bus, each step he took giving a booming sound of the earth shaking whenever a foot made contact. Which was strange because he was a short, scrawny little guy, dressed neat and looking timid. Once he was out of the bus a new sound effect echoed, this time of an angelic chorus giving his entrance a dramatic flare. Though he seemed to be fed up as he turned around with a glare.

"Can you not?"

It was revealed that he was addressing the final contestant to leave the bus. In contrast to him, this boy was on the larger size, with darker skin and one hell of an impressive beard. But even the beard paled in comparison to the guy's absolutely massive afro, easily giving him the biggest hairdo of the cast. Also revealed was the fact that these sounds were, as Chris had mentioned, coming from him. He decided to give his own descent down the stairs the sound of "Also sprach Zarathustra," the tune made famous in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Each step he took was accompanied by one of the grand brass tones from the piece, with the loudest drawn out note playing when he touched down with his arms spread out for added effect.

"Seriously, cut it out," Dave continued, forcing Beardo to end his tune short with a record scratch sound effect to emphasize the point. "I'd imagine you don't want to be eliminated first again, so cool it with the sound effects."

While dejected at his talent being received so negatively, Beardo couldn't deny that there was a point to be made over him not wanting to be another early boot again. Using the sound of a zipper closing, he motioned his hand across his mouth and flashed the germaphobe a thumbs up. Rolling his eyes, Dave just shrugged at the gesture and joined the others with Beardo behind him. The final bus drove off and finally the crew was assembled.

A huge satisfied grin on his face, Chris stretched out his arms and looked around at the cast of young adults. "And with that, we have our full cast for the season!"

The 24 contestants looked around at the competition, sizing each other up. With the exception of Courtney with Lightning and Scott, those from different generations had yet to compete against or even meet the others. All they had to go off of was what they had seen from watching their seasons on TV. And maybe a short cameo appearance or two in the cases of DJ and Izzy.

"This is an, uh... interesting cast," Dave observed, looking from Beardo, to Staci, to Izzy.

"Thank you, Dave," Chris said appreciatively, despite Dave's tone not being a complimentary one. Gesturing with his hand for the group to follow them, he began leading them through the airport.

"So as the twenty four of you may have already guessed from the lack of newbies in this cast, this is a new All Stars season." As Chris continued on, Courtney exchanged a look with Scott, both then looking away with the former scowling and the later looking awkward. Lightning, meanwhile, frowned at the mention of All Stars, the memory of his early elimination in it rushing back. "And as you also may have guessed by now, we're not doing Heroes vs Villains this time. It's gonna be a Battle of the Generations!"

Indeed, most of the contestants had already guessed as much due to each generation have a gender balanced eight participants each, but it was good to have confirmation. Shawn and Jasmine exchanged a high five, Harold pumped his fist with a "Booyah" while Leshawna smirked next to him, and B raised an eyebrow while giving a glance to Scott.

"Casting the lot of you was an interesting process," Chris continued, spinning around to look at the cast as they had made it outside of the airport building and out on to the runway. He first looked at the Revenge of the Island alumni. "You guys were probably the easiest. We brought back all six of you who didn't compete in the first All Stars. But since that left us two more male slots in need of filling, we had to choose two of the dudes from All Stars."

Frowning a bit as he recalled something, Chris shook it off. "Fans made it apparent they didn't want to see Mike or Cameron back, so we went with Lightning since he was the first of the All Stars eliminated."

"And why him over Sam?" Dakota asked, pointing a thumb at Scott with a glare. She was irritated but making sure not to get angry since this wasn't something worth going Dakotazoid over.

Chris shrugged innocently. "Scott's better for ratings, what can I say." Scott noticed the glare Dakota was giving him, as well as the other looks from his teammates since the attention had been drawn to him. He chuckled awkwardly. Chris, meanwhile, turned his attention to the Pahkitew Island crew.

"As for you guys, it was also a little bit of an easy process. Max and Scarlett are permanently banned from ever competing on the show ever again, I hate Ella, and Topher is stuck on... duties elsewhere." Chris chuckled mischievously, though the others had no idea why. "And since Sky is busy training for the Olympics, that just left you lot."

"Uh, no it doesn't," Sugar interrupted, hands on her hips and looking disappointed. "What about the wizard? Why ain't he back?"

The host's eye twitched, turning away from her to face the season one veterans instead. He took a deep long breath, turning his head up dismissively. "I have no idea who you're referring to, Sugar. Sounds like you're talking about some sort of dirty TRAITOR to me."

Silently, everyone took a second to process what Chris had meant. Nearly everyone there had seen The Ridonculous Race, and were well aware that Leonard had been part of the cast. While he didn't make it far, Ridonculous Race had been the biggest hit for the network since Total Drama, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to know this was what he was referring to. DJ and Courtney exchanged a look, both having come to the conclusion that this was likely why Owen, Noah, Geoff and by extension Bridgette weren't invited to this cast.

"And finally, we have our TDI vets," Chris finished, regaining composure and returning to his smiling self. "For you guys we went with Wannabe All Stars. People who probably could have made the cut to be on the first All Stars, only for us to end up thinking they weren't up to snuff. Bridgette was going to be the eighth member of your team, but due to... reasons, we decided to bring back Courtney from the first All Stars instead."

Looking over at Scott with a cheeky smirk, Chris chuckled. "Though we had our other reasons to bring her back as well."

Courtney sighed in annoyance, not even giving a look the dirt farmer's way. While she wasn't complaining about another shot at prize money, being the only former All Star on her team made her feel like a target could be on her back. Scott, too, was starting to feel this. Lightning wasn't, however, because when does he ever worry about anything?

The explanation on the casting done, Chris came to a stop in the middle of a runway strip, looking up at the sky and grinning. "And now, may I present to you the truly greatest return out of anything on this season. Please welcome back the Total Drama Jumbo Jet!"

Those from the season one cast gasped, everyone looking to the sky as the very same jet descended from above. Piloting with an annoyed glare, Chef brought the plane down the runway, expertly coming to a stop right next to Chris and the others.

"No way," Izzy said in awe. "We're having another World Tour?"

"Well I mean, they brought us to an airport, wasn't that obvious?" Harold pointed out, though Izzy either didn't hear him or ignored him.

"But didn't Sierra blow it to smithereens back in season three?" Beth asked, both confused and intimidated since this would be her first time flying on the deathtrap.

"Apparently globe trotting themes are big with fans right now," Chris answered, trying and failing to hide any bitterness to his tone. "So the producers gave us the budget needed to repair it. But hey, I guess I can't complain. I missed the big thing. And it looks good as new!"

On cue, one of the engines on the right wing sputtered and blew a concerning amount of smoke out. Those that had yet to ride the plane looked on in worry, but those that had knew this was going to be par for the course. One particular contestant was starting to look more concerned than the rest. B tapped his fingers together nervously, and Dawn took notice.

"Excuse me, Chris?" Dawn asked politely, raising her hand. "Will the required singing be returning for this season as well?"

"Pfft, required," Cody snarked in a voice low enough to not be heard. He knew very well that he had failed to sing in the vast majority of the songs he could have taken part in but didn't, yet nothing was ever done to him. But he wasn't about to bring this up to Chris.

"Why yes, Dawn, yes it is," the host answered happily, smiling directly at B, knowing fully well that he was the reason she had asked in the first place. "And unlike last time where the rule was hardly enforced after Duncan's ejection, we're going to make sure that EVERYONE present for a song will participate. Doesn't that sound great, Cody?"

"Well crap," Cody thought to himself, busted.

Meanwhile, B was beginning to sweat, something Chris took quick notice of. "However, we're on a tight schedule this season and those songs take up a lot of precious screentime, so we won't be doing them every episode like last time. Something more like every other episode instead. So no singing for today, at least." Seeing the silent genius relax a bit, Chris continued. "However, as I said the rules of singing will be STRICTLY enforced. If you don't sing, you're out. No exceptions."

That all said, Chris moved toward the Jumbo Jet as a set of stairs had lowered from the now open door in the side of the plane. B gulped, Dawn patting him on the arm reassuringly.

"There there, you'll think of something," she offered, trying to relax the normally mute genius.

"Maybe you could just do one or two words per song?" Brick added, also seeing his teammate's concern and feeling a need to help. "As long as it counts, that way you can get it out of the way."

While the Revenge of the Island cast tried to calm down B, Jasmine was giving Shawn a concerned look. "Are you gonna be alright with us up in the air in a closed in space?"

The zombie nut had been looking over the jet, taking it all in while tapping his chin in thought. He nodded at his girlfriend. "I'll have to give the plane a thorough checking each time we take off to make sure no lurchers snuck their way on board, but after that I should be fine. Being up in the air is a pretty safe place to avoid zombies as long as there aren't any already on the plane."

"Or you could just not since they don't even exist," Amy pointed out. She soon came to regret it as she once again felt the icy glare from Jasmine staring a hole through her. Deflated, she looked off and huffed. "Whatever, do what you want, I guess."

"AHEM." Loudly clearing his throat, all eyes turned back towards Chris, now standing next to the stairs leading up to the jet. "If you kids are done, we have a tour to go on. Even if you've watched World Tour before, we gotta cover all our bases."

Nobody really having anything to add or reply to with that, everyone followed the host on board. They were first brought to the large dining area. There were three plain tables spread throughout the room, with eight metal seats surrounding each. There was a small wooden shelf on one side of the room with a water pitcher, plates, and cups resting on top, and another shelf nearby with condiment bottles like ketchup and mustard on top.

"Here is, of course, your eating quarters," Chris said to point out the obvious. "Our Head Pilot Chef will so graciously be serving the lot of you three meals a day, giving you the best that airline food has to offer! It's also a nice little place to hang out and mingle if you need a change of scenery from where you're sleeping."

"Did you know my great great great grandfather Kevin was the one to invent plates?" Staci suddenly offered, getting a mix of confused or annoyed looks her way. "Ya, before him everyone just had to eat with their hands and get food everywhere."

"Uh... huh," Chris replied, not amused at the sudden input. "Moving on."

Next the contestants were brought to a room that consistently mostly of two simple wooden benches lining both walls. Above the benches attached to the walls were multiple arm straps that looked about as comfy as a root canal. Rodney had been chosen to demonstrate the straps, and the farm boy could be seen cringing as the flimsy straps struggled to go over his massive arms.

"Here is where our losers will be sleeping if they weren't fortunate enough to win the challenge," McLean explained, motioning to Rodney to prove his point. "You get a nice hard bench to rest your rear end, and some safety straps to keep you from getting ping ponged around the room in your sleep when we hit some turbulence."

"It was actually my great third cousin twice removed Cynthia that invented the seat belt," Staci once again added, earning a sigh from Chris. "Ya, before her if someone got in a crash they just flew out of the window!"

Nobody wanted to comment on the obviously fake tangent. Harold sucked in a breath, feeling the urge to point out the actual inventor of the seat belt, but he had watched Revenge of the Island and didn't want to seem mean by shooting down Staci's story.

"We all know that's a bunch of bull, but whatever," Chris continued, not feeling the need for restraint that Harold felt. "Moving on, let's see where our winners will be staying!"

The contestants were brought to a room that actually resembled what one would expect on an airplane. A fairly nice one at that. The room was well lit and colorful, a departure from the dull gray that the rest of the plane had been thus far. Comfy yellow seats lined the walls, and at the back of the room was even a mini bar with various beverages and treats sat behind glass. All non-alcoholic of course, since most of these players were too young to drink.

"And here we have the Winner's Area, a first class section made for comfort," Chris pointed out, walking down the room while many of the contestants tried out the chairs to confirm how pleasant they were. "Leshawna, Harold, and DJ, as alumni of Team Victory you might not remember it too well since you never stayed here."

"Actually I did make it here a few tim-" DJ began, only to be cut off by Chris suddenly starting again.

"ANYWAY, anytime your team wins a challenge, you get to stay here until we arrive at our next destination. If you don't want to need a chiropractor after the season from sitting on those loser benches too much, I'd prioritize trying to be here as much as possible."

Trent rubbed the armrests of a seat, Beth sitting next to him. "These ARE pretty nice. They must have replaced the seats after the old ones got blown up last time."

Suddenly, the musician felt something strange as he reached a bit farther down the side of the seat which had a wood siding. Looking down, his eyes went wide as he saw the source. Carved into the wood with a knife was a picture of Gwen's face. Those that had watched season three would remember that Duncan had carved it after her elimination. Looking over to see what Trent had found, Beth chuckled awkwardly.

"I guess some seats survived and got reused?"

Suddenly the scene changed to show Trent sitting in the jet's bathroom. It was a rather cramped room, just with a simple airplane toilet, sink, and a window on the side, but it was comparatively quite clean when stacked up to the usual outhouse confessional.

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"Look, I got over me and Gwen breaking up a long time ago," he explained to the camera. "And I was all for her and Duncan becoming a couple... not that he really treated her well and not that they lasted long, but still. I was cool with it. But I'm not gonna lie, seeing a reminder of her every time we stay in first class sucks a bit."

"What an excellent segway into introducing the confessional, Trent," Chris practically yelled as he suddenly threw open the door and barged into the confessional, making Trent yell and scoot back in shock. "Everyone group around, this is the confessional cam."

The remaining players all crowded around outside the bathroom, with Sugar and Lightning even managing to poke their heads in and make it even more cramped for Trent.

"Despite everything, something you all have in common is making confessionals on the toilet, so you should all feel right at home here when you feel the need to vent your frustrations." He chuckled, smiling at the still shocked musician. "Just remember to lock the door unlike our friend Trent here. Alternatively, we have a confessional in the cockpit. It didn't see much use last time, so feel free to try it out!"

*** Cockpit Confessional: Dave ***

Dave looked around at his surroundings. It was as Chris said, the cockpit of the plane. There were various panels, buttons, and such at the front of the plane all shoddily held in place. There was a pilot and co-pilot seat, and sat in the pilot seat was none other than Chef in his blue pilot outfit. He faced forward away from the camera, focusing on flying. On the dash were little bobble heads of Chris and Chef, and parachutes were attached to the backs of both seats.

"Huh, don't know why they wouldn't use this one more often. It definitely beats talking to the camera in a gross bathroom every time."

"Would you pipe down already?" Chef suddenly barked back at the germophobe, making him jump back and hold his arms up defensively. "I'm trying to fly a gosh darn plane over here!"

Returning to his flight position, Dave slowly eased up, giving the camera a wide eyed stare. "Aaaaand, now I see why they didn't use this one more often."

*** In the cargo hold ***

With the confessionals done for now, everyone had gathered in the largest room at the back of the plane. It was a spacious cargo hold, filled with various crates, boxes, and bags. Shawn had wasted no time in scurrying around the area, getting the heebie jeebies from the cramped cargo. He had to make sure it was clear of the zombie menace before one ended up popping out from around a corner.

"As you can see, this is the cargo hold," Chris pointed out, paying Shawn no mind. Nor did he pay any mind when B had started rummaging through various crates and boxes. "There isn't really anything game related to do here on a surface level, it's just where we store all our supplies and such for the show. Buuuut it makes for a pretty good place to sneak off to when you kids want to plot and have secret meetings."

Everyone took in the area, thinking over the potential of its uses. Since it was so massive and filled with junk, it definitely would be easy to get into some shenanigans in it without being caught. Sugar rubbed her chin in thought and Lightning grinned.

"And finally, we have one more room of importance to check out," Chris said, now noticing Shawn and B doing their own things. He snapped his fingers to get their attention. "Yo, you guys can mess around in here all you want when the tour is done. Get your butts in gear."

As the host led the cast away to their next destination, Shawn reluctantly so, Sugar noticed a strange door between the cargo and first class area. "Oooh, what's in here?"

Inviting herself in, Sugar shoved the door open to reveal the most lavish room yet. A top of the line flatscreen TV, a hot tub next to a wood burning oven. There was a piano, a comfy chair next to martini glasses, and a king sized bed.

"Well dang, ain't this place swanky," she observed, the others filing in after she had barged into the room, forcing Chris to follow her. "What if I wanna stay in here?"

Chris opened his mouth to reply, but Harold beat him to the punch. "This is Chris' room, it's off limits to us. It's also where most of the budget went to for this jet. You'd think they'd skip this part when they had to rebuild the thing, but I guess not."

"There's perks that come with being someone important, Harold," Chris replied matter of factly, sending a glare to him and then Sugar. "Now if you two are done interrupting me, I still have one more place to show you."

The final location Chris had brought the contestants to was a small room with a set of bleachers. There were spotlights shining down on to a stage that had a floral curtain backdrop and a sort of podium made from a drum. Nearby was an exit door, with a large tiki face on each side.

"And thus we come to my favorite part of the jet. The elimination ceremony!" Chris stood behind the drum podium, pulling a disgusting looking bag full of peanuts out from seemingly nowhere. "Every time a team loses, they'll be forced to vote off one of their own teammates. Those safe receive these barf bags full of peanuts."

"Didn't you give up on handing those out like as soon as Team Victory was gone?" Cody asked, getting the bag the host was holding thrown into his face as a response.

"As I was saying," Chris said, leveling a glare the geek's way. "The person that does NOT receive a barf bag will be promptly removed from the Jumbo Jet and get sent packing with just a parachute to protect themselves. And while we're on the subject of teams, even if you already know who you're on a team with, we need to make things official."

"Hey, this reminds me about how my great great great uncle Boris was the first person to serve peanuts at the circ-" Staci began to say, getting an intense glare from Chris as she started, but her mouth was quickly covered by the hand of Anne Maria, giving her talkative teammate a look that told her that she needed to be quiet.

"Hehe, you were saying?" Anne Maria asked.

*** Confessional: Anne Maria ***

"Look, I don't watch too much of this show, but World Tour was one of the few seasons that I did. And that freaky green kid that tricked me with that fake diamond ended up getting targeted by McLean when he wouldn't shut his yap. The last thing we need is Chatterbox getting thrown out, stowing away in the plane, and becoming like him. Plus we don't need to be down someone already, especially if the big guy ends up not being able to sing."

*** In the dining area ***

Chris had eventually motioned everyone back into the dining area, making all of the generation teams stand on separate circles placed apart form each other. Those from Total Drama Island stood on a blue circle, Revenge of the Island reps stood on a green circle, and Pahkitew Island alumni on a red circle. Walking down the room, Chris first came to a stop at the red circle.

"Those of you from the third generation. From now on you will be known as... Team Explosive!"

On screen a red team logo appeared, showing a stick of dynamite with the fuse lit. The host then moved down to the green circle.

"You guys from the second generation? You all will be known as... Team Radioactive!"

Once again the team logo flashed on screen, this time in green. It was a vat of leaking toxic waste with a skull symbol on the front. Finally, Chris arrived at the blue circle.

"And of course, my veterans from the first generation. Collectively, you all make up... Team Old School!"

The final logo to appear, this one in blue, displayed the thousand foot high cliff from Camp Wawanakwa.

As the teams murmured in discussion about these names and logos, Izzy looked let down. "Aw come on, that name's kinda boring compared to radioactive and explosive isn't it?" She motioned at the other logos. "I mean those sound all exciting and dangerous, and ours is just all bluuuh."

Folding his arms, Chris gave the lunatic a curious look. "And do you have a better suggestion?"

"Hmmm." Izzy rubbed her chin, thinking over her options. Team Explosivo? Nah, that was so season two. Team Victory? No, that didn't work out so well for the last team to try it. "How about-"

"It was a rhetorical question," Chris cut off, placing a hand in front of her face to prevent her from finishing. "It's Team Old School."

Ignoring the glare now being sent his way from Izzy, Chris walked off to his personal quarters for what he felt was well earned relaxation time. "You may all now do as you please until we arrive at the location of your first challenge. I'll be relaxing in the meanwhile."

"If you don't mind me asking, what IS the first location?" Sammy asked curiously.

"Why yes, yes I do mind you asking," Chris replied, narrowing his eyes at the nice twin before returning to his smile. "But eh, what the heck, I'll tell ya. So last World Tour, we were able to hit six out of the seven continents throughout the season. We decided to start things off this time by hitting the one we missed first."

Realization quickly dawned on those that had a basic memory of geography, with those in outfits made more for warmer environments beginning to look nervous since they hadn't packed anything other than more copies of the same outfit, per their contract's orders.

"I'm going to go ahead and guess that we aren't going to be provided coats to protect from the Antarctic cold, right?" DJ asked.

"You kids know me so well! You really ARE All Stars!" With a last mischievous, taunting laugh, the host took his leave.

*** Cockpit Confessional: Scott ***

The devious leaned his back against the co-pilot seat, giving the camera an annoyed glare. "Right now my plan is to lay low and not make any big waves. Other than Lightning, the last thing most of the guys on my team remember me for is getting their butts kicked off in season four. I can already tell the mutant has it out for me since they brought me back instead of her boyfriend. Last thing I need is getting kicked off early because these people don't know how to let go of a grudge."

"He probably just wants to stay because he wants to try hooking back up with Courtney," Chef commented from his seat, not bothering to turn around. Flustered, Scott stepped towards the pilot with a puffed out chest.

"I want the money, she ain't the only reason I want to stay!"

"Yeah, but she's the main reason," Chef shot back, chuckling as he turned to face the farmer. "Don't kid yourself, dirt boy."

Scott simply turned away with his arms folded, mumbling obscenities under his breath but failing to deny the accusation.

*** In the cargo hold ***

With the required tour over, the cast's zombie fanatic was ready to resume his jet search, making sure the vessel was free of the undead. Due to the massive size of the cargo hold, but mostly just to remain in each other's company, he had two tag alongs in the form of Jasmine and Sammy. As they entered the room, the trio were surprised to see that they had actually been beaten to beginning their investigation. Dawn and B were looking through one crate, with Brick looking through another nearby. Curious, Shawn approached the group.

"You guys checking for zombies too?" he asked, unsure why else they'd all be here as well.

"Not quite," Dawn answered without looking up from the crate. She picked up a small busted speaker, showing it to B who smiled and nodded. He look the piece and tucked it away into a pocket while the search continued. "We're rummaging through the cargo to help B with something."

"Would you care to help us?" Brick asked, offering the Pahkitew alumni a warm smile. "We could really use some more hands on deck."

The third generation trio exchanged looks of uncertainty. Jasmine decided to voice the obvious. "I don't know. No offense, but it's probably not a great idea to be helping the enemy right out of the gate."

"Technically the competition hasn't truly started yet," Sammy pointed out. "So they're not our enemies right now."

Seemingly at an impasse, the girls looked to Shawn to break the tie. The scruffy boy stroked his stubble in thought, weighing their options. "Well, we DO need to look through the cargo anyway, so it would be easy to help." He snapped his fingers, thinking of an idea. "Tell ya what, since this could end up helping you guys in the long run, we'll help under the condition that you guys help me with my zombie checks as long as you're still in the game. This cargo hold is pretty massive, so the extra help would definitely make things more efficient."

There was a mix of reactions from the second generation trio. Brick seemed the most confused of all, though if his puzzlement was over the zombie subject or just from committing to such a long term deal was up to debate. Dawn, meanwhile, smiled in response. She seemed to have no objections with the deal. After looking down and pondering it, B finally flashed the conspiracy nut a thumbs up, accepting the conditions of the deal.

"Sweet!" Shawn and the others gathered around to join the Revenge of the Island competitors. "So what are you guys looking for?"

*** Confessional: Jasmine ***

"I'll be honest, I still don't fully understand Shawn's fascination with zombies," the Australian admitted, having to hunch over a bit in the bathroom due to her immense height. "But hey, I like that he's so weird. As for those Team Radioactive guys, they seem alright enough. I'm not too crazy about helping them out, but if they're willing to help keep Shawn at ease then I guess it's a fair trade."

*** Somewhere over Antarctica ***

The plane ride to the first destination was largely uneventful. Outside of the cargo hold group, the rest of the competitors stuck mostly to their own teams to catch up and discuss potential strategies. They all stuck to the first class area since there was no reason to stay in economy until they had to. Eventually, they could look out the window to see miles upon miles of ice and snow. Landing the Jumbo Jet on the ice would be no easy feat, but Chef was a talented man when he cared and he pulled it off.

Eventually everyone found their way outside after a slide emerged from one of the exits to bring everyone down to the ice. The crowd of competitors shivered, hugging themselves in a fruitless attempt for warmth. Chris, meanwhile, joined the group while wearing a large comfy coat, snow boots, and thick cozy mittens. He was as toasty and comfortable as anyone in Antarctica could be, but no one from the cast bothered to complain since they knew this would always be the case as the difference between their treatment and the host's.

"Welcome to the site of your very first challenge of the season," McLean started, motioning around him to ice, ice, and more ice. "Antarctica is the world's lowest populated continent. That might have something to do with it also being the coldest, windiest, and driest continent. Not a whole lot to do here unless you really REALLY like ice skating."

Chris moved in front of three huge slabs of ice, each clearly holding something frozen within, though it was hard to see through the thick ice. "Your challenge is a throwback to the first challenge from World Tour. But instead of racing to the Nile, you'll be racing to the South Pole! We've traded the desert for a tundra."

"Actually, most of Antarctica could still be described as a desert due to the low amount of precipitation," Courtney pointed out, receiving agreeing nods from Cody and B. "Not all deserts are the hot sandy kind, a lot of them are like this."

The sinister host narrowed his eyes at the former All Star, disappointed. "Court, I expect those kind of dumb tangents out of Harold, not you."

*** Confessional: Courtney ***

"Being compared to Harold... yeah, not sure if I've ever been more insulted."

*** In Antarctica ***

"As I was saying," the host continued, motioning to the huge blocks of ice. "You all will be racing to the South Pole. Inside these blocks of ice are three things you'll be needing. First is an eight seated snowmobile, which will be KINDA useful to make such a big trip. Next is a GPS which will give you directions to the South Pole, equally useful. And perhaps most useful of all if you want to win is a flag baring your team's logo. The first team to plant their flag next to the South Pole wins first class. The team that does it last gets to be the first team of the season to send some sorry loser packing!"

The crowd looked each other over, feeling the sense of competition. None of them wanted the distinction of being the first person eliminated. Beardo and Staci exchanged a look, both having realized that unless this was a surprise double elimination, at least one of them would avoid being the first boot again. Heck, if Team Old School lost maybe even both of them. Some like Lightning and Shawn looked confident. Others like Beth and Sammy seemed nervous. And then there was Izzy, but no one dared to wonder what was going on in her mind.

"Part one is simple, retrieve everything you need from the ice by any means necessary." Chris looked over at the jumbo jet where a ramp had just opened, making it possible to enter the cargo hold. "Anything you can find in the cargo hold is fair game to use, so go wild. First team to get everything out of the ice will receive a reward that will help during the race. The team that frees everything last will get a handicap. So don't be last!"

Reaching into his coat pocket, Chris pulled out an item the contestants recognized well. His trusty air horn. Plugging their ears, they braced themselves just in time for the host's mighty blast with the device. "Begin!"

Everyone ran up to their giant slabs of ice, though no one made an immediate move to do anything to it since they were far too massive for it to be an easy endeavor. Shawn was the first to make a call after looking from the ice to his team.

"Alright, I'd say we probably have the most potential body heat out of any of these teams," he pointed out, noting the size of both Rodney and Beardo. "We could have our larger teammates working on melting bits of the ice while the rest of us check the cargo for something useful."

"I don't know, could we really do much to it just using body heat?" Rodney asked skeptically, in awe at the size of this ice. It was an absolute unit.

"It'll be fine," Jasmine replied. "Some gradual progress is better than no progress. Shawn, Sammy, and I already did some looking around in the cargo hold so we can afford having less searchers."

The outback girl gave Rodney a look to see if he had been convinced. As it turns out, looking into her eyes made Rodney sigh dreamily, throwing up an approving thumbs up. "Sounds like a good plan to me."

"Alright, then Jasmine, Sugar, Rodney, and Beardo will stay out here and try to melt some of the ice while the rest of us hit up the cargo," the zombie nut continued, pointing a thumb at the plane. "Since me and Sammy already got a feel of the place, Amy can search with me and Dave can search with her."

Shawn wasn't particularly thrilled at the idea of pairing up with Amy to search for things to help with the ice, but he knew fully well that pairing the evil twin with her sister was a bad idea for everyone involved. It was for the good of the team that he be the one to deal with her. Dave and Sammy exchanged a nod and jogged off towards the plan, while Amy rolled her eyes and reluctantly followed the defacto team captain.

The other teams, meanwhile, had all chosen to begin searching the cargo hold. Of the two, however, Team Radioactive had the distinct advantage of also having members who had previously searched the area. With Dawn and B directing traffic, Scott, Anne Maria, and Staci carried pickaxes out to their ice. Meanwhile, Team Old School was searching more or less blindly for anything of use.

"I wonder if Chris has any flame throwers lying around?" Izzy wondered out loud as she and Trent searched through one of the crates. "That would help!"

The musician chuckled awkwardly, half from amusement and the other half from the scary thought of Izzy being allowed to use a flame thrower in the first place. "Yeah, somehow I doubt we're gonna find one of those just lying around."

Eventually everyone had gathered the supplies they felt would work. Team Radioactive stuck with their pickaxes, getting to work on chipping away the ice. Team Old School had eventually stumbled upon a crate full of tools and decided to make due with that. DJ and Leshawna went to town on the ice with hammers, Trent and Courtney stood on opposite ends of a two handed saw to try and cut through the ice, with Harold, Beth, and Cody alternating from using whatever else they could find in the toolbox they brought with varying results. Izzy had elected to stay in the cargo hold to look for anything else of use that might help better. Her teammates allowed this to maximize the time they didn't have to worry about being around her using dangerous tools.

Unfortunately for both teams, though, they were quickly losing progress to Team Explosive. Shawn had located a crate holding ice climbing equipment during his zombie search, so he and Amy brought back enough for the whole team to use. Sammy meanwhile had brought back a camping stove she had noticed during the aforementioned search, lit it with a lighter found in the same crate, and was using it to help melt parts of the ice at a much quicker pace. Meanwhile she had directed Dave to bring back some old blankets found elsewhere to help those that had been formerly melting parts of the ice with their body heat. With Shawn and Jasmine calling directions, the team was making short work of their goal with ice axes and ice picks.

This early lead didn't go unnoticed by the others, with Lightning being the first to speak out about it. "Hey, we ain't about to let them noobies smoke us on the first challenge, are we?" He increased the speed of his work, hoping to single handedly catch up.

"Brother's right," Leshawna commented from the Gen One team's area, watching as Rodney lobbed off a sizable chunk with a single ice pick thrust. "At the rate they're going, our odds ain't looking too good."

Courtney didn't bother looking at the other team, focusing instead on her sawing. "Well hopefully Izzy finds something useful that can turn things around. For now just try picking up the pace and hoping for the best."

The team did just that, going faster to try in vain to catch up. But in vain it seemed to be, since Team Explosive continued to make good progress. Sugar lodged an ice axe into one section, putting her foot against the block of ice and pulling a chunk out with Beardo providing a guillotine sound effect as she did so. The two exchanged a high five and continued their work. Nearby, Dave and Amy had nearly made it to the GPS, a small black device with a screen.

Between the early domination from the Pahkitew alumni and the upped pace from Team Old School, Scott in particular was feeling the pressure. After all, he didn't know how well his odds fared if his team were to send someone home first. As he glanced over at Team Explosive nervously, he caught look of something. Nearby on the ground next to Sammy, who was focusing on melting the block, was a lighter. With such a puny flame by itself it wouldn't make much of a difference on its own, so it had already served its purpose for her. But ever the schemer, Scott had an idea.

Doing his best to go unnoticed by the focused Gen Three team members, he snuck over and swiped up the lighter. When he returned to his own team's block of ice, he went straight to Anne Maria. "I have an idea. I need one of your cans of hairspray."

The Jersey girl didn't seem too pleased at the offer, reeling away from the farmer and clutching her spray can protectively. "Excuse you? Nobody touches my spray, especially not a slimeball like you, capiche?"

"It'll be just for a second, you don't want us to lose do ya?" Scott asked again, trying to mask any frustration in his tone since he was feeling the urgency.

Dawn blinked, looking on at the former villain skeptically. But after looking for a bit she felt... nothing malicious? Sincerity in what he was saying? How strange...

"I think it's worth a try, it wouldn't hurt to let him have it momentarily," the moonchild commented, getting surprised reactions from B and Dakota next to her. "As far as I can tell, he isn't trying to deceive you."

Anne Maria was equally as surprised as her teammates to hear the support for Scott's suggestion. But after taking another look as Team Explosive to see that they had now retrieved their GPS and were now closing in on getting their flag, she sighed and shoved the spray can into Scott's arms. "Fine. But this betta work."

Scott, too, had not been expecting words of agreement from Dawn, so he was slightly caught off guard when Anna Maria handed the can over. But he had to work fast, so he held up the lighter in front of the nozzle and took aim at their block of ice. "You guys might wanna stand back."

Once his teammates had did just that, he held down the nozzle and lit the lighter. Just as planned, the highly combustible hair spray turned into a makeshift flame thrower, showering the ice in flames that quickly melted through it. Both of the opposing teams were caught off guard by the sudden blast of heat, looking on in shock.

"Welp, so much for avoiding getting our stuff last," Cody commented, knowing their team was still much too behind Team Explosive and that this would easily put Team Radioactive ahead of them.

"Aw, no fair! Using fire was my idea first." Those on her team looked over to the cargo hold ramp at the sound of Izzy's voice, their eyes all going wide once they saw her. "Also, look what I found, guys!"

The redhead ran over to her teammates wielding a chainsaw, revving it up to bring the device to life. As the tool whired and the saw spun, the members of Team Old School quickly dived out of the way. Once she had reached the ice, Izzy began cutting through it like butter.

"Woah..." Rodney looked on at his fellow redhead cutting up the ice in awe, having never seen a girl handle a power tool quite like that before. Needless to say, he was smitten. But he was quickly snapped out of it by a loud air horn blast. Or at least the realistic sound effect of one, courtesy of Beardo.

"We need to move quick," Dave pointed out, the teammates nodding in agreement. They had since freed their flag so now only lacked freeing the massive eight seat snowmobile. Everyone put their all to it, and the race became neck and neck.

Team Radioactive had to take short pauses between blasts of fire so that the items wouldn't be damaged by the fire. Once they had melted close enough, Lightning and Dakota dislodged both their GPS and their flag, allowing Scott to continue. Izzy, meanwhile, cut a small chunk out of the block that held their GPS, allowing DJ and Harold to easily free it nearby. She then did the same to their flag, with Beth and Trent also retrieving that. All three teams were down to just the snowmobile. It looked to be anyone's game. But eventually the confirmation came from Chris as one snowmobile emerged from the ice first.

"And the winners of part one are... Team Old School!"

The season one veterans cheered for joy, gathered around their newly freed ride. Izzy kissed the now turned off chainsaw, then held it up victoriously.

"And close behind them in second place," the host continued. "Is... Team Radioactive!"

Scott sneered over at the winning team, giving Anne Maria back her hair spray and tossing away the lighter in frustration. While they hadn't lost, the annoyance of coming so close to winning made second place feel just as bad. The feeling wasn't mutual for the Pahkitew newcomers, though. They looked on in disappointment, having just freed their snowmobile as well.

"Which of course means our losers for the first part of the challenge are Team Explosive," Chris confirmed, laughing at the team's misfortune. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a remote with three buttons, pressing the button colored red. "So they get the punishment!"

Suddenly, a mechanical click went off and the back two seats on Team Explosive's snowmobile detached from the rest of the vehicle. Chef emerged from who knows where, pushing away the dislodged seats off screen.

"As punishment, your eight man team will now be down two seats, making your ride to the South Pole all the more difficult." The host turned his attention to Team Old School. "As for our winners, they each get a reward that will help them in part two of the challenge."

Chef returned, passing out red stick-like instruments to each of the members of Team Old School. They were long with a rubber handle and two prongs at the end.

"Cattle prods?" Beth asked, the first to recognize the device. "What do we need these for?"

"What indeed?" Chris replied unhelpfully, turning to face the camera with his trademark smug grin. "Will I tell them what the cattle prods are for? How will the losers deal with not having enough seats for their team? And who will win the race to the South Pole? Answers will be revealed, next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

The contestants watched with varying expressions of annoyance and disdain as their host signed off, with Sugar leaning over to Amy to whisper that actual last words some of the others had been silently thinking. "Kind of a long winded title, ain't it?"

Current Standings:

Voting Confessionals:

N/A

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: Izzy, DJ, Harold, Leshawna, Trent, Beth, Cody, Courtney

Team Radioactive: Brick, Anne Maria, B, Staci, Dawn, Dakota, Scott, Lightning

Team Explosive: Rodney, Sugar, Sammy, Amy, Jasmine, Shawn, Dave, Beardo

Elimination Order:

N/A

Chapter Text

"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris said in a voice over, accompanying relevant clips playing during everything he said. "We brought back eight competitors from all three Total Drama generations to duke it out in an All Stars season for the ages! And even better, also returning was none other than the Jumbo Jet! After breaking up the victims in teams from their respective generations, we dropped them off in Antarctica for their first challenge. They first had to retrieve items out of a huge block of ice by any means necessary. Team Explosive took an early lead thanks to Shawn and Jasmine's leadership, but ultimately some chainsaw craziness from Izzy and homemade flame throwing from Scott put Teams Old School and Radioactive in 1st and 2nd respectively. Can Team Explosive recover on the race to the South Pole? Can Team Old School keep their momentum going? And just who will be the first one I get to kick out of our plane? All of these questions and more, right here right now on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Opening Credits ***

The scene opened on the teens all gathered around their snowmobiles, arms wrapped around themselves and shivering while Chris and Chef stood nearby.

"Alright gang, you have five minutes to prepare your game plan before the race to the South Pole begins. Get to it!"

Murmuring among teams started up immediately. Harold was eager to take the GPS for Team Old School. "I can be our navigator if no one else wants to do it. I think my time at Navigation Steve's Navigation Camp will really come in handy here. Who wants to be the driver?"

"Oh, oh, I do!" Izzy jumped up and down with her hand raised, a wicked grin spread on her face. "Izzy will get us there lickety split."

"No offense, sugar, we really appreciate you helping us win part one," Leshawna cut in, placing a hand on Izzy's shoulder. "But that ain't happening. Anyone else wanna drive?"

"I can do it," Courtney answered. "Can't be any harder to drive than DJ's tour bus from a few year ago."

"We never did get the deposit back on that thing," DJ trailed off, arms folded and looking down in annoyance.

Beth, meanwhile, was cautiously looking over the cattle prod each of them had been given. "I just want to know what these things are for. Knowing Chris, it can't be good."

While the team went silent to contemplate the use of the tool, some of Team Radioactive's members looked on at Scott hesitantly.

"Come on, I drive grand pappy's truck back home all the time, I can handle this thing no problem," he insisted, noting unconvinced looks from Dakota and B particularly. "I helped us not lose part one, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but we didn't WIN it either," Anne Maria pointed out, clutching her hair spray a bit more protectively. "And don't think that just one good move is gonna make people forget you being sketchy."

"Bickering won't get us anywhere, I'm afraid." Dawn had took it upon herself to retrieve the GPS for the team since their most tech inclined teammate wasn't in a position to give directions. "If it helps quell any doubts, I'll take up navigating. I have as much reason as any of us to mistrust Scott so I'll be sure he's kept on track."

No one seemed to have any opposition, Scott included, so the team began to get into position on the snowmobile. Meanwhile, the final team was figuring out how to make use of their handicap of having two less seats than the others.

"Alright, Shawn and I can share a seat with him sitting on my lap, but we still need two of you to do the same," Jasmine pointed out, looking over the team. "Any takers?"

An awkward silence spread across the squad. Sugar whistled non-nonchalantly while Dave averted his eyes at the thought of having to share space with someone else. Finally, of all people, Amy raised her hand.

"I think I could share a seat with Rodney." She gave him a smile, as sweet as she could manage. "If he's ok with that, at least."

Unsurprisingly, rather than replying with anything actually legible, Rodney responded by babbling nondescript nonsense. His face turned red and he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

*** Confessional: Amy ***

"Look, I didn't WANT to have to share a seat with anyone, but it's weirding me out how much tall girl and her gross boyfriend are defending my lame-o sister. I need to start getting people on MY side because, uh hello, Sammey being more popular than me? Not in a million years." She grinned devilishly. "Rodney looked like the easiest to get on my side. He'll be loyal to me before the end of the day."

*** Somewhere in Antarctica ***

The teams had all since gotten into position. Courtney and Scott has taken positions behind the wheel as their team's respective drivers, with Harold and Dawn in the seats next to them as navigators. After the pairing issue had been resolved, Sammy handled driving for her team while Dave manned the GPS. At the back of the vehicle for Team Explosive, Shawn sat on Jasmine's lap while Amy sat on Rodney's. The farm boy's face was still a deep shade of red, while Beardo provided a sputtering engine sound effect despite how the snowmobile hadn't been started up yet.

"Alright kids, simple enough, don't be the last to show up to the South Pole." Holding up his trusty air horn, the sadistic host gave it a mighty blast to signify the start of the next phase. "Begin!"

Courtney, Sammy, and Scott all took off without hesitation. They put the pedal to the metal, leaning forward as they drove as fast as their snow mobiles would take them. It was after about five minutes or so that someone made an observation.

"Sha-why the heck are we still neck and neck with the other teams?" Lightning asked loud enough for all three teams to hear.

Indeed, while there was space between the three vehicles, they were all more or less neck and neck with no sign of anyone pulling ahead of the other. Their vehicles were all going as fast as they could, and it was clear none were more fast than the others.

"Huh. Yeah, that is kinda weird, ain't it?" Trent glanced over at the other teams with a raised eyebrow. "It'll be a pretty boring race if it keeps up like this the whole time."

"Well knowing Chris it can't be that easy," Cody pointed out. He looked down at the cattle prod in his hand, eyes going wide in realization. "Wait a minute, you don't think we're supposed to use these things on THEM do you?"

"We aren't electrocuting anyone," DJ said matter of factly, lowering Cody's prod down. "Besides, that'd give us even more of a boring advantage. That can't be it."

Meanwhile, Team Explosive were also thinking over Lightning's observation, with Sugar breaking the silence. "Well shoot, something's gotta happen to make this more interesting, how far away are we from that pole anyhow?"

Dave squinted as he read the GPS. "The South Pole is at the Amundsen-Scott station and we're currently about... a little under 80 miles away from it."

"So we're in it for the long haul," Shawn confirmed, scanning the icy terrain for anything suspicious. "Something's gotta give soon. Stay on your toes, guy-"

Shawn was cut off by a sudden loud bang coming from behind. Due to the close proximity of everyone, all teams quickly glanced back to see the source of the noise. Sure enough, a helicopter was fast approaching overhead, a familiar grinning host leaning out the window with a stick of dynamite in hand.

"You kids were probably beginning to wonder when things were going to get more interesting," Chris yelled once the helicopter was close enough for the contestants to hear him. "And you're in luck! This is that moment."

Casually, he chucked the stick of dynamite in front of the group. It landed just a bit in front of Team Radioactive's path, causing their snowmobile to swerve out of the way wildly before Scott corrected their path.

"Oh, great," Staci grumbled, wanting to make a quip about her ancestor that invented explosives but being too stressed to do so. "Could this-"

"Don't say it!" Brick pleaded in vain, but it was too late.

"-get any worse?"

*DING DING DING*

"Why yes, Staci, yes it can." Chris laughed, a familiar musical note symbol appearing in the top corner of the screen. "I trust you're all familiar with the singing from World Tour, correct?"

"I thought you said we were only doing them every other episode or so," Dave whined in frustration.

"Right you are." Chris chucked another stick of dynamite down for good measure, nearly hitting Team Old School's vehicle in the process. "Lucky for you guys we're on the second part of a two parter premier! So yeah, you better get to singing with your dodging. Make it something thematic to this icy location, gotta work with what you got am I right?"

There were a collections of groans and murmurs from the group of contestants, B in particular looking especially stressed. With a quick glance, Courtney could tell no one wanted to bite the bullet and start. Of course, that was perfectly fine with her.

"Well, I may as well get us started," she commented, trying to hide the bit of enjoyment she got from doing so.

A soft piano melody began to play as the three teams continued swerving away from the dynamite. Courtney had just done one such maneuver while delivering the song's first line. "Gotta keep our cool against the dynamite. No time to cry or scream."

Since his teammate had taken the lead, Trent decided to take the next part. "Can't let it break your concentration, and get blown to smithereens."

"Why did we sign up once again for a game where we could die?" Beth lamented in song form as she covered her ears.

"We could all be back home right now, safe and inside," DJ added, using the cattle prod to cover his head as if it were some sort of shield.

Harold glanced up at the helicopter's position, doing his best to point directions out to the driver since he couldn't currently speak directions. "I guess the money talks, still fame to seek, even if we risk becoming debris."

Leshawna almost chuckled at the accuracy of Harold's observation, before a close by explosion made her go wide eyed. "It's a raw deal, but what did we expect from this show?"

Cody opened his mouth to sing the next line, but Izzy quickly beat him to it. "Guess we reap what we soooooow!"

She grinned at Cody, who sighed as he realized he had been left to start the chorus. "But man this bloooows. This fricken blooooows. Why the heck did we come back for more?"

With the groundwork laid, now the entirety of Team Old School sung together. "Man this bloooows, this fricken bloooows. One wrong turn and we're done for!"

The other two teams were impressed at how well Team Old School had taken the lead in singing, though to their credit many of them had experience from World Tour. Now it was time for one of them to pick up the mantle, and the first volunteer came as a surprise to some.

"We were all aware, this show ain't child's play," Beardo bellowed in a surprisingly pleasant singing voice, those on his team not used to hearing him do anything other than make noises taken back by his outburst.

Sugar, not one to be upstaged, was the first on the team to recover and continue on. "Well now the game goes on, no point cryin' over it anyway."

As the teams continued juggling focus on both the song and avoiding explosions, they were slowly beginning to drift apart in varying directions. Almost as if the dynamite was herding them in which way to go. And by almost, it was definitely doing that. Meanwhile the music grew more upbeat as more instruments joined in.

"Let's hurry and gain more distance," Shawn eventually continued, "This won't be our downfall."

"There's no way for us to foresee," Jasmine added next since her boyfriend had just gone, "What comes next, after all."

Sammy was starting to feel a bit more motivated listening to the singing, avoiding another dynamite blast with ease. "We can do this, won't go kaboom. Done this before, it's nothing new."

Dave, meanwhile, wasn't feeling as confident as another blast made him jump back in fear. "Still, you have to say this is crappy."

"I agree," Rodney chimed in when an explosion caused multiple chunks of ice to fly towards the snowmobile, all pelting the farmer due to his large frame.

"Man this blooooows, this fricken blooooows." Rodney had begun the chorus, but was noticeably having a hard time keeping focus when Amy sung it alongside him. She looked back at him with a sly grin, causing his face to turn a deep red. How he was somehow able to hold his singing given his speech track record in such situations was a mystery. "Because we could still maybe diiiiie."

"Man this bloooows, this fricken bloooows," now sung the entirety of Team Explosive, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. "We don't want to say goodbye."

Now that the other two teams had all gone in one way or another, it was Team Radioactive's turn to step up to the plate. Of note, a nervous looking B was seemingly digging through his coat pocket for something. Meanwhile, Anne Maria was unsurprisingly the first to pipe up. "I demand, we'll see another day."

Her singing voice wasn't the most pleasant, but no one was about to tell her that. Scott seemingly grumbled something under his breath before reluctantly following up. "That's the plan, moro-" before finishing the line he noticed Anne Maria giving him a stink eye, making him quickly clear his throat. "Er, Anne!"

She narrowed her eyes but backed away, Scott chuckling nervously while returning his focus to driving. Meanwhile the music hit its most triumphant tune, while the teams were now all separated quite a bit away thanks to the dynamite herding. Nonetheless, they somehow still all heard each other's singing.

"The ice could break, we'd fall in, and then we'd be drowned," Brick lamented, lifting his arm up dramatically as he sung from the heart.

"Or be sent off an icy cliff down to our burial ground," Dakota added, lifting her arm up in the opposite direction as Brick.

"Sha-just ignore the danger from all these big ol' blasts." Lightning posed behind Brick and Dakota, though he opted for a double arm flex rather than something more fitting.

"This danger's going nowhere. All we can do is go fast!" Staci completed the pose in front of the other three, hunched down with both arms outstretched.

Dawn gave B a quick glance, checking on how he was holding up. He was hunched over, frantically tinkering with something. He held up a finger to signify 'One more second,' so she nodded. Just had to buy him a little more time.

"Still this blooooows, this fricken blooooows," Dawn continued, one of the few competitors relatively undeterred by the scattering dynamite. "It's not time for us to begone."

"Man this bloooows, this fricken blooooows," sung the entirety of Team Radioactive, minus B. Many teammates were giving the silent genius looks of concern as they knew the song was quickly coming to an end. "But it's nothing we can't take on."

"This will not be our doomsday," now sung the entirety of the cast, once again minus B. "Now the game goes ooooooon."

Suddenly, B breathed a sign of relief and held up what he had been tinkering with. It was a small device, shaped like a box and looking like it was made out of scrap. On the back of the device was a small circular speaker, and on the front the keypad that one would have seen on an old flip phone.

B quickly typed away on the keypad, prompting an electronic voice to bellow from the speaker. "NO POINT CRYIN' OVER IT ANYWAY."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out." Chris looked down in befuddlement from the helicopter currently positioned over Team Radioactive. "What the heck was that?"

"B made that device during the plane ride here using the spare parts in the cargo area," Dawn explained, B showing off his invention to his team proudly. "It allows him to produce singing despite not speaking himself."

"Well that's cheating," Chris complained from overhead, eyes narrowed. "It wasn't really him singing then, now was it?"

"Actually, there's nothing in the contract that specifies that the singing MUST be through your own voice," Brick pointed out. "B is still the one producing the singing, he has to type it all into his doohickey and everything. So technically, it is still him creating the music."

Chris held up a finger, but paused before saying anything. He pulled a copy of the contract from his back pocket and gave it a quick scan. Eventually he face palmed, Chef chuckling in the pilot's seat next to him.

"Guess they've got you there, eh McLean?"

The host glared and pouted, crossing his arms in annoyance. "Fine, whatever, I'll allow it.

*** Confessional: B ***

B spun the device on his finger, using his other hand to flash the camera a finger pistol.

*** In Antarctica ***

"So, what, now the big guy can actually talk to us from now on?" Anne Maria asked, reaching to touch B's invention only for the silent genius to tuck it back into his jacket pocket.

"I'm afraid not," Dawn answered. "From what I understand, it's not the most durable piece of technology since it was made from spare junk in the Jumbo Jet. B only intends to use it for the required singing so as to not risk it malfunctioning when he needs it."

"Smart thinking." Staci leaned forward, earning an annoyed look from some teammates. "It reminds me about the time my great great great great uncle Gonzalo invented the speaker. Yah, before him-"

"Not to interrupt or anything," Scott said from the driver seat, looking around. "But uh, is it me or are the other two teams nowhere to be seen?"

Sure enough, the former villain's observation was spot on. From what they could see, there was no sign of the other two teams. Just ice, ice, and more ice as far as the eye could see.

"Weird." Dakota looked behind them, still seeing no other signs of life. "Wonder where everyone went."

As it turned out, the other teams were making the same realization. Or as one such contestant so eloquently put it...

"Where in the Sam Hill did them other buncha losers run off too?" Sugar scanned the frozen tundra, wondering how they had so quickly been separated from the others when they were just all neck and neck. Her teammates were all just gathering their bearings, while Beardo provided the sound of a steam locomotive as their snowmobile powered along.

"I guess we all got separated during that song," Shawn observed, peeking over their ride to make sure it hadn't sustained any damage. "We were all so distracted we just didn't notice that we got split up."

"Chris must have used the dynamite to herd us away from each other," Jasmine added. "Like we said, it would have been boring if we were neck and neck the whole race so they needed to get us away somehow."

Dave peered down at the GPS, frowning as he read the directions. "Yeah, we definitely got sent off course quite a bit. If we want to get to the South Pole as fast as possible we're going to have to go through some pretty rough terrain."

Raising an eyebrow at that comment, Amy smirked and hugged Rodney around the neck. "You'll hold on to me in case things get too bumpy, right Rodney?" she asked in a whisper. The lumbering farm boy babbled his usual gibberish in response. Sugar couldn't help but notice the display, chuckling to herself.

*** Confessional: Sugar ***

"Heh, that Amy's a willy one. She's playing ol' Rodney like he's uncle Billy Bob's banjo." She rubbed her chin in thought. "Maybe it wouldn't be a half bad idea to team up with her later. Too many goodie two shoes on our team, may be good fur the both of us if we stuck together."

*** In Antarctica ***

Meanwhile with Team Old School, Harold looked on at the GPS in annoyance. "GOSH, we're way off course now."

"Relax, sugar, if we're off course that means the other teams are too," Leshawna pointed out, wincing when they drove over a bumpy bit of ice. "We all knew Chris wasn't gonna let this be too easy. Just keep your eye on the GPS, we'll get there."

The nerd nodded at his crush, pointing out the direction for Courtney to continue down. Meanwhile, Izzy dangerously balanced her cattle prod on the tip of her finger, getting a worried look from DJ in the process.

"Izzy, you gotta be careful with that thing," the brickhouse pleaded. "You're gonna get one of us hurt."

"No worries, big guy. Izzy always has everything under control." As if on cue, right after saying as much Izzy fumbled her cattle prod, accidentally turning it on in the process and almost allowing it to come shocking down on Cody's head. Thankfully for the geek, she regained hold of it at the last moment and smiled. "See? No problemo!"

Cody and Trent exchanged an uncertain look, trying to keep the near electrocution out of mind. In front of them Beth had been looking back to observe the scene. When she turned around, she noticed another sign of life quickly approaching the snowmobile. A small adorable seal, spotted like a leopard.

"Aww, look at the little seal," Beth cooed, reaching her hand out to pet the animal as they drove by. However once they were close enough, the seal leaped at her hand, munching down with deceptively sharp teeth. Beth's yell of shock and pain distracted the others long enough for an entire platoon of seals to pop up out of seemingly nowhere, all launching themselves at Team Old School with teeth at the ready. There were varying degrees of distress being expressed by the team, with the exception of Izzy who found the spectacle fun.

"Why are these things so aggressive?" Trent asked, flailing his arm around like a madman to shake off the seal attached.

"Leopard seals are one of the fiercest predators in the continent," Harold explained, ducking in the nick of time to avoid a leaping seal, only for a second seal to latch itself to his head. "I guess these are what we're supposed to use the prods on?"

"We are NOT electrocuting a bunch of cute animals!" DJ was insistent, despite having three different seals attached to his arms. Since he had stood up to make this retort, a fourth seal took the opportunity to latch its teeth to his posterior, prompting the largest scream from the cast yet. To her credit, Courtney was doing the best she could to drive away from the madness, trying to ignore the pain from the two seals biting down on her.

"Hopefully this at least means the other teams are having a hard time with the wildlife too," Cody suggested hopefully, notably covering his crotch for protection as more seals zeroed in on them.

A cut back to Team Radioactive proved that indeed they were having animal troubles of our own. Though in their case rather than seals, they were dealing with being at a full stop while a seemingly endless horde of penguins waddled across the ice in front of them.

"Where is the dang horn on this thing?" Scott asked, pushing down on the wheel in vain despite it producing no sound. "Come on, let's move it along already!"

"Have patience," Dawn suggested, gently stroking the head of a penguin before it walked off happily. "These beautiful creatures are merely trying to reach their destination together. If we disturb them with yelling and honking that would only make them take longer."

Anne Maria tapped her fingers along the side of the snowmobile, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, well patience ain't exactly what we got when we're in the middle of a race. Yo, Dakota? Think you could turn all huge and just carry us over the penguins?"

Dakota sheepishly looked away. "Well I'm not really angry right now, so I wouldn't be able to turn into Dakotazoid. But even still, I get kinda out of control when I turn into it, I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt one of the penguins in the process."

Lightning suddenly seemed to be hit with inspiration, jumping from out of his seat. "Sha-forget that noise anyway, Lightning can carry this thing himself. Everybody out and let Lightning do his stuff."

Since there was nothing else they could really do anyway, his teammates went along with it and got off. Lightning rubbed his hands together, reached down, grabbed the snowmobile... then proceeded to huff as he merely lifted one wheel of the device a bit off the ice. He strained as he did his best to get the job done, but he clearly couldn't fully lift the large vehicle on his own.

Eventually, Brick decided to jump into the fray. Getting on the side opposite of Lightning, he lifted at the same time, causing the back half of the vehicle to be lifted successfully. Lightning seemed conflicted, both annoyed and glad to see it up. "Hmph, that only worked because Lightning loosened it up for you."

Brick merely grinned, looking over at his teammates. "A few more hands on deck and we should be able to do this, come on soldiers!"

Scott sighed, but played along by taking a spot at the front of the snowmobile. Anne Maria stood on the opposite side, and with their combined lifting the full vehicle was off the ground. Dakota and B also stepped in to give the lift some extra muscle, making it easier on everyone. Meanwhile Dawn worked to make sure the penguins were waddling around their path, that way none of them were in danger of being hurt. Staci tried her best to assist Dawn, though she didn't really do anything while the moonchild did all the work clearing the critters.

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"Sha-for the record, Lightning could have carried that hunk of metal himself easy. He just couldn't get a good grip out there because the cold made it all slippery. That's all." He folded his arms and puffed out his chest defiantly, fully convincing himself that what he was saying was true.

*** Somewhere in Antarctica ***

Like the other teams, Team Explosive was having their share of animal problems. In this case, a flock of black-browed albatross had taken to flying around their heads, pecking at their faces. Shawn was eventually able to make them disperse, waving his jacket around at them with calls of "Shoo, shoo," until they finally left.

"You'd think the wildlife wouldn't be so aggressive here," the zombie nut noted, putting his jacket back on and getting a tight embrace from his girlfriend to warm him back up. "Birds like that usually stay near the water where their prey is."

"If I had to guess Chris probably has a hand in making them more feisty," Jasmine suggested. "Or maybe they're mechanical like the ones from back at Pahkitew?"

"Robot or not, they're disgusting," Dave complained from his seat, trying to focus on the GPS' rerouted directions to take his mind off the gross birds. "Now lets see, if we keep right that should eventually get us back on path and it'll be a straight shot to the-" He paused, as a new symbol popped up on the GPS. A red circle showing a monstrous face within. "What the heck?"

"Something wrong?" Sammy asked curiously.

"Some weird symbol just popped up on the GPS. No idea what it means, though."

Immediately on cue to answer the confusion, a loud roar echoed from over the horizon. With a glance down at the device, Dave could confirm that the direction the sound had come from was the same direction as the symbol.

"Right, so, we're gonna want to avoid whatever that is," the germaphobe said in a panicked tone. "Go left."

Sammy nodded and quickly changed directions. But soon after she did so, a new roar echoed from nearby, this one towards the new direction. Many looked over Dave's shoulder as another one of the monster symbols popped up on the GPS... and then another one. And another one. Soon, they were practically surrounded by the symbols, and a chorus and terrible noises circled around Team Explosive.

"That can't be good," Rodney said to voice the obvious as the team looked around in concern and fear.

Elsewhere, Anne Maria raised an eyebrow and looked back. Her team had since successfully carried their snowmobile past the horde of penguins and were back on track to driving to their destination. However, the distant sound of a roar concerned her. "Hey, did any of you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Dakota asked, though before the Jersey girl could answer they were interrupted by the team's navigator.

"That's strange, something on the GPS just popped up." Dawn's observation got her team's attention, the driver included.

"Wadda ya mean popped up?" Scott asked curiously. "This something I should be avoiding?"

One of the loud monstrous roars echoed from ahead, startling most of Team Radioactive. Brick in particular shook like a leaf as he peered from behind the seat in front of him cautiously.

"I'm gonna say that's a yes." The cadet peered over at Dawn. "What's the best way for us to go to avoid that thing?"

Suddenly a white furry paw came crashing down on the snowmobile, stopping it dead in its tracks. Multiple figures then quickly surrounded the vehicle. The GPS was now beeping rapidly to signify the snowmobile was surrounded, though it was obviously too late.

One of the beasts roared, finally giving a good look at them. They were big ape like creatures, bearing a striking resemblance to Sasquatchanakwa. Though they had white fur rather than the usual purple. When the camera pulled back it showed that this particular beast wasn't roaring at Team Explosive, but instead Team Old School who were all screaming in fear. Courtney did her best to maneuver around the imposing beast, but more of them seemed to be popping up left and right.

"Man, those yetis sure are angry," Chris said from the safety of the helicopter while observing the carnage below. "Wouldn't want to be those kids right now."

"Aren't those things just pissed because you imported them from their home in Siberia?" Chef shot back while piloting the helicopter, not seeing the annoyed glare Chris gave in response. "And why are there so dang many of them anyway?"

The host shrugged innocently. "What can I say, things must get boring when you live in an icy wasteland. Guess they have the rabbit mentality of what to do to pass the time."

Back with Team Old School, it was becoming harder and harder to avoid the wrath of the yetis. For the time being, Courtney had given up trying to listen to any of Harold's directions since the current objective was simply to survive. Her driving proved competent, but they were up against a significant number.

As the rest of the team went through varying degrees of panic, baring Izzy who seemed to be living for this insanity, Cody was suddenly hit with a realization. "Ok, so THIS is definitely what those cattle prods are going to come in handy for." He glanced at DJ, who had just cowered away from the paw swipe of a yeti. "Do you have anything against us using them on these things too?"

"I mean, I'd definitely prefer NOT to," the brickhouse answered, yelping as another yeti roared as they drove by. "But I care more about us not dying right now, so I got no objections."

Since no one else on the team was opposed to using their part one advantage, everyone other than Courtney wielded their cattle prods and swung back at the aggressive beasts. Leshawna was the first to land a successful blow, shocking one of the yetis in the gut and making it keel over in the process. Trent landed a blow on another's leg, causing the furry beast to trip in pain. Beth very nearly hit one of the males in the groin, which was enough to make it guard itself and jump back from fear alone.

"It's working!" Trent grinned as he fended back yet another approaching yeti with a well placed bop on the head. "They can't touch us as long as we have these!"

No one seemed to be having more fun with their fight against the yetis than Izzy, who had been wailing her prod around like a madwoman. Seeing another one of the creatures approaching from her side of the snowmobile, she grinned and positioned her weapon like a baseball bat. "Izzy's going for style points on this one! Baaaaaatter up!"

Izzy swung with all her might as if she were going for a homerun and the yeti was a particularly large and furry ball. However, the beast thought quickly and ducked out of the way midswing. Then in what felt like the blink of an eye it chomped down on the shaft of the prod, breaking it into pieces.

*** Confessional: Izzy ***

"Alright, did NOT see that one coming," she said with a rare somewhat serious and surprised look. This then quickly reverted back to her usual smiling self. "Maybe I should have gone for something like a golf swing instead? Oh, no no, I could have used it like a cricket bat! Next time, Izzy, next time."

*** Somewhere in Antarctica ***

The remaining members of Team Old School were taken by surprise seeing Izzy's cattle prod be demolished like it was nothing. Unfortunately for them, the quick distraction was all the other yetis needed to make their move. One by one, they all targeted the other member's weapons. Some merely had to yank it from their hand, like with Harold and Beth. Others also resorted to the biting the shaft tactic for those with a tighter grip like Leshawna. Once it was said and done, all seven of the non drivers had lost their cattle prods one way or another.

"Ok, so uh... now what?" Cody asked when he was the last to have his prod disposed of.

All eyes turned to Courtney, who looked back and steeled herself. "We get the heck out of here as quick as possible."

With another rev of the snowmobile, Courtney kept as focused as she could while continuing to swerve around the aggressive yetis. Their line of defense was gone, but they seemed to be leaving the area where the yetis were running rampant. The same couldn't be said for Team Explosive, who were having a hell of a time trying to avoid the yeti onslaught. Being a less experienced driver than someone like Courtney, Sammy wasn't maneuvering the vehicle with as much calm finesse. Her steering made the others sway wildly from side to side, and the navigator wasn't much help since Dave had essentially turned into a cowering ball of panic that was guarding his face with one hand and keeping himself from falling out of the vehicle with the other.

Beardo had taken to providing a panicked mayday alarm sound effect, while Amy glared at her sister from the back. "Sparemey, are you TRYING to get us killed? I always knew you were a bad driver, but this really takes the cake."

"This is SO not the time for this, Amy," her twin spat back, keeping her eyes on the lack of road and trying her best to keep composed. Which is to say, she wasn't very composed at all.

Meanwhile, Shawn and Jasmine had taken it upon themselves to do their best to protect the snowmobile. Jasmine's long limbs made it possible to push and shove the beasts out of the way from a somewhat safe distance, while Shawn was using more unconventional means like tossing sand he had in one pocket for some reason right into a yeti's eyes. They were fending them off well enough, but between the erratic driving and the yeti's sizable numbers, it was clear that they'd eventually be overwhelmed.

"Darn it, if only we had won those cattle prods," the zombie nut lamented, chopping one of the yetis in the neck at the last minute before it came chomping down on Rodney. "We gotta find a way to get them off our tail for good."

Rubbing her chin in thought, Sugar was suddenly hit with an idea. "I might be able to cook up enough gas to get them varmints away from us polecat style!" She jutted her butt towards the oncoming yetis to prove her point, though for now she held her fire.

"Ew, and knock all of us out in the process?" Dave looked back in sheer disgust. "No way!"

"Actually, it's not the worst idea," Jasmine admitted, though the look on her face made it seem that she didn't enjoy saying as much. "If it works for skunks, it may just be the way to get these things off our tail."

"You're actually humoring this?"

While a debate began breaking out over the validity of Sugar's fart plan, another contestant took notice of the now more rapidly approaching yetis. With people distracted by the argument, they were going to close in fast. Action had to be taken, even if they were scared. Taking a deep breath, they ducked down and covered their mouth.

Suddenly, a loud and horrific screech echoed around the group. The yetis screeched to a halt, looking around in confusion at the sound. When it happened again, it was more identifiable to the others as the sound Godzilla's roar made. Though to the yetis it actually sounded like some other large predator was approaching from out of nowhere. This was made even more realistic when what sounded like giant footsteps echoed around them, mixed with the roars. Looking panicked, one last roar sent the yetis running as far away from the noises as they could get.

When it was all said and done, the yetis were cleared out, and Team Explosive looked on at Beardo who had only just stopped the noises once the coast was clear.

"Whoa..." Rodney whispered, surprise in his tone visible.

"Dude." Shawn grinned, patting Beardo on the back. "That was awesome!"

"Way to think on your feet, mate," Jasmine agreed with a nod. "That really got us out of a jam there."

The team all murmured agreeing sentiments, even Sugar despite her being disappointed that her unique method was no longer needed. Beardo, meanwhile, went from looking nervous at how his team would react to shock at the praise.

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

"I... actually contributed," he whispered in his first non singing line of the season, looking at the camera with that same shocked expression. That shock quickly turned to glee as he pumped his arm and made a cha ching cash register sound effect for emphasis. "Heck yeah! First step to turning things around for me this season. Next step... actually having a conversation with one of these guys without the sound effects."

*** Somewhere in Antarctica ***

Team Radioactive were giving a mix of screams and cries as the yeti horde honed in on them. Everyone was doing the best they could to break through, be it through muscle like with Lightning, or be it spraying them in the eyes with hairspray like Anne Maria. However, the efforts weren't enough, and Scott wasn't able to budge the snowmobile since the mass of hair and teeth had effectively brought them to a halt.

"Can't you talk to these things or something?" Scott asked desperately, looking over at Dawn with wide eyes. "These things count as animals, don't they?"

"I can try," the mystic responded, trying her best to stay calm in the increasingly frightening situation. "I sense that they're angry due to being forced far away from their home, so perhaps reasoning with them based on that will help."

One of the yetis was holding the front of the snowmobile, ensuring that the contestants could go nowhere. Dawn leaned forward, talking in a soothing tone. "Excuse me, Mr. Yeti? We're very sorry that awful man has taken you so far away from your home. I'm sure they'll have to return you all as soon as this challenge is over. If you could please let us go, we'll try to have it finished as soon as possible."

The creature titled his head, surprised by the girl's calming voice and pleasant smile. It seemed like it was beginning to smile in understanding... only to growl twice as loud in Dawn's face, shocking her back into her seat before it could bite her.

"It was a valiant effort, soldier," Brick offered, Dawn still reeling from the yeti not even flinching at her kindness. "Though that being said, looks like we're dead."

Indeed, the yetis had caused such a blockade that everyone had to bunch together to avoid being mauled.

"This is so unfair, I can't die yet." Staci sobbed as she hung to B's arm from desperate fear. "I was going to become a cook, just like my great great great great-"

As B's expression turned from one worried about the yetis to one annoyed at Staci, Lightning's hand covered the liar's mouth. "The Lightning is NOT in the mood to hear chatty girls blabbing right now."

Seemingly in slow motion, one of the yetis began reaching for Anne Maria. Dakota watched next to her, shaking from the panic. Was this really it? It would all end by being mauled to death on some stupid TV show in the middle of Antarctica? But then she realized something. If she ended up mauled, how sad would her daddy be? The rest of her family? How sad would Sam be? And it would all be Chris' fault too. Thinking this over, her fear turned to annoyance. And the annoyance turned to anger. And with the anger began a transformation.

"You... guys... need... to... back... OFF!"

Suddenly, the dogpile of yetis was sent scattering away, many being knocked a good distance and suffering from unfortunate landing positions. When the pile was cleared, out emerged a new hulking figure. Dakota had increased in size significantly, and spikes jutted out from her shoulders and elbows. Her skin turned into a dark orange while her hair became a radioactive waste-like green. Heck, even a tail had sprouted. She had gone full Dakotazoid, though her jumpsuit lived up to its purpose and still fit her perfectly with no rips.

The yetis were understandably dumbfounded at the sudden emergence of a new foe. Unfortunately for them, Dakotazoid wasn't waiting around for them to better understand. She grabbed the nearest beast by the feet and tossed him into a group of others, knocking them down like bowling pins. She punched, kicked, slashed, and threw her way out of the chaos, until eventually a single cowering yeti was left standing. Desperately inching away as Dakotazoid approached, he flinched when she got in his face, but opened an eye when nothing happened.

"Boo." The mutant grinned as the final yeti screamed and ran away in fear. Team Radioactive erupted into cheers and praises for Dakotazoid saving the day. The overwhelming positivity was enough to bring Dakota out of her angry state and shrink back down to normal size.

Eventually she had reverted to the relatively normal state she entered the season as, with Anne Maria being the first to congratulate her. "Dang, you really showed those fuzzballs what's what."

"Oh it was nothing," Dakota replied, blushing at the praise. "I'm kind of embarrassed you guys had to see me become Dakotazoid so seen, honestly."

"Nothing to be ashamed of, we'd have been yeti food without your help." Brick saluted his teammate. "I'm sure we all appreciate the assistance."

As it turned out, Dawn was the only team member that didn't seem entirely stoked by what had happened. She glanced over at Scott, who had been caught up on the commending Dakota train. "Shouldn't we be getting back to driving?"

Scott shook himself back into the game and fired up the snowmobile once again.

*** Confessional: Dawn ***

"I don't entirely agree with Dakota's methods of getting us to safety. Of course, we did need out of the situation, but did she have to be so violent towards those creatures? Then again, one of them nearly bit my head off so I suppose it couldn't be helped."

*** N ear the South Pole ***

Team Radioactive continued their pursuit to the end, Dawn doing her best to guide Scott on the fastest route. Soon they found themselves going up a particularly tall ice cap, where the South Pole was supposed to be on the other side. The farmer was grinning in determination as he drove, only to have his concentration broke when he heard a certain voice.

"Oh great, what are THEY doing here too?"

Scott looked to his left to see the voice's source. Courtney, driving the snowmobile for her own team, now neck and neck with them.

"Looks like somehow we've all met back up again."

Both teams looked to the right, the new voice coming from Sammy who now had Team Explosive's snowmobile neck and neck with the others as well. All three teams reached the top of the ice cap, and below they could see Chris standing next to a metal pole. A sign behind it even listed "Geographic South Pole," to confirm this was their finish line. On both sides of the pole were a marker where one of their team flags could be planted.

"Wow, hey, all three teams are in the final stretch at the same time! What are the odds?" Chris laughed, his voice being heard by everyone thanks to his megaphone. "This should be easy enough, first two team flags that get planted next to the South Pole means those teams are safe. The team that comes up short is sending someone packing. First team to do it gets first class, so lets see some hustle, people!"

The three teams all looked from the competition to the pole. It was anyone's game now, with no time to lose. Revving up his snowmobile, Scott took the early lead with Courtney and Sammy hot on his tail.

"Ha, see you guys at the finish line!"

Unfortunately for Scott, his taunting would be his undoing. Courtney grit her teeth, now aiming for Team Radioactive's snowmobile rather than the straight shot to the end. She rammed into the back of their vehicle, shocking the enemy team.

"Sha-watch where you're driving!" Lightning shook a fist at Team Old School, only for Courtney to ram into them again. She eventually found herself next to Team Radioactive, and proceeded to swerve into them, sending them both off course.

"What in tarnation are they doing?" Sugar asked, puzzled as Team Explosive looked on at the other two teams going away from the path to the pole.

"Whatever it is, it's good news for us," Shawn answered, pointing ahead to the south pole. "Everyone lean forward!"

The team did as he had instructed. Since they had some of the heaviest members of the cast on the team, it helped propel them forward all the more quick. Thanks to the other two teams being distracted, they reached the bottom of the ice cap and made it to the south pole with relative ease. They all jumped off the snowmobile, and Rodney retrieved their team flag from the back. He planted Team Explosive's flag proudly into one of the markers, getting cheers from everyone.

"And Team Explosive cruises into a win," Chris announced, cheers continuing among the victors. Beardo even did a perfect recreation of the Final Fantasy victory jingle once he realized he wouldn't be first one out again. "Congrats, guys, first class is yours."

Meanwhile, Teams Old School and Radioactive were still swerving wildly all over the place, with Scott and Courtney butting heads as neither was able to get away from the other. The rest of their teams all looked on with wide eyes, unable to do much to stop the scuffle.

"Team Explosive won the challenge, guys," Chris announced via megaphone, getting everyone's attention. "Now it's a race for not last!"

Courtney had finally been shaken from her rage at the announcement. Grunting in frustration, she glared over at Scott. "We are NOT losing to him!"

Then it hit her. Looking down next to her, she saw something she had forgot about. Her cattle prod. Since she was driving, she didn't use hers during the yeti attacks. Everyone else had their's destroyed, but her's was still intact. With one hand on the wheel, she grabbed it with the other and grinned devilishly.

"Lean back, Harold," she warned. "I'm going to get us to safety."

A bit confused, Harold looked over at the other team, then at Courtney's cattle prod. He went wide eyed, gasping in realization. "You're not really going to use that on him, are you?"

"I said lean back!" Momentarily letting go of the wheel, Courtney used one arm to push Harold back into his seat. Then with the other, she used pinpoint precision to jab Scott in the side with her cattle prod. As expected, the sudden jolt of electricity caused the dirt farmer pain and made him wildly spin out his team's snowmobile. Courtney's teammates were shocked, but there wasn't any arguing to be done as she was finally able to let them pull ahead.

Eventually they made it to the south pole, with DJ doing the honors of planting their flag in the other marker. Chris blew his air horn, signaling the end of the challenge. "And with that, Team Old School secures their safety. No first class, but they won't be sending someone home today. Unfortunately for Team Radioactive, the same can't be said for them."

Nearby, Team Radioactive groaned. Both from the loss, but also recovering from the dizziness caused by the spin out. Scott in particularly was looking rough after suffering the blow from the cattle prod.

*** Confessional: Courtney ***

The former CIT looked on at the camera, with what looked like remorse in her eyes. "Do I feel bad for being the one to cost Scott and his team the win, probably sending him packing in the process?" There was a short pause, only for the seemingly remorseful look to turn into one of indifference. She shrugged innocently. "Eh, not really."

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

The teams had finally returned to the less chilly climate of the jet. Team Old School took their place in economy class, regrouping after avoiding elimination but also failing to win. Much of Team Explosive went straight for their well earned first class experience, though Shawn, Jasmine, and Sammy chose to do one of Shawn's zombie checks in the cargo area. Had they not lost Dawn, B, and Brick would have joined them, but for now everyone on Team Radioactive had gathered in the dining area. Unsurprisingly, a lot of nasty looks were being sent Scott's way.

"Ok, I know what happened out there looked bad, but it wasn't my fault!" Scott pleaded with his teammates, knowing fully well he was being sized up for the chopping block. "Courtney was the one who started that, I had nothing to do with it!"

"Maybe she wouldn't had done it if you hadn't opened your yap and gloated," Anne Maria pointed out, glaring at the devious former villain.

"And even if you couldn't help it, if that's how Courtney is going to keep reacting with you around it makes you a liability," Dakota added, arms crossed. "It's not like we can really trust you after season 4 anyway."

"That was years ago," Scott yelled, flabbergasted. "I've changed! Did I not help us almost win part 1? Didn't I do a perfectly fine job driving us to the end before Courtney went crazy on us?"

"And just who do you think should go home if it ain't you, hm?" Anne Maria challenged, eyebrow raised. It was then that a gurgle was heard from Staci's stomach. She blushed and smiled innocently.

"Whoops, I'll be right back!" She ran off, heading for the toilet. "When I get back I'll let you know about my great great aunt Harper that invented the toilet!"

Once the compulsive liar had left the room and was out of earshot, Scott motioned his arms the way she had went. "Well, her. She didn't do anything to help today and hasn't really done anything but annoy us with her lies. Unlike me, she really HASN'T changed since our first season.

Dakota rolled her eyes, beginning to storm off. "Convenient that you waited to throw her under the bus AFTER she left the room. Somehow I doubt that you've really changed at all."

Anne Maria followed after her, a similar disgusted expression in her eyes. The others began to follow before Scott ran in front and stopped them.

"Come on guys, have a heart!" He looked at all of them pleadingly, cupping his hands in a begging motion. "Do you not believe in second chances and junk? I busted my butt out there to be a 'team player' today, the least you guys could do is give me a chance."

Dawn and B exchanged a look of uncertainty. Brick rubbed the back of his head, looking on awkwardly in thought. Lightning just crossed his arms, unimpressed with the whole thing. Eventually an announcement came from over the intercom, courtesy of Chris.

"Voting time, Team Radioactive! Make your way to the confessional one at a time and stamp the passport of who you want gone, then report to the elimination area. Time for our first elimination of the season!"

*** In the Elimination Area ***

The eight members of Team Radioactive shuffled into the bleachers of the elimination area. Chris stood at his podium, holding a plate of seven peanut filled barf bags. Chef stood nearby, holding a parachute that would inevitably go to the loser.

"The results of the vote are in," Chris declared, holding up the eight stamped passports while not yet revealing their results within. "When I call you name, you're safe and you get a nice barfy symbol of immunity." He held up one of the barf bags to prove the point. "So with that all said, the first one safe is Dakota since she pretty much saved you all from being maimed."

Dakota smiled, gladly catching her barf bag of immunity.

"Lightning and Brick, you guys are obviously safe since your muscle came in handy. Dawn is safe since her animal talking helped out with some penguins."

The three all caught their respective bags with varying degrees of gratitude and confidence.

"B's ingenuity against the singing handicap nets him safety. Aaaand, Anne Maria did some useful things with that hair spray, so she's in the clear," Chris finished, tossing the penultimate barf bags to the silent genius and Jersey girl. He merely accepted it with a glad nod, while she had a smug smirk while glancing down at Scott. Scott was wide eyed and shaking, not confident in his chances of stay. Staci didn't look much better since she was well aware this was her fate the last time she had played the game.

"Scott, you're here because your team doesn't know if they can trust you. Also your baggage with Courtney is already starting to bite you in the butt." The host chuckled, relishing in the farmer's distress. "Staci, you're here because you're still as annoying and chatty as you were last time."

The bottom two exchanged nervous looks, then stared on at the final peanut filled barf bag in Chris' hand.

"Only one of you gets to stay for a second chance, and that person is...

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... Scott!"

At first Scott gasped, not reacting as the peanut bag hit him in the face and fell to the floor. But after the realization hit, he took a big sigh of relief, wiping the sweat away from his forehead. Anne Maria and Dakota looked especially annoyed at the outcome, while Staci just frowned in disappointment.

"Aw man, first one out again?" Staci hung her head in shame, accepting the parachute as Chef pushed it into her arms. "Well, guess it's the drop of shame for me."

"Kinda, but not quite." Chris grinned, leading Staci over to the now open hatch. "It's a new season after all, we have to shake up the elimination method somehow!"

"How do you shake up falling out of a-" Staci was cut off as an over-sized boot came swinging down from the ceiling, hitting her straight in the face. The blow hit her out of the hatch, sending her outside as her scream echoed.

"Glad you asked! We call it the Boot of Shame, ya never know when it'll kick you out once you're eliminated, ya just know it's coming." Chris looked back at the remaining members of Team Radioactive, all of whom seemed less than impressed. "What? There's only so much you can do to shake up being pushed out of a plane. Now get outta here before one of you join Staci."

As the team filed out, outside of the plane Staci clung to the wing in an all too familiar sight despite having her parachute on. "I changed my mind, I don't wanna go home yet! I gotta stay in the game, otherwise it would disappoint my great great-"

Once again Staci was interrupted when the wing of the plane momentarily became electrified. The sudden shock made her release her grip, causing her to plummet to the ground below. Chris watched this all from the plane, smiling as he watched Staci fall.

"Yeah, we are NOT having another Ezekiel situation this season. We came prepared this time." He laughed in satisfaction, giving the camera his trademark grin. "And with that, we have our first elimination! Can Scott win the trust of his teammates? Can him and Courtney sort out this dirty laundry of their's? Will Shawn ever actually find a zombie in the cargo hold? And who will be the next to taste the Boot of Shame? At least one of these questions answered right here, next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

Anne Maria stamped Scott's passport with no hesitation. "Is chatterbox kind of annoying? Yeah, but she ain't no sleazeball like Scotty boy. I can't trust that guy as far as I can throw him, so he can take a hike for all I care.

B hovered his stamp right above Scott's passport. He grit his teeth, his arm shaking as he nearly made the vote. Eventually he sighed, turning to instead stamp Staci's passport. He then held up Scott's passport and used two fingers to point to his eyes then the camera in an 'I'm watching you' motion.

"I've always been a strong believer in second chances, and if I'm being honest Scott was a stand up teammate in this challenge. If he really has turned over a new leaf, then I support him entirely." Brick stamped Staci's passport. "Sorry soldier, it's nothing personal."

Dakota frowned as she stamped Scott's passport. "They should have brought back Sam instead of you. I'm not going to let myself get angry over it, since that would be kinda bad for the plane, but seriously. Who asked for more Scott?"

"I'm just as surprised as anyone that I'm actually saying this, but... I do want to give Scott a chance to prove he's redeemed himself. I sense a genuine change in his aura from the last time we met. Granted, there's still plenty of negative aspects to it that I sense, but the change is definitely there." Dawn stamped Staci's passport without even looking at it. "I sense nothing but pain for Staci if she were to stay in the game, so this is for the best anyway."

Lightning tossed the stamp in the air and caught it in a cool gesture. "Lightning don't care about all this 'another chance' crap, he just cares who's a better teammate. Smelly boy did just fine today, blabby girl did nothing." He stamped Staci's passport a few times. "Some of these chumps are mad that Scott eliminated them back in season 4, but you know who he didn't eliminate? Sha-Lightning!"

"Look, this isn't anything personal or something like that, eliminating Staci is just my best bet for staying in the game." Scott stamped Staci's passport. "Let's just hope these guys aren't THAT serious about holding a grudge. Like seriously, that season was ages ago, haven't I paid for it enough already?"

"I don't really like Scott and Anne Maria told me we needed to vote him out so I'm all for it." Staci stamped Scott's passport happily, then looked over the stamp curiously. "Oh, did you know the inventor of the stamp was actually my great great great great uncle Duane? Yah, before him people had nothing nice to put on their letters, it was so sad."

Votes for Staci: 5 (B, Brick, Dawn, Lightning, Scott)

Votes for Scott: 3 (Anne Maria, Dakota, Staci)

After the Boot of Shame:

Staci struggle to make sure her parachute was safely secured, but eventually pulled it off. Somehow there was a camera following her as she made her descent, and she wasted no time deploying the parachute to ensure that she wouldn't splat on to the Antarctic ice below.

"I can't believe I'm the first one out again! I thought I was gonna go all the way to the end this time." Looking up at her parachute, she sighed. "Maybe I should have been more ambitious like my great great great second cousin Francois. He invented the parachute, you know. Before him if someone fell out of an airplane they would just hit the ground and die. Yah, he was pretty important."

Staci eventually made it to the ground... right in the middle of one of the yeti packs. All of the beasts turned their heads to her, growling and showing their teeth as they recognized her from the group that had that mutant who beat them up.

"U-um, would you nice yetis like to hear some stories about my ancestors?" She chuckled nervously, turning into a scream when the yetis pounced towards her before the camera shut off.

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Harold, Izzy, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dakota, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Rodney, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar

Elimination Order:

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris introduced, standing in the Jumbo Jet's elimination area. "Our three teams competed in their first challenge, going head to head to head in a race to the south pole. They had a bumpy ride along the way, dealing with dynamite, leopard seals, and an angry pack of yetis. In the final stretch of the race Courtney and Scott began to butt heads, giving Team Explosive an easy pass to win the challenge. Courtney gave Scott a cattle prod to the side, securing safety for her team in the process. Things looked bleak for the farmer with his team up for elimination, but he was able to convince enough people to give him a second chance. And so it was Staci that once again became the first one eliminated. Can Team Radioactive bounce back from their loss? Where will the Jumbo Jet be taking these losers next? And who will be the next to get literally kicked off the plane? All that and more, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Opening Credits ***

Business picked up immediately where it left off following Staci's elimination. Team Radioactive was piling out of the elimination ceremony, Anne Maria and Dakota at the front still looking annoyed at the vote result. Scott trailed behind at the back of the line behind Dawn and B. He stared on awkwardly, still feeling a mix of shock and relief at staying. He had a feeling Brick would be convinced by his pleading to stay, and figured Lightning wanted Staci out anyway, but since there was no tie Dawn and B both had to have voted to keep him. And honestly, he hadn't been confident that it would happen.

"Hey, uh, you two." Scott finally said, getting the mystic and silent genius to stop for a moment. "I just wanted to say..." He stopped, clearing his throat. The farmer took a few attempts at trying to speak but struggled, almost as if what he was trying to say was painful and difficult. Dawn and B watched him curiously, with Scott's stuttering eventually turning to hacking and coughing. Finally he punched himself in the gut which seemed to do the trick. "THANKS... for, you know, not voting me out and junk."

B narrowed his eyes, not sure if he should take that display as genuine or overacting. Dawn, meanwhile, smiled and nodded. "You're welcome. Though don't think this means we've forgotten how you were back on Revenge of the Island. B took a lot of convincing to give you another chance, so I would hope you don't make us regret it."

After a nod in agreement, B did the 'I'm watching you' finger sign to Scott. He chuckled nervously in response.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Eventually the trio made it to economy class where the rest of their team were already lingering around. Team Old School were also there, and a friendly conversation had broken out among the group of Harold, Leshawna, Trent, and Cody. Izzy was giggling to herself, looking through the overhead cargo area while everyone else just sat around. When Brick noticed his teammates arrive, he jogged up to them.

"There you guys are! Now that the ceremony is over I'm gonna head on over to the cargo to help out those Team Explosive guys with their zombie search. Gotta hold up our end of the deal, after all. See you guys there." With his reminder said, Brick headed for the cargo, Scott looking perplexed as he left.

"Zombies?"

Dawn giggled, motioning for the former villain to follow them. "You know, if you want to prove that you really are all for helping us this season, perhaps you could join B and I with this. After all, the searches will be faster with the more people we have helping."

B nodded, walking off in the same way Brick had left. Dawn followed, and while he still looked confused about the situation, Scott shrugged and reluctantly joined them. As he left, he didn't notice as he passed Courtney. The former CIT glared, scoffing when he was gone.

"They actually kept him after he lost them the challenge? Guess that team is dumber than I thought." Rolling her eyes, she eyed the rest of the occupants. Lightning was doing pushups, while Dakota and Anne Maria chatted about fashion nearby. The other members of that team had left, though to where Courtney had no idea. It was after noticing the large group convo between the boys and Leshawna that got Courtney really thinking. She noticed DJ and Beth sitting nearby, so she scooted closer to them.

"Psst. DJ, Beth," Courtney whispered, getting the brickhouse and awkward girl's attention. "Can we talk? Like, more privately in the dinning room?"

DJ and Beth exchanged a look, both surprised and hesitant by the sudden request since they were well aware of Courtney's past on the show. But with nothing better to do and out of curiosity for what she wanted, they both nodded.

*** In the Cafeteria ***

"An alliance?!"

Beth gasped before being shushed by Courtney. The Type A personality glanced back to make sure no one had heard them.

"Keep it down, you don't want others to hear us," Courtney scolded.

"Courtney, we JUST got done with the first challenge," DJ shot back, arms crossed. "And you already want to start a big alliance out of the gate? I thought you didn't want us to think you were the same overly competitive girl that you became in your last few seasons?"

"Well of course I'm going to be competitive, a million bucks is on the line," Courtney pointed out, wincing when she noticed the annoyed glares that got her. "But that's not the point! I'm only suggesting an alliance now because it may be too late later."

"What do you mean?" Beth asked.

"Just think about it, the way our team is laid out puts us at a disadvantage." The Latina counted on her fingers as she listed off names. "Trent, Harold, and Cody. They're all in a big band together. They've spent more time with each other out of season than pretty much anyone else on the show that wasn't in a couple."

"Oh yeah, didn't the Drama Brothers get back together after All Stars ended?" DJ asked. "I think they even put out a new album last year."

"Ohmygosh yes!" Beth squeed, jumping up and down. "It was so good! Trent has this solo part on the first track that'll just melt your he-"

Annoyed, Courtney loudly cleared her throat to interrupt Beth's gushing. The farm girl smiled sheepishly in response. "Heh, you were saying?"

"My point, is having those three here together on a team is bad news for the rest of us," Courtney continued. "They might not be an official alliance but they may as well be since they'll definitely be talking and thus voting together. It gets even worse when you add Leshawna to the mix. Harold is going to be around her constantly, so it's highly likely she'll vote the same way as them. And if she does, that's half of the team right there."

DJ and Beth blinked in surprise, not having considered any of this. But thinking it over, Courtney raised a good point. The brickhouse whistled. "Dang, I never thought about it that way."

Hiding the smug satisfaction she felt at being proven right, Courtney continued. "So if we vote together and get Izzy in the mix, we should be able to even the odds. Best case scenario Leshawna doesn't vote with them and we'll ensure we're not overwhelmed by the numbers. Worst case scenario it goes to a tiebreaker and we at least have a fair shot at winning that."

The friendlier two pondered the proposal, not fully convinced but unable to deny the logic in Courtney's reasoning. Still, agreeing to an alliance this early was a risky move, and was it truly that much of a guarantee that the other half of the team would be voting together?

"Let us think on it for a bit," Beth suggested, DJ nodding in agreement. "After all, hopefully we won't even have to vote someone off for a while if we keep things up in challenges."

Courtney sighed, disappointed that there was no deal yet but accepting that her reputation probably played a part in to that. At least they didn't say no. "Fair enough. But please really do think it over. If one of us is the first one on the team out, the rest will just be sitting ducks to the Drama Brothers and Leshawna."

*** Cockpit Confessional: Beth ***

"As much as I hate to admit it, Courtney brought up some really good points," the farmer noted, Chef doing his pilot thing in the background. "Teaming up with her and DJ really might be the best plan. But while I have no problems with DJ, can you blame me for being hesitant toward Courtney? The last time I played was in Total Drama Action, and we weren't exactly buddies that season."

"No kidding," Chef added. "She probably got under your skin that season worse than Heather did!"

"And that's really saying something!" Beth huffed, crossing her arms. "She may have a point, but it's gonna take time for me to trust her."

*** In First Class ***

Dave sighed in satisfaction as he leaned back in his comfy chair. Nearby Beardo was at the bar, pouring a nice glass of sparkling apple juice and enjoying a slice of cake. Shawn, Jasmine, and Sammy however were nowhere to be seen as they were busy zombie checking the cargo area. By now they had been joined by members of Team Radioactive, having given a rundown to a still very confused and annoyed Scott. Finally, Sugar watched on in amusement as Rodney knelled next to Amy.

"Could you, like, make yourself useful and go get me something to drink," the mean twin commanded, looking Rodney in the eyes. The large farmer seemed too entranced and smitten to have even registered the insult.

"Yes ma'am!"

Once Rodney jogged off to grab Amy a drink, Sugar took the opportunity to approach the cheerleader. Not waiting for a response, Sugar slid by and plopped down into the seat next to her.

"Howdy!" The country girl flashed a toothy grin Amy's way, making her recoil in disgust.

"Can I help you?" Amy said, her voice dripping in condescending annoyance. "I'm trying to relax over here."

"I can see that." Sugar glanced back at Rodney, who was pouring a glass of tea for Amy while Beardo provided the sound of a gushing waterfall nearby to go with the pouring. "Big guy over there is already wrapped around yer finger, ain't he?"

Raising an eyebrow, Amy rolled her eyes and tried to keep it nonchalant. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Rodney is just being nice. He's not being manipulated at all!"

*** Confessional: Rodney ***

"I'm so excited to tell my brothers back home about my new girlfriend!" Rodney grinned proudly, his hulking frame making the already cramped bathroom all the more claustrophobic as his arms reached from wall to wall. "Of course, this means I'll have to dump my girlfriend who works at the gas station back home, we've been dating ever since pops sent me down there for some lighter fluid. Oh well, Amy is way hotter than she is so I'm sure she'll understand!"

*** In First Class ***

Sugar raised an eyebrow, chuckling at Amy's defense. "I didn't say nothin bout manipulating, but thems your words and not mine. Anyhow, I don't care if you're stringing along Rodney or not. Shoot, I think it's plum smart if anything."

"Oh." Amy blinked, not expecting such a compliment out of the country girl. She smirked. "Thanks. I guess it IS pretty clever, isn't it?"

"Sure enough! Actually, I came over here to see if we could strike up some sorta alliance. I know firsthand from last time what goodie two shoes Shawn and Jasmine can be, and they seem to have yer sister on their side. We cooler gals gotta stick together and make sure they don't pick us off, right?"

While Amy was a bit offended by Sugar considering herself and the mean twin to be on the same level of coolness, it was an interesting proposition. "Ugh, right? What is up with those weirdos even giving my dumb sister the time of day? If you want to work together to make sure they're dealt with, it sounds like a good deal to me."

Rodney finally returned with not only Amy's drink but also a slice of cake for her and another for himself. After placing her goodies on the flight tray in front of her, he took notice of the new guest. "Oh, hey Sugar."

"Rodney, ya think you could bring me back some o that cake?" Sugar batted her eyes and struck what she must have imagined was a sexy pose. "I sure would appreciate it."

The farm boy blinked, taking a seat on the other side of Amy. "Well, I mean, can't you get it? It's not that far away, and I wouldn't know how big of a piece you would want any-"

"Just go get it for her," Amy snapped, her gaze instantly taking Rodney back to his love struck obedient state. He shot up and began making his way back to the bar, mumbling gibrish along the way. The mean twin and farm girl exchanged a grin, leaning back in their chairs to further relax.

*** In the Cafeteria ***

A day had passed and it was now morning as everyone piled in for breakfast. The members of Team Explosive all looked well rested and in high spirits. The zombie search had, of course, brought no results. And the addition of Scott to the search made things a bit quicker. But while that team all seemed to be doing well, the same couldn't be said for most of the others. Many of them groaned and lurched over, trying their best to pop their backs into a comfortable position. A sickening crack was heard as Lighting was the first to successfully put his spine back into the proper alignment. Trent followed next, cringing before rubbing his sore back.

"Geez, I knew you guys had it rough sleeping in economy class back in World Tour but I never knew it was THAT bad."

Harold delivered a karate chop to his lower spine, making himself yelp. "You get used to it. Well, as used to it as you CAN get."

While everyone got to work on cracking their backs and rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, Chef began putting plates down in front of everyone. On the plates, alongside some mashed potatoes and rutabagas, was half of a sheep's stomach filled with a strange smelling brown pudding meat inside. The dish emitted a strong odor that prompted some retches and cringes throughout the group.

"Ew, what the heck are you serving us?" Anne Maria scooted the plate away, holding her nose in disgust. "That stuff ain't right."

"It's haggis," Cody observed, cautiously taking a bite from the strange pudding-like substance, easing up when it tasted surprisingly edible. "We had some of this the last time we toured the UK."

"Dude, do you remember how freaked out Justin looked when they brought his plate out?" Trent added, sharing a laugh with his two bandmates. "Oh man, I can't believe he didn't just puke then and there! Wonder if he's gotten any work done on that solo album while we're here?"

Courtney narrowed her eyes at the boys as the conversation unfolded, going unnoticed while she stomached down the Scottish meal. The others also began eating, and while some did still seem grossed out by the taste, and DJ and Dawn flat out refused to eat it, others seemed to be loving it. Shawn was making a steady pace on the meal, while Sugar shoveled it down like it was no one's business. The only one out pacing her was Lightning, who scarfed down the haggis like a machine.

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"Lightning ain't never heard of this haggis stuff, but he DOES know protein. I got like a sha-seventh sense to tell when something is high in protein, so all Lightning knows is that meal was good in his book!"

*** In the Cafeteria ***

While everyone finished their meals, for some meaning only the mashed potatoes and rutabagas, Chris finally strolled in to join them. Though instead of his usual attire, he had opted for a William Wallace looking getup. Complete with kilt, plaid sash, blue and white facepaint, and a new messy hairdo. He lifted up a fake sword and shield, while Chef stood nearby badly playing the bagpipe. Or perhaps he was playing it well, to the contestants it was a painful loud mess regardless. Most kept their fingers in their ears as they waited for the music to finish, finally stopping as Chris stood atop a table.

"Aye, laddies," the host barked in an offensively bad Scottish accent. "I bet ye can guess where we're going next on our trip!"

"Uh... Scotland?" Dave eventually said to voice the obvious.

"I- wait what?" Chris looked genuinely surprised, narrowing his eyes. "No! We're going to Ireland, isn't it obvious from the food and my new digs?"

"Everything about what you have going on here is Scottish, not Irish," Izzy pointed out, crossing her arms with an annoyed glare at the host. "Did you think they were the same thing or something?"

"... Nooooooo, of course not!" Chris smiled, backing up until he was next to Chef. He spoke from the side of his mouth in a whisper, still keeping the smile. "Do we have enough gas to make it to Scotland?"

"If we had took the short way, yeah we would," the cook grumbled back. "But since you insisted on the long way? Nah, we're still landing in Cork. We don't got the fuel to make it farther."

Chris sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "I knew we'd probably have another Athens and Rome situation this season, but I didn't think it was going to happen THIS soon. Oh well, Ireland it is!" He huffed off, arms folded. "Now I have to change into a whole different outfit, darn it!"

As the host and pilot left to tend to their respective duties, murmuring broke out among the groups concerning their upcoming destination. Izzy in particular looked ecstatic as she threw an arm around Harold.

"Coolio! Between me and Harold, we've got like a totally unbeatable home field advantage!" She pulled her fellow redhead close, flashing him a grin. "We'll have the luck o' the Irish on our side, eh McGrady?"

The dweeb nodded enthusiastically, giving the team a similar smile. "I was really hoping we'd be going through Ireland this season. My grandpa was even born in Cork, so this works out wicked for us!"

Having overheard the conversation from the next table over, Brick looked over at Scott curiously. "Say, Scott, you wouldn't happen to have some Irish blood in ya too, would ya?"

The dirt farmer scoffed, narrowing his eyes towards his teammate. "Not all redheads have Irish ancestors you know."

*** Confessional: Scott ***

"I mean, my great grandma WAS Irish, but still!"

*** Somewhere above Cork, Ireland ***

The plane eventually began making its descent into Ireland, flying above the city of Cork. After passing over various Georgian style buildings, from churches to a food market, the plane settled into the local airport. Contestants followed behind Chris, who was now clad in a green 'Kiss Me, I'm Irish,' shirt to go with his otherwise usual attire.

"Kinda surprised you didn't go with a leprechaun outfit, honestly," Jasmine mused as they were led to the town's center, her boyfriend chuckling. "Seems like it would be a very you thing to do."

"As it turns out, we DO have a leprechaun outfit," Chris replied, coming to a stop and allowing the others to gather around. "But we have another use for it right now, so this was the best I could do. On that note, time to explain today's challenge!"

Digging in his pockets, the host pulled out a gold coin. At least it looked genuine, but it was engraved with a picture of Chris' face on one side and a picture of the jumbo jet on the other. "Your goal today will actually involve stealing gold from a genuine leprechaun! Of course, there's more to it than that so here's the rundown. Getting the gold will require some extra luck, so first you'll be racing to Blarney Castle nearby. Your goal there will be kissing the infamous Blarney Stone at the top of the castle, bringing you good luck."

"Actually, kissing the Blarney Stone is just supposed to give you the gift of eloquence," Harold explained, raising a finger. "It doesn't bring good lu-"

"ONCE all of your teammates have kissed the stone," Chris loudly continued before the nerd could finish his correction. "You'll then be tasked with hunting down the pot of gold while avoiding the leprechaun's wrath. Be careful, those things get deadly when you mess with their gold!"

"Someone's been watching too many crummy horror movies," Sammy whispered, Beardo smirking in response and replicating the theme from Psycho as he mimed a knife being stabbed a few times.

"You'll continue until everyone on the team has collected a gold coin of their own, and they MUST retrieve their coin themselves without a teammate grabbing it for them." Chris gave a pointed look to Shawn and Jasmine, who both deflated a bit since they had already been making plans to get the task done for the entire team themselves. "Once everyone has their coin you'll return here to the city and make your way to Cork Harbor. All you have to do is deposit all the coins into your team's own pot of gold to win."

A shot cut to an area of the harbor where three pots floated in the water like buoys. There was a blue one with Old School's logo on the side, a green one with Radioactive's logo, and finally a red one with Explosive's logo. The water had them swaying from to side but they more or less stayed relatively stationary.

"That's not all. Because it can't be TOO easy on your kids, you'll have to deposit your coins using these." Chris motioned to his side where Chef approached the group holding a large amount of sticks. They resembled hockey sticks, though the end was more wide and circular. He tossed one of them to Shawn, who inspected it curiously. "They're called hurleys. Typically they're used in a local sport to hurl balls through goalposts, but you'll be using them to fling your coins into your pots. If you miss and a coin lands in the water, you'll have to swim out and retrieve it, then return to land and try again."

"These make for a pretty good melee weapon," Shawn complimented, wacking the stick into his hand a few times before taking a few practice swings. "I'm more of a cricket bat kinda guy, personally, but these would definitely get the job done."

Chris smirked while Chef finished handing out the hurling sticks to the rest of the cast. As he did this, a group of interns suddenly came from off screen hauling a cage that had a sheet covering it. The cage was sat down next to their employer, and the interns noticeably gave it some distance once they were done.

"Glad you approve! And on that note, I almost forgot to introduce our leprechaun for the day. Some of you may recognize him." Chuckling ominously, Chris yanked the sheet off the cage.

Inside was a boy, but he almost seemed more animal than man. His skin was a sickly green, with one ear partially chipped off and nails that seemed closer to claws than anything. He was nearly bald, save for a few long strands of brown, and his teeth were sharp and pointed. He growled as the sunlight blared down on him, and when Chris got close he lunged forward and tried in vain to swipe at his tormentor while making more animal-like noises.

"ZOMBIE!" Shawn jumped into action, protectively getting in front of Jasmine and holding up his hurley like a weapon. "I KNEW they were coming! Everybody stand back, I'll handle this."

"Whoa whoa, hold on Shawn, that's not a zombie!" Rodney quickly held the conspiracy theorist back before he was able to cave the monster boy's skull in. "Didn't you watch World Tour?"

"Ezekiel?" DJ finally said, leaning forward to closer inspect the feral prairie boy but keeping back just enough to stay out of his reach. "You're STILL exploiting the poor guy all these years later?"

"Technically I exploit all of you kids, not just him," Chris pointed out, not missing a beat. He tapped the top of the cage, getting a hate filled glare from the captive within. "But yup, it's Zeke! He'll be playing our leprechaun for the day."

Indeed, Ezekiel wasn't wearing his usual ragged hoodie and jeans. Instead he was completely clad in a stereotypical leprechaun outfit, complete with tiny green hat and polished shoes. He bit at the bars, trying to escape in some way to no avail.

"The kid's parents seemed to finally get basic cable down in that prairie of their's," Chef explained, arms folded. "They finally found out what happened to him back in World Tour and got around to suing the network, asking them to retrieve him and pay for his recovery."

"Usually the contracts are pretty air tight, but we didn't really account for contestants becoming feral in the contracts back then," Chris continued, his tone noticeably more spiteful as he glared down at the cage's occupant. "Letting us use Zeke for this challenge was one of the conditions to the producers agreeing to fix him up."

The others looked on in a mix of sympathy and surprise. Leshawna put her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow. "I'm surprised you agreed to that to begin with."

Chris shrugged. "I ain't the one who has to personally pay for the therapy, so it's no skin off my bones. But since the network is going to do that for him, that means Zeke is going to be a nice, cooperative little leprechaun, isn't that right?"

He narrowed his eyes expectantly at Ezekiel, who merely folded his arms and grumbled something ineligible that vaguely sounded like agreement.

"So that about covers it. Get to Blarney Castle, kiss the stone, steal some gold without Zeke maiming you, then make it back to the harbor to hurl in your coins. First team to get all their coins back wins first class, the last team to do it sends someone home. Any questions?" Chris looked over the cast, some of them shooting up a hand. "None? Cool, challenge starts in one minute."

He walked off, ignoring those who wanted to ask something. The interns returned to haul off Ezekiel to wherever he was needed, Shawn watching him nervously all the while.

*** Confessional: Shawn ***

"I'm trying to stay calm and tell myself it's just a feral guy. Not a zombie." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes in an attempt to further relax. "Sure he may growl like a zombie, and has green skin like a zombie, and tries to claw and bite like a zombie... but he's not a zombie! Totally not, just a regular old feral dude."

Shawn chuckled nervously, tapping his fingers along the counter. "No problemo."

*** In the middle of Cork ***

"Alright lads and laddies, may the luck of the Irish be with you." Chris blew his airhorn. "Begin!"

The teams were off, with the usual more athletic bunch consisting of Lightning, Shawn, and Jasmine more ahead than the others. Team Explosive and Radioactive used signs to make sure they were on the right direction, but having visited the castle before Harold and Izzy were able to steer their team with no directions needed.

"What's so special about a gosh darn rock, anyway? How's kissing it gonna help us?" Sugar asked, trailing at the end of her group.

"It probably won't, but at least it won't be as dangerous as getting the coins from Ezekiel," Sammy pointed out.

On cue, Izzy suddenly appeared next to the team, running with a wicked grin. "Fun fact, because the stone is embedded in a wall you have to lay on your back and lean over a hole to kiss it! Usually they have someone there to hold you to make sure you don't fall, but I'm guessing Chris won't have that for us."

"And you'd be right!" Chris' voice echoed around the teams through a megaphone, followed up with some laughter. With her piece of information passed on, Izzy had then disappeared to return to her team, leaving some members of Team Explosive notably more nervous.

The race to Blarney Castle was otherwise relatively uneventful. Unsurprisingly, Lightning was the first to reach the destination, his teammates all fairly far behind the jock. "Sha-first! That's what Lightning's talking bout!" Flexing, he gave his biceps a kiss each, then glared back at his teammates. "Come on now, Lightning don't got all day."

Brick and Dakota were making good progress towards the castle, but all Lightning's calling did was annoy the rest of the team who were sweaty and out of breath. Anne Maria had to stop momentarily, leaning against a tree. As she did, Shawn and Jasmine ran by with the remainder of their team close behind. Though Beardo and Sugar in particular were clearly struggling to keep up the pace. When she noticed Team Old School also fast approaching with Izzy at the front of the group, the Jersey girl took back off.

Eventually it was Team Explosive to fully arrive at the castle first, though the aforementioned country girl and beatboxer collapsed to catch their breath while the main couple looked over the castle.

"The stone is at the top," Jasmine reminded everyone. "So we just gotta navigate our way through the castle to get to the roof."

"Or you can go the more direct way if you don't want to explore a cramped dark castle like me," Shawn added, running up to the side of the building and beginning to climb. "I'll meet anyone who doesn't want to climb at the top, just keep those hurleys ready in case a lurker comes out of the shadows."

The outback girl smirked in amusement at her boyfriend's strategy, shrugging as she followed close behind. Amy watched the two climb, rolling her eyes and jogging in to the castle. "Yeah, no, I'm taking the stairs."

Beardo, Sugar, Dave, and Rodney followed the mean twin through the castle, with a reluctant Sammy bringing up the rear when she determined she wouldn't have the finesse needed for the climb. Once they were gone, the remaining members of Team Radioactive caught up to Lightning, many looking up at Shawn and Jasmine in surprise.

"Are they climbing to the top?" Dakota asked, half impressed and half confused. "Are we allowed to do that?"

"Well Chris didn't say anything against it, so I would assume it's ok," Brick replied. "And it actually might be quicker than finding the way up in the castle itself."

"You call that climbing? Lightning will show you REAL climbing!" Taking the display of athleticism from the Explosive couple as a challenge, Lightning jumped on to the wall and began making his own climb up. Brick and Scott also followed behind as they made their way up the wall, though B tapped his chin and instead decided to go into the castle.

With the remainder of Team Radioactive following B and trusting his sense of direction, Team Old School were the last to arrive despite their sense of direction thanks to less athletic teammates.

"Darn it, we're falling behind." Harold stopped at the castle's entrance to catch his breath, glancing up to see the five climbing contestants. Shawn and Jasmine were already over halfway up, with Lightning not far behind. "Huh, Chris didn't say anything about us having to climb up."

"Looks like fun!" Izzy decided to go ahead and climb as well, not waiting around for any sort of strategy talk.

"Well I've visited here a few times before, so I know the quickest way to the top," the nerd continued, looking on a bit annoyed at his more wild teammate jumping ahead. "So let's get going!"

Harold led the remainder of his team inside, taking off towards the closest path to the roof. The castle wasn't particularly large, but it seemed possible to get turned around if someone took the wrong path. Namely, this was the case for Team Explosive as they suddenly found themselves at the entrance again. Amy had apparently taken some wrong turns, leading their team to go in a circle.

Meanwhile, Shawn had just reached the roof and held a hand down to help hoist up his girlfriend. The two rushed over towards the stone, while the trio climbing from Team Radioactive struggled to force their way up the castle wall.

"Starting to think this was a dumb idea," Scott mumbled as he crossed the halfway point of the wall. Suddenly, he heard a wild giggling below him, and couldn't react in time to avoid Izzy climbing over him. Since this finished with her pushing off of the farmer's face to jump a bit higher up the wall, he nearly lost his grip and yelped at almost falling. "Watch where you're going!"

Brick raised an eyebrow as he watched Izzy zoom up the wall with relative ease. He watched as she began to get near Lightning, who was clearly not paying attention to anything other than his climb. "On your left, Lightning, be advised!"

"Sha-what?" It was too late, as Izzy's spider-like climbing allowed her to zoom over and past Lightning. Being taken off guard, the sudden orange blur going over him caused Lightning to slip, sending him falling down the wall. Brick acted fast and grabbed Lightning's arm as he passed to prevent him from falling all the way down to the ground.

"Don't worry, soldier, I got ya." The cadet huffed as he tried to pull Lightning back towards the wall, though the jock's mass was clearly making it a difficult task. Since he now only had one hand gripping the wall, he sweated nervously as he felt his fingers wobble. "Well, at least I hope I got ya. Scott, a little help here?"

Scott had just passed his two teammates once he received the call for assistance, making him groan a bit as he backtracked to help keep Lightning and Brick safe. Meanwhile at the roof of the castle, Izzy had just finished kissing the stone, while Shawn and Jasmine stood nearby waiting for their team as they had also completed the task.

Eventually a commotion could be heard coming up the stairs. All three looked on hopefully, but the survivalists' expressions faltered when it was Team Old School to make their way to the top first.

"Aw, what? We got here first, how'd they get passed up on the way up the stairs?" Shawn asked while Izzy ran over to rejoin her team.

"Actually, we didn't see Team Explosive on the way up here," DJ commented while his team began taking turns laying down and kissing the stone. It required holding on to two metal bars and leaning one's head back at an awkward angle, with Harold taking the initiative to show how it was done. "They musta got lost down there."

"Well crap, that's not good." Jasmine peered down the staircase, then looked back at her boyfriend. "I'll see if I can go find them. Be back in a jiff."

"Be careful!" While she did that, Shawn decided to keep watch over the wall in case his teammates somehow ended up circling back to the entrance. Meanwhile, Leshawna and Beth had finished kissing the stone, with DJ being the newest to complete the task. Cody was now getting in to position, with his teammates all looking optimistic.

"And now we're back in the lead." Courtney grinned proudly, fists on her hips. "Guess it came in handy to have people on hand that actually knows the location."

While Harold smiled in appreciation, Izzy giggled to herself. "Yeah, this place is pretty cool. Another fun fact about the stone, they say the locals like to spite tourists by coming to the castle here at night and pee on it!"

Since Cody was in mid-kiss with the stone, his eyes shot open. He gagged and scrubbed at his tongue with his hands. It was soon after doing this that he realized in doing so, he had let go of the safety bars. Yelping, his scrawny frame began to slip into the hole and down to the hard surface below. Thankfully, Trent jumped into action just in time to grab his foot before it slipped away. DJ then grabbed his other foot, and together they hoisted the geek back to safety.

Noticing a few annoyed looks coming her way, the crazy redhead just chuckled apologetically. "But they totally don't do that anymore now that the castle has security cameras, so it's all good!"

*** Confessional: Cody ***

Cody scrubbed at his tongue furiously with a toothbrush, spitting in to the sink before then brushing the teeth.

*** On Blarney Castle ***

After a reluctant Trent and Courtney also kissed the stone, Team Old School were off to find their way to the next challenge. Shawn tapped his fingers along the walls, pondering if he should go look for Jasmine and the others in case they had ran in to a hoard of zombies. It was then that he heard a new group of voices approaching. His optimistic grin quickly turned to a frown when he saw that it was merely Team Radioactive.

"Oh come on!"

"Ya snooze ya lose, scruffy boy," Anne Maria taunted at the team ran past Shawn and over to the stone. B's sense of direction had seemed to aid getting them up to the roof in a timely manner, though not as quick as Harold since he hadn't personally been to the castle before like him.

While Dawn moved to kiss the stone first, Dakota looked around curiously. "Where at the others at?"

"We're here!" Brick groaned as he crawled over the top of the wall and plopped on to the roof. Lightning was right behind him, with Scott finally bringing up the rear. Lightning was silent, perhaps disgruntled that he had to have been rescued from plummeting off the wall, so he merely made his way over to his teammates with arms folded. Scott and Brick looked out of breath from hauling their teammate to safety, but were otherwise fine.

One by one the generation two team went about kissing the stone, while Shawn nervously looked on for his teammates. It was only after Brick and Scott finally did the deed that Team Explosive finally began approaching from the stairs. Led by a very annoyed looking Jasmine, she merely pointed towards the stone and the others hurried to try and make up for lost time.

"Sorry about the delay, somehow Amy got them super lost," the Australian explained, sending a glare the mean twin's way. "The castle isn't THAT big, so I couldn't imagine how she did it."

*** Confessional: Amy ***

"Alright, so I'm not the best at directions. So what? Who has the time to worry about getting good at useless stuff like that?"

*** On Blarney Castle ***

By now Team Old School and Radioactive were totally out of sight, and Team Explosive had just finished the deed by last having Sugar smooch the stone. While she was getting up, Shawn scanned the horizon for any sign of Ezekiel.

"Chris didn't really specify where we go to find the pot of gold," he pondered out loud. "There's gotta be some kind of hint."

Sammy and Jasmine approached him, and it was then that the nice twin gasped and pointed to the sky. "Look, over there!"

In the sky was a rainbow, that seemed to lead into a more heavily forested area of town. They all exchanged a look, nodding before leading the others to the end of the rainbow. It was a cliche, but that just meant it was all the more likely to be where Chris wanted them to go.

Meanwhile, the other teams had also come to the conclusion that they needed to follow the rainbow. As they entered the more heavily forested area keeping view of the rainbow became more difficult, but they were making steady progress. Beth looked around nervously as Ezekiel's animal-like grunts and growls could be heard around them.

"How long has he been feral at this point?" she asked her teammates as they kept their guard up, knowing the prairie boy could be dangerous when left unchecked. "Honestly, I don't know how someone can even come back from that after so long."

"You both grew up on a farm, right?" Cody replied, keeping his hurley gripped tight in case he needed to use it defensively. "Maybe you could try relating to him to calm him down? Who knows, maybe you guys could really hit it off?"

Beth chuckled. "What, me and Zeke being a thing? Nah, I don't think that would happen."

"Hey, crazier things have happened on this sh- WHOA!" DJ skidded to a halt, nearly avoiding projectile vomit that landed in front of him. This was no ordinary vomit, as it was acidic and caused the grass to dissolve on the spot. The team looked up, spotting Ezekiel perched on a tree branch with a terrifying glare. He sent another shot of vomit their way, causing them to disperse to avoid injury.

"Well that's gonna make getting near him pretty dangerous," Trent pointed out as he and Leshawna ducked behind a tree to avoid the newest shot of bile. "But at least he doesn't have a way to mess with us from long distance."

On cue, Trent was suddenly nailed in the side of the head with a shoe. Leshawna looked up to see Ezekiel standing a bit away, wielding a shoe cannon. Yes, a cannon that fires out shoes. He cackled maniacally as he fired shoes at Team Old School as if it was a machine gun. While most shots missed, some pelted team members in various body parts.

"Leprechauns are supposed to love having shoes clean and polished, shooting them around the forest is totally inaccurate to the lore," Harold complained before a well sized boot found itself planted square between the legs. He groaned in pain, grabbing his assaulted crotch as he fell to the ground.

Ezekiel continued to laugh as Team Old School scrambled and dispersed. He noticed Courtney ducking into a bush for cover and was almost ready to fire when he suddenly heard loud footsteps coming from behind. Curious, he turned around just in time to see Lightning charge in to him, running the feral mutant over like a freight train.

"Sha-bam! Lightning ain't afraid of no monsters." The jock kissed his biceps proudly, looking down at Ezekiel with his best cocky grin. "Watcha got, freakshow? How you gonna handle the Lightning?"

Gritting his teeth, Ezekiel fired up his shot and hit his projectile vomit towards Lightning. Due to the closeness, the athlete wasn't able to fully avoid the blow with some bile getting on his pants. Normally this would be very gross but otherwise harmless, but thanks to it being mutant vomit it was as if he had sat on lava. Yelling, Lightning held his buttocks and ran to find the nearest water source to jump in to. He ran past the rest of his team in the process, who had been watching the scuffle from behind cover.

"Welp, so much for that plan," Scott snarked while Lightning plopped down into a nearby pond.

"I bet his acid spit wouldn't do anything to Dakotazoid," Anne Maria pointed out, everyone turning their eyes to the heiress in question. "Think you could go keep him busy for us?"

*** Confessional: Dakota ***

"Ugh, that's two challenges in a row they've wanted me to turn into Dakotazoid for them. I didn't come back to just be known as 'that girl who can turn into a big mutant.' Really hope this doesn't become a reoccurring thing."

*** In the forest surrounding Blarney ***

"I'm not mad right now, but I guess if we need a last ditch plan I could try it," Dakota finally said, the team having now been rejoined by Lightning while Ezekiel terrorized Team Old School some more. "Any other ideas? Preferably one that doesn't get someone hurt?"

B rubbed his chin, thinking over potential scenarios to get the team to safety. As he looked over his teammates, an idea finally struck. Dawn took notice of his change in expression and smiled. "I believe B has an idea."

Everyone looked towards the silent genius, curious. With their attention on him, he simply pointed at Anne Maria, then at Ezekiel. Some seemed a bit confused, the Jersey girl especially, so Dawn continued to explain.

"He believes that Anne Maria could sufficiently distract him with no risk of being harmed."

"Oh yeah, he was smitten with her back in season four," Brick recalled, grinning at the plan. "There's no way he'd hurt her, and if he's distracted then we can get to the pot of gold no problem."

"And what about me?" Anne Maria cut in, not at all looking optimistic over being used as a distraction. "I gotta get some gold too, ya know."

"Guy would probably lead you to it himself, I'd bet," Scott pointed out. "If you distract him long enough for us to get in and out, then you can just have him bring you to it and meet us back at the harbor."

There was silence, everyone other than Anne Maria seemed to agree that they wouldn't find a better plan than this one. Looking around at her team's expectant faces, she eventually sighed and crossed her arms. "Ugh, fine, I'll go keep the weirdo busy."

With Team Radioactive's appreciative smiles watching her on from their cover, Anne Maria walked out into the open. Ezekiel had just fired a stiletto right at DJ's ribs when he got the feeling that someone was approaching him. He turned around, shoe cannon at the ready, only to falter when he noticed it being Anne Maria.

"Yo, uh, Zeke wasn't it?" Anne Maria chuckled nervously, approaching the feral mutant with the upmost caution. "Long time no see! You, uh, you looking pretty good! You been working out or something?"

Ezekiel stammered some sort of unintelligible gibberish, some of his acidic drool leaking from the side of his mouth. But to Anne Maria's credit, he had otherwise come out of his aggressive mode and was giving her his full attention.

"How abouts you and I walk and talk, really catch up and junk?" Not expecting this to work, she was surprised when Ezekiel grinned and nodded while still grunting his animal-like noises. Cringing, but baring it, she walked off in a new direction while Zeke followed close behind. Once they were out of earshot, the remainder of Team Radioactive jumped out of hiding and made a sprint towards the end of the rainbow.

*** Confessional: Anne Maria ***

She shuddered as she applied a fresh coat of hairspray to her massive poof, then moved to check her makeup. "Yo, all I know is this betta mean I'm on everyone's good side after this challenge. Chatterbox getting outed makes me think I'm on the outs on this team, so this should show em what an asset I am."

*** In Blarney Forest ***

While Anne Maria had Ezekiel occupied, Team Radioactive located the pot of gold with ease. B tracked the rainbow to the end, and sure enough the cauldron sat there on a log in a clearing. Wasting no time, everyone grabbed a gold Chris coin from the pot and started making their way back to Cork. Meanwhile, Team Old School had regrouped after they noticed Ezekiel was no longer hunting them.

"Where'd Zeke go all of a sudden?" Trent pondered as they too went back to tracking the rainbow. "He was just breathing down our necks, and now nothing?"

"I ain't complaining, I'd say we shouldn't question it and keep going," DJ replied, rubbing his sore ribs with a wince. "I'm guessing he's dealing with one of the other teams at the moment so now's our best chance to pull back ahead."

"Check it out, we found the loot!" Izzy pointed and zoomed past some trees, locating the pot of gold. There were light cheers among the group as everyone picked a coin and started making their own way out of the forest. By the time they were gone, Ezekiel and Anne Maria had just entered the clearing themselves, the former looking on at his crush with a dopey lovestruck grin.

"Aw, thanks for bringing me to the gold! I'm sure you still feel bad for screwing me out of my last season by giving me that fake diamond, so this makes up for it," she said, not trying to sound bitter and condescending but still doing so anyway.

It was as the two began approaching the pot of gold when they suddenly heard a loud fart from nearby. They looked back, spotting Team Explosive who had been in the middle of trying to stealthily sneak to the gold. Though now all other members were glaring at Sugar, as her flatulence had alerted Zeke to their location. Realizing that he had forgotten to keep his head in the challenge, Ezekiel roared viciously and immediately opened fire with the shoe cannon. Team Explosive screamed and ran off, with the mutant hot on their trail. Anne Maria blinked in surprise at the situation, eventually shrugging and grabbing her coin from the pot so she could join her team back at Cork.

Team Explosive gave various screams and distressed noises as they bobbed and weaved out of the way of shoes and acidic vomit. Most were able to keep up the dodging, though Beardo and Rodney's large frames earned them some shoes to the back. Shawn was breathing in and out, trying to keep himself composed.

"Not a zombie, not a zombie," he repeated to himself in a whisper. "He's firing shoes, zombies don't do that. Why would zombies do that? That would just be silly."

"You alright?" Jasmine asked, concerned.

"Never better!" The zombie nut chuckled, peering back at their feral attacker. He was gaining ground, and it didn't help that most of the team was either nonathletic or huge. "We really gotta get this guy off our tail so the others can get their gold. I'm gonna try and keep him busy."

"Well I'm coming with you, we'll really keep him occupied if we're both overwhelming him."

Without time to really explain things to their team, the power couple immediately sprung into action. Shawn rolled out of the way of an army boot, the used the hurley to deflect a croc back at Ezekiel. The shoe hit its mark right on homeschool's nose, prompting a growl in response. Zeke didn't have time to act, since Jasmine followed up by knocking a flip flop into the other side of his head. Watching the two of them retreat into a different direction of the forest, Ezekiel roared and gave chase, leaving the remainder of Team Explosive alone.

"This is out chance, lets circle back and grab the gold!" Sammy lead the charge back towards the end of the rainbow. Amy wasn't too happy about it, but since everyone else was already following her, there wasn't anything that could be done.

Meanwhile, Shawn and Jasmine did their best to disorientate Ezekiel by diverting his attention back and forth between the two of them. He was aggressive and a good shot, but the two of them outclassed him in athleticism and speed. Still, it was quickly becoming apparent that they'd need to figure out how to shake him for good so they too could retrieve their gold and join their team.

"I've got an idea," Jasmine eventually called over to her boyfriend. "It's a bit more on the underhanded side, but..."

"Hey, gotta do what we gotta do," Shawn agreed with a nod. "What are ya thinking?"

Nearly outside the forest, Team Old School felt optimistic as they had pocketed their gold for now and jogged back towards their destination.

"I think Team Radioactive is ahead of us, but as long as we finish before Team Explosive we're golden," Harold reasoned.

"And I don't think that orange girl was with her team since she was busy with Zeke," Leshawna added. "So we might yet have a shot at getting first class."

As the conversation continued among the group, at the back of the pack Beth couldn't help but hear rumblings in the forest behind them getting louder and louder. Looking back out of curiosity, she yelped as two opposing team members suddenly emerged from out of the shrubbery behind her.

"Sorry about this in advance, guys," Shawn said apologetically, before turning around and cupping his hands around his mouth. "HEY, YA NOT-ZOMBIE! COME ON AND GET US ALREADY!"

With that said, he and Jasmine then immediately dove into the bushes. The yell had of course got the attention of everyone on Team Old School, who turned around in time to see Ezekiel jump from tree to tree towards them. He looked around for the survivalist couple, but with them hidden the only ones in his sight now were the first generation team.

"Oh come on, we do NOT have the time to deal with this again," Courtney yelled, preemptively holding up her hurley to try and deflect the incoming projectiles.

"Don't worry, guys, I've got this!" No time to think it over, Izzy dove at Zeke before he could fire up the shoe cannon. The weapon was knocked to the ground and the two began wrestling. He was strong and aggressive, but then again so was Izzy. They were seemingly in a stalemate, rolling back and forth as they put the other in holds. "Just go, I'll catch up once we're done!"

With no time to protest in case Ezekiel wiggled free of her grasp, the rest of Team Old School nodded and took off towards Cork. Anne Maria also emerged out of the forest at this time, giving a dumbfounded look towards the grappling match but otherwise not slowing down. Their job done, Shawn and Jasmine also carefully left their hiding place and went back towards the pot of gold.

*** Cockpit Confessional: Jasmine ***

"Yeah, I know it was kind of a jerk move to lead that ankle biter to the other team, but we were behind and needed a way to catch up." She shrugged, using the extra space of the cockpit to actually stretch out a bit.

"Psh, if anything you should be apologetic towards Zeke for leaving him to deal with Izzy," Chef pointed out.

Jasmine snort laughed. "Fair point."

*** At Cork Harbor ***

Contestants began finally making their way to the end of the challenge. Team Radioactive was the first on the scene, with the obvious lack of Anne Maria. Scott wasted no time taking a shot and hitting his coin towards his team's pot, but it missed by a fairly large margin. Grunting in annoyance, he began swimming out to retrieve it while the others took a second to think over the best way to try and swing. B especially seemed to be thoroughly testing as he lightly bounced his coin on his hurley, then took note of the light wind and how it would affect things.

"Sha-wack!" The one other example of impatience was Lightning, who just went for it. Unlike Scott, however, his shot was perfect and the coin landed in their team's pot with authority. The others looked at him with dropped jaws while he proudly kissed his biceps for the umpteenth time this episode.

Nodding in approval at Lightning's shot, B then finished his calculations and took a shot of his own. Sure enough, the coin hit the mark and now they were two coins closer to first class. Unfortunately, the remainder of the team missed their shots, forcing them to swim for them just as Scott was almost back to shore.

It was then that Team Old School, lacking Izzy, were next to arrive. They took note of the various members of Team Radioactive in the water, confirming that first class was still a possibility. Anne Maria was also right behind them, getting calls from her team to quickly join them.

"Lets get the lead out, people, we don't need another night in economy class." Courtney was the first of the team to take a shot, the coin very nearly hitting the mark only to bounce off the rim in to the water. Others took their shots, with Cody and DJ also getting very close but in the end all seven coins landed in the water.

From there it was a mad dash to try again over and over. Those that missed swam with all their might, while B tried his best to silently coach his teammates on their swinging method. They were gradually getting better, but while they weren't quite as analytical, Team Old School had Courtney, Harold, and Cody all also helping to try and figure out the best trajectory. The aforementioned trio and Dawn had all also added their coins in to their respective pots when Team Explosive arrived on the scene, obviously lacking Shawn and Jasmine.

"Aaaand, we're in last place," Dave lamented, sighing. "Great."

"None of them are done yet, though," Sammy pointed out. "We can-" She paused, as Beardo wasted no time knocking his coin towards the pot. As luck would have it, the coin hit the mark, surprising even the beatboxer. "Whoa, nice shot Beardo!"

Smiling sheepishly, he held up a thumbs up with accompanying 'ding' sound affect. The others followed the example, swinging their coins at the pot. Most missed, but of all people Sugar's coin hit the mark with what was mostly dumb luck.

"Boom! Just like getting a ring on a bottle at the county fair!"

The competition heated up, with everyone working overtime to be first. Team Radioactive seemed the most confident, not only because B's directions had also landed Dakota and Brick's coins, but also since they were the only team with all members present. Old School wasn't far behind now that Trent and DJ landed their coins, but Team Explosive was doing their best and had landed the coins for Sammy and Rodney.

"We're here!" Everyone looked to the side to see Shawn jogging in to the scene, Jasmine right behind him. The original generation cast scanned the area behind them, paling when they saw no Izzy in sight. Things weren't feeling much better when Shawn immediately nailed the coin shot, knowing how to handle a melee weapon like the hurley better than nearly anyone.

More coins found their mark, first with Jasmine, then Leshawna. Next was Scott, leaving only Anne Maria's coin for their team. Dave finally nailed the shot, leaving only Amy for their team. Then it was Beth's turn, making Team Old School groan since they now only lacked the still missing Izzy's coin.

"Phew, you guys would NOT believe the fight Zeke put up, he's real scrappy let me tell ya." Everyone heard a voice call out from the distance. There was a mix of cheers and worry when they saw the source as Izzy, running up to the scene with the upmost quickness. Amy was part of the distracted when she hit her coin, but somehow the distraction actually worked for the best as she accidentally landed it in the pot.

"Team Explosive wins first class again," Chris called, as he had totally been standing on the sidelines the whole time probably.

Ignoring the cheers from Team Explosive, a sweating B quickly took charge and corrected Anne Maria's positioning and stance to ensure her next wack would hit the mark. Noting the genius doing his thing, Courtney called out to to the final teammate. "Izzy, just go long!"

Nodding at the challenge, Izzy stuck a thumb out to quickly check the wind, then smacked her coin with all her might to send it soaring through the air. Team Old School watched with mouths agape as they saw it zoom through the sky, arcing overhead and landing straight in their pot!

... though it landed mere moments AFTER Anne Maria's coin had landed in Team Radioactive's pot.

"And in a near photo finish, Team Radioactive is safe!" Chris chuckled mischievously. "Team Old School, one of you is done like dinner."

There was a mix of groans and sighs among the original cast team, while Team Radioactive cheered at their safety. Among the cheers, Scott glanced over at the losing team, taking note of Courtney's sour expression.

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

Courtney was walking towards economy class from the dinning room, only to flinch as Scott suddenly ran in front of her.

"Listen, Courtney, I wanted to talk to you before your team goes to elimination." The dirt farmer blocked the doorway, getting an annoyed glare for his troubles. "You know, in case it turns out to be too late and all."

"And just what is THAT supposed to mean?" She crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at the comment.

"Well, you know, I figured with your attitude and all your team might be voting you off so-"

"I can handle myself just fine, thank you very much," Courtney spat, her glare intensifying and making Scott's expression turn to worry. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go talk strategy, so leave me alone!"

She brushed past her former short-lived boyfriend, with Scott groaning and hitting his head against the wall. "Stupid!"

Trying to immediately forget the confrontation, Courtney entered the economy class to see Trent and Cody in the middle of an argument.

"Come on, dude, that near fall could have been bad news for us, you're lucky I was there to save your skin," Trent pointed out, looking disgruntled.

"It's not my fault I almost fell! It's not like it put us behind, and at least I didn't get nailed by shoes from Zeke as much as you did," the geek shot back, both glaring at each other.

Courtney slid into a seat between DJ and Beth, both of whom were watching the argument curiously.

"I thought you were sure they'd be on the same page?" the brickhouse commented, a hint of sass to his tone.

Courtney shrugged dismissively. "Friends fight all the time, it doesn't mean anything."

"I don't know, they seem pretty mad." Beth winced as the bickering increased in volume between the bandmates, Harold now stepping between them to try and dispel the ruckus. "Maybe they're not as unified as we thought? The Drama Brothers have broken up before, after all."

"That's not a risk we should be willing to take." Sighing, the former CIT glanced over at Izzy, who was watching the argument while snacking on some popcorn she somehow found. "I feel like they're going to target Izzy since she was the last to arrive and caused Cody to almost fall. And like I said, if she goes then the rest of us are sitting ducks."

DJ raised an eyebrow. "A'ight, so who do you think should be voted off instead?"

"Well the thing that makes the potential alliance most threatening is potentially having Leshawna along with it," Courtney pointed out, noticing that the aforementioned sister was now assisting Harold breakup the disagreement. "And the link between the band and her is Harold. Get rid of him and she's back to being a lone wolf, while Trent and Cody become a non-threat."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Of course you think it should be Harold, you're probably still not over what he did way back in season one! Why are you still bitter?"

Courtney scoffed. "I am NOT. I mean, yeah, that was still totally bogus and they should have let me return because of the vote rigging, but I'm long over it. It's purely a strategic choice, nothing more."

"Well Harold probably did the most in the challenge and helped get us in the lead for a bit there, it wouldn't make sense to vote him off when he didn't do anything wrong." DJ crossed his arms. "Personally, I think if we have to vote one of the band off it should be Cody. Dude almost fell off the castle just because Izzy said something crazy. We, of all people, should know not to take what she says seriously at this point."

"Yeah, no offense to him but I think Trent and Harold would both be better to keep around that him," Beth agreed with a nod. "If we're not voting for Izzy, Cody is the next best bet."

"But Harold was only so knowledgeable because his family is FROM Ireland," Courtney pointed out, eyes narrowed. "It's not like we'll go back there later in the season. For the sake of maximizing our safety, Harold is the only logical choice to-"

"Voting time, Team Old School!" Chris' announcement over the intercom cut the Latina off, much to her annoyance. "Let's move those keisters on down to the elimination area!"

*** In the Elimination Area ***

"Well well well, you would think our longest tenured contestants would have lasted a bit longer before having to vote someone off." Chuckling, the host lined up seven peanut filled barf bags in front of him. "But since we have Team Victory alumni here, I guess some things never change. Anyhow, the votes have been cast. When I call your name, that means you're safe. The first barf bag goes to... Leshawna!"

Pumping her fist, she gladly caught the symbol of safety once thrown to her.

"DJ, Trent, Beth."

The boys caught their bags with ease, while Beth's first bounced off of her face and landed in her hands.

"And, surprisingly, Courtney. All of you are safe."

Courtney frowned at the comment but none the less was happy to have her name called.

"Also safe tonight is... Cody!"

Sighing in relief, the tech geek caught his barf bag and exchanged a high five with Trent. This earned confused looked from DJ and Beth, and an annoyed one from Courtney. Meanwhile, Harold and Izzy looked on nervously at the final barf bag.

"Look at that, our two teamies of Irish descent in the bottom two together in Ireland! What are the odds?" Noticing that Harold almost seemed ready to answer with the odds, Chris immediately went back to talking. "Rhetorical question, by the way. As I was saying, one barf bag left, and two red headed losers to choose from. The final person safe tonight is...

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... Harold!"

"Wicked!" The nerd stood up to grab his barf bag, getting cheers and high fives from both Leshawna and his band comrades. DJ and Beth smiled sheepishly at Courtney, who looked at them with an annoyed scowl and folded arms.

"Tch, for real? I was just starting to have some fun around here!" Still smiling despite everything, Izzy stood up and accepted the parachute thrown to her. "Oh well, guess thems the breaks, eh Christopher?"

"I'd like to say I'm sad to see ya go, Izzy, but admittedly I'm kinda glad it was you." Pointing a thumb to the roof with one hand, he opened the hatch with the other. "Think you could take care of business for us on your way out?"

Izzy raised an eyebrow, grinning devilishly. "Depends. If someone gets to return later in the season, can I be given priority?"

The host rubbed his chin in thought, weighing if agreeing to such a deal was worth the benefits. "Tell ya what, I'll definitely consider it."

"Eh, good enough for me." Shrugging, Izzy strapped on her parachute and actually turned around while standing at the edge of the hatch. "Fire away!"

With a click of a button, the Boot of Shame came swinging down. Thanks to her reflexes, Izzy was actually able to jump in time to bounce off of the boot, sending her upwards out of the hatch. On the top of the plane, Ezekiel could be seen crawling his way across the roof. Now back in his normal clothes instead of the leprechaun getup, he nearly made it to a hatch that would allow him to enter the jet. Right as he went to open the hatch, he heard a wild yelling quickly approaching from behind. He turned around just in time to see a green and orange blur tackle him, sending both he and Izzy off the jet and falling to the ground below. Ezekiel's screams echoed through the sky, coupled with Izzy's wild whooping.

"Ah, the peace of mind to know we won't have to deal with THAT GUY this time around." Chris breathed a sigh of relief, smiling. "Another one bites the dust! Can the outsiders of Team Old School recover? Will Courtney keep giving Scott the cold shoulder? Can Team Explosive keep up their dominant winning streak? And who will be next to properly taste the Boot of Shame? Tune in next time to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

The episode ended with Ezekiel and Izzy's noises still echoing in the background.

Voting Confessionals:

Beth stamped Cody's passport, looking conflicted. "It's just hard for me to trust Courtney right now, especially since she wants to vote out someone she's always had a vendetta against despite him being really useful this challenge. I won't vote for Izzy, so maybe she'll come around and vote the same as me and DJ?"

"Hehe, me and Trent having a bit of an argument was starting to make me nervous there, but thankfully Harold brought us to our senses." Cody stamped Izzy's passport. "Anyway, Izzy kinda almost made me fall off a castle today, so it's an easy vote for me."

"Ugh, I hope those idiots come to their senses or else we'll be down one outsider and the rest of us will be powerless against the Drama Brothers." Sighing, Courtney gave Harold's passport a stamp. "Like okay, maybe I AM still a bit bitter against Harold, but this is legitimately the smartest thing to do for strategy!"

DJ looked between Harold and Cody's passport, eventually shrugging and stamping Cody's. "It just wouldn't feel right voting off Harold when he pulled the most weight today. I hope Courtney sees that, if she really is that worried about there being an alliance."

"I hate to vote out my fellow Irish teammate considering the location, but between almost making Cody fall and spending too long wrestling around with Zeke, it's the only logical choice." Giving Izzy's passport a stamp, Harold nodded. "Sorry, Izzy. It's nothing personal."

"Courtney rushed up to me on the way to vote being all 'Raawr, we gotta vote out Harold or else we're doooomed." Cackling, the wild child stamped Harold's passport. "She was SUPER freaked out, it was pretty funny. But eh, works for me, only one redhead can reign supreme on this team!"

Leshawna stamped Izzy's passport with no hesitation. "Even if she didn't almost get Cody injured, I'd still probably be voting Izzy anyway. Girl is able to do some crazy things, sure, but it's hard enough to feel safe on this deathtrap of a plane without her around causing more mayhem."

Trent chuckled, casually face palming. "Can't believe I got worked up towards Cody for something so dumb. Thankfully we got it all hashed out. Plus, it wasn't even his fault that he almost fell. It was Izzy's. So, yeah, kind of an easy choice." The musician stamped Izzy's passport.

Votes for Izzy: 4 (Cody, Harold, Leshawna, Trent)

Votes for Harold: 2 (Courtney, Izzy)

Votes for Cody: 2 (Beth, DJ)

After the Boot of Shame:

Izzy continued to whoop and cheer as she somersaulted through the air. "Woohoo, this is so much fun! It always bummed me out that I left World Tour without getting to do the drop, this is so cool! Anyway, yeah, it's a bummer to be out so early, BUT Chris did say I may get priority if someone gets to return. I've only returned, what, three times before? I gotta improve on my record if I want to keep it! You haven't seen the last of Izzy yet!"

Her thought process was interrupted when she suddenly heard wild screaming and grunting. She looked down, seeing Ezekiel also flying through the sky, flailing his arms in terror since he had no parachute. Izzy then caught up, putting an arm around the feral boy while using her other hand to deploy the parachute.

"Yo, Zeke! Long time no see, homeschool." Ezekiel looked on at her in confusion, finding himself unable to wiggle free from her grasp. "Hey, did you know that back in the day some of the fans liked to think we'd be a good couple?"

Zeke recoiled, raising an eyebrow at the comment. "Haha, weird right? Pretty sure I was still together with Big O at the time! Then again, I guess it kinda makes sense. We do both have a bit of a wild side, am I right?"

The two finally landed, Ezekiel able to eventually wiggle free from her grasp and run away. "Hey, where ya going? Oh, up for a game of tag? You're on, Zekey boy!" Chuckling wildly, Izzy gave chase, Zeke's distressed screams echoing ahead.

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School:Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Harold, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive:Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dakota, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

Team Explosive:Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Rodney, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar

Elimination Order:

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

"Previously on Total Drama Battle of the Generations," Chris began in his usual narration. "Our teams touched down in Ireland for a good old fashioned gold hunt! After kissing a stone for luck, Cody nearly fell off a tower, but eh, no pain no gain right? After dealing with our very own leprechaun played by Ezekiel, it was a race to deposit everyone's gold into their own pots. Team Explosive ended up cinching the win once again, while Team Old School lost in a photo finish. At the elimination ceremony, crazy Izzy was voted out for nearly injuring Cody and having a bit too much fun playing around with Zeke. Which didn't sit well with Courtney, now that she, Beth, and DJ find themselves on the outs of their team. What torture is in store next for these victims? Is Team Explosive going to win again? And who's next to get forcefully kicked off the plane? All that and more, right now on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Opening Credits ***

Things opened sometime after Izzy's elimination, but rather than opening on Team Old School, it opened in the cargo hold. Members from both Team Radioactive and Team Explosive were going through their now routine check to ensure no zombies had found their way on the plane. Shawn was obviously the one taking the search most seriously, but everyone else was mostly doing their best to be thorough. With the exception of Scott, who seemed mildly frustrated to be there.

"Alright, we're getting this knocked out pretty quick today, just a few more boxes in the back there and we can call it a day," Jasmine observed, the group moving towards one of the back corners of the room.

"Having you guys along really speeds this up." Shawn hopped down from a box, landing next to Dawn and Brick. "Thanks again for the help."

"It's no trouble at all!" The cadet smiled, getting to work on searching another crate. "All things considered, it was more than worth it for the help you gave us with B's doohickey."

The silent genius in question flashed a thumbs up, also resuming his search. A nearby Scott rolled his eyes at the exchange, haphazardly looking into a new crate of his own only to wind up screaming as a stowaway raccoon jumped out from within and latched itself to his face.

*** Confessional: Scott ***

Scrubbing his face that was now covered in a few claw marks from the raccoon, he looked on in annoyance. "So from what I understand, at the start of the season some of my teammates struck up this weird deal with the Explosive guys to do a 'zombie search' whenever we get back on board." He used air quotes to emphasize the zombie part, scoffing. "It sounds annoying, but the way I see it we got the better end of the deal. They forced the other team into helping Beverly make that thing keeping him from getting disqualified, and all we have to do in exchange is make sure zombies aren't on the plane? Ha! They aren't even real! I mean, if we were searching for an actual monster like werewolves or a wendigo I'd understand, but believing in zombies? That's just dumb."

*** In First Class ***

Once the search was over, the members of Team Radioactive were the first to file out of the cargo hold. They had to cut through first class to return to economy, with Brick and B looking on longingly at the snack bar while passing through. Dawn was pretty much stoic, while Scott was dealing with the pain from his claw marks.

"See you guys after the next challenge," Sammy called as they left, a cheerful tone to her voice that seemed to irk her nearby sister. But there was no reason to speak out about it. In general most of those from Team Explosive that didn't contribute to the zombie search were all lounging and relaxing in peace. Though when Shawn and Jasmine finally reentered first class, the conspiracy nut couldn't help but notice a sort of dejected expression from Dave.

"Geez, I'm getting kinda worried about the guy," Shawn said in a low voice so as to not be heard by anyone other than his girlfriend. He motioned his head toward's Dave direction to confirm who he was referring to. "You think he's holding up alright?"

"Well he did end last season on a pretty ugly note," she answered, looking over cautiously at the germaphobe. "Honestly, I'm still a bit on edge around him after how gung ho he got trying to take you and Sky out in the finale."

"To be fair, you contributed a bit to that yourself." Shawn chuckled, elbowing his girlfriend playfully.

Jasmine did a snort laugh, but quickly regained her composure. "Well you got me there, but still he was a little TOO eager to try to injure Sky. It wasn't even about the money with him like it was for me, he came across pretty spiteful."

Shawn looked on, pondering. "I guess, but he did kind of get strung along too. It was just a pretty crappy situation all around. I'm gonna go check in on him, see if he's hanging in there."

Nearby, Dave sighed from boredom as he watched out the window, chin rested in his hand. Only the sound of someone sitting next to him got him to sit up straight and look over. "Oh, hey Shawn. What's up?"

"Just wanted to check in on ya, bromigo." The scruffier boy chuckled awkwardly. "We haven't really had a chance to talk yet this season, and I was just hoping you were doing ok."

Dave shrugged. "I guess. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well... Pahkitew Island did end kind of awkwardly. And while Jasmine and I don't really use social media, Sammy mentioned fans have been pretty hard on you after everything with-" Shawn stopped himself, realizing the potential awkwardness of it all.

"Everything with Sky?" Dave finished, sighing. "Yeah, it's been rough. But I'm trying to move away from it, it's in the past ya know? I'm fine, honest." His friend smiled hearing this, prompting a small smile from Dave as well.

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"Ok, that was a lie. I'm NOT doing fine. Do you have any idea how relentless people have been towards me after that falling out with Sky?" He groaned louder than ever, burying his face into his hands. "Here I am, the VICTIM that had his heart played with all season, and all I ever hear is how everything is my fault! Like yeah, I made my mistakes and should have heard her out more, but cut a guy some slack! Now I can't go a day at school without hearing, 'Hey look, it's friendzone Dave!' 'How's it hanging, Dave the dateless?' 'Watch out everyone, Dave the Incel is coming through!'"

Glaring at the camera, he folded his arms. "What does incel even mean? Totally a made up word. But I am telling the truth when I say I want to move past this. The sooner people stop remembering me just for my thing with Sky, the better."

*** Outside the Confessional ***

As Dave exited the confessional, he bumped into Beardo as he was attempting to leave a message of his own. Being the smaller of the two, the impact knocked Dave to the ground with a grunt.

"W-whoops. Sorry man, didn't know you were in there." Beardo offered a hand to help his teammate up, which he hesitantly accepted.

"Huh, so you CAN talk." Dave dusted himself off. "It's fine, the confessional is all your's."

With his scrawnier teammate returning to first class, the beatboxer looked on with a smile. "Hey, that wasn't so hard. Might just get the hang of these social interactions yet."

However, upon turning around it was Beardo's turn to fall to the ground, as he turned to see Harold suddenly in front of him and the startling of the appearance caught him off guard. Though Harold was smiling and also offered a hand to help him up. "Beardo, right? I've been meaning to talk to you since the season started."

"F-for real?" Beardo replied, flustered since he had spent even less time around the older competitors. "What for?"

"After I saw Pahkitew Island I checked out your album," Harold explained, eyes glowing with excitement. "Now I've always considered myself something of a mad beatbox legend, so take it from me when I say you have some of the maddest skills I've ever heard!"

"You're serious?" Beardo smiled. "Shoot, that means a lot coming from you."

"For sure! I've been meaning to talk to you since I think we could totally make some wicked stuff together." Harold took notice of Beardo's shocked expression. "You know, if you'd want to. Be it with the Drama Brothers or like a purely beatbox album."

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

"Geez, talk about a blindside." He scratched at his afro, looking out the window. "I mean I've always wanted to elevate my music career, but Harold and his boys have been on world tours and junk. This is a lot to take in at once, man."

*** Confessional: Harold ***

"I've got a lot of plans this season. Beardo is probably the most talented musician I've seen on the show since me and the boys, and those sound effects of his could help give us an even more unique sound. And yeah, I think if the two of us made a pure beatbox album, it would be some straight fire." Trying to look cool, he crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat. "But even past the band stuff, this is gonna be the season where Leshawna and I finally happen! Groupies are one thing, but no girl has ever stole my heart like her. Add in winning this thing, and I'm seeing big things for me this time around."

*** In Economy Class ***

The unpleasant sound of static filled the room as the intercom roared to life. "Get your game faces on, passengers! We'll be touching down in Kyoto shortly for your next challenge. Look sharp!"

"First Ireland, and now we're going back to Japan? Awesome!" Harold exchanged a high five with Cody. "And this time no Alejandro to mess with my mojo."

"Hopefully this time we actually get to enjoy what the country has to offer," Cody added. "World Tour's Japan challenge was kinda lame."

As the two nerds began a Japan themed conversation that turned to video games and anime, nearby a disgruntled Courtney sighed. Beth and DJ took quick notice.

"So, uh, sorry that we didn't listen to you about the whole Drama Brothers thing," Beth meekly stated, twiddling her thumbs nervously.

"Yeah, we really underestimated the fact that they'd be voting together," DJ added, rubbing the back of his head. "My bad."

Sighing once again, the former CIT shook her head. "It's fine. I know I haven't exactly built up the best reputation over the years so I'm sure you two had reason not to listen to me. We'll just have to keep going and try not to get eliminated now that Izzy is gone."

"But what are we gonna do if they outnumber us?" The geeky farmer was growing more nervous, fearing that she'd be at the bottom of the food chain among her and the other outsiders. "Between the three of them and Leshawna we're kind of screwed."

"We'll worry about that when we come to it. For now we focus on winning so it isn't an issue." Glancing over at the Drama Brothers, Courtney took notice of the still ongoing Japan talk. "We have two Japan loving nerds on our team, hopefully that'll help us out. At the very least, let's hope it gets us to avoid last place."

*** Somewhere in Kyoto, Japan ***

Some time later, the plane had successfully landed at their destination and the contestants were led to the start of their challenge. They found themselves outside a large traditional Japanese looking building, with brown slanted roofing. Chris emerged from off screen, decked out in his best monk attire. This included a black set of monk robes, wooden sandals, and a circular straw hat.

"Welcome to Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan, and the former capital of the country as a whole," the host began, motioning towards the nearby building. "Right now we're at the imperial palace. This building here is where they used to hold all their fancy schmancy state ceremonies before they moved the capital over to Tokyo. You'll actually be visiting a bunch of historical sites like this over the course of the challenge, which will be a spiritual successor to Revenge of the Island's graffiti tagging race."

"You want us to deface beautiful cultural landmarks with spray paint?" Dawn looked both shocked and appalled at the idea. "Surely you can't be serious, the city would never allow you to let us do that."

"You're right, unfortunately. So instead of tagging each landmark with spray paint, you'll instead be planting one of these easily peeled off stickers on team signs at each." Chris held up an example sticker, which depicted the host in a chibi anime style, complete with large eyes and flashing the peace sign. Chef, clad in purple samurai attire, passed out stickers to everyone. Similarly, everyone's stickers depicted them in exaggerated chibi style. While they were mostly flattering, certain details like Dave's chibi self crying and Courtney's depicting her with devil horns earned noises of disapproval.

"Yo, these things are pretty stylin," Anne Maria noted, approving of the curvy features on her stickers. "Can we get some of these to keep?"

"Sure, if you go to the merch website after the season and buy them like anyone else," Chris answered, grinning.

There were some annoyed groans, with Sugar being the one to vocally express her frustration. "Y'all would think they'd treat us better and give us our own merch for free if they're selling stuff that looks like us."

"Bold of you to assume we won't cut costs wherever possible." Whether everyone enjoyed their chibi self or not, once they were all passed out Chris continued his rundown. "You'll be visiting five historic sites where you must place your sticker. First Kinkaku-ji, otherwise known as the Golden Palace. Then Arashiama, the monkey infested bamboo forest. After that we have Nijo Castle, pretty self explanatory, and then Toji Temple which houses the country's tallest pagoda. Finally, you'll end your race at the Fushimi Inari shrine. Ya can't miss it, you'll know you're there when you see a bunch of endless red gates. First team to get all stickers stuck at each site wins first class. And as should be obvious by now, the team that does it last is kicking someone out."

"Didn't we JUST do a race challenge two episodes ago?" Jasmine pointed out, arms folded. "You'd think there'd be a bit more variety before we did another one."

"I'll have you know this one is totally different," Chris insisted, taking a key from out of his pocket and twirling it around his finger. "For example, instead of everyone riding together in a snowmobile, you'll all be riding separately in go karts. But these aren't just any normal go karts, because as you're racing you may see squares with a question mark on the path. Drive over one, and it'll outfit your kart with some sort of weapon. They could be as useful as a bomb, to as useless as a banana peel!"

"Hey, I've actually played this game before," Brick objected. "And those banana peels aren't useless, they take me out all the time!"

Ignoring the interruption, Chris finished up his explanation. "So first things first, all you guys have to do is find the key to your go kart somewhere here at the palace grounds. Once you have the key in hand, you can find the go karts right outside. They're decked out with a GPS so you'll know which way to drive."

"Searching for keys doesn't sound too stressful," Trent pointed out to his team in a whisper, everyone grouped in a huddle. "This should be easy."

"You bring up a good point, Trent," Chris yelled, sticking his head into the huddle and startling the members of Team Old School. "So instead of just letting the viewers watching you key hunt, we'll keep you occupied with something else in the meanwhile."

* DING DING DING *

"A'ight, seriously, we should be the last part of the cast that forgets he can jinx us," Leshawna noted, shooting an annoyed side eye Trent's way. The musician could only smile sheepishly.

"Less talking, more singing," Chris commanded with a clap of his hands. "Preferably something Anime-y. Hit it!"

Harold was the one starting us off, while on screen the flash of a blue circle gave way to a red cloudy backdrop. An outline of the season's logo appeared and faded into the background. "We are searching for a precious go kart key," he sung quiet and somberly despite the mundane lyrics. On screen the text 'Fresh TV' displayed in white, and above it was the name translated to Japanese.

"Once we find one then we can drive awaaaay," he continued, now with Leshawna joining him in song. The red background changed to a blue one, and a sort of tree outline appeared. It quickly panned up the tree, each branch leading to a logo of a former Total Drama season with the current season's at the top. The tree quickly faded away, returning to white text that now said 'Project Drama' on the top and the Japanese translation on bottom.

As soon as the two had finished their line, the background went to black as the music swelled with brass accompaniment. In bold white text read 'Total Drama,' and below that in orange was Japanese that translated to 'Battle of the Generations.'

Now it was Trent's turn to sing, and against the backdrop of a blue partly cloudy sky, a faded zoom in of Trent's face looked off into the distance. His face slowly turned to the right as he sung. "We'll leave the others in awe, while we burn some rubber here in Kyoto." Halfway through his line a pitch black Trent silhouette stood towards the right, fading when he finished.

As this all was going on Japanese credits would pop up here and there, though when translated they were all credits towards Chris for things like 'Best Hair,' and 'Hottest Host.' When the Trent silhouette disappeared, two new ones appeared on each side of the screen. On the right floating up was a silhouette of Beardo, and on the left was an upside down one of B sinking down.

"They'll be in the dust when we go, no time for delay," Beardo sang.

"WE'LL WIN WITH THE SPEED OF A CHEEEETAH," B added from his singing device.

Trent's face finally faded away, now replaced with another silhouette. This one was a zoom in of Lightning's arm, while the sky background turned a shade of orange. "Easy win, them losers are slow," the jock sang, his silhouette inexplicably making the circle game symbol, effectively making all viewers at home lose the game. Meanwhile that season tree symbol quickly appeared and faded again.

"That's big talk when our team keeps winning the day," Sugar pointed out, a faded zoom in of her face similar to Trent's looking forward. To the right of that was one of those black silhouettes of the pageant queen, which disturbingly leaned back in an attempted seductive way. Meanwhile the face of Sugar looked up.

With that horrific sight gone, next was one of the silhouettes of Courtney. She was sat on the ground, her head on her knees and arms wrapped around them. She eventually looked up while a returning Trent head stared off and drifted to the left. "Is there a key in this pond, or hid behind a bonsai?"

While Courtney sang the last line alone, Scott joined her for the next. Meanwhile Courtney's silhouette disappeared and a new image appeared of Scott standing behind a window, looking at the camera. "Or is one hidden up in a tree!"

Next was a quick succession of different shots. First a zoom in of Scott's eye. Then a shot of the jumbo jet turbine. Next a shot of the jet's side, displaying the aviator Chris symbol. The broken clock in the plane's dining area. Last a shot of Chef pushing the plane's controls forward, making it go into a dive.

"We'll search here and search there, we'll look high and look low," Beth and Cody sang in tandem, though the visuals didn't match much since we had now moved to a shot of Chef in some sort of body suit and in a bizarre pilot seat. It zooms in on his eyes and he looks up at the camera, determined.

"Our sleuthing will leave you in awe," sung Jasmine and Shawn together. Meanwhile, some sort of shadowy robot began to rise into frame, with intense glowing eyes. This was followed by four quick shots. First of Beth, adjusting her glasses like an anime villain. Next was Jasmine, giving the camera a determined glare. Afterwards came Cody, with a simple smile. Last we had Shawn, who stoically looked on with no emotion.

It was after these shots that it was revealed the mysterious robot from earlier was non other than the Jumbo Jet, now in mecha form and presumably still being piloted by Chef. It twitched violently, while now Amy and Rodney sung over it. "Our mind's on the challenge so please mind the singing."

"We're making this up as we goooo," added Anne Maria and Dakota, the four of them stretching out the note while the Jumbo Jet mecha seemed to sprout many energy wings.

It was at this point the video portion of the song became almost entirely incomprehensible, being a multitude of back to back quick shots. This started with many shots of the mech, its mouth opening, one arm raising, its eyes glowing, and a shot of its hand covered in blood. But because this was a PG show and realistic blood was no bueno, the blood had been colored pink.

The text 'Chris McLean' flashed on screen while Brick continued the song. "And yet we push on, no matter what dumb things we say." While he sung more rapid fire shots went by. The now bloody foot of the mech. The text 'Jumbo Jet' flashed by. The mecha shot up and seemed to roar. A close up of a creepy Chris mask. The mech standing in the distance behind a fiery foreground. Just straight up the sun. Text saying 'Brilliant Sadistic Host.'

"We'd rather not sing, but our contracts force us to," DJ continued while more craziness went by. A pan up of an annoyed Courtney. Text that said 'Hot Chicks.' City skyline view of Toronto. Text that said 'Made in Canada.' A shot of the icy Antarctica landscape. A quick red logo that said 'Hot Dudes Too,' followed by shots of Trent, DJ, Shawn, Lightning, and Scott. A shot of Jasmine at the end stopped the combo. Shots were changing so fast at this point that things like the season's map, the first class cabin, some weird eye things, and a shot of a smirking Chris were easily missed.

"Chris makes these dumb rules, if only he would go away," now sang Sammy. The continued myriad of rapid shots went by. A sinister shot of Amy wearing a visor. A sign fully in Japanese, that when translated rewarded viewers with the message 'Congrats, you wasted your time translating this.' A sketching of Rodney. Some sort of mystery meat Chef meal. A shot of Chris' mouth and hands folded. A new shark like mecha, which was followed by a text screen that said 'Fang.' After that was a purple ape like robot, which then saw the text 'Sasquatchanakwa.' Footage of Dawn looking serious. Sammy wincing, then looking to the side to yell. Shots of DJ, then Harold, then Leshawna. A huge shot of wreckage. The Jumbo Jet mech firing a gun, then an explosion knocking it back. Chris looking on, menacingly.

"Let's just find these keys, tell this place sayonara," Dave sang as a final burst of back to back shots continued. Dave himself was the first shot, him crying next to a duffel bag. Next was, oddly enough, a pan by of a shirtless Cody. A zoom in on Lightning's necklace. Red text saying 'Boot of Shame.' The glowing silhouette of one of the mechs. The earth itself, being struck by some large impact. Dakota sitting with her arms around her legs, next to a glass of water. A sketch of Trent. One of the mechs glaring at the camera. Text that now said 'Barf Bags.' Anne Maria looking down at the ground seriously. The elimination area. Izzy standing up and looking off into the distance somehow, despite not being in the game anymore. And finally, a sketch of Shawn, with Jasmine to his left and Sammy to his right.

Dawn was the final contestant to have a dedicated line, starting while Japanese text filled the screen that when translated came out to, 'Wow this part took way longer to write that you'd think, didn't it?' The Jumbo Jet mecha struck a pose while a faded image of Chef in the bodysuit came towards the screen, all while Dawn sang. "Because this is part 1, there's more challenge to get to."

"Will it be safe? Probably not but let's pray!" The final line was sang by everyone together, with the video portion ending on various shots of Chef. Looking up in determination, crying, shielding his eyes from blinding light, and finally an almost creepy smile.

With that... ordeal finally finished, we returned to see the entirety of the cast now outside of the imperial palace. They all had keys in hand and had taken their place inside their go karts to await Chris' signal. Some were looking a bit disheveled, with Cody in particular sporting some scratches and bruises.

"And just like that through the power of editing, it looks like everyone has their keys without us having to show you all getting them," the host cheered, joining the cast.

"Wait, you're not going to show any of the key hunt?" Cody asked, flabbergasted. He held out his arm, revealing even more cuts. "I had to go through some serious crap to get mine!"

"Whoa, that's interesting. But I sure don't care!" Promptly ignoring the tech geek, Chris motioned down the road they would be taking. Their GPS' flashed on to reveal their path, leading to the first marker at the Golden Palace. They also noticed a few squares with a question mark along the path, with the first being close enough that they could see it up ahead. On the road, it was merely a painted square.

"Your karts have a sensor on the bottom to know when you've driven over an item block," Chris explained, as if he knew many of them were wondering how this was going to work. "So simply drive over one and you'll be given a random item. Miss the square and that sucks for you, as you'll get nothing."

"We should wait and let the others take the lead," Harold whispered to his team. "In the game you get better items the farther back you are. If we can take them out early it'll hopefully give us a wide enough lead."

"Lets book it and stay on our toes," Shawn directed towards the others. "Things are going to stay hectic and the items could change things on a dime, so we don't really have any reason to dillydally."

Meanwhile with Team Radioactive no one was really making any plans, they all seemed content to do their own things. Only Lightning felt the need to give words of encouragement. "Y'all just be sure to sha-keep up." Well, at least he thought they were encouraging.

"On your marks," Chris started, holding up the airhorn. "Get set. Go kart!"

With a blast of the horn, everyone was off. Teams Radioactive and Explosive took off at high speeds, but per Harold's suggestion Team Old School waited a few seconds before also starting. Things became instantly cramped as the various karts barreled through the streets of Kyoto, even more so as the first item block approached. B and Scott seemed to have the same idea as both rammed Dave and Sammy out of the way respectively just as they were about to drive over the mark, causing them to miss getting an item.

"Not too shabby, Beverly." While Scott had attempted a genuine compliment, B's scowl gave the impression he had missed the mark. "Er, B."

Looking down at his screen, the devious farmer saw that he had been given what appeared to be a green turtle shell as an item. Curious, he clicked an arrow facing backwards which caused his kart to shoot the item behind him. Just as an unsuspecting Dave tried to catch up, the shell came flying back and sent him screeching off track with a yell.

B observed the item usage, noting how things seemed to work pretty much exactly as they did in Mario Kart itself. His screen displayed the banana, so when he looked back as Jasmine behind him preparing to fire a shell of her own, he was ready. Once she fired the weapon, he deployed the banana peel behind him in the nick of time. The shell somehow shattered against the peel, leaving the silent genius none the worse.

In general things were getting chaotic. Shawn had been lucky enough to receive the red shell, so without needing to aim he easily hit Brick in front of him. Anne Maria had been given three of the bananas, which she promptly dumped all behind her. Amy had little time to react before spinning out as she drove over one. Beardo and Dakota both received the triple green shells, and somehow all three of their respective items shattered against the other's as they attempted to hit the other driver.

At the front of the pack was Lightning, who was initially confused when his screen displayed a coin. Sure enough, his kart made a belching sound effect and spat out a coin into the jock's face. It was a simple gold coin with Chris' smiling face on one side and a picture of the Jumbo Jet on the other. Effectively worthless, but he was none the wiser. "Sha-score! Lightning is getting richer already!"

But now chaos was truly about to unfold as the members of Team Old School crossed the item block. While some merely got triple bananas or shells, Cody was the first to get a true game changer. The bomb. Smirking, he lobbed the bomb forward, just missing Sugar who squealed in shock at the explosion.

"Hey! Why the heck didn't this dumb thing give me one of those?"

She didn't have much time to complain as one of Leshawna's three shells nailed the pageant queen in the back, spinning her out. DJ had received three mushrooms, which gave him a wicked speed boost. But Harold was most satisfied, as he was shown an image of a blue spiked shell with wings.

"How are they getting away with using these images without dealing with copyright laws?" he pondered out loud, touching the screen to deploy. "Oh well, enjoy this whoever's in first!"

From the front of his kart it shot the blue shell into the air. Unlike the games it was clearly mechanical of some sort, as it whirred loudly while soaring over the various racers. In particular, Brick looked above in shock. "Uh oh. Lightning, watch your six! Enemy strike is inbound!"

Unfortunately for the cadet his warning fell on deaf ears. Or rather, Lightning just wasn't paying attention to anything other than trying to remain in first. For what it was worth, Rodney was on his tail and keeping him distracted. This was about to end badly for both of them.

"What the heck is that noise?" Rodney asked, looking up in time to see the blue shell hover overhead once it was above Lightning.

"What are you blabbering about back there, country boy?" The turbo jock turned his head to look back at Rodney, but in a flash the blue shell suddenly came careening downward right on top of him. The impact caused an explosion that took out not only Lightning, but Rodney as well. Both boys were knocked to the ground in a daze, their go karts on their sides next to them while they groaned in agony.

"Booyah! A direct hit." Harold exchanged a quick high five with a passing Trent as the squad inched closer and closer to the other teams. Nearby, Courtney smirked mischievously.

*** Confessional: Courtney ***

"Eh, taking out two enemies is alright I guess. But how about taking out all of them?"

*** In the streets of Kyoto ***

Courtney looked down at her screen, displaying a lightning bolt. "Don't look know, guys. I think the other teams just had a change in forecast!" Hitting the item, suddenly everyone on teams Explosive and Radioactive saw a flashing lightning bolt symbol on their own screen. However, this one was much larger and accompanied by a beeping noise.

"This... seems like it's going to suck," Sammy observed ominously. Sure enough, the rapidly increasing beeping came to a climax. Since they had no way to cause actual lightning bolt clouds to appear above everyone, instead all of the karts for Team Radioactive and Team Explosive became electrified. Many screams of pain filled the streets as the electrocuted contestants spun out wildly. This was especially unfortunate for Lightning and Rodney, who had only just flipped their karts back into position and got in.

When it was all said and done, Team Old School had found themselves in the lead. They maintained it all the way to Golden Palace, and as they drove up they noticed three wooden signs planted before the building. Each had a team logo at the top and eight squares, almost all of which were empty save for one spot on Radioactive's sign with a chibi Staci sticker and a similar square on Team Old School's with an Izzy sticker.

"We're killing it," Beth cheered, the first to jump from her kart to slap her sticker into one of her team's squares. One by one everyone else did the same before returning to their vehicle. "Lets keep this up, guys!"

As that team left, the others starting piling in one by one. It became quite cluttered in front of the palace as many karts parked at once while the drivers put their stickers on, turning their vehicles into bumper cars as they tried to get back into the race.

*** Confessional: Dakota ***

"I've played this game with Sam a few times. If there's one thing he taught me about it, it's to not sweat it if you get behind early on. More often than not, things start to go badly for whoever is near the front."

*** In the streets of Kyoto ***

Because the stretch between the palace and bamboo forest was one of the longest of the race, there were two item block spaces en route to the next destination rather than just one. As expected, when Team Old School went over the first one they received mostly standard items. DJ and Leshawna were the least lucky since they just received the coin.

Many opposing team members started to close the gap when they received mushrooms from the item block, but others weren't far behind. Brick raised an eyebrow curiously when his item revealed itself to be a picture of a squid. "Hey, isn't this one kinda useless? What gives?"

Pressing the button anyway, all the opposing team members were alerted with a blinking picture of the item similar to the lightning bolt. But this time, rather than become electrified, a nozzle flipped up from the dashboard and sprayed everyone in the face with ink.

"Gross gross gross," Dave screamed frantically, letting go of the wheel to try and wipe away the ink and sending him off road into a tree. Others from Old School and Explosive got similarly sent off course thanks to the ink in their eyes, which was now putting Team Radioactive near the front of the pack. Cheers were exchanged among the new leaders as they approached the second item block. Meanwhile, after a few seconds had passed a new nozzle appeared for those affected by the ink, spraying them with water to wash it away.

Shenanigans continued to ensue with the second item block passing. Shells were flying, banana peels soaring, bombs flung. Lightning sent a green shell backwards that was getting ready to strike Beardo, but lucky for the beatboxer he had received a star from the item block. Upon clicking it his kart began to glow and a sort of electrified force field surrounded him that protected from any item. The shell shattered harmlessly against the force field, and it also allowed him to drive over a banana peel with no issue. Chuckling at the lucky break, Beardo did a perfect imitation of the Mario star theme for as long as it lasted.

Near the front of the pack Dawn was driving relatively peacefully, using her items mostly to deflect rather than go on the offensive. Suddenly a banana peel was tossed in front of her kart, much too quick for her to react in time. She spun out, looking around to see who the culprit thrower could be. It was only after hearing an animal-like cackle that she gazed up to realize the one responsible was a monkey hanging from the bamboo. As it continued to laugh at causing Dawn's wipeout, more monkeys appeared from within the bamboo. Each threw their own banana peels, raining down on the course in front of the unsuspecting contestants. While some did their best to swerve out of the way, most fell victim to the potassium based assault and swung out of control. The more chaos caused for the teams, the more the monkeys cracked up at watching.

*** Confessional: Dawn ***

"What mischievous creatures," she said with a smile, petting a monkey that had somehow found its way into the confessional with her. "But then again, considering the things monkeys usually like to throw at others, it could have been much, MUCH worse."

The monkey chuckled in agreement, wiggling its eyebrows.

*** In the streets of Kyoto ***

While the drivers did their best to get past the banana littered chaos in the bamboo forest, Team Radioactive found themselves at the front. Perhaps it was due to Dawn's presence, but regardless they were the first to reach the second sign and plant their stickers.

"Three more to go, let's move it along people," Anne Maria cheered on, everyone returning to their vehicles and setting course for Nijo Castle. Team Old School was the next team to reach the forest signs, with Team Explosive not far behind.

"Geez, we're still pretty behind," Jasmine noted, the first of her team to plant a sticker while the others rushed to follow. "We really gotta pick up the pace."

"Well being in last means we should have better items," Sammy pointed out. "So it's not over yet!"

With everyone now on their way to the next checkpoint it was a mad dash to the next item block. Once again the stretch between destinations was long, so two item blocks were passable on the way to the castle. Shells and bananas flew between Team Old School and Radioactive, distracting them while Team Explosive got their turn with the items. Sugar raised an eyebrow when she was given a picture of a fireball. Clicking it curiously, it shot a single fireball forward that harmlessly extinguished when it failed to hit no one.

"Well shoot, it gave me something useless, what a dud!"

"Sugar you can use those over and over," Shawn replied. "Just button mash."

"Oh." Grinning, the pageant queen cracked her knuckles and hovered a finger over the button while the other hand steered. "Out of the way, y'all! Sugar's bout to smoke them harder than a roadkill dinner."

Her teammates complied and veered out of the way from Sugar's wrath. The country girl let it rip and button mashed as hard as she could manage. A flurry of fireballs were shot from her kart, and while many shots missed, the sheer amount of attacks ensured they were hitting the marks. As the fireballs connected to enemy karts it not only spun them out but often ignited clothing, causing the shocked drivers to try and mash out the flames in a panic. Once they were ahead of the pack, Amy dropped a bomb behind her that helped widen the gap as the explosion stopped some of the fire victims from recovering.

Now Team Explosive was at the front when the second item block was passed over. Team Old School was trailing behind, but a certain team member grinned when he noticed how closely together the leading team was racing.

"How nice of them to bunch together so snugly," Cody observed, chuckling as he deployed a blue shell. "Here's a little present for their teamwork."

The blue shell soared through the air, making a beeline for Jasmine as she was the one in the lead. Many of her teammates gasped when they noticed the item hovering above her head, but somehow she could only smirk.

"Sorry, mate," she yelled back, clicking her screen just as the blue shell prepared to explode on top of her. She deployed a loud horn, producing a shockwave strong enough to harmlessly shatter the blue shell and prevent an explosion. "But you'll have to do better than that!"

Unmoved by the enemies, Team Explosive were the first to arrive at Nijo Castle. Crossing moats and going through the inner walls to find the third set of signs in front of a palace building, they quickly planted their stickers and returned to the race. Team Radioactive followed close behind, and Team Old School wasn't far off. While the placements were visible, it was still anybody's race. The stretch to the Toji temple was much shorter than the last two, and as such there was only a single item block. This one had to count.

As the item space approached Team Explosive was at the clear disadvantage. Three of their members got the useless coin as their item, so the others had to make their defensive resources count. Beardo, Beth, Trent, Anne Maria, and Rodney were among those stuck by shells. B was unable to react in time to avoid a banana peel that had been precisely tossed in front of him by Courtney. Even after a lightning bolt from Lightning himself seemed to turn the tides, two bomb throws Sammy and Cody kept things even. As the chaos subsided, things were pretty even and the teams grouped closer together.

*** Confessional: Leshawna ***

"Ya know, I've never been much for video games. But as it turns out, when you go from racing on the TV to doing it in the streets with explosives and crap involved, I can kinda see the appeal."

*** In the streets of Kyoto ***

With everyone pretty much mashed together with no definite team now in the lead, most made it to the Toji temple checkpoint at the same time. The signs were in front of the five story pagoda, and much pushing and shoving was involved as people dismounted to put their stickers on their respective team's sign. All that remained was the finish line checkpoint at the Fushimi Inari Shrine. As it turned out, it wasn't too far away, so only one final item block remained between the contestants and the end of the race.

Of particular note while the racers made their way to the final destination was a chorus of loud cheers coming from the streets. Odd, considering how they had mostly been empty throughout the challenge. The source of the cheers seemed to be from a group of Japanese school girls, all clad in black and white uniforms. They were most excited to see Trent, Cody, and Harold, nearly screaming as they pointed at them.

"It's the Drama Brothers," one with long black hair cheered.

"They're so cool," another with short brown hair added.

"They speak oddly fluent English," Cody pointed out in a whisper to Trent, who nodded in agreement. It was then that the guitarist felt an addition of weight to his vehicle. He looked to his side to find a grinning schoolgirl with pigtails flinging her arms around his neck.

"Marry me, Trent!"

Before Trent could even respond, a banana peel from up ahead somehow came flying back and nailed the girl in the face. She was sent flying from the kart, to who knows where. All Trent could do was shrug. "Welp, guess that takes care of that."

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"Fangirls. Let me tell ya, the life of a music star isn't always so easy. Especially these days after we got back together. Is it me, or were the fans we had last time... more normal? These new ones insist that we keep calling them Stan for some reason? I don't really get it. They keep trying to 'cancel' anyone that doesn't like out music, whatever that means. In general they seem way more ravenous than they used to, way more unhinged than the last batch." He tapped his finger to his chin, looking deep in thought. "Then again, Sierra was one of our original fans, so maybe I just wasn't paying as much attention back then."

*** In the streets of Kyoto ***

Many people were now bumping into enemy team members, trying in vain to send them off course. Glares were sent, insults flung, and tempers flared. Things were almost entirely neck and neck as the final item space approached. Most preemptively hovered their finger above their screens, ready to let loose whatever weapon they got. This would prove to be a mistake as many various shells and peels were shattered before they could be used when two more bombs went off courtesy of Brick and Sugar.

As the smoke settled, anyone with a mushroom immediately used it to jump right back into the fray. Things were mostly still neck and neck, but six contestants in particular now found themselves trailing behind the rest as they had been at the epicenter of the explosions. Exchanging glances, Harold, Leshawna, Scott, Dakota, Shawn, and Jasmine knew the race was coming down to them. And as luck would have it, they all each still had an item.

Finally the Inari shrine approached, sending the racers through countless red gates. The finish seemed to be at the top of the mountain at the site of a former shrine. Things were tense but otherwise quiet as the six racers trailing behind were sizing up the right time to use their final item. Shawn glanced over at his girlfriend, silently mouthing 'What item?' at her. Making sure the others couldn't see her, she silently mouthed back 'Banana. You?' Since Harold now seemed to be looking at them, the zombie nut instead made a subtle zooming motion with his hand to indicate he had a mushroom.

Meanwhile, Harold and Leshawna has tried to communicate through hand signs that they had a green and red shell respectively. Dakota also had a green shell while Scott had a bomb, though neither had communicated as much to the other. With the finish coming up sooner rather than later, it was the sister with 'tude that decided to act first.

"Alright, white boy," she called to Shawn, as he was the one in front of her. "Let's see you try and dodge this."

As she prepared to deploy the red shell, the zombie nut quickly assumed that would be the item she had thanks to her phrasing. "Jasmine, quick, drift in front of me and drop your thing. I have a plan."

"What, getting yourself hit with that instead of her shell?"

"Just trust me, I got this."

Not sure what he was planning but trusting him regardless, Jasmine got in position in front of her boyfriend and dropped her banana moments after Leshawna had sent the red shell Shawn's way. He glanced back to confirm the attack coming towards him and drove straight at the peel. "Three... two... one... now!"

Just inches away from the peel, Shawn steered wildly towards the right before roughly correcting his path. Because the shell had also been mere inches behind him, it didn't have enough time to hone in on Shawn's new direction as it shattered harmlessly against the banana. Once Shawn had corrected his direction and got behind his girlfriend, he deployed the mushroom to push himself into her kart and send them both screeching ahead of the others. The speed boost widened the gap quite a bit, effectively putting them far enough away to ensure they would win before the remaining four.

"Well crap," Leshawna grumbled, looking back to see Scott and Dakota on their tail and her now without an item. "This can't be good."

"Yeah, sorry but you're right." Grinning, Dakota shot her green shell at her opponent. Leshawna braced for impact, only to hear a screech of tires and the sound of a different kart spinning out. Opening her eyes, she saw that Harold had swerved into the shell's path, preventing it from hitting his crush.

"Harold, baby, you alright?"

"I'm fine!" Once he was done spinning out the geek corrected himself and took off. Though he was now solidly at the back of the pack with Dakota and Scott between him and Leshawna. "I've got this, just finish the race."

Nodding, Leshawna focused on making it to the end. By now most from the front of the race had made it past the finish line and planted stickers on the final checkpoint. Shawn and Jasmine were close, and once they did their part it would ensure another victory for their team. By now those that finished were cheering on their teammate, hoping to at least avoid elimination.

"Sorry, dork, but any plans you had to catch up are about to blow up in your face," Scott taunted back at his fellow ginger, grinning wickedly as he prepared to deploy the bomb. Unfortunately for him, the comment gave away too much.

"So you have a bomb for your item, huh?" Harold whispered to himself, a smirk of his own forming. "I can work with that."

Keeping a close eye on Scott's arm, Harold positioned himself behind the former villain. His finger was mere centimeters away from the green shell button, with Dakota and Scott none the wiser as they inched closer and closer to the end. "Almost... almoooooost... now!"

Seeing Scott's arm move towards his screen, Harold acted quick. With his shot lined up perfectly, he sent the green shell careening forward. Scott deployed the bomb, but in what felt like a mere second later, the shell connected with the bomb. With the bomb just barely behind both him and his teammate, the ensuing explosion knocked Scott and Dakota both away. They crashed roughly into one of the vermilion gates, dumping them from their karts and allowing Harold to pass them.

"Booyah! Thanks for the assist with the bomb," he called out, zooming past his opponents while Team Old School cheered from up ahead. While Scott was still dazed and groaning from the impact, Dakota growled in frustration.

"Uggggh, Scott! Why did you have to taunt and let him know you had a bomb?" She chastised her teammate, pushing him away.

"What, you're blaming me for that? How was I supposed to know he could hit the bomb with his own item?" The farmer folded his arms, huffing. "It was a freak accident!"

"Sam would have known better, he's played this game hundreds of times," Dakota shot back, her voice growing louder and angrier.

"Well sorry that I'm not your dang boyfriend." Scott turned his back to his teammate, not noticing as her shadow began to grow drastically. "Seriously, you can't expect everyone to have the same amount of dumb video game knowledge as him. Especially when we're doing it in real life! Like come on, cut me a bre-"

"SHUT. UP." Suddenly, a large orange hand squeezed around Scott and picked him up. He had no time to react as the breath was crushed out of him. Darting his eyes up, he confirmed that he was in the clutch of Dakotazoid now, who looked ahead at the finish like with venom in her eyes. "WE NOT LOSING!"

In a flash, Dakotazoid took off in a full sprint, knocking over many of the red gates as she went. This initially went unnoticed by the others as Jasmine and Shawn had just crossed the finish line and secured their team's victory with their sticker placement.

"And Team Explosive wins... again," Chris announced, ignoring the mix of cheers and groans from the others. "And it looks like Leshawna is up next! Things aren't looking too good for Team Rad... wait, what's causing all that mayhem back there?"

Everyone looked at where the host was pointing, seeing the image of the hulking mutant barreling her way up the mountain at record speeds. Some gasped, while others watched in awe. Leshawna was particularly confused when she crossed the finish line and no one seemed to notice. It was only after she had placed her sticker that she too had seen the cause of their distraction.

"Oh shoot... Harold, watch out!"

Her yell unfortunately went unheard by the geek as the noise of his go kart and the odd rumbling behind him drowned it out. "Finish line is so close I can almost taste it." The rumble became louder and louder, shaking the ground around him. "What the heck is going on back there? They should be out of items."

Harold tried to look back but it was too late, Dakotazoid's massive foot came stomping down on top of him as she had effectively caught up. She didn't even seem to notice that she had stepped on the nerd as she continued sprinting for the finish line. Chris and the others had preemptively dove out of the way to avoid being in Dakotazoid's path. She screeched to a halt across the finish line, finally letting go of Scott. His limbs were mangled in awkward positions, but as luck would have it the arm holding his last sticker was the one facing his team's sign and it barely stuck to the square as his limb body plopped to the ground. Dakota then tried to place her own sticker, though the force from her mutant strength caused the sign to snap in two in the process.

"Yes! We win!" Dakotazoid hopped up and down, fist raised in the air victoriously. Scott could only groan painfully, his body briefly lifting up every time his teammate came back down from her massive jumps.

"Well that was an... abnormal way to finish the race," a dumbfounded Chris finally continued. "But, you can't argue with results! Team Radioactive is safe, Team Old School is sending someone home."

"What? Those two didn't even cross in their go karts," Courtney pointed out, irate. "How is that fair?"

"I never said you HAD to finish in your karts, it just made things a lot easier for you kids." Chris chuckled. "Do you have any idea how long the challenge would have been if you had to walk the whole way? Booooring."

"Oh give me a break, you can take your stupid loopholes and shove them straight up your-"

"Excuse me, but I believe this can wait," Dawn interrupted, suddenly appearing between the arguing host and latina. "I believe the condition of your teammate is the more pressing matter at hand."

Dawn motioned past the other side of the finish line, where Dakota had accidentally stomped on Harold. The mighty step had obliterated the go kart, with bits and pieces of it strewn about the small crater-like hole her foot had left. In the middle of the wreckage was Harold, groaning in agony with his face buried in the dirt and his body bruised up.

"Harold!" Leshawna ran towards her former flame, the rest of their team following close behind. Other contestants looked on in shock, with the most wide eyed being a now reverted Dakota.

"Ugh, my legs! My neck! I think I broke my coccyx! Oh man, it hurts so much."

With each pained sentence from the nerd, more and more eyes of fear turned towards Dakota. All those standing near her gradually scooted away, with the heiress herself having her hand to her mouth as the feeling of dread filled her. The only one who didn't move away was Scott, merely because he currently wasn't in a state to do so.

*** Confessional: Dakota ***

"Crap, crap, crap, CRAP. I was afraid something like this would happen with Dakotazoid." Her face was buried in her hands, and she shook her head in disbelief. "M-maybe it wasn't as bad as it sounded?"

*** Confessional: Harold ***

The dweeb was now in a wheelchair, casts around his legs and a brace surrounding his neck. His left eye was bruised to the point of nearly being closed and an ice pack was being applied to the precious coccyx. "... well this sucks."

*** Confessional: Scott ***

"All I got to say?" the dirt farmer started, lifting up his shirt to show the bruises left on his torso by Dakota's vice-like grip. "Sam, you got WEIRD taste in girls."

*** At the elimination ceremony ***

While there may had still been debates sent Chris' way on the legitimacy of Team Radioactive's safety, at the end of the day it was Team Old School who found themselves at the ceremony. As he was unable to sit in the bleachers, the wheelchair bound Harold merely sat next to them.

"Man, Team Old School, tough break," Chris began in a fake tone of sincerity. "You started out the race so well! Almost even beat Team Explosive to first class. But now here you are, the first team to send a second person home. Twice in a row, no less!"

"I'll have you know I'll be looking into the legitimacy of allowing someone with Dakota's condition to be on one team but not the others," Courtney threatened sternly. "It creates an unfair competitive environment!"

"Yeah, good luck with that." Merely shooting a finger pistol and smirk her way in response, Chris then presented the plate holding six barf bags. "Anyway, may as well get this moving along. Cody, Beth, Leshawna, Trent, and DJ are all safe, since they didn't really do anything to warrant being on the block."

Everyone caught their respective barf bags, no one really celebrating due to the awkwardness of the ceremony. They merely nodded in acknowledgement and looked towards the remaining two without one.

"Harold, you're on the chopping block because you're kinda useless to your team now." He looked down at his wheelchair, sighing in frustration. "And Courtney, you're on the block because you're still kinda a Meanie McBossypants."

"Real mature," she grumbled in contempt.

"But only one of you Killer Bass alumni get to stick around, and that person will be...

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... yeah, no use dragging it out too much. It's Courtney."

Chris tossed the final barf bag to the CIT, but to her credit she practiced restraint and didn't celebrate the safety to rub it in. She merely sighed in relief and caught her bag with no comment.

"GOSH! This is even more unfair than how I went out in World Tour," Harold complained, Chef approaching from behind to strap the parachute to him. Once it was on safely he wheeled the ginger over to the open hatch.

"To be fair, you kinda quit that one on your own there, hombre." Noting the annoyed glares sent his way, Chris put his arms up innocently. "But hey, feel free to say your goodbyes and whatnot."

The rest of Team Old School got up to see Harold off, DJ and Beth being the first to give him a hug.

"Sorry things ended up like this for you, Harold," Courtney said, going for a handshake instead. "Even I'll admit you didn't deserve to go out like this."

"I guess that means a lot coming from you, all things considered." He returned the handshake, smiling. "Thanks."

The outsiders of the team stepped aside to allow Trent and Cody to approach their bandmate next. Neither were particularly affectionate, but both were clearly upset over seeing their friend leave. "Man, this really bites," Trent commented. "I really thought the three of us would go far together this season."

"Take it from me, I know how it feels to get screwed over in an elimination like this," Cody added, patting him on the shoulder. "So I know how frustrating it's gotta be. Still, at least you can help Justin with his album when you get back."

"Pfft, you know he never takes my advice." The three shared a laugh, with Harold looking towards the exit to the rest of the plane. "By the way, I let Beardo know about our offer to have him on board earlier. So if you see him around let him know the offer is still there and junk."

"Can do, bud. Take care." Trent gave his friend a playful punch on the shoulder, he and Cody stepping aside to let the final team member talk to him.

"Tch, Harold baby, you gotta stop getting yourself into these messes," Leshawna chided playfully, both chuckling. "And here I was actually looking forward to spending more time with your scrawny behind this season."

"As much as it stinks to disappoint you, I guess I can take solace in knowing I've left you wanting more," he replied coolly, actually managing to get a blush for his troubles. "But yeah, this is probably the biggest thing that sucks about going so early."

"Whadda ya mean?"

Harold looked towards Cody and Trent, who both flashed thumbs up and motioned for him to continue. "Welp, I may as well get this out there before I go. This was gonna be the season where I tried to make things work between us. You're an awesome friend, but I think you'd be an even awesome-er girlfriend."

"Is that right?" she asked, raising an eyebrow with a hand on her hip and a smirk forming.

"We've beaten around this bush for years now," Harold continued. "And I know we're a lot different. Weird guys like me don't usually date radical girls like you, but I've toured all around the world with my band and I can say with certainty that you're the only one that totally rocks my world."

Leshawna was impressed, her blush deepening. "Shoot, Harold, when did you become such a sweet talker?"

*** Confessional: Cody ***

"He practiced. A lot. Pretty much every Tuesday and Friday on the tour bus he'd go over it again. Plus Trent gave him some advice. Justin too, but his pointers were a bit too focused on Justin himself and that didn't really make sense."

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

"So yeah, I know things ended pretty shortly when we tried this back in season 1, but how about we give this thing a shot for real this time?"

"Shoo. This is a lot to take in all at once, Harold." Leshawna fanned herself, the watchful gazes of the rest of her team not helping calm down the situation. "I don't know what to say."

"Then how about instead of saying anything," Harold replied without missing a beat, "You give daddy some sugar."

Harold leaned forward, eyes closed and lips prepared. Leshawna followed suite, also leaning towards her rekindled flame. It was as the two were mere inches away from a kiss that the click of a button was heard. His eyes shot open and he gasped, quickly pushing her to the ground. "Look out!"

Only just barely pushing Leshawna out of the way in time, she had narrowly avoided the Boot of Shame that swung down and hit Harold square in the face. The impact sent him rolling out of the hatch, plummeting to the ground below.

"Chris, what the heck man?" Trent yelled, everyone on the team wide eyed at the moment being interrupted.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Leshawna added once she had regained realization of the situation, looking ready to give Chris the beatdown of a lifetime. "I was gonna tell him yes!"

"Yeah, and it was all sooooo romantic," the host taunted in a sickeningly sweet voice. "I was like, so swept up in that moment, oh my gosh you guys... buuuuuut now I'm over it!"

Returning to his trademark cocky grin and cool demeanor, Chris patted Leshawna on the shoulder. "But hey, at least he pushed you out of the way so you didn't get the boot with him. A real gentlemen that guy, he's a keeper. Now get to scooting, I got an outro to do."

Everyone, Leshawna especially, still seemed flustered at the whole situation, but they knew there was nothing that could be done. They reluctantly made their way to economy class, leaving Chris and Chef by themselves in the elimination area.

"That WAS pretty wack just blue balling the situation like that," Chef pointed out, though grinning mischievously.

"I know, I have the best timing ever!" Turning to the camera, the host held up the trusty button that allowed the boot to do its thing. "Will I get to ruin any more moments with the Boot? How will Leshawna recover now that her newly found old boyfriend is gone as soon as they were back on? And seriously, can ANYONE stop Team Explosive from steamrolling the competition? Find out the answers to all of this and more, next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

Beth awkwardly stamped Harold's passport, frowning. "This kinda feels wrong, but it wouldn't be fair to anyone else if we kept an injured teammate over them anyway. Sorry, Harold."

"It would be pretty hypocritical of me to vote someone off due to injury considering season 1 for me," Cody pointed out, stamping Courtney's passport. "So I won't do that... but yeah, he's pretty much screwed.

"Is it messed up that I'm kinda relieved this happened?" Courtney looked down at Harold's passport awkwardly before giving it a stamp. "I mean, I'm not happy that it happened like this. Even if it was to him, I don't feel like I really won anything this way. Just got stupidly lucky. But I'd probably be going next if the Drama Brothers weren't separated, so I guess this worked out in the end."

"Man, this is all kinds of messed up," DJ noted as he stamped Harold's passport reluctantly. "I mean, I know me and Beth agreed to try and help Courtney even the odds between us and the others, but it feels cheap doing it like this. Oh well, guess that's life."

Harold grunted as he stamped Courtney's passport, rubbing the back of his neck brace after the fact. "Though I may not have steel claws, I do like to think I have a pretty wicked good healing factor. So hopefully my team lets me stick around and walk this one off. Sure I may have jammed up legs, a messed up neck, and also my coccyx. But that's not enough reason to get voted off... right?"

Leshawna looked on at the Harold passport, almost considering voting for it but ultimately deciding on the Courtney one. "Sorry, I know it ain't fair to Courtney since Harold is injured and it makes more sense to vote him off. But I don't got it in me to vote for the string bean. Shoot, am I falling for his weird behind again? Well at least he isn't springing some crazy confession on me for now. That would be pretty awkward in front of everyone."

After looking back and forth between the passports for Harold and Courtney, Trent eventually sighed and stamped the one belonging to his bandmate. "I'm sorry, Harold, but it's only going to injure you worse if you stick around for more challenges in this state. Really sucks too, because I know he was gonna ask out Leshawna again soon. Maybe he'll luck out and everyone else will vote out Courtney instead?"

Votes for Harold: 4 (Beth, Courtney, DJ, Trent)

Votes for Courtney: 3 (Cody, Harold, Leshawna)

After the Boot of Shame:

Harold struggled a bit to deploy the parachute, grunting in pain when he finally got it to go as it agitated his neck. While rubbing it, he looked on at the camera with a wince. "You know, when guys like me say we want monster girls to step on us, I don't think we really take into consideration just how much it'd ACTUALLY hurt. Gosh."

He sighed, leaning back in his wheelchair while the parachute floated him down. "I guess things could have gone worse. I was totally about to score me some sugar before Chris had to go and do a guy dirty like that. What's that guy's problem? Duncan and Gwen kiss and it's good for ratings, but I can't even have mine? Talk about picking favorites."

"Anyway, I'm starting to think me and Japan together is cursed. First Al tricks me into quitting last time, and this time I get taken out by injury due to a kaiju? I can't catch a break here. I guess all I can do is go heal up, maybe hang with Justin, and hope Leshawna is still up for giving things a shot when the season is over. Or if she gets eliminated. Whatever comes first."

With that all said, he finally harmlessly came to a stop on a random Kyoto sidewalk. He removed the parachute with ease, looking around in shock. "Huh, a normal landing with nothing gross or injury inducing waiting for me? Maybe my luck is turning around already!"

Perhaps instantly regretting his jinxing words, he was caught off guard by an ear shattering chorus of screeches. He looked nearby to see the group of Japanese fan girls, now tripled in size. "It's one of the Drama Brothers! Get him!"

"And I spoke too soon. GOSH!" With all his might, Harold furiously wheeled away from the mob, looking on at the camera desperately. "Leshawna, if you're watching I know this may look bad, but call me-" He was unable to finish his sentence as he had to scream and increase his speed to get away from the rabid fan girls now chasing after him.

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dakota, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Rodney, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar

Elimination Order:

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

"Previously on Total Drama Battle of the Generations," Chris narrated from within the cockpit with Chef. "We touched down in Kyoto for a go kart race unlike any other! There were explosions, bananas, and a whole lot of chaos. Our teams kept vying back and forth for the lead, but in the end it was once again Team Explosive to race into first place. Meanwhile, Team Old School found themselves in the elimination ceremony once again after Dakotazoid stepped on Harold's parade. To add insult to injury, literally, the now wheelchair bound nerd was voted off. But not before rekindling things with his former flame Leshawna, giving your's truly the perfect opportunity to ruin their moment."

Chris laughed as the clip played of Harold being kicked off the plane right as he and Leshawna were going to kiss. "Man, I love this job! Where will the contestants find themselves next? Can Dakota keep her anger in check? And who will be the next one voted out? Find out tonight, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Opening Credits ***

With Scott, Dawn, B, and Brick off to the cargo hold for their usual zombie search with Team Explosive, only Dakota, Lightning, and Anne Maria remained in economy class. The girls sat in an awkward silence while Lightning did push ups on the nearby floor.

"Yo, can one of you keep count for The Lightning while he's doing his thing?" he asked, not slowing down from the workout. "Gotta have my mind in the game, so Lightning ain't got no sha-time for algebra."

"Yeah yeah, you're at like fifty or something, just keep going." Anne Maria didn't look up from her nails, mostly channeling out the occasional grunts and commentary from the jock. But a sigh from Dakota caught her attention. "Hey, you doing alright?"

"No." The heiress slumped back into her seat, looking on in shame. "I feel horrible about what happened with Dakotazoid. Even if it was an enemy team member, the fact that I actually got someone injured is eating me up inside."

"Ah. Yeah, I can see why that'd be bugging ya." Putting away the nail file, now it was time for the Jersey girl to switch to eyeliner as she went about her touch up routine. "Well hey, look on the bright side. It helped get us the win! Plus, maybe that ginger guy didn't get it too bad. Might not even have got eliminated."

On cue, Team Old School finally began filing their way into economy class. There was an awkward silence, with Dakota and Anne Maria both observing that Harold was now the only one missing from the group. As they sat down, Leshawna in particular was giving the mutant a death stare that felt like it could melt through steel.

"Er... nevermind." Anne Maria chuckled awkwardly, frowning when Dakota could only sigh in shame.

*** Confessional: Dakota ***

"Uuuugh, I can't believe this! I came back to the show to try and make new friends, it got pretty hard doing that when you're stuck as a giant monster at all times. But after this everyone's just going to be intimidated around me, and I'm PRETTY sure Leshawna hates my guts now. Maybe I can try and patch things up with her?"

*** In Economy Class ***

Unable to further stew in the awkward environment, Dakota sucked in a breath and walked over to Team Old School's bench. Anne Maria wanted to warn of it being a bad idea, but was too slow to stop her. Leshawna's glare stayed firmly pointed directly into the blonde's eyes as she approached with an optimistic smile.

"Hey, uh, Leshawna. I just wanted to apologize about everything that happened." She looked around at the other Old School team members who were watching the interaction curiously. "To all of you. I know it's a competition, but I didn't mean to injure your friend like that. So I'm really really sorry."

"Uh huh," was all Leshawna would reply with.

"And since we got off on the wrong foot, I was hoping we might be able to start over," Dakota continued. "You and I are both fashionable gals, plus we seem to have a pretty similar taste in guys. I think we could be really good friends."

"Show me one person who asked, white girl." Not missing a beat when the heiress recoiled at her response, Leshawna kept it up. "Also for the record me and Harold ain't just friends now, but I won't get to enjoy that fact until after I'm done winning this damn show. So for the time being? Leave me alone."

Dakota tried to open her mouth for a response, but an intensified glare from the darker skinned girl was enough to convince her it was futile. She returned to her seat in shame, others in the room cringing at the awkwardness of the exchange.

*** Cockpit Confessional: Leshawna ***

Taking in a deep breath, Leshawna let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. "Look, I get it. Dakota didn't injure Harold on purpose. I don't know what it's like having her condition, I figure it must be hard to control stuff like that. So over time I'll cool off and drop my grudge. But for now, can't a sister be salty in peace?"

"It WAS pretty cold how you clapped back at her," Chef noted from the pilot seat, not noticing the offended reaction he got in response.

"She put my man in a damn wheelchair!"

"Ah, so maybe you're just jealous that another girl got to crush him underneath her. Nerds like that do tend to enjoy crazy monster chicks." Sensing danger, Chef turned around in a panic as he instantly regretted his word choice. An incensed Leshawna rolled up a sleeve, stomping towards the older man. "Now hold up, I was just joking!"

She pulled back her arm for a punch but the camera transitioned away before any sort of impact was seen.

*** In the Common Area ***

Sometime later everyone was beginning to enjoy their breakfast, or at least as much as they could manage. Courtney joined DJ and Beth at a table, the rest of their team still in the process of getting their food.

"Crazy how everything went down, ain't it?" DJ said quietly, going for a vegan friendly option with his breakfast. "I guess we should feel lucky, but I still kinda feel bad."

"Yes yes, what happened to Harold really sucked for him," Courtney agreed haphazardly. "But now that he's out the playing field is back to even for us. And if we can rope in Leshawna away from Trent and Cody? We'll have successfully turned the tables."

"I don't know, her and Trent have been pretty good friends since season 1 too," Beth pointed out. "It might be pretty hard to get her to vote against them."

"Well if we have to take out chances in a tiebreaker I suppose Cody would be the best bet for who we can beat if it comes to that."

As the CIT continued whispering her plans to her sorta kinda allies, a certain dirt farmer couldn't help but take notice of the conversation. He took a seat next to Courtney, startling the members of the enemy team.

"Ya doing some plotting over here, Court?" He asked slyly, grinning through the annoyed glare his former flame was giving him. "Ya know, I think I'm starting to get in good with some of my teammates, so if you wanna start an inter-team alliance I'd be pretty down to-"

"Not interested, Scott. Go away." Seeing him about to reply, Courtney jabbed a finger into his chest and raised her voice. "Go. Away!"

Scott held up his hands defensively, quickly grabbing his tray and retreating to his own team's table. Courtney's teammates could only watch in amused confusion at the interaction.

"So what's the deal with you two?" Beth asked. "Are you like on a break or-"

"We were never really ON at all," Courtney tried to correct. "Didn't you watch All Stars? It was all an act. I didn't really have feelings for that gross farm boy, it was purely strategic to earn his loyalty."

"See you say that, but you were even talking about how you liked Scott when he wasn't around," DJ pointed out, he and Beth forming grins of their own as she grew more flustered. "Even in the confessional where literally no one else could hear you."

The Latina stammered a bit, going over excuses in her mind that would make enough sense. Eventually one stuck out. "Well, duh! What if he got voted off and got to watch the episodes at home? If they did another finale where the others voted on the winner, or if I needed helpers for the last challenge, I would still need to ensure his cooperation."

DJ folded his arms. "Mhm, sure."

*** Confessional: DJ ***

"If that was the case, she never woulda made that confessional about her chart that shot herself in the foot. That thing lost her Scott AND Gwen's support. She ain't fooling nobody, she's still into that dude. Wonder why she keeps denying it so much?"

*** In the Common Area ***

Just as breakfast was finishing up, Chris strolled in with a certain mischievous smirk that could only mean a challenge was imminent. "Well if it isn't my favorite people to terrorize. If any of you are sufficiently homesick at this point after visiting three different continents, you're in luck! We're heading back to the Americas. Specifically, today we're heading down south."

"Oh cool, something in South America?" Brick smiled enthusiastically. "Where to? Brazil, maybe Chile?"

"No, we're keeping it to North America for now," the host corrected. "We're just heading south."

"So, Mexico?" Shawn asked, scratching his head.

Chris facepalmed. "Perhaps I should be more clear going forward. We're going to the United States. Specifically the south as a backdrop for today's challenge." He retrieved a pair of legally distinct mouse ears from out of his pocket to place on his head. "We're heading over to the happiest town on Earth. Or so they say, at least. Orlando! Nestled in Florida, it's home to countless tourist destinations that'll make an excellent playground for today-"

"Uh, Chris?" Chef whispered, running up to his companion in the middle of his briefing. He was currently sporting a black eye courtesy of Leshawna. "We... don't have enough fuel to get to Orlando."

"Seriously? Didn't we JUST have this problem?" Chef could only shrug and smile innocently. "Fine, whatever. Plan B!"

Throwing away the mouse ears, Chris reached back into his pocket to pull out a purple and yellow bead necklace. He slipped it on and resumed his speech. "So, change of plans. We'll actually be heading to New Orleans! Not only does Louisiana specialize in gators and gumbo, it knows how to throw a wicked sweet party! So today-"

"We don't have the gas to make it to New Orleans either," Chef hesitantly interrupted once again.

Chris could only sigh, tossing away the beads and putting on a sheriff hat that resembled the one worn by the main character from that one zombie show. "Okay, Plan C! Atlanta is known by many as the birthplace of the world's most famous soda, but for today's challenge-"

This time without saying anything, Chef meekly leaned forward. Sighing, Chris gave his cohort a side eye. "Not enough gas for Atlanta either, eh?" Chef shook his head. "Please tell me we at least have enough gas for Plan D."

After looking off to the side, Chef nodded and gave a thumbs up.

"Alright, Plan D it is. At least I have a good outfit for that one." Chris and Chef both walked off, leaving the contestants confused since they had just watched the back and forth awkwardly the whole time. "And get me the intern in charge of keeping up with the fuel! Him and the Boot of Shame are about to have a nice long talk."

Once they were gone and the cafeteria was left in silence, everyone else could only look around in further confusion. "Soooo, is he gonna tell us where we're going or what?" Trent asked, receiving no answer.

The camera view switched to outside the jet as it began to make its descent. It passed by a weird looking skyscraper that resembled Batman's cowl, a building housing a giant musical stage, and a street full of BBQ joints playing live music among other locals. It eventually landed in the middle of a park with everyone being herded outside. When Chris joined them, he was clad in an Elvis Presley getup complete with a wig and rhinestone covered white jumpsuit.

"Somehow that outfit suits you," Cody said among the chorus of chuckles.

"Thank ya," Chris replied with a bad Elvis impersonation, gyrating his hips and striking a pose for added effect. "Thank ya very much."

That done, he cleared his throat and returned to his normal speaking voice. "Welcome to Centennial Park, right here in Nashville. Capital of Tennessee, and known for its copious amount of barbecue joints as well as having a rich history with the music industry. Granted a lot of that history is with country music, but hey, they can't all be winners."

"If we're in Tennessee, then how come there's the Italiano thingy over there?" Sugar asked, pointing a finger at a nearby building. It was a recreation of the Parthenon, exactly like the one in Athens. "I don't think that doohickey is supposed to be American."

"It's just a recreation, Sugar. I have no idea why they felt the need to recreate the Parthenon in the middle of Tennessee, but at least it'll make a neat backdrop for today's challenge. And on that note, let's explain the rules! We're going to be putting on a genuine southern county fair."

Chef, now clad in overalls and a cowboy hat, rolled out a chalkboard that had been divided into three columns. At the top of each column was one of the team logo's. Sugar cheered at the announcement of the challenge theme, while Scott, Rodney, and Beth also looked varying degrees of stoked.

"To put on this fair, we'll be having you all compete in various mini challenges. For each one, you'll nominate one person to represent your team. If you win a challenge, you earn your team three points. Being the runner up gets you 2 points, while losing obviously only gets you a single point." As he explained things, Chris noticed Sugar absolutely giddy with excitement. "And since I'm sure some of you are a bit more eager than others for the competition, we have a few extra rules. Most importantly, every member of the team must compete in a challenge. Only after everyone has gone can a teammate go again. As you can probably assume, the team with the most points at the end wins first class. The team with the lowest amount of points sends some sorry jerk off the plane."

"What if there's a tie?" Beth asked with her hand raised.

"A tiebreaker has been set aside if it's needed," Chris confirmed. "So that about covers it, feel free to talk strategy while we prepare the first challenge."

Both Chef and Chris left to ensure things were ready. Murmurs broke out among the respective teams, though the whispers between Team Old School were the most serious.

"Alright, we're down two people so we really need to pull this thing off," Trent said to the others, receiving various nods in agreement. "Even if we just get 2nd, as long as we make sure we don't have to send someone home for the third time in a row."

"Having the smallest team may actually work to our advantage," Courtney added. "We'll be able to double up on challenges the quickest, so we'll be able to more strategically plan out who should do what."

Meanwhile with Team Explosive, it was clear one particular teammate was more excited than anyone else.

"I've been to more county fairs in a year then any of y'all have been in yer lives combined." Sugar pointed her thumb at her chest. "I should go first. Strike some fear into the rest of them losers by showing them how outta their league they are."

"If you're the most experienced with these things we can't just pick you right off the bat when we may need you for something else," Shawn pointed out. "We need to use you for a challenge we know you'll win for sure, and that probably won't be the first one."

"Alright, the first challenge is going to be a blueberry pie eating contest," Chris announced through a megaphone. "Send up your reps and let's chow down!"

Everyone looked on, befuddled, with Sugar's smug grin being the only exception. Shawn shrugged. "I stand corrected, go get em Sugar."

A long table had been placed atop a platform, with a chair on each end and in the middle. In front of each chair was a ludicrous pile of pies, probably at least 30 for each person. Sugar had begun drooling in anticipation, while she was joined on stage by Leshawna and Brick. The former cracked her knuckles at the challenge ahead, while the later limbered up a bit.

"Whoever eats the most amount of pies after 60 seconds takes the win." Chris held up a stopwatch, peering over the three contenders before starting the clock. "Begin!"

Mere moments after Chris' sentence finished, it was already over before it had begun. Moving with an abnormal speed she wasn't usually known for, an inhuman noise came from Sugar as she shoveled pies into her gullet as if they were nothing. Brick had barely taken a bite from his first pie as he watched on in horror, both tantalized and repulsed by the pageant queen's display. Somehow she began making the noise of a vacuum cleaner, inhaling pies as if it was simple as breathing air itself.

*** Confessional: Brick ***

"Ya know, I couldn't really explain it in words, but there's something about Sugar that absolutely terrifies me. I feel like she'd be able to eat another human with ease so long as they're covered in BBQ sauce. Needless to say, it is NOT comforting seeing her on enemy lines in the battlefield."

*** In Centennial Park ***

Sugar was almost entirely done with her pie pile by the time Brick had finally snapped out of it and finished his first. Leshawna was past 4 pies, but neither of them could hope to keep up with an absolute unit like Sugar. Soon enough she had consumed all of the pastries in front of her, with 20 seconds still on the clock to spare.

"That's it?" She asked, annoyed. "Y'all ain't got no more for me?"

Chris and Chef exchanged looks of unnerved confusion. "You say that like we actually expected any of you to be able to finish the whole pile. Seriously, there's something actually wrong with-"

"Well I ain't done yet, I can eat more!" Not waiting for permission due to her Lovecraftian hunger not yet being quenched, Sugar bowled over Brick and proceeded to devour the rest of his pies. A fearful looking Leshawna was able to dive out of the way just in time to avoid also being pushed aside when Sugar continued to inhale her pies as well. Other contestants could merely watch in awe as Sugar made the entire spread of deserts disappear.

After giving a satisfied burp at a job well done, Sugar finally sat down in time for the stopwatch to reach zero.

"Despite the fact that she wasn't supposed to eat the pies from anyone else, I guess the results were pretty locked in even if she didn't speed up the process." Chris turned to the chalkboard, drawing three lines under Team Explosive's column. Two lines were drawn under Team Old School's, and only a single line under Team Radioactive. "Sugar won with ease, while Brick did the worst. Leshawna was in the middle of the pack. I'll remind the teams those three can't compete in the next challenges until their whole team has gone. Up next? Pig racing!"

"Aw come on, I love piggies!" Sugar huffed as she jumped down from the stage, arms folded in disappointment. "Stupid rules."

"Beardo, think you could make pig noises to get your's to cooperate?" Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow at the beatboxer. "Other than Sugar I don't think any of the rest of us would particularly excel at that one."

"Fo sho." He gave a thumbs up, doing a convincing pig squeal to prove his capability.

Meanwhile with the Radioactive crew, things were proceeding less cooperatively.

"What do you mean ya can't do it?" Anne Maria asked a defiant looking Dawn. "It's animals! Isn't vibing with them your whole shtick?"

"Making them race against their will for our own enjoyment is most certainly NOT part of my shtick." She used air quotes on the last word for emphasis. "Quite honestly, I find the idea of this challenge absolutely demeaning to those poor pigs."

"Pfft, if creepy girl don't wanna do it then Lightning's got this," the first person speaking jock said, stepping up to the scene.

"And what do you know about pigs?" Scott asked.

"Nothin. But Lightning knows all about racing, and he knows all about winning. You ask Lightning, that's a good combo right there!"

No one really had any better ideas on who should go if Dawn was refusing, so Lightning was sent ahead. The second challenge took place at a makeshift muddy race track that was contained within a pen. Hurdles of various heights were spread throughout between the starting point and finish line, and the track seemed to get muddier as it progressed. Three large pigs awaited at the starting point, one of which was caught off guard when Beth ran up to pet it like a dog.

"Awww, they're so adorable!" She scratched behind her pig's ear, making it roll over for a belly rub. "You remind me so much of Big Bertha!"

While Beth continued showering her pig with affection, Lightning and Beardo took their positions behind their's. The pig was decently large, but the beatboxer couldn't help but look at it nervously when comparing himself to the more lean Lightning and smaller Beth.

"This... might not have been the best idea."

An airhorn was blown, prompting everyone to jump on to their pigs. While Lightning and Beth took off with little issue, Beardo's worries were proven to be valid as his pig struggled to carry his weight. It was progressing at a significantly slower rate than the others, even as its rider began making pig noises in an attempt to communicate and make it stop lagging behind.

Things stayed close between Lightning and Beth, but the later's pig began inching ahead since it had less weight to carry. The farm girl continued to pet her mount's head and whisper words of encouragement to keep its spirits up. But Lightning? He had a different plan.

"Shoot, I ain't about to lose a race to some nerdy girl." Out of nowhere, Lightning whipped out his container of protein powder. Holding on with just his legs, he was able to scoop out some powder and hold it in front of the pig's face. "We need to get this show on the road, piggy. Take some of this, it's how Lightning stays winning!"

Curious, the pig licked up the powder from the scoop, still clearing hurdles as it did. Its eyes went wide, instantly feeling invigorated with energy since that was totally how protein powder worked. "Oh you like that? Get Lightning the win and there's more where that came from!"

Nodding in understanding, the pig increased speed, closing the gap that Beth's had made. But now even Beardo was catching up, hanging from his pig's tail and covered in mud as it wildly ran towards the finish line.

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

"I got no idea what happened! One moment I'm just trying all these pig noises to get the thing moving, then the next moment it freaks out, bucks me off into the mud, and takes off like a madman. I think I might have accidentally said something that scared it? Wouldn't know, I don't speak pig."

*** In Centennial Park ***

Between the efforts of all three contestants, the race was becoming neck and neck. For Beardo's pig in particular, the beatboxer had to brace himself as he banged into each hurdle it jumped over. But at the end, edging out by just a snout, Lightning's pig crossed first just before Beth's.

"Sha-score!" Lightning vaulted off his mount, soaking in the cheers from his teammates. He scooped the pig a fresh batch of protein powder, which hopefully wasn't unhealthy for it to eat. "That's what Lightning's talking about! Eat up, piggy bro."

"It's ok little guy, you did your best," Beth reassured her own pig, petting it gently. As for Beardo, he could only groan as his pig dragged him across the finish line, with Shawn and Jasmine coming over to check on him.

"And with that, we have a tied score at four points each," Chris announced, Chef updating the marked below the icons to reflect as much. "And since we're on a roll with animals right now, our next challenge will be chicken herding!"

Many of Dawn's teammates looked at the aura reader expectantly. She sighed, nodding in acceptance. "I suppose if all I'm doing is leading them into the right direction and not having to ride them like with the pig, I have no problems doing that one."

Over with the Team Old School, the most animal inclined teammate was also receiving looks from everyone. Though many of these were ones of concern.

"You sure you wanna do this, DJ?" Leshawna asked skeptically. "No offense, but after World Tour I'm surprised to see you actively wanting to interact with animals."

"I put all that curse garbage behind me, the stuff stopped after World Tour was over." DJ looked on confidently, chin held high. "So yeah, I got this. I'm probably our best bet to pull it off."

The three representatives were led into a large square pen where a heard of chickens awaited in the center. On the three opposite sides were doors that led to smaller pens, each with a team flag to signify where they needed to herd the chickens to. DJ and Dawn were joined, surprisingly, by Amy. Apparently she had volunteered herself for what she deemed an easier challenge as bossing things around was one of her fortes.

Once again the challenge was prompted by the blow of Chris' air horn, which itself startled the chickens and made them scatter. Amy immediately began rushing at a group of the fowls, yelling for them to get moving and having little success. Meanwhile DJ and Dawn opted for more gentle approaches.

"Good afternoon, lovely creatures," Dawn cooed, kneeling down to meet the birds face to face. "I'm sorry if that mean blonde girl is causing you all any distress. Come, I'll take you all away from her where it's safe."

As she started walking towards her teams safe zone with a line of chickens following her, she took notice of DJ crouching down and offering his hand at one of the chickens to show he meant no harm. "It's ok, little chick, I ain't gonna hurt ya. Wish I had some veggies to feed y'all."

A group of the chickens began nuzzling up towards DJ, some even hiding behind him for protection as the still yelling Amy ran by while she continued pursuing her group. Just as DJ turned to head towards his team's zone, he yelped upon seeing Dawn standing right in front of him.

"It's rare that I get to see someone else so in tune with mother nature's creatures. I had heard from some of the others that you and animals don't mix well, but from what I can tell they seem to be at ease around you."

DJ raised a confused eyebrow, taken off guard by her calm smile. "Oh, did ya not watch Wold Tour? Well, it's a long story but I was able to move past it. I've always loved animals, I guess. I make sure to take it extra gently around them ever since that season."

"It shows! Your affection for animals is perhaps the second most pronounced aspect in your aura, only behind your simultaneous love and fear of your own mother."

The brick house was taken even more off guard from that comment, recoiling while Dawn was none the wiser to how the situation had been made awkward. An impatient Chris watched on from the sidelines, annoyed that no chickens had successfully been corralled since at this point Amy was now being swarmed by the chickens.

"Yo dudes, you remember the whole challenge thing?" He called out. "Yeah, it's on a time limit you know. Move it!"

Dawn and DJ refocused, going their separate ways to lead their chickens towards their team's pens. By the time it was all said and done Dawn had corralled the most chickens by far, but DJ had placed at a respectable second. Amy had only managed to get a measly two chickens in her pen by the time the challenge ended, simply because she could carry one by the feet in each hand. She coughed up feathers, grunting in annoyance.

"Looks like Team Radioactive takes the lead, though Team Old School and their current 0 wins isn't far behind in points," Chris announced while the chalkboard was once again updated. "Let's keep this thing moving!"

A flash forward showed a quick version of the next challenge. Shawn, Trent, and Anne Maria found themselves inside a large spinning carnival ride, strapped to the wall as they spun around at increasingly crazy speeds. The challenge was simply to be the last one standing without throwing up. All three tried to hold strong, but it was ultimately the jersey girl that lost her lunch first. Trent and Shawn locked eyes, daring the other to go. But when Anne Maria's projectile vomit ended up spinning back around to nail the musician in the face, Trent lost his composure and gave Shawn the win. Of course, once Trent's puke found its way to Shawn, he no longer could hold back as well.

The next challenge was simply to churn butter. Courtney, Dakota, and Jasmine took their places behind an old timey wooden churner, hands at the ready on the wood sticks. Once the signal was given, they had a minute to churn as fast as possible. But while all three gave their best efforts, Jasmine was by far the fastest. She went to town on the churn at breakneck speeds, at one point even stopping to spit into her hand and increase velocity.

It was after she continued churning like there was no tomorrow when everyone began looking straight at Shawn. Even Scott, who had at first been fixated on Courtney's churning, eventually took note of the Aussie's speed and sent a stare Shawn's way. The zombie nut could only blush and chuckle awkwardly. Beardo at one point elbowed him, giving a thumbs up and click sound.

Needless to say Jasmine had won by the end of the challenge, with Courtney as the runner up and Dakota in last after she too had gotten distracted. Though the outback girl had no idea why everyone was staring at her when she returned to her team.

"Up next we have a carnival game," Chris announced while Chef updated the new tallies. Team Explosive was now in the lead, with Team Radioactive trailing behind. "And by process of elimination, Cody has to do this one for his team!"

The tech geek earned some words of encouragement from his team, while B was easily nominated to represent his own. Team Explosive had the widest variety of people to still choose from, but Sammy was ultimately the one to volunteer. Once they were all picked, the trio was brought to three carnival game stands complete with fluffy plush toys hanging from the walls as prizes. On the back walls were various balloons of differing sizes, and on the shelf in front of them were darts.

"Pop as many balloons as you can until you're out of darts," Chris explained. "Try not to hit any of us with the darts while you're at it, we don't want to lose another contestant due to injury. The smaller the balloon, the more points they're worth. You have two minutes to complete the challenge... begin!"

Immediately B took a close inspection of his dart. Looking it over carefully and fiddling with it in his hand, he pointed it down and tossed a dart repeatedly into the shelf to get a feel for the best way to throw it. After then licking his finger to get a measurement of the wind, he was confident in his calculations and began firing at the balloons. Every dart hit the mark, and he prioritized the balloons worth more points.

Cody and Sammy were also doing their best, but some of their shots failed to connect with a balloon. The geek was doing a bit better than the cheerleader, possibly due in part to the differences in spectator attitudes. Team Old School were cheering on Cody with words of encouragement and support. This was mostly the case for Sammy, but one voice in particular stood out among her team.

"Come on, Sparemmy, stop missing shots," Amy yelled, ignoring the glares she was getting from Shawn and Jasmine. "Are you really going to let those dorks beat you in a dumb carnival game? You are soooo voted off if you cost us the win."

"Would you shut up already?" Jasmine stepped up to the meaner twin, towering over her with arms folded and glare pointed. "You're not helping."

Sammy sighed, doing her best to keep the jeers out of mind as she refocused on the game. Cody had taken notice of heckling from her sister, pausing to check on the nicer twin to see if she was ok.

"Geez, do you have to put up with that at home?"

"I thought it would get better after Pahkitew Island since I learned how to stand up for myself more," Sammy said. "But she still treats me like garbage. If anything, she's even more spiteful now. I really don't know why she hates me so much, but living with her is exhausting."

"Yeah, I feel that. It can really take a lot out of you when you can't even relax in your own home." Cody chuckled, tossing one of his darts haphazardly as the conversation rolled on. "Heck, my parents ended up having to get a restraining order against Sierra since she kept breaking into my room to steal my undies."

Sammy chuckled, accidentally missing a dart throw in the process.

"Oh, that wasn't a joke, it really happened." Cody also missed a throw, B in the background now almost done with all of his shots. "It was kinda ugly, she wrote some pretty worrying blog posts afterwards. But it's been nice to have peace of mind at home now, at least. Maybe you should look into moving out and getting away from her?"

"You know, that's not a bad idea." Sammy grinned, thinking over where she could move to with the help of the prize money. "I'll be going to college soon, I was originally thinking about going to a local university but when you put it that way it'll be way more enjoyable for me if I go literally anywhere that Amy isn't."

"And B ends after having earned the maximum amount of points possible," Chris suddenly yelled, snapping Cody and Sammy out of their conversation to see the silent genius exchanging high fives with his team. "Who knew that was even doable? Meanwhile, the other two seem to have taken a break. Might I remind you guys that there IS a time limit?"

"Whoops, guess we let our minds wander." Cody chuckled, rushing through his remaining darts. "Good talk, though!"

"Totally," Sammy agreed, also finishing off her darts. "We could talk more later, if you want. I'm kinda curious to know more about how that restraining order went down."

By the time the two were finished, Cody had popped more balloons than Sammy. Now the teams were once again tied in points, with Team Old School still yet to have placed anything but 2nd in each challenge.

"And for our next challenge, you'll all be whittling a wooden sculpt of your's truly using chainsaws!" Chef walked into frame for added effect, holding up a chainsaw menacingly. "You know, for the extra danger effect."

"Yes!" Scott pumped his fist victoriously. "Looks like waiting till last worked out after all, I can whittle any of these other losers under the table."

As for Team Explosive, they were now down to Dave and Rodney as their remaining contenders before anyone could repeat. Most of the team looked towards the huge farm boy, figuring he could handle a chainsaw with relative ease.

"I've never really been much for art stuff," he said, blushing. "I'd hate to drop the ball for us, especially since there's a lot of farm things that could be next that I WOULD know a lot about."

"Fine, I'll take this one." Dave sighed, looked over the giant blocks of wood being brought out for them to carve. "How hard could it be?"

Very hard, as it turns out. Some flashes forward showed off just how much Dave struggled to handle his chainsaw, much less carve out a good statue of Chris with it. DJ was having a much easier time, having been chosen as his team's first repeater since he was strong and decently versed in art. But any of his credentials had no chance against Scott, who carved through the wood with an almost disturbing amount of glee. Even if he was mostly experienced in whittling with a knife, the way he handled the power tool gave the impression he knew his way around it almost too well.

By the time it was all said and done, the dirt farmer had made by far the best wood sculpt. He had basically recreated the Thinker, but with Chris' head and making sure to give him a pronounced six pack. DJ's sculpt looked like Chris for sure, but it was much less dynamic and detailed as the former's. As for Dave, he had only managed to carve out a glorified stick figure with hair that vaguely resembled Chris'.

"Welp, easy call here, Scott wins and Dave's sucks the most." With another update of the chalkboard, now Team Radioactive was back in the lead. "Seriously. Team Old School, if you want to place anything other than 2nd in these at any point by all means feel free."

Another flash forward took us through two more challenges. First was bull riding, though instead of using a mechanical bull they had to stay on a genuine one. Rodney had to do this challenge due to the rules, but saving him for it proved to work out as the bull actually had a hard time bucking off his massive frame. Leshawna went for her team since she won a challenge similar to this way back in season 1, while Brick wanted to redeem his loss in the pie eating content. He was unsuccessful, as he was the first bucked from the bull. Leshawna and Rodney both held on as much as they could manage, but the ghetto girl was ultimately unable to last as long as the farmer and fell off first. With Rodney's win, things were once again tied.

Next up the players had to quite literally find a needle in a haystack. Though Chris had hidden various other fun surprises in each haystack to keep things interesting. Though a mousetrap in the hay initially threw him off, B ultimately won with ease thanks to a magnet he kept in his jacket helping him retrieve the metal needle. Trent and Shawn combed through their hay with vigor, but Shawn had been sent screaming out of the hay when a zombie mask Chris planted inside freaked him out. By the time he recovered and realized it wasn't a genuine zombie it was too late, as Trent had located his needle to keep his team in not-last place.

"And just like that we're down to the final challenge!" Chris rubbed his hands together. "Chef, how's our tallies looking?"

"Team Radioactive is in the lead," the co-host confirmed. "Old School keeps getting 2nd in everything, so they still in 2nd. Team Explosive is sucking the most, but only by one point. It's literally anyone's game."

"I'm going for us," Sugar yelled in a matter of fact tone to the rest of her team. "County fairs are MY turf, and I won us our first challenge, y'all gotta save the best for last."

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but yeah I think we should go with Sugar," Jasmine agreed. "If she can win this for us we'll at worst avoid last place."

While there was some debate among the other two teams on who should go, the confirmation that it would be an unorthodox challenge with no attachment to farming caused Scott and Beth to step back while Courtney and Lightning stepped up to the plate. Chef threw a block of ice in front of the three contestants, and encased in each was a frozen plain white t shirt.

"Your final challenge is simple," Chris explained. "The first person to unfreeze their shirt and put it on wins. Whoever does it last, loses. And don't worry, the shirts are 4x. They'll fit all of you."

"Sha-easy. First class here we come!" Once their host gave the signal, Lightning began chipping away the ice with punches and kicks. It was more unorthodox since Courtney and Sugar immediately went to using body heat to melt their blocks, but it seemed to be doing steady work as the ice came off. While sitting on her block, Sugar took special notice of Lightning's antics.

*** Confessional: Sugar ***

"I ain't never been much for math-e-matics, but them egg heads on my team explained it well enough for me. Winning the challenge would keep us from losing someone, but if them Radioactive fellers don't lose then they still get first class. First class is the only part of the plane fit for me! So I gots to make sure we keep it that way."

*** In Centennial Park ***

Sugar grinned mischievously, waiting for Lightning to be looking the other way. Once his back was turned, she reached down and slid forward on her block of ice as fast as she could. She picked up enough speed to bowl over the jock as she passed by, knocking him to the ground before he delivered another curb stomp to his ice block.

"Hey! Watch where you're steering that thing, girl!"

"Whoops," Sugar called back with sarcastic sincerity. "Sorry, must not have seen you there."

Lightning got up and dusted himself off. But right before he could return to chipping away at his ice, Sugar passed by again and knocked him down once more. Now the jock was getting annoyed, rubbing his head after the impact.

"You're doing that on purpose!"

"Get Sugar'd, big boy!" This time Sugar decided to propel herself even faster with, what else, her flatulence. But as she shot forward with her gross wind guiding her, the heat from the fart started melting the ice much quicker than she anticipated. As a result, it had completely melted just as she was about to bowl past Lightning a third time. She came to a stop in front of him, looking up sheepishly as he glared down. "Uh... I was just joking?"

"Wanna see how a star quarterback REALLY knocks somehow over?" Lightning asked menacingly, rolling up his sleeves and getting into position. Sugar yelped, holding up the now free of ice but still stiff t shirt for protection as Lightning jogged forward. He rammed into the t shirt with such force that it sent Sugar flying many feet backwards. "Sha-bam!"

She landed with a rough thud, disorienting her enough to take her out of commission for a few moments. But after she came to, she looked over at the t shirt which was now no longer stiff after the tackle had essentially chipped away the last of the iciness.

"Ha! I meant to do that." Sugar victoriously slid the shirt on, earning cheers from her team.

"Aw crap." Lightning had just managed to get the encasing ice fully chipped away from his own shirt. He held up the stiff clothing to give it a final punch and make it wearable, only to be cut off by the host.

"And that's game!"

Confused, Lightning looked over to see Courtney now also wearing her shirt. She had managed to melt her ice at a nice steady pace in peace while Lightning and Sugar were occupied with each other. And since she seemed to be full of hot air, she melted her ice quicker than Lightning had been able to chip away while distracted.

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"No way. The Lightning lost to that chubby gross girl? Nuh uh, that can't be right. Where was the ref? That totally should have been a red flag." He folded his arms, looking off with a growing sense of disappointment. "Lightning didn't really lose like that... couldn't have."

*** In Centennial Park ***

With the tallies updated for one final time, despite all odds the teams were now all tied at 20 points each. Lightning hung his head in shame as he sulked back to his team, while Sugar and Courtney both earned cheers of praise from their own. Chris, amused, chuckled as he looked over the players.

"Well looks like as luck would have it, we have to go to a tie breaker. The winner of this will take first class for their team, and the loser will send someone packing. So you better pick who plays for this one wisely."

"I just got us back in the game, so obviously it should be me," Sugar said proudly to her teammates.

"Hey, no objection here," Shawn agreed. "You're the only one that won us two challenges, as long as it's something you're good at then it may as well be you."

"Heh, there ain't nothing Chris can throw at us from a county fair that Sugar ain't the best at," the country girl boasted, hands on her hips.

"For our tie breaker, we'll have you all competing in a banjo duel!"

Sugar's eyes went wide and she looked on awkwardly. "Uh, except that."

"You don't know how to play the banjo?" Dave asked, surprised. "Out of all the other weird things you know, that's not one of them?"

"I'm a singer! I ain't got no time fer instruments." She glared over at Chris. "Ain't no county fair complete without some country music, why can't I just sing?"

"Do you not remember that you got eliminated last time BECAUSE your singing is so bad? Either way, this isn't a singing episode, so no singing is required." Chris shrugged innocently, he and Chef walking off to prepare the tiebreaker. "Pick yourself a banjo player."

Team Explosive looked around awkwardly, Sugar folding her arms and huffing in defeat. Jasmine scratched her head, actually feeling nervous for her team's chances for once. "Anyone know how to play a banjo, then? Beardo, you're a musician right?"

"Sure, but all I really know outside of by dj booth is the keyboard." He shrugged, pointing a thumb at Sugar. "Otherwise I'm in the same boat as her, I'm more into singing than playing."

"I've got a bit of experience, I guess," Rodney admitted with his hand raised. "My paw is actually really good at the banjo, so he's shown me and my bros how to play it before. I never really kept up with practicing it, though."

"It'll be fine, all you have to do is just don't suck as much as the other two." Amy pushed Rodney along to get him into position. Meanwhile, Team Radioactive had a much easier time choosing who would play for them.

"I got this in the bag, grandpappy taught me how to play when I was like six," Scott bragged, no one really objecting since none of them had any experience with the instrument anyway. "It'll be like taking candy from a baby, easy peezy."

Team Old School was last to choose someone. Many were glancing Trent's way, despite the musician looking very hesitant.

"Come on man, you play the guitar," DJ pointed out. "Ain't a banjo easier, if anything?"

"There's similarities, but all instruments are different." Trent rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "You'd be surprised at the tiny differences between stringed instruments, I once tried playing a ukulele at a show in Hawaii and long story short I think angered some sort of ancient volcano god."

"He's really never practiced any other instrument outside of his guitar, except the balalaika of all things," Cody added. "Anyone else here that would be a better bet than him?"

"Eh, I'm exquisite with the violin but the banjo is too lowbrow for my tastes," Courtney admitted. Eventually Beth meekly raised her hand just as Trent was about to go join the others.

"Well, I've played a few times before. My mom was super into bluegrass music and has a banjo that I'll fiddle around with from time to time." She tapped her fingers together hesitantly. "But I'm not a real musician like Trent! I wouldn't want to mess this up for us when he'd probably do a better job than me."

Trent leaned down, putting a hand on the nerdy girl's shoulder. "Some experience is better than no experience in my book. If you know the instrument, you're our best bet. Just go out there and try your best, you got this."

Everyone on the team gave Beth their own reassuring smiles and words of encouragement. Eventually she sighed, steeling herself for the challenge ahead. It was highly possible she'd be going home next if they lost this tie breaker. No pressure or anything. "Alright, alright. I can do this. I won't let us lose someone for the third time in a row."

With all teams having their affairs in order, Beth, Scott, and Rodney approached the final platform of the challenge. They were each handed a five string banjo, which Scott took confidently while the other two looked a bit more hesitant. Chef joined the trio on the platform in a ref outfit, holding up an arm.

"Once again, the rules are simple," Chris explained, joining the other contestants in front of the stage to watch the performance. "The three of you will play back and forth on your banjos until a full fledged duel has broken out. Once Chef lowers his arm, the duel officially is underway. You'll all keep going until two of you have stopped. First person to stop loses it for their team. Last one standing earns them first class. Beth, since your team has failed to win a single challenge today thus far, how about you start us out?"

Beth gulped, looking on sheepishly at her competition. Rodney looked determined, but wasn't too threatening otherwise. But Scott? His wicked grin and steely eyed stare was enough to unnerve the nerdier girl. Looking over at her team for support, their cheers of encouragement helped ease the tension. Finally, she took a deep breath and strummed five notes.

Scott nodded, strumming the same notes in a higher key. Rodney went next, playing the notes in the same key Beth had. The cycle continued with everyone playing the notes either higher or lower depending on how the last had played it. Eventually once it got to Rodney again he played a new set of nine notes. Beth responded by playing back the notes in a higher key. Scott played them in the same key Rodney had, and once it got back to the loverboy he played it the way Beth did. Once it was back to her she started a new tune with eight notes that the dirt farmer completed with five notes of his own.

After that Rodney played a new set of nine notes, which Beth then played slightly faster. Scott went even faster when it was his turn, and gradually the trio kept increasing their speed more and more. At some point Scott began playing the notes from the beginning of the song, but now matching the speed the three of them had set. They continued through the song once more, still increasing in speed with their eyes locked on each other. Finally, all three of them were strumming away at once, and Chef lowered his arm to signify they were past the point of no return.

The three of them strummed away, not showing any sign of slowing down. Scott's mischievous gaze prompted Beth to close her eyes while she took deep breaths to keep her playing composed. In the crowd many contestants were tapping their feet and even clapping along to the tune. Sugar and Beardo had even locked arms and started square dancing along. Scott and Rodney had also taken to tapping their feet along with the music, with the former's massive feet causing a bit of shaking every time he tapped.

Rodney looked out into the crowd, proud of how good he was doing. He even noticed that Amy was giving a rare genuine smile, as even she was enjoying the music. Seeing her smile raised Rodney's spirits and filled him with determination... perhaps too much determination. Because as he had let his mind wander, he suddenly lost focus of how much force he was strumming his banjo with. Before he knew it, his massive mitt caused one of the strings to come undone. In a panic, he couldn't stop himself from clinching up. This unfortunately led to him crushing the banjo with his mere grip. He cried out in shock, dropping to his knees in defeat as he realized he had just lost.

Many in the crowd wanted to react to Rodney losing, and by extension Team Explosive, but Chris promptly shushed them as the duel was still ongoing between Beth and Scott. The sound of Rodney's banjo crumbling made the farm girl open her eyes, surprising her as she realized her team was at least safe from elimination now. But if she wanted to pull off the win, now she had to go through Scott. He stepped in front of her, facing her head on as the two continued the duel themselves. While they always continued strumming, they took turns playing louder than the other to play fast versions of the notes from earlier. Both were tapping their feet away as they locked eyes with the other.

"You ain't too shabby, squirt," Scott complimented, genuinely impressed that Beth could keep up with him.

"Thanks," she replied gratefully, peering over at the crowd and suddenly grinning as an idea popped into her head. "Oh, by the way. I know she may be trying to deny it super hard. But Courtney? She's totally still into you."

"What?!" Blindsided, Scott's momentary loss of focus caused him to drop his banjo. "Crap!"

With that, Beth strummed one final set of notes, using extra emphasis on the last one. Team Old School erupted into cheers while Chris confirmed what had happened. "And that's a cool win for Team Old School! Not only has Team Explosive broke their winning streak, looks like they've broken their suckitude streak."

Her teammates hoisted Beth up into the air, cheering while Scott sneered up at her in annoyance.

*** Confessional: Beth ***

"Oh my gosh, I actually did it! I guess I do kinda feel bad that I had to play a little dirty to make Scott lose focus, but it's not like he got last so I think it all balances out."

*** In Economy Class ***

"Ugh, I can't believe we actually have to sleep in the gross mess," Amy complained as she, Sugar, and Rodney made their way back into the plane. "This sucks, I miss first class already."

"If you're so against sleeping here tonight, we can help prevent that," Jasmine spat as she, Shawn, and Sammy passed the trio. The twins exchanged glares as they walked past.

"As if I'm going to let my lame-o sister last longer than me again." Amy walked off in a huff. "If it goes to a tiebreaker, even better! I get to embarrass and cause her elimination personally."

Rodney watched the exchange in silent shame. He breathed a heavy sigh, looking down in defeat.

*** Confessional: Rodney ***

"It sure is nice of Amy to try and cheer me up by acting like anyone else is getting eliminated, but I know better. I really screwed up that tiebreaker, it's my fault that our winning streak is over! I really dropped the ball for my team, how could they ever forgive me?"

*** In the Elimination Area ***

Team Explosive filed into the drop zone after casting their votes for the first time, filling up the bleachers and surrounded by a tense silence. Amy and Sammy glared at each other, Rodney still had his head hung in shame, Beardo produced the sound of loud chattering teeth as he chewed his nails nervously. Chris soaked in the anticipation, smirking at their growing misery.

"Dang, Team Explosive, what happened? You went from three wins in a row to here?" He whistled, shaking his head. "Talk about a major fall from grace. Oh well, time to hand out some barf bags! The first one goes to Sugar, since she proved to be surprisingly useful to you all today."

Sugar cheered enthusiastically, opening her mouth as the peanut bag was flung at her. She ate the whole thing with scary precision. And no, she didn't just eat the peanuts. She consumed those AND the bag whole. Others scooted away in disgust.

"Shawn, Jasmine, you two are also safe because obviously."

The couple exchanged a high five, accepting their symbols of immunity graciously.

"Dave and Beardo. Neither of you won your challenge today, but safe you remain." He tossed the two their bags, paying special attention to the beatboxer. "So yes, you can relax Beardo. You aren't the first person on your team voted off this time. Consider yourself officially not Ezekiel and Staci tier."

Beardo held his barf bag up triumphantly, doing a recreation of the Legend of Zelda sound whenever Link obtains an important item. Dave merely rolled his eyes next to him.

As he watched his teammates gradually obtain their safety, Rodney heaved a heavy sigh. "Yeah, it figures I'm one of the ones in danger. I really screwed things up for all of us today."

"Yeah, cool story Rodney," Chris replied, confused as to the point of the outburst in the first place. "But the ceremony is still going so-"

"I mean, if I would have stuck it out we'd be back in first class again! But now look where I got us."

"Rodney, would you please shu-"

"Not only did I let down the team, but I let down my dear Amy," he continued, not even paying attention to Chris. The mean twin looked on in befuddlement.

"Rodney-"

"There's nothing I can do to redeem myself, I deserve to get what's coming to-"

"RODNEY!"

The country boy was finally silenced, startled by the raised voice from Chris. "Would you can it already? You only received one vote, and that's just because you voted for yourself! You're safe."

Chris chucked the barf bag at Rodney in annoyance, with both the farmer and Amy gasping in response.

"You did WHAT?" Amy yelled, her eyes going wide in fear. Sammy looked down at her with a satisfied grin forming.

"Which means it's down to the twins," Chris confirmed, holding up the final barf bag. Amy looked at it in worried panic, while Sammy beamed confidently. "And the last barf bag of the night goes to...

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... Sam-"

"WAIT!" Rodney shot up, holding out his arms desperately. "This isn't right. Neither of these two deserves to leave over me, how will everyone forgive me for what I did today?"

"We've literally already forgiven you and couldn't care less about it," Jasmine pointed out.

"I consider myself a gentlemen, and it's my duty to do what's right."

"What's right is you sit back down and let this ceremony finish," Shawn shot back, panic growing in his tone as they realized what the farmer was doing.

"I'll never be able to live myself if one of these two go when it should have been me," he kept on, the objections going in one ear and out the other. "I need to redeem myself in the eyes of my team."

"We're telling you right now the thing that will make us most happy is if you sit down and don't do this," Sammy said, practically screaming in an attempt to actually register with the rambling loverboy. "Are you even paying attention to us?"

Rodney marched straight up to Chris, handing back his bag of peanuts. "Chris, for the sake of saving these ladies, I quit the competition!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Chris tossed the two bags at Amy and Sammy, the later and her friends all groaning at the series of events. "Whatever gets you to shut up is cool in my books."

Chef pushed a parachute into Rodney's arms before leading him over to the now open hatch. The farmer faced his team one last time with a smile. "I hope you guys can understand my decision."

"We don't," Sammy, Shawn, and Jasmine said in unison with glares pointed his way.

"And Amy, I hope you can go on in the game without me."

"Uh huh, yeah, got it." The mean twin was long past caring once she had got her immunity and was now inspecting her makeup in a hand mirror.

"But before I go, there's one last thing you should know." Rodney took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts so he could deliver the most eloquent of parting words. "This that you, and me with love and singing. Banjos and dancing, with cake that together..."

His incoherent rambling went on, with his teammates all looking around to gauge if anyone could make heads or tails of his gibberish. The dumbfounded looks on everyone's faces made it apparent that no, no one knew what the hell he was going on about.

"But the heart wants what the love eats and-" Before his monologue could continue, the Boot of Shame mercifully came swinging down, knocking the mountain of a man out of the plane.

"Well that was enlightening." Chris chuckled. "Thanks to Rodney McQuitty Pants we're down 4 players with 20 left to go. How will Team Explosive bounce back from their first loss? Can Amy luck her way out of getting eliminated a second time if they do lose again? And which players will stay on route, while another gets the boot? Tune in next time to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

Amy took great joy in stamping her sister's passport multiple times. "It's time for Sammey to know her place once and for all, I'm tired of her thinking she's so big now that she has a bit of backbone. I still haven't forgotten about her going farther than me last time, I'm not letting that happen again!"

"I think I'm really starting to be seen as a true contributing member of the team and not just the weird dude voted off first last time." Beardo grinned for the camera, giving Dave's passport a stamp. "Dave's been kinda killing my vibe, though. I think he might still dislike me. So I kinda gotta vote for him."

Dave looked over Beardo, Rodney, Sammy, and Amy's passports. Eventually he shrugged and stamped the beatboxer's. "Sure, Rodney lost us the tiebreaker, but he won his earlier challenge and that brawn will probably come in handy for us later. Of the others that lost a challenge, Beardo still kinda bugs me. Seriously, those sounds are super annoying."

"I'm almost relieved we lost this time so we can cut your abusive arse out of the competition." Jasmine gave Amy's passport a firm stamp. "I know Sammy is learning how to stand up for herself, but I'm not gonna give you the opportunity to bully her anymore in the first place."

"I'm so ashamed! I know Amy wants me to vote for her sister, but I just can't bring myself to do what isn't right." Sighing in shame, Rodney stamped his own passport. "We all know it's gonna be me, there may as well not be a ceremony."

Sammy repeatedly stamped her twin's passport, even building up a sweat from how intensely she was going at it. She eventually smiled sheepishly at the camera, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Sorry, didn't mean to get carried away. I'm just gonna be really glad to see Amy go. The less she's around to torment me, the more sound I can sleep at night."

"It's not like Amy has even been particularly good in challenges, so we ain't losing anything cutting her." Shawn gave a hard stamp to Amy's passport. "Honestly, she's so nasty that I think even the zombies would pass up eating her. It'd probably give them indigestion."

"I don't really give a rat's tail about Samey, so if Amy wants to get rid of her to break up that goody two shoe alliance going on between her and that weirdo couple I'm all for it." Sugar licked her stamp and pressed it down on Sammy's passport. She then gave it another lick for good measure. "Mmm, that don't taste half bad!"

Votes for Amy: 3 (Jasmine, Sammy, Shawn)

Votes for Sammy: 2 (Amy, Sugar)

Votes for Rodney: 1 (Rodney)

Votes for Dave: 1 (Beardo)

Votes for Beardo: 1 (Dave)

After the Boot of Shame:

Rodney held on tight to the parachute straps as his bulging arms made it feel like they'd rip at any moment. The chute was already deployed, but he still floated down at a slightly faster rate than previous eliminations thanks to the increased girth. "Ahh, I feel like a load was really taken off my conscious by sacrificing myself for the ladies. It was tough to give up my chance for the million dollars, but in the end I know it was the right call. Sure, this may mean I'm the first one from my team to leave, but I went out on my terms! And I can't wait to introduce Amy to my bros back home. They're gonna be so jealous!"

After enough falling, he laded with a mighty thud in the middle of downtown Nashville. Many pedestrians stared at him in confusion while he looked around. "Huh, not really sure where to go now. I wonder how you get to the nearest airport."

"Oh, the airport?" One brunette woman clad in red flannel and blue jeans pointed down one of the roads. "It's just about 30 minutes that way, ya can't miss it."

"Whoa, that's so nice of you to give me directions!" Feeling his heart flutter and an angelic choir sing in his mind, truly Rodney knew this was love. He stared at the woman with a dopey grin, beginning his incoherent babbling session. Confused and a bit frightened, she backed away slowly.

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dakota, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar

Elimination Order:

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

"Previously on Total Drama Battle of the Generations," Chris began narrating in the by now standard intro. "Our teams headed down south for a good old fashioned country fair. We pitted them in everything ranging from eating contests, to pig racing, to wood carving. But in the end it all came down to a banjo duel to break our three way tie. Rodney and his clumsy crushy hands cemented Team Explosive's first loss of the season, while Beth used some quick thinking to beat Scott and win her team a spot in first class. At the elimination ceremony, Rodney despaired over losing his team the challenge, but was shocked to find out he was safe. Things came down to Amy and Samey, but just before one of the wonder twins could take the drop, Rodney stepped in to sacrifice himself for their sake. Dang dude, throwing away a shot at a million bucks for some chicks who aren't even into you? I think the kids these days have a word for that. He be mad simping."

From the cockpit Chef looked over at Chris, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Hey, I ain't the one who makes these words up." Chris chuckled, going back to his narrating. "20 contestants remain, and momentum has changed drastically now that Team Explosive's winning streak has been broken. Can they hope to bounce back? Will Team Old School start a new winning streak of their own? Maybe Team Radioactive could steal the win out from under their nose? We'll have to tune in to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Opening Credits ***

Things were tense as business picked right back up immediately following Rodney's strange elimination. Team Explosive had still yet to leave the elimination area, and three pairs of eyes were glaring Amy's direction.

"What's with the looks?" the mean twin asked, more than a hint of condescending smugness in her tone. "I mean it's not like any of you got eliminated so I don't get why you're getting so worked up over it."

"Oh no, you don't get to act all high and mighty after all of that," her sister shot back, pointing towards the exit hatch. "You'd be the one pushed out of there if Rodney hadn't quit. You just got lucky, but he won't be here to bail you out if we have to vote someone out next time."

Amy was preparing her own snappy comeback, but was shot down before it could start when Jasmine stepped up to tower over her. "You'd be wise to just zip it. You're on thin enough ice as it is. For your sake, you better be hoping we can start back up our winning streak. You just lost the one bloke daft enough to blindly follow you no matter what. You're not safe by any means of the word."

"Aaaand, that there is what they call a mic drop." Shawn mimed the dropping of a microphone, chuckling as his girlfriend and Sammy took their leave to head towards the cargo hold. "Dang, I love that woman."

The zombie nut took his leave to follow after the girls, leaving the rest of the team in an awkward silence. Having no business in the drama, Dave and Beardo silently left for economy class to join those from Team Radioactive not active in the zombie search. Amy was doing a poor job trying to remain composed as she shook from embarrassed rage.

"Look, I don't wanna agree with them losers, but ya gotta admit this still ain't great fer us," Sugar eventually said, arms folded. "There's three of em, and now only two of us. I ain't much for trigonometry, but even I can do that math."

"And what's your bright idea of what we should do about that?"

"Oh, that's easy." Sugar laughed, waving her hand dismissively. "We just need to replace Rodney with twiggy boy or the big guy."

Amy grunted in frustration. Rodney wasn't exactly the definition of cool himself, but at least he was strong and had his own sort of rustic cuteness to him. She could stand having him around. But Dave and Beardo? Not exactly the types she'd usually associate with. But then again, neither was Sugar. Yet now she was the closest ally Amy had.

"Fine," she eventually conceded. "So which one do we go for?"

"Well ol' Dave is darn near the biggest stick in the mud I ever met, last time around he wouldn't even let the wizard stay on our team! Beardo seems mighty fun, and anyone that can make pig noises as good as he did in the last challenge is ok in my book. Plus ain't he kinda shy and stuff? He'd probably be on board with us lickety split if we say we'll be his friend."

"I'll let you handle that part, then," Amy said, shivering at the thought of actually asking the beatboxer to be her friend.

*** Confessional: Amy ***

"Uuuugh, this sucks so much. Here I was, looking forward to dragging that big dumb hick to the finale with me so he'd hand me the million dollars. Now I have to bring Sugar with me. Can you say ew much? I'd say I was happy that him quitting kept me safe, but if he had just voted for Samey like I told him to then I could have just beat her in the tie breaker! So yeah, farm boy is dreaming if he thinks I'll ever call him back."

*** In First Class ***

Team Old School were already living it up large for their first stay in the winner's class. Courtney and Beth both relaxed with a facial mask, while DJ was having himself treated to a pedicure. Leshawna, Trent, and Cody were at the bar enjoying various treats and drinks. Though the lot of them were of drinking age, Leshawna was disappointed to see that no alcohol was stocked since some members of Team Explosive were still below the legal limit. As a result, she and Trent settled on some soda while Cody scarfed down as much sweets as the plane had stocked.

"Seriously dude, I'll never understand how you stay so skinny when you tear through candy like it's nothing," Trent observed as he watched his friend make short work of some chocolate bars. "You don't even work out that much, it's an anomaly."

"For real, you gotta teach a sister your secret," Leshawna added. "If I could eat whatever crap I wanted like you without worrying about packing on the pounds I'd be set."

Cody smirked, but his mouth was too full to respond otherwise. It was then that the trio heard Courtney speaking up from nearby.

"Ok, seriously Scott, it's bad enough that you're bugging me out in economy, but can't I at least enjoy first class in peace?"

They turned to see a group made up of both Radioactive and Explosive team members walking their way through first class. The aforementioned farmer was bringing up the rear, frowning at hearing his short lived ex's annoyance.

"Relax, toots, we're just going to the cargo hold. We kinda gotta go through here to get there."

Noticing Sammy in the group, Cody quickly gulped down his mouthful of candy. "What are you heading there for?"

"Zombie check," the cheerleader answered. "It's a long story."

"Another set of hands never hurts if you wanna join us," Shawn added, sensing an opportunity to help the two out. "It helped speed things along when Scott joined in, so having you along would be even better."

"Sounds fun, count me in." He jumped up from his seat, quickly joining Sammy near the front of the group. "I did offer to tell you more about that restraining order story after all."

Catching Trent giving him a sly grin, Cody winked and followed the rest of the group into the cargo hold. Once they were gone, Leshawna looked on in amused confusion.

"How long has this been a thing?"

"Just recently, he mentioned that they kinda hit it off talking during the last challenge." Trent answered. "He thinks there could be something there, so I guess he's just going for it."

"Huh, guess stringbean found himself some game." Leshawna chuckled, downing another soda. "Seems like just yesterday he was still striking out with Gwen over and over. Good for him finally getting over that oneitis of his."

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"As much as I'm rooting for my dude to find him someone special, it's kinda funny. Justin has been constantly between girlfriends over the last few months, and now Harold and Leshawna are together again. If Cody and Sammy become a thing, that leaves me as the only single dude in the band. I guess being seen as the loner bachelor of the group has its benefits, but it's still kinda weird considering how I was the only one in a relationship back when we started out in season 1."

*** In the Cargo Hold ***

Sometime later Sammy had already given Cody the rundown of how the zombie hunt's purpose was to keep Shawn at ease, though it had also helped them bond a bit with the helping members from Team Radioactive. Once that was done, Cody went into more detail on how his parents had placed a restraining order against Sierra.

"Geez, you guys actually had to get the cops involved?"

"Well she did end up breaking my bedroom window since the security in the backyard was upped. I guess she thought it wouldn't have been as noisy as it was." He took notice of her confused look. "Yes, I know that should be common sense, but Sierra was never the best at picking up on that. Honestly, she should be happy my folks aren't the gun buying types, most parents may have gone into full on attack mode after hearing that."

"And you haven't talked to her since then? Not even like online or anything?"

"She kinda dropped off the radar not long afterwards." Cody shivered. "Honestly, I was afraid of the worst. As much as she would bug me and cross the line, I still didn't want anything bad happening to her. But then she suddenly got back into blogging a few months later, so maybe she finally got some help."

While that duo continued chattering on, a bored Scott went through the motions of his own check. As he tried to move out of ear shot from those two, he noticed Dawn nearby checking in on a family of rats. That gave him an idea.

"Say, Dawn, you got a second?" His presence seemed to startle the rats, sending them skittering away. She shot him an annoyed look for his trouble. "My bad. It's just, you know, kind of important."

"It's about you and Courtney, correct?"

"Alright, seriously, are you psychic or what?"

"No, it was just rather obvious." She smiled. "Continue."

"That pipsqueak in the banjo duel told me that Courtney's still in to me. After I got kicked off I went home and watched back All Stars, and it LOOKED like she liked me before that last episode. But anytime I try talking to her this season she treats me like I punted her dog down an elevator shaft." He shrugged. "So what's your aura reading thingy make of it? Was Beth lying or what?"

Dawn tapped her fingers together, humming in thought. "It's hard to say. As far as auras go, Courtney's is all over the place. It basically looks like a Jackson Pollock painting." Noticing Scott's confused look, she realized he didn't know who that was. "It's incomprehensible." Nope, still confusion. "It's really really really messy looking."

"Oooooh," he finally said in realization.

"So essentially it's hard to read," she continued. "However, as far as I can tell I do sense that she has an affinity for you. With that said, I don't believe Beth was lying. It's just hard to say why she's giving you such a cold shoulder. Her aura tells of a love life that's been... complicated to say the least, so that's likely playing a factor."

"Guess that's more to work with than what I had." He scratched his head, thinking over how to go about his next move. "Thanks."

*** Confessional: Dawn ***

"Scott coming to me for advice and then giving a genuine thanks afterwards?" She giggled, shaking her head in disbelief. "The universe truly does work in mysterious ways."

*** In the Common Area ***

Breakfast was going as peacefully as it could for the 20 remaining contestants. The food wasn't great, the seats weren't comfy, but compared to the worse food they had on the islands it was manageable. Chris and Chef emerged from the cockpit, immediately creating an air of tension.

"Now why is it that whenever I walk in here everybody gets on edge like I'm about to toss them out of a plane or something?"

"Is that a joke?" DJ asked, genuinely unsure.

"Come on, I haven't done that to you guys this season. Yet, anyways." He paused, grabbing hold of a latch handle nearby and opening it with glee. "So it's time to change that!"

Everyone screamed as the high wind forced them to hold on to the tables in an attempt to not get sucked out of the open door. But it was futile, as one by one each contestant was sent flying outside, with Chef and Chris miraculously staying inside with no issue somehow. Jasmine was the last to be sucked into the air, flailing her arms in a panic.

Thankfully for the screaming players, they had been over water and splashed down with relative safety. A large island was nearby, and by the time everyone had swam to safety Chris and Chef had successfully landed the jet on the beach.

"Hope you kids enjoyed your swim!" He soaked in the various glares and curses flung his way, smiling all the while. "Now that you're bright eyed and bushy tailed, we can turn our attention to today's locale. Madagascar! Technically part of Africa, but nestled on this neat little island off the mainland of the continent. Somewhere around 90 percent of the wildlife here can't be found anywhere else in the world. Unless it's in a zoo or something, at least. You guys will get a good chance to meet a lot of those animals, since today's challenge will put your tracking skills to the test."

Chef arrived on the scene with a medallion that had an image of Chris' face on it. He then effortlessly broke it into three pieces while Chris narrated. "We'll keep this one short and sweet. Somewhere on the island we've hidden three pieces to a medallion with your team logo on it. All you guys have to do is find all pieces of your medallion and return here to me with them to assemble the full thing. First team that does it nets themselves first class. Last team to do it? Well, it should be obvious by this point."

"And what's stopping us from just chucking the other guy's pieces into the ocean if we find one before they do?" Anne Maria asked.

"Normally I'd allow it but we do have a schedule to keep up with and I'd rather avoid making this challenge take too long due to sabotage. So no interfering with other team's pieces, otherwise you'll get disqualified." Chris reached into a bag, pulling out a walkie talkie and tossing one to the Jersey Girl. "But while we're on the subject I will be giving each team one of these so you all can check in on your progress. Feel free to gloat when you find one of your own pieces to put the fire under the other dude's butts."

"Do we get a map or something to get a feel for where our stuff is?" Dave asked after catching his team's device.

"Honestly, you'd think after this long they would know better than asking things like that," Chris said to Chef, who shook his head. "Keep those walkie talkies on, I'll check in on you guys from time to time and I need to let you know when it's time to sing. With that all out of the way, get to hunting!"

The teams went their separate ways, with Dave, Anne Maria, and Leshawna all covering walkie talkie duty. Shawn and Jasmine were looking particularly confident as they carefully made their way through the rain forest of the island.

"This is perfect, all we have to do is look for signs of where Chris' interns might have been through, then track them to where the medallion pieces were hid," Jasmine went over. "It's right up our alley! We'll be back in first class in no time."

"I'd say that you shouldn't jinx us, but between you and me our team really does have the best shot here," Shawn added with a nod. "Neither of the others have anyone with our skillset, so somehow I doubt they're hanging in as good as us."

Indeed, a flash forward showed that this was the case for Team Radioactive.

"Dude, how the heck did this even happen?"

Scott's tone was a mix of annoyance and slight concern as the team crowded around to see Brick caught in a particularly large spider web.

"I told you! I noticed that my shoe was untied but ended up tripping on it before I could bend down to fix it. I landed in this thing." He shook a bit, trying to break free to no avail. "And this web is oddly tough, by the way."

"That makes sense, after all it appears to be a web made by the Darwin bark spider," Dawn explained, looking over the web in awe. "Not only are they the longest recorded webs, the silk itself is remarkably strong. Even stronger than Kevlar."

"The crap they make bullet proof vests out of?" Anne Maria went wide eyed. "How big are these things?"

By now Brick was in full freakout mode, but the others were too interested in Dawn's explanation to notice. "Not too large, actually. Even the larger females don't tend to even be an inch big."

On cue, a black bark spider crawled its way on to the web, most likely curious about the whole ass human now caught in it. While it was still creepy looking enough to get a yelp out of Brick, it was indeed rather small. Nothing to worry about... but then another spider joined it. And another. And then another. Suddenly a whole swarm of bark spiders dropped down on to the web. The cadet was petrified in fear, while the others watched on in shock. In one swift flash, the horde of spiders swarmed towards Brick, who screamed as loud as he could behind his closed mouth since he did NOT want those things going down his throat.

"I... better distract those spiders while you all get him free." Dawn moved to try and talk the arachnids away, while the others exchanged various wide eyed looks of concern.

Things weren't going much better for Team Old School, who had found themselves in a different area of the forest. At first things were looking good when they saw a piece of their medallion laying on a random tree branch. But upon reaching out to grab it, DJ was met with the scaly feel of a chameleon. Everyone on the team looked around to see more and more chameleons, all camouflaging as parts of the tree holding the chunk of medallion.

"Ok, well, surely if these things are trying to blend in as the medallion piece that means the real deal has to be nearby, right?" Trent reasoned, gently poking at one of the images of the medallion, only to be met with another chameleon.

"Well they sure aren't making it any easier for us," Courtney replied, frustrated after poking her third reptile in a row.

*** Confessional: Courtney ***

"We did pretty good for ourselves in the last challenge, but we can't get complacent. Until we've for sure swayed Leshawna's vote away from Trent and Cody's, we need to keep avoiding elimination. I'm self aware enough to know it'll probably be me in danger before Beth and DJ unless one of them royally screws up a challenge." It was right before she crossed her arms that she realized a chameleon had latched itself on to her sleeve and blended in. It only revealed itself to grab one of the bathroom flies with its tongue for a quick snack. "Ok, seriously? When did that even have time to latch on to me?"

*** In the Forest ***

Team Explosive had successfully tracked their way to the location of their own first medallion piece. Unfortunately for them, it was smack dab in the middle of a clearing filled with large sleeping feline-like creatures.

"The heck are those things?" Sugar whispered. "Pumas?"

"Nah, that there's a fossa," Jasmine answered, keeping her voice low and signalling for the others to stop. "They're basically top of the food chain here in Madagascar. Guess we shouldn't be surprised they'd hide one of our pieces in the middle of a bunch of em."

"Well at least they're sleeping," Sammy pointed out. "If we're stealthy we should be able to-"

"ATTENTION, CONTESTANTS!" Chris' voice blared loudly through the walkie talkies. "THIS IS YOUR KIND HOST CHECKING IN ON EVERYONE SINCE NO ONE HAS REPORTED FINDING A PIECE YET."

The heard of fossa growled as the host's yelling stirred them from their slumber. Once they could see the source of the noise coming from Team Explosive, they started to show their teeth and approach the now terrified contestants.

"You did that on purpose," Dave scolded through the device, with Chris' laughter on the other end confirming as much.

"Yeeeeah, I did. But hey, I know what might help you kids out!"

*DING DING DING*

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," said various people from all three teams in unison, a split screen showing them all dealing with their respective problems be it spider, chameleon, or fossa related.

"It's called a mandatory song, not a mandatory complain session. Chop chop!"

In the music video the world around the contestants turned to shades of green, red, yellow, and white. Various shots of the Madagascan terrain cycled through, as a synth melody began accompanied by a marimba. As the song went on more percussion would be added in, everything from congas, to a cowbell, to snare drums. Dawn was working diligently to herd the bark spiders off of Brick's terrified self. Dakota and Lightning leaned forward, looking down at the cadet in pity.

"I sure hope those things do not bite," the heiress sang.

"It'd suck for our teammate to become their early diiiiinner," Lightning added.

Meanwhile Team Old School were still searching under the chameleons, growing increasingly frustrated as they seemed to be now drowning in a sea of them in the music video.

"Which one of these dumb things is right?" Courtney asked desperately.

"Why does it feel like the group of them are getting biiiger?" Beth noted as the search seemingly never ended.

Team Explosive were hiding behind trees and bushes over on their end, some peeking out carefully as they watched the group of fossa run by. Jasmine lead the way as they tried to tip toe over to their medallion piece.

"Are we sure the coast is really clear?" Dave sang nervously.

"I'm thinking those kitties were looking real mad and huuungry," Beardo added.

"Come on guys, there's nothing to fear." Jasmine leaned down to pick up the medallion piece, only to then stand up and come face to face with a very angry fossa barring its teeth. Her eyes went wide. "Well except for us becoming food."

The percussion picked up as a montage played of the contestants having to deal with various animals throughout the island. A herd of ring tailed lemurs would run across the screen for each scene transition, first showing Team Old School now trying to fish out a medallion piece. DJ was struggling to reel up something on the beach, while Trent was fruitlessly only getting various fish at a river.

"There's a bunch of stuff here that could kill a dude," the musician sang as he went through a rainbowfish, then a killifish, and finally a herring.

"This game's something only a million bucks could make us do," DJ added, his catch finally revealing itself to be a massive coelacanth that flattened the brickhouse underneath it when it rose from the water.

"I dread these pains down in Africa," sang Amy, her team now up in trees to avoid the fossa only to now have a swarm of bats flying into their face.

Shawn covered his head, peeking with one eye to wait and see when the barrage would end. "And we know from here it just gets more ba-aaaaad."

A few more scenic shots passed by of the Madagascan landscape, at one point even showing Chris and Chef sipping coffee on some lounge chairs on the beach while a family of asities flew above them. After that, we saw that Team Old School's fishing escapades had somehow led them to being stuck riding atop a humpback whale. Apparently they thought they potentially saw a medallion piece in one of its blowholes.

"It's looking like this wasn't smart," Cody observed as they inched closer to the blowhole and realized it was merely a piece of algae and not what they were looking for. He was miraculously able to sing clearly while underwater.

"This stupid challenge has us going round and round in circles," Leshawna added before the whale suddenly shot water out of the blowhole, sending the team rocketing away.

"I know we'll get through this in my heart," Sammy sang as we now saw her team trekking through a section of the island heavily populated by bugs. Madagascan sunset moths flew by and various beetles crawled along the trees.

"That's assuming that none of these here critters make one of them lose their dang marbles," Sugar pointed out, jutting a thumb backwards. Dave currently had a group of Madagascar hissing cockroaches climbing up his leg, and the running and screaming it caused him to do looked like some sort of interpretive dance.

Over with Team Radioactive, they had finally located their first medallion piece. Unfortunately for them it was underneath a leatherback sea turtle. Dawn was kneeling in front of it, seemingly trying to help urge it away from the part they needed. "Please poor creatures, pay us no mind."

"We just want to get this challenge done," Scott sang painfully as he was meanwhile trying to life up the turtle's side for someone to grab the medallion piece. That obviously wasn't happening, since the thing weighed hundreds of pounds.

As the chorus started up again, the percussion once more picked up while Brick was swatting away some thirsty mosquitoes.

"There's a bunch of stuff here that could kill a dude," sang the cadet.

"This game's something only a million bucks could make us do," Anne Maria added as she sprayed the mosquitoes with her hair spray to get rid of them, not noticing that she was suffocating Brick in the process.

"I dread these pains down in Africa," Trent sang from the shore Team Old School had washed up on, detaching a crayfish that had attached itself to his ass.

Next to his bandmate, Cody coughed up a wad of seaweed. "And we know from here it just gets more ba-aaaaad."

There was then a pretty sweet solo on the synthesizer. The camera panned up to reveal none other than B as the one playing on the keyboard, only finally stopping to whip out his singing device. "LET'S ALL TRY NOT TO BECOME FOOD!"

Now we went back and forth shots of the teams all working instruments of their own. Cody, B, and Beardo worked their respective synthesizers. Scott, DJ, and Shawn were on bongo duty, so on and so forth. Team Explosive all sung in unison. "There's a bunch of stuff here that could kill a dude."

"This game's something only a million bucks could make us do," now sung the entirety of Team Old School.

"I dread these pains down in Africa," sang Team Radioactive, though then the line was repeated by Team Explosive. Then by Team Old School. It was sung a few more times by one team after another until it came back to Team Radioactive singing together.

"And we know from here it just gets more ba-aaaad!"

With the song finally over, everyone took a moment to collect themselves and get their barrings. Jasmine looked at the medallion piece she had grabbed before they were chased off by the fossa, pocketing it to ensure it wouldn't be dropped. That done, Dave then whipped out the walkie talkie. "Alright, status report. We got our first piece during all the singing."

"Same here," Anne Maria confirmed while B tucked away their medallion third. "It was easy peazy."

"Took us forever to find the right chameleon it was under, but yeah, we got our's too," Leshawna confirmed.

"Sounds like we're all tied up," Chris observed from his end. "Which is boring. Let's get a move on, people! First class is gonna have an all you can eat surf and turf platter waiting for them tonight."

While a lot of the contestants cheered and started to pick up the pace at the announcement, Dawn couldn't help but frown. She moved to try and use the radio since Anne Maria was currently done with it, only to be surprised by a voice speaking up before her.

"Ya know, that really ain't the best incentive for some of us if we're vegan," DJ said over the airwaves. "The good night's sleep is good enough motivation for me."

The moonchild smiled, pleasantly surprised at getting beat to the punch. She motioned an offer to take the walkie off of Anne Maria's hands. "Agreed. It's bad enough you interfered with these creature's habitat to set up your challenge, it's just cruel to be serving animals afterwards."

Lightning rolled his eyes nearby. "Sha-please. If you ain't gonna eat up, then that's more protein for Lightning once we win!"

Unbeknownst to the athlete, his comment earned him a stink eye from Dawn. Brick took notice of the exchange, shaking his head.

*** Confessional: Brick ***

"I'm really glad to see that Scott has been doing so well proving himself as a changed man. So I've started to think, if he can end up reforming himself, why not Lightning too while we're at it? I think with a bit of help, Lightning could be a stand up guy! His main problem is he just needs to learn the value of teamwork. In this case, that includes practicing some restraint before offending one of your squadmates."

*** In the Madagascan Rainforest ***

Team Explosive trudged through the wilderness, Shawn having spotted some footprints to track that looked similar enough to the ones that led to their first medallion piece. Echoing around them were the squawks of various wild birds, the buzzing of insects, the ribbits of frogs. Or at least realistic recreations of the sounds as Beardo tried to pass the time with his noises.

"Sorry, but this really isn't the best time for ambient noises," Sammy pointed out, having a hard time keeping a lookout around them for anything dangerous with the sounds distracting her.

"Oh. Yeah, you're probably right." Beardo shrunk back sheepishly with an awkward chuckle. "My bad."

While the rest of the team continued on ahead of them, Sugar nonchalantly met the beatboxer at the back of the pack. "Well if you ask me, them noises are just plum cool. I think she may just be jealous."

"Nah, I get that it's probably pretty distracting right now." Still, he chuckled at the compliment. "But you like the sound effects?"

"Fer sure, buddy!" She patted him hard on the back. "Yer like a walking talking zoo! Ya know, except without any actual animals and all. Think you could even pull off a raccoon sound?"

Beardo was a bit taken back by the buddy comment, smirking. "For sure, I can pretty much do any sound effect as long as I've heard what it sounds like once before." To prove his point he pulled off an uncanny impression of a raccoon chattering.

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

"Wow, first Harold and now Sugar? I always thought people found the sound effects annoying, especially after I got booted off first last time." He folded his arms proudly. "Guess I was wrong! Feels nice to be complimented."

*** Confessional: Sugar ***

"Well that was easy." She chuckled mischievously. "Sucker."

*** In the Madagascan Rainforest ***

"Get a load of that beauty," Jasmine said in awe, though the rest of the team was standing vary cautiously behind her. Before them was a large bronze colored crocodile, which sure enough had a necklace around its neck with a medallion piece attached. Nearby were some bones that may or may not have implied an unfortunate fate for the intern that had been tasked with putting it there.

"You got a weird definition of what's beautiful," Dave commented.

"That there's a Nile crocodile! I've tussled with a bunch of crocs in my day, but I've never had the chance to see one of those in person." Looking absolutely giddy like a kid on Christmas morning, she began to limber up. "Fun fact, they're considered to be one of the most dangerous species of crocs on the planet!"

"How is that a fun fact at all?" An increasingly distressed Shawn whispered. "Babe, you sure you can just swoop in and grab that thing around its neck without getting hurt? They're basically the zombies of the reptile world!"

"Ah yeah, I've been wrestling crocs back home since I was a little ankle-bitter." She gave her boyfriend a quick kiss on the cheek for reassurance. "Just sit back and watch a pro do her stuff."

With no time to waste, Jasmine carefully jumped right into the fray. Once she was well positioned, she hopped atop the crocodile's back. The critter was startled to say the least, and began rolling in an attempt to shake off the Aussie. But Jasmine held strong, and worked towards retrieving its necklace while her team watched in nervous shock. All except Shawn, who sighed dreamily.

*** Confessional: Shawn ***

"Yeah, I'm pretty much the luckiest dude alive."

*** In the Madagascan Highlands ***

Somehow Team Old School's search had led them away from the rainforest and into a highland area of the island. Thankfully the choice proved a wise one when they spotted a piece of their medallion at the top of baobab tree. However, it was a really tall tree that was relatively smooth with no footholds, so DJ was having a slow progress climbing up the thing.

"And now we have our second piece," announced Dave's voice suddenly through the walkie. "Also, Chris, you may wanna check to make sure the intern you put on crocodile duty made it back alright."

"Yeah, well, we're about to get our second piece too so don't get yourselves too comfy just yet," Leshawna shot back through the device. Though it wasn't too reassuring when she heard a sudden scream from DJ, followed by him sliding down the tree.

"I'm telling y'all, this thing wasn't made for climbing!" He groaned into the dirt, trying to catch his breath.

"Somehow I feel like Izzy would have been good at this," Beth commented, Courtney only acknowledging with an annoyed grunt. "Maybe we can just knock it out of the tree? Throw rocks at it until it falls down?"

The CIT opened her mouth to object, only to pause in realization. "Actually... that's not a bad idea. Everyone pick up some rocks and get to pelting!"

Using some pebbles that were lining the ground around the trees, the contestants started throwing towards the medallion piece as hard as they could manage. All except DJ for the time being, who was still recovering from his rough fall.

Elsewhere, Team Radioactive had also finally managed to locate their next piece. Their searching had brought them towards a plateau grassland area of the island, where Dawn insisted a friendly tomato frog had seen an intern dispersing the medallion parts had set off to. While there may have been some secret doubts as to this frog's advice, it proved to be a useful tip. Though because nothing could be easy, the medallion piece happened to be tied up and dangling from a rope off the side of a rocky massif in the grassy plains. Thanks to the jagged and steep nature of it, there was no easy way to reach it. So for now they were at a stop, figuring out how to actually grab the thing.

"How the heck did they even put the thing there, did they use a jetpack or something?" Scott looked to the side, noticing B looking over the situation in deep thought. "B, you got any idea how to tackle this?"

He tapped his chin, eventually nodding. The silent genius reached into his jacket, finally pulling out a fishhook of all things. He then retrieved a spool of fishing line, miming an indication of what he had planned.

"Yo, we don't all speak sign language, can't you just use that talk box thingy to tell us what's up?" Anne Maria asked. By now the exhaustion was making her increasingly frustrated. "Like come on, you're a smart guy, that hunk of metal surely can't be put together bad."

"It's not that it's put together poorly, it's more the fact that he had such little to work with in the way of supplies on the jet," Dawn answered calmly while B tied the hook to the line. "So because the materials are so low quality, he merely doesn't want to risk overloading the device more than it needs to be used. There's no guarantee he'd have enough scrap to build another in time for the next singing episode."

"Pretty sure he just tried to show that he's gonna try hooking the rope so he can pull it up," Scott added. B looked over at the farmer, eyebrows raised in surprise. He flashed a finger pistol to confirm that it was indeed the plan.

So with that, the team could only stand and wait. It was going to take B a few times to properly hook the rope since it was at such an awkward angle and they had little room to stand properly on the massif. The sun was coming down hard, so most of the team were sweating up a storm as they fanned themselves and tried in vain to cool off.

"Ugh, our last piece better be back where it's cooler," Dakota groaned. "It's so dang hot."

"Sha-no duh. We can all feel the dang heat, girl." Lightning wiped a heap of sweat from his brow in annoyance.

"Well obviously, can't a girl vent?" The heiress huffed, feeling that her makeup was started to run quite a bit thanks to all the sweat. It didn't help that Anne Maria was passing the time next to her by unloading a fresh coat of suffocating hair spray. A rumble from her stomach signaled further distress. "Oh, I really hope we can finally win. That surf and turf would really help right now."

"Again with the talking about defenseless animals as food for our reward?" Dawn sighed, turning away in disappointment.

"I'm just trying to be optimistic since this challenge sucks so much." Another spray from Anne Maria. Scott had taken to sniffing his armpit for some reason, and that gross sight wasn't helping her feel any better. B still hadn't hooked the rope yet, and the lack of update from him thanks to his silence wasn't helping her keep any more calm.

Then it happened. From out of nowhere a flock of herons flew by right where Team Radioactive was at. It wasn't mere coincidence, as one of the birds had miraculously held yet another medallion piece in its talons, perhaps coming to deliver it to Dawn after hearing good things from the tomato frog. But they were coming in way too fast. Only thanks to their loud squawking were most of the contestants alerted to their presence in time to duck out of the way. This wasn't the case for Dakota, who had many of the birds bash into her. Not only was it painful, but it royally ruffled up her hair and scratched up her face in the process. The cherry on top was when she noticed a splotch of white fall from her hair, as apparently one of the herons had been startled enough to go to the bathroom. For what it was worth, the medallion piece was also attached to the white glob, but that wasn't going to help her mood.

Immediately the others sensed danger as Dakota stood there in a stewing rage. The sum of everything had practically made her shake from anger, with only B none the wiser to the growing danger as he had finally managed to hook the rope and was carefully pulling up the medallion piece.

"Now let's just breathe for a minute here," Brick said carefully, arms up defensively as the others began inching away. "We don't want to get angry right now."

"This... challenge... SUCKS!"

It was too late. There wasn't enough room to safely run away, so the others could only watch in terror as their teammate's skin began to turn a deeper shade of orange and she grew in size. B had finished pulling up the rope and had just managed to untie and pocket his team's final piece when he heard the commotion and looked back. Now fully formed into Dakotazoid, the mutant punched the ground to vent her frustration. Unsurprisingly, this was a very very bad idea to do when you were nearly on the side of a high up massif. Sure enough, a chunk of the ground crumbled away, and Team Radioactive was sent hurtling over the side of the massif as a result.

On the bright side, the horrified screams of her teammates finally got Dakotazoid to snap out of her rage.

"OH CRAP!"

Thinking quickly, Dakotazoid used her massive reach to grab each of her teammates and pull them towards her as they plummeted to the ground below. Once she had them all, she held them close to her stomach and turned so that her back was facing down. After a few more seconds they finally hit the bottom, her massive frame causing a small crater to form around them.

"There... friends are... safe," Dakotazoid meekly said with a chuckle before finally passing out from the shock. While they were all uninjured save from some cuts and bruises from the fall, the entirety of the team had also passed out after the impact.

*** Confessional: Dakota ***

"Well... that definitely wasn't one of my better moments."

*** In the Madagascan Rainforest ***

Once they had finally managed to knock their second piece from the baobab tree, Team Old School had decided to double back towards the starting point in a hope to find their third piece along the way. Luck was on their side, as they eventually happened to stumble across a group of ring tailed lemurs. They seemed to have been in the middle of a dancing session, perhaps they liked to move it move it. But more relevant to the contestants, the tallest of the lemurs was holding on to their third medallion piece as a trophy. Now they were in the middle of a chase to get their final part from the mammal.

"I'm about ready to use a rock to solve this part of the challenge too," Courtney said in a huff as the lemur jumped out of the way when she dived towards it.

"We are NOT hurting the animals, this one isn't even violent," DJ loudly protested, though his attempt to run at the medallion piece caused a tree branch to whack him in the face. "Well not on his own at least."

"Corner it so he can't get away," Beth yelled, with the others joining her to run at the lemur from all angles.

They were eventually able to back the critter up against a rock. It clutched the medallion piece protectively, glaring as it watched DJ, Courtney, Trent, Leshawna, and Beth close in. Feeling out of options, it was almost ready to try eating its treasure before a hand swooped down from above and plucked it out of its grasp.

"I'll be taking that, thank you!" The lemur looked up in shock to see Cody perched on top of the rock, having stealthily got into the perfect swiping position while it was distracted by the others. "Pleasure doing business with you, little guy."

Impressed at being outsmarted by humans he had assumed were mindless, the lemur nodded in approval. It then dabbed at them, flossed, and scurried off back into the forest.

Beth blinked in confused shock. "Did that lemur just-"

"Don't acknowledge it, let's just go." Leshawna commanded, everyone nodding in agreement and proceeding to never speak of that again. She pulled out the walkie talkie. "We got our third piece, y'all! Try not to be last while we go enjoy first class again."

Many high fives and whoops of cheer were exchanged while the OGs ran their way back to the starting point. Courtney had even taken the time to put the three pieces together to form the completed medallion. Since neither of the other two teams had called in about finding their third piece, victory seemed inevitable. With a skip in their step and a song in their hearts, Team Old School finally made it back to the beach where Chris and Chef were... and where they were also joined by Team Explosive.

"What the... how the heck are they here?" A flabbergasted Trent blurted out.

"Oh, we found our third piece about an hour ago," Sammy said, giving the enemies an apologetic smile. "We tracked it to some mud where it was hid under a pile of worms."

"Which was totally gross, by the way," Dave added with a shiver.

"And totally yummy!" Sugared belched in satisfaction, even rubbing her tummy for added affect. "Always did love me some gummy worms!"

"We already told you that they weren't... ah never mind." Jasmine shook her head, focusing on the other team. "Anyway, we didn't ring in about finding it since we figured it would have lit a serious fire under the other teams and we really wanted to win. Sorry, mates. But on the bright side you're not the last team to arrive, so you aren't going to elimination."

Chris and Chef looked at each other, the host lowering his sunglasses in what could almost be mistaken as concern. "Where IS Team Radioactive anyway? We haven't heard an update from them in a while."

Seeing that his comrade was giving him an expecting stare, Chef sighed and got up from his comfy chair. "I'll go check the gosh darn cameras."

Elsewhere in the Madagascan grasslands, the various members of Team Radioactive began to wake up and groan in pain.

*** Confessional: Courtney ***

"Ugh, just when we got a taste of first class of course Team Explosive wins it back again. Oh well, I guess not being the losing team is better than nothing." She sighed, looking out the window in thought. "I wonder who Team Radioactive is gonna vote off. Probably... wait a minute."

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

Courtney peaked around the corner, looking into the common area. Scott was sitting there alongside Dawn, B, and Brick. She took a deep breath, stepping forward to say something... only to immediately change her mind and quickly walk away to economy class instead. The dirt farmer looked back after thinking he had heard a noise, but shrugged when he saw nothing there.

"Everyone doing alright?" Brick asked as he handed out ice packs to the others. He was applying one to the back of his own neck, and all were still showing a fair amount of bruises. "Heck of a nasty fall we took."

B gave a thumbs up to signify his lack of injury, though Scott was looking much more spiteful. "That's an understatement, she almost got us killed! Between what happened today and Japan, she's gotta go. It ain't worth keeping her around when we gotta worry about Dakotazoid coming out at any moment."

"We should take into account that Dakota isn't able to help her condition, and while it doesn't lead to the most peaceful solutions she HAS saved us before in Antarctica thanks to Dakotazoid," Dawn pointed out, icing an ankle she propped up on another stool. "Personally, I haven't appreciated Lightning's attitude as of late. I'm not sure he has any respect for animals. He was even feeding his own protein powder irresponsibly to the pig in the last challenge!"

Brick raised his eyebrows in concern. "Well, I don't know if he really knew any better. I think it'd be safe to say Lightning isn't the most aware member of the team, so he just needs to be educated is all. Plus, his strength is definitely an asset to the team." He winced as he felt a small bit of soreness from his neck. "As for Dakota, I've gotta agree with Scott. I don't mean to think less of her because of the condition she can't control, but it can't be ignored if she's going to be a danger to not only us but herself."

Dawn seemed ready to protest, but was surprised to see even B nod in agreement, pointing a thumb at the dirt farmer and giving a thumbs up to signal his approval. Sighing, the pale girl relented. "I suppose you're right."

*** Confessional: Scott ***

"Dawn and Beverly actually agreeing with what I have to say?" He chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. "Man, what a world."

*** At the Elimination Ceremony ***

With the votes placed and someone's fate locked, the seven members of Team Radioactive shuffled into the elimination area. Chris was looking smug as always while he retrieved the plate of peanut filled barf bags.

"Ah, welcome back guys! I knew you couldn't stay away from me long when we started out the season with you all here." He chuckled ominously, obviously none of the others looking happy to be there. "Well let's get right into it, shall we? Anne Maria, Dawn, B, all of you get some peanuts."

All three of them caught their bags with nothing to say on the matter, as if that would be a shock for one in particular.

"Brick, you're also safe even after you decided to stop for a date with the spiders."

The cadet shivered from the creepy crawly memory, nearly missing his bag as it was tossed his way.

"Aaaaand... Lightning. You might be a cocky jerk, but you're a strong cocky jerk." He threw the athlete his bag. "You're also safe."

"Sha-duh," he replied, catching his immunity symbol all the same.

"Oh come on, I didn't even do anything wrong this time," Scott protested, only receiving a sharp glare from Dakota for the outburst.

Chris cleared his throat, getting the attention back on himself. "As I was saying. Dakota, you're on the block because your mutant rage almost got your teammates killed." She looked down in shame. "And Scott, you're on the chopping block because you are, indeed, still Scott."

He merely growled in frustration, mumbling obscenities under his breath while Chef opened the hatch. There was then gasps as the co-host brandished TWO parachutes and threw one to each of the contestants in trouble.

"Oh no, is it a double elimination?" Dakota asked in shock.

"Nah, just a single," Chris answered while Chef wheeled out a strange platform type thing. It had two spots to stand on and was on wheels. It also had a handle that Chef could keep a hold of. "We're just doing something a bit different for my patented dramatic pause of this elimination."

Seeing that everyone was properly confused, Chris continued. "Because you two are in unique situations, I thought it would be a fun dramatic twist for our loser to get the boot without any time to react and say their goodbyes."

"How does that make any sense?" Scott asked, his voice rising in a mix of panic and anger.

"Simple, if Dakota is eliminated it saves us the trouble of her potentially getting mad and wrecking the plane while we're all on it," Chris answered. "And if YOU get eliminated, it means you'll be denied a chance to go and finally make up with Courtney. It's the kinda juicy cliffhanger that leaves viewers wanting more, you'd have no chance to give her some parting words!"

"Actually, I did write her down a note on some toilet paper to give in case I get the axe." He dug into his pants, handing a wad of toilet paper to a very grossed out Brick. "Speaking of, give this to Courtney if I'm voted off, will ya?"

"That's... incredibly gross." Shaking his head in disappointment, Chris motioned towards the movable platforms. "Just strap on your parachutes and get on the dang things."

The dirt farmer and rich girl locked eyes, both trying to remain confident as they got into position with the parachutes on. Once they were in place, Chef began pushing and pulling the device back and forth. With each push it would be Scott standing in front of the open hatch, and with each pull it was Dakota in front of it. He continued to push and pull with sadistic glee as the two's confidence quickly melted away into nervous panic.

"Scott... Dakota... the one getting the boot tonight is..."

Both closed their eyes, anticipating the worst while Chef continued to move them back and forth. The rest of the team watched on nervously, while Chris smirked at the rising tension. But eventually the Boot of Shame did come swinging down, kicking square into the face of...

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... Dakota.

"Dakota is out," Chris confirmed, the heiress' scream echoing as she fell to the Earth below. "Scott, you live to see another day. But, uh, pro tip my guy? Please don't give Courtney that nasty ass toilet paper. That's just a bad idea."

Chris tossed the safe boy his barf bag, Scott completely ignoring it hitting him in the head as he stepped off the platform and heaved a heavy sigh. "Holy crap, never do that thing for an elimination again."

*** In Economy Class ***

Most of Team Old School were settling into their seats, obviously not too happy about the downgrade in living arrangements after enjoying first class. Cody was the lone missing member, having already excused himself to go join Sammy and the others in the cargo hold. Beth noticed that Courtney was looking particularly conflicted, nudging her to get her attention.

"Something on your mind?"

"No," she lied. "Just disappointed we couldn't get first class again, that's all."

The farm girl wasn't convinced. It didn't make matters any more convincing when Team Radioactive finally filled in after their elimination. Dawn, B, Brick, and Scott immediately branched off to to the cargo hold as well, but their passing through was at least able to confirm who got the axe.

"Dakota, huh?" Leshawna commented, shaking her head. "Dang. Maybe I should have apologized to white girl for going off on her so hard. Ah well, guess her and Harold can hash it out on the Aftermath."

Once things quieted back now, Beth could see Courtney looking much more relaxed. She chuckled. "Guess you're glad it wasn't Scott that got voted off, huh?"

"Oh shut up," the CIT answered. "I'm just glad that Dakota is out of the game. As Dakotazoid she was objectively the physically strongest and fastest of us by far, so it's good to have that threat out of the way early."

"Uh huh," DJ said flatly. "Sure."

*** Cockpit Confessional: DJ ***

"Who does she think she's fooling? Like come on, how long do we gotta drag this out before she just admits that she still likes the guy and does something about it?" He folded his arms and shook his head. "Relationship drama, man. Sure am glad I've never got caught up in that junk."

"Well there's a first time for everything, DJ my man," Chris practically yelled, startling the brickhouse who seemed to forget there were indeed two other people in the cockpit with him. "Who knows, maybe this will be the season some fine honey has her eyes on you."

"Me personally, I've always shipped him with Katie, but you said bringing her and Sadie back wouldn't do anything for ratings," Chef added, sounding disappointed. "Oh, maybe him and Ella would vibe pretty well?"

"She isn't on this season, and I don't intend on ever letting her back anytime for the foreseeable future," Chris said in a huff. "She should be happy the network asked her to help host the aftermath."

DJ watched the back and forth as confused as could be. "Uuuuh, I think I'll be going no-"

"Will DJ get his hook up on and finally find his OTP?" Chris interrupted, throwing an arm around his shoulder.

"OT what?"

"Which girl would fall for our beloved brickhouse?" Chris continued to ignore the contestant, though DJ looked at the camera in confused fear. "Will Team Radioactive ever get to win first class for once? Will Rodney go down in Total Drama history as its biggest simp now that Cody is un-simping himself?"

"What he heck is a-" DJ began to ask before Chris released his grip, causing him to fall to the floor.

"You may find out the answer to these questions next time, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

Anne Maria gives Scott's passport a stamp, wincing a bit at the soreness in her arm. "Sure, Dakota may have got me a bit scratched up, but at least the poof is in tact. The way I see it, she's probably the closest thing I got to an ally right now, so I'd still rather kick off Scotty."

Silent as ever, B gave Dakota's passport a stamp and nodded for emphasis.

"I don't think it would reflect poorly on me at this point to say Dakotazoid is pretty darn scary. With what happened today, and what happened to Harold, I'm sorry but this is the right thing to do." Brick stamped Dakota's passport.

Dakota was looking nervous, to say the least. Dread was creeping into her eyes. "This is sooo bad. I really hope I can work past this Dakotazoid nastiness. Please let me stay for a bit longer." She stamped Scott's passport.

"The more I thought it over, the more I realized the others are correct. This game is simply not the environment for Dakota to be in with her condition. It'll bring nothing but harm in the future if she stays. Both for us, and herself." Dawn gave Dakota's passport a gentle stamp. "Once she returns home, I'm confident that being surrounded by loved ones will help her better than this game ever would."

Lightning took a look at Dakota's passport, but eventually tossed it to the side to stamp Scott's. "Sure, mutant girl messed up today almost getting people killed. Not cool. But did ya see that punch? Sha-bam! Lightning respects strength like that, it's good for the team. And since Lightning overheard her and Annie wanting to vote off Scott, that's good enough for him."

Scott glared a bit as he gave Dakota's passport a stamp. "This is twice now I've been banged up thanks to Dakotazoid's mutant strength. What is she trying to do, pass up Fang's record? Call me crazy, but I ain't waiting around to be put in a wheelchair like she did to Harold."

Votes for Dakota: 4 (B, Brick, Dawn, Scott)

Votes for Scott: 3 (Anne Maria, Dakota, Lightning)

After the Boot of Shame:

The suddenness of the elimination method had Dakota screaming for a good while, though she was finally able to adjust and safely deploy her parachute. Once she was finally able to regain her breath and composure, she sighed at the camera. "This sucks on so many levels. I wanted to come back to Total Drama to make new friends and work past this stupid Dakotazoid condition. But after a bunch of bruises and putting someone in a wheelchair, what do I have to show for it? Squat."

She grunted in frustration, kicking at the wind. "I mean, I get it. I really lost my cool today. Dakotazoid almost got my friends killed, between that and injuring Harold OF COURSE they would be afraid to keep me. Still, it's all just so frustrating! I didn't even get a fair chance to prove myself. And that jerk Scott not only stole Sam's spot on the cast but gets to stay longer than me?"

It was just as she was about to land that the frustration was reaching a climax. Below, in the middle of the Madagascan rainforest, a fossa began lurking towards its prey. A cowering family of lemurs were backed against a tree, awaiting their demise. But suddenly, what seemed like a comet struck the ground behind them. The fossa looked back, trying to see through the cloud of dirt. Suddenly, a deafening roar was heard, and Dakotazoid emerged from the rubble. The fossa ran off in fear, though so did the lemurs while the mutant girl ran by. She punched at trees to vent out her frustration.

"THIS SUCKS SO MUCH!"

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar

Elimination Order:

20th: Dakota

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

"Last time on Total Drama Battle of the generations," Chris began. "The 20 remaining players were dropped off in Madagascar, emphasis on the dropped, and we tasked them to find three pieces of their team medallion scattered throughout the island. They searched high and low, coming up close and personal with a bunch of the local wildlife. Everything from small chameleons and lemurs, to the ferocious feline fossa!"

"Actually, despite resembling a cat, the fossa is actually more closely related to the mongoose," Chef pointed out in an odd British accent, having somehow acquired a pair of glasses. "Speaking of which, did you know that the male fossa has a spine covered and extremely long-"

Chris slapped his cohort upside the head, bringing him back to his senses. "As I was saying. The teams fought hard, but it was Team Explosive who bounced back to win thanks to Shawn and Jasmine's stellar tracking skills. On the flipside, Dakota let the stress of the challenge get the better of her, and Dakotazoid emerged with a vengeance! And by that I mean she almost got her entire team killed. Needless to say, it wasn't too much of a shock when she was the one sent packing."

The view moved back to the two hosts in the cockpit. "Things are getting nice and juicy. Relationships forming, alliances scheming, backs just begging to get stabbed! This should be one heck of an action packed episode, so sit right there and get ready for some TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATION!"

*** Opening Credits ***

Economy class was relatively quiet following Dakota's elimination. With Cody and over half of Team Radioactive away in the cargo hold, there wasn't much in the way of conversing going on. Beth was showing DJ how to make friendship bracelets, while Courtney watched in reluctant interest since there wasn't much of anything else to do. Trent and Leshawna were playing some sort of card game utilizing a deck that the musician had sneaked in to help pass the time. As for the other team, Lightning was utilizing the overhead storage area as a pullup bar. Had to work with what he had.

"You need me to keep count again or something?" Anne Maria offered from nearby. "I ain't got nothin better to do, so..."

"Nah, Lightning's just gonna keep going until it's time for dinner, gotta bulk up to carry this team so we don't lose again."

A bit miffed at the comment but not wanting to cause a scene, the Jersey girl just sat back and sighed.

*** Confessional: Anne Maria ***

"I don't know how Scottie boy did it, but it looks like he got in good with a bunch of the team. First Staci leaves over him and now Dakota? These other guys stupid or something?" She grunted in frustration. "Now I guess I'm on the outs with the team. It's probably me or Lightning going next, so I may as well try and work with him to watch each other's backs. Or if I gotta, maybe throw him under the bus to save my butt if we keep on losing. Girl's gotta stay in the game somehow."

*** In First Class ***

Sometime after the zombie search had come and gone, it was time for Team Explosive to retake first class. True to Chris' word, they were treated to an "all you can eat" surf and turf dinner. But clearly that label didn't account for Sugar being on the winning team, as the others had just barely been able to make their second plate before she had devoured the rest of the feast into the black abyss she called a stomach. She finished the food slaughter with a loud echoing burp that was likely heard by other planes in the surrounding sky.

"Lovely," Jasmine mumbled as she, Shawn, and Sammy moved to the other side of the room. "How is she still here again?"

"Same reason as Amy, they got lucky being on a team that keeps winning," Shawn pointed out, letting a bit of cockiness seep into his tone.

"And the whole Rodney thing in Amy's case, but no use dwelling on that," Sammy added, grinning. "But yeah, you two should really look into letting the masseuse give you a couple's massage. Your backs are probably pretty sore from carrying this team."

Both smirked, though Jasmine tried to wave it off. "Ah, come off it. Almost the whole team has been pulling their weight, don't undersell yourself."

Nearby, Beardo beatboxed to himself in between bites, trying to keep it relatively quiet so as to not disturb the others eating. Sugar took the opportunity to take a seat next to him and tossed over a deep fried ball of cornmeal.

"Saved ya an extra hushpuppy, bud," she said jovially.

"Thanks!"

While he continued with his meal, the pageant queen looked over the room to size up the situation. Shawn, Jasmine, and Sammy were gathered together in their own corner of the room, which was by now the norm. Amy was keeping to herself since she wanted to eat her food in peace, not that she was the biggest seafood fan anyway. Last was Dave, who was also eating solo and seemed to be in a bummed out state of deep thought. Inside her simple yet sinister mind, the cogs were turning.

*** Confessional: Sugar ***

"Getting on Beardo's good side was plum easy! Easier than I thought it'd be, really. So I've been thinking, why should me n Amy stop there? Sure, Beardo will probably vote with me, but that's still only three people. Just the same as the others. Dave's the odd man out. If we get Dave on our side." She chuckled darkly. "That'd just be right as rain!"

*** In the Common Area ***

Everyone shuffled in for the daily breakfast, though the food didn't seem to be ready yet. With nothing better to do, they passed the time by shooting the breeze.

"So each location has had an elimination thus far," Brick pointed out to the room. "You guys think we'll have a reward challenge soon like the original World Tour?"

"I'm not so sure," DJ said. "It had a bunch of them, but the cast in World Tour was a fair bit smaller. "Even back in the first season our cast wasn't as big and that had, what, two non elimination challenges?"

"Yeah, Brunch of Disgustingness and that time the final four were castaways." Cody chuckled. "Unless you count Mr. Coconut's elimination, I guess."

Leshawna grunted in frustration. "Tch, I shoulda been in that episode, still can't believe I got robbed like that when you fools had the chance to vote Heather off for free."

Beth smirked, putting her hands up innocently. "Hey, I'm clean! I would have voted for her if I had the chance before the others messed it up."

DJ and Cody nodded in agreement, though Trent and Courtney were forced to drop their heads in shame thanks to playing a part in that elimination years ago.

"You guys wanna talk about robbed?" Anne Maria waved her hand dismissively. "Our cast had plenty of that going around."

As Scott was sitting between B and Dawn, both gave him a pointed look that made him sink awkwardly into his seat with a chuckle.

"Would it be weird for me to say I always felt bad for Max?" Shawn asked his teammates. "He literally just said an offhand comment and Chris decided to eliminate him for it. I mean, yeah he was annoying, but it's not like he was the one to almost blow up the island."

"Ella got done pretty dirty too," Sammy added.

"She didn't get done dirty enough," Sugar grumbled from her seat, her belly growling for nourishment. "Where in the Sam Hill is our food at?"

On cue, Chef emerged from the cockpit with a rolling cart full of dishes. Though as he began to place them in front of everyone, they were confused to see spaghetti and meatballs, alongside bread sticks as their meal. As for DJ and Dawn there was tofu instead of meatballs.

"Not that I'm complaining, but who the heck serves spaghetti for breakfast?" Trent asked quizzically after prodding the meatball to confirm nothing was off about it.

Their answer came in the form of Chef brandishing an accordion from under the roll cart after he had finished passing out the food. He began to serenade the players with a shockingly well played rendition of Funiculi Funicula. Or the pizza song as some people knew it.

As everyone pondered what was going on, it was Chris' turn to make his entrance. Oddly enough, considering who was playing the accordion, he came in dressed with a stereotypical white chef's outfit, complete with a thick black curly mustache. In one hand he held a rolling pin while he made the standard Italian hand gesture with the other. Many of the contestants seemed flabbergasted, though Anne Maria looked ready to throw hands.

"Bongiorno," Chris announced in a butchered thick Italian accent. "It's a me, Chrisio! Today we got a spicy meat-a-ball of a challenge!"

"Is this racist or REALLY racist?" Brick asked Dawn in a whisper, genuinely unsure how offended he should be.

If she had a sleeve, Anne Maria would be rolling it up as she approached the host with her nail file held threateningly. "Yo, if you wanna make us out to be a joke, I'll show you how Italians react to disrespect REAL quick, bucko."

Sensing a genuine threat, he motioned for Chef to cease the music and ripped off the fake mustache. "Now now, we're just having a bit of fun. As you may have gathered by now, we're heading off to Italy! Specifically, we're going to the beautiful town of Venice."

There was an array of happy mumbles, with Jasmine in particular looking optimistic at the prospect. "Hey, Venice is pretty romantic. It's one of the places I've always wanted to go with Shawn."

"It's definitely gorgeous and rich with history." Dawn frowned a bit. "It's just a shame that heavy tourism and pollution has made its natural beauty have a harder time coming out in recent years."

"I'm just surprised he's not going to Rome to make up for that World Tour gaffe," Trent pointed out. "But yeah, Venice is awesome! We always roll through here when we're doing shows in Italy."

"And as for what challenge you'll be doing there." Chris was handed three pizza boxes by Chef and sat them down with a loud thud. Or at least as loud a thud as three empty cardboard boxes could manage. "Pizza time!"

No one seemed to know what Chris meant.

"... You'll each be preparing a pizza to be enjoyed by yours truly! Best pizza as judged by me wins themselves a night in first class."

"So that's it? We're just baking a pizza and we're done?" Dave asked.

"Well obviously there's more to it, but we'll go into the details when we land. For now, your task is to simply choose a head chef to oversee what kind of pizza you'll be serving your beloved host."

As host and co-host took their leave, one contestant was already getting plenty of encouragement from their team.

"DJ's probably the best cook that's ever been on the show, we make him our head chef and we've got first class as good as won," Courtney said, receiving numerous nods of approval.

"No arguments here, I'd trust homeboy's cooking to pull us through any day of the week," Leshawna added.

While he was appreciative of the praise, the brickhouse in question wasn't looking so sure. "I don't know, guys. Knowing Chris he'll want some meat on his pie and it's been a long time since I've cooked up anything that wasn't vegan friendly."

"Well knowing you, you'd probably make a vegan pizza more delicious than the others without any meat needed," Trent reassured with a pat on the shoulder. "You got this, big guy."

Meanwhile with Team Radioactive, it was clear who wanted to take the reigns more than anyone else.

"Ya girl's got Italian blood pumping through her veins. I'm down in little Italy every week having the best pizza New York has to offer." Anne Maria cracked her knuckles for added effect. "You let me take the cooking and I'll blow his dang socks off."

No one felt the need to argue since it was clear she was the only one eager to take the job. The rest had varying degrees of cooking experience, but they all seemed to agree that Anne Maria would be the best suited to make this one. But while they seemed to have reached a consensus, Team Explosive was looking fairly hesitant.

*** Confessional: Shawn ***

"A cooking contest is pretty much the one thing not suited for Jasmine and I's skillset," he said while scratching his chin in thought. "I mean, I'm pretty good with cakes and pastries, but outside of that I've always been a canned foods kinda guy when I make my meals. This might actually be pretty tough for once."

*** In the Common Area ***

"So... any takers?" Jasmine asked, feeling the tiniest bit nervous while noticing the confidence radiating from Anne Maria and DJ's team.

"I don't really know much about cookin pizza, but I always like eating pizza so I know my way around what's yummy or not," Sugar offered.

"Somehow I doubt that's a good idea," Dave shot back. "You'd end up eating the pizza before we could give it to Chris, kinda like Owen back in season 1."

Amy and Sammy exchanged glares. Both knew that neither of them were too proficient with cooking, and they were prepared to call the other out on it if they decided to volunteer. Finally, Beardo was the one to raise his hand.

"I mean, I wouldn't call myself like an expert or nothing, but since I've been living on my own in an apartment for the last year I cook a bunch of my meals," he explained. "That's included a few pizzas. If no one else wants to do it, I'm down for giving it a try."

After one last scan to confirm no one else was interested, Jasmine nodded in approval. "If you're up to it, then that sounds good here mate. Can't say that I've ever baked a pizza myself, so your bit of experience is better than none."

With the head chefs all squared away, it was just a matter of waiting for the plane to land. As they descended over the waterway filled city, they actually landed on a long island nearby known as Lido di Venezia. Technically part of Venice, kinda, but situated away from the main landmass. Soon enough they were lead to a beach where three large gondolas awaited them. While Chris was back in his normal outfit, Chef was now clad in full gondolier outfit complete with white and black striped shirt and straw hat.

"So here's the rundown," Chris began as he motioned to the gondolas. "Venice is best known for its various canals that are navigated through by their signature gondolas. So obviously, we'll have you guys traveling in style."

Once all three boats were in place, Chef joined the host's side to display a map of Venice. "While y'all are gonna be allowed to go up the smaller paths if ya need to, the main trip is gonna take ya straight down the Grand Canal. Ya gonna have five stops along the way to get your pizza fixings."

Indeed, there were five red dots throughout the Venice map, with a gold dot near the end of the canal path. Chef pointed to the red dots one at a time. "First up you'll park ya boats near Doge's Palace to head into Piazza San Marco. You'll get the stuff to make your dough there. Next ya got Palazzo Grassi, where you'll get the stuff for your sauce. After that you'll be going under the Rialto Bridge, and danging underneath that will be your cheese supplies."

Noticing some confused looks as to what dangling meant, he merely chuckled. "Y'all will figure it out. Next you'll stop near Marco Polo's house, around it will be all the different toppings you could ask for. Finally, near the end you'll get to Chiesa di San Simeon Piccolo. One of Venice's big fancy schmancy old churches. Seasonings, herbs, spices, and all that jazz will be chilling there." He pointed to the final gold dot on the map. "After all that you'll meet up on the Constitution Bridge, we've got you some ovens set up there to put it all together."

"You guys get all of that?" Chris chuckled. "In short, there's five spots on your gondola ride between here and your final destination. Once you're at the end, you'll make your pizza and I'll judge who our lucky winners and unlucky losers will be."

"How are we gonna hold all of our ingredients?" Beth asked. "Do we just leave it laying on the floor of the boat?"

Chris shrugged. "Pretty much. But since I'm feeling generous, we'll give you some old sacks to haul your stuff with in case you kids are thinking of making something fancy. On that note, be finalizing what kind of pizza you each want to make, because presentation can play a factor."

Chef passed out the rucksacks to the teams. They were fairly large, but probably wouldn't be able to fit everything after all five locations had been visited.

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

"A'ight, so the way I see it I gotta get a little creative with my pizza choice to try and wow Chris. I ain't tried much in the way of weirder recopies, but my ma once gave me the idea for a Cajun pizza that was like..." He moved his hands in a "mind blown" fashion and did some fireworks sound effects for emphasis. "Hopefully it comes out good. It'll be a bit trickier to make, but I figure I can't just serve him a plain pepperoni pizza and call it a day."

*** In the Gondolas ***

"Ok, so we're gonna be doing a classic New York style pepperoni, heavy on the cheese," Anne Maria explained as her team loaded into their gondola.

"What, that's it?" Scott asked in surprise. "Shouldn't we do something more fancy to try and impress him?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "Well of course it's gonna have more fixings to it, but we gotta keep it simple. Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Now who's gonna steer this thing?"

The team looked a bit unsure, but it was too late now to change their mind on the head chef. B decided to take over the gondola steering, with Shawn and Courtney on similar duties nearby.

"So y'all are cool with me going ahead with the vegan pizza idea?" DJ asked one more time, part of him nervous that he'd be in danger of getting votes if they ended up losing. "Since the others are probably gonna do their pizza normal style, I was thinking of trying out my deep dish recipe."

He received various nods of approval from his teammates, Cody even giving a thumbs up. "Stop worrying so much, man. You're like the last person that should be on edge in a cooking challenge, we trust you with this."

With everyone in position and ready to rumble, Chris gave a mighty blow from his airhorn. The teams were off... at a very leisurely pace. While all three of the contestants manning the oars seemed to do well enough steering the boat and propelling it forward, it wasn't exactly built for speed.

"Uh, can we get a move on?" Sugar asked impatiently. "Why ya taking yer sweet time for?"

"It's a gondola, not a speedboat," Shawn pointed out. "The whole point of these things is to stroll through Venice all slow and romantic. I can't really make it go any faster."

The first stop was a fair bit away, so all everyone could do was wait and take in the Venetian beauty. The weather was nice and sunny, some locals and tourists could be seen roaming the streets, and the faint echoes of street music could be heard. It was all quite beautiful, until Sugar leaned over the side of the boat and stuck her head into the water.

"What are you doing?" Sammy asked, unnerved.

"Thought I saw a fishy! Tried to grab it with my teeth, but the dang varmint got away." Settling back into her seat, she elbowed Beardo. "So what kinda pizza we cooking up, head chef?"

"I've got this Cajun recipe in mind that I've made before. Assuming they got all the stuff for it, I think Chris is gonna love it."

Deciding to give the boat ride a bit of ambience, Beardo began imitating an accordion playing Tarantella Napoletana. It could even be heard from the other two boats, though no one seemed to mind since it made for a relaxing atmosphere in a challenge for once.

"I think I can see that Doge's Palace place up ahead," Leshawna eventually said as she scanned the upcoming buildings. "Still a bit before we get there, but it ain't far."

"Heh, Doge's Palace." Cody snickered. "Wow. Very Italy. Such Venice. Much elegant. Wow."

He was promptly slapped upside the head by Trent, who checked to make sure the other boats hadn't heard him out of secondhand cringe.

After a few minutes of relatively peaceful sailing, Team Radioactive was the first team to come to a stop near Doge's Palace. B made sure to carefully position the boat in a way that'd be easy to get back into for his team, and the group was off with bag in hand. Team Old School was the next to arrive, with Team Explosive bringing up the rear. On the way to Piazza San Marco, they took in the surrounding architecture. Namely Doge's Palace and an elegant cathedral near it.

Brick whistled. "They got some real fancy looking places around here."

"Focus, big guy," Anne Maria urged as they came into the Piazza proper. It was a huge square space that gave view to not only the buildings they had already passed, but other unique locals like a clocktower. "A'ight, so if this is where we're getting our stuff for the crust we're gonna need flour, yeast, salt, olive oil, and water. And some sugar wouldn't hurt. I'll handle picking out the water, you guys pick something each and toss it in the sack."

"Watcha mean you're gonna pick out the water, it's water!" Lightning looked even more perplexed than usual. "What sha-difference does it make?"

"All the difference," she answered. "Now let's smoke these other bozos while we got first pickings."

Different stations had been set up in various areas of the Piazza for each respective part. Though some stations were time wasters that wouldn't be worth going towards, like the one where you could pick up nail clippings and shaved hair for your crust. Dawn retrieved a small container of salt, Brick located the yeast, Scott handled the sugar, and B found the olive oil. Lightning saw a few options of which flour to go for, but opted for the one that was higher in protein.

Last was Anne Maria, who found the water station. There was everything from bottles of water from a vending machine, to just a bucket of water from the canal. She scanned and scanned, tossing aside one container labeled sewer water until she finally located a bottle near the back that was listed as "New York City Imported Water."

"Ha! Found it." She kissed the bottle and ran back towards her squad, while members from the other two teams were now fanning out to get supplies of their own. Most of the players opted to just continue carrying their item back to the gondola, though B handed their head chef his container of olive oil since he would have to drive.

Team Old School and Explosive more or less picked identical items for their crust. They both went for standard local filtered water when given the choice, and the only difference came when Jasmine opted to also get the high protein flour while DJ picked out a more all purpose variety. It wasn't long before all three teams were back in their gondolas and sailing back down the canal.

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"I gotta say, it's a pretty rad change of pace to have a chill challenge for once. Not that I'm complaining, but it's pretty surprising having one like this considering how Chris is, ya know?"

Suddenly Chris shot the door open and poked his head in, startling Trent off the toilet. "Well my dude, the way I see it since I'm eating the food you guys are making, I'd rather not risk you messing up and feeding me something nasty."

"There was literal sewer water and nail clippings as cooking options down there!" Trent dusted himself off, still looking unnerved by the host's presence. "Also why do you keep barging in on me in here?"

"Well yeah, we put those options there because it's funny, but obviously you wouldn't pick them if you want to win. And because you keep forgetting to lock the door. You should work on that, by the way."

*** On the Grand Canal ***

Anne Maria took inventory of their current ingredient count, nodding in approval. She glanced up at B as he calmly steered them towards the Palazzo Grassi. "Yo big guy, think you can guard the goods while we get out for the next stop? Don't wanna risk someone from the other team being a sleazeball and tossing our stuff into the water while we're gone."

The silent genius raised his eyebrows in impressed surprise. He nodded and flashed a finger pistol in agreement.

"Hey, that ain't a bad idea," Scott noted, equally impressed with the thought. "Since we're in the lead and the others will be gone by the time we get back, we could-"

He noticed Dawn giving him an expecting look, then chuckled. "Nah, never mind. They'll probably pick out someone to guard their junk too once they see B doing it."

Sure enough he was right on the money. As they parked at their next destination and headed in while B lingered behind, the other teams took notice.

"I'll guard the boat and-" Courtney began

"Make sure our stuff is safe," Shawn finished from nearby.

Conveniently, the Grassi Palace was right on the side of the Grand Canal and had docks that made parking in front of it relatively easy for everyone. With every driver sticking back to keep the ingredients safe, now it was a matter of locating the sauce. It was a large art building, and they were getting turned around among all the displays and sculptures without finding any food.

Finally, after going past some columns towards a sculpture that resembled a balloon dog, it was actually Team Explosive to find the sauce station first.

"Huh, I ain't seeing no garlic," Beardo pointed out as they looked over the relatively small selection for sauce components. "I'm really gonna need it for this plan to work."

"It's probably at the last location, there isn't any oregano or other stuff you'd usually see in a pizza recipe here," Sammy pointed out, looking back to see Team Radioactive fast approaching. "If we wanna keep first pick though, we need to hurry."

Trusting that she was likely right, the beatboxer swiped up a can of fire roasted tomatoes and they were on their way out. Anne Maria took the lead ahead of her teammates and quickly scanned over the sauce options since Team Old School had heard the talking and were also closing in on the location.

"Surprised they didn't just give us whole tomatoes on their own as an option," she mumbled, eventually picking out her favorite brand of tomato sauce that she could find. "Alright, let's move it people!"

As Team Old School took their turn while Team Radioactive left, DJ ran into the same problem as Beardo before him. "They're missing a bunch of the fixings I'd put in the sauce, all they got here is the tomato. Guess we need to keep moving."

Once he had selected a can of tomato puree, it was back to the gondolas for everyone. Now Team Explosive was ahead of the pack, but the rest wasn't far behind. Once they had turned a corner of the canal it was a straight shot to their next stop, the large Rialto Bridge up ahead. Jasmine was able to scan the upcoming mark, eventually able to faintly make out their next challenge.

As Chef had hinted, the cheese options were quite literally dangling from the bottom of the bridge. As in packets of cheese attached to rope that was taped to the bottom of the bridge. While they weren't too terribly high up, it was just high enough where grabbing them would cause a bit of issue.

"I might be able to jump high enough to grab them thanks to my reach, but it'd be close," Jasmine said as the rest of the team looked at the upcoming obstacle.

"Well I'm gonna need mozzarella and gouda," Beardo explained. "And parmesan if it's here and not at the last location. We can't get all that with just one jump. This'll be tricky."

Sammy thought over their options, also noting how the height would make things pretty hard for the rest of their team other than Jasmine. Eventually an idea hit, though it wasn't one that made her thrilled. "Amy, if we can just put our crap away for a second, I think we might actually be able to help the others pull this off." Getting a confused look from her twin, she continued. "We can just bounce them up like we do to get the girls back home on top of the human pyramid."

As much as the mere thought of working with her sister repulsed the mean twin, feeling the looks from the rest of her team made her sigh in acceptance. "Fine. But we're gonna have a hard time hoisting up some of them."

"Dave, Jasmine, and Shawn would be the lightest options," Beardo pointed out. "I can take over driving for Shawn while y'all do your thing."

With the bridge fast approaching, the two boys quickly switched out while the sisters got into position with their hands at the ready. Jasmine was up first and she scanned the upcoming cheese bags until she spotted one labelled gouda.

"There. You galls ready?"

"Ready," the both said in unison. Taking a running start, Jasmine ran towards the two and jumped into their hands. Amy and Sammy both then used their combined strength to hoist her into the air, where Jasmine was able to swipe the bag of gouda from the rope. It was then that she realized they had forgot to work out the landing portion of the plan. She yelped as she quickly began to plummet towards the water, but was caught in the nick of time by her boyfriend.

"Guess I'll go next," Dave said as a bag of mozzarella approached overhead. He repeated what Jasmine had done, running towards the twins and jumping as hard as he could manage. Once again the cheerleaders used their experience to shoot him up with pinpoint accuracy, and Dave grabbed the cheese with no issue. Though with the survivalist couple still preoccupied, he was caught on his way down by Sugar. "Thanks, I owe ya one."

"I'll keep that in mind," she said with a jolly sort of ominousness.

Beardo had the gondola linger for a bit longer, but they couldn't find a bag labeled for parmesan. Figuring this must have meant it was at a later checkpoint, he passed the reigns back to Shawn and they continued onward.

Thanks to the straightaway portion of the canal they were on, both of the enemy teams had seen a faint look at how Team Explosive retrieved their cheese, giving them time to formulate plans of their own. In Team Old School's case, this simply came from Cody whipping up a makeshift lasso out of their currently empty bag. Though Team Radioactive wasn't yet at a consensus.

"Have y'all ever seen The Lightning's vertical?" The jock jumped in place to prove his point. It was an impressive reach to be sure, but was clearly not high enough. "Sha-no problem, let Lightning take care of the rest."

Brick noticed some of the others giving their teammate annoyed looks, so he quickly stepped in. "Now Lightning, I think we can all agree that you're our best jumper, but it'll waste us a lot of time if we don't get it on the first try."

"Lightning never misses, what you talking bout?"

"I just think it would work out better for us if we approach this with a bit more teamwork," the cadet continued. "Just give it a try. You'd be surprised how much smoother things go when you let your fellow soldiers help you out."

While Lightning didn't seem convinced, he was beginning to notice how annoyed some of the others were getting with him. Perhaps having flashbacks to his fate in All Stars, he huffed and folded his arms. "Sha-fine. As long as Lightning gets to be the jumper, then whatever."

Now with the jock's cooperation, B was able to direct traffic through Dawn's translation. Brick, Scott, and Anne Maria were positioned in a line with the first two kneeling in a way that created a sort of makeshift stair path. Once they had spotted a packet of full fat mozzarella that their head chef felt would be sufficient, Lightning took a running start at B's mark. He hopped from Brick's shoulder, to Scott's and finally jumped off the top of Anne Maria's rock hard poof. Thanks to the increased momentum and height combined with Lightning's vertical, he grabbed the cheese with ease and was caught safely by his teammates on the way down.

"Well done," Dawn complimented, with the others voicing similar approving comments.

"See? Told you that working together would make it a whole lot easier," Brick added with a firm pat on the back. Lightning looked around at the praise, not really sure how to react.

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"Huh, Lightning's so used to carrying his team back home, he never really thought about working with the others to get things done." He looked on, deep in thought and perhaps on the verge of clarity. But eventually he folded his arms and gave the camera an unimpressed huff. "He still thinks he could have sha-made that jump himself, though."

*** In the Grand Canal ***

Now it was Team Old School's turn to bring home the cheese. Cody was stood atop Trent and Beth's shoulders, with Leshawna and DJ positioned on both sides and arms at the ready in case he fell. Courtney kept a lookout for the upcoming dairy, finally spotting a bag she thought would work well.

"Ok, we have mozzarella coming up so be ready to-"

"Is it vegan mozzarella?" DJ suddenly asked. "I mean, it would kinda defeat the purpose of the pizza theme if we don't make sure we go with a vegan option."

"... No, it wasn't. Hold on." Annoyed but not wanting to question the head chef, Courtney kept steering around until she finally spotted a bag of vegan mozzarella slices. "Alright, there it is."

"Come to papa!" Cody flung the lasso and successfully got a hold of the target. His aim wasn't perfect, so it almost came falling into the water, but Leshawna was able to catch it while the tech geek jumped down safely into DJ's arms.

"Should we be worried that we're still bringing up the rear?" Leshawna asked while she added the cheese to the assortment of ingredients.

DJ shook his head. "Nah, next section is toppings and they'll probably be going for meats and stuff. Obviously we won't have to worry about missing out on those when we're doing a meat-free pizza."

Sure enough, the first thing on the other two team's mind was meat as they neared their next stop. For once they actually had to steer off of the Grand Canal and take one of the smaller branching paths to reach the former home of Marco Polo. His house itself was actually rather normal, almost resembling an old apartment building. It was also shut, and the various topping stands were instead spread throughout the streets leading towards the house.

All three gondolas had docked nearby before any team was done with their scavenging. They had to seek out toppings they actually needed, ignoring the stands for things like anchovies, pineapple, or bacon. In a twist, Team Old School actually returned to their gondola first. Per DJ, they had settled on onion, spinach, green bell pepper, and button mushrooms.

However, the only reason Team Radioactive wasn't the first team back was because it had purposely been made for pepperoni to be the hardest topping to seek out. They eventually found it tucked around a narrow alley corner.

"You're positive that we shouldn't get any other toppings?" Scott asked once more as they passed by the mushrooms. "You don't want to put anything else here on the pizza?"

"Nope," she answered simply, the first to arrive back to their gondola. "We'll get all the stuff that gives us an extra kick at the last stop."

As for Team Explosive, Beardo had passed a few sausage options before he found one that he felt would work best for the pizza. Also in the haul was red bell pepper, onion, and most interestingly shrimp.

"Can't say I've ever thought of putting seafood on a pizza before," Shawn commented as he rowed the boat back towards the Grand Canal once the whole team was back. "But if we're going for Cajun I guess it fits."

"Yeah, I'm kinda banking on the whole unique factor blowing him away." Beardo took count of their haul as one of the final stretches for the challenge began.

The path to the final supplies location was a longer one, giving the players some downtime to relax and formulate their plan for the baking phase of the contest. Among all three teams they began pairing off each other to cover various aspects of the cooking. A sauce team, a dough team, and an oven prep team for the members less confident in handling the food. Or because the team wasn't trusting in letting her near the food in Sugar's case.

With Chiesa di San Simeone Piccolo eventually approaching, Cody looked poised to make another comment. Trent gave him a stern look. "Dude, I know what you're thinking and don't even say it. Not everything is some kinda anime reference just because of the name."

It was then that the Chiesa came into view. It was a large church with a fancy column littered entrance. But its most pronounced detail was the huge dome-like green roof on the main building.

"Normally I'd see your point, but the thing is literally green," Cody pointed out. Trent shrugged.

"Fair enough, I'll give you that one."

Like with Marco Polo's house, the church itself was actually closed, so instead various booths for the different supplies were scattered around the front of the building. All three teams ended up taking crushed red pepper and parmesan for their pies. For Team Old School they also grabbed basil, thyme, some cloves of garlic, and oregano. Team Radioactive didn't go too hard, opting for some garlic powder alongside some basil and oregano as well. Last up was Team Explosive, who added a more unique Creole seasoning selection alongside their basil and cloves of garlic.

With everyone's assortment of ingredients finally complete, now all that was left was to cook. All three teams were more or less neck and neck as they approached the Constitution Bridge. Though the ovens weren't actually on the bridge itself, rather they were waiting at the bottom of the stairs on one end of the bridge. B, Shawn, and Courtney ensured they were parked safely as members of the team carefully relayed their supplies among each other from the gondola to their respective ovens.

The ovens were classic wood burning brick pizza ovens, each with a tiny team flag poking out from the top to signify who would use each. In front of each oven was a large workstation with plenty of bowls and pans for everyone to do their stuff. All three head chefs took up crust duty, with Beth, Brick, and Sammy helping them out respectively. Notably, Beardo had taken a hairband to tie back his massive afro. On the sauce squads we had Courtney and Leshawna, Dawn and B, and finally Jasmine and Shawn. The others prepped the oven and helped with carrying over ingredients as they were needed.

Anne Maria and Beardo were both working out a standard classic circular dough for the crust, but because DJ was opting for deep dish he actually had to fashion the dough into a bowl-like affair inside of a tall cake pan. As they were mixing together the fixings for the crust, Brick raised an eyebrow at Anne Maria's water specifically being labeled as New York imported.

"So you said the water makes all the difference, is that really true?"

"Bro, New York's water is like the champagne of the water world," she assured him. "Pizza joints all over the continent import water from the area just to make their pies taste better. Like I said, I know what I'm doing."

The cadet seemed like he now had more questions than answers, but kept quiet.

*** Confessional: Brick ***

"I'll be honest, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of importing water just for pizza. You don't even ever really think of the water when it comes to the crust steps." He tapped his chin in thought. "Maybe if there's any left over after we're done, I might try and sneak a sip to see what all the hype is about."

*** At Constitution Bridge ***

After some time had passed, progress was coming along smoothly for everyone. Anne Maria event attempted to do the classic twirling the dough into the air trick, which temporarily sent Brick into a panic before she caught it successfully. Occasionally the sauce squad would ask their respective head chef what order they wanted the ingredients added to the sauce. Between all the garlic mincing, onion cutting, and mixing going on, it was starting to smell like a genuine Italian joint around them.

"I'm liking what I'm smelling," Chris announced as he and Chef checked in on the contestants. Notably, Chef had a slick new pair of sunglasses while Chris had a fancy new scarf. "We got so sidetracked checking out Venice's shops we almost forgot that we had a challenge to come judge!"

"Do we get to go shopping once the pizzas are done?" Amy asked hopefully.

"Ha! Of course not. Except whoever gets shoved out the plane, they're free to go shop all they want afterwards."

Scott leaned against a wall with his arms folded. "So it really isn't a reward challenge? Geez, we're blazing through people."

"The benefits of having a large cast, dude." Chris took a sip of macchiato that he had the whole time. "Let's pick up the pace, people! Your beloved host is feeling peckish."

With the crust done for each team, the head chefs moved on to helping finalize the sauce. Team Radioactive's was definitely the most simple, but Anne Maria used a wooden spoon for a taste test to confirm that it was good to go. DJ and Beardo had their sauces finished soon after, with the later noting a good kick from his thanks to the creole seasoning. The sauces were poured onto the crusts, or more into the crust in DJ's case since he had to utilize more sauce than the others to fill out the cake pan.

Now it was time to apply the cheese and toppings. Anne Maria added a bit of extra mozzarella to the mix to up the cheesiness, while Beardo also utilized the gouda. For the toppings, DJ's carefully placed the spinach, cut up pepper, and mushrooms across the top before applying another coat of sauce above them. Beardo went all out spreading across the sausage, pepper, and shrimp. Looking at the more detailed toppings for the other teams had some of Team Radioactive nervous when Anne Maria simply applied pepperoni to their pizza, but they were long past the point of no return.

With their creations nearly complete, all that remained was the baking. The pizzas were slid into the ovens and... then they waited.

"So like, do we get to have what's left of the pizza since you're only eating like a slice each or..." DJ trailed off.

"No can do," Chris answered. "Turns out we forgot to load up the intern's food for the next leg of the flight, so these will have to hold them over until we get to our next location. Hopefully you made them actually edible for them so they don't starve. Looking at you Ms. Courtney McCruddy Sundae."

The CIT just glared back at the host in response.

*** Confessional: Courtney ***

"Ugh, that stupid sundae challenge... if I only ever have to hear about it one more time in my life, that'll still be one time too many."

*** At Constitution Bridge ***

Time took to finishing cooking the pizza varied depending on the team, but it was Beardo's that finished baking first, followed by DJ, then Anne Maria shortly after. Each head chef cut a slice from the pie and brought it over to Chris, who had been given his own little table and chair to eat at.

"Finally! We may as well do this in order of who finished their pizza first, so we'll start with Team Explosive."

Beardo looked on at his team nervously, turning back to the host with crossed fingers and providing the nervous sound of comically loud chattering teeth for added emphasis. Chris seemed to raise an eyebrow when he noticed shrimp on the slice, but shrugged it off. After one bite he recoiled, nearly giving the beatboxer a heart attack in the process. But then he smiled and continued scarfing down the slice. When he was done he took a drink of water before addressing the team.

"Ok, wow, wasn't expecting that pizza to have a kick to it. But as for my verdict... I'm impressed." He gave two thumbs up. "That was really something different, I really dug it dudes."

Many of his teammates gave Beardo approving cheers while he wiped the sweat from his brow. Next up was Team Old School's pizza.

"I went with a vegan deep dish pizza," he announced while placing the slice before him.

"If it's deep dish then that ain't a pizza," Anne Maria protested. "It's a dang casserole."

"Now now, we don't have time for one of these pizza debates on the show. I'm still counting it as valid." Using one hand to balance the deep dish slice from the bottom, Chris took a big bite of the vegan dish. Hearing it described as vegan made him a bit hesitant, but his worries were quickly washed away as he was treated to the flavors that only DJ could provide.

"Ah man, that's great!" He finished the rest of the slice, with DJ beaming proudly. "Who knew you could make pizza vegan and it doesn't suck? Nicely done, my dude."

Anne Maria frowned, not impressed since she considered making pizza both vegan AND deep dish nothing short of hearsay. She wasted no time putting her slice in front of the host, which was notably larger than the previous two slices.

"If ya think that's good, get a taste of genuine New York style." She grinned confidently. "With a slice so big you'll have to fold it!"

Chris was actually surprised to see what appeared to be a normal slice of pizza with just plain cheese and pepperoni after the previous submissions. He shrugged, folding the slice and taking a bite.

Many gasps rang out when the host's eyes went wide and he dropped the slice back to the plate. He stared off in pure shock, unresponsive.

"Does... does the pizza suck?" Brick asked cautiously.

"This... this..."

Concerned at Chris' well being, Chef rushed over and poured the glass of water on him in an attempt to bring him to his senses. Chris shook it off, looking down at the pizza in utter bewilderment.

"This pizza. It's so... nostalgic!" Anne Maria perked up, everyone else just looking more confused. "Why it reminds me so much of the pizza that my mom... used to order because she was too busy to bake one herself."

A zoom in on Chris' eye revealed a flashback that went unseen by everyone else. A young Chris McLean, who somehow still had the same hairdo back then, tugged on his mother's dress as his stomach growled.

"Moooom, I'm hungry. Where's the grub?"

"Not now, Christopher, mom is on an important business call," the woman said off screen, as all that was shown in the flashback was her legs stretching up out of screen. "I left you some pizza from Rafael's on the table."

The boy pouted at the lack of attention but was too hungry to continue pestering her. Young Chris walked over to the table in a huff and retrieved a slice of pizza. After one bite his worries were washed away and he continued to scarf down the pie. The camera then came back out of current day Chris' eye, ending the flashback.

"So... does that mean we win or what?" Anne Maria asked hesitantly.

Chris stood up, looking her dead in the eyes... and giving a thumbs up. "Heck yeah! For giving me a taste of my childhood, Team Radioactive finally wins a challenge and tickets to first class!"

It took a second for the others to react since the whole series of events was so odd to begin with. But once it finally registered, Anne Maria's teammates cheered and all ran up to congratulate her on the victory. Unfortunately for DJ and Beardo, though, this left them to look from each other to Chris nervously.

"So... who's kicking someone off?" Beardo eventually asked.

"Hm... that's tricky since you both actually made really good pizzas." Chris rubbed his chin, looking between the two choices. He took another bite from both pies to weigh his options. "They're both drastically different types of pizza too, so it's hard to compare them."

"You could always call us both winners and make it so no one goes home today," DJ offered optimistically.

"Ha! Good joke, bro." After cutting out another slice and trading notes with Chef, Chris eventually looked at the two hopeful teams after much deliberation. "Alright, so, after giving it some thought I think I'm gonna have to also give safety to...

Team Old School."

DJ sighed in relief, getting showered with praise from his team as they also felt the fear of elimination wash away. Team Explosive, on the other hand, went through various disappointed expressions with Beardo dropping his head in shame.

"What can I say, it really impresses me that they pulled off a vegan pizza I actually really liked." Chris shrugged innocently. "So that means Team Explosive is sending someone packing! See you kiddos later tonight."

Everyone began making their way back to the Jumbo Jet, Team Radioactive looking like they were on cloud 9 while Team Old School was just happy to be safe. Team Explosive were all crestfallen, though some looked more nervous than others. Amy was at the rear of the team, so Sugar sneaked back to join her.

"Psst. I've been doing some thinking," she whispered.

"That's concerning," Amy snarked. Sugar either ignored or didn't register the mild insult.

"It's pretty important, but it's something we're gonna need to do right now before we vote."

She jerked her head in Dave's direction, who seemed to be the most indifferent about his team's loss. Quickly picking up on what she was getting at, Amy smirked devilishly.

*** Confessional: Amy ***

"I'm kinda shocked, who knew Sugar was actually half descent at scheming." She smirked. "Gotta say, I'm a little impressed."

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

Team Radioactive partied their way to first class, still soaking in their first win. Since they had nothing better to do for the time being, Team Old School just went to chill in the common area. Sammy and the power couple decided they may as well get a head start on voting and zeroed in on the confessional. Though not before Jasmine and Shawn exchanged a long kiss to lift their spirits from the loss. Dave was lagging in the middle of the group, thinking over how to vote while a still dejected Beardo also passed. Suddenly, the germaphobe looked around to see Amy on his left and Sugar on his right.

"Howdy!"

"Uh..." He backed away in concern. "Can I help you?"

"Look, we'll just get to the point," Amy explained. "We want to team up with you. Vote together and all that junk."

He eased up. "Ah, that makes sense. I guess you're feeling pretty nervous after the last ceremony we went to."

Her eye twitched, but she kept up a cheery facade. "Well of course I'm nervous, but even still I think it's just the smartest thing for all of us to stick together."

"Now I know what ya may be thinking," Sugar added. "I know you and Shawn were buds back in our last season. But when ya really think about it, Jasmine was the one to turn Sky against ya when she switched teams. And I should be able to get Beardo to vote with us so-"

"Sure, I'll do it."

There was a pause, Amy and Sugar both being caught off guard.

"Really?" The mean twin asked. "Just like that?"

Dave nodded. "Yeah, I'll vote with you guys." He noticed that Amy was about to break out in a wicked smile, so he held his finger up to stop her. "On one condition."

"Condition?" Sugar looked skeptical. "What kinda condition?"

"You let me pick who we vote for tonight."

Both of them exchanged a look with each other, then looked back at Dave in bewilderment.

"Um, no?" Amy folded her arms. "We want to get rid of Sparemy tonight."

"And I'm totally cool with helping you do that," Dave said. "Next time, at least. So long as you let me pick who goes home tonight."

Once again the two looked at each other, thinking over if they wanted to commit to such a deal or not. As frustrating as it would be not getting rid of her sister now when they had the chance, Amy also knew that Dave's vote could just as easily cause her downfall now that they had given out the offer. If they didn't agree to his terms, who's to say he wouldn't just help vote her off with her sister and friends?

Eventually she sighed in acceptance. "Fine, it's a deal. So who do you want to vote off?"

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"So it looks like for once I can actually make sure things go well for me instead of making myself look like a fool." His normally disinterested and neutral expression gave way to an ominous smirk. "Nice. This should be an interesting ceremony."

*** In the Elimination Area ***

Once again Team Explosive filed their way into the elimination room for the second time. Many on the team were looking confident, with Beardo the only one looking truly nervous after he had failed to lead them to victory. Chris was chuckling to himself as he looked over the passports.

"Wow. I did NOT see these results coming." He shook his head in disbelief, smiling. "But hey, the unpredictability is why I love hosting this show so much!"

"I thought you loved hosting because you enjoy torturing people like us?" Sammy asked.

"Fine, it's one of many reasons why I love hosting the show." Chef brought over the plate of peanut filled barf bags, and Chris readied the first to throw. "Let's get a move on then. Barf bags going out to... Jasmine!"

The Aussie caught her bag with a cool smirk.

"Sugar."

She once again opted to catch her bag in her mouth, chewing up the peanuts with glee.

"Dave... and Beardo."

While the former said nothing at catching his symbol of immunity, the later sighed in relief and upon catching his recited the sound from Metroid when Samus finds an item.

"Gonna do that every time you get one of these, eh?" Dave asked, slightly annoyed.

Beardo shrugged. "There's a lot of video games I can pull from for it."

"And our penultimate barf bag goes surprisingly to... Samey!"

The nice twin was so busy glaring at her sister that she didn't register her name being called in time. Her barf bag simply smacked the side of her face and fell to the floor. "Wait what?"

Shawn raised an eyebrow, looking over at Amy. "You voted for me and not your sister? I didn't think that whole petty shtick of yours would let you vote for anyone else."

The mean twin elected to just say nothing, glaring at him and his allies. Jasmine, Sammy, and Shawn all looked equally perplexed but figured it wouldn't matter in the end anyway.

"So, Shawn and Amy. One barf bag left." Chris held up the final symbol of immunity, bouncing it in his hand. "And that's a wrap for whoever doesn't get it. The final barf bag of the night is going to...

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... Amy!"

"WHAT?!"

Shawn, Jasmine, and Sammy had practically yelled in unison as they all jumped from their seat in shock. A very smug and satisfied Amy caught her barf bag with glee.

"I know! Crazy, right?" Chris chuckled, Chef going over to stuff a parachute into the loser's arms. "But yeah, Shawn's out."

"How the hell?" He stammered, barely registering it when Chef handed over his parachute. "Why?"

He looked over his team, his mind racing. Jasmine and Sammy both looked just as shocked as he was. No way either of them would backstab him. Obviously Amy voted for him, Sugar too since she probably still held a grudge against him and Sky beating her. But that was only two votes to his three and there was no tie. Beardo? Well it was a possibility, he and the beatboxer weren't exactly friends. He didn't think they were on bad terms either, though. But even with him, that still meant they needed a vote from...

"Dave?" Shawn finally asked, a bit of hurt to his tone. "You voted for me?"

"Yup," the germaphobe replied without missing a beat.

"... Why? I thought we were friends."

He opened his mouth to answer but ultimately decided against it. Without saying a word, Dave simply got up and left the elimination area. Sugar smirked at the job well done, and also took her leave while motioning Beardo to come along with her. Amy was the last to leave, giving her sister a pointed glare before she was gone. The remaining three could only stand there in stunned silence, processing what just happened.

"Yeeeeeah, I know this is a huge blindside and all, but Shawn ya still gotta go dude." Chris pointed a thumb at the now open hatch. "Hop to it."

Shawn was still staring off in disbelief, eventually shaking himself back to reality with Chris' urging. "Hold that thought." Suddenly, he pulled Jasmine down and gave her a long kiss. It was a solid ten seconds before they finally broke it and he noticed the host giving him a weird look. "Heard through the grapevine that you booted Harold off just before he could kiss Leshawna, figured I'd beat you to the punch before you had the chance."

"Huh, very smart." Chris nodded in impressed approval. "Go ahead and say your goodbyes."

Jasmine and Sammy lead Shawn towards the open hatch, all still looking flabbergasted.

"Shawn, I am so sorry," Sammy said. "I have no idea what just happened."

"It isn't your fault, don't beat yourself up over it." The zombie nut scratched his head in confusion. "I think we all just got blindsided by that."

"Rest assured, we'll figure out a way to get payback for this," Jasmine added, a bitter anger to her tone. "I promise."

He nodded. "I know you will. It'll be tough, but I know the both of you can get through th-"

His words of encouragement were promptly cut short by the Boot of Shame swinging down to send him plummeting. His call off "Watch out for zombiiiiies," could faintly be made out before the hatch was closed once more. Sammy patted her friend on the back for comfort, though she was having a hard time hiding her nervousness.

"How ARE we going to get out of this?" She whispered. "This means the whole team is against us."

"... We'll figure it out," Jasmine spat, nearly shaking with rage at seeing her boyfriend leave. "We have to. Can't let that arse of a sister you have get the last laugh."

The two of them shared a determined look before finally retreating back to Economy Class.

Back in the cockpit, Chris whistled. "A nice juicy drama filled elimination ceremony. Just what the doctor ordered! Gonna be hard for the next episode to top it."

"Well the next episode is an Aftermath, so there's that," Chef pointed out.

Chris blew a raspberry and waved his hand dismissively. "Those don't count. All I know is, things are about to heat up! Has Amy and Sugar established an alliance that can't be beat? Will Jasmine and Samey be able to fight their way out of the danger zone? Will their first taste of victory go to Team Radioactive's heads?"

He pulled out another slice of Anne Mara's pizza, saying the rest of his sign off in a muffled food filled voice. "You'll have to tune in next time to find out. Next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

Amy looked slightly annoyed as she stamped Shawn's passport. "This is dumb. Perfectly good chance to boot off Samey, and that nerd wants us to put it off? Whatever, he better cooperate next time or he'll be the one we vote off after her."

Beardo still seemed on edge after he stamped Shawn's passport. "Geez, I'm worried about tonight since my pizza didn't cut it. Sugar even thinks I might be in danger, but she said the smart move right now is to break up Shawn and Jasmine. That they're too much of a threat together. And honestly? I kinda have to agree. They're both beasts on their own, but together they're almost unbeatable. I guess voting for one is the best move we can make for now."

"Shawn has everything so good," Dave lamented while stamping the zombie nut's passport. "His perfect girlfriend, got to make it to the finale, has countless fans. Well now it's his turn to see what tasting failure is like. Doesn't taste so great, does it buddy?"

Jasmine smiled happily after giving Amy's passport a stamp. "So long and good riddance."

Much like the last time, Sammy gave her sister's passport multiple stamps for good measure. "Second time's the charm, I guess. Amy can go back to being mom and dad's problem to deal with."

"Damn, I knew this would be one of the few challenge types where we'd be in danger." Shawn shrugged and stamped Amy's passport. "Oh well, at least we're not losing much by cutting Amy loose. We'll bounce back again."

"I'll be honest, I'm kinda glad to be voting tree boy out before Samey anyway." Sugar happily stamped Shawn's passport. "This is what you get for being able to say you beat me in a talent contest! I shoulda won that, I'm the most talented person on this whole gosh dern plane!"

Votes for Shawn: 4 (Amy, Beardo, Dave, Sugar)

Votes for Amy: 3 (Jasmine, Sammy, Shawn)

After the Boot of Shame:

Shawn held on to his beanie to keep it from flying off his head. He sighed heavily, his elimination still not fully sunk in yet.

"Alright, I'll admit it, consider me officially blindsided." He deployed his parachute so he could focus more on his parting words. "I mean it would have been equally bogus for Sammy to have been eliminated anyway, but I have no idea why Amy suddenly stopped beefing with her to target me. Like what the heck did I ever do to her?"

He shook his head in disbelief. "But whatever, it's done. I'm worried for Jazz and Sammy, but they're tough. I know they can pull through this somehow. It'll be hard, but I think they can do it. With all the zombie survival wisdom I've passed on, they should be well equipped for anything."

Since his fall trajectory had him about to hit a building, he positioned himself in a way that allowed him to slide down the railing. Removing the parachute, he somersaulted through the air and stuck the landing on a passing gondola below. Both the couple that had been riding the gondola and the gondolier recoiled back at the sudden intruder in shock, though Shawn was none the wiser to them.

"Well as long as I'm here, maybe I should pick some sort of souvenir for Jasmine." He scratched at his stubble, weighing his options. "I wonder if they have any commemorative shot glasses somewhere around here."

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Sugar

Elimination Order:

19th: Shawn

20th: Dakota

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

Unlike the typical intro narrated by Chris, things started out over a blue globe backdrop. The generic sounding Aftermath theme played while the camera circled around the globe. In bright white text the words TOTAL, DRAMA, and finally BATTLE OF THE GENERATION flashed on screen. Finally, the word AFTERMATH appeared underneath. The screen went white and turned into a clip of Staci from the second episode.

"This is so unfair, I can't die yet." Staci sobbed as she hung to B's arm from desperate fear. "I was going to become a cook, just like my great great great great-"

As B's expression turned from one worried about the yetis to one annoyed at Staci, Lightning's hand covered the liar's mouth. "The Lightning is NOT in the mood to hear chatty girls blabbing right now."

A flash transition switched to another clip from the same episode.

Meanwhile, Izzy dangerously balanced her cattle prod on the tip of her finger, getting a worried look from DJ in the process.

"Izzy, you gotta be careful with that thing," the brickhouse pleaded. "You're gonna get one of us hurt."

"No worries, big guy. Izzy always has everything under control." As if on cue, right after saying as much Izzy fumbled her cattle prod, accidentally turning it on in the process and almost allowing it to come shocking down on Cody's head. Thankfully for the geek, she regained hold of it at the last moment and smiled. "See? No problemo!"

Cody and Trent exchanged an uncertain look, trying to keep the near electrocution out of mind.

After the next transition it switched to a clip from the Ireland episode.

Ezekiel cackled maniacally as he fired shoes at Team Old School as if it was a machine gun. While most shots missed, some pelted team members in various body parts.

"Leprechauns are supposed to love having shoes clean and polished, shooting them around the forest is totally inaccurate to the lore," Harold complained before a well sized boot found itself planted square between the legs. He groaned in pain, grabbing his assaulted crotch as he fell to the ground.

Following the next transition was a clip from when Rodney quit the competition.

"I consider myself a gentlemen, and it's my duty to do what's right."

"What's right is you sit back down and let this ceremony finish," Shawn shot back, panic growing in his tone as they realized what the farmer was doing.

"I'll never be able to live myself if one of these two go when it should have been me," he kept on, the objections going in one ear and out the other. "I need to redeem myself in the eyes of my team."

"We're telling you right now the thing that will make us most happy is if you sit down and don't do this," Sammy said, practically screaming in an attempt to actually register with the rambling loverboy. "Are you even paying attention to us?"

Going backwards, the next clip was actually from the Kyoto episode.

"Sam would have known better, he's played this game hundreds of times," Dakota shot back, her voice growing louder and angrier.

"Well sorry that I'm not your dang boyfriend." Scott turned his back to his teammate, not noticing as her shadow began to grow drastically. "Seriously, you can't expect everyone to have the same amount of dumb video game knowledge as him. Especially when we're doing it in real life! Like come on, cut me a bre-"

"SHUT. UP." Suddenly, a large orange hand squeezed around Scott and picked him up. He had no time to react as the breath was crushed out of him. Darting his eyes up, he confirmed that he was in the clutch of Dakotazoid now, who looked ahead at the finish like with venom in her eyes. "WE NOT LOSING!"

Finally was another clip from earlier in the episode.

"Just wanted to check in on ya, bromigo." The scruffier boy chuckled awkwardly. "We haven't really had a chance to talk yet this season, and I was just hoping you were doing ok."

Dave shrugged. "I guess. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well... Pahkitew Island did end kind of awkwardly. And while Jasmine and I don't really use social media, Sammy mentioned fans have been pretty hard on you after everything with-" Shawn stopped himself, realizing the potential awkwardness of it all.

"Everything with Sky?" Dave finished, sighing. "Yeah, it's been rough. But I'm trying to move away from it, it's in the past ya know? I'm fine, honest." His friend smiled hearing this, prompting a small smile from Dave as well.

*** Opening Credits ***

The same Aftermath tune playing over the blue globe backdrop repeated and once again displayed the title of the season, only this time accompanied by the raucous cheers of a live audience. Once the lead in was done, we were live at the Aftermath stage, looking just as it did all those seasons ago. Cheers and whoops echoed from the crowd as the camera panned across the stage. Most of it was covered in darkness, though the faint silhouettes of sofas could be made out on both ends. There even seemed to be a few people sitting in the right set of couches, though the darkness made them hard to make out.

At the center of a stage was a smaller sofa, with two figures sitting on it masked by the shadows. But it was then that a spotlight shined down, revealing the pair. On the left was a well groomed young man, flashing the camera a pearly white smile. He had left behind his usual attire to take on a more formal getup, wearing a sleek blue suit jacket over a white dress shirt. He had matching blue dress pants and had his hair looking as immaculate as possible. On the right was a girl who radiated a much kinder energy than he did. Usually known for her pink attire, she was now wearing a blue Cinderella-like dress to better match her comrade. Her hair had also notably grown longer, though she still wore a bow.

"Welcome to the new and improved Total Drama Aftermath," he said, having to yell so he was heard over the still cheering crowd. "We're your hosts Topher!"

"And Ella," she finished, earning even more cheers from the adoring fans in the audience. Things were getting so loud that Topher had to motion for them to lower the volume.

"Now I know what you may be thinking," the sharp dressed guy continued. "Since when are we the Aftermath hosts? Shouldn't we be competitors if anything? Why is there even an Aftermath to begin with, they haven't done this since World Tour!"

"In honor of this season being a successor to the ever popular Total Drama World Tour, the network thought it would be fun to bring the Aftermath show out of retirement," Ella answered, smiling. "And they asked us to host personally!"

Topher chuckled, leaning back in his seat cooly. "Yeah, Ella's apparently a hit with the fans but Chris did NOT want to bring her back for a whole new season. So they settled on asking her to do this with me. And why am I here, you may ask? Because what better way to help the Total Drama fandom learn to love their future new host than by cutting his teeth hosting here!"

Ella clapped excitedly. "Oh, they've already offered to let you take over as host in the future? That's great, Topher!"

His smile faltered, sinking back a bit. "Well, no. But I know they'll come to their senses once they see how much I spice things up here. Heck, I won't be surprised if they're already chomping at the bit for me to take over before the season is even over."

"So what you're saying is they told you no to the role you really wanted." She chuckled, patting her co-host on the head. "That's ok, I really wanted to compete this season so I could be singing with the others. It happens to the best of us."

As much as he wanted to make a snappy comeback in objection, Topher just cleared his throat and put back on an upbeat demeanor. "Moving on, we've got a packed show planned for all of you. Since the season started, a whopping six competitors have found themselves kicked off the Jumbo Jet."

"Thankfully none of them went AWOL like Duncan and Ezekiel last time, so we have interviews lined up with each of them." Ella clapped happily along with the crowd. "We'll get their thoughts about their respective eliminations and see how they've been since they left the game."

"Plus we have plenty of surprises up our sleeve to help spice things up a bit," Topher added. "As a matter of fact, we can start things off by introducing our special guests!"

The camera focused on the right set of couches that were still shrouded in darkness. Cheers intensified from the crowd despite them having no idea who may be hiding in the shadows.

"The Aftermath wouldn't be complete without a peanut gallery, after all." The wannabe princess smiled towards the couches. "And we have a special group for today's set of guests. Even if us having them on is against Chris' best wishes."

"Many of you TD fans back home have probably also checked out the network's newer hit, The Ridonculous Race," Topher explained. "And you probably also noticed how our suspiciously bitter host made it a point to shun any mention of the show around him."

Ella nodded. "Speculation ran rampant with fans theorizing that the reason some favorites didn't return was due to their participation on another show. It looked like Chris wanted them wiped from Total Drama history itself!"

"Which is precisely why we've invited them to hang out with us here today." Topher chuckled, motioning towards the couches theatrically. "Because even if Chris doesn't want to invite them back, that won't stop US from talking with them. Please help us in welcoming..."

"Leonard!"

The two co-hosts introduced each name together, with a spotlight turning on to reveal each person as they were called. Leonard looked the same as ever, with his fake beard maybe looking a bit more disheveled if anything. He spread his arms and made hand signs as if he was casting some sort of spell on the people around him. Naturally, nothing was happening.

"Noah!"

Cheers intensified the most they had yet as the bored bookworm waved half haphazardly at the audience. His appearance had also gone unchanged, and he merely hunched over in his seat with a bored expression that told the story of someone just here for the paycheck.

"Owen!"

Unlike his best bud, Owen lived for the applause and stood up to wave back enthusiastically. He had actually appeared to have lost some weight since many had last seen him on The Ridonculous Race. He was still very large, but the improvement was noticeable enough to get some impressed stares from spectators.

"And finally, one of Total Drama's longest lasting power couples," Ella finished, giving a dramatic pause for effect. "... Geoff and Bridgette!"

The party animal whooped enthusiastically, fist pumping with one arm and using the other to swing around his hat. And next to him was... not Bridgette. Not even close. Instead if was another male, with darker skin than Geoff but still a familiar face to many watching. Especially when he joined his friend in the hollering, which then gave way to bodacious laughing and fist bumping.

"That's... not Bridgette," Ella said.

"Ya don't say." Topher glared at the surfer bros, who had finally started to calm down from the cheering. "Geoff, where's your girlfriend? She was scheduled to be on the show with you, not Brody."

Geoff chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah, funny story about that, dudes. Bridge was totes cool with coming on to do the Aftermath gig, we were stoked to be trying out doing the whole guest experience instead of having to host. But then there was this rally for some endangered animals down in New Brunswick and she really wanted to hit that up."

"So she got with the producers to see if she could just take a rain check and come to the next Aftermath instead," Brody continued. "And since my bro still needed to bring someone with him we were all like, bro what if I came on with you?"

"I ran it by the dudes at the network and they thought the idea was totally chill!" Geoff laughed, exchanging another fist bump with his bro that they ended with a "Boom."

Both co-hosts looked on at the pair, confused as to how they should react. Topher eventually sighed and rubbed his temples. "Sure would have been nice if they told us about the last minute change before the show started."

"Well at least it's still someone most of the viewers would know?" Ella said optimistically. "There's no use dwelling on it, the show's underway already."

Topher sighed and nodded. "You got me there. Well, moving right along, welcome back everyone! How did it feel getting left out of another season's chance to win a million big ones?"

"Meh, me and Owen weren't lacking in offers to go on other shows so it's their loss as far as I'm concerned," Noah answered with a shrug. "I remember them reaching out to us right as we had got eliminated from Ridonculous Race, but apparently Chris went back on the offer when he saw how successful that show got."

"I think I heard he replaced us with Cody and Trent," Owen added. "Which is a huge bummer if you ask me. Not the Trent and Cody coming back part, I'm happy for them, but I really would have loved getting to go around the world again with my old buds!"

Leonard nodded along from nearby. "Perhaps it was for the best. Fame can be just as much a blessing as it is a curse. Between Pahkitew Island and Ridonculous Race, I've become something of a celebrity back home. I hardly have enough time anymore to formulate new spells."

The audience laughed, unsure if the LARPer was being serious or making a joke.

"S'all good, bros. I've just been taking it easy with Bridge and my bros ever since the race, so coming back for all the drama would have harshed my vibe." Geoff fist bumped his bro, chuckling. "But I'm all for throwing them a wicked post season party!"

"Ah bro, that would be legit," Brody piped in. "Haven't seen DJ at one of your parties since that gnarly rager you threw after season 3 wrapped up. Dude's a legend, he could pretty much down a whole keg on his own!"

There were some cheers and oohing from the crowd, with both hosts smirking in amusement.

"Something tells me DJ's momma will want to have a word with him after hearing that," Ella said, the audience laughing in agreement.

"And what have you guys been up to since the race wrapped up?" Topher asked. "Noah, one of our sources passed on a very interesting rumor about you."

Noah simply folded his arms and turned his head. "I have no idea what you're referring to."

"I think he's talking about how you proposed to Emma last month." Owen got a sharp glare from his buddy, making him recoil bashfully. "Oooh, that was supposed to still be a secret, wasn't it?"

While he was trying to maintain being annoyed at his chubbier friend, the barrage of cheers and applause from the spectators made Noah sink into his seat with his face turning bright red. Ella was perhaps clapping the hardest of all. "Congratulations, Noah! It's so wonderful to hear about young love continuing to blossom!"

"Yeah, thanks, whatever," the bookworm mumbled, trying to remove himself from the spotlight as soon as possible.

"Ah, dudes, speaking of which do you think you could hook a bro up with Kitty's digits if she's still single?" Brody asked. "She always seemed like a cool senorita that knew how to party."

"What about MacArthur?" Owen asked curiously. "Weren't you still crushing on her?"

Geoff put a hand on his bro's shoulder while he lowered his head, dejected. "Nah bro, they went on a date but she never called back for round 2. Few weeks later we found out from Sierra's blog that she's dating Sanders now."

"Who knew it'd be so hard competing with someone who's known and been with her for years?" The darker skinned surfer shook his head, earning a mix of laughs and awws from the crowd. "Guess that's how it be sometimes."

"The fact that they're sharing a million bucks together probably doesn't hurt," Topher added, head rested on his hand casually. "And how about you, Leonard? Anything big going on with you?"

"As I said earlier, things have been a lot busier back home for Tammy and I," he explained. "Our humble guild that is the Dragon Defeaters club back home ended up tripling in members following the race! Between that and the campaigns I assist with even beyond our local one, I've been up to ears in magical work!"

Topher blinked, not looking very hooked by the conversation. "Riveting. Well, speaking of awkward weirdos, how about we finally move on to our first guest in the hot seat for the evening?"

Cheers from the crowd confirmed this being a good idea, and Ella motioned to the TV screen above that now displayed a picture of the compulsive liar. "Staci's journey on Total Drama was once again cut short, with her exiting the competition first for the second time in a row."

"Despite almost hanging on thanks to sharing a team with Shady Scott, her constant chattering and general uselessness in the challenge sealed her fate." The mini Chris rubbed his hands together mischievously, chuckling. "But maybe she'll finally get her wish, because we plan to really make her talk. Heeeere's Staci!"

Both hosts motioned to the side of the stage where the pink clad girl made her entrance. She waved enthusiastically to the crowd, who were giving polite cheers despite them being notably quieter than what the peanut gallery received. While Topher only waved and motioned for her to take a seat in the currently empty left set of couches, Ella ran up to offer a hug that the chatter mouth gladly accepted.

"Staci! Thanks for joining us here and not trying to stow away on the plane," Topher quipped, getting a laugh from the crowd.

"Yah, well they didn't really give me the option since they electrified the wing." Staci finally took her seat. "But that's my bad for not being more alert, since it was my great uncle Conner that invented the taser. He was really good with electricity."

A large portion of the crowd laughed at the obvious lie, though Topher looked less amused. "Riiiight. Well, tell us how it felt once you were kicked off the plane. I bet it was absolutely soul crushing to get eliminated first AGAIN."

"It was really tough at first." Staci nodded sadly. "I thought I had been doing so good! But I knew I couldn't keep sulking. I just needed to hold my head up and keep charging forward. Much like my great cousin twice removed Amanda that invented the first steam propelled train."

There was once again laughter, though noticeably less so this time. Over at the peanut gallery, a puzzled Leonard looked down in thought. "Wasn't the person to invent that-"

"A British dude name Richard, yup," Noah answered in an unamused whisper.

"Well even if you journey was cut short, you can still be proud that you were able to do it in the first place," Ella said optimistically. "It had to be stressful when you were face to face with that pack of angry yetis!"

"Oh for sure! Ya know, with the way their white fur looked, they kinda reminded me of a mop. Which was invented by my great great great grandfather Bryce in the 1700s!"

Now there was just an awkward silence, some in the crowd coughing as the gag had fully run its course. Owen looked down at his buddy, as if silently asking how far off she was out of curiosity.

"It was in the late 1800s and was invented by a black guy," he whispered back. Owen shook his head in pity.

Topher took notice of the growing awkwardness and boredom caused by Staci's clearly false stories. Rubbing his hands together, he prepared to strike.

"Well then, Staci, since you didn't get much of a chance to compete this season, I think it'd be a fun idea to let you play a game right here for the show!" He chuckled, getting a weird look from his co-host who didn't seem to know what he was getting at. "Sound good?"

The compulsive liar perked up. "Yah! That sounds like fun!"

"Good. Then it's time to bring back an old Aftermath favorite." Topher motioned up to the monitor. "Let's play Truth or Electrocution!"

On the screen an image of an electric chair zapped away while the text of the game surrounded it. A watermelon was attached to the headpiece of the chair, and the volts sent to it were enough to cause it to pop. When the camera came back, a now very distressed Staci was already being strapped into the electric chair while the crowd cheered it on.

"Ah dude, not this thing again." Geoff recoiled in shame, hiding his face with his hat as memories from his time hosting the TDA Aftermath came flooding back.

"Topher, you can't do this to her," a very shocked Ella protested. "I was never told we'd be doing something like this on the show!"

"Because they knew you'd pull out of hosting if they told ya." The meaner host smirked, stepping over to Staci with a raised eyebrow. "Now the rules are simple. I'll ask you some questions and all you have to do is answer them. Answer truthfully, and everything's peachy! But if you lie, well, ZZZZT! Oh and don't worry, it's non lethal voltage and whatever."

Ella looked mortified, leaning towards their guest in concern. "Just tell the truth, Staci. It'll get us through the game faster."

Staci gulped, starting to break out in a sweat.

Smirking devilishly, Topher whipped out a stack of note cards. "Question one, and this one is common knowledge. Who invented the first practical use telephone?"

"Oh that's easy, it was my great great uncle Parker." You could immediately see the look of regret on her fact as the electricity was sent coursing through Staci's body. She twitched in her seat until the voltage finally ceased and she could sigh in relief.

"Wrong answer, it was Alexander Graham Bell." He switched to the next car. "How about this one, who invented television?"

Staci grimaced, almost as if she didn't want to lie but couldn't stop herself. "My great cousin William."

Once again she was hit with a nasty volt of electricity. Now her clothes were becoming a bit burnt from the chair's effects. Topher tsked and shook his finger. "Nope, Philio Farnsworth. We're 0 for 2 now. Here's one you can't get wrong, who's the host of this network's highest rated reality show?"

She whimpered, trying to move to cover her mouth but the straps prevented her. "M-my aunt once removed Melissa?"

And once again Staci was hit with another wave of electricity. By now much of the crowd and peanut gallery were looking on in worry as smoke wafted from he lying girl.

"Topher that's enough, she's going to get seriously hurt," Ella yelled. But her co-host was merely laughing in disbelief.

"The answer was literally just Chris! Why would you even lie about that one, everyone watching knows that answer without even having to fact check it on the web." He walked over to the smouldering liar, shaking his head. "It's like you're straight up unable to tell the truth. What is it that causes you to lie so much?"

Before she could answer, the nicer host began tugging him away, looking shook up. "I said that's enough, she doesn't have to answer any more questions. We've put her through enough alread-"

"Because I want people to think I'm interesting," Staci yelled from her seat, startling both hosts. "When I was a kid everyone ignored me and said I was boring. I started saying a few stories about my family here and there to get people interested and then I just kept going and going. It just got out of control and I don't know how to stop!"

There was silence, as everyone looked on in shock. Staci looked nearly on the verge of tears, while the audience murmured among themselves as they took in the new developments. Once she had re-composed herself, Ella ushered for two interns to come help.

"There, you got your answer, now can we please get her out of that chair?" While the two interns worked to remove Staci's straps, Ella gave her co-host a stern look. "Honestly, Topher, you should feel ashamed for subjecting her to that."

"Yeah, well, that's showbiz honey." He shrugged dismissively. "It's not always glitz and glam. The network wants drama, so I'll give them drama."

"At the cost of crossing the line?"

It was then that Topher noticed just how awkwardly the mood had shifted. The crowd was ominously silent, and even the members of the peanut gallery were looking at him with disgust. Really starting to feel the uneasiness of it all, he chuckled awkwardly and motioned Staci to take a seat at the back of the guest couches.

"Well how about we bring the mood back up by moving on to our next guest?" His co-host didn't look too enthusiastic. "And no more Truth or Electric Chair, I promise."

Ella was skeptical, but sighed at Topher's persistent look. "Very well. Up next we have a long time series favorite, beloved for being as unpredictable as she is destructive."

"Ever the human rollercoaster, Izzy went from single handedly winning her team part of a challenge in Antarctica to being the thing that kept them behind just enough to lose in Ireland," Topher added, the monitor above cycling through images of the red head's antics. "And when Courtney wasn't able to successfully stage a counter alliance, Izzy fell victim to the unity that was The Drama Brothers."

"But at least she was able to ensure Ezekiel didn't sneak his way back into the plane on her way out." Ella motioned to the side of the stage where Staci had come from previously. "And now she gets to spend time here with us. Here's Izzy!"

The crowd cheered and applauded, but no one ever came on stage. Both hosts shared a look, wondering what the hold up was.

"Uh... Izzy, everyone," Topher said louder. Once again the crowd cheered, but still nothing. Meanwhile at the peanut gallery, they were distracted long enough for a certain orange haired blur to begin rising behind two of the spectators. Perhaps sensing her presence, Noah sighed and braced himself.

"She's behind us, isn't she?"

"Noah! Big O!" Izzy whooped happily as she wrapped an arm around each boy, nearly squeezing the life out of them. "They didn't tell me you two would be here!"

"It's... good to see you too... Izz," Owen managed to get out between pained squeezes.

"Izzy, glad you could join us," Topher said, chuckling. "Mind joining us over here for the interview?"

The wild child glanced over at the other set of couches. Not knowing what to do, Staci offered an awkward wave, but was still recovering from her previous incident. "Nah, I haven't seen my boys in ages! I'll do my interview right here, thank you very much."

With that, Izzy finally broken her hug so that she could climb over Owen and rest in his arms. She then rested her head on Noah's shoulder like a pillow, giving him a sly grin. "Oh! And I heard backstage about you and Emma getting hitched. Nice. I'll be expecting my wedding invitation in the mail by this time next week."

The bookworm exchanged a horrified look with his buddy. He did NOT need Izzy crashing his wedding with her foolery, but once she got her mind on something it was next to impossible to prevent her from doing it.

"Ok, guess we'll just move right along then." Topher settled into his seat, glancing at their odd guest. "So Izzy, do you have any hard feelings towards your team for voting you off so early? You DID help them out big time in Antarctica after all."

Izzy waved her hand dismissively. "Ain't nothing but a thang. I did get pretty into my wrestle sesh with Zeke, sure I COULD have wrapped it up sooner, but I didn't think the other teams would be as fast as they were. Izzy's willing to admit her mistakes."

"Speaking of Ezekiel, what happened to him after you pulled him off of the plane with you?" Ella asked curiously. "The last we got to see was you chasing him somewhere in Ireland."

"Oh yeah, I thought he was just playing hard to get so I was gonna track him down to take him out on a night on the town! Never dated a feral guy before, I thought it'd be fun." She noticed Owen giving her a weird look, making her perk up. "But don't worry, once the producers finally tracked us down and carted him off for therapy, I realized it was but a fleeting moment of passion! Nothing serious, like me and Big O used to have."

The crowd were loving the look Izzy was giving her former flame, some whistling and others cheering. Topher decided to capitalize. "Sounds like there might be some lingering feelings between you two. Might we be on the verge of another couple reunion live here on the show?"

Owen blushed, chuckling awkwardly at the crowd's continued approval. "I did always hate how me and Izzy ended things back in World Tour. If she really wants to give things another shot then I am so there!"

"Aw, come here ya big lug." Izzy wrapped her arms around Owen, pulling him in for a quick kiss. But then the quick kiss turned into a full fledged makeout session. Not that the crowd minded, it just got them cheering and whooping even louder. The only one who seemed to not be enjoying the PDA was Noah, likely since the pair being distracted by their lip locking made them oblivious to when they leaned back and flattened their nerdy friend beneath them. His pleas for help fell on deaf ears.

"Dudes, that is so beautiful," Brody commented, wiping away a tear and clapping.

"Love is, like, radical bros." Geoff stood up to applaud, and even Leonard joined in.

Over on the host couch, Ella was enamored with the display of affection, though now Topher was starting to get fed up since the making out showed no sign of slowing down.

"Well, I guess we'll have to cut that interview there," he noted, trying to return decorum to the studio. "While we try to peel those two off of each other, let's move on to another guest from Team Old School!"

Because Ella was still swept up in the romance, her co-host had to tap her on the shoulder to get her attention. "Oh! Right, let's move on to Harold!"

Mention of the geek was able to get most of the crowd's attention back to the show. Images on the monitor showed off moments of Harold's throughout all of his seasons since there wasn't too much to show for this one.

"Harold had big plans for this season when he started it," Topher explained. "He came in with a pretty sweet advantage having his band bros Trent and Cody at his side, and from there he planned to even recruit a new member in the form of Beardo!"

"But biggest of all, other than winning the money, his main goal was to rekindle his romance with Leshawna." Ella squeed happily. "And he did it!"

"Yeah, after he got taken out of the game thanks to one of our other guests flattening him like a pancake." The meaner host laughed. "But hey, at least he didn't leave the season with nothing BUT regrets. And all it cost him were some broken bones!"

"Let's give a warm welcome to our next guest... Harold!"

Once more the crowd and peanut gallery rose to cheer on the next guest. Perhaps ironically in this case, as Harold rolled himself out in his wheelchair. He smiled towards the audience, but could only offer a short wave since steering required both hands. He came to a stop next to the couches, electing to stay in his own seat instead of pulling himself on to the sofas.

"Welcome to the show, Harold," Ella said with a sympathetic tone. "Sorry that it had to be under such harsh circumstances."

"No worries, it comes with the territory of the show." He chuckled awkwardly. "And hey, I technically did better than I did in World Tour. I outlasted two people instead of just one."

"Unless me or Staci return," Izzy suddenly yelled in his ear, somehow having made it to the guest couches away from Owen without anyone noticing. "And if both of us return, you'll have done worse than World Tour!"

Staci perked up a bit at the idea of returning. "Yah, that's a good point."

Harold looked at the other two, not really sure how to respond. "Er, noted. But anyway, yeah, I'm happy I get to be here and not in a hospital or anything. I even get to see one of my best buds from the show thanks to this peanut gallery you picked out!"

Owen and Geoff shared a look, not too sure which Harold was talking about since neither were that particularly close with the geek.

"It's marvelous to see you as well, Hargar the Wicked," Leonard suddenly chipped in, bowing in respect. "You'll be delighted to know that the campaign has been going well during your's and Sir Codicus' absence."

"That's great!" Harold grinned. "I know when they have a Crypt Captain as proficient as you, keeping their wits about them without us is no small feat."

Both hosts looked confused, Topher especially. "Uh, someone wanna translate this nerd speak for me?"

"Leonard leads an online Crypts and Cyclopes campaign for reality show alumni such as ourselves," Harold explained. "Cody and I are part of it, but obviously we haven't been able to partake while we're busy with the show."

"Worry not, it's not the first time prior commitments have kept them from the adventure," Leonard added. "What with them being such proficient real life bards, and all."

Topher blinked, still not fully understanding what was being described. "So this is basically just one of those secret geek club things?"

"Oh, it's no secret, we actually live stream our sessions. Fans love it!" The mad skills geek snort laughed. "Obviously Leonard and Tammy are there. And we've got Sam and Cameron on the show, Ellody and Mary from Ridonculous Race..."

"Hey, isn't Noah part of that too?" Owen asked, just as the bookworm in question was beginning to pick himself up. "He seems to really have a lot of fun hanging out with you guys!"

"Alright, seriously, am I gonna have to put duckt tape over your mouth or what?" Noah grumbled, earning a sheepish grin from his chubby buddy in response.

"It sounds like a lot of fun," Ella gushed, leaning towards the wizard in awe. "Might I join the campaign sometime?"

"But of course! Especially with Sir Codicus still out of the fray, we're more than happy to welcome newcomers."

Topher was getting fed up with the nerdy talk, loudly clearing his throat to get attention back on him. "Anywho, going back to Harold and his time on the show. You were able to sucessfully rekindle things with Leshawna before leaving the show. Any worries that things might not work out now that you're spending so much time apart?"

Harold's smile fell. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it, you poured your heart out to her right before your elimination in season 1, hooked up, but then once you were reunited she broke it off." Topher counted off points on his fingers. "Then in season 2 she went and talked trash about you behind your back and you voted her off. THEN in season 3 once you were gone she was all over Alejandro like a moth to a flame. Ya gotta be scared that this time will be another repeat of failure, I'm sure."

"Everyone was falling for Al's manipulation, heck even I did when he mind gamed me into quitting, GOSH." He waved off the comments with a confident nod. "This time we're going to make it work out long term. It'll be different."

"And you're not worried about her falling for another hunky guy?" Topher teased. "DJ, maybe Trent. Heck, it could even be someone from another team like Scott."

"Pretty sure that guy has his sights pretty squarely on Courtney," Harold pointed out. "And Trent and DJ are my friends. Don't be an idiot."

"Ignore him, he's just trying to stir up drama that isn't there." Ella gave her companion a stern look, though he merely shrugged innocently. "Now I know this may be a sore subject, but since Dakota will be coming out soon we have to ask how things are with you and your injury."

The geek nodded in understanding. "I figured it'd need to come up. It's not as bad as it looks. My neck and coccyx are healing up real nicely. It's basically just my legs that are really still janked up. Hence why I'm still stuck in this wheelchair for now. I'm hoping to be out of it and on crutches instead by the next Aftermath. So yeah, I'm starting to heal pretty nicely, though I don't like looking back at the footage since it was seriously painful when it happened."

Topher chuckled. "That's a shame, because you're main eventing today's version of another old Aftermath favorite... That's Gonna Leave a Mark!"

While the crowd was cheering, Geoff booed loudly from nearby. "Get new material, dude. You're just copying my whole TDA flow!"

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," the pretty boy said with a wink, motioning to the monitor. "Now let's see some carnage."

An upbeat whistling tune played over the series of clips, while a plain white transition came between each.

First was a clip from Antarctica, mere moments after Courtney had struck Scott with a cattle prod. In new footage captured from an alternate angle, we saw Brick fly through the air as the snowmobile was sent rolling. An unfortunately placed chunk of ice was jutting from out of the ground, and the cadet's kiwis zeroed in on it with scary accuracy. He cried out in pain as he gripped his sore crotch, and from nearby a bruised up Scott weakly laughed. But it was then that their team flag came flying down like a javelin and hit the dirt farmer square in the nether region. Both boys keeled over in agony.

In a second clip, Chef was passing out plates for dinner one evening on the plane. When he went to put the last plate down, he noticed a sudden bit of resistance. He looked down to see that Izzy had been hiding in the bottom of the rollcart and grabbed the plate for his attention. Before the large man could react, she jumped from out of her hiding place and karate kicked him in the jaw. She ran off, cackling.

Next, Team Explosive was in the middle of the Madagascan rainforest during their challenge. Beardo suddenly realized that he badly had to use the bathroom and excused himself to duck behind a bush. This was a mistake, as once he was behind the shrubbery he was face to face with a sleeping family of bats. Being disturbed from their sleep caused them to fly into his face, sending him falling backwards and violently into the shrub that happened to be littered with thorns.

Chef once again started the next clip, doing a round in the cargo hold to take inventory and make sure things were where they needed to be. He noticed one of the boxes rumble. Expecting an ambush, he brandished a ladle threateningly and carefully opened the top of the crate before taking a fighting stance. There was a pause, as nothing came out. Confused, he peered into the crate to see what had been causing the rumble. He didn't get an answer, as Izzy suddenly burst out of the crate BEHIND him. She suplexed the larger man, doing the nae nae on top of his stunned body before running off. A stray racoon then jumped out of the shaking crate and clawed up the prone man's face.

Last, as promised, was a replay of Harold being flattened by Dakotazoid. The geek looked up in horror, unable to react in time as her mighty stomp crushed him and demolished his kart in the process. Later on, Chef and an intern carried Harold over to an ambulance on a gurney. He was loaded up into the vehicle and whisked away to check for serious injuries. It was then that the intern unmasked herself, revealing that it was Izzy all along. She promptly kicked Chef in the kiwis and ran off with another laugh.

"Izzy, how the heck did you make it to Kyoto when you had already been eliminated in Ireland earlier?" Topher asked, dumbfounded.

"Ah, you know, I had some time to kill before coming to do this show and I thought it'd be funny."

"... that doesn't answe-"

"You're not gonna get an answer, dude, that's just how she is," Noah interrupted, not at all shaken up by the crazy girl's feat. "You get used to it."

Owen and Geoff nodded in agreement, though Leonard looked on in awe. "You'll have to teach me how you became so proficient in teleportation spells!"

Ella giggled at Topher's continued confusion. "Well thank you for your time, Harold. We'll revisit everything with the injury when Dakota comes out. For now we have another guest to get to before that."

Harold nodded, staying parked beside the couches for now.

"Guess that means it's time to talk about lover boy Rodney." Topher motioned to the monitor, now displaying a smiling picture of the farmer. "While he lacked the strategic element to ever be a true contender in the game, Rodney's immense strength made him an asset to the team that you'd think would help him stick around."

"And then Amy had him wrapped around his finger, taking advantage of his easily infatuated heart." Ella put her hands on her hips, huffing. "How rude of her, toying with a innocent person's heart like that. Is there anything more cruel?"

"It turned out to be a fantastic move on Amy's part, though." Topher chuckled. "Because she was poised to get voted off from her team when they suffered their first loss! But being stricken with grief over losing the tiebreaker, Rodney offered himself up to be eliminated in her place."

"Some call it the most foolish move of the season, but love makes people do foolish things." Ella nodded sympathetically before motioning to the side of the stage. "And here he is now! Please help us welcome, Rodney!"

The crowd applauded politely, with one girl in the crowd even whistling up at the hulking boy. He waved back happily, making a noticeable dent in the sofa when he finally took his seat. Lad was an absolute unit.

"Thanks for joining us here today, Rodney," Ella chirped. "We're happy to have you on!"

"Hehe, thanks." He blushed at having a cute girl acknowledge him, trying to keep his attention on Topher to stay focused. "It's good to be here."

"I wouldn't describe losing my shot at a million bucks as good, but you do you my guy." The meaner host chuckled. "But since we have you here, many fans are still dying to know what your mindset was behind quitting. You were already safe and your team held no grudge against you. Why throw away your shot at the money? With your strength, you could have been a serious threat!"

Rodney puffed out his chest confidently. "Life isn't always about money, I wanted to uphold my principles. I was the one who caused my team to lose in the tiebreaker, so it wouldn't have been fair for my dearest Amy to get eliminated instead of me."

Some fans in the crowd laughed, which confused the hulking Casanova.

"Riiiight, well speaking of Amy let's talk about her." Topher pointed to the monitor that now showed off a picture of the mean twin. The crowd errupted into a chorus of boos and jeers despite her not even being there in person. "I mean, you threw away your entire game for her! You must feel pretty serious about your relationship."

The farm boy sighed dreamily. "Oh yeah, it's true love! Heck, before I left Nashville I even looked around to pick her out an engagement ring!"

Many in the studio gasped, some looking distressed at him potentially having wasted a large sum of money. Thankfully, their worries were eased when he pulled out a mere onion ring from his pocket.

"Uh... not trying to sound mean here, but you know what's just an onion ring, right?" Staci pointed out from behind him.

"Couldn't even swing for the lollipop on a ring, eh?" Noah snarked from nearby. "Don't think she'll be impressed, buddy."

"Well I didn't bring much money with me on the show, all the real rings were out of my price range." Sighing, he tucked the onion rings back into his pocket. "But monetary value isn't what's most important in life. It's the thought that counts, as long as it comes from the heart an onion ring is just as good!"

Brody sniffed, wiping away a tear before clapping. "Bro, that is so deep."

"I think it's a lovely gesture, Rodney," Ella offered. "But I do fear the enthusiasm may be a bit misplaced."

"Yeah, do you still think Amy was into you like how into her you were?" Topher tsked, shaking his head. "Well I've got a confessional of her's to show you. Check it out!"

Static filled the monitor, before switching to video feed of Amy in the confessional. Specifically, it was a clip from the Madagascar episode following Rodney's elimination.

"Uuuugh, this sucks so much. Here I was, looking forward to dragging that big dumb hick to the finale with me so he'd hand me the million dollars. Now I have to bring Sugar with me. Can you say ew much? I'd say I was happy that him quitting kept me safe, but if he had just voted for Samey like I told him to then I could have just beat her in the tie breaker! So yeah, farm boy is dreaming if he thinks I'll ever call him back."

Boos from the crowd intensified, Rodney staring off into space after what he had witnessed. Harold gave him a sympathetic glance and Staci even patted him on the shoulder reassuringly.

"Wow," the farmer mumbled. "I can't believe it... she really wanted to take me to the finale?"

Immediately the gestures of sympathy stopped so everyone could collectively facepalm.

"That's amazing! She must have really cared about me if she wanted me to go with her all the way to the end."

"Dude, she wanted to take you to the finale because you probably would have lied down and handed her the money," Topher corrected. "She did NOT care about you at all. We even have bonus clips to prove it."

Once again the monitor displayed Jumbo Jet footage, all consisting of new clips not seen in previous episodes. In the first, during one of Team Explosive's many stays in first class, Rodney was filling up Amy's cup with freshly squeezed lemonade.

"Ya know, after this I could give you a foot massage," he offered. "My pa used to make me give him one all the time so I'm pretty good at it."

"Ew, no. What are you, one of those foot fetish freaks?" Amy walked away in disgust. "Never offer me that again, not interested."

Rodney hung his head dejectedly, not noticing when Sugar scooched up next to him.

"Is that offer going fer anyone? All this running around the world's got my bunions hurtin more than a deer in the middle of the county gun show." To prove her point, she removed a shoe and stuck her nasty ass foot in Rodney's face, nearly making him hurl in the process.

The next clip took place in economy class, sometime prior to the elimination ceremony from the Nashville challenge. Rodney was staring at his crush with a dopey lovestruck expression. Clearly annoyed, Amy elbowed him in the side to snap him out of it.

"Hey, how about you be useful and go get me a glass of water or something?"

Not about to deny her, he eagerly nodded and ran off to fulfill his task. Now with a moment of peace and quiet, the mean twin looked over at the other side of the room where Lightning was doing situps. She leaned back, very much enjoying the view as the turbo jock's muscles bulged.

"Now THAT'S a real man," she said to Sugar, who had been preoccupied seeing if she could lick her own elbow. She could not, if you were curious.

The final clip showed Amy in the confessional once again, some point after Shawn's elimination. She had a big smile on her face.

"Even if it wasn't my lame-o sister to get the boot, we finally have things going my way on this team. And like, hello, why wasn't it like that already? Now that Sugar's roped in Beardo and Dave, we're untouchable. I guess we didn't need Richard after all." She paused, looking off quizzically. "Or was it Robert? Ralph? Meh, doesn't matter, that guy was a total nobody anyway."

When the clips were done, things seemed to finally be getting through Rodney's thick skull as he grimaced and hung his head in shame. Some in the crowd yelled out calls in support of Rodney, while others yelled out words of hatred towards Amy. The peanut gallery looked equally disgusted with the mean twin's words.

"Total harshness, dudes," Geoff said, shaking his head. "I think that chick even out cattys the ice dancer lady from the race."

"And that's saying something, dude," Brody agreed. "Totally gnar gnar."

Over at the host couch, once again Ella was giving her co-host a stern look of disapproval. "Oh honestly, Topher. Do you have to play that much to crush his poor heart?"

"I'm just trying to do what's right and show him Amy's true colors," he said, putting on a sickeningly fake tone of sincerity. "We wouldn't want the big guy being strung along by Amy even longer, right? It's better to just rip the bandaid off so he can heal."

"Yes, but you could stand to take a more gentle approach." Eager to prove her point, the nicer host marched over to the heart broken Casanova, kneeling down to meet his eyes and give him a reassuring smile. "Rodney, you're going to make a very special girl incredibly happy one day. You're too good for someone as mean as Amy. You should hold your head up high and take pride in the fact that you'll always be more pure of heart than she is!"

The audience erupted into cheers, captivated by Ella's words of encouragement. Of course, no one was more awestruck by the gesture than Rodney himself, who looked on at her in shock.

"Whoa. That's like... the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me!" He chuckled dreamily, leaning in closer to smile at the now surprised wannabe princess. "You're so kind, Ella. Pretty too. It's like... happy birds and chocolates... teddy bears who dance in the snow and-"

Now that Rodney was firmly stuck in one of his gibberish sessions, Ella glanced back at her co-host to look for a way to move the show along. Tempted as Topher was to let her stay in the awkwardness, they had a time limit to adhere to.

"I think it's time we brought out our penultimate guest of the evening," he announced, motioning to the picture of Dakota on the big screen."

"That's right!" Ella used the opening to rejoin the host couch. "Dakota had the biggest transformation coming into Battle of the Generations. Literally, she had shrunk by multiple feet and even brought along a gorgeous new jumpsuit!"

"But of course, even if she was normally herself, the lingering threat of Dakotazoid could rear its head at any minute." As Topher continued, the right half of Dakota's monitor picture was morphed to resemble Dakotazoid. "Which started out as a good thing, when it saved her team from being devoured by ferocious yetis in Antarctica."

"But then in Japan, Dakotazoid winning her team the challenge cost a fellow competitor a serious injury."

"Oh, oh, she's talking about you, Harold," Owen called out jovially.

"I'm aware," the nerd said. "Thank you Owen, very cool."

"And the worst case scenario came to pass in Madagascar, where Dakotazoid came out at the most inconvenient time. Not only costing Team Radioactive the win, but almost killing them in the process! Hence why she's joining us here today."

Ella clapped enthusiastically. "She's a billionaire heiress that you DON'T want to make angry, here's Dakota!"

While the crowd cheered loudly, some of those on stage tensed up as the rich girl made her entrance. Not everyone, since Izzy looked excited to see her and Leonard was fascinated, but Harold in particular was doing a poor job to hide his nervousness. She smiled awkwardly and took a seat near the injured geek.

"Nice of you to join us, Ms. Milton," Topher greeted. "You can rest easy knowing that, per word from the producers, we aren't to subject you to anything embarrassing or stressful so we don't risk making the other you come out."

Dakota grimaced at the immediate mention of Dakotazoid, but tried to shake it off. "That's reassuring, I guess. You know, it's funny. Back in season 4 being on this talk show would have been perfect for me. I would have ate up all the attention and drama. But right now? Feels like things are a bit tense."

"Well we'll do our best to try and make things more welcoming," Ella assured her. "Have you had a chance to see Sam and your family since leaving the game?"

"Oh for sure! Daddy flew us out to South Africa for the weekend after I got the boot. We did some shopping, ate some great food. It was fun."

"Sounds like it was a much better environment for you to keep your cool," Topher pointed out. "Do you think coming back to Total Drama was a bad idea, or do you wish you were still competing?"

The heiress pouted, needing to take a second to collect her thoughts. "Hmm, well it's hard to say. If I'm being honest, I never cared about winning. I mean come on, I'm not exactly lacking in money so I didn't really need it. The reason I came back was to try and make some new friends and have fun. Considering how I didn't really make any friends, except maybe Anne Maria, I do wish I was still there to keep trying."

"Yeah, it isn't exactly easy to focus on making friends and junk while you're in the middle of a competition," Noah pointed out.

"Speak for yourself, bro," Geoff objected. "I made hella friends back in the first season!"

Topher cleared his throat to get the conversation back on point. "Yeah, I'd imagine Dakotazoid didn't help make things easier for you in that department. Your mutant strength makes you an absolute beast, but it also makes you a huge threat."

She sighed dejectedly. "That's putting it lightly. Thanks to Dakotazoid, I left the season with new enemies if anything. I really hate that I put my team at risk and never patched things up with Leshawna."

Harold looked over, conflicted between feelings of spite due to being injured out of the competition by her and sympathy since her condition was out of her control. Topher took notice and decided to strike while the iron was hot.

"I suppose that's as good enough a segway as we can ask for to finally address the elephant in the room." At his cue, spotlights were focused on Harold and Dakota, both of whom were surprised and nearly blinded by the move. "We have someone here that lost the game due to injury and the one who accidentally injured him. I'd say it's time we get the two of you to talk it out."

"And that requires blinding us, how?" the geek asked while shielding his eyes.

"Ok, well, here goes." Dakota took a deep breath, trying to ignore the blinding spotlight. "Harold, I'm really sorry about what happened. I promise, I didn't mean to injure you. When I get into the zone as Dakotazoid, I tend to just hyper focus on something and don't really pay attention to anything else around me."

He scratched at his chin, still feeling conflicted as he felt the spectators all watching him. "Well... I'm not gonna lie and say that there's NO hard feelings. I was really excited about getting to compete again this season. If I had just been eliminated normally then so be it, but because it was due to injury I can't help but wonder what could have been had it not happened."

"And I get that, totally. I don't expect you to just forgive and forget. Just know that I'm really really sorry. Coming back to this show was a dangerous choice, and I hate that it cost you a shot at the money."

Harold looked at Dakota, sensing genuine remorse in her tone and expression. Eventually he sighed. "Apology accepted. Truth be told, thanks to the Drama Brothers I'm not really lacking for money either. If anything I just wanted to redeem how badly I did in World Tour. But between getting back with Leshawna and still being able to cheer on her and my bros, I guess it's not all bad."

He stuck out an arm for a handshake, which she happily accepted.

"And I know I can't get you back in the game, but Daddy knows some really important people, so if you or Leshawna ever need a favor just let me know. I could hook her up with some of the latest fashion before it even hits the stores, and Sam's been making some big friends in the video game industry he could introduce you to."

Now Harold was looking impressed. "For real? You could do that for us?"

"Of course," She chirped, smiling brightly. "I can give you all the deets."

Since the two of them seemed as reconciled as they were going to get and now deep into conversation with one another, Topher looked to the crowd with a chuckle. "Guess that settles that. Now we can move on to our sixth and final guest of the evening!"

"And this is a big one, since we're talking about a former Total Drama finalist!" As Ella spoke, the monitor above showed the image of the zombie survival nut. "Shawn is undeniably one of the strongest competitors in the show's history. Packing not only countless survival skills that makes him an asset in challenges, but also a strong social game."

"And he was by all means set to be a major player once again, especially since he shared a team with his equally dominant girlfriend." With Topher continuing, clips played on screen of Team Explosive's various challenge wins, all highlighting the survivalist couple. "Together, Shawn and Jasmine made for one of the most threatening duos in show history."

"They were poised to ride their momentum all the way until the merge before the most shocking elimination ceremony of the season struck." Ella placed a hand on her forehead dramatically, pretending to be on the verge of fainting. "In a twist, Sugar and Amy were able to rope in Beardo and Dave's votes, spelling doom for our favorite zombie expert."

"Which may raise even more questions since we all know Amy wanted her sister gone more than anyone else." Topher chuckled, motioning to the side of the stage one final time for the night. "And nobody is asking those questions as much as the man himself, so let's bring him out now. Shawn, everybody!"

Easily getting one of the loudest reactions of the show, the crowd were on their feet to cheer on the former finalist. He waved politely, not entirely sure how to take in the huge reaction. After exchanging greetings with the two hosts, he found a spot next to Rodney on the couches.

"Shawn, buddy! Long time no see." Topher smirked. "Gotta say, I did NOT expect to be interviewing you so soon into the show."

"Yeah, well, you and me both." He grunted in frustration. "I'm still kind of reeling from it all, I was expecting the merge to be nearly impossible to survive, but I never expected my team to turn on me."

"It blindsided many of us watching," Ella said, the crowd voicing their agreement. "Would you mind walking us through your thought process after you found out you were eliminated?"

The conspiracy theorist frowned. "I guess. So from what I understand, Sugar and Amy were somehow able to get Beardo and Dave to both vote with them to kick me off. Now Beardo doesn't surprise me too much. I didn't think we had any beef, but we weren't really friends and I had noticed Sugar suddenly started hanging around him more after Rodney's elimination. I didn't think much of it at the time, but that should have clued me in that something was up. But I have no idea why they voted for me over Sammy, and I especially don't know why my so called friend Dave backstabbed me!"

"Ah yes, Dave. He's more involved in this situation than you may expect." Seeing Shawn give him a confused look, Topher chuckled. "But don't just take my word for it. See for yourself!"

As expected, the monitor switched to showing a scene from the most recent episode in Italy. Specifically taking place on the Jumbo Jet following the results of the challenge being confirmed. Amy and Sugar stood on either side of Dave.

"Sure, I'll do it."

There was a pause, Amy and Sugar both being caught off guard.

"Really?" The mean twin asked. "Just like that?"

Dave nodded. "Yeah, I'll vote with you guys." He noticed that Amy was about to break out in a wicked smile, so he held his finger up to stop her. "On one condition."

"Condition?" Sugar looked skeptical. "What kinda condition?"

"You let me pick who we vote for tonight."

Gasps rang out among some audience members, and even from the other eliminated contestants. Shawn was flabbergasted.

"That's right, Dave was the one to pick you for elimination," Topher confirmed. "Had it been up to Amy, it'd be Sammy talking to us right now."

"... But why? Out of everyone from our season, I always thought I was the one who treated Dave the best." He threw his arms up, still shocked. "I know he thought I was weird, but I thought he still considered me a friend. Why the hell did he eliminate me?"

It was Ella's turn to jump in. "If I may, we have footage of his voting confessional. That might help explain things a bit."

Everyone's eyes went back to the screen, which now showed Dave alone in the confessional.

"Shawn has everything so good," Dave lamented while stamping the zombie nut's passport. "His perfect girlfriend, got to make it to the finale, has countless fans. Well now it's his turn to see what tasting failure is like. Doesn't taste so great, does it buddy?"

Many in the crowd started to boo, almost rivaling the reaction Amy's clips had got. As for Shawn, he stared at the ground in awe as he processed his former friend's words.

"So... he was jealous of me? THAT'S why he stabbed me in the back?" He looked around for some sort of confirmation, but nobody said anything. "Even though I was the one to be concerned about him after the fallout with Sky? Seriously, what the heck? I don't remember ever trying to rub anything in his face."

"I'm afraid that's all we have right now to offer any sort of explanation," Ella said sadly. "I'm sorry, Shawn."

He shook his head, not sure if he should be angry, sad, blindsided, or any combination of the three. "Geez, and now Jasmine and Sammy are stuck with that on their team on top of having to deal with Amy and Sugar."

"Worried that they won't make it much longer?" Topher asked. "Now that they're on the outs of the team, it'd take some sort of miracle to keep them safe."

"I just said they'll have to put up with him in a way that it'll be unpleasant," Shawn corrected. "I'm not worried about them. They're both tough, I know they can figure a way out of this. Maybe they can flip Beardo to their side? He doesn't strike me as a bad guy, he's probably just being manipulated."

"Very optimistic." Topher chuckled ominously. "We'll see how that works out for them. Anything else you'd like to add before we move on?"

The scruffy boy tapped a finger to his chin. "Well, I guess there's no point in saying who I'm rooting for. Obviously it's for Jasmine and Sammy. Hopefully they also remember to practice good zombie safety. Oh! That reminds me, since you've got me on this talk show thing, I figure it's a good platform to talk about some walker tips. Like what kind of baseball bat is the best to use for self defense against them."

"I'd figure it'd have to be the metal alloy or aluminum bats," Harold suggested. "They're way more durable than a wooden one, plus they'd be easier to clean."

Shawn looked impressed. "That's right! You versed in zombie survival?"

"My years of consuming the best zombie video games and movies has made me a bit of a connoisseur in the field, I'd say," the geek boasted proudly.

Yet again another conversation was going off the rails as the two boys went back and forth talking about zombies. Though it wasn't clear if Harold took them as seriously as his scruffier comrade. Annoyed, Topher clapped his hands to once again regain everyone's attention.

"Actually, before we sign off, we have one more special treat for everyone watching."

Ella looked up at him curiously. "No one told me anything about this."

He smirked. "And you'll understand why after I announce it. Each Aftermath, we'll be allowing one of the former competitors a chance to perform one last song!"

Gasps echoed throughout the crowd, quickly replaced by cheers. Though no one cheered louder than Ella at the prospect of a song.

"Oh, that sounds wonderful!" She leaned in expectantly. "And I'm sure they'll need backup singers as well, right?"

"Sure." His co-host squealed happily, forcing him to hold a finger up to her face. "But singing is for former Battle of the Generations contestants only. IE, not us."

It was as if someone had just told Ella for the first time that Santa Claus wasn't real. "That's so unfair! Geoff and Bridgette sung during the World Tour aftermath!"

"I always really liked that song Geoff sung to diss Blaineley," Owen said from the peanut gallery, getting an agreeing smirk from Noah.

"Bridge's Sorry song was pretty sweet," Brody added. "She looked really ho-" He noticed his bro giving him a rare dark expression, ready to react in potentially severe ways depending on how he finished his sentence. "Honestly sincere, it was a real tearjerker dudes."

Geoff eased up, smiling at the song compliments. "Yeah, why won't they let you two sing? Isn't singing one of Ella's favorite things?"

"The producers make the rules not me." Topher shrugged, not looking like he cared if he could sing one way or another. Though his co-host seemed nearly on the verge of tears. "Tell ya what, I'll see if I can convince them to let us sing in one of the later Aftermaths. Sound good?"

"I suppose..."

He gave a thumbs up, then turned to the six former contestants. "Cool. So anyway, we're already running late so there's only time for one song. You guys sort out who you want to do the honor while Ella and I do an ad."

"Only one of us gets to sing?" Dakota asked.

"We might have been able to do something bigger, but like I said we're running late. So yeah, just one singer." That done, he and Ella turned to the screen and put on their best smiles. "Have you all heard of the year's most ambitious RPG title?"

"It's the epic adventure you can play on your phone with over 400 character to choose from," Ella added. "That's right, today the Aftermath is sponsored by Rai-"

While the hosts continued to shill a shitty mobile game, the former contestants entered a huddle to decide who would sing. They had to partly lean over the couches so that Harold could participate.

"I would have loved to sing a love ballad about Amy, but after everything I heard today I guess it wouldn't work." Rodney hung his head sadly. "Maybe I could think up one for Ella, but I don't think I'd make good lyrics in time."

"Riiight." Shawn looked around at the others. "Well I don't really care about singing, so I'll bow out. How about you guys?"

"I'm still feeling pretty awkward after they put me in that electric chair." Staci fidgeted in her seat. "I'll pass."

"Izzy WOULD normally have fun with it, but she'd rather just go back to making out with Big O."

"So I guess that leaves me and Harold?" Dakota looked down at the geek she had injured. "Well he IS the only real musician out of us. And letting him be the one to sing is the least I could do after everything."

Harold grinned. "Thanks, guys! I have a really good modernized version of the song I sang back on the first World Tour aftermath. This is gonna be straight fire."

The huddle disbanded just in time to catch the hosts finishing their ad.

"-So remember to use code BOTG to get 50,000 Silver and a free epic champion. Download today!" He noticed that the six were waiting for him to finish. "Ah good, you guys are done. So Shawn, ready to sing?"

The zombie nut raised an eyebrow. "Uh, what? We decided on letting Harold sing."

"Oh, you guys don't actually get to choose, I just needed you occupied for a minute so we could do that ad. Network picks who goes, and they said to make Shawn do it this time."

"GOSH! What is it with this dang network and denying me the things I love?" The crippled geek folded his arms with a huff. "Can I at least be in the video?"

Topher shrugged. "Sure, all of you can. Heck, let's get the peanut gallery in on it while we're at it. This is required, by the way."

"I don't remember this being part of the deal when we agreed to come on," Noah objected, only to get picked up by Owen's massive arm.

"Aw come on, little buddy. It'll be fun!"

"I'm down, dudes," Brody agreed, fist bumping a nodding Geoff.

"What do I even sing about?" Shawn asked. "I'm not exactly an expert in song writing."

"Just sing about something you love," Ella suggested. "Like Jasmine! Or, zombie survival!"

Topher rolled his eyes. "Zombies? That'd make for a stupid song."

"Zombie survival is not stupid," Shawn objected. "It's vital information that'll save lives one day!"

"Then put your money where your mouth is and sing about it!"

Leonard clapped happily. "A jaunty tune about combating the undead? Marvelous!"

The crowd was similarly pumped at the idea, cheering Shawn on and even chanting his name. Riding the wave of support, he finally nodded and stood up. "Fine. But you all better pay attention. This stuff could totally be the difference between life and death for you in the future."

Song Start!

"Zombie Time." Parody of "Thriller (Music Video Version)," by Michael Jackson.

[The video began outside the Aftermath studio, in what seemed to be a smokey alleyway. Despite it being daytime in actuality, during the video the sky was dark and cloudy. Smoke seemed to fill the streets and the howls of wolves accompanied the slowly rising ominous tune. Shawn made his way out of the alley, taking off his usual jacket and tossing it off screen. He looked around cautiously, stepping carefully down the foggy street as the music turned to a funky beat.]

"Alright, first lesson. The zombies always prey, come day or night. No sleep for lurchers, they'll sneak up on you masked within the dark."

[As he sneaked his way down the street, two heads vaguely resembling Owen and Noah's poked around the corner of a building. They ducked back into cover before Shawn caught sight of them.]

"And never scream! That sound will make the horde close in for snack time."

[Behind a nearby trashcan, Staci poked her head out to look at the scruffy boy. Thanks to being closer to the camera, it became apparently that she was adorned in zombie makeup, giving her skin a green hue with what appeared to be rotting flesh dangling from her cheek. Once again, she went back into hiding before getting in Shawn's line of sight.]

"Beware their squeeze! The grip is just as painful as their bite. Both ways you'll die!"

[As he rounded a corner, he tensed up as three zombies stood in the middle of the road before him. More specifically, the zombified versions of Geoff, Brody, and Izzy. They lumbered towards him slowly, arms outstretched and groaning menacingly.]

"Come time to fight them, it's best to try and beat them without a gun. The bang attracts them, just try and melee them down one by one."

[Proving his point, Shawn showed a prop gun to the screen and decided to pocket it rather than use it on the upcoming zombies. Instead he brandished what looked like a baseball bat. Thankfully for the three zombies it was made of foam, but it looked real enough for the video.]

"Don't lose your mind! Stay on your toes, don't let the ghouls surround you."

[Moving expertly, he sidestepped a swipe from the Brody zombie and nailed it in the back of the head with a bat. When the Geoff zombie approached, he hit him in the shins to bring the walker to its knees, then delivered a deciding double tap.]

"And don't play nice! Keep swinging till you know that they're all done. Then book it and run!"

[Shawn had a slightly harder time dealing with the Izzy zombie, who bobbed and weaved away from his first two swings. To get her still, he brandished a flashlight and nearly blinded the Izzy zombie with its light. This distracted her long enough to allow him to get a deciding blow to the head. As another corner was turned, a zombified Harold emerged from behind a dumpster and rolled its way towards Shawn. Thankfully the sound of the wheels turning alerted the conspiracy nut, allowing him to safely catch the nerd zombie in a headlock.]

"Make every move count. Remember that their weak point is the head."

[Shawn pointed at Harold's head for emphasis, then released him just in time to deliver another expertly pulled off blow to the skull. But even with that zombie down, zombie versions of Rodney and Dakota lurched out from behind the same dumpster. Noting that those zombies would be harder fights, he turned and ran.]

"They can't outrun you. The zombies aren't a fan of cardio. No time is safe, so try to sleep in a tree or a bunker."

[A Leonard zombie dived off a rooftop in an attempt to get the drop on Shawn. But he was savy, and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the sneak attack. As he backed up, he didn't notice as more figures were emerging from out of the alleys around him.]

"Don't drop your guard! They'll overwhelm you into a mistake. Just one, and it's too late!"

[As if jinxing himself, Shawn turned around to see the zombified forms of Owen, Noah, Staci all surrounding him, even joined by the former Geoff, Brody, and Izzy zombies. He turned around to flee, but the Rodney, Dakota, Harold, and Leonard zombies had his other side covered. Properly surrounded and with no clear means of escape, he brandished his trusty bat in anticipation of a fight. But then the Izzy zombie tossed a rock and knocked the melee weapon from his hands. He was grabbed by the mighty strength of the Rodney zombie, making it impossible to move out of the way as the rest of the horde swarmed him. The music swelled ominously, turning to an eerie hiss as the ambient wolf howls and raven caws echoed louder. A climatic high note was played as the zombies finally stepped away, revealing that Shawn was now also turned into one of their own. He was also somehow now sporting a swanky red jacket.]

[But just as soon as the camera began to zoom in on the zombie Shawn, the funky beat returned and he twitched his head. He began stomping towards the camera, occasionally twitching his head towards his shoulder. Behind him, the zombified versions of the peanut gallery and former contestants mimicked his moves. They stretched out their arms, lurching their way forward in a sort of sidestep shimmy. As they hopped from right to left, swinging their arms menacingly, it was clear they were moving along perfectly to the beat. It was then that they performed three enthusiastic pelvic thrusts, with some of them looking like this particular move made it hard to continue maintaining an angry and threatening gaze at the camera.]

[Once they were done thrusting, they clapped above their heads and shimmied to their left. Then they stamped their foot and repeated the motion, this time going to their right. They then shuffled towards the camera with their arms outstretched, much faster than usual. Once the zombies had jumped into place again, they held their arms up like claws, swinging from left to right. They stepped to each side, claws held up all the while. Much hopping took place, sometimes facing the camera and other times facing backwards. All the while they moved their arms and gyrated their hips to the beat.]

[After some stylish punching towards either side, some zombies got dedicated closeups as they jerked towards the camera. Zombie Owen had drool hanging from his mouth, colored black and yellow in a grosser than normal fashion. Somehow even Harold's wheelchair looked to be decaying, as mold and fungus covered it while his shattered glasses complimented his demented glare. Dakota's zombie form could have given even Dakotazoid a run for her money, as part of her skull and jawbones seemed to be exposed, thanks to her flesh looking like it was melting off her face. Last was Staci, who had maggots covering her hair and burn marks covering her rotted head. The zombies slowly began stamping towards the left, hunched over as they stomped away from the camera. Then Shawn finally stood back up, now without the zombie makeup but still rocking the jacket.]

"And now it's zombie, zombie time. They're hungry for your brains, and looks like you are out of time."

[Despite no longer being zombified himself, the zombie entourage continued mimicking Shawn's dance moves. Some with more grace than others, as zombie Noah especially was starting to look winded.]

"Watch out for zombies, zombie time. Don't wanna lose your mind inside a walker, lurker."

[The zombies knelt to the ground while Shawn did a sick spin. They slowly rose around him, some still copying his moves while others showed off more standard zombie-like mannerisms.]

"Zombie, zombie time! Don't let them hear a sound, no time to scream or time to cry."

[In a neat shot, the zombies of Geoff, Brody, Noah, and Leonard all lurched in place, somehow both pulling off zombie motions while still dancing.]

"Zombies, zombie time. You best be set to fight against the lurchers, creepers, eaters. Zombie horde tonight!"

[Shawn did more sick spinning moves, with the zombies circling and rising around him.]

"You know it's zombie! Zombie time. Always go for the head, anything else don't even try."

[For one final time, the zombies echoed his dance moves, repeating things like the claw march or the stomping away from the camera. Shawn did one last spin and posed for the camera as he finished.]

"Zombie, zombie time. You're fighting for your life against the hungry, angry, zombie time tonight!"

Once the video was over, both former contestants and peanut gallery members were somehow back in their original couch positions. The audience and Ella both erupted into cheers and clapping. Shawn almost felt like he was supposed to take a bow, but opted instead to just awkwardly wave at the adoring fans.

"Well I guess that's as good enough a note to end on as it gets," Topher announced, barely able to be heard over the applause. "You guys got any parting words for the fans before we sign off?"

"Be careful with your lies," Staci said. "One day you may end up in a really painful electric chair. Wouldn't recommend it, yah."

Izzy just dabbed at the camera.

"Sometimes life may not be fair," Harold said, pointing at his wheelchair. "But always look on the bright side of things. Don't let it get you down too much, gosh."

"Never give up on love," Rodney announced to the heavens.

"Bottling up your anger can lead to some pretty bad stuff, so maybe don't do that." Dakota winked at the camera. "And stay fabulous!"

"Jasmine, Sammy, you guys got this!" Shawn pumped his fist. "And remember everyone, always aim for the head!"

With Ella finally calming down from the live performance, Topher moved to the sign off. "Than from us here at the Total Drama Aftermath, we've been Topher."

"And Ella!" The fairy tale princess clapped excitedly. "We'll see you next time with a brand new group of guests!"

Both hosts waved goodbye, Topher flashing a cocky grin while Ella smiled sweetly. Former contestants and peanut gallery members alike waved at the camera until the screen finally faded away.

Chapter Text

"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris narrated. "Me and the competitors flew over to Italy for a nice rip roaring pizza time. They were all tasked with cooking a delicious pizza for your's truly, and had to collect their ingredients as they sailed down the Grand Canal of Venice. DJ, Anne Maria, and Beardo stepped up as each team's respective head chefs, and they came up with everything from deep dish vegetarian to a Cajun twist. Despite looking like her New York style plain pizza wouldn't be enough to impress, it was actually Anne Maria that won the whole thing and secured Team Radioactive their first victory."

Inside the cockpit, Chris could be seen still eating leftover slices from Anne Maria's pizza. His crunching and salivating was quickly getting on Chef's nerves. "And lemme tell ya, it's just as good days later. Anyway, Team Explosive weren't able to out perform DJ in a cooking contest, so they were up for elimination. Knowing that she may be in danger, Amy brought along Sugar to try and convince Dave to vote with them. And it worked, but Dave forced their hand into allowing himself to pick their target. So who did he have them vote off? None other than his poor unsuspecting former friend, Shawn!"

Chris laughed mischievously. "He didn't see that one coming! And neither did Sammy or Jasmine. Will the two of them get to the bottom of Shawn's exit? Will I make everyone cook me something else since they're shockingly good at it? Just where will the Jumbo Jet be dropping them off next? You'll have to plant your butt right there and watch to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Opening Credits ***

Like many episodes before it, things opened up on the now familiar sight of the cargo hold. Cody drummed his fingers along a wooden crate while the members from Team Radioactive waited in their own ways. For Dawn, she silently meditated atop a different crate. B was tinkering with his singing device, ensuring it would be properly charged for the upcoming singing episode. Brick merely sat on a box patiently, though Scott was tapping his foot out of frustration next to him.

"Seriously, what's taking them so long, they shoulda kicked someone off by now!" The dirt farmer huffed, leaning his back into a crate and sinking to the floor. "There was some dang good looking cobbler in first class with my name on it, and I don't need Lightning eating it all before we're back."

"He strikes me of someone that doesn't eat many deserts anyway, so you probably don't gotta worry about that," Brick pointed out, getting his teammate to perk up. "But then again, Anne Maria may end up wanting it."

"Uuuugh," was all he mumbled back, groaning from the sheer boredom of waiting.

At this point, even Cody looked to be getting more finicky. Though for him it was more out of nervousness than boredom. "Scott does have a point. As long as it's been since Chris called them, they should have been back here by now. It's super weird."

"Patience is a virtue, my friends," Dawn said wisely from her stoop, her eyes remaining shut all the while. "Chris is very unpredictable, it's possible there may have been some sort of tie breaker that took a long time. I have no doubt that we'll be hearing from them soon."

Sure enough, it was then that they heard someone approaching. Thought it was notably quieter than what sound one would expect three people to be making. Things became even more confusing for everyone when Sammy was the only one to emerge around the corner. They took quick note of her shook up demeanor.

"There you are, we were starting to get worried." Cody chuckled, but then realized Shawn and Jasmine weren't present. "Uh, where are the others?"

"It isn't like Shawn to be tardy, these checks were his whole idea anyway," Brick added.

Sammy looked around at everyone, unsure of how to properly break the news. She tugged at her arm awkwardly. "Uh, well I guess I have good news and bad news for everyone. The good news is that you don't have to help check around the cargo hold anymore."

Even Dawn and B looked surprised at that, finally making the mystic open her eyes. "Why so? As deep rooted as Shawn's fear of zombies is, it wouldn't make sense for him to ease up on his precautions out of the blue."

The nice twin bit her bottom lip, looking away. "Well that's the bad news. Shawn... got eliminated."

Varying degrees of shock spread among the others. Scott shot up from his seat, looking more perplexed than anything. "He was like your strongest member and junk, why the heck would you vote him out this early when it could be the difference between economy and first class?"

"I didn't!" She sighed in frustration. "And neither did Jasmine. It was my sister. She somehow got everyone else to vote her off."

Now it was Brick's turn to look confused. "Er, I'm a bit confused so don't take this the wrong way, but from what I remember watching your first season that doesn't make sense. Wouldn't your sister wanted to have voted you off instead?"

"Trust me, I know. I have no idea why she changed to voting for Shawn, much less why the others would go along with it." She would have been able to glare a hole through the floor if it were possible. "All I know is now me and Jasmine are on the outs of our team, despite the fact that almost all of our wins were because of her and Shawn. None of this makes any sense."

"So, uh, how is Jasmine doing?" Cody asked hesitantly.

Rather than immediately show her answer, the camera perspective instead switched to economy class in the middle of a tense situation. Namely, Jasmine had Dave held by his collar and pinned against the wall while a yelling match ensued. Team Old School could only look on in entranced fear, not daring to get in the way.

"Now you put him down right now, Missy," Sugar yelled, trying to sound intimidating. She went entirely ignored by the Aussie.

"He was your FRIEND, ya bloody stooge," she hissed, her death glare very nearly piercing the germaphobe's soul. "What on Earth would make you backstab him like that?"

Fearing for his well being, Dave was far too petrified to try and respond. He tried to pull away from Jasmine's gaze, but her dagger-like piercing glare made him feel like he was in a staring contest with Medusa. Amy tried in vain to tug the Aussie girl away from her ally.

"Your lame-o boyfriend lost fair and square, get over it!"

Dave's body made a thud as he was finally dropped to the floor. A small "eep" escaped Amy as the incensed Amazon turned the glare her way. Even the normally unbothered Sugar couldn't help but feel a bit of nervousness seep in. As Jasmine began stomping her way over to the mean girls, fire in her eyes, it was actually someone from Team Old School that decided to finally act.

"Ok girls, that's enough." Trent got between Jasmine and Amy just before it seemed the tall girl was about to wind up a punch. "I don't know what happened between you all, but this isn't the way to resolve it. No more taunting, no more threatening, it's only going to keep escalating things."

"But she started-"

"I said what I said," the musician quickly bit back, silencing the cheerleader. "Both of you need to cool off."

An awkward silence followed, with all three girls involved sizing up the others in an attempt to determine their next move. Using the distraction as a cue, Dave took the opportunity to scurry away, still having not said a word. Finally, Jasmine snorted and stomped away to cool off.

"This isn't over."

Ending on that, she left towards the cafeteria without so much of a glance at anyone else. Sugar and Amy exchanged a look, unsure if they should feel like they won the exchange or just avoided serious danger. Having watched the drama the whole time, Beardo tried to clear the tension with an awkward chuckle.

"So, uh, what's the deal with airline food? Am I right, guys?" He mimicked the sound of a rim shot, but only got befuddled looks in response that confirmed this wasn't the right time for jokes. He sighed, doing a sad little "wa wa waaa" trombone sound.

*** Cockpit Confessional: Jasmine ***

"That little witch has a lot of nerve bad mouthing Shawn like that in front of me," she hissed, smacking a fist into her other hand. "She should be thanking her lucky stars that Trent jumped in before I bashed her up something proper, swear to me mum I would have."

"Tsk tsk, Miss Jasmine, you should know violence against other contestants is grounds for being ejected from the game," Chef said from the pilot seat, waggling his finger. "I'm very ashamed of you right now."

"Since when has THAT been a rule? Wouldn't Dakota have been ejected back in Japan for what she did to Harold if that was the case?"

"Well there's the accident forgiveness clause, you see." He whipped out a huge stack of papers, putting it on the ground next to her. "You'd know all about it, if you'd read the gosh darn contract."

Leaning towards him, she rolled up her sleeve and readied her fist. "Alright, ya wanna be cheeky? I got something for you to read right here."

"Oh come on, not agai-"

The camera cut to static just before her fist could make contact.

*** In the cargo hold ***

Back with the former zombie search crew, Sammy had finished her explanation to the best of her abilities. Everyone looked around, unsure of what to do next.

"So, I guess that's it then?" Brick finally said. "No more zombie searches?"

"Well they were only to keep Shawn at ease, so yeah basically." Sammy sighed once more. "For what it's worth, we really appreciate you guys helping us out all this time."

"It was our pleasure." Dawn gave the nice twin a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I know things may get tough for you and Jasmine going forward, but you can brave the storm. I feel a dose of karma is destined to come your sister's way."

One by one, Brick, Dawn, B, and Scott all filed their way out of the room, offering Sammy their own bit of condolences as they left. When they were gone, only her and Cody remained. The tech geek looked on at his crush awkwardly, he could tell she wasn't in the highest of spirits after everything.

"You gonna be alright?" he asked. "I mean, I know you're closer to Jasmine than you were to him, but I'd imagine this is still rough."

"That's putting it lightly. Him getting eliminated is one thing, but it's the fact that now I know it's basically me and Jasmine vs the rest of our team." She kicked at one of the crates in frustration, though still showing enough restraint so that it didn't actually do any damage. "If we lose again I'm definitely gone, then Jasmine after me."

Cody tapped at his chin, thinking things over. She was right, for Shawn to have been voted off when he, Jasmine, and Sammy were voting together did mean that everyone else on Team Explosive voted against him. And if everyone took part in that vote, it meant a certain someone was included.

"Actually, I think I may be able to help with that." Sammy gave him a confused look. "Harold wanted us to see about asking Beardo to be a member of the band, what with his musical knowledge and unique sound. Trent and I haven't really talked to him yet since Harold got voted out, but we may just yet be able to convince him to switch votes."

For the first time since Shawn's elimination, the nice twin perked up. "Wait, for real? You think the two of you can do that?"

"I think so." Cody nodded. "I'm not sure why he voted off Shawn to begin with, but he strikes me as a pretty cool dude. If we explain how messed up your sis is I'm sure it isn't out of the question to think he may vote against her with you two. It would lead to a tie breaker, sure, but you can totally kick her butt."

"That would be awesome! Thank you so much, Cody." He flushed at her warm smile, his face turning a tomato shade of red.

"Heh, no problem."

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"Geez, I really hope Cody and Trent are able to pull off getting Beardo away from my sister. Honestly, I think I care more about making sure she DOESN'T win than I do winning myself. Her ego is already the size of Ontario, the last thing the world needs is letting her brag about winning a million bucks."

*** In First Class ***

While the others had been doing whatever it was they did in the cargo hold, Lightning wasted no time in taking full advantage of what first class had to offer. After stuffing his face with the best high protein meals they could cook up, he then decided to treat his muscles to a soothing massage. Anne Maria was nearby, enjoying a facial mask treatment.

As the others started to file back in, Scott was delighted to see that the cobbler was still all his. With him scarfing that down, Brick noticed the uber jock being pampered and decided to approach him mid-massage.

"That was a good hustle in the challenge, soldier!" He saluted at Lightning, not that he could see due to his face being down on the massage table. "I think you're starting to see the light of how useful teamwork can be."

"Hey, just remember that is was my lit cooking that got us the big win in the first place, capiche?" Anne Maria snapped from nearby.

"Of course." Brick chuckled, putting up his hands defensively. "In fact, I'd say we ALL contributed to a downright nifty win that made us nearly unbeatable!"

"Bro, is there a point to this or are you gonna let the Lightning have his massage in peace now?" the jock grumbled, turning to look up at the cadet.

"Oh, I'm just trying to help you learn the importance of teamwork is all. You're a heck of a competitor on your own, so if you learn how to cooperate more with your teammates then the sky's the limits!"

Lightning raised an eyebrow, confused. "Why do you even care, man?"

Brick faltered a bit but tried to stay in high spirits. "Well for one I just think it's for the benefit of the team that we're all on the same page. If we keep up our performance like in the most recent challenge, I think it'll be OUR turn to have a winning streak. But more than that, I believe in allowing people to redeem themselves and prove that it's never to late to become an upstanding person! Why just look at the progress Scott made."

"You DO remember that he once stole everyone's junk and was gonna pin it all on you, right?" Anne Maria pointed out. "And then he put it on Dawn instead."

"Hey, that was one time!" Scott spoke with his mouth full, bits of cobbler falling out and making a mess on his shirt.

"Er, right. I haven't forgotten. Nor has Dawn, I would assume." Brick looked over at the aura reader, her being deep in meditation in the floor. She merely nodded. "Right. But what's important is that he's grown as a person since then. And I think Lightning could do the same!"

The jock in question blinked in confusion. "If you sha-say so, dude."

*** Confe ssional: Brick ***

"Sure, Lightning may look like a tough nut to crack, but I think there's a good person below that cocky exterior! Dawn has kinda done the bulk in making sure Scott stays on the straight and narrow, so I'll take it upon myself to work on him. I think we'll be making progress really soon!"

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"That dude's a sha-weirdo."

*** In Economy Class ***

Breakfast had already come and gone, and now the contestants could merely linger around the plane and await the news of their next location. The faint sounds of cheering and joy could be made out from First Class. It went without saying that Team Radioactive was having a great time enjoying the fruits of their first win. But the mood in economy was much more tense, mostly filled with an awkward silence.

Team Old School didn't really know how to go about their usual mingling with the lingering awkwardness left by Team Explosive. Jasmine's foot was twitching rapidly, she looked ready for a fight at a moment's notice. Sammy still seemed distraught, though now she looked to be more concerned about her friend's well being. Amy had a salty glare, upset that she couldn't be soaking in her successful game move. Dave and Beardo had come to accept the awkward silence and just sat patiently. As for Sugar, she was bored, so she decided to take a nap.

"So, uh, where do you guys think we're going next?" DJ finally asked cautiously. "Considering where we've been to thus far, I'm thinking it might be somewhere in Oceania."

He received pointed looks from Jasmine and Amy both, making him shrink back into his seat. "Er, forget I asked."

"It was worth a try," Beth whispered, giving him a reassuring pat on the arm.

"Tsk tsk, you're WAY off the mark, DJ!"

Everyone looked up at the intercom, Chris' voice blaring loudly enough to wake Sugar up from her snooze.

"We're heading to South America. Specifically, we're going to the city of Guatape, smack dab in the middle of Colombia!"

"Ain't Colombia a clothes company or something?" Sugar asked, still groggy from being awoken. "How in the Sam Hill do we visit something like that?"

"That's a different Columbia. It's not even spelled the same way." Courtney shook her head. "I'd say we should get our game faces on, but as dysfunctional as their team seems to be, I don't think we have anything to worry about."

Jasmine snorted, her determined expression unchanging. "Oh, we ain't losing. I'll make sure of that."

She gave Sugar and Amy a side eye unnerving enough to put some fear into them. Meanwhile, no one else noticed as Cody started whispering something into Trent's ear. The guitarist gave his friend a firm nod and both glanced over at Beardo cautiously.

One screen transition of the jet heading towards South America later, and game time was upon them! As they made their descent they passed over various brightly colored houses the lined the streets of Guatape. The land was surrounded by a lot of water and smaller surrounding islands, but most prominent of all was a large rock hill with a staircase leading to the top. It was near this very inselberg that the plane landed, with the contestants filing out and eyeing it cautiously.

For once, Chris joined them in his standard attire. Perhaps he couldn't be bothered to find an outfit specific to the location. "Welcome to Colombia! You may or may not have noticed that we're close to a big ol rock over there. It's kinda hard to miss." He waited for everyone to turn their attention to the rock in question. "That there is The Stone of Guatape. And today, our challenge sorta centers around it."

As he continued talking, some interns carted out crates of various supplies. Notably a lot of paint, cloth, wood and other craft related tools.

"The challenge takes place over the course of three steps. Step one, you'll each be crafting a hang glider!" He motioned towards the supplies while the crates were being busted open for easier access. "Guatape is renowned for their flashy buildings, so feel free to go all out on making your glider look cool. Just, you know, make sure it works. You'll be needing it to!"

Courtney raised a hand. "Is anything stopping us from just making a normal hang glider to get through the challenge as fast as possible?"

"Yup, Chef will be guarding the entrance to part 2 of the challenge. No originality means he won't let ya pass, so you all better put some flavor on it." He pointed a thumb towards the base of the stairs leading up the massive rock. Indeed, Chef stood in front of the stairs, arms folded and glaring at everyone with a snarl. Perhaps he was extra angry due to the black eye he was sporting courtesy of Jasmine. "Speaking of which, part two! You'll have to carry your hang gliders aaaaaaall the way up those stairs to the top of The Stone of Guatape. I don't recommend dropping it or letting it get broken, ESPECIALLY if you're high up the stairs."

Beth looked at the top of the rock, taking in just how ridiculously high up it went. She gulped, raising a hand of her own. "I'm guessing for part 3 we'll be using them?"

Chris responded with two finger pistols and a click of the tongue. "Correctomundo! For the final part of the challenge you'll be flying your gliders to a nearby island that's been marked with a checkered circle. Don't worry, you'll know the island once you get up there. First team to get everyone on that island successfully wins first class. And, well, you all know the rest by now. We'll get things started here in a few minutes."

Everyone took a minute to digest the info. B was looking especially confident, ready to flex his building skills with a glider that would surely impress. DJ, still with his fear of falling into water from high up, was taking some deep breaths to try and calm his nerves. And of course there was Jasmine, with fire in her eyes and a pointed look going Amy's way.

"Try and throw the challenge and you're getting tossed off the bloody rock," she said ominously, cracking her knuckles for added affect.

"Um, hello? Is she even allowed to threaten me like that?"

She looked over at Chris, who merely shrugged. "Something something, nothing about it in the rulebook, something something, as long as she doesn't follow through, something something, it's outta my hands."

"Just do the challenge right and we don't have a problem," the Aussie added. "It's as simple as that."

With nothing else to say to the mean girl, her and Sammy took their leave to go get a look at the supplies they had to work with. Once again Amy was left to simmer in a silent rage while Sugar looked on stumped.

"Well shoot, with that fire under her butt we might not be able to get rid of them as soon as we were hoping," the country girl noted. Amy groaned.

"Right? We should have got Sparemy out while we had the chance!" Seeing Dave standing nearby, she jabbed a finger at his chest. "I sure hope you're happy."

The germaphobe put up his hands defensively. "Hey, you guys agreed to my terms, I didn't have a way to control how she'd react. If you guys are so bummed out about not being able to eliminate one of them for now, how about you try and get out someone threatening from the other teams?"

Both girls looked at him with blank stares. Amy huffed. "And just how the heck do we do that, smart guy?"

Rolling his eyes, Dave surveyed the enemy teams. Both were fairly huddled together and showing a worrying amount of unity compared to the fractured Team Explosive. But he smirked when his eyes landed on one contestant in particular. "Well, this is supposed to be a singing episode, right?"

Both girls followed their ally's gaze, seeing that he was looking at B in the middle of nodding along as something Dawn was saying. Quickly formulating a plan, they exchanged a sinister grin.

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"Do I regret eliminating Shawn? Nope. Not even a little bit." He stared out the window with a wimpy pout. "Jasmine can threaten me all she wants, it won't bring him back. He's had things way too good for too long. Well this time I beat him! I can hold my head up and say that it was ME to eliminate one of the show's strongest finalists. I'm not gonna let people look down on me anymore, once I win this season everyone is gonna regret talking trash about me!"

*** At the Bottom of Rock of Guatape ***

"There's no time limit on how long it takes you to make your hang glider, but since it's a race to not be last and all I wouldn't recommend dilly dallying." Chris chuckled, waving his arm in a GO motion. "Begin!"

The three teams immediately dove into the haul of materials, sorting for whatever would be the most useful. On their respective teams, Courtney and B directed traffic and barked out orders of what people should grab. Or in B's case, he made the motions and Dawn translated them. Jasmine took on a much more aggressive version of the role, yanking away supplies and tossing them into various piles for the others while Sammy got her own. Dave and Beardo exchanged a look, shrugging as neither dared to object to the tall girl's methods.

While Jasmine was a bit distracted, Amy felt it was a good time to strike. B had just finished signaling the supplies for his team and was taking over his own haul of supplies.

"Ok, you distract him and I'll grab the thingy," she whispered.

"You sure you can pickpocket?" Sugar asked. "A preppy gal like you don't strike me as knowing how to get down n dirty."

Amy rolled her eyes. "I learned how to yank money from mom's purse without her noticing, I kinda had to when she cut me off after last season. As long as you keep his attention I'll be fine."

Well that was good enough for Sugar. She did a two finger salute and nodded. "Can do, missy! Watch Sugar work her magic."

As poor unsuspecting B began spreading out his glider supplies and mentally mapping out how his glider would go, a sultry jazz theme played in the background. Sugar strut over to the enemy team member, trying to flaunt her stuff as much as possible. Of course, she went entirely unnoticed by the brainiac until she was in his face.

"Howdy!" Her voiced startled him enough to where he almost yelped. Almost. "Boy, this really seems like your kinda challenge, huh?"

B raised an eyebrow, unsure why an Explosive member would be talking to him, in the middle of a challenge no less. Then again this was Sugar, so he eyed her curiously.

"Ah don't worry, I ain't up to no good." She chuckled, elbowing him in the ribs. Meanwhile, Amy was beginning to nonchalantly move by, making sure she wasn't noticed by B's teammates. "Yer too smart of me to pull the wool over your eyes, eh?"

Not really sure where she was going with this, B just gave a sort of perplexed nod of thanks. Just as he tried to walk away, the country girl stopped him with a hand placed on his chest. "Ya know, I really admire smarts on a guy. You really know your way around some neat toys, am I right?"

Now B was getting properly unnerved, to the point where he didn't notice as a dainty hand carefully reached into his front right jacket pocket. To ensure he wouldn't look down, Sugar cupped his chin in her hand and gave him a flirtatious look.

"Ya know, I don't know if you saw my last season, but you kinda remind me of the wizard. Except, ya know, there's more of ya." She glanced over at Amy, who now had a hold of B's singing device. She began pouring a water bottle all over it, making sure to try and soak the insides through any slots that led to the inner mechanisms. Then she saw that the genius looked offended. "Which is good! You're a WHOLE lotta man. And like the wizard, I like my men the way I like my mud baths. Nice and dark."

Amy and B both went mouth agape at the comment, though the mean twin had the resist the urge to verbally react and instead slip the device back into his pocket before sneaking away.

"So if ya wanna put a little extra sugar on that chocolate after the season is over, call me!" She gave the large boy a wink and returned to her own team, leaving him absolutely dumbfounded.

*** Confessional: B ***

Obviously without saying anything, the disturbed boy wretches and proceeds to throw up into the toilet.

*** In Guatape ***

With that ordeal out of the way and one contestant permanently scared for life, now focus could be placed on the challenge. Dawn could sense a disturbance in her friend's demeanor as he tried to shake himself back into the game and help everyone through building their gliders, but he wasn't about to divulge on what had just transpired. Meanwhile, Team Old School was making solid work as everyone seemed to have a decent enough grasp on how to build their glider.

"As weird as it sounds, this kinda reminds me of making those cool little wooden cars back in scouts," Cody mused as he began to cut his cloth into a glider shape. "Except, you know, when we test out these things we're falling from the top of a rock if it doesn't work." He chuckled awkwardly.

"We'll be fine, Team Explosive is way too dysfunctional to beat us," Courtney said confidently. "But I do wanna try and beat Radioactive. It's time we took back first class!"

"And you just wanna rub it in Scott's face, yeah yeah, we know." Beth hummed to herself, not noticing the glare she got for her comment. "Did you guys see any glitter over there? I really wanna use some for the decoration portion!"

"Yeah, I think I saw some near the spray paint," DJ confirmed, glancing behind his shoulder at the massive rock. "Just make sure you don't make your glider too heavy. Remember, we gotta haul the thing all the way up that."

Everyone looked back at the Rock of Guatape. By Cody and Courtney's calculations, it was around 650 steps and would be a long climb for sure.

"No worries, we got this," Trent assured the others, giving his best supportive smile for emphasis. "This is a cake walk compared to some of the crap we've done over the years."

"Wonder when he's gonna make us sing?" Leshawna added, hammering away at some wood. "None of this really screams that it'd make a good song break."

"Guess we'll leave that as a mystery, eh?" Suddenly said Chris as he leaned down into the huddle, properly unnerving everyone. "So chop to it! We're burning daylight out here, people!"

Not needing to be told twice, everyone prepared to transition into the decoration portion. When it came to the build and quality of the gliders, Team Radioactive definitely had the best. Thanks to B's guidance translated by Dawn, they were built sturdy and aerodynamic. Teams Old School and Explosive had solid gliders with orders given out by the likes of Jasmine and Courtney, but there was still a lot of challenge to go.

Everyone was putting their own personal spin on the decoration portion. As she had hinted at already, Beth waddled back to her station with a big container of glitter to go with her paints. Dave was lacking in inspiration, so he decided to just paint his in the kind of colors like the Colombian houses Chris showed them as an example. Not much of an artist, Scott just kind of crudely brushed away, not really caring if it looked good as long as he felt it was cool.

"Should we wait to go all at once or just get going once we're each done?" Leshawna asked her team while finishing up some shiny gold paint finish on one portion of the art. "I'm thinking it might be safer to go together."

"Good point, never know when one of the others might try to mess with our gliders if they can single us out on the stairs." Trent looked back at Sugar, who was splashing paint on her cloth with no rhyme or reason. "All at once works for me."

"Let's at least make sure Chef approves of them as we finish, that way we're all ready to go at once instead of arriving as a group only for one or two needing to go back and do more," Courtney added.

Meanwhile, Team Radioactive had a less smooth time agreeing on a game plan.

"The Lightning thinks we should just all go when we're done, no point waiting around for the others to hold us back."

"We all must finish for us to win, getting there before the rest of us doesn't earn us anything," Dawn pointed out.

"It's just a climb up the stairs, what are the others gonna do, try and block us?" Anne Maria asked. "If anything, we'll be able to see the quick people glide first and know the best way to get to the finish line while we watch them from the stairs."

Brick tapped on his chin, humming in thought. "That's not a terrible idea, but in the event that something DOES go wrong it's better to have the whole squad together than scattered."

Of course, any argument that team was having didn't compare to the awkwardness on Team Explosive.

"I'll go last," Jasmine said in a matter of fact tone, eyes leveled at the team's mean girls. "And Sammy will go first. Understood?"

Beardo gave a thumbs up with a ding sound affect, though Sugar and Amy were unsurprisingly unconvinced. Nonetheless, they at least knew there was no point in debating the matter.

More time passed. and people began to finish. A few members from Team Old School waited next to Chef for the rest of their team, their gliders already approved. Beth's glider depicted crude drawings of her and Lindsay lounging together on beach chairs. Next to each of them, Brady and Tyler fanned them with a large leaf. And then she covered the whole thing in glitter to make it pop. Trent's design was more modest, showing a stylized version of the Drama Brother's logo while the remaining space of the cloth was decorated with music notes. Last standing in wait was Leshawna, who had gone for an image of herself modeling a dress. It was a dress of her own design, a chic red number with gold accents. Also in the drawing was a little Harold who applauded the beauty before his eyes.

*** Confessional: Leshawna ***

"I've been thinking of starting my own clothing line if I win! I'm thinking stuff that's classy, but also good to wear in the city. Something when you see a sister walking by wearing it, it makes people's heads turn, ya feel me?"

*** At the Bottom of Guatape Rock ***

Lightning was the first to actually start climbing the stairs. He had also went for a self portrait design on his glider. His drawing skills weren't great, but the image was undeniably creative. He was in mid jump, about to slam dunk a basketball into a net with his left hand. With his right hand he was tossing a football into a field goal, and below that was a soccer goal where he was kicking a ball into with his left leg. On his right leg was a ski, because he was doing all this while skiing down a huge mountain.

Brick wasn't far behind, he had opted for a camo design with a lot of foliage lining the cloth to give the appearance of a ghillie suit. Dawn was close by, approaching with a glider that crafted the image of woodland animals frolicking around on. She even added various flowers to the design for added flair. Elsewhere, Jasmine was taking note of the progress the others were making, and she looked at her team impatiently.

"Well, almost done? We don't have all day."

"I'm going, I'm going," Amy whined, trying her best to finish up the art piece that depicted her favorite things. Namely, money, clothes, hunky dudes, and cheerleading pom poms. Next to her. Sugar was applying the finishing touches to her glider depicting pigs jumping over a mud pit.

The Aussie tapped her foot, clutching her glider depicting a cool shot of the Australian outback under her arm. Now Team Old School was just waiting for DJ, while Scott and Anne Maria had also began their climb up the stairs. Finally, just as DJ and B were running to make their climb as well, Amy felt satisfied with her work.

"There. Happy?"

"Thrilled," Jasmine spat, urging everyone to get a move on. "Now let's go!"

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"I'm kinda worried about Jasmine. She's really not taking Shawn's elimination well. I mean, obviously she was always going to take it poorly, but I'm starting to worry she'll be stuck in this angry rut." She tapped a finger on her chin. "Maybe she'd feel better once Amy is gone? But until we know Cody and Trent have gotten Beardo to flip, our best bet is to just stay safe for now."

*** On The Rock of Guatape ***

By now everyone had successfully got their gliders approved and were beginning their climb up the gargantuan flight of stairs. The more athletically inclined like Lightning and Brick were making quick progress, but the less fit such as Beardo were clearly struggling. Per their plans, Team Old School and Explosive were both grouped together on their journey up, while Team Radioactive were spread out.

The stairs were along the side of the rock and spiraled up the rocky wall. As a result, it required people to flip and position their gliders in awkward ways to safely carry it up, sometimes by precariously holding it over the side of the railing. People gripped the handles to their handmade aircraft tight, especially since some pesky wind wasn't making things any easier.

"Of course Chris would pick the windiest day possible for us to- WHOA!" Dave was cut off as a particularly strong gust caught him off guard. He slammed into the railing and suddenly dropped his glider. He yelped in fear, only for Jasmine to quickly pluck it safely from below before it could fall to the ground.

"Hold on tight," was all she grumbled before passing it back up to the skinny dude.

Team Old School was having a less troublesome time during their group climb. Most of them were confident enough in their grip to not worry about losing their glider, while the likes of Cody and Beth received help when they felt that they were in danger. All things considered, they were making good progress.

Meanwhile, Team Radioactive was all over the place. Literally. Lightning and Brick were still the farthest ahead, with the former making it halfway up before his pace finally started to slow a bit as the climb caught up to him.

"This hunk of rock ain't got nothing on The Lightning," the jock boasted confidently, though he did have to pause and catch his breath. "But sha-dang is it tall."

He moved to lean his arm against the guardrail, only to be caught off guard when a piece of it chipped off. This threw him off balance and in an instant caused him to drop his glider over the edge.

"No!" He grabbed in vain, just missing the aircraft as it plummeted down. "This can't be happening!"

He leaned over, looking down in despair at his mistake. But then a miracle happened. Upon looking down, he saw Brick clutching his fallen glider in one hand while the cadet's own was tucked under his other arm. He was leaned against the side of the stairs, balancing and trying not to fall.

"I got your six, soldier," he called up, chuckling nervously. "But uh, I'm kinda struggling here. Care to help a guy out?"

Still in disbelief, Lightning shook himself back to reality and blinked a few times. "Oh, uh, yeah. Be right there, bro!"

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"Can you believe that? Lightning fumbled? Lightning never fumbles! This season is sha-whack." Exhaling, he shook his head as he looked down in disbelief. "If that thing woulda kept falling, Lightning woulda been eliminated for sure. Guess Brick really had my back, huh?" He looked deep in thought, a rarity for the meathead. "Sha-damn butterfingers..."

*** On The Rock of Guatape ***

A fair amount of time passed, and it was clear that people were hurting. 650 plus steps was no small task to take on, and some of the contestants were looking straight up miserable. Even Lightning was getting winded after having to go run down to Brick's position and then keep going all over again. Between all the breather breaks and continued urging to continue from certain contestants, at some point everyone was starting to get really close together.

"People climb this stupid thing for fun?" Scott yelled, practically dragging himself up the stairs as sweat drenched his shirt. "Here's an idea, next time put in an escalator!"

"You can't just put an escalator into the side of a rock and call it a day, moron," Courtney barked from below, leading the pack of her team. "There's a lot more to it than that."

"Well how about you take care of it if you're so smart?" He quipped back. "Or are you too busy enjoying the view since I'm up here."

"Oh-" She paused, wanting to say something like don't flatter yourself. But that was too many words. Girl was tired and on the verge of collapsing. She could only manage two words tops. "Shut up."

"I'd like to point out that she didn't deny it," Dawn pointed out overhead, just close enough to hear the exchange. "Perhaps you truly are starting to get through to her."

Courtney just groaned, ignoring the taunting looks she got from her team. Below them, Team Explosive was on its last legs. Beardo and Sugar in particular looked like they had just stepped out of a sauna. The former's massive afro had even begun to deflate as a result of so much sweat.

"Dude, you really could had stood to get a haircut before the season started," Dave pointed out, not exactly looking much better himself. All Beardo could do as a response was imitate the sound of bacon frying in a pan, followed by a dog panting.

With a bit more forced progress, Brick and Lightning were finally the first two able to push themselves to the top of the stairs. They stumbled over to the nearby watchtower, where Chris was somehow already there standing nonchalantly.

"It's about time! What took you guys so long, the show is only 30 minutes an episode you know!"

The duo merely groaned, ignoring the host entirely and collapsing to catch their breath. While on the ground, Brick looked around for what they needed. There were a bunch of small islands surrounding the rock, mostly unassuming with nothing of note to them. But finally he caught sight of his target, specifically a certain island that had a huge tarp spread out in the middle of some trees. On the tarp was a checkered bullseye. It wasn't the easiest thing to see, but it was just visible enough to confirm that this was their destination.

"We're almost there, we just gotta fly down to the bullseye." He nudged the jock with his elbow. "Come on, our team is counting on us!"

Lightning confirmed where the bullseye was, nodding confidently. "We sha-got this!"

"Loving this confident energy, you guys," Chris complimented. "And since it looks like the others aren't far behind, it's gonna get intense in the sky as you all race to the bottom. So... why don't we add some ambiance, hm?"

* DING DING DING *

"Uuuugh." Brick burried his face into the ground. "I forgot about the singing being this episode."

"It's awesome, right?" Chris chuckled in amusement, noting how close the others were getting to the top. "Anyway, I'd get a move on if I was you guys. You won't keep your head start for long."

Song Start!

"Bullseye Marks the Spot." Parody of "Danger Zone," by Kenny Loggins.

[Five notes on a keyboard start out the music video before it transitions into a sick rock beat, with the guitar putting in work. Up at the top of the rock, Brick and Lightning were now clad in the sort of bomber jacket and pants one would expect from a naval aviator. Their outfit was completed by some slick sunglasses. Rather than holding hang gliders, in the video they appeared to both be seated in their own bomber jet.]

"We got our eyes on the prize, you know these bros are about to soar."

[Brick confidently readied himself for takeoff, looking over at Lightning at mention of the word bro and flashing a thumbs up. The jock seemed confused at first, but could help and grin.]

"No other team can compare, let em sha-hear our roar."

[The two exchanged a nod and turned on the ignition. They put the petal to the medal and their jets rocketed off the rock at top speeds.]

"And the bullseye, marks the spot."

[Brick and Lightning flew next to each other, leaning forward and pushing theirs jets as fast as they could manage. Suddenly they noticed two unknown aircrafts in their rear view and looked back to see Leshawna and Courtney piloting two other jets.]

"Your girls are com-ming in hot."

[The girls put on determined looks, quickly closing the distance between them and the Radioactive boys. Not about to back down, Brick and Lightning put on their best game faces and increased speed as much as they were able.]

"Shredding through the skyline, gonna catch that wind just right."

[Cody was the next to sing, exchanging a fist bump with Trent before they both hopped into their own jets.]

"Our team's soaring back to first class, we'll be sittin pretty tonight."

[The guitarist radiated confidence as the two began to catch up to their teammates in front of them. They got a bit flashier, doing a loop and turn in their jets.]

"And the bullseye, marks the spot."

[Both Drama Brothers passed by the screen, singing in unison. Not far behind them were Dawn and B, with the later only steering with one hand as the other prepared his singing device.]

"And nothing's gonna make any of us stop."

[Dawn began singing the line with a smirk, but by the time she finished it her expression fell as she realized she had sung the line by herself. She looked over at B, who was staring at his singing machine, puzzled. He tried typing into it once more, but it instead poofed a small black cloud as part of the inner mechanisms short circuited. His eyes shot open as he quickly realized something was wrong.]

"Oh hey, what's the matter big guy? Looks like your little doodad don't wanna work."

[Sugar taunted the silent genius from her jet to his left, grinning maliciously.]

"Say, what was that about the rules? If someone don't sing then their butt goes home!"

[Now it was Amy heckling the big guy, this time from his right. B was quickly able to put two and two together and grit his teeth while zoning out the mean girls. He popped up the singing device's backside, whipping out a tool kit while steering with his legs. All the while an intense guitar solo rang out as the sweating B worked against the clock to get his invention working before the song was over.]

"Clock is ticking, big guy. Let's go and get a move on, B!"

[Anne Maria was urging her teammate as she passed him by, a look of concern evident. Scott was close behind her, looking even more frantic.]

"If that hunk of junk is broke, then you're just gonna have to sing."

[Scott looked on at his former foe desperately, not wanting him to be eliminated. B was feeling the added pressure, quickly trying his best to tinker with his device to get it working again. He had by now noticed the water damage and was using a special cloth to try and repair the damages.]

"And the bullseye marks the spot."

[Jasmine and Sammy sung together as they passed by B, the former looking at him in confused suspicion. She could tell something was up, but was not currently in any position to press matters in the middle of a song.]

"We're not gonna let our stair climb be for naught."

[Now it was Beardo and Dave passing by the tech guy, with them also giving him a curious glance from their jets but not having anything else to say on the matter.]

"And the bullseye marks the spoooooot."

[The final pair, DJ and Beth, were finally also sailing pass B. DJ in particular nailed the high note of their line, while both looked on at the big guy pitifully.]

"And it looks like your time is shot!"

[The final line was sung not by B but by Amy and Sugar in unison. Just as he finished his repairs and prepared to deliver a line, the girls sandwiched him between their jets, causing him to hit the side of his cockpit violently and drop his device in the process. Conflicted, he opened his mouth to try and sing himself, but each time his aircraft was struck by one of the girls before he could get it out."

"And the bullseye, marks the spot!"

[Amy and Sugar traded singing the chorus back and forth, each hitting B's jet with their line to prevent him from opening his mouth. It was the country girl that went last, hitting an ugly high note before the song finally ended.]

With the music video finally over, the visuals returned to normal to show everyone in the middle of hang gliding down to the bullseye. The exceptions were Lightning and Brick who had successfully landed, though they were looking up at their teammate in shock. Brick in particular was very distressed.

"B, no!"

"B yes," Chris replied through his megaphone from next to them. How did that guy move from location to location so easily anyway? "It would seem a certain someone failed to sing before the end of the song. Not cool, dudes. You all should know the penalty for that."

Up in the air, B's jaw had dropped. Dawn, Scott, and Anne Maria looked back, eyes wide in shock. They pondered if they even needed to continue the challenge at this rate if an elimination was decided? Then again they were already in midair anyway, so they may as well.

"Tough break, loser," Amy jeered from nearby, a smug grin taunting him even further. "Guess that's what happens when you won't talk!"

Perhaps shook back to reality, the silent genius looked over at the mean twin with fury burning in his eyes. Which got him to thinking. If he was out, was that it for the episode? Or, knowing Chris, would a vote still take place? This little distraction had caused him to trail behind everyone else. The last thing he needed to do was cause his team to be down TWO members at once.

So he thought fast. Reaching into his massive jacket, he pulled out just the thing he was looking for. A lighter. Flicking it on, he quickly took measure of the wind and the trajectory he's need for what he was about to do. The calculations hopefully sorted in his head, he threw the lighter with pinpoint accuracy. It made contact with Amy's glider, immediately setting it ablaze.

"What the?" Was all she had got out before the highly flammable paint she had used on the glider caused it to burn to a crisp. Yelping, she quickly began to drop like a sack of potatoes. As luck would have it, Sugar was flying directly below her. The speed of the fall caused her to fall through Sugar's glider, creating a massive hole that sent the country girl sinking as well.

While all of this was going on, slowly but surely others made it to the bullseye. Dawn and Anne Maria made it for their team. Jasmine, Beardo, and DJ had a quicker trip due to their greater mass. More and more members landed from each team, but once Beth had hit the ground Chris could make an announcement.

"Looks like everyone from Team Old School is here! First class goes to them!"

Cheering was still underway from the victorious team as the stragglers finished their landing. Dave made it to the ground before B had, but because Amy and Sugar were currently stuck in the water surrounding the island, Team Explosive was incomplete.

"And it looks like Team Radioactive finished their squad next. So Team Explosive gets to vote someone off!"

"What?" Sammy looked terrified, motioning an arm at B. "But if someone is already getting eliminated why do a vote?"

Chris shrugged, an innocent smirk plastered on his handsome face. "Eh, we were due for a double elimination soon anyway. This just made the timing decision easier for me! B may be donzo, but at least he prevented Team Radioactive having to vote someone ELSE out."

It was then that people took notice of the guy in question. B hung his head in defeat, fists clenched as he inwardly cursed himself for not talking in time. Sure, he tried his best to never speak, but this was a million dollar decision he had just made. His team approached their fallen comrade, some patting him on the back in comfort.

"Ya went down swinging for your platoon, you have nothing to be ashamed about," Brick reassured him with a salute. "Thanks for that."

"What the heck even happened up there?" Anne Maria asked, eyebrow raised. "What happened to your doohickey?"

B's response was to level a glare and point towards the edge of the island. Sugar and Amy were beginning to climb out of the water, the later even coughing up a clump of damp grass. Upon seeing the mean twin, Cody's eyes went wide in realization.

"Oh crap..."

*** Confessional: Cody ***

"Geez, I didn't think I'd have to be doing this so soon, was kinda holding out hope that Team Radioactive would lose one or two more times." He chuckled awkwardly. "Well, time to work the Codester magic!"

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

Beardo wasn't feeling too hot coming off his team suffering another loss, so to calm his nerves he was whistling the battle theme of a certain well known video game skeleton. He turned the corner, on his way to economy class when he was suddenly face to face with Trent and Cody. He imitated the sound of a car screeching to a halt.

"Hey man," Trent greeted. "Can we talk?"

"Uh... sure?" the beatboxer replied nervously, still not too used to talking with people outside of his team. "What's up?"

"I'll get to the point since you guys are voting someone off tonight." Cody took a deep breath and put a hand on the fellow musician's shoulder. "Listen, I don't know the whole story of what's been going on with your team, but I need you to do me a solid and not vote off Sammy tonight."

Beardo tensed up. How did they know who Sugar had asked him to vote for?

"We get it when it came to Shawn," Trent continued. "Dude was a huge threat, especially with Jasmine around. Tell you the truth, I think we were all kinda relieved to see him go since we don't have to go up against him now. But come on, things on the plane are just more unpleasant with Amy around."

"I know for a fact Jasmine and Sammy will be voting for her," Cody added. "With you that would make it a tie. Then at least it's fair and it can go to a tie breaker."

The dude with the huge afro looked between the two, filled with doubt. Beads of sweat started to form as he thought over his options. "I-I don't know, guys. Amy ain't the best to be around, you're right on that, but I gotta do what's best for my game, ya know?"

Both Drama Brothers looked at each other, nodding. Cody sighed. "I don't know what Amy's been telling you, but just trust us on this one. We really want everything to pan out how Harold wanted with the band and all, so can't you just do us this one solid?"

"They don't even have to know it was you," Trent pointed out. "They might think Dave did it. Sammy might not even win the tie breaker, she just deserves a fighting chance against that bogus sister of hers."

Now shaking like a leaf, Beardo gulped and nodded hesitantly. "A-alright. I'll think about it."

"That's all we ask for." Cody offered a smile. "Sorry to put you in an awkward spot so suddenly, man. We didn't really have a lot of time to work with."

Beardo just nodded in understanding and the duo took their leave. Once they were out of earshot, he leaned against the wall and put his head in his hands. "Crap... what the heck do I do?"

*** Confessional: Jasmine ***

For a minute she just stares out of the window, her expression a mix of anger and disappointment. Eventually she yells in frustration and punches the wall. "One challenge. Couldn't get through ONE bloody challenge with Shawn gone. Now it's either me or Sammy leaving, while that witch gets to act all high and mighty. Well she better damn well vote me off if she has any sense in her. Because if she doesn't, Sammy isn't gonna be around to calm me down anymore. Then she'll WISH she had been voted off last time."

*** At the Elimination Ceremony ***

In a rare twist, both Team Explosive AND Radioactive were gathered on the bleachers. Though Chris still only had the five peanut filled barf bags.

"Don't know about you guys, but it's feeling a bit cramped in here with all these people," Chris mused, chuckling at the amount of despair going around. "Does it make ya dudes feel all nice and cozy? Maybe gives off a sense of togetherness?"

As expected, everyone just gave the host varying degrees of dirty looks.

"Heh, tough crowd. Welp, Team Radioactive, you dudes just hold tight while we get this show rolling, eh?" Chris picked up the first barf bag, turning his attention to Team Explosive. "Tonight's first barf bag goes to... Sugar."

The country girl whooped, fists pumping as she ate up her prize. "Boom!"

"Also safe is Beardo and Dave."

While the skinnier boy looked unbothered by it all, the beatboxer was sweating profusely. People were starting to take notice, but Chris kept going before anyone could inquire as to what was messing with him.

"Aaaaaaand Jasmine. All of you are safe."

"Hmph." The survivalist just swatted the bag out of the air before it hit her, glaring at Amy. "Big mistake, sheila."

"Ya know, your dumb tough girl act doesn't really bite as hard when you're on the losing side," the mean twin bit back, smirking in satisfaction.

"Ahem! I believe I was still speaking." Chris shushed the girls. "Let me do my job."

"What's the point?" Sugar asked. "We all know Samey got the votes, it's obvious!"

"Really?" Chris chuckled mischievously. "IS it obvious?"

Sammy gasped while many of the others just looked confused. Sweat poured down Beardo's forehead even faster, with the nice twin giving him a side eye and wondering if he had successfully been swayed after all. Doubt sank in for Amy, and now it was her turn to go wide eyed from fear.

"Well then, as I was saying." Chris held up the final bag, looking between the sisters. "The barf bag goes to...

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... Amy!" He paused, then retrieved another barf bag from under the podium. "And THIS one goes to Samey!"

He laughed maniacally as both girls were tossed their symbols of immunity, a variety of shocked expressions throughout the team. Even Team Radioactive had been watching the ceremony with baited breath and were surprised by the outcome.

"So, both of us are safe?" Sammy asked for clarification.

"Yup! The votes were a tie, and since we're running low on time as it is I decided to just let you both stay."

Amy clenched her fist, crushing a bunch of peanuts in the process. "But what about when you said we were due for a double elimination! Why even hold a vote in the first place?"

"Eh, I thought it would be funny." He shrugged. "I can just do the double another day. Now get to scooting, Team Radioactive has to say their goodbyes and junk."

Tensions were obviously still riding high, so for a moment nobody moved. Both twins were relieved to still be safe, but Amy quickly let frustration settle in. Sugar and Dave were just confused, unsure how the vote was a tie to begin with. Jasmine was the first to act, letting out a deep breath she didn't even realize she was holding in and moving towards economy class. The others begrudgingly followed, though at the back of the pack Sammy briefly stopped Beardo.

"Thank you," she whispered, giving him a warm smile. "Seriously, thank you."

"D-don't mention it," he mumbled, gulping as he looked ahead at the rest of the team. "Like, for real. Please don't."

Once those two were gone, the spotlight was finally back on Team Radioactive. Specifically B, who had a parachute thrust into his arms by Chef.

"Silent B! What can I say, man, I had a feeling the singing rule might take you out, but props on figuring out a loophole to last you a bit." Chris tossed the guy his device, which has finally had time to air out. "We fished this thing out of the water in case you wanted to keep it."

B nodded appreciatively, pocketing the device before turning to face his team. Lightning and Anne Maria were the first to approach, neither looking too broken up but they still offered their sympathetic grimaces.

"Sorry ya had to go out like this, big guy," the jersey girl said, giving him a firm pat on the shoulder. "You pretty cool for a geeky guy, ya know?"

"Sha-bummer," Lightning added, thumping a fist against his chest. "You helped us a bunch this season, bro. Respect."

They moved aside to allow the others a chance at parting words. Dawn immediately moved in for a hug while Brick saluted his silent teammate.

"It was an honor fighting alongside you," said the cadet. "You'll be missed."

"Best of luck out there, my friend," Dawn added. "I'm certain the universe will reward your brilliant mind sooner rather than later."

B smiled, appreciative of the wave of support. But his expression turned to one of a raised eyebrow when his final teammate approached.

"Ok, I get it, I know how this must look." Scott rubbed the back of his head, genuinely looking apologetic. "But you gotta believe me man, I did NOT do it. You've pretty much been the MVP of the team so far, I-"

Suddenly, the silent genius held up a hand and shook his head.

"He believes you," Dawn said, smiling. "And believe me, with as much reservations as he had at the start of the season to give you another chance, that's REALLY saying something."

B nodded in agreement, smirking through the disappointment of elimination. He offered a fist bump that the dirt farmer was ultimately glad to return. With everyone now having their chance to speak to him, he gave one last silent finger pistol towards his team before walking to the open hatch.

"B my dude, anything you wanna say before ya go?" Chris asked, eyebrow raised. "You know, anything to say in general?"

Considering that this would be his last chance to speak in the competition baring any potential return, B paused to seriously consider it. What more memorable way to leave the game than by uttering his very first sentence on TV? So, after clearing his throat, he turned around and opened his mouth to speak... only for the Boot of Shame to come immediately swinging down. He fell to the ground below, yelling in his deep baritone.

"Ah come on, isn't that literally how you eliminated him last time?" Anne Maria asked.

"It it ain't broke, don't fix it." Chris laughed shooing the team away so that he could do his outro. "And that's one team down their smartest member. It's gotta suck, but at least he stopped them from losing two people, eh?"

"What do you think he was about to say before you hit em with the boot?" Chef asked. "I bet he was about to spill the beans about Staci secretly still being on the plane."

"Dude, don't even joke about that." Chris shivered. "Even joking about the Zeke incident gives me the willies."

A transition moved the two to the cockpit, where Chris could resume his usual spiel.

"Now that they're one B less, can Team Radioactive bounce back from this loss? Will Amy and Sugar get a dose of karma for all their meddling? Has Beardo been successfully flipped to Samey and Jasmine's favor, or will he be consumed by the dark side once more? And just who will be the next one to get kicked out of my jet? Well you'll just have to tune in next time to find out! Right here, on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

Amy cackled with delight as she stamped her sister's passport. "Too bad so sad, Sparemy. Don't worry about us, if we lose again then your dumb tall friend is right behind you. See you never!"

Beardo was nearly on the verge of hyperventilating as he looked between Amy and Sammy's passports. He imitated the sound of a nuclear siren, inwardly conflicted. Finally he closed his eyes and brought the stamp down on Amy's passport. "Hoooly crap, I hope Sugar doesn't get too mad about this."

"Hey, I'm a man of my word." Dave shrugged and stamped Sammy's passport with no hesitation. "Heck, if anything I'm happy. You seen the googoo eyes her and Cody have been giving each other? What's up with that, they hardly even know each other."

Jasmine glared at Amy's passport with absolute hate before stamping it. "It's futile, I know. But like hell I'll vote for anyone else other than you."

"Please please please, let's hope Cody and Trent pulled it off." Sammy gave her sister's passport a stamp. "I am SO ready to beat her in a tie breaker. I know I can do it. Can't let her win. I won't."

Sugar laughed to herself as she stamped Sammy's passport a few times with glee. "Two turkeys down, one to go! I already Sugar'd Jasmine last time I played, but maybe she'll get lucky and we'll keep winning after this. Then I can Sugar her again at the merge!"

Votes for Amy: 3 (Beardo, Jasmine, Sammy)

Votes for Sammy: 3 (Amy, Dave, Sugar)

Votes void, B disqualified due to not singing.

After the Boot of Shame:

As B continued to plummet to the Earth below, he had retrieved the former singing device from his pocket and was tinkering on it with a screw driver. A few adjustments here, and the crossing of a wire there, and suddenly the thing beeped back to life. Satisfied, he deployed his parachute and looked towards the camera. For the briefest of moments he considered speaking directly to the screen, but instead opted for the now fixed device.

"SO, THAT WAS TOTALLY BOGUS," the device's sound system blared out while B typed on it furiously. "I MEAN I GET IT, I DIDN'T SING, BUT IN MY DEFENSE I WAS SABOTAGED. AMY AND SUGAR NOT SO SUBTLY MADE THAT MUCH CLEAR DURING THE SONG. WHY EVEN MESS WITH SOMEONE NOT ON THEIR TEAM, ANYWAY? WHAT A BUNCH OF NO GOOD BIT-"

Suddenly he was cut off as his parachute snagged on the gutter of a Colombian house. Taken by surprise, his grip on the device was loose and it shattered on the ground below him like a pinata. Looking down at his destroyed invention, he sighed in defeat.

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, Brick, Dawn, Lightning, Scott

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Sugar

Elimination Order:

18th: B

19th: Shawn

20th: Dakota

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris narrated. "We made our way down to the quaint town of Guatape, Colombia. Everyone was tasked to build a hang glider that they would then have to haul up a giant rock before using it to reach the finish line on a separate island. Between Sugar and Amy scheming, and Lighting almost fumbling his glider, it was a nice easy win for Team Old School. But what wasn't nice and easy was the fate for B, who got his singing machine sabotaged by our devious duo. Due to him not singing, it meant a big DQ for B! But some quick thinking on his part ensured that his team wouldn't be sending two people home.

At the ceremony, Amy and Samey found themselves in the bottom two. It should have been an easy win for the mean girl, but thanks to some work put in from her flirtmance partner, Samey managed to tie up the votes! So I just gave them each immunity and decided to delay double elimination for another day. Will today be the time to kick two suckers out at once? Can Amy and Sugar continue to stir up the doodoo? And will Team Old School finally do something major, because they've just kinda been vibing lately. We'll find out the answer to all of this and more, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Opening Credits ***

While things were getting pretty tense back in economy, things started out in the calm peaceful environment of first class. Beth and DJ were both getting pampered with facial mask treatments and a shoulder massage from the in flight masseuses. Courtney was close by, giving the duo a side eye while enjoying a manicure of her own. The others were on the other end of first class, chatting it up as per usual, so she made a quiet noise to try and get DJ and Beth's attention.

"Pssst... psssssst." The two finally looked at her direction, cucumbers still on their eyes. "We need to talk strategy sometime soon."

"Strategy?" Beth took one of the cucumbers off and popped it into her mouth. She kept speaking despite her mouth being full. "What is there to talk about when we're winning?"

The CIT wiped the spittle and cucumber pieces off her face with a huff. "Plenty, because who knows how the next challenge is going to go. It's better for us to be prepared in case Chris screws us over. I know you two aren't the most strategic, but we still need to map out a plan."

DJ sighed. Man was just trying to enjoy his massage in peace. "Well when do you propose we talk, anyway? Wouldn't it be kinda weird to do that while the others are around?"

Literally the moment after the question was asked, Cody had suddenly stood up from his seat. "Geez, I'm way too on edge right now. Think they already finished the ceremony?"

Trent shrugged. "We could always go check. I'm sure they've done the eliminations by now."

"I'll tag along," Leshawna added, doing what almost looked like a little dance. "Girl's gotta hit up the bathroom, so that's on the way anyway."

Despite the three having not heard any of the strategic conversation, they all left together anyway. The other trio blinked in confusion.

"Huh. That was convenient," Beth mumbled.

"No kidding." Shrugging, Courtney decided it was best not to question it. "So how are we feeling right now? It's been a bit since we had to vote off Harold so I think it's best to touch base first and see where everyone's head is at."

Beth almost instinctively touched her own head, as if to make sure it was still there. "I'm not sure I understand what you're asking..."

"I guess what I mean is how confident are we feeling and what do you two think our next moves should be? I have some ideas, but wanted to hear from both of you first."

DJ scratched at his stubble, not too sure of how to respond. "I don't know, I guess things feel pretty chill right now? I'm not like, nervous or nothing. I think we agreed last time we talked that if we lose again it's probably best to vote for Cody since he's easiest to beat in a tie breaker."

"That's assuming the tie breaker would strictly be something physical, who knows if Chris may spring something stacked in Cody's favor. Remember what happened with Gwen and her eucalyptus allergy?" Even Courtney was willing to admit the unfairness of the elimination with her grudge against the goth mostly subsided. "So it may be better to get rid of the biggest threat if we can instead."

Beth looked on quizzically. "I guess that would be Leshawna, right? She's super tough, but we could beat her if the tie breaker is like a dance off or something. Plus she'd have Harold waiting for her, so it'd probably sting the least for her getting eliminated."

Impressed, the latina nodded in approval. Truth be told, Leshawna was who she had been wanting to target recently as well. "Agreed. But IF the tie breaker is physical, that would pose a problem. So, we have to figure out how to break up their votes."

"But you've said it yourself, they're tight as glue," DJ pointed out. "How the heck do we do that?"

"We'll have to do it from the inside," Courtney explained, suddenly whipping out a chart she had prepared for just such an occasion. On one end of the paper was a column of drawings, Courtney at the top, DJ below her, and Beth at the bottom. An arrow next to each of them pointed to a different column of drawings. Courtney's pointed towards a Cody drawing, DJ's pointed at Trent, and finally Beth's at Leshawna.

"Wow, you came prepared." Beth giggled to herself. "And here I thought you would swear off charts after what happened in All Stars."

Courtney leveled a glare at the farmer and had half a mind to make a snappy comeback but was able to stop herself. "It just helps me feel organized, is all. Anyway, here's what I'm thinking. We each try to get in good with one of the others in an attempt to sway their vote the next time we're up for elimination. It's unlikely for all of us to succeed, but all it takes it one of them not voting together to ensure that we have the majority. Then we wouldn't even have to worry about winning the tie breaker."

The brickhouse let out a deep breath. "I don't know, Court. This all feels kinda underhanded. How do you even cook up schemes like this?"

"When you're on this dumb show for 5 seasons you may as well learn the ins and outs of it," Courtney said with a shrug. "It'll be fine, we just need to sway someone's vote once, then we don't have to worry about anything else. We'd be able to nix Cody and Trent after Leshawna, and I'm well aware that I'd be next if it came down to the three of us. It's an absolute win for you guys."

The two exchanged unsure looks, both mulling over the plan in awkward silence.

"I guess we can give it a shot," DJ eventually mumbled.

*** Confessional: Courtney ***

"Beth and DJ are nice. Real sweethearts." Her happy grin gave way to an annoyed scowl. "But I don't need nice if we want to win, I need allies that are willing to do what needs to be done. It's not like I have much to choose from. I doubt the other side of the team would exactly be welcoming me with open arms considering Gwen and I's... let's call it, storied past. Those two are my best shot, so hopefully I can whip them into shape. It'll be me in the tiebreaker with Leshawna, otherwise."

*** Outside Economy Class ***

Leshawna had already excused herself to the bathroom while Cody and Trent hung back in a hallway with Sammy. All three had varying happy vibes about them, with Cody looking especially relieved.

"So it really did work?" Trent chuckled. "Glad everything went down well in the end."

"Have you had a chance to talk to Beardo since the results?" Cody asked. "How's he holding up?"

"He looked pretty nervous after everything. He's probably pretty worried about Sugar and my sister getting mad at him for flipping." Sammy was looking around, making sure one of the mean blondes wasn't about to turn the corner and hear the conversation. "But with Dave on the team there's always the possibility they'll doubt it was him. And either way, there's no way my sis will switch to wanting him gone before me or Jasmine, so he should be ok."

Trent smirked, stretching and giving a fake yawn. "Well, glad to hear it. Guess I'll head on back to first class then."

He gave his friend a subtle nudge and wink before retiring back to the winner's compartment. Cody and Sammy both chuckled awkwardly, unsure who should talk first.

"So, uh, thanks again for helping us like that," the cheerleader eventually said. "Seriously, you didn't have to do that. Chris probably would have made me take the drop with B if it hadn't been a tie."

"Ain't nothing but a thang," he tried to say in a suave voice while leaning coolly against the wall. His nerdy efforts got a silent giggle that went unnoticed. "Maybe we could even convince Dave to turn against her too? That way you don't have to worry about Chris potentially rigging a tie breaker."

The nice twin waved a hand dismissively. "Nah, I'm looking forward to getting to humble her when I win it. Besides, I don't know how well that would even work. Dave's been acting weird ever since Shawn left. I don't know what's up with him, but I wouldn't even begin to know where to start with him."

Cody nodded in understanding. "Fair enough. And how about Jasmine? How's she doing now?"

*** Confessional: Jasmine ***

For a few moments the outback girl just starred off, lost in her thoughts all alone. Eventually she exhaled and looked at the camera. "So, it was a tie. And according to Sammy it was thanks to Beardo. I'm grateful, really I am, but because it was only a tie that means Dave still voted against us." Her expression grew more spiteful and she lightly kicked the wall. "Dumb little dingo. What's his damage, anyway? Ah well, I guess if we're not on our own anymore I should be happy. So... thanks, Beardo. We're not gonna take this for granted."

*** In the Cafeteria ***

Breakfast on the Jumbo Jet was more or less business as usual this morning. Team Old School were peppy and relaxed thanks to their good night's sleep in first class. The others were a bit more grumpy due to Economy taking its toll, though many on Team Radioactive were still especially glum in the wake of B's elimination. While obviously not the most social teammate, he had been the team's brains and more than pulled his own weight.

Sensing a chance to try what the nicer folk called 'cheering people up,' Scott cleared his throat to get his team's attention. "Alright, let's not beat around the bush. With Bev out, we need to appoint a new person in charge of providing the smarts for the team. And it's all of your lucky day, because I accept the job!"

The plan worked and got the rest of his team to laugh, though his surprised reaction called into question if he was perhaps actually serious.

"Sha-please, dude. Even The Lightning could be the brains of the team before yo-" The athlete in question was cut off from a suffocating spray from Anne Maria's hairspray.

"Go sha-please ya self, bub," she snarked as Lightning nearly coughed up a lung. "Between the two of you combined that's like, what, three brain cells max?"

Brick chuckled at the ongoing shenanigans while also giving Scott's words some thought. Without B, who WOULD be the team's most dependable brains? Definitely not Scott or Lightning, but not Anne Maria either. He didn't mind being in a leadership role himself, but on the specific topic of smarts...

"I think Dawn has a good head on her shoulders," he eventually said, taking the moonchild by surprise. "She knows a lot about different places we've been, too! I'd trust her with providing the smarts for the team."

At first the dumber trio were silent, but after a moment they relented and nodded in agreement.

"Works for me," Anne Maria said. "Heck she gives us an edge over the others with her crazy mind reading mumbo jumbo."

"Good point," Lightning added with a finger pistol. "Yo short girl, can you use that psycho sha-nesis stuff to tell us what the next place we're going is?"

"Aura reading isn't the same as being psychic," she replied, puffing her cheeks out in frustration. "And while I appreciate the compliment, Brick, there's no way for me to know where we're going next. Your guesses are as good as mine."

"Well guess no longer," Chris suddenly yelled, having been waiting for the perfect opportunity to make himself known. His sudden appearance startled Dave so much that he nearly choked on his own eggs. "I come now to answer that very question. I figure some of you are getting pretty homesick by now, so..."

Chef ran out, proudly flying a Canadian flag on a small pole. He waved it around while Chris saluted. "We're going back to our homeland itself, Canada!"

"Our?" Anne Maria scoffed and returned to spraying her hair. "I'm from Jersey, ya block head."

"I ain't no Canadian, neither," Sugar grumbled before eating the rest of Dave's eggs considering how he was busy trying not to die.

"Do I even need to say anything?" Jasmine added, arms folded.

The host could only glare at the interruptions and blow a childish raspberry. "Well it's home for most of us, anyway. Specifically we're heading up to Montreal! Kinda crazy how we never visited Quebec back in World Tour, eh?"

"Montreal?" Beth repeated before raising a hand. "Are we gonna need to know French for this challenge? Because I went with Latin in High School when they gave us the choice."

"We'll be fine," Courtney assured her. "I'm not a fluent expert or anything, but I know quite a bit of French if we need it."

"Same here." Trent nodded. "You tend to pick up bits and pieces of a lot of languages when you're touring."

The other two teams exchanged some looks, seeing if any of their own would have some French knowledge if needed. Thankfully both Dave and Dawn confirmed having knowledge in the language, so they were all in business.

"We'll be landing shortly... oh, and don't egg on the paparazzi too much." Chris chuckled to himself. "Word got out that we'd be doing a challenge in Montreal, and now there's a huge crowd gathered where we're landing. Try not to let the mob devour you!"

"Easy peezy." Cody looked entirely unimpressed and waved his hand dismissively. "If you guys need any help knowing how to give the media a slip just let me and Trent know. We've become pros at it by now."

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"Dealing with reality show fans can get crazy enough as it is. Cody can especially attest to that. But you add boy band fans to the mix? Then mix them together into one big unholy stew?" A chill ran up his spine and made him shiver. "Sometimes having security isn't enough. You really gotta learn how to hide yourself."

"And yet you STILL can't remember how to lock a bathroom door," Chris yelled as he swung open the confessional door. Like previous times the guitarist jumped back in shock, though that soon gave way to a glare. "Seriously, buddy, you gotta work on that."

"Our tour bus bathroom doesn't HAVE a lock, sue a guy for making a habit of not having to do that." He huffed, folding his arms and scooching towards the wall in an attempt to maximize the distance between him and the host.

*** Outside the Montreal-Trudeau Airport ***

The jumbo jet made its descent into Montreal. Well, technically the airport itself was in a place called Dorval, a few miles away from downtown Montreal itself. But why sweat the details? Either way, a faint rumbling noise quickly amplified the closer the plane got to the ground. It was enough to make the inhabitants look out the windows to find the source of the noise. It was a crowd. A rather large one, in fact, just as Chris had warned.

Beardo gave a low whistle, looking on in awe. "Dang, that's a heck of a turnout. You guys deal with mobs like this often?" He gave a glance towards Cody and Trent specifically. "Well, other than y'all that deal with crowds for other reasons."

"Yes, though the turnouts would typically become smaller and smaller as the years went on and the show's popularity dwindled," Courtney answered, unable to hide a cocky grin when she spotted a large 'Courtney is a Queen' sign among the crowd. "I suppose the gap between your season and this one has made fans antsy to see it return, hence the turnout."

"Yo, do we get time to sign some autographs," Anne Maria barked out, pulling out a pen from her shirt. "You know your girl's gotta show her fans some o that TLC."

Chris and Chef were walking by, sizing up the sea of people outside. He shrugged. "I've got a few media interviews to blaze through when we land, so knock yourselves out. The interns are gonna try to keep the crowd under control, but don't come crying to me if you get eaten by the horde!"

Jasmine shivered at the wording. "Shawn would have hated this, he'd be convinced there's a zombie in that crowd. Guess that's the one upside of him not having to be here for this."

Either not caring about the fans, or perhaps assuming there wouldn't be many people out there for him anyway, Dave leaned against the wall and gave the host an inquisitive look. "What are we doing for the challenge, anyway? You haven't told us anything about it."

"Glad you asked, Davey Boy." Chris pointed some finger pistols his way and grinned. "Because we're treating this challenge as a big Canadian Homecoming, we're going to be heading down to the Olympic Stadium to compete in what I like to call the Canadian Grand Prix! Get ready for maple syrup chugging, curling, moose riding, and all sorts of great white North goodness."

Everyone took a second to process the challenge details. It didn't sound too crazy, but those not from Canada seemed a little more hesitant about it. Taking note of this, Beth elbowed DJ and smiled.

"At least we'll have the upper hand if there's like a Canada trivia portion or something. Our team's the only one to be fully Canadian!"

"Well, if you wanna get technical I was originally born in Jamaica." He chuckled at Beth's wide eyed reaction, that detail having apparently slipped her mind. "But for sure, I'm all about us cinching another win and keeping first class on lock down."

*** Confessional: DJ ***

"I've been pretty wary around interviews every since things went south with me and Momma's cooking tour. It doesn't help that all the interviews I took after World Tour kept bringing up animal curse this, and Team Victory that. It just wasn't a good vibe, ya know?" Taking a deep breath, he tried to shake off his nerves. "But that was years ago. I'm sure the fans have calmed down since then!"

*** Outside the Jumbo Jet ***

"O-M-G, MARRY ME, TRENT!"

The fans were uproarious, yelling out cheers to their favorite contestants left and right as the 17 of them approached cautiously. Every so often someone's voice would stand out among the mob and reach them.

"LESHAWNA, YOU'RE A GODDESS!"

"LIGHTNING IS THE BEST, LIGHTNING NUMBER ONE!"

"IF IT DOESN'T WORK OUT WITH SHAWN, CALL ME, JASMINE!"

"DJ, I'LL BE YOUR NEW BUNNY IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!"

At first everyone just sort of looked around, not really sure what to make of the spectacle. Some were amused, others a bit terrified. Dawn spotted a sign that claimed she was "The best waifu," and while she didn't know what that meant she for some reason felt unnerved. Beardo was especially shocked to see a section of the crowd aiming their cheers at him, their calls of appreciation turning him a shade of red and making him cower back behind Jasmine.

"I haven't seen them like this in a long time," Leshawna eventually said, spotting her adoring crowd that was a mix of stylish girls and Harold-esque scrawny dweebs. "Kinda don't know how to feel. On one hand they're A LOT, but on the other hand it's kinda nice being this appreciated."

"No kidding," Beth agreed as she meekly waved at the nerdy section of the crowd cheering her name. "And they're all being so nice too!"

Well, not all of the words from the crowd were positive.

"YOU SUCK, AMY. WORST SISTER OF ALL TIME!"

"SUGAR? MORE LIKE, SOUR!"

"DAVE IS A DOODOO HEAD!"

There were, of course, supporters for those people trying to drown out the haters. Or at least there were Amy and Sugar fans trying to drown them out. But the jeers were heard nonetheless.

Dave could only sigh, at this point used to hearing heckling from Total Drama fans. Amy was doing her best to look unbothered by it all, long over all the criticisms of what a bad sister she was. Heard it a millions times, so their calls fell on deaf ears. As for Sugar...

"Y'all wanna say that to my face?" she challenged as she stomped towards one of her hecklers, picking up a rock to toss. "You prepared to get sugar'd?"

Before she could throw it, Jasmine plucked the stone from her hand and gave her a curt glare. "That's a good way to wind up with a lawsuit. Don't do something you're gonna regret."

All the while, a line of interns were doing their best to hold their formation and prevent any fans from getting in the contestants faces. Chris and Chef were off to the side, talking to a group of reporters with their cameras and microphones. Since the crowd wasn't getting any less energetic, someone had to make a move to appease them. Anne Maria was happy to oblige.

"Well they ain't gonna get any quieter from us just gawking at em." She ran up to a particularly vocal session, soaking in the cheers. "Hey, who wants an autograph? You want me to sign something, anything, I got you!"

"Who wants a picture with The Lightning?" The jock followed close behind, posing for the flashing cameras. "No rush, there's plenty of sha-goodness to go around!"

And so, everyone broke apart to seek out sections of the crowd cheering for them to take part in autographs and photo ops. It did seem to help lower the volume a bit, as now people were focused on trying to reach the front row to score an interaction with their favorite player. While most went off on their own, some stuck to groups such as Jasmine and Sammy. Cody and Trent had by far the biggest and most rabid group to attend to, so they made it a point to stick together.

As it turned out, Scott and Courtney's groups just so happened to be next to each other. And the occasional calls from their fans asking when they'd just get over it and kiss already weren't going unnoticed.

"If we could keep things away from irrelevant topics, that would be nice," Courtney told the group, earning mixed reactions for her efforts. "I appreciate your support, but it's exhausting hearing this over and over."

"Scott! Scott over here," a frumpy looking red headed fan in the front yelled out, waving her arm. "If she doesn't want you, I'm singl-"

The fan suddenly stopped herself, noticing a harsh glare from the CIT. A glare that Scott was all to eager to take notice of.

"Heh, looks like someone's jealous."

A male Courtney fan then squeezed his way to the front of the pack, waving enthusiastically.

"Courtney's the best! I want her to step on me!"

Now it was Scott's turn to do the glaring. "Hey! I'M the only one getting stepped on by her, got it!... wait, what does that even mean?"

Meanwhile with the Drama Bros duo, they were going down a seemingly endless line of fan girls, signing autograph books and constantly posing for selfies. Cody eventually took notice of one person in the line who looked especially shy and intimidated to approach them, and they were obscured by their hoodie with only their blonde pigtails poking out of the hood.

"Hey, want a picture with us?" he called out to the unknown fan, hoping that him doing the approaching wouldn't intimidate them. "There's no need to be shy, we'd love to!"

"Oh, you're too kind," a high pitched voice replied that almost sounded... phony? "I'm just so happy to see two of the Drama Brothers here in the flesh!"

"Well we're always happy to meet our fans," Trent added, leaning forward to try and get a look at the mysterious person.

"Fan?" Suddenly, the person started chuckling maniacally, looking up to reveal that they were wearing a gas mask that obscured their face. "Oh, I'm no fan. Though I wasn't lying when I said I'm happy to see you."

They then poked their hand out of the hoodie sleeve, revealing some sort of button. Once they pressed it, all around the crowd pillars of smoke began to rise. There was a quick chorus of startled screams and yells, but they were swiftly silenced as everyone simultaneously passed out. It was some sort of sleeping gas, a particularly potent concoction as it reached from them all the way down to Chris and the media. Everyone but the person with the gas mask was on the ground asleep. Looking over their handiwork, they bellowed a nefarious laugh. As they took off the hood, the pigtail wig fell off, revealing their actual purple hair underneath.

"Time to evil!"

*** Thirty Minutes Later ***

Chef Hatchet groaned, the first to stir awake. He rubbed his head, trying to get his bearings and remember what the hell just happened.

"Chris... Chris... wake up, darn it!" He kicked his cohort in the side, making him groan awake. "What in tarnation just happened? How'd we end up on the gosh darn ground?"

The host sat up, rubbing the area he had been kicked. "What are you talking abou... wait, what DID just happen?" He darted his head around, noting the various passed out fans, reporters, and contestants. "This wasn't supposed to be part of the challenge."

Something wasn't sitting quite right with Chef. Thinking quickly, he ran up to the closest contestant, Sammy, and shook her awake. "Rise and shine, maggot, we got a situation here!"

One by one the large man woke up all of the contestants, each feeling as groggy and confused as the last. Once it was all said and done, Chris quickly gathered them around while the members of the crowd were beginning to stir.

"Alright, so, does anyone remember what happened, because I'm lost right now." Chris surveyed the group, no body looking certain or raising their hands.

"I think I remember seeing some sorta smoke," Dave eventually offered. "But next thing I knew I was on the ground being shaken by Chef."

Murmuring broke out as everyone tried to recount what little they could about the incident, though it was clear that nobody really knew anything else. But Dawn had been looking around as well and eventually moved forward to tap Chris on the arm.

"Excuse me, but aren't we missing two people?"

The host blinked in confusion. "Huh? What do you mean, Chef woke everyone up."

"Everyone that was present perhaps," she replied. "But we're missing two people."

Dawn's deathly serious tone wasn't lost on the others. They all began looking around at each other and a voice quickly confirmed her observation.

"Oh no... where are Trent and Cody?" Leshawna asked, eyes nearly bugging from her head.

After a quick scan, the others came to the same conclusion. The two Drama Brothers were missing. By now Chris was breaking into a cold sweat, with Chef scooting up beside him and trying to whisper nonchalantly.

"Is... this part of the challenge?" the larger man asked.

"No," Chris hissed. "But just play it cool until we figure out what's happening." With that said, Chris cleared his throat and did his best to compose himself. "Haha, all according to plan, dudes! Now, your first task is... to figure out where the two of them are. First team to do so wins an advantage in the next part of the challenge!"

"Dude, if this is all just part of the challenge it ain't funny." Though despite his critique, DJ began searching around with the others all the same. Everyone searching what little surrounding area there was, while Chris and Chef huddled to try and get a grasp on the situation. Eventually, with the help of some fans that spotted it on the ground, Beth came running up with a camera in hand. A sticky note was attached to it that read "For Chris to watch," with an accompanying smiley face.

"This was laying on the ground near the fans they were with."

She handed off the device and Chris snapped his fingers to signal an intern to rush over a monitor and cable. They connected the camera to one of the inputs and once everyone had gathered around he moved to play the sole video saved to the camera on the TV.

Once the video started, they were met with an odd perspective. The camera was laying on the ground, recording a pair of feet as someone hunched over.

"Is this blasted thing on, already? We don't have much time before they all wake back up."

The voice belonged to the same gas mask wearing person from earlier, who actually leaned down and poked their head slightly into frame as they looked at the camera. "Ah, the red light is on, excellent."

Standing back up, he could be heard calling for someone off screen. Suddenly, a black car pulled up beside him and the back door swung open.

"Let me guess, you want me to put them in on my own?" The masked person was silent for a moment, then groaned. "Evil shouldn't be bossed around like this..."

They walked off screen for a few moments before they could be heard huffing and puffing. His feet came back into frame, and it seemed that he was dragging someone. From the clothes, it had to be Trent. With a strained groan, he hauled Trent into the back of the car, then walked off screen again. He then repeated the process, this time dragging Cody.

"For scrawny pop band pretty boys they are deceptively heavy," the masked person complained before finally also getting Cody inside and slamming the door. Finally, he went to pick up the camera and bring it to eye level. The gas mask was removed to reveal an all too familiar face. A pasty, pudgy boy with dyed purple hair and an unfortunate haircut.

"Greeting, Chris McLean. It is I, the Master of Evil, Max!" He attempted his best maniacal laugh, though it was a bit too much of a strain after his heavy lifting so it made him start coughing for his efforts. "Anywho, you likely thought you had seen the last of me. Well think again! We have taken Trent and Cody hostage. If you want them back, you will deliver the million dollars to this location at Mount Royal within the next three hours."

Max held up a note with a set of coordinates. They were sloppily written, but legible enough. "If you do not, then we will go public with the kidnapping and let their beloved fans pay the ransom! If you think losing the million is bad, just imagine the bad press and lawsuits that will follow when the media gets wind of your incompetence. Why, Total Drama as we know it may even get canceled!"

He pulled off a halfway decent sinister chuckle. "The clock is ticking, Chris. Your reputation, and perhaps even the show's future, is on the line! We'll see you soon."

And with that, the video ended. Silence followed, everyone just sort of digesting what they had saw. Sammy eventually spoke up.

"You seriously brought Max back to help with the challenge? I thought you said he and Scarlett were banned from ever returning."

"She is," Chris answered without missing a beat. "B-but... I gave it some thought, and realized there was no reason to keep punishing Max for what she did. So to make up for snubbing him from the cast, uh, I brought him back to cameo in a challenge! See, I really am generous! And look at how into character he got, he was made for the role."

Dawn looked the host dead in the eyes, nearly staring a hole through him. "He's lying."

"Huh?" said a few contestants.

"Lying comes second nature to him, it's all over his aura," she explained. "And he's lying right now. So please, tell us the truth, Chris. Is this truly part of the challenge or have Cody and Trent been legitimately kidnapped?"

All eyes were on Chris. The host chuckled awkwardly, looking to Chef for any help. The big man just shook his head and gave him a stern look that confirmed that the jig was up. He eventually sighed and motioned for the contestants to crowd around.

"Ok, everyone just stay cool. If you do what I say and keep this all on the down low I can get the network to pass you all a stipend. You all like free money, right?" He paused for a second to let them give him odd looks, but didn't wait for a literal answer. "Anyway, yeah, this is legit. BUT, we can work with this. Edit it later to all seem like it was according to plan. New challenge, you guys are gonna track Max down and save the boys so we don't have to give him the cash."

"You're trying to make a challenge out of this?" Jasmine practically yelled, getting a panicked shush out of the host. "Are you daft? This needs the authorities involved, this isn't a bloody game, Chris!"

"I WILL get them involved," Chris assured everyone. "But we need to keep up appearances in the meanwhile. Plus who knows how long it'll take them to get here. The sooner the guys are found the better, so we can kill two birds with one stone by letting you guys investigate while making it look to the public like it's a challenge!"

There were varying degrees of disgust on the contestant's faces, mixed in with a bit of anger and concern just for good measure. Leshawna in particular was looking furious, pointing a threatening finger Chris' way. "You just better hope the two of them are alright once we find em. Them getting snatched is on YOU, so there's gonna be hell to pay if they're hurt."

*** Confessional: Leshawna ***

"Just when I think this man's hit rock bottom, he whips out a shovel and shows off a whole new low." She shook her head in disbelief. "The absolute nerve of this fool, using my homeboys well being for a damn challenge. If anything happens to them, I'm taking care of Chris myself... I just hope they're ok."

*** Undisclosed Location ***

A low groan escaped Trent as he finally began to regain consciousness. What the hell just happened? Last he remembered, him and Cody were just meeting with fans, nothing out of the ordinary. And then... what happened next?

"Hey, Trent. You're finally awake."

Hearing his band mate's voice, the guitarist saw him sitting nearby on a bed, his hands handcuffed behind his back.

"You were trying to meet with the fans, right? Walked right into that sleeping gas ambush, same as us and that cockroach over there."

Trent stared at his friend for a silent moment before shaking his head. "What?"

"Sorry, I tend to reference stuff to try and ease the tension," Cody answered, chuckling awkwardly as he noted Trent also being in handcuffs. "Anyway... any idea where the heck we are?"

The two looked around, trying to take note of everything around them. They appeared to be in a sort of jail cell, as iron bars lined from wall to wall, preventing them from escaping. There was a locked door in the center of the iron bar wall, though thanks to there being no windows the only light source they had was a single light bulb dimly dangling from the ceiling. Inside their cell was a bed that Cody was currently on, while Trent was leaning against the wall opposite of the bars.

"This has gotta be part of the challenge, right? Chris knocked us out and now we gotta do a prison escape themed sorta thing?" Trent didn't sound fully confident in his own explanation, but he had to try and keep calm."The whole thing about the Canadian themed challenges was just to make us lower our guard."

"I guess that makes sense," Cody admitted, though he was still especially unnerved by the handcuffs. "But he's never hired so many extras like those fans to be part of the challenge. That short girl with the gas mask was especially weird..."

"Weird? Weird isn't a proper enough word to describe such evil!"

The response came from an unknown third voice, startling both boys. They peered into the darkness until the figure finally stepped into the light.

"Personally, I would go with sinister! Or perhaps diabolical! Frightful, devilish, heinous... there's quite a few options, really."

After a brief confused pause, Cody finally broke the silence. "You're that guy from last season, right? Are you part of the challenge?"

"But I thought Chris said that him and that crazy librarian chick that tried to kill everyone were banned from returning," Trent pointed out, only growing more and more confused.

"Hmph, you're one to talk about looking crazy Mr. Number Obsession. And no, I am not just part of some challenge. I'll have you know that you've been kidnapped! Brought here to my top secret lair of evil!" Max held out his arms for added effect, though nothing changed. He looked off to the side and seemingly remembered something. He quickly waddled off, found the light switch, and flicked it on before running back to his arms held out position. Cody and Trent were momentarily blinded by the room's lights flickering on. When their vision returned they were met with a grisly sight...

Various means of torture lining the walls and floor. A torture rack, stocks, what looked like an iron maiden, and various sharp weapons on the walls. Axes, swords, you name it. Even with Max's goofy appearance, the visual of the various deadly devices were enough to make the duo white as bed sheets.

"Wh-what are you gonna do, torture us?" Cody stammered, scooting back defensively.

"Hm? Oh! Heavens no, that would be far too messy." Max shuddered at the thought alone. "I detest the sight of blood, it makes my delicate tummy feel queasy. This all just looks quite neat, doesn't it? Befitting of the hidden lair for the world's greatest evil mastermind!"

Trent just gave his friend a blank look, not really sure how to feel about any of this anymore. "So... why did you kidnap us again?"

"For the ransom money, of course." The wannabe supervillain rolled his eyes. "I left McLean with an ultimatum. Either he gives over the million dollars, OR we go to the media about your kidnapping to reveal the show's negligence to the world. And what better target to get the news talking than two world famous pop stars?"

"Actually, I'd like to think our sound has matured from just being pop, we've incorporated a lot of electronica and-"

Cody was elbowed in the side before he could continue.

"So fret not, whether it be Chris or your adoring fans that pays the ransom you'll be free to go soon enough," Max continued. "But it won't be a moment sooner. No one else dares know where my hidden lair is!"

"Max, dearie, do you and your friends want any Hot Pockets?" a older lady's voice suddenly yelled from the top of the stairs leading to the makeshift jail cell. "I'm about to put some in the oven."

Max groaned and stomped his feet. "No, mother, we're in the middle of... actually wait, yes I'd like some." He glanced over at his two prisoners. "Do you guys want any Hot Pockets?"

Cody and Trent just stared at him. Eventually he shrugged, figuring he could eat their's if they didn't eat them. "Make some for all three of us. And don't forget the ranch!"

While he moved to go help his mom with the gourmet cuisine, Trent moved towards his band-mate to whisper. "Are we... just in his mom's basement?"

"If that's the case, the others are bound to find us soon enough, right?"

*** In the Streets of Montreal ***

The other fifteen contestants were currently trying to figure out where to even start with their rescue mission. All they had to go off of right now was that Max was the perpetrator, and that Cody and Trent were hauled off in a black car. Other than that, nada.

"So does anyone have some ideas, because I got nothin," Anne Maria said, the crew for now just kinda inspecting the general area the car had driven off from. There were skid marks, but that did them little good.

"We could always send one of our fast guys running after the car and have em break out a window to get them boys free," Sugar suggested. While most people immediately disregarded her, Lightning gasped.

"Sha-yeah, the Lightning could totally catch that car no problem!"

"If we knew WHERE the car was you could," Dave pointed out. "But we don't. We have zero leads right now."

While the others were brainstorming for clues, something hit DJ. Literally, it was bird poop that landed on his shoulder. "Ah come on, now that's just rude... wait a minute."

He glanced up at a group on pigeons atop a light pole near the airport. Were they there the whole time? If they were...

"Dawn, you think you might be able to talk to the pigeons? If they were here when the kidnapping went down they might have seen which way the car went."

The mystic was a bit surprised at being put on the spot at first but quickly smiled at the suggestion. "It's certainly worth a shot. Though they get an unfairly bad reputation from humans, pigeons are quite observant creatures. I can see what they may know."

Both animal lovers cautiously approached the light pole to get the birds attention while the others could only watch and wait.

*** Confessional: DJ ***

"Dawn's pretty cool... kinda weird, but in a good way, ya know? I've never met anyone that can talk to animals as good as her. Probably because I've never met anyone that can talk to animals period. Izzy used to say she can talk to camels, but it's kinda hard to believe anything that chick says. I wonder if Dawn could teach me how to do it, I always wanted to know what bunnies think!"

*** Confessional: Sugar ***

The pageant queen stared out the window with a glare. "I don't know what it is about that Dawn girl, but there's something about her I ain't liking. She's skinny as a twig, walks around acting all quiet and sweet-like, trying to carry herself like she walked out of a gosh darn fairy tale. And she does that annoying singing every other episode!" Sugar was ignoring the part where literally everyone had to sing every other episode. "If she's still around when the merge comes, she's gotta be the first to go!"

*** In the Streets of Montreal ***

Turns out, one of the pigeon's decided to follow Max's car for a while after shit went down! The pigeon, who Dawn claimed was named Slapjack, had informed her that after recording his video Max hopped into the car with the two boys and was now flying them the direction they went.

"I can't believe we're following directions from a stupid bird of all things," Amy grumbled, but following along with the others all the same.

"It's unorthodox, but there's no need to doubt Dawn's abilities," Brick assured her. "They're the real deal! And at least it's progress, every bit of help we can get we should take it."

Beth grimaced as she ran along, something on her mind that was bother her. "Um, so since we're not doing anything else but running after the pigeon for now, there's something that's kinda been bugging me. Who was the person Max was talking to on the video? We know he wasn't alone because he wasn't the one driving the car."

Everyone was silent, pondering who it could have been. Sure, it could have been someone they didn't know, but why would someone want to get roped up in a kidnapping scheme? It had to be someone willing to do something illegal, and there WAS someone who fit that bill with an association to Max.

"Could it be Scarlett?" Sammy finally said. "I mean, I know Max likes to think that he's some evil genius but he doesn't really strike me as someone who can come up with a plan like this all on his own, much less follow through on it. But her..."

"She's trouble," Jasmine added with a nod. "Max is just a little goober, but if Scarlett is involved in this then those two could actually be in some deep trouble. This wouldn't be the first time she used contestants to demand the million bucks as ransom. Me, Sugar, Shawn, and Sky damn near died because of her."

"But didn't she hate Max's guts?" Dave pointed out. "Like, even more than anyone else. If she was behind it she surely wouldn't want him involved, right? So it's gotta be someone else. One of Max's friends or something."

Amy snickered. "Who would want to be friends with that weirdo?"

"Well I don't care who the heck it is. Max, Scarlett, whoever else." Leshawna cracked her knuckles with a fire in her eyes. "Once I get my hands on em for messing with Trent and Cody they're gonna WISH they never crossed us."

Not long after that warning they suddenly found themselves coming to a stop near a busy park by the name of Angrignon. The pigeon took a seat on a nearby tree and cooed.

"Hey, what's the hold up?" Anne Maria asked. "Homebird get tired of flapping its wings or something?"

"Unfortunately it would seem this was as far as Slapjack followed the car," Dawn said apologetically. "He got distracted by all the activity going on in the park and then eventually circled back to the airport. The last he saw before he stopped following the car was it going north."

Slapjack cooed again in confirmation. His job done, it flew back towards the airport to rejoin its bird friends and maybe go poop on some cars.

"So we're back to square one then. Great." Scott kicked at the tree in frustration, prompting a walnut to fall from it and bonk him in the head. More mildly annoyed than anything, he rubbed at the sore spot it left on his head. "Now what? It ain't like the next hint is just gonna come right up to us."

Suddenly, by sheer coincidence, the group heard some squealing as two fan girls excitedly ran up to them.

"O-M-Gosh! You guys are from Total Drama," one of them said to state the obvious, a shorter girl with blonde hair that had blue streaks.

"Are you guys doing like a challenge or something? We heard about you showing up at the airport but we only got off work a few minutes ago and couldn't make it," the other added, a taller girl with short black hair.

The crew just sort of exchanged looks, not sure how to respond. While most of them wanted to divulge the truth, Chris would possibly take to punishing them if they spilled the beans on the kidnapping. Plus they were on the clock and couldn't really afford to stand around talking to fans.

"Er, yeah, you could say that," Brick finally answers, thinking over the best way to word it. "It's a sort of... riddle based challenge! So we're just trying to figure out what we do next."

"Mhm, really complicated stuff," Courtney added. "So we can't really stop to chat, I'm sure you girls understand."

"Ohmygosh, of course," the shorter one replied. "Sorry, we didn't mean to bother you guys, it's just hard not to fan girl ya know?"

Her friend nodded along. "Totally, we don't see many of you making appearances around here usually. Well except Max since he lives in the city, but still."

Everyone paused. They took a second to let that sink in. Finally, Beardo made a record scratch sound and spoke. "Max lives here in Montreal?"

"Yeah!" the blonde replied. "Didn't you guys know that? Sierra lists the home town for everyone on the blogs she dedicates to them."

"That's totally not creepy at all," Amy grumbled. "If she knows that then she probably knows our actual addresses too."

"Knowing her I wouldn't be surprise-" DJ stopped and shared a look with his teammates. Surely it wouldn't be that easy, would it?

"Could you girls do us a favor?" Leshawna asked. "Sierra probably has a contact email on her blogs, right? Could you send her one saying we need Max's address for a challenge? Chris brought him in for a cameo if you can believe it."

"You could attach a picture of us standing here to show that it's really us asking," Beth suggested. "Oh, and tell her that Cody's in danger because of the challenge, that'll probably make her reply super quick!"

Both girls looked at each other and snickered before the taller one snapped the photo of everyone. "Sure, sounds like fun!"

"She thinks she's actually important to the plot," her friend whispered, fighting the urge to laugh. "Adorable."

Beth's face fell as the two worked on sending Sierra the email.

*** Confessional: Beth ***

"Not important to the plot? Did those two forget that I won us our first challenge back in Nashville?" She paused, the silence starting to get to her. "Di-did they really forget? I thought it was a big deal, surely people don't think I'm an afterthought on the team, right?"

*** Max's Basement ***

A partly unnerved and partly bored Trent and Cody sat around wondering what they could do, a half touched plate of Hot Pockets next to them.

"I gotta say, we've been through a lot of weird stuff on this show but this is definitely extra strange," Cody said, sighing. "I'm still not entirely convinced this isn't part of a challenge."

Trent shrugged. "I'm assuming it's legit. Chris doesn't miss a chance to gloat and explain the rules of a challenge, we would have heard from him by now. Plus he seems to genuinely dislike this guy and he's not really the type to actively hand out TV spots to someone he hates."

"Well I could always tranquilize the two of you if it'll make you stop beating this dead horse of a talking point," Max whined as he returned to check in on his prisoners, snacking on a few Hot Pockets of his own. "Then again, I may have to do that soon anyway. The time to meet McLean for the exchange is fast approaching."

"Chris wouldn't even give up the money when your girlfriend threatened to blow everyone up, what makes you think he's actually going to pay up to save us?" Cody saw Trent grow even more concerned due to his comment and shrugged. "I mean I wanna be optimistic, but this is CHRIS we're talking about here. He'd probably give up his own family if it meant saving his money instead."

Max chuckled darkly. "It's simple, because this time his very reputation and the future of the show is on the line. No show means no income for Chris. It's the smart thing for him to do in the long run."

"Ok, but what if you get caught before you can even make off with the money?" Trent pointed out. "I'm sure the authorities are already on it, and who knows what our friends could be up to. I wouldn't be surprised if they're knocking down your mom's door any minute now."

The wannabe evil mastermind scoffed and waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, pshaw. Your misplaced faith in your friends is as boring as watching you on the show."

Genuinely not expecting that dig, a look of hurt came over the guitarist. "I am not boring! I've done plenty of exciting stuff on the show. Like... uh." He looked over at Cody. He figured bringing up anything related to Gwen would be an awkward topic. That meant he could bring up... wait, what all had he done on the show not related to Gwen? "Cody, I'm not boring, am I?"

"No way! We've been bros for years, I know better than anyone how cool you are." He almost felt the need to point out how not-boring the whole 9 breakdown was, but it probably wasn't the best thing to bring up. "Remember what Justin said, dude, just ignore the haters. And you're probably right, the others will be here to rescue us any minute now!"

Suddenly the ringing of the doorbell echoed throughout the basement. All three boys went wide eyed, though Max had to quickly compose himself as hope began to grow for the captives. "It's merely a coincidence, fools. I'll have you know mommy and I were in the mood for pizza so she ordered delivery. But don't worry, I asked her to order a pizza for the two of you... and I told her to order Hawaiian!"

He cackled evilly as he ascended the stairs to assist with the pizzas. Trent and Cody could almost cry after hearing the blasphemous insult of a pizza they were about to be fed. Truly, hope was fading more and more as the minutes passed.

"Mother, do not tip them any more than 5 percent, he's over 5 minutes la-"

Max stopped in his tracks as he turned the corner. There was his mom at the front door, and on the other side of it were 15 certain competitors with varying degrees of anger and cockiness.

"Oh Maxie, some more of your Total Drama friends are here to visit," his mother said.

"Sup?" Leshawna added, cracking her knuckles.

"Um... hello, everyone," he greeted awkwardly, even adding a little wave. "Now if you don't mind, I'm just gonna..."

He didn't bother to finish the sentence, instead bolting for the basement as fast as his tiny legs could carry him.

"Get em," Sugar yelled, everyone running after the supervillain. Max had only just managed to shut and lock the door mere moments before the faster competitors reached him. He damn near fell down the stairs as he stopped to catch his breath while the door was banged over and over.

"That's one aggressive pizza guy," Trent quipped. They could make out the yells from various fellow contestants, with Leshawna being the loudest. "Guess your plan hasn't worked out so well, has it."

Max gave him a glare, still heaving a bit from the panic. "Evil always has a backup plan. And thankfully your friends took much too long to get here."

Suddenly he whipped out a walkie talkie. "Be outside ASAP, we have a very urgent situation. Those fools tracked down my house."

Once that was done, Max removed a tarp that revealed a dolly underneath. Wide enough to conveniently fit two skinny dudes on.

"I mean, you got yourself caught," Cody pointed out. "What's the next step of your master plan?"

Rather than answer, Max just straight up pulled out a gun and shot Cody with it! I mean, it was a tranquilizer gun so all it did was put him to sleep, but the surprise was still enough to make Trent yelp and jump backwards. The supervillain then tranquilized the guitarist as well, finally unlocking the cell door to drag them on to the dolly.

"It's a good thing I installed the top secret emergency exit," he said proudly, pulling out a certain button. "Evil always finds a way!"

Upon pressing the button, a curtain fell off a part of the wall to reveal... a garage door opening. Making sure Trent and Cody were secured, he quickly ran outside with the boys and closed the door behind him. Just as it was being lowered, the other door at the top of the stairs was finally opened and the others scrambled into the basement just in time to see Max fleeing. Jasmine dived to try and stop the garage door from closing but it shut just before she could reach it.

"Damn it, I told y'all we shoulda just busted it down instead of getting the key from his mom!" Leshawna groaned as turned to go back up the stairs. "Come on, he's just outside, let's get him!"

Knowing fully well that he had little time to spare, Max scanned the horizon for the black car from earlier but it was nowhere in sight. "Hurry up, hurry up! What's taking so long?"

And then suddenly a new voice piped up. "Uh... did somebody order some pizzas?"

He looked over to see a scruffy looking pizza guy in his 20s, thoroughly confused at what looked to be a gremlin karting off two corpses on a dolly. But Max didn't have time to question it, he promptly whipped out his tranq gun and sent the pizza man to the ground.

"Evil must be able to improvise!" He rushed over to the man's delivery car, dragging him out of the way so he could stuff Cody and Trent into the back seat. He then looted the keys from the guy's pockets and rushed off in the pizza car just as the others ran outside to try and meet him.

"Aw come on, really?" Beardo provided the sound of a censor bleep, kicking at the ground. "How the heck are we gonna catch up to him now?"

"Oh, oh, oh, Lightning's got this one!" From out of nowhere the turbo jock whipped out a set of car keys, jingling them in the air. "He sha-swiped the keys to little dudes mama's van."

He pointed a thumb over his shoulder, pointing to a large purple van parked in the driveway.

"Yo-you took her keys?" Brick asked. "Why?"

"Well when we were running up to this place, Lightning couldn't help but notice the car parked there," he explained. "He likes him some sha-purple whips, ya know? But when he saw that it was a van he thought to himself, damn, why does old girl need something with that much junk in the trunk? Thing can probably fit like 15 people. Then it hit Lightning, ya know he ain't great at math, but he remembered that there's 15 of us! So then-"

"Who cares? They're getting away!" Courtney swiped the keys from his hand and ran for the driver's seat. "Everyone get in!"

The situation was thoroughly confusing, but nobody really had any time to question her. With Leshawna taking up the passenger seat and everyone else piling into the back of the van, they sped off in hot pursuit of Max's pizza mobile. Meanwhile, Max's mom had heard the commotion and walked outside to see her own van speeding away while some random guy laid passed out in her front yard.

"Oh that mischievous son of mine, always getting into wacky hi-jinks." She shook her head and what sounded like canned audience laughter echoed in the distance.

Now the chase was on. Max had the head start, but he had to stop for a bit at a red light to take the time to adjust his seat. Dude had short legs. Just as the light turned green, he noticed his mother's van quickly approaching in the rear view window.

"They dare to pursue evil even still?" he said. "Fine then! Try and keep up."

Putting the pedal to the medal, Max rocketed past the light, nearly hitting an SUV in the process. Courtney wasn't about to stop and kept her eyes glued to their target while swerving around traffic. The pizza car would sometimes swerve left or right at the last minute towards different roads, but she did her best to keep on it. Multiple cars nearly got swiped in the process, but miraculously no one was hurt. Yet.

"How's this dude able to swerve all over the place like this?" DJ asked as he and the others slid around in the back of the van. "We're gonna lose em if this keeps up."

"Well he does live here, he's gotta know these streets a lot better than we do," Beth pointed out, rubbing her head as she slid against the wall. "Is there a map in the glove box or something that could help us?"

Leshawna tried it out, and as luck would have it was able to produce a map of the Montreal roads. "He's probably heading to Mount Royal, right? That's where he's gonna meet Chris for the exchange."

Courtney nodded. "Yeah, probably... actually, now that I think about it, that gives me an idea."

After waiting a few minutes for Max to take another erratic turn, as soon as he did Courtney continued to drive in the direction she had been going, not following the gremlin boy.

"Ha! It would seem my evil outsmarted those fools. As if there was ever any doubt."

The coast seemingly clear, Max continued on normally towards his destination. The pre-established coordinates at Mount Royal, near a large transmission tower situated in the park. As he pulled up on the area, sure enough there was Chris and Chef waiting for him with a briefcase under the host's arm.

"Chris McLean," the supervillain greeted as he exited the car, grinning wickedly. "It's been a long time since we last met."

"Let's just get this over with, dude," the host grumbled, holding up the briefcase. "I brought the stupid money. Where's my contestants at?"

Man went to open the back door before pausing and raising a suspicious eyebrow at Chris. "How do I know that briefcase really has the money and isn't a decoy, hm? Evil demands proof!"

Chris groaned and rolled his eyes. He popped open the briefcase, revealing fat stacks of hundred dollar bills within. "See? It's the real deal, I didn't fill it with lettuce or something. Now where's my guys at?"

Smirking confidently, Max opened the door, allowing the still sleeping bodies of the duo to fall out. Cody landing on top of Trent may have seemed like an eyebrow raise worthy position, but at least no ear kissing was involved this time.

"They're safe and sound," the supervillain confirmed, Cody's snoring proving his point. "Now then, toss over the briefcase and I'll be on my way."

Chris and Chef exchanged a look, the larger man nodding. Chris moved like he was about to throw the heavy briefcase but then suddenly stopped and smirked.

"Hmm... actually, nah, I don't think I'll be doing that. No use paying up to someone who's about to spend a lot of time behind bars."

Suddenly, various Canadian offers popped out of the woodwork, some emerging from bushes and others dropping from trees. They had their guns, taser guns that is, fixed on the gremlin boy and were ready to fire.

"An ambush? Ha! You think someone with an evil genius mind such as myself didn't anticipate this as a possibility?" Max quickly hid behind the car door and dragged the two boys back into the backseat. "I'll merely make my escape and go public with the kidnapping as promised! Well done, Chris, prepare to have your reputation permanently tarnished beyond repair!"

Max crawled into the driver seat, preparing to take off as the officers tried to close in on him. But just as he was about to drive away he heard a loud screeching of tires behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and gulped as he saw the 15 other contestants piling out of his mom's van, having just parked directly behind him and preventing his escape.

"We took the scenic route to make you think you lost us," Jasmine boasted.

"Remind us to thank your mom for keeping a map in the glove box, dork," Scott added with a sneer.

With the van blocking him from behind and the officers now surrounding his front and sides, Max was fully boxed in and with nowhere to run. Chris strutted up to the car confidently, reveling in the boy's growing panic.

"You lose, Max. Give it up, already."

Max looked around, weighing his options. But he truly didn't have any, between Chris and Chef, the 15 competitors, and all the officers, there was no way to get out of this. Gulping and shivering, he held up his hands. "Ok, I surrender! It was never TRULY a serious kidnapping, honest! You have to admit, we at least gave you good material for an episode, didn't we?"

Chef raised an eyebrow. "We? What do you mean, we?"

On cue, familiar pillars of smoke suddenly erupted around the crowd of people. Some tried to hold their breath or get some distance away from the smog to avoid getting knocked out, but it was futile. Much like earlier, everyone around the car were put to sleep one after another. Only Max was still awake once it was all done, thanks to being inside the car with the windows up.

"Oh thank, heavens." He wiped some sweat from his brow. "Evil like mine does NOT need to be subjected to prison."

"Give it a rest already, Max."

The voice came from a slender figure emerging from the shadows, gas mask on and observing their surroundings. They made it a point to confirm that each and every person was indeed asleep and currently poised no threat. Once that was done they approached the car, their long red hair the most visible detail.

"I would say I'm surprised that you completely botched this plan, but I'm not. You truly are inept when left to your own devices."

Max pouted. "That's no way to talk to a supreme overlord of evil, minion. Honestly, I-"

He was cut off as the door was flung open and the person yanked him out by his collar, bringing him face to face. Or rather face to gas mask.

"Do you need another reminder of why you're never to call me that, you insipid moron? You're lucky I allow you to even speak my name."

"Y-yes, Scarlett! My apologies!"

Indeed, the figure tore off her mask to unsurprisingly reveal the true evil genius of Pahkitew Island underneath. She narrowed her eyes but ultimately scoffed and dropped Max to the ground.

"Quite honestly it's a miracle you even made it to the attempted trade off portion of the plan. I half expected you to get apprehended while keeping them hostage at your mother's house. I TOLD you that a more obscure hiding place was necessary, but NO why would you ever listen to reason?"

As he dusted himself off, Max gave her an annoyed glare. "They almost DID corner me there, and it was no thanks to you! Where were you when I called for you on the walkie?"

"Finishing preparations," she answered simply, motioning for him to follow her to the black car. "Now hurry up, they won't be asleep for long so we should get moving while we can."

Max groaned. "And I suppose I'll have to move those two boy band fools on my own again?"

"No, leave them. That plan was always temporary. It would have been NICE for it to work, but it hinged on you actually being competent so I anticipated its failure."

Now he was confused. "But the whole point was to take the million dollars from Chris! Just how do you intend to do that if we're abandoning the ransom plan?"

"While you were busy failing spectacularly, I took the opportunity to do some work of my own while Chris and the contestants were occupied," Scarlett answered. "Namely, I was able to sneak aboard the jet and gather intel. What locations they'll be visiting, what flight paths they'll be taking, things of that nature."

To prove her point she whipped out a small flash drive. "I'm planning something much more serious. And when the time is right, THEN the plan will spring into action and the money will be mine."

"Ours," Max corrected. "You need me to help, you know."

"Very debatable," she grumbled, nearly pushing him into the car as he was taking so long. "You'll be lucky if I give you ten percent. Regardless, the authorities will be looking for us after this, but they'll be searching less aggressively so long as we don't still have the hostages. They can have Cody and Trent back, they're irrelevant to what I have planned for the future."

"They'll be looking for both of us?" Max asked curiously. "They don't even know that you're involved as of right now, do they?"

"Oh, they will." Scarlett smirked deviously, starting to drive off from the scene. "I left Chris a little message for him to throw into his episode. It makes it more fun that way, letting him know that this isn't over."

*** Confessional: Scarlett ***

"If there's one thing that idiot is good for, I suppose it's being a distraction," she said, looking out the window to ensure no one was coming near the jet while she was snooping. "Now then, McLean. Long time no see. If you were under the impression that the insufferable purple haired gnome was the only thing you had to worry about, let this be your rude awakening. You and I have unfinished business. I'm still owed that million dollars, and rest assured that when this hostage situation likely fails due to Max's incompetence, it won't be the last you've seen of us. So keep your guard up, we'll be meeting again sooner than you think. Those that get eliminated before then? They'll be the only truly lucky ones."

Her piece said, she finished with a maniacal cackling that signed off the confessional.

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

Sometime after everyone had woken up and realized that Max was long gone, everyone was returned back to the Jet to figure out what the hell they would do next. Chris was on the phone with the mayor of the city, supposedly in the middle of an argument on them not using the Olympic stadium for their challenge.

"Yeah, well who's fault is it that we didn't have better security at the airport to ensure none of our contestants got kidnapped?" the host barked into the phone. "No it's not my fault, you guys should have been prepared if you wanted a big media appearance out of them!"

As the phone debate raged on, Chef utilized some bolt cutters to undo Trent and Cody's handcuffs. Everyone looked mostly relieved to have them safe and sound, but there was clearly an air of unease due to the confusion on how the situation ended with them all getting knocked out again and Max disappearing afterwards.

"And y'all don't have any idea where he might have scurried off to?" Leshawna asked. "Because homeboy is in for a world of hurt if we can track him down."

"As much as I'd like to see you wallop him, we got nothing," Cody admitted.

"I guess we just have to move on from it and be glad we didn't actually get hurt," Trent added with a shrug.

A few more heated exchanges were passed back and forth between Chris and the mayor until they seemed to reach a conclusion. "Uh huh. Yeah. Sure, you got a deal. Now let's keep this on the down low and pretend this never happened."

Chris pocketed the phone, took a second to compose himself, then turned to greet the contestants with his trademark grin acting as nothing had happened. "Alright, so, heck of a day am I right guys? I don't know about all of you, but I'm suuuuuuper tired. Guess that'll do it for our Montreal pit stop."

"Don't just act like everything is normal," Trent said, pointing at his wrists that still had red markings from the handcuffs. "What are you gonna do about all this?"

"What we're gonna do is pretend that none of this happened," Chris replied. "I cut a deal with the mayor, since we both seem to be pointing fingers at each other. She'll wave the fee from us reserving the Olympic Park, I'll convince the network to start the next Ridonculous Race season from there instead of Toronto, and we'll mutually agree not to go public with this whole attempted kidnapping nastiness."

Seeing that a chorus of objections were about to ring out, he was quick to hold up his hands. "AND as previously promised, you all will get a stipend in exchange for not bringing up this whole mess. We're just gonna act like this stop didn't happen and that we went from Colombia straight to the next place."

"You really are serious about bribing us into being quiet, huh?" Beardo shook his head in disbelief. "Unbelievable..."

Chris shrugged innocently. "If it were to go public that could risk the show getting put on pause or even canceled. That means no million big ones, and by extension means you all would have done this season for nothing."

The room went silent. No one really wanted to just brush the day under the rug, but making the whole season amount to nothing? Even Cody and Trent looked to be in begrudging agreement that it was the better course of action.

"This better not happen again," Cody warned.

"So how's elimination gonna be handled?" Anne Maria asked. "Ya know, since we didn't actually have a challenge or nothin."

"You guys can treat this as a non-elimination stop, I guess," Chris explained. "For the sake of continuity we can't kick anyone off. Furthermore, we'll have to keep Team Old School in first class since they were the last winners. Consider that my way of making it up to you two dudes."

Cody and Trent just gave him unimpressed glares.

"That should pretty much cover things, I guess." The host looked to his larger companion. "Chef, go make em some not-sucky dinner, will ya? Might help lift the mood."

Chef groaned but wouldn't object. As he left to go cook and Chris left to do Chris things, that left the 17 contestants to stand around awkwardly and wonder what to do next. None of them really had an answer, so with some final well wishes to the Drama Bros duo over their safety, everyone dispersed as they waited for dinner.

*** Confessional: Cody ***

"Welp, I think it goes without saying that this was probably the weirdest day I've ever experienced on this show. And I had to spend a whole season with Sierra!" He paused, chuckling awkwardly. "Though apparently she helped everyone out today somehow? I don't really get how since she isn't part of the cast this time, but... thanks anyway!"

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

Meanwhile in the cockpit, Chris and Chef were watching back Scarlett's confessional on a dashboard monitor. They exchanged a worried look, unsure what to make of it.

"Man, you sure you don't wanna put the season on pause or something?" the larger man asked. "She damn near blew us all up last time, chick means business."

"It's... probably fine. Just have the interns scan the jet from top to bottom and make sure she isn't trying to hide out like a Zeke." Trying to keep his upbeat demeanor, he laughed it off. "I mean come on, we're flying all over the world! She can't try and keep up with us when we're in a different continent almost every day."

Chef didn't look so convinced, but he knew there wasn't much he could do to change Chris' mind. He was almost ready to go return to cooking when Chris suddenly broke out into his outro monologue.

"How will Trent and Cody fair after their brush with danger? Can Team Old School continue to keep their hold on first class?"

"Why the hell are you doing an outro if we're supposed to act like this wasn't a real stop?" Chef asked. Chris merely replied with rolling up a newspaper and whacking him in the head.

"It helps me feel better, shush." Chris cleared his throat and continued. "Where will we head next to take our mind off the weirdness of today? Will someone wind up in even bigger danger? And who will we kick off to make up for lost time? You'll just have to tune in and find out, next time here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

N/A

Bonus Clip:

A briefcase was flipped open, revealing a cackling Max as he peered inside.

"Mwahaha! Evil has succeeded! This is what happens when you aren't very observant, Scarlett."

"What are you blabbering about?" she asked from the driver seat, not paying attention to her cohort.

"Behold! I have procured the million dollar briefcase!" He stuck the briefcase of cash in her face. "Chris brought it with him to the ambush, the fool, and I made sure to grab it before we drove off. You may have overlooked such an important detail, but evil never forgets!"

Scarlett sighed and just slapped Max in the head. "It's not real money, you imbecile. Look at it again."

Doing as he was told, Max pulled out one of the wads of 100 dollar bills... at least they appeared to be 100s. But upon closer inspection the face on the bills was actually that of Chris, with a picture of Chef on the back. They were fakes.

"Oh... well that's disappointing."

"Chris is a simpleton, but he's not stupid enough to bring the actual million dollars with him when he doesn't intend on giving it away," Scarlett explained. "Now get rid of it, they may have put a tracking device in the briefcase."

Max pouted as he rolled down the window and chucked the briefcase out. "Well I thought it was a smart idea..."

As the briefcase went flying, Slapjack the pigeon had just so happened to be following their car once again. Had being the keyword as the briefcase struck the bird out of the sky and it landed in some grass doing the Family Guy pose. With there now nobody on their tail, Scarlett and Max continued to disappear into the night...

Chapter Text

"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris started. This time his narration sounded a bit more hesitant. "We, uh, went to Colombia! Yup, good ol Guatape. We did some stair climbing, some hang gliding. Maybe some other third thing. Definitely nothing else that's happened since then, no sir."

Unbeknownst to him, a bit of distortion covered the screen and grainy footage of the Montreal incident was indeed playing. Was someone hacking the air waves to get the kidnapping shown?

"So, you know, B didn't sing thanks to his device getting all janked up by the blondes. He was toast and someone from Team Explosive almost joined them before a tie happened thanks to Beardo getting his vote flipped by Cody and Trent. Guess we'll have to do that sisters showdown on another day. But that was then! Now we look to the future. A normal, all according to plans future, where nothing goes wrong. I mean, why would it? So sit your butt down and check out the next episode of TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Intro Credits ***

There was still an awkward air throughout the jet as everyone tried to act like things were normal. Teams Explosive and Radioactive fidgeted in their economy seats, inwardly salty that they didn't have a chance to win their way out of it after their newest stop. That being said, Team Old School weren't feeling much better. Especially Cody and Trent, who both felt like they needed to sleep with one eye open following their kidnapping.

"Psst, Courtney." Beth elbowed her teammate, keeping her voice to a whisper. "Do we need to repeat the whole conversation from last time or anything? Since Chris wants us to act like Montreal didn't happen."

The CIT shrugged. "I'm assuming they can just edit in the footage from last time into this episode and pretend no time passed. We should be fine."

DJ took notice of her somewhat nervous tone. "Everything all good? You sound a little out of it."

"I'm just on edge." She motioned a head at the other three, taking special note of the Drama Bros. "They're shaken up after what happened last time. Even Leshawna, since she's pissed over Chris letting it happen on his watch. It could throw them off their game, and if we lose next it's less likely that the whole plan to throw off someone's vote will work."

"And if it doesn't work you'll have to go to tie breaker with one of them, got it." The brickhouse sighed and shook his head. "Well I can't really blame em for being shook, it ain't every day you get held hostage. Best we can do is try to work through it, yeah?"

Speaking of the other group, Courtney's assessment was proving accurate as all three sat in an unnerved silence. Though Leshawna was more angry than anything.

"I'm serious, that eggplant hair having ass gremlin better never show his face around us if he knows what's good for him. Nobody messes with my peeps like that if they ain't expecting some receipts in return."

Cody chuckled. "I'm starting to think you're taking this whole thing worse than we are. But are we even allowed to talk about it right now?"

"Eh, Chris doesn't have to include this footage if he doesn't want to, it's not like anything strategic is happening right now." He turned to give Leshawna a reassuring smile. "And don't worry about us, we'll shake it off. At least it got us a free second time in a row pass to first class. Gotta look at the upside, ya know?"

"Well I'm glad y'all are taking it as good as ya can." Still, Leshawna wasn't too convinced. The duo were both clearly still uneasy. "Y'all gonna be ok in the challenge? You got my word that I'll be watching your backs like a hawk, so ain't no way nobody's messing with you guys on my watch."

Both boys smiled, Trent even flashing a grin. "Yeah, we'll be cool. It's not like Chris is gonna break up the teams into smaller groups or anything after what happened, right?"

*** Later that day in the common area ***

"For today's challenge, I'll be needing each of you to divide up your team into three different small groups," Chris announced to the shock of the contestants. "Meaning each small group gets two people each. Well, except Team Radioactive. One group will have someone flying solo."

Angry jeers and objections were flown Chris' way, most of which he promptly tuned out.

"How is that fair?" Scott yelled. "We're already down a member compared to the rest, and now you're gonna handicap us?"

"Yup! Maybe you guys wouldn't be in this situation if a certain silent SOMEONE would have just sang like he was supposed to, hm?" He chuckled mischievously. "But don't worry, that's not all! Having the small groups helps put extra pressure on all of you, because the stakes are extra high today!"

"Why? Because now we have to keep watch over our shoulders to make sure we won't get jumped and kidnapped?" Samey asked, getting a glare from the host.

"Need I remind you guys that we are NOT speaking of that? The more effort you give my editors to take out mention of it, the less inclined I am to ensure you all get your stipend." Recomposing himself, he tried to return to his cheery host personality. "The stakes are raised today because... it'll be TWO teams sending someone home! That's right, it's double elimination time, baby!"

Gasps echoed throughout the jet. Many looked nervous, especially those on the already lower staffed Team Radioactive. Jasmine grit her teeth in determination, while Courtney sucked in a breath and got her game face on.

"Fun, right? We were overdue for one, so I thought it was high time we pulled off the two for one special." Chris soaked in the despair around him while Chef wheeled out a map of a certain country. "Now listen up, because this challenge is obviously gonna be important."

"Today we're gonna be landing in a country that spans two different continents. Turkey." Before she could even speak, Chef glared at Sugar. "And I don't wanna hear no dumb joke about the gosh darn bird, we're landing in the COUNTRY named Turkey!"

The pageant queen pouted and folded her arms in a huff.

"Now then, the challenge takes place in Istanbul. The country's largest city which itself happens to be in both Asia and Europe." Taking out a large pointing rod, Chef struck the first of three red dots on a map of the city. "Those groups you maggots are breaking up into will each be assigned to one of three locations. Your task? To steal a high value item from wherever you're going!"

"We're gonna be stealing stuff?" DJ chuckled and elbowed Leshawna. "Makes ya kinda wish Duncan came back for this season, eh?"

The two shared a laugh but quickly stopped when they noticed the unimpressed leer that Courtney was giving.

"There's three of each item at the locations, so don't worry about being permanently screwed if your group is the last to arrive," Chris added. "Now then, Chef, as you were saying?"

"First location is the Topkapi Palace. It's a museum these days, but used to be a big deal back in the day for them Ottoman sultans." He then pointed towards the second dot. "Second group will be heading to the Hagia Sophia, one of many fancy schmancy huge mosques in the city. As for the last group? They're going to the Grand Bazaar, the most densely packed area for street vendors. Ya may think that sounds easier to navigate than the other two, but we're in peak tourist hours right now and there's a LOT of vendors."

Beardo whistled and nodded knowingly. "Yeah, business has gotta be booming. It'd take, like, some kinda global pandemic to cut down on tourism. But nothing like that's gonna happen here in the year 2018."

Chris just sort of did the Dreamworks face at the camera for a moment before moving on. "Anywho, you're probably wondering what it is ya gotta steal, right? Well each group has something different. For example, my peeps going to the Bazaar have to bring back a gold coated Turkish delight."

He held up a picture of the confectionery. Rather than just being gold colored, the treat actually seemed to shine a bit.

"Not just any Turkish delight will do, this one is coated with real gold leaves, sprayed with edible gold dust, and prepared by one of Turkey's premier gourmet chefs! They're crazy expensive, so he has security on high alert to deal with anyone not trying to get them legit. But don't even bother considering buying one, unless you wanna pony up thousands of dollars!"

Everyone exchanged uneasy glances, with Team Radioactive looking especially disgruntled. Having Dakota on the team still would have came in handy right about now.

"For those going to Topkapi, you're tasked with retrieving a genuine large onion hat, much like the one worn by Suleiman back in the day. It probably has an official name, but everyone just calls it the onion hat."

To prove his point, he showed an old timey picture of Suleiman complete with huge ass onion on his head.

"Finally, the Hagia Sophia group. You guys will be stealing a high quality rug made here in Istanbul. You'll know the right one, because 3 of them have been adorned with one of your team logos. Bee tee dubs, security will be on high alert in those places too."

Chef let the explanation finish before adding a last bit. "Once you got your item, you then gotta return it to the spot we're parking the jet near the Bosporus Strait. That's where they got the two continents divided up. First team to get all of their groups back with their items will win first class, while BOTH of the losing maggot teams sends someone packing."

"Maybe you guys could make it fun and have one of you land on the European side while the other lands in Asia when I kick you off the plane!" Chris enjoyed a laugh with his co-host as they departed to prepare the plane for landing. "Have your groups decided and where they're each going by the time we land. And Team Radioactive in particular remember that one of you has to go it solo this time around."

Their mocking guffawing was all anyone heard for a bit. They all had to let the info digest, there was a lot going on in this challenge and double elimination meant it was more important than ever. No room for screw ups.

*** Confessional: Brick ***

"Ok, admittedly not a great situation for our team right off the bat. We're already down a soldier, hurting our odds of winning, but if we DON'T win then we're guaranteed to be sending someone home? It's a tall order, but I think this platoon can rise to the occasion! The added adversity will just make us more determined, so I think we can win this thing with no issues."

*** In the Jumbo Jet ***

"It should be ME going solo!"

"No, it should be SHA-LIGHTNING going solo!"

Scott and Lightning were currently in the middle of a deadlock, both insisting that they should be the one to take the responsibility of competing without a partner.

"Come on people, it's a race. Who do you think works better on their own in a race than your star quarterback?" The jock flexed his arms for added emphasis. "Heck, Lightning bets he'll be done before the rest of y'all!"

"It ain't just about being fast, dingus, we gotta be sneaky and get past guards quietly," Scott pointed out. "And that ain't exactly your specialty. Without someone helping you, you'll just get caught."

Anne Maria raised an eyebrow at the dirt farmer. "Look, I know a buncha these guys think you're reformed or whateva, but how we supposed to know you won't just throw the challenge for us once you have the opportunity to be alone? Sounds exactly like what season 4 Scottie would have done."

Scott looked offended and ready to snap back, but Dawn quickly popped into the middle with arms held out. "Friends, this is getting us nowhere. I think valid concerns have been raised, so if we're in need of someone else to act alone I'm willing to volunteer. I've often been told I'm good at sneaking around quietly, so I've no doubt that I can do this on my own."

Both Lightning and Scott were a bit miffed at not getting their chance to shine, but they reluctantly mumbled in agreement. Dawn's sneaking capabilities couldn't be argued against.

"Anne Maria, since you're worried about Scott, how about the two of you pair up? You can keep an eye on him, and Scott can prove to her that he truly has no malicious intent," Dawn continued. "Which would leave Brick pairing up with Lightning."

While the Jersey girl and country boy didn't look thrilled at the prospect, they begrudgingly nodded. Lightning just sort of shrugged while Brick saluted Dawn's orders. "Sound plans all around, soldier, we won't let you down! Now then, should we go ahead and choose which location each group is taking?"

Scott quickly jumped in before Dawn could start. "Maybe we should hold off and see what the other teams pick? Ya know, that way we can choose who we're going up against based on how our strengths match up to their's and all that."

While the others thought nothing of the request and seemed fine with it, the aura reader knew what he was up to and gave him a cheeky grin. He chuckled awkwardly.

*** Confessional: Scott ***

"Yeah, whatever, I just want to choose whichever place Courtney is going. The way I see it, I'm tired of this whole run around of not knowing where I stand with her and all that junk. So screw it, I'm just gonna ask her outright and get an answer. The only reason I wanted to take the solo role was to have an easier shot at getting to talk to her. Now I gotta figure out how to get time with Courtney, AND do it while not pissing off the human hair spray bottle. Ugh, this relationship stuff is stupid."

*** In the Jumbo Jet ***

Speaking of the CIT, she was getting some strange looks of her team following her insistence of how the groups should fall. True to her plan, they were paired off into her and Cody, Leshawna with Beth, and DJ with Trent.

"You sure about this, girl?" Leshawna asked. "Seems kinda random. Plus I don't think Cody and Trent wanna be going it without each other right now, ya know?"

"If anything it's a safer idea to keep them separated, plus they'll still have someone watching their back with how the challenge is designed," Courtney explained. "This layout is simply the best for covering our weaknesses. Your physical strength covers Beth, my willingness to be aggressive covers Cody, and Trent's laid back nature can help calm DJ."

Beth and DJ frowned, not thrilled at their ally grouping them in to the weakness sections of the team, but they assumed it was merely her way of explaining things to ensure the pairs happened.

"I guess I'm fine with that," Trent said with a shrug. "She's right about it probably not being a great idea for me and Cody to be in one place together and it's not like we're allowed to do a group of three."

"Yeah, but it'd still be nice to be able and watch one of y'all's backs." Leshawna sighed. "But if you boys are fine with it then it's cool with me."

Courtney had to resist the urge to break out in a smirk. Slowly but surely the plan was coming together. "Alright, so how about me and Cody take the onion hat. Trent and DJ, you guys have rug duty since you're the physically strongest pair. Which leaves Beth and Leshawna grabbing the Turkish delight."

Nobody had any objections, so the team all mumbled varying agreements. DJ and Beth briefly locked eyes, both nervous about the plan ahead.

*** Confessional: Beth ***

"So here's the plan. I'm supposed to convince Leshawna to try and vote DJ. He's gonna try to convince Trent to vote for Courtney, which has gotta be the easiest job probably. And last is Courtney trying to convince Cody to vote for me. If we can make just one of them switch then we should be clear, but I think the most pressure is on me since Leshawna's bond is weaker to them than the one Cody and Trent have together." She gulped. "No pressure, right?"

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

Almost as soon as Team Old School's game plans were formed, so too was Team Radioactive. An eavesdropping Scott confirmed that he'd just so happen to also be heading to the Topkapi Palace with Anne Maria. Meanwhile Brick and Lightning would take on the Grand Bazaar, leaving Dawn alone with Aya Sofia. Some were concerned if the moonchild could handle carrying the rug on her own, but she insisted that she'd be fine while the boy's would be better suited to try for the Turkish delight.

That just left Team Explosive, who were getting along perfectly. And by perfectly, I mean horribly as per usual.

"What do you mean Sugar and I can't pair up?" Amy huffed. "You can't tell us what to do."

Jasmine rolled her eyes. "What I mean, is that you two aren't exactly going to excel at this challenge on your own. Putting you together is just asking for us to go to elimination, because there's no way anyone finishes after you two. If I go with you, then at least I can carry your bloody weight."

Sugar wasn't paying too much attention to the squabble, but it did give her an idea. There was a certain someone she had been wanting to talk to after the false elimination ceremony and this could be her chance to get some answers...

"Oh! Then I guess me and Beardo could be a pair instead, then." The pagent queen threw her arm around Beardo's neck, flashing a toothy grin that had an air of sinister intent to it. "He's got them crazy sound distraction skills, so that can make up for my lack of stealthy type moves."

The others just stared at her, blinking in surprise.

"That's... a surprisingly good suggestion," Sammy said. "Sure, that works!"

Gulping, the beatboxer could already feel the sweat pouring on. "G-great! We'll get it done in a flash." He looked on nervously at his partner, feeling the tension rising.

Sighing, Amy decided there was no point to drag it out if Sugar was already going along. "Ugh, fine, we just better get this over with quick. I'm so NOT going to enjoy this."

"Feelings mutual."

With that awkward exchange going on, the nice twin spared a glance Dave's way. "Guess that leaves us paired up by default. Wanna take Topkapi Palace and do the hat?"

Having partook in some eavesdropping of his own, the germaphobe scoffed. "So you can be near your new boyfriend? Sure that won't distract you from the challenge?"

Sammy stood back a bit, not expecting such snark. "I mean, if you have a problem with that we can go get the rug instead?"

To that Dave just shrugged. Sammy sighed.

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"Yeah, I'm guessing this is gonna be a heck of an awkward challenge." She perked up slightly and smirked. "At least I'm not paired up with Amy? Gotta look on the bright side, I guess."

*** Istanbul, Turkey ***

The Jumbo Jet eventually came to a landing near the Bosporus Straight. A large red bridge was seen in the background spanning the length of the water, effectively connecting Europe to Asia. Though for the contestants, they were parked on the European side, surrounded by the very metropolitan area of Istanbul. For the sake of completion, before landing the team of Jasmine and Amy settled on the bazaar since the former viewed that as the easiest for her weaker partner. That left Beardo and Sugar with Topkapi Palace. Each group had a small map of the city with a sharpie x to show where the jet was parked.

"This will be your finish line where you each must bring back your item," Chris explained, watching the pairs (and Dawn) all group together with the others depending on their respective destinations. "And remember, ONLY the first team to bring all three back will avoid elimination. But you must return with both members of your pair if you're anyone but Dawn. Ya can't just take the item and leave while your partner is stuck with security."

With no questions being asked, they seemed to understand. Having nothing else to explain, Chris let off the customary air horn blow and the challenge was underway. "Get going!"

And they were off. Some groups collectively faster than others. Brick and Lightning were gunning it, but the other pairs were more content with pacing themselves since the bazaar was the furthest away location. Plus they weren't banking on the meatheads being the first to figure out how to nab the treasure. The rug group were all at a jog, Dawn looking the most calm of the lot. Meanwhile Sugar and Beardo couldn't keep up as well with the other two pairs, which was fine with the country girl.

"So. Beardo. Buddy. Pal." Getting right to the point, she gave her teammate a smirk that hid her ticked off attitude. "Wanna explain what in tarnation caused it to be a tie back in Colombia when Samey shoulda been cooked like a Thanksgiving goose?"

Not really sure how to answer at first, the sweating beatboxer imitated the sound of a clock counting down. He racked his brain for an explanation, and once one came his countdown ended with a little ding. "Oh yeah, that was pretty weird wasn't it? Guess Dave must have voted against us? Don't know about you, but that dude's had a weird vibe about him lately."

He chuckled awkwardly, hoping she'd take the bait. She wasn't exactly smart, surely she would?

"Don't sell me that BS, son, twiggy boy told us he was excited to get rid of her after seeing her start to get all lovey eyed at Cody. But you've been awful quiet since that ceremony got called off." She poked an accusatory finger at his gut. "Spill it! Why you hiding stuff from me, ain't we supposed to be friends?"

Unable to think of a good excuse, he decided to just go with part of the truth without revealing the role Cody and Trent played. "We are! B-but I just didn't vibe with the idea of voting off Sammy before her sister, ya know? Amy brings the mood down something fierce, especially with how ticked off Jasmine is with her around. It just seemed like the right way to vote."

Sugar narrowed her eyes, unimpressed with the goody two shoes reasoning. But she had to be mindful of her reply. The last thing she needed was to lose Beardo's loyalty since Amy going home would mean she was next. "I getcha, girl is more ornery than a kitty in a kiddie pool. But we gotta play this all strategical-like, ya know? Jasmine and Samey are tighter than glue, specially with scruffy boy gone. Once once of them is gone, then we're the only pair left on the team! Then we can get rid of Amy."

Beardo tapped at his chin, thinking it over. Her argument was pretty sound, surprisingly. But if he were to vote Sammy out, that would put him at odds with the Drama Brothers before he'd even truly have a chance to work with them. Whatever way he went, he'd be making someone mad. "I feel ya. I guess for now we should just focus on winning, we'll talk more about vote stuff if we have to send someone packing."

"Darn tootin we will," she mumbled under her breath. "And he BETTER not flake on me again."

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

For a moment he just looked up at the ceiling, making the sound of a balloon deflating. "Bruh, ya boy is just trying to lay low and not make any waves right now. Last time around I was the first one out, so I'm just trying to make the most of actually doing decently this time. How the hell did I wind up in a position where I got like five people depending on MY vote?"

Looking at the camera, he chuckled weakly. "Maybe we'll just keep winning until the merge so I don't have to rustle any feathers? It's unlikely, but it sure would be nice."

*** The Streets of Istanbul ***

Meanwhile with the group en route to retrieve the rug, DJ and Trent had the early lead, though Sammy and Dave weren't too far behind them. Dawn was somehow nowhere to be seen, having just sort of vanished early into the race there. It kind of put DJ on edge, since he had no idea where she could have even gone since they were currently taking the fastest route possible.

"Everything alright, big guy?" Trent asked. "Ya seem a bit distracted."

"Hm? Oh, nah, I'm good." The brickhouse looked around a bit, still seeing nothing. "Just kinda wondering where Dawn went off to. She was right behind us one minute, then the next she basically poofed out of existence. Weird stuff."

Trent's eyebrows shot up in surprise. First Harold with Leshawna, then Cody towards Sammy, but now DJ was also taking interest in a girl on the cast? Would he be the only single dude from their team left when it was all said and done? "Worried about her, eh? Guess that makes sense, she does seem like your type."

"My type?" DJ chuckled. "Man, you say that like you even know what my type is like. Pretty sure I've never talked romance with anyone on the show. Just cause me and her both like animals doesn't mean we're automatically soulmates."

"Fair enough." Shrugging, he refocused on the map. "I just figured you'd be interested in a cute girl that shares interests with you, didn't know you wouldn't be interested in her."

Looking away, DJ blushed a bit. It wasn't like he had no interest, but he was just genuinely concerned something may have happened to her. Then again, he figured Sammy or Dave may have yelled out if it was anything bad. Perhaps she just chose a different route. Whatever the case, he had to focus on the challenge. Plus ultimately talking to Trent about the vote, but he wasn't too concerned there since he was pretty sure Courtney would be his target regardless.

Behind them, Sammy and Dave were in an awkward silence. He seemed to be in a sour mood, but the nice twin couldn't tell if that was because of the challenge, because of being paired with her, or something else entirely. Deciding to break the tension, Sammy figured it was best to avoid game talk for now. "So, uh, Turkey, right? Kinda cool being some place that's in two continents at once."

Dave shrugged. "I guess."

Well that didn't accomplish much. But Sammy kept at it. "What's been your favorite place we've been so far? I thought Kyoto was pretty fun, and the town itself was really pretty."

Thinking it over a bit, he let a small smirk form as memories of Shawn's elimination came back. "Definitely Venice. That was nice."

"Oh, for sure! The town was beautiful, and it was nice to have a calm challenge for once."

Dave didn't really care about the challenge or location itself, but shrugged. "Yeah, sure."

Sammy was starting to get a bit disgruntled, but would still keep trying. "So what do you think our strategy should be once we get there? We just gotta make sure we finish before Dawn and the Old School boys."

Scratching at his chin, Dave shrugged. "I don't think we can really make a strategy until we get there and see what it's like."

"Oh... right." Sighing, Sammy just shook her head and continued to trail behind DJ and Trent. The conversation was going nowhere, so maybe she'd try later during the challenge itself.

Meanwhile, the first pair to arrive to their location was, unsurprisingly, Brick and Lightning. The athlete wasn't even winded once the bazaar was within his sight, though the cadet was slightly out of breath from having to keep up with him.

"Sha-first place!" He took in the various stalls of the bazaar, patting Brick on the back. Time to try that being a good teammate thing he kept talking about. "Way to not hold The Lightning back, bro! Good hustle."

"... Thanks?" Brick replied, not sure if that was sarcastic or not. "First things first, we need to find where the Turkish delight vendor is. Then we gotta figure out how to get inside."

"A'ight, how we gonna find it? Let's try to get in and out before those chicks from the other teams are even here yet!"

Tapping his chin, Brick took in his surroundings. The area was absolutely bustling, not only with locals but also tourists out shopping. Walls were totally lined with various goods, with vendors waiting in each section. Because of the twisting nature of the area, there was no real way to spot anything in particular. "We're just gonna need to run around and find it. Maybe keep a look out for other vendors selling food in case that's its own dedicated section of the bazaar?"

"Sounds like a plan, bro." Wasting no time, Lightning immediately broke out into another sprint, sometimes brushing past other pedestrians and knocking them to the side. Brick offered small apologies as he ran past, trying to keep up.

Elsewhere, two teams were nearing the entrance of Topkapi Palace, though they had to stop and hide behind a tree when they noticed the entrance being stationed by some guards.

"So what happens if those guys catch us?" Anne Maria asked in a whisper. "They gonna haul us off to the slammer just for doing our challenge?"

"Probably not, but you're more than welcome to test them and find out," Courtney dared, looking around for a different entrance. "As for us, we're going to find a different way in. Come on, Cody."

The tech geek wasn't the only to follow, as Scott was also keeping close behind her. Anne Maria tugged on his shirt, confused. "And where YOU going? Why you following them, they're not on our team."

"Uh... well, you know, if they find an entrance then we can use it too," Scott pointed out. "Plus, this way we keep an eye on them. Don't want them getting ahead of us and getting their hat first, do we?"

Anne Maria narrowed her eyes but shrugged. "I guess not."

They snuck off to follow the enemy duo, with Sugar and Beardo visible in the background, only now making it to the palace. The others were long gone by the time they reached the same tree.

"Alright, work yer magic, big guy."

Beardo nodded and cleared his throat. After taking a second to think of the right sound, he settled on something simple. Throwing his voice, he imitated the sound of explosions going off around the guards, immediately startling them.

"What IS that?" one asked as more booms echoed around them.

Beardo tried to creep a bit closer, allowing him to make it sound like a grenade went off mere feet behind them.

"Oh my gosh, everything's catching on fire, we better run," Sugar suddenly yelled, figuring the guys were panicked enough to not question where her voice was coming from. And sure enough, it was a safe bet. The men dropped their things and ran for the hills. Satisfied, Beardo and Sugar exchanged a high five and casually strolled through the front entrance.

*** Confessional: Courtney ***

"Okay, am I going crazy or is Scott following me this challenge? I know we're trying to get the same thing, but ugh! It's hard enough trying to get time to convince Cody to flip his vote, I don't need more distractions... uh, not that I'm distracted by him. Because I'm not!"

*** The Streets of Istanbul ***

Beth sweated a bit as she ran alongside Leshawna. Should she just get straight to the point and try to work on changing her vote? Or would that be too suspect? Maybe she could work her way up to that topic. But then again, what if she lost her opportunity if she were to wait too long?

"You holding up alright there, short stuff?" Leshawna suddenly asked, getting a yelp from Beth. "You been awful quiet ever since we started running."

"Oh, just have a lot on my mind." She chuckled awkwardly. "Double elimination being a thing doesn't help calm my nerves any better."

The larger girl nodded. "I feel ya. We ain't lost nobody since my man, I ain't about to let us break that streak. We just gotta hope the other two teams mess up, ya know?"

Beth sighed. "Yeah, hopefully that happens. I think Brick and Lightning already beat us to the bazaar though, so that's already not looking too good."

"Pfft. Speed don't mean nothing if they ain't got the brains to nab the thing. We don't gotta worry about those two." Noticing two enemy team members running nearby, both glaring and silent, Leshawna motioned her head towards them. "And Jasmine may be a threat, but she's stuck with that whiny cheerleader witch. Way I see it, we got this one in the bag. You were the one to get us our first win, remember?"

"I'm glad someone does!" She thought back to those two fan girls from Montreal, pouting. "I'm starting to think that people forget I'm even here. It wouldn't be the first time, the fans always seem to look me over. And I made it to the finale of a season, darn it!"

Leshawna shook her head. "Some of those fans are fickle, girl. Ya gotta just ignore what any of them haters say. You earned making it to the end then, and you've earned your spot in the game this time too. To hell with what anyone else thinks, ya feel me?"

Beth blinked, not having expected such an uplifting pep talk. "Yeah. Yeah! You're totally right!" Grinning with a newfound determination, she double timed her sprint. "Now come on, let's go win this thing!"

As the two edged ahead of Jasmine and Amy, the Team Explosive girls shared a look. Neither looked particularly thrilled to be in each other's company, so the sooner they got this done the better. Still electing to stay silent, the two picked up the pace and trailed after the friendlier duo.

Back at Topkapi palace, Courtney and Cody had discovered a particularly large tree that would help them reach the top of the wall on the side of the building. Though with its steepness, they weren't looking too excited to do so.

"So how's you climbing skills?" the former CIT asked.

"Can't say I've exactly become a pro mountain climber," he answered with a gulp. "But we've done way more dangerous stuff on this show, so it could be worse."

Just as the two were gearing up to begin their ascension, a pair from the enemy team emerged from around the corner.

"Ya know, if you two need a boost we could all help each other out." Scott grinned mischievously, not deterred by Courtney's glare. "We can go our separate ways once we're inside. This way, we at least make sure that we're both ahead of those chunky newbies."

Cody narrowed his eyes, skeptic. "Where the heck did you two even come from? Were you following us?"

"We all had to came to the same place, block head," Anne Maria pointed out. "Of course we were nearby. Now you gonna accept our help or waste your time?"

The CIT didn't seem convinced, though truth be told it was mostly a matter of Scott being here making things more awkward than they needed to be. "And how exactly do you plan to help us? Without you just trying to trick us?"

"Easy." Scott pointed to himself, then upwards at the closest sturdy branch. "We boost geek breath here up to that branch. Then Anne Maria to keep us even. Then they can pull the two of us up, and we can all go from branch to branch until we reach the top of the wall. No going up the trunk required."

The two Old School members exchanged a look but couldn't say much against the idea. Who knew how well Beardo and Sugar were doing right now, they didn't exactly have time to stand around and argue the matter.

"Ugh. Fine. But no funny business, and we go our separate ways once we're inside." Courtney gave Scott an expecting glare. "Got it?"

"Sure thing, toots."

He got an elbow to the ribs for his comment, making Cody and Anne maria both wince.

*** Confessional: Anne Maria ***

"Geez, I can't believe Scottie boy has that girl all moody. She actually see something in him? You ask me, she could totally do betta." Sighing, she took out her hair spray to apply a new coat. "But whatevs. All I know is that I can't afford to let him waste our time. My butt it on the line if we lose again. Like hell am I gonna let me get eliminated because dirt boy couldn't stop drooling over her."

*** In Istanbul ***

All around, teams were slowly but surely making progress on their goal. Everyone was now successfully inside Topkapi Palace and trying to find the items while avoiding patrolling guards. Despite separating after getting over the wall as agreed, Scott figured out a way to turn him and Anne Maria towards where Cody and Courtney would be heading. Beardo and Sugar were truly just doing their own thing, occasionally utilizing the former's sounds or the later's flatulence to deal with guards.

Brick and Lightning has actually already had to give security the slip once when the athlete's "just barge in and sha-swipe it" strategy was less than successful. Meanwhile both the girl pairs from Radioactive and Explosive were hanging near the large kiosk serving the overpriced Turkish Delights, doing recon and determining the best way to go about getting in undetected.

The Aya Sofia groups had to act similarly to the Topkapi pairs. Namely, the front entrance was unsurprisingly guarded and they had to figure out an alternate way in. Sammy suggested getting in undetected by utilizing the sewers. Not exactly something Dave was thrilled to do, but he was feeling the awkwardness of their pairing just as much as she was and wanted to get the challenge over with. Meanwhile, seeing a construction area a few blocks back allowed DJ and Trent to utilize a ladder. They pulled it up and over the wall with them to save for later as a means of escape via the same way they came in.

"Think we need to cover it up so the guards don't notice it?" DJ suggested. "It'll just make it hard on us if we have to find a different way out, especially lugging around that big rug."

"Good call." Trent looked around the area a bit, finally spotting some wooden crates nearby. "Let's lean it against the wall and stack those in front of it."

The two of them nodded in agreement and moved to quickly hide their escape route. While Trent positioned the ladder on the ground against the wall, DJ grabbed the first crate... only to yelp when he saw Dawn standing behind when he removed it.

"Good to see that the two of you made it," she greeted, a bit amused at seeing the startled DJ stumble backwards. "I don't believe Sammy and Dave have made it in yet, so we're making good time."

"Where'd you even come from?" Trent asked. "We didn't see you the whole way here."

"I took a shortcut," she said cryptically, not offering anything more than that. "Do you need any help with these crates?"

Confused, the brickhouse sat his down near the ladder. "Why do you ask? Shouldn't you be trying to beat us?"

"Well, the rugs will likely be a tad heavy and I could use some assistance getting them out of here so I can carry it without having to worry about guards. Even without your help I still feel there's a high chance I'd make it back before either Scott and Anne Maria, or Brick and Lightning." She shrugged innocently. "But this way it saves me the extra trouble."

"So you're gonna help us with this as a trade off?" DJ finished. He looked to his partner, who shrugged. "Well, works for us."

Elsewhere, a panting Brick and Lightning had regrouped near the large stand selling the Turkish delights. There was a large tent like area holding the kitchen itself where they were prepared, but it was totally flanked by buff security guards.

"Aight, first time didn't go so hot," Lightning admitted. "This time for sure."

The cadet held him back before he could take off. "Nuh uh, we gotta be smarter about this. Just trying to run for it will get us chased again."

His partner huffed, offended at his talents being questioned. "Lightning just has to be sha-quicker this time, dude. Come on, what else are we supposed to do?"

"Maybe wait for one of the other teams to make a move?" Brick suggested. "THEN we can run and grab one while the guards are distracted."

His partner looked poised to protest, so he had to give Lightning a stern look. "Trust your teammate on this one, soldier. You'll have your chance, just practice some patience."

Not really expecting such seriousness, the quarterback sighed in acceptance. "Fine. Lightning's gonna wait for your call, then."

Brick nodded appreciatively and motioned for them to hide nearby. They noticed Leshawna and Beth in a huddle, while Jasmine was about to tie a rope around Amy's torso. The waiting game had began. Meanwhile, Scott and Anne Maria turned a corner once he felt like his goal was nearby. Turns out, it wasn't too hard to cut off the other team when he could hear Courtney nagging Cody from quite a distance. Something about that Beth chick that beat him in the banjo duel? Eh, didn't matter. Once the time was right, he found himself "accidentally" bumping into her.

"Oh, it's you two again," he sneered. "What are the odds?"

"You are so annoying," Courtney grumbled, refusing an offer to be helped up and doing it herself. "This is a competition we're in, or did you forget?"

"Yeah, didja?" Anne Maria added, giving her partner a suspicious glare.

Scott held his hands up innocently. "Hey, I'm just trying to find the stupid hats, it just so happened to lead me the same way as you two. I'm guessing we're close considering the amount of guards."

As he said, a group of the hired muscle patrolled nearby, forcing the four to hide anywhere they could. The guards looked around a bit before marching off to check elsewhere.

"He's right," Cody whispered. "The security is getting a lot more dense around here. We must be close." He scanned the area a bit before noticing another group exiting one room in particular. Another followed not long after. "If I had to guess, it must be in there."

"We could always work together to get the stuff, then let it become everyone for themselves to get back first," Scott suggested.

Cody and Courtney exchanged a look, divided on what to do. The nerd looked more open to the idea, and she had to accept that it wouldn't be a horrible plan. But before anything could be done, of all things, a cardboard Chris standee popped up behind them.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," Chirs' voice said through a speaker. "But I have an important announcement to make!"

Suddenly the screen fractioned off and turned into a showing of multiple perspectives. The group of four that were just talking, Beardo and Sugar elsewhere in the palace, Lightning and Brick at their vantage point, Jasmine wrapping Amy in rope, Leshawna and Beth nearby, Dawn walking with Trent and DJ, and finally Sammy and Dave in the sewers. Each had a Chris standee behind them, communicating his message at the same time.

*DING DING DING*

"Aw crap," they all said simultaneously.

"Yup, I didn't forget," Chris' voice said with a laugh. "Have fun, don't get caught while you're singing."

Song Start!

"All or Nothing." Parody of "Last Surprise," from Persona 5.

[A jazzy tune started up as the screen flashed red and black. The patrolling guards suddenly took on a more sinister looking monster appearance, trying to find the contestants who were flipping and dodging around out of their sight. As more of them showed off these sudden gymnast-esque moves, it became apparent that they had all switched into outfits more suited for their thievery. As the music swelled, Courtney prepared to start the first verse while peeking around a corner to watch one of the guards.]

"I'm trying to do my thing, stand back. FYI. Don't forget. This is a challenge!"

[Courtney was in a tough full body suit attire of black and dark blues. She now had a steel knight-looking mask over her eyes, and had small spikes lining her shoulder pads. Her words were pointed at Scott, who also poked his head out from the corner. As would be the norm for everyone, he also had a unique outfit, including a mask. This one looking like a skull that covered most of his face. His attire was also mostly black, looking more like a pirate uniform with the addition of yellow gloves, knee pads, and a red ascot.]

"Well... there's nothing in the rules, Against this. Cool your jets. I can do. What I want."

[The two's sing bickering was about to grab the attention of one of the guards, forcing Cody and Anne Maria to jump into action nearby. He dived for the legs while the Jersey girl subdued the monster with her hair spray attack. Anne Maria was in a, quite frankly, shockingly lewd outfit. A tight red full body suit covered in zippers, with one zipped down to expose her cleavage. It also came complete with a matching tail and cat mask. Cody's outfit was more modest but still kinda ridiculous. A fancy blistering white outfit with various gold and red trims. It came complete with a red cape and bird mask that had a particularly pointy nose.]

"Yo, if you bozos are done squawking. Wasting time. How's about we go and nab this hat?"

[Anne Maria was glaring at both of the bickering pair, though she was giving Scott's stink eye a little bit extra stank.]

"The guards will be back any moment. Out for blood. So we can't just stand around and chat."

[Cody was trying to sing quietly, frantically looking around to make sure no enemies would sneak up on the four of them. Unfortunately, the moment the geek dropped his guard to look back at Scott and Courtney, one such guard crept up towards them. All four noticed it simultaneously, screaming and running away as it was flanked by a whole group of backup goons. As soon as they were all gone, Beardo and Sugar suddenly popped their heads out from a nearby bush, smirking.]

"Today it's all or nothiiiiing."

[The Team Explosive duo were able to sing together and sneak into the building with ease while the guards were distracted. Beardo had an all black western outlaw outfit, with matching black mask, arm tassels, and an odd hat that was mostly round save for one long pointy part at the front. Sugar's outfit was actually a rare one without a mask, but instead she had an almost icy aesthetic going on with her long pale dress, and diamond jewelry including a tiara and necklace.]

"Cause Chris, wants two for one, he's such a wuss."

[Sugar looked around the room, searching for the loot. Suddenly, one of the onion hats was draped over her head, obscuring her vision.]

"He's a diiiiiiick. But that's, how it goes, better them than us."

[It was of course Beardo that placed the hat on her, flashing a thumbs up. With the hat secured, the two sneaked their way back out, the other four still visible in the background trying to give the guards the slip. All six sung a bunch of "Ooooh oooohs" as it transitioned into a new scene, a stylized version of the bazaar.]

"Sha-clock is ticking, man. Come on. Let's just go. In and out. This time for sure."

[You'll be shocked to learn that it was Lightning singing this one, his impatience almost getting the better of him. His outfit was intense, an almost jester looking black getup with dark blue stripes. The bottoms of the pants, sleeves, and cape were ripped, while his mask covered his whole head except the mouth. The eyes of the mask were see through and red.]

"No. You stay right there, soldier. Patience. One more sec. Trust me, bro. This will work."

[He wasn't thrilled about repeating himself, in song form no less, but Brick was hopeful that the results would convince his teammate to chill. As for his getup, this one was a bit more eccentric. A sort of navy blue suit with aqua gloves, boots and a huge popped color in white, and finally a white fox mask with red markings. And... a white tail? Luckily for him, Lightning don't judge.]

"Your girls will cook this stupid challenge. Old School style. Show this new blood that we get things done."

[Meanwhile, Leshawna was implementing a strategy of her own. She finessed her way between all of the guards, getting their attention with finger taps on the shoulders and nudging. Once she had their attention, she dramatically faked a fainting, collapsing to the ground and prompting them to check on her. Oh, her thief outfit? Don't care? Too bad, you're reading what it was anyway. In this case, an elegant black dress and gloves with some fish net bits. Harold woulda went nuts for it. Plus a big matching sun hat with a yellow flower. There were some sweet new tattoos going down her arm and back, and rather than a mask she had black and yellow paint around her eyes.]

"No more jerks thinking I don't matter. Prove them wrong. When we prove that we're team number one!"

[With the entrance currently unguarded, Beth was now able to quickly sneak into the kiosk. Just as soon as she got in, she then ran back out, clutching a transparent to-go box with the golden Turkish Delight inside. Why yes, you also have to read about her getup, we're doing this for each character. She had a sort of black leotard with neon green lines for patterns. Plus a pair of baggy jeans, similarly neon green sneakers, and a big ol pair of black and red goggles which one could argue shouldn't even count as a mask.]

"Today it's all or nothiiiiing."

[It was Amy and Jasmine's turn to sing together, the mean twin fully tied up and prepared to be dropped down while the Aussie was holding the end of the rope. Because there's only so many viable characters to use in what these outfits are referencing, Jasmine had a plain puffy white top with just some black leggings. Also a white and black Daft Punk sorta helmet that her hair poked out from. Amy's stupidly lewd outfit saw her with basically a purple and black dominatrix getup, with accompanying flashy princess crown and blue makeup. Can they even wear stuff like that on TV?]

"Cause Chris, wants two for one, he's such a wuss."

[Jasmine swiftly lowered Amy down to the kiosk below. There was a very nifty hole in the ceiling that she could fit her teammate through, and once she felt a tug on the rope she began to pull her back up.]

"He's a diiiiiiick, But that's, how it goes, better them than us."

[Amy had another one of the containers with the gold Turkish Delight tucked under her arm. She wasn't particularly comfortable being hoisted up by her partner, but the quicker they got it done the better. Meanwhile, the guards below were still tending to Leshawna when Lightning suddenly rushed in behind them.]

"We're taking, that loot! Swipe it right from, behind their backs."

[Lightning quickly got out of dodge, taking the running pose of a quarterback while holding the golden treat like a football under his arm. The guards took notice of the boy making off with the treasure and left Leshawna to pursue him. With them gone, she smirked and rushed off to meet up with Beth.]

"Leave no trace. Take their treasure all while leaving no tracks."

[Despite singing the final line of the chorus, Brick seemed to contradict himself since he had to rush into the scene to catch up with his partner and help Lightning give the guards the slip. Meanwhile in the background, Jasmine and Amy dropped down from the ceiling and jogged off the other way.]

"Is it safe? The coast is clear?"

[Trent was bringing up the rear of his group, tasked with making sure no enemies would sneak up behind them. As a result, he wasn't fully sure where they were going. Because he has chill self insert protag energy, his thief outfit was a black trench coat, red gloves, and white mask with black accents.]

"Do we know, that no guards will sneak up on us?"

[DJ was in the middle, watching the sides for the group and mostly following Dawn's lead. He was definitely the most on edge of the three, but seemed to be a bit more relaxed with her presence. His mask was extra weird, covering the entire top half of his head to look like a black cat, complete with fluffy white ears and blue eyes. He also had a yellow handkerchief and a utility belt to store thief tools.]

"Have faith, friends. I'm sure this path will lead us, right into, the treasure's den."

[Dawn gave her temporary allies words of encouragement, holding up a hand to signal they stop for a moment while guards passed. Her outfit consists of a dark purple cavalier hat with a feather plume, a pink blouse with a white neck jabot, a black corset vest, and a holster belt carrying ammo. Her mask and gloves are black and violet, respectively. Why yes I just copied that one from the wiki, it's a weird outfit to describe. Once the path was clear again, she waved them along and they rushed forwards towards a building nearby. On the other side of the building was Dave, who had just dove behind a bush to hide from guards of his own tailing him.]

"Today it's all or nothiiiiiiing."

[Attempting to sing to himself to calm his nerves, Dave shivered and waited for the coast to be clear. Contrasting his cowering display was a sinister looking getup. A sort of black suit mixed with a military commander outfit, with various medals decorating the chest, a white undershirt and red tie, white sash and gloves, and gaudy golden shoulder tassels with a flowing cape. Most prominent was his mask, more like a helmet, a hard white thing with spikes protruding around the forehead like those seen on the Statue of Liberty. Suddenly, he was poked on the shoulder and jumped back in shock.]

"Cause Chris, wants two for one, he's such a wuss."

[He was able to ease up and keep seeing when he discovered that the person was just Sammy. Mercifully the last outfit needed for description, it was another all back affair. A gymnast leotard, jacket with long coattails, and stiletto boots. The mask was elegant, if plain. As they met up, the trio of Dawn, DJ, and Trent could be seen sneaking into the building behind them.]

"He's a diiiiiiick. But that's, how it goes, better them than us."

[Next was Sammy's lines as she moved aside to show Dave the rug she had just dragged out. He sighed as he realized they'd need to leave through the same way they came in, so reluctantly he moved aside a manhole cover and the two dived down, dragging the rug underneath with them. Once they were gone, the other trio ran out from the other side of the building, DJ and Trent carrying two rugs on their shoulders while Dawn kept a lookout for guards.]

"We're taking, that loot! Swipe it right from, behind their backs."

[The perspective actually switched back to the very first group, with Scott, Courtney, Cody, and Anne Maria running from the guards. They all sung together, but the farmer's voice was the most prominent as he tried to showboat with various flips and stunts during their escape. Courtney, unamused, tugged him back by the collar to put a stop to his shenanigans.]

"Leave no trace. Take their treasure all while leaving no tracks."

[The line sounded much more harsh with her singing compared to when Brick did it, with a pointed annoyed glare Scott's way. Just as he looked poised to sing back, various shadowy figures suddenly rose up behind them. They turned to see the guards all around them. Even when they attempted to run, then their front became covered by even more. The two gulped, unable to do anything as the enemies closed in.]

Seemingly unaware that their partners were no longer behind them, Cody and Anne Maria finally found an opening and dove into the room holding their prize. Each selected the finest onion hat they could find, breathing sighs of relief.

"That coulda gone better," the jersey girl mumbled, turning around with her best scolding face at the ready. "No thanks to you, Scottie-... boy?"

Hearing her confused silence, the tech geek also looked around, equally perplexed when he saw no teammate. "Uh, Courtney? Where'd you go?"

It was then that they heard angry cries coming from outside the room. Keeping a low profile, they peeked out the doorway just in time to see guards hauling off Scott and Courtney under their arms. Both were flailing and cursing, but it did no good against the brutish security.

"If you don't let me DOWN, you'll be hearing from my lawyers about this!"

"I ain't even stole anything yet, why ya hassling us for?"

"... That isn't good," Cody mumbled.

Anne Maria face palmed, a single tired sigh added for emphasis. "Gee, ya think?"

A few more turned corners, and the captured duo was finally tossed into a room with seemingly no other doors or windows to escape from. As soon as they hit the ground, Scott bolted back up to try and bring the fury on their captors, but he was only met with the door being slammed on his face.

"Yeowtch! You're gonna pay for that one!" He grabbed the door knob and pushed with all his might, pulled with all his might, but all either accomplished was barely budge the locked door.

"Well this is just great." Courtney punched the ground in frustration, the rough jiggling from the doorknob just annoying her even more. "Of COURSE we're the ones that get caught. Are ya happy now, Scott?"

That was enough to finally get the country boy to stop fighting with the door and instead turn to her in shock. "Me? You were the one that pulled me aside when we should have still been running! What was the deal with that?!"

Courtney scoffed and met him face to face. "I did it because you were making an ass of yourself trying to look cool, or whatever. You were gonna get yourself hurt and captured."

And that got him to quirk an eyebrow. "Ok, and? Why would you care, that would just mean it's easier for your team to take the lead." His eyes shot open. "Wait, you weren't worried about me getting eliminated, were ya?"

She wanted to snap back, but the frustration was too much to handle. Instead, she just growled and lightly pushed him to the side. "This isn't the time. You wanna have a talk with me, right? That's why you keep trying to stay near me? Help me find a way out of this stupid room, THEN we'll talk."

Now it was Scott's turn to match her irritated grunt with his own. But there was a lot on the line, so he relented and began searching around, starting with the floor to look for some sort of hatch or something.

*** Confessional: Scott ***

He sighed, arms crossed and looking out the window with a tired leer. "Ugh, women."

*** Confessional: Courtney ***

She had the exact same pose and expression. "Ugh, men."

*** Confessional: Chef ***

He mockingly imitated the position, though his hulking frame made him much more hunched over. "Ugh, dumbass kids."

*** Somewhere in Istanbul ***

Elsewhere, Lightning and Brick ran through the streets, a skip in their step and laughing over their success. The jock still clutched their prize like a football, so it was a good idea to stay out of his path less you risk getting shoulder checked by him.

"Those were some smooth moves back there, man! You was like, sha-zoom! Sha-dodge! Gave them dummies the slip like it wasn't nothing. You ever try playing football?"

Chuckling, the cadet shook his head. "Nah, I was more of band kid personally, but I've had my share of playing it with the other cadets back during basic training. It's where I learned my moves. What'd I tell ya? A little bit of patience is all it takes sometimes."

Lightning grinned. "Guess you was right. And now we're back in sha-first place!"

The two turned the final corner, running back to the Jumbo Jet... only to see Amy and Jasmine already waiting there with the Turkish delight under the cheerleader's arm.

"Sha-whaaaaaat?" Lightning skid to a halt, gobsmacked. "How'd you chicks make it here before The Lightning?"

"Uh, we ran?" Amy replied unhelpfully.

"You had to get away from the guards, yeah?" Jasmine added. "We got in from above. If anything, you blokes keeping them occupied made it easier for us to get away."

Seeing that his teammate was beginning to stew in his rage, Brick tried to comfort him with a pat on the back. "It's all good, Soldier, being the second group back is still commendable!"

And then Leshawna suddenly joined the fray with her partner in tow. "Third group back. Me and Beth even beat these newbies to the punch."

Beth jumped up for a high five, still clutching her stolen good in the other arm. "That was so awesome, I can't believe we really made it back first!"

Leshawna was likely giving Beth some really sweet words of encouragement then, but now Lightning could only feel the crushing disappointment of further loss. "We came in LAST?"

"Only from the bazaar group," Brick pointed out. "We're still the third pair here, first ones back from our team. That's pretty good, right? Coming in first isn't always everything."

Lightning snapped to attention, looking at his teammate in disgust. "Now Lightning knows he didn't sha-hear that. If you ain't in first place, you didn't win, you lost! Lightning don't settle for lost! That's like... against the Lightning code."

"You have a code?" Before Brick got his answer, Lightning just stormed off in a huff. "Wait, hold on, I didn't mean that I don't WANT to win! Ah, darn it."

"Don't worry, Brick, it's a work in progress." Dawn suddenly materialized behind him, getting a scream from the cadet and sending him falling over. "You've already made strides in changing his attitude for the better. Rome wasn't built in a day, as the saying goes."

Brick was at first confused as to where his teammate came from, then about where her treasure was. It just rose further questions when Trent and DJ emerged from behind her hauling not one but two rugs. "Uh, thanks, I'll keep working on it. Did you strike up a deal with the other team or something?"

"Indeed." She looked to the two boys, offering a pleasant smile of thanks as they sat down both rugs. "I underestimated the size of the rugs and wasn't really in the state to carry it back on my own, so I offered my services in helping them traverse the Aya Sofia as a trade for their strength."

Any conversations were suddenly derailed by, fittingly enough, the sound of a train fast approaching with its wailing horn. Of course it wasn't a real locomotive, but rather Beardo sounding a victorious tune as he and Sugar barreled into the scene with the onion hat in hand.

"Ah, fudge nuggets, I thought we'd get back first." Sugar kicked at the grass haphazardly.

"Well we might have if you didn't stop at that bagel stand," her partner pointed out, removing the hat from her. "But hey, we still made it back faster than the other two teams there, so I'd call it a win."

Chris finally decided to waltz his lazy ass into the area, observing how quickly the playing field was filling up. "Alright, looks like we're just missing one group for each team. Whoever gets back next determines which teams are sending someone home!"

That was enough to make Beth gulp, suddenly remembering why she had been paired off in such a way to begin with. "Say, Leshawna? Think we could girl talk one on one for a bit? Y-you know, away from the group?"

Her teammate quirked an eyebrow but still nodded. "Sure, girl, whatever's cool with you. What's on your mind?"

The two walked off, DJ observing all the while. He cleared his throat to get Trent's attention. "Hey man, that reminds me. About the vote since it's possible we may be eliminating someone-"

"Well there's only one pair that isn't back yet, and obviously I'm not gonna vote my bud off," he pointed out. "So I figure I'll just vote for Courtney."

Blinking, the brickhouse eventually chuckled and offered a thumbs up. "Oh, cool, me too. Good talk, man."

*** Confessional: DJ ***

"Yeah, not gonna lie, I had the easiest job by far." He shrugged, content with not having to go out of his way to try and sway Trent's vote. "I'm kinda worried about Courtney being the last one from us to get back, though. Hopefully we get lucky and the other teams run into issues."

*** In the Sewers of Istanbul ***

Speaking of which, things switched to showing Sammy and Dave carrying their rug through the sewers, one on each end and both clearly struggling a bit with its weight.

"How much longer do we have to stay down here? It reeks." Dave didn't have the luxury of holding his nose since the rug demanded both hands, so he just settled for small spurts of holding his breath.

Sammy shrugged. "Until we're just we're far enough away from the guards to make a run for it."

There was silence for a while, but then the two's arms started getting a bit more wobbly.

"Why is this thing so heavy? Ugh, why didn't we leave this for, like, Sugar and Beardo?"

The nice twin gave him an absolutely taken aback scowl. "I DID suggest going to get the hat instead, we switched to this because you complained about me getting distracted by Cody."

Dave just glared back at his teammate. "Oh sure, blame it all on me just like everyone else always does. Aren't you supposed to be the NICE sister?"

"Ok, seriously, what is your problem?" She skidded to a halt and dropped her end of the rug. "Why are you so grumpy lately, what happened?"

"This is a conversation that needs to happen right now?" He dropped his own end, crossing his arms. "In case you forgot, we're in the middle of the nasty sewers right now. I'd prefer to get out of here as soon as possible."

Before the debate could really heat up, a loud sploosh got their attention. They looked over just in time to see their rug having rolled into the sewer water, floating back down the way they came.

"Oh crap!"

Simultaneously crying out, they put the argument aside and rushed off to chase down their treasure.

*** Cockpit Confessional: Dave ***

"So I've not been in the best mood lately. Is that a crime? Am I not allowed to have emotions if they aren't just happy go lucky all the time, is that it?" He threw his arms up, exasperated. "Screw me for FEELING things, I guess."

"Anyone ever tell you that you whine a lot?" Chef asked.

Dave glared, but obviously had no grounds to snap back at the larger man. Instead, he sighed and looked away. "All the time, yes."

*** In Topkapi Palace ***

After who knows how long searching in vain for any other option, Scott and Courtney finally found a potential exit. A very small air vent in the top corner of a wall. The dirt farmer tried his best to squeeze himself in, but the hole was far too small for him to fit. Instead, he fell on his butt with a grunt and groaned in defeat.

"Hmph, let me try."

Courtney moved to test her luck but Scott just looked on in annoyance. "If I couldn't fit through that tiny thing then there's no way you can."

He quickly regretted his wording as she jumped down, landing on one of his feet and getting a wince from the guy. "And just what is THAT supposed to mean? Explain yourself."

Sensing imminent danger, he quickly tried to think of an excuse that wasn't his initial thought being because her butt wouldn't fit. She was too smart and had a big head? It couldn't handle her big personality? None of these options felt viable. "... No, I get the feeling I made a mistake, somehow."

The former CIT narrowed her eyes, silently judging him. "Numbskull." Ok, maybe not so silently.

"Face it, Courtney, there's no way outta here for us." Wanting to promptly change the subject, Scott went back to near the door, peeking underneath it for any moving shadows. "We're just gonna have to wait for the dork and tan in a can to come let us out."

Courtney sighed, leaning against the wall. "And by the time they do, it'll probably already be too late. Not like it matters too much, one of our teams were always going to have to eliminate someone."

There was an awkward silence, both stewing in a sense of hopelessness. Courtney kept eyeing the vent, still wondering if she could go for it. But Scott was growing more antsy by the moment, especially with the thought of potential elimination for one of them. "So why DID you want to try and stop me from getting caught anyway?"

While initially annoyed at the subject being brought back, there truly didn't seem to be any chance of her getting through that vent. So it was either talk or nothing. The nothing option was tempting, to be fair. But still, she sighed. "I at least have a plan for how to handle the elimination ceremony if our team goes there. You don't. You're pretty much dead meat if your team doesn't win and you were the last one to finish."

"Gee, thanks." He was about to look away in contempt before quickly realizing the implications. "Wait, so does that means you WOULD care if I was eliminated? Ha! I knew it."

Courtney rolled her eyes but kept explaining. "At the start of the season I didn't think I would care. Heck, I thought you were getting sent home first instead of Staci. But the longer you stayed, yeah, I guess I realized it would suck to see your smelly butt get kicked off."

Scott scratched at his stubble awkwardly, pretty unsure how to take that. He was used to sassy Courtney claiming she didn't care about him. Courtney being genuine and open was a new hurdle. As he let the comment process, he picked himself up and plopped down in a seat facing the door. "Yeah, it'd suck for me seeing you get kicked off too."

That got a small smirk from the latina. With the silence returning, she pulled up a chair and sat it next to his, both now patiently waiting for something to happen. As the time passed and the tension got thicker, more questions came to mind. Scott exhaled and looked up, trying to act nonchalant.

"Give it to me straight. Everything in All Stars, was that all just a crock of BS or did you actually like me?" He didn't notice her looking at him in surprise. "Cause that was one hell of an act you weaved up if that's the case, even saying stuff while I wasn't around."

Courtney twiddled her thumbs and fidgeted in her seat. This was oddly serious for Scott of all people. "It wasn't all lies. I'd say it only started out as a crush, and then you started being... well, you. I don't know, something just felt like it kind of clicked."

"Then why the stupid chart? Why not give things a real try once all the dumb Mal crap got out of the way? Why just try to brush it all under the rug?"

Yeesh, now he was getting into the thick of it, huh? "Two reasons. As far as the chart goes, I think I just got greedy. I've been putting up with this stupid show so long. Been through so much. I felt like I had a clear shot to the end. You and Gwen were both on my side, what I thought at the time was the biggest threat, Al, just got eliminated. I could taste the money, and my mind just went into full on game mode. I didn't even think of how I'd end up messing things up with you and Gwen."

"Yeah, and you drew me with a freaking tail! What is UP with that?" He huffed, arms folded and trying to look unbothered. But he clearly was. "... And the other reason?"

"Because you remind me of him..."

He stared at her for a minute, confused. "Him?"

"You know who I mean," she mumbled. "You've watched the show, you know who I've dated."

Another pause, and then a light bulb went off in his brain. "Oooooh. Alejandro!"

She gave him a blank look. "No."

"Cameron?"

"Scott I will slap you."

He tried racking the ol' noodle a bit more, then it finally clicked. "Oh. Duncan, right?"

Courtney sighed. "Yeah. Obviously you two aren't the same, but you have a lot of similarities."

"Yeah I thought we got along pretty well, bit too much of a softy to be on the Vultures though." It was then he realized he was getting off track. "So, me reminding you of him is a bad thing?"

She nodded. "It made me hesitant. I've tried to move on once and for all from everything that happened with him, but it's hard to fully recover from being embarrassed on international TV. And no, I don't have feelings for him anymore, if that's what you're worried about. It's just... scary to think about dating again after it."

Scott nodded along, trying to understand but not fully there. "I guess you really hate him, huh?"

Courtney chuckled and shook her head. "No. I told myself I did for a long time after World Tour, that I hated Gwen too for being part of it. But really, I just felt betrayed. I know he's not a bad person, there's good in him deep down. But he still hurt me, and it's hard to trust someone else after something like that." She sighed. "That asshole."

Trying to process that all, the farmer had a snicker of his own. "You know, you're kind of an asshole too sometimes." He could feel her about to let him have it for that comment so he quickly continued. "And so am I. But maybe we could be assholes together or something. Give it some time, and maybe we'll help each other stop being such assholes after a while."

"This is your pitch to try and ask me out?" Courtney snarked, more amused than anything.

"Cut me some slack, this is still new to me." Shrugging, he continued. "Anyway, I think I get the whole thing about not being able to trust, but you ain't gonna be able to change that if you don't try. At least give it a chance. Hell, I'll give you my approval right now to throttle the living crap out of me if I ever go behind your back like that."

He looked her in the eyes, dead serious. "It ain't gonna happen, though. You ask me? I think he's more of an idiot than an asshole. Guy was too dumb to see that he had something great RIGHT THERE in front of him."

Perhaps he was expecting a kiss after that. Maybe a swoon, or at least a hug. Instead she started laughing, though that distracted him from also seeing her blush. "Well would you look at that, maybe there's a sweet talker buried somewhere deep under all that mud and dirt. It needs some work, but the potential is there."

"You gonna make me a list of things to work on?" He asked tauntingly.

She rolled her eyes, standing and looking around for something. He followed after until she eventually found something that would suffice. A pile of firewood, oddly enough placed in the corner, with one particular log standing out as decently long and thick.

"We'll talk more later. Let's get out of here and finish the stupid challenge already. Help me carry this."

Scott was confused but helped her with the log all the same. "You got a plan?"

"Nothing mind blowing," she said with a shrug. "We're gonna use this as a battering ram to bust the door down. If we go at the same time, I think we'll get through."

"Are you sure?" He sounded slightly concerned, but couldn't hide the smirk brought about from the prospect of breaking out in the most destructive way possible. "Isn't all the stuff in this place super important or whatever?"

Courtney smirked. "My lawyers will see to it that any damages will be liable on the show's behalf. If they didn't want to risk things being broken, Chris shouldn't have given the OK to lock us up for who knows how long. So we're getting out, and putting a chip into McLean's wallet in the process."

"Now that's my kinda plan!" He got into position in front of the door, each on different sides of the long. "Then we track down Cody and Annie, and hoof it back to the Jet. Sound good?"

She nodded, a grin of her own forming. "We go in three."

"Two," Scott added.

"One!"

That time it came from neither of them, but instead Chris as the door was suddenly thrown open by the host. It was enough of a shock to make the duo drop their log, which happened to land on Scott's less injured foot.

"Oh come on!" Hopping around on one foot, the farmer had half a mind to flip Chris the bird. "What gives, McLean?"

"I have a sixth sense to know when someone's threatening to mess with my paycheck," he spat, narrowing his eyes at the former CIT. "And you guys seemed done with your juicy share fest, so there was no reason to keep you locked up."

"What about the challenge?" she asked.

Chris chuckled. "Yeah, about that."

He stepped aside, revealing the rest of the contestants behind him. At the front of the pack was Sammy and Dave, both a bit damp but otherwise looking relived to be done with the challenge.

"We were the last of our team to finish," Sammy said, offering an apologetic smile.

"And that was like, an hour ago," Dave added. "So both of your teams are sending you guys home. Sorry, I mean sending SOMEONE home."

Anne Maria and Cody also pushed their way to the front of the pack, the later looking at least a bit more forgiving compared the pure fury in the eyes of the former.

"We tried to find a way into the room, but the guards were just too on alert," he said.

Anne Maria glared, hands on her hips. "Nothin worked. So we lost. Because of yous."

Scott and Courtney looked around at everyone. Then at each other. Then back to the others. Both had the same though, and fell back into their seats to speak in unison.

"Well crap."

"Guess I should make it official, then." Chris knocked over the others, putting the spotlight comfortably back on himself. "Team Explosive wins the challenge! Meaning Team Old School AND Team Radioactive are sending someone home. This should be a fun night, get those votes in, people!"

With the results declared, Chris knocked over even more contestants as he took his exit, with much of the cast following after. Team Explosive had their obligatory celebratory cheer, though Sammy gave her flirtmance partner a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before they left. Lightning in particular had been staring daggers at Scott, arms folded and tapping his foot.

"Unshalievable. Ya see that? It's one of the things Lightning's always been saying! Ya gotta have your head in the game about the prize money booty. Ya can't get sha-stracted by... by... lady booty!"

Disappointment immeasurable and with his day ruined, the jock stormed off, his mind already made up. Brick did give Scott a sympathetic frown but still trailed by Lightning with a shake of the head. He wasn't mad, just let down.

"Fellas, wait!" Scott rushed after the guys, in desperate hope of salvaging the situation. Meanwhile, DJ and Beth awkwardly slid by to Courtney. An awkward silence followed as the former CIT looked from one to the other.

"How much of that did you see?"

Beth chuckled awkwardly. "You know how Chris is, with his cameras everywhere."

DJ rubbed the back of his neck. "Do you wanna talk about it, or-"

"No." She stood up and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Well this sucks. I barely had a chance to talk to Cody about swinging his vote. Guess it's on to the tie breaker, unless Beth convinced Leshawna to switch."

The farmer girl was avoiding eye contact. "I-I'm not sure, I talked to her about it, but she just said she'll think about it."

"That's as good as we could hope for, I guess." Courtney shrugged and stormed off. "Hopefully the tie breaker isn't something that favors her."

DJ followed behind, but Beth paused for a moment. She bit her lip, looking at the floor.

*** Confessional: Beth ***

"I REALLY really don't wanna vote off Leshawna. She was so nice to me today! Just when I was starting to feel down on myself, she really helped me see things another way." Drumming her fingers against the wall, she racked her brain for what to do. "Now that I think about it, I think I really did make a good case to her for voting DJ. I told her that he was starting to get too distracted by Dawn, and then he came in hauling a rug for her! So if that works, maybe I don't even need to vote for her?"

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

With Team Explosive off enjoying first class for another time this season, Chris herded in the others and packed them all into the stands for elimination. When Chef arrived, he carried a tray with a whopping 9 peanut filled barf bags.

"Don't ya guys just love two for one specials? It really helps the savvy shoppers on making the smart buys. Or in this case, the dramatic show even more juicy!"

Everyone was disappointed to be there, though there was a mix of emotions throughout. Lightning was annoyed, Dawn was stoic, Leshawna felt like she was chilling, Scott's leg was shaking nervously. Chris would let things stay nice and tension-y for a bit before he moved on.

"Now then, both teams have cast their votes and made their decisions. The losing Old School AND losing Radioactive team members will be taking the drop together. Fun times, right? So we'll be holding just one ceremony, no need to do one team then the other." He grabbed two barf bags from the plate. "So! The first two bags go to... Beth and Brick!"

While the later exhaled a bit in relief while catching their bag, the former was still looking mighty nervous, glancing between Courtney and Leshawna.

"We also have bags here for Lightning... DJ... Dawn... and Trent!"

"Sha-duh," the uber jock grumbled, too annoyed and just letting the nut receptacle bounce off his face. The other three opted to just silently enjoy having their symbols of immunity.

"Aaaaaand, the technical penultimate bag before the important ones goes to... Cody!"

Aforementioned tech whiz high fived his band mate, swiping the puke packet out of the air. With him safe, things could focus in on those without one. Obviously Scott and Courtney, alongside Leshawna and Anne Maria.

"You gotta be kidding me, you screwed the team over and you STILL voted for me?" Pulling out a nail file, it almost seemed like the jersey girl was about to throw hands. Thankfully for Scott, she just used it to nervously file away. "I'm kicking ya in the kiwis if I'm eliminated, ya jerk."

"No you're not," Courtney grumbled, annoyed but unsurprised to be in her position. Scott was too on edge to say anything, while Leshawna looked genuinely surprised to not have a sick sack yet.

As for Chris, he just soaked in the drama, letting things drag out as long as possible. "Two of you four will soon be getting the axe. I only have one barf bag left for each team. How about we start with... Team Radioactive!"

He grabbed their final bag, tossing it up and down with glee. "Scott, Scott, Scott... we started the season with you in the bottom two, and now it's you again? Sucks to see it, bro. And Anne Maria, you've technically never been voted off before in the show! Does that streak end today?"

Both contestants locked eyes, a mean stink to their glares. His was more desperate while her's more intense.

"The final barf bag of the night for your team goes to...

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... Anne Maria!"

To the surprise of no one, the Jersey girl hopped from her seat and let out a satisfied whoop, the peanuts bouncing off her hair and getting everywhere. "That's what I'm talking bout!"

"Uuuuuuugh." Scott buried his head into his hands, not about to say any more until Chris was done. He was pretty sure about who'd be leaving with him, but she did say she had a plan...

"Courtney! Normally I'd say you're just here because you're kind of an asshole as your man here puts it." He chuckled, relishing her stink eye. "But this time you just genuinely goofed up, brah. And Leshawna... you and Beth finished first out of everyone today, so I can only assume you racked up votes for being a threat."

Shrugging, the soul sister just waved it off. "Yeah yeah, it ain't personal, I get it. Home girl's gotta vote for SOMEBODY, ya know?"

So she was still blissfully unaware of Courtney's alliance? Interesting, Chris thought, verrrry interesting.

"We've tallied the votes, and according to them, we have...

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... enough of them to send Courtney home! Here ya go, Leshawna."

While the recipient figured this was a foregone conclusion and accepted her immunity with a nod, Courtney damn near fell over as she shot up. "WHAT? It wasn't a tie?"

"Nope!" Chris just kept flashing his cheeky grin. "You had the most votes, so you're out. No tie breaker necessary."

It took every fiber of her being to not turn around and give DJ and Beth the biggest death glares imaginable. She wasn't sure which one did it, or if it was maybe both of them deciding to abandon ship, but the lack of being given a fighting chance was enough to get her shaking with rage. Everyone covered their ears, bracing for a signature angry yell, but just as it was about to pop off Scott nudged her in the side.

"Meh, we shouldn't be shocked. We DID lose the challenge." He snorted, giving Chris a look of contempt. "I say, who needs this stupid show? I'm getting tired of going to all these different dumb time zones anyway. It's messing with my sleep!"

While her fists were still balled up, Courtney laughed and eased up a bit. "Yeah, fine, who needs these teams anyway? Eliminate me with my boyfriend, see if I care!"

Most of the contestants, even Chris and Chef, all got taken aback by that bombshell. "Boyfriend?" Leshawna asked.

"Ya dorks have a problem with it?" Scott sneered, throwing an arm around his newly confirmed bae. "Or are ya just surprised I pulled it off? Because I'm not gonna lie, so am I."

"I always had faith that you would succeed," Dawn piped up, the only one to approach the pair and getting a bit too close for comfort to smile up at her eliminated teammate. "I must say, Scott, I had my reservations but I'm very proud of the strides you made this season."

Not letting him respond, Courtney yanked her boyfriend away to lead him towards the elimination hatch and retrieve their parachutes. "Back off, pixie girl. I've seen what the online fans have said about you two together."

"Pffft, there's no way in hell she'd EVER be my type," Scott protested, slipping on his parachute. "No offense, shorty, but you and me both know that'd be like oil and... whatever the hippy version of oil is. They don't work together, ya know? Besides, I know for a fact she has her eyes on someone else in the cast anyway."

Dawn gasped, with others taking on a curious glance at the aura reader.

"Oooooh, gossip, sounds fun." Courtney nudged her boyfriend, a sinister smirk forming. "How bout you spill the beans as a last screw you to the show on our way out?"

Scott grinned. "I was just thinking the same thing! Hey guys, listen up, Dawn totally has the hots for-"

Suddenly, the farmer was cut off by a large boot swinging down and kicking him in the face. It knocked him back into Courtney and both went tumbling out of the jumbo jet with their screams echoing below. Her face now a tomato shade of red, Dawn sighed in relief.

"For once, and only once, I think I'll have to say thank you to Chris."

"You're welcome!" He beamed proudly, waving the Boot of Shame button in the air. "Now that we've kicked off a whole couple in one fell swoop we wanna drag out the other potential hook ups as long as possible, ya know? Now get to scooting, guys, this episode has already gone longer than usual as it is."

As usual, the group started filing out one by one, with Dawn at the front of the pack so as to not draw more attention to herself. DJ watched her leave, mind already thrown off when there was no tie breaker but now even further quizzical.

"Huh. I wonder who Scott was talking about."

Sitting next to him, Trent just looked at the guy, then at the camera with eyebrow raised.

One flash cut later and we were met with Chris and Chef in the cockpit. It was clear that the host was feeling a mix of emotions following everything.

"Darn it, there goes two of our more guaranteed ratings magnets in one night."

"Double elimination was your idea man, don't go whining on us." Chef flicked his comrade on the ear, not ready for his complaining. "At least ya got that big sappy pow wow between them. And he left Dawn on a cliffhanger!"

"Good point! I knew it was the right call bringing him back instead of Sam." He laughed and pointed finger pistols at the camera. "Sorry not sorry, Dakota! With our baggage carrying couple out of the running, who'll step up to become the next Total Drama legend in their place? How is Dawn going to manage with Scott putting it out there that she has her eye on someone in the plane? Will Dave keep being grumpy? I think that one is kind of a guarantee. But to find out the answers to the rest of that and more, you'll need to tune in right here, next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

"I swear, if that slime ball somehow, someway, DOESN'T get eliminated after dropping the ball that hard, I'm beanin him in the head with one of my spray bottles." Anne Maria enthusiastically stamped down on Scott's passport. "This ain't even personal, I'm just pissed that I'm in danger because of him and had to be saddled with the guy who couldn't keep it in his pants all challenge."

Brick sighed and stamped Scott's passport. "Yeah, I need to calm him down but I do gotta agree with Lightning on this one. No offense, soldier, but you got us the loss today. It's only fair to vote you off. I'm glad you finally patched things up, though, good job!"

"I'm delighted that you finally got through to Courtney, I knew you could accomplish it with the right circumstances. Though it is unfortunate it had to be in a way that leads to both of your eliminations." Nonetheless, Dawn seemed to take pity on the guy and stamped Anne Maria's passport. "Scott, I'm glad you were on this season. I thought your soul to be a lost cause. It would seem you've taught me that it's not always the case."

"Sha-bam. Sha-stamp. Sha-bye bye. Sha-see ya!" With each phrase, Lightning gave Scott's passport another stamp. "Lightning don't got no space on his team for dudes more focused on ladies than winning! Save it for the afterparty."

"Ok, ok, I THINK Dawn is still gonna vote with me," Scott reasoned, desperately stamping Anne Maria's passport. "So as long as I at least convinced Brick I should be in the clear. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna be fine. Easy peasy, right?"

Beth fidgeted in her seat, nervously hovering her stamp above Leshawna's face. Eventually she grunted and brought it down on Cody's passport instead. "I'm sorry, I just can't do it! Not after how much she helped cheer me up. It'll be fine, I convinced her to vote for DJ so it'll just go to tie breaker. Then Courtney gets her fair shot, and if she stays she'll just think it was three to three. Yeah, it'll work out just fine!"

Cody shrugged, stamping Courtney's passport. "Yeah, this one is kinda obvious. Congrats on you and Scott, though? That's gotta count for something, probably."

"Hm, I'm not really sure how to feel about today. On one hand, I'm kinda excited to actually try things out with Scott. On the other hand... yeah, I'm probably going into a tie breaker." Shrugging, she gave Leshawna's passport a stamp. "Oh well, that's how the game goes. At least I get the chance to stay if I win."

"Welp, no reason to go against what we promised." DJ stamped down Leshawna's passport. "It's probably gonna be a three to three tie breaker. I ain't sure who they'd want to eliminate first between me and Beth, so I am pulling for Courtney to win."

"Homegirl messed up today, what else is there to say?" Leshawna stamped Courtney's passport, only a bit apologetically. "Beth tried to make a case to go for DJ, but it's gotta be Courtney. Dang, how'd we both end up falling for some lanky red headed white boy? Maybe she and I have more in common than you'd think."

Trent was leant up against the door, perhaps to prevent any intruders from barging in, while stamping Courtney's passport. "Yeeeeeah, it's gotta suck being on the show this many times and still coming up short, but... welp, it happens."

Votes for Scott: 3 (Anne Maria, Brick, Lightning)

Votes for Anne Maria: 2 (Dawn, Scott)

Votes for Courtney: 3 (Cody, Leshawna, Trent)

Votes for Leshawna: 2 (Courtney, DJ)

Votes for Cody: 1 (Beth)

After the Boot of Shame:

After a lot of falling, Scott was now the only one screaming, flailing his limbs around in some sort of vain attempt to swim back up to the jet. It didn't work. Courtney rolled her eyes and pulled the string to deploy his parachute, then activating her own.

"So it was totally DJ, right?"

Scott still wasn't fully recovered from the sensation of plummeting to the ground, so he had to take a second to catch his breath. "That screwed you over, or who Dawn is crushing on?"

"I'm gonna guess Beth did that with how jumpy she was after the challenge," she mumbled, trying to shake off the spite. "So it was him?"

"It's pretty obvious," Scott agreed with a shrug. "Like wow, can't believe that the animal lover has a thing for the other animal guy. How original."

"Pffft, so suddenly you're the king of judging couples, is that it Mr. Let's Be Assholes Together?"

"I thought it sounded cool at the time..."

"Nah, it was super awkward." Seeing him looking distraught, she nudged her boyfriend with her foot. "But I like awkward Scott. It's cute."

"CUTE?!" Somehow his switch immediately went from sad to offended. "I ain't cute! I'm, you know, tough! And mean! You're gonna be all, Oooooh, look at my super cool boyfriend. Look how, uh, gruff and dangerous he is!"

She just smirked and rolled her eyes. "If you say so. By the way, I'm still gonna count this as YOU being the reason we got eliminated. So, I think dinner should be on you tonight before we leave the place. No going Dutch."

"What?!" The two crashed down into the water, eventually surfacing and Scott sighing in acceptance. "Ugh, fine. So, uh, is it pricier to eat in the European part here, or the Asian part?"

He noticed her blank look and held up his arms. "What? I only brought so much money with me."

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: Beth, Cody, DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, Brick, Dawn, Lightning

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Sugar

Elimination Order:

16th/17th: Courtney and Scott

18th: B

19th: Shawn

20th: Dakota

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris narrated, his tone returning to its usual upbeat demeanor. "We touched down in Istanbul for a multi-team heist with twice the stakes on the line. That's right, double elimination! Each team had their own drama to deal with, be it the lack of trust with Team Explosive, half of Team Old School hatching a plan to prevent a tie, or Scott hankering for a chance to clear the air with Courtney. That last one wound up being costly, because our former villains turned hot and cold couple found themselves captured. Along the way they did rekindle their romance, but at the cost of losing their teams the challenge. Hope it was worth it!"

"Thanks to that, Scott AND Courtney got voted off, because Ms. CIT's own ally didn't follow their plan and prevented even a tie from potentially saving her. Way to go, Beth, I'm sure that won't come back to bite you." He chuckled mischievously, the perspective switching to him and Chef in the cockpit. "15 contestants remain airborne. Can Team Radioactive overcome their numbers disadvantage? Are DJ and Beth screwed now that Courtney's gone? Will Amy and Samey repair their relationship and become loving sisters? Kinda doubt that last one. But tune in to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Intro Credits ***

Following the double elimination ceremony, things started immediately in economy class where an air of awkwardness filled the area. On one side we had a grumpy Lightning and flustered Dawn, with Brick and Anne Maria just chilling in the meanwhile. On the other side Leshawna was gossiping with the Drama Bros duo about what just went down with Scott and Courtney. But on that note, DJ was staring at Beth with the biggest confused look he could manage.

Eventually the stare of judgement was too much for the wannabe to handle and she scooted close to DJ so she could whisper without being heard by anyone else. "Come on, DJ, I'd expect a look like that from someone like Courtney, but you?"

"You can't blame me for being confused, girl," DJ mumbled back, his tone stern but still trying to sound understanding. "Can't you tell me what happened?"

"I messed up, ok?" Beth sunk her face into her hands and groaned. "I really really REALLY didn't want to vote for Leshawna, and since I thought I convinced her to change her vote I thought it'd just force a tiebreaker instead."

The gentle giant furrowed his brow. "But if you HAD got her to switch votes, then we would have been able to keep Courtney here for sure."

A finger went up like Beth was about to retort but nothing came out. Any response she could give either didn't make sense or likely wasn't good enough to explain why she'd make such a poor game move. The judging look from the gentle giant became too much and eventually she sighed. "Ok, you're right, I messed up! I just really didn't want to be the reason Leshawna went home, you know?"

Beth looked out the jet window deep in thought. "It feels like people don't take me seriously in this season, it's like I may as well not even be here! But she really helped cheer me up and made it feel like I DO belong here. I don't know, I guess I just thought it would work out even if I didn't fully go along with the plan."

DJ listened to the defense carefully, visualizing himself in Beth's shoes and truly trying to see where she was coming from. He could see her point, some reassurance like that when you're down on yourself must be nice. He was all too familiar with getting labels like that following his poor performances in TDA and TDWT. But even then...

"Look, I get it. It really sucks having to vote nice people off, especially when they help you out like that. But this ain't our first rodeo, Beth. We should know by now that to win this thing sometimes you just gotta vote those people out. You wanna win, right? That means Leshawna has to get voted off at some point. I don't think she's the kind to take a pure game move personally."

The wannabe seemed almost aghast at DJ making actual game talk. He almost even sounded like the fallen CIT! "Courtney was right, at this point we're not in a great spot. Now that she's gone, right now if we lose again it's gonna be either you or me. If we wanna prevent that we either have to keep winning or figure out a way to convince one of the others not to work together. We wouldn't have that worry if she was still here. See what I mean?"

Once again, Beth had no proper comeback. Instead she merely hung her head. "You're right. I'm really sorry, DJ, I messed things up for us big time."

"Don't beat yourself up about it. It was a bad move but we're not out of the game yet." DJ placed his hand on her shoulder reassuringly, trying to lift the mood with a smile. "We'll just figure something out. We've got to."

*** Confessional: DJ ***

"A'ight, look, I know what some of you are probably thinking. Since when in the heck has DJ been the type to think about this game strategically? He's just supposed to be the boring nice guy that stands to the side!" He folded his arms and glared in determination. "Well darn it, this is my fourth season on this show and I don't wanna be that guy anymore! I don't know, I guess knowing I could go next if we lose again is lighting a fire under my butt. Maybe it's knowing how preventable it was to at least make it a tie instead for Courtney Whatever it is, I don't want to go home with a whimper again! Beth's the only ally I have right now, time to start putting in work and figuring out how I change that."

*** End Confessional ***

Elsewhere in the jet was first class. Occupied once again by Team Explosive for what must have felt like the 20th time this season. Good times for them, not so much for the rest of the cast. And yet, somehow not everyone in the winner's cabin could just sit back and enjoy themselves. Jasmine's leg was twitching at record speeds, to the point where it was even keeping Sammy awake next to her.

"I don't remember you being this on edge after our wins last season."

The Aussie looked down at her friend, only then noticing her frantic movements and calming herself. "Sorry. I hate that we can survive a bloody double elimination and I still don't feel like I can relax."

Sighing, the nice twin glanced off towards her sister. "Yeah, for real. Part of me just kinda wanted to get this dumb tie breaker over with. I'm ready to get Amy out of here myself and the sooner the better... but it would be pretty dumb for us to not try and win challenges, right?"

"Shawn would think I've lost my marbles if he knew I so much as humored the thought. Ugh, if only that drongo Rodney would have just took the hint and not taken the fall for her. Then she'd be long gone and we wouldn't keep having this conversation." Was she changing the topic slightly to escape the shame of the throwing a challenge idea entering her mind? Who knows. "Remind me to give him a walloping next time we see him."

"Hopefully that won't be until after the two of us are done with the finale." Sammy smiled at the thought. "Either way, we shouldn't let this stress us out. Trust me, I have more than enough experience letting Amy ruin my days, we should just keep our minds on something else so we don't give her the satisfaction."

Now it was Jasmine's turn to smirk. "Easy for you to say, mate. You still have your boyfriend in the game, mine's been eliminated. If you weren't here I'd probably be going kooky."

Somehow she saw that kind of comment coming, and even then Sammy still couldn't hold back a slight blush. "Pssh, we've just been having friendly talks, that's all. Cody isn't anything like that with me."

The Aussie leaned forward and jabbed her friend with her elbow. "Yet."

"... Yet."

While the friends giggled and Jasmine grilled Samey for more gossip on the budding relationship, the camera panned over to show the rest of the team. Beardo and Dave were in their own seats isolated from the rest of the team, the former snoozing and the later getting some grub at the snack bar. But on the opposite end of the room was Amy, leering over at her sister with an unimpressed scowl.

"What's got Sparemy feeling so happy all of a sudden?"

"Well we did win for like the millionth time," Sugar suggested, poking her head through the seats behind Amy and giving the cheerleader a startle. "You couldn't get this kinda pampering back on the island! ... or maybe they're all chatty about that pathetic wimpy boy your sister's been getting flirty with."

It took all the strength Amy could muster to prevent herself from throwing up at the mental image. "Oh my barf! You're telling me my sister has been flirting with... DAVE?!"

The pageant girl just gave her ally a blank look, followed by laughter. But then she noticed her expression wasn't changing. "No, darn it, she's been flirting with that Cody twig from the other team. You really ain't noticed it yet?"

Amy rolled her eyes and leaned back, digesting that info. "You think I willingly pay attention to what my less interesting sister does in her spare time? I'd rather literally die."

*** Confessional: Amy ***

"OMG, she can NOT be serious with this. I mean really, Cody? She had to pick a nerd out of everyone here?" She huffed and folded her arms. "I mean, I guess only a desperate dork would actually show any interest in her, but still. It's like she's trying to give ME a bad name by association . I know she only got on the squad because she's in my shadow, but she's still a cheerleader. Cheerleaders don't date ugly people! Ugh, guess I need to show her how it's done so people don't think bad taste runs in the family. Hopefully one of the other teams has a decent enough guy, Dave and Beard Guy aren't gonna cut it."

*** End Confessional ***

What better time than breakfast for Amy to survey her options? It was the next day and she stood near the back of the eating area, paying little attention to the gruel on her tray and more focused on what boys she had to pick from. With Cody written off, that left only four options remaining. But honestly? She could work with this. Brick was probably at the bottom of her preference list, but she made a mental note that the guy was giving off bottom energy as it was anyway. At least he was kinda cute in a messy kind of way.

DJ was easy on the eyes, but she noticed that he was talking a lot to some ugly nerd girl on his team. Were they a thing? Perhaps not, but if he was the type to willingly hang out with nerds then that would just defeat the purpose of showing up her sister's taste in those types. DJ having the baggage of bad taste in friends could be a deal breaker.

Which means Trent and Lightning were left. Hmm, the hunky musician was tempting. Especially with the whole being famous thing and all. Amy could see the social media hits on their selfies rolling in now. But ugh, same problem as DJ. There he was chatting up Samey's gross boyfriend. What's it with these people and taking pity on the less attractive? Was this some sort of charity work? Whatever the case, the fame factor at least kept him more viable than DJ. But for now? That narrowed things down to one last prime target...

"Alright, soldiers, obviously losing Scott had put us at a disadvantage as the team with the least amount of cadets remaining," Brick monologued to his team's table, Dawn listening patiently while Lightning and Anne Maria seemed unamused. "But I remain optimistic that the four of us can become a well oiled machine going forward! As such, I think it'd be a good idea to map out a plan so-"

Apparently that last talking point got a raise out of Lightning, who loudly snorted and shook his head. "Plan? Lightning don't need no damn plan. The only plan we should have is let Lightning do what he does best and everyone else stay outta his way! Y'all can just sha-ride my jersey tails once I'm done doing the work for us."

Brick blinked in confusion. "Uh, you mean coattails?"

"Lightning said what he said!" The jock huffed and took an aggressive sip of water.

"Come now, Lightning, I know you're upset about the last challenge but you shouldn't take it out on us," Dawn piped in. "We all made a good effort, it was Scott's slip up that forced a loss. And he's gone now, so-"

"So nothing! Lightning don't care about 'good efforts,' he wants WINNING efforts." Another huff followed by an angry spoon full of cereal. "It don't sit right with me that y'all are fine just settling for good. If you ain't trying to win, you ain't on the same page as Lightning. If you ain't first, you may as well be last!"

"So true, bestie," said Amy. Wait. Amy? Sure enough, the mean twin suddenly appeared and sat down next to Lightning. "Like ugh, what kind of losers wouldn't want to enjoy first class, am I right?"

Anne Maria narrowed her eyes at the cheerleader. "You get lost on the way to your table, blondie? Or did they get so fed up with ya that they kicked you out?"

Amy leered back, but was restraining herself enough so as to not make a scene. For now at least. "Um, no? They're just all super lame, I'm tired of spending more time with them than I have to. This table just seemed more... appealing."

She scooted a bit closer to Lightning, getting an eyebrow raise from Brick. Dawn meanwhile had just been staring her straight in the eyes the entire time. "My goodness, your aura... it's rare to see one so alarmingly black, let alone mixed in with those hues of orange and green. You've been showered with attention from a young age and yet it seems even then that it's not enough for you? What a troubled soul."

Not really knowing how to respond to that, Amy stared back for a moment before trying to brush it all off. "Wait, are you saying I'm just here looking for attention? OMG, you guys have it all wrong. I just wanna , you know, hang out and junk. Especially with you."

For a moment she tried to feel up Lightning's biceps but quick as a flash he jerked himself away and looked down in confusion. "The heck you doing trying to touch The Lightning?"

"Uh... checking out your muscles? Duh."

Wrong answer. Lightning just downed the rest of his food and stood up forcefully. "Un-sha-lievable! Is there some kinda dumb blushy crushy disease going around making people act a fool? First Scott and Courtney, then Dawn apparently goes and starts crushing on someone, now this? What's next, are Brick and Anne Maria gonna start swapping spit outta nowhere?"

His two teammates shared a quick look, both coming to the mutual answer of no without having to exchange words. Dawn meanwhile was flushed and a bit annoyed over being zeroed out. Would people just give her a break already?

"Well it ain't affecting Lightning! No distractions, no time for that crap. I ain't letting nothing get in my way until I got that championship ring secured." His stance vocalized he then stormed off to be anywhere that wasn't here.

"I don't think they give us those if we win," Brick yelled after his teammate, though it went ignored. He then noticed Amy just looking on in shock. "Er, sorry about that, I hope you weren't crushing too hard on him. He seems to be pretty anti-relationship right now, so if you were going to ask him to go steady with you, it's probably barking up the wrong tree."

"Which means save your breath," Anne Maria added, smirking a bit at seeing her so quickly turned down. "It ain't gonna happen."

Amy scoffed and flipped her hair, playing it off like she didn't care. "If I wanted a lesser woman's input I would have just asked my lame-o sister."

Unamused, the Jersey girl glared at her for a silent moment. She then whipped the hairspray bottle out at record speeds and sent Amy to the ground in a coughing fit. Brick and Dawn held their breath and watched in mild amusement while the mean twin got assaulted by the spray cloud.

*** Confessional: Anne Maria ***

"She really thought she did something there, huh?" While touching up her poof, she took the time to also inspect her fingernails. "Better hope she doesn't try to give me any lip again, for both of our sake. I don't need the tan coming off my knuckles after I throttle her."

*** Back on the Jet ***

Since the near death by suffocation scared her away for now, Amy crawled her way back to her own team's table. Against her better judgement, there was a part deep inside Sammy with the tiniest bit of concern for her sister's wellbeing. "You ok?"

"Do I look ok, you idiot?" Now aware that her sibling was nearby, Amy was now' ''accidently''' aiming her coughs towards Sammy. She took the hint and scooched away out of the splash zone. Jasmine just shook her head.

"I'd say it was worth a shot, but well..."

Unamused by all of this, Dave sighed and looked around for their host. "Where's Chris? Isn't it about now when he should come storming out in some borderline racist outfit and tell us where we're going?"

On cue Chris came waltzing into the room, looking annoyed. He was notably just in his regular attire. "Well sue me for having some fun this season! I had a really cool outfit planned this time, but if you guys are gonna be little spoil sports then you don't deserve to see it!"

"Boy, just cut the crap and tell us where we're going already, we don't care," Leshawna called from nearby.

The host glared back at her. "Geez, you kids are raring to go more than usual today. You act like it's been a while since the last time you got to do something. Over a year or something even!"

Chef joined the fray, giving the camera a knowing look, and held up a map of what looked like two big islands with a few much smaller islands between them. "We're gonna be landing in Samoa! We'll be doing things on one of its bigger islands, Upolu. And to make this challenge tick we're gonna be rubbing elbows with a genuine tribal chief from the island. So you maggots better be on your best behavior!"

Cody, realizing he had yet to do anything this episode, perked up at the details. "So, are they gonna like, be judging our challenge performance or something? Maybe guiding us to some crazy location?"

"Well I was gonna give you guys a rundown before we landed," Chris scolded, still looking pouty. "But since you're all so darn antsy to get the challenge started, I guess we'll just take care of that down on land. Chef, if you would?"

Suddenly Chris clung on to Chef's arm with a wicked grin. The larger man sighed but still whipped out a remote with a large red button. One click later and the plane was now flying sideways with the nearby emergency door shot open. One by one the contestants were sent careening into freefall, their screams echoing through the air. Another click and the jet was flying normally again. The host cackled in satisfaction.

"Ha! That's what they get for sassing me!" He stood there. Blinked. Blinked again. Looked around and remembered how high up they were. Then doubt started crawling in and he looked at his partner in mild concern. "We were above water when we did that, right?"

Chef shrugged.

*** Somewhere in Upolu Island ***

Soaking wet and thankfully not dead, the contestants had been corralled to a very safe and not at all stressful location. The top of an over 50m high waterfall. As soon as Chris and Chef joined the scene everyone was on guard for anything that might send them flying over the edge.

"Nice view, eh?" Chris grinned at the contestants. "This here is Fuipisia Falls. We had an abundance of waterfalls to choose from with this joint, but apparently this one's a big hit with the tourists. Believe it or not, we don't actually need you chumps jumping off it for the challenge, but hey, if any of you are so inclined we have cameras ready to catch the wipeout."

Trent and a few others cautiously peered over the edge. It wasn't as if they couldn't handle the drop, the show had well conditioned them for that by now. But he wasn't exactly raring to go for another fall. "Yeah, I think I'm good."

Chris shrugged. "Suit yourself. Chef here is gonna give you guys a rundown of the rules. Pay attention, because the difference in numbers between the teams is gonna give some of you more to think about."

His partner grunted and stepped forward. "Alright, maggots, listen up! The locals here are real big on tradition. They live by Fa'a Samoa, a way of life they've been keeping up for thousands of gosh darn years. Main thing that y'all gotta know is that respect is important to them. Respect your elders, don't be selfish, and know the importance of family."

Dominic Toretto gave a knowing nod. "Ain't nothing stronger than family."

"So today you lot are gonna be working to earn acknowledgment from the Matai, a tribal chief," he continued to explain while the intruder was escorted off the premises. "We're giving y'all four ways to try and do that. First up, tattooing! Tattoos are important to a lot of these Polynesian cultures, impress the big dog with your art skills and you're set. Second, you could try and step up for a game of Kilikiti. You heard of cricket? Well this is the Samoan spin on the game. Do good in it-"

"SPORTS?" Lightning suddenly yelled, damn near salivating at the mere prospect of athletics being an option for him.

"Yes sports, now shut your darn mouth! Hmph. Your third option is performing a traditional Samoan dance. But this ain't yo momma's normal dance, this is the Siva Afi. Aka? A fire knife dance! Try not to cut your limbs off. Or set yourselves on fire. Or both. Finally, you can try and prepare a meal using their traditional hot coals stove method, the umu."

Cody snickered to himself. "Heh, umu. More like uwu."

Next to him was his bandmate glaring. "I don't even know what you're referencing but for some reason I feel like slapping you."

"And here's the kicker," Chef yelled, somehow still not done with the explanation. "You fools gotta have at least one person do ALL of the options. Ain't no taking the easy way out like making everyone just cook or something. You wanna truly earn some respect? Show the chief that your team can do anything the island throws at y'all!"

An unimpressed Amy scoffed. "What makes this chief guy think he's such a big shot anyway? He should be the one begging for MY respect, not the other way ar-"

She cut herself off when suddenly the chief made his presence known, walking past the contestants and sizing them up. Dude was tall, ripped, long black hair, and tribal tattoos running down his arm. Seems Amy liked what she saw, so she promptly shut up.

"You were saying?" Chris taunted, chuckling. "So, since they're down to four that means everyone on Team Radioactive has to tackle one of the options solo. They have less people that need to earn the chief's acknowledgment, but they're going at everything themselves so there's less room for messing up. Meanwhile, Team Old School gets to have one pair on a task, while Team Explosive gets two pairs."

"Huh, so there's upsides and downsides to having more or less people on your team. That's surprisingly balanced coming from you," Beardo noted.

"I know, I impress even myself," Chris boasted, as if it was him who designed the challenge and not an underpaid writer. "Alright, you should know the drill by now for these kinds of challenges. Figure out who's doing what and we'll let you guys watch a demo of your respective task."

One could assume they weren't going to have much time to choose, so each team quickly gathered for a huddle.

"We've gotta make this count since we're all going at it alone," Brick pointed out the obvious for his squad. "Let's think over where each of our strengths lie and from there-"

"Lightning's doing sports."

The athlete wasn't going to budge on the matter, may as well rip that band aid off for the rest of them from the start.

His cadet teammate raised a hand to retort. "But we didn't-"

"Doesn't matter, don't care. Lightning does the sports. It's an easy win, you should be happy about it! I'm the one that's going to be doing all the work."

Dawn sighed and placed a hand on Brick's shoulder. "It's fine, I don't think he'd fare much better with any of the other tasks, this is what he was going to be left doing regardless."

"See? Even Scary Girl agrees!" Lightning flashed his teammate a grin, not noticing her lack of appreciation for the name calling. "And Lightning don't care what the rest of you do, just pick something y'all ain't gonna screw up on."

"Well guess who's already won us a first class ticket through her bomb ass cooking." Anne Maria pointed her thumbs towards herself. "You're looking at her! Umu schmoomoo, this'll just be the same story different place."

The aura reader blinked, thinking the prospect over. She wasn't opposed to cooking herself, but the idea of Anne Maria doing tattooing or knife twirling... "Yes, I think that's for the best as well. Personally, I'd like to think I'm well in tune with my artistic side so I'd quite enjoy trying the tattoo."

"Which would leave me with..." Brick gulped.

"If you're ok with that," Dawn replied. "I think I could manage the knife dance if you wouldn't be comfortable with it."

"No no, I'll do it! It's for the good of the team, after all!" He chuckled nervously. "I'm sure it'll go just fine..."

His teammates all cast worried glances.

*** Confessional: Brick ***

"Well the good news is that we practiced rifle spinning drills fairly often in boot camp. So I'm not going in blind for this sort of thing." Unfortunately he still felt a pit of dread at the bottom of his stomach while looking out the window. "The bad news is that I'd imagine a flaming blade is, well, a fair bit different than twirling around an unloaded gun."

*** At Fuipisia Falls ***

Meanwhile, Team Old School was having a deliberation of their own. Seems they wanted to start with the obvious.

"First thing's first, DJ should do the cooking again. It just feels like a given, right?" Trent looked around at his team. Everyone mumbled in agreement. "But that's kind of the only no brainer for us. Any takers on anything else?"

"I don't really like my chances with the flame dance or cricket game," Cody offered. "You know, injury prone and all that. I'm not the best artist around or anything, but I think I can handle the tattoo. I designed a bunch of our t-shirts after all!"

"No, you sketch the ideas and then we commission an actual professional to make the design itself." Still, it wasn't like Trent expected to do any better with it. Or at least, he didn't like his bandmate's odds doing one of the other choices. "But that's fine. Anyone el-"

"I have fire twirling experience," Beth suddenly pipped up. Finally, a chance for her to show off one of her genuine skills! "I mean yeah, I twirled batons and not knives, but it's still experience!"

"Didn't you almost set Wawanakwa on fire showing us that back in the day?" Leshawna pointed out. "I don't want you going out there and getting yourself cut, and I don't think the chief guy is gonna want you burning the joint up."

Beth blushed a bit but stood her ground. "That was ages ago! I've gotten way better at it over the years, so this should be no problem."

It was then that DJ realized they had a potential opportunity on their hands to help win their teammate over to their side and away from the Drama Brothers. Nothing better to help move things along than bonding over a challenge. "If you're worried for her, you could always join her for the challenge. We gotta double up somewhere, since the knife thing might get complicated it probably helps to have a partner for it to learn with."

Leshawna quirked an eyebrow. "I guess I don't mind, but I was kind of expecting to get down and dirty doing the cricket match. You sure you wanna stick beanpole over here on it?"

Trent scoffed in offense. "What's that supposed to mean, you think I can't do it? I've totally played cricket before, I can handle it no problem."

Huh. Well that worked. Maybe it was the spirit of Courtney trying to implant strategy in the back of his mind, maybe it was his momma calling out to him, perhaps it was even just his gut. But it looks like DJ successfully pulled an idea off. Maybe this whole become strategic thing was gonna work out after all! He shared a smirk with Beth and the perspective switched to our third team.

"You guys sure about this?" Beardo asked his team. "My pizza came up short last time."

"This one ain't about beating the others doing the cooking, it's just about ensuring you get the chief's approval," Jasmine explained. "Your pizza was fine, mate. You'll do fine cooking this time too."

"I ain't never played no grasshopper back on the farm, but it sounds like a hoot!" Sugar chuckled to herself mischievously. "And I reckon it beats some wimpy dancing or boring drawing at least."

Somehow the idea of leaving Sugar to do something she had no experience with wasn't an appealing idea to the Aussie. "Actually I was gonna volunteer for that. I've played the game plenty of times. Maybe not the Samoan version, but it can't be too different."

"What, would you rather have her drawing or flinging knives around?" Dave pointed out. "Why don't you both just do it? We gotta have a few pairs, so..."

Jasmine looked primed to object but Sugar beat her to the draw. "Works for me! So long as I get to do the fun challenge I don't care. But what's our other team gonna be?"

Next to her was Sammy, emotions swirling as she felt conflicted. Gosh this was going to suck, but it's for the good of the team. She'd just have to keep telling herself that. Time to get this over with... "Actually, I was thinking me and Amy could do the fire dance thing together."

The rest of her team, Amy included, seemed taken back by the suggestion. Her meaner twin chuckled. "You really think I WANT to work with you one on one?"

"Believe me, I'd rather team up with literally anyone else," her sister glared back. "But we've worked together on countless cheer routines before. We have the best skills for this kind of challenge and it'll be easier if we're helping each other out."

Obviously her twin wasn't going to be so easily convinced, so Sammy thought quick. "Plus if you have me to upstage, it'll probably impress the hot chief guy twice as much."

Amy's eyes lit up. "Hmm, tempting. I guess it DOES beat drawing on someone's gross back or whatever."

"Totally not helping right now, you guys realize that leaves me with the tattooing by default right?" Dave shuddered. "What if I get some kinda disease being near that needle? Who KNOWS where it's been?"

"You're not the one getting doodled on by it, you'll live." Jasmine didn't expect her wimpier teammate to fare any better with the other tasks, it was the best bet they had for him. Hopefully the choice wouldn't come back to bite them...

Sometime later the groups were each gathered in different little areas to watch what they'd be doing in action. The tribal chief had brought various locals along for demonstration purposes. The twins, Beth, Leshawna, and Brick could watch in shock and awe as talented performers showed off their fire knife twirling skills. For another example, different villagers allowed Dawn, Dave, and Cody to see their tattoos up close and personal before they then got to see one being made in real time on a teenage islander.

"So hypothetically what happens if we get one of these wrong?" Dave mused while taking mental notes of the example. "I mean these things are sorta permanent, right? Aren't they going to be mad if we mess it up?"

"Oh, don't worry, the tattoos you'll be doing are way too important to the Samoan culture for the chief to trust you with inking their own people," Chris explained, grinning off to the side. "I'll be the one providing you guys with your canvases!"

He whistled and suddenly out marched a line of scrawny malnourished interns. Conveniently none of them had any pre-existing tattoos to interfere with the work, plus were about the same age as the local getting his tattoo done. Yet for some reason none of them seemed particularly enthused about their situation.

"If you mess up, no worries, you just move on to the next intern and try it again!" The three of them looked slightly disturbed at how casual he was with offering up his worker's skin for slip ups and waved a hand dismissively. "What? You'll be leaving the interns with screwed up tats one heck of a unique souvenir! They're totally down for it, don't stress."

*** Cockpit Confessional: Dawn ***

"While Chris' cruelty is to be expected, as far as I know the interns aren't forced to work for this show. Yet each of their auras reek of misery. It begs the question of why anyone would willingly subject themselves to such a job when they know it's only going to bring them pain and despair?"

"They do it for the clout, sister," Chef explained wisely from the pilot seat. "Putting Total Drama on your resume is a hell of a conversation starter. Not to mention the social media hits! We had a guy test the gliding challenge in Columbia and he snapped some dope pics up there. I'm sure the banger numbers they pulled in is helping their hospital recovery feel a bit more cozy."

"Cozy," Dawn repeated in deadpan. She gave the camera an unnerved glance. "I suppose that's one way to describe it."

*** At Fuipisia Falls ***

Meanwhile, DJ, Anne Maria, and Beardo watched a local woman demonstrate how to prepare an umu plus what ingredients they'd have to work with. The process involved hot coals, wrapping things in banana leaves, slathering stuff up in coconut cream, then covering it all to cook with more leaves. The brickhouse was smiling intently, downright giddy to try this new way of cooking out for himself. As for the other two...

"I don't know about this one, chief," Beardo mumbled to himself in between bouts of reciting the tense music from the end of a Metroid game when Samus has to escape the imminent explosion.

"You too, huh?" the Jersey girl added, startling him a bit. Seems he didn't realize the others could hear him. "Like geeze, do these guys not know how to use a normal oven? It's WAY easier!"

"H-heh, yeah. Plus using leaves instead of pans? What's up with-"

"Shh!"

DJ gave the two a curt glare then went back to enjoying the demonstration.

Over with the kilikiti group, the four players were being treated to watch a quick game featuring some of the more athletic locals. As far as setup went they had a concrete pitch with both batters and wicket keepers at each end. In the field was quite a bulk of players, much more than a standard game of cricket would have. The competitors were having fun, some singing, even dancing whenever an enemy batter got out. Lightning and Sugar had picked sides to cheer on, watching intently and seemingly forgetting they should be studying. Trent and Jasmine meanwhile were calm and collected, just giving their full attention for the coming game.

"Come on now, hit a gosh darn homerun," Sugar yelled.

"This ain't baseball, mate, it doesn't work that way," her teammate chided.

Next to her Trent chuckled. "Seems like you've got a handful. You sign up for doing this with her or get stuck with it?"

"Bit of column A, bit of column B." She sighed, returning her attention to the game. "Obviously I'm not rapt to get stuck with her, but I reckon it's for the best if it means I can talk some sense into her if she starts playing wrong. I reckon it should all balance out. Not trying to sound cocky, but I'm a bit of a cricket beast back home."

"That right? Think it'll make a difference with the twist on it?"

Jasmine nodded confidently. "Looks like the main difference is they put a bloody lot of people in the field compared to normal cricket, I'm guessing that speeds the games up a bunch. But they seem to take this more casual than Chef made it sound like, so it's nothing I can't work around."

Trent nodded along, taking the time to size up who his performance was getting stacked up against. Jasmine probably was a beast, but hopefully Sugar's incompetence would hold them back some. As for the pro athlete, on paper the challenge was a match made in Heaven, but still... "Lightning, you ever play a game of cricket before?"

"Nah, just heard of it," he answered, too engrossed in the game to look away. "Ain't never got to sit down and watch a game before this."

"Oh?" Jasmine perked up and exchanged a smirk with the guitarist. "So you might struggle learning the ropes of it?"

Lightning scoffed. Him? Struggling with ANY sport? Time to educate these fools. "Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat and then running between the wickets, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this (by preventing the ball from leaving the field, and getting the ball to either wicket) and dismiss each batter (so they are "out"). Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side either catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground, or hitting a wicket with the ball before a batter can cross the crease in front of the wicket. When ten batters have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches. They communicate with two off-field scorers who record the match's statistical information."

"Forms of cricket range from Twenty20, with each team batting for a single innings of 20 overs and the game generally lasting three hours, to Test matches played over five days. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the basic kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball, which is a hard, solid spheroid made of compressed leather with a slightly raised sewn seam enclosing a cork core layered with tightly wound string."

Not giving the others time to pick up their jaws, he added one more tidbit. "Of course since this is a bit different it's got wicker keepers on both ends of the pitch instead of just one, plus it looks like they allow bigger field teams. And I guess they ain't wearing any of the usual gear, Lightning can respect that."

With that explained he could enjoy the game in peace with no care for the weird looks the other three were now giving him.

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"What? You best believe Lightning does his homework when it comes to sports! Just because I ain't played it don't mean I don't like hearing about it. Lightning ain't played a lick of Pato all his life, but I can still tell you all about how crazy they go for it over in Argentina!" Boy just stared at the camera for a while with a goofy grin, as if this should have been no surprise to anyone. Then he started scratching his head. "Ya know, I remember a bunch of my teachers telling me my grades would have been better if I payed as much attention to math or whatever as I did to sports. Well it's their fault for making it so dang boring, math time is time I could have spent learning how to sumo wrestle!"

*** Near Fuipisia Falls ***

Now that the demonstrations were done, the challenge was fully underway. The chief along with Chris and Chef took their seats to watch the kilikiti games since it'd be the most active ongoing thing to judge, but the others all needed to just have an intern call Chris on a walkie to send them over for a check. Interns lined up to face the music for their tattoos, Dawn seeming to have the biggest line. Cooks began to prepare their umu, with DJ trucking along peacefully while Beardo and Anne Maria struggled. Finally, the fire knife group was having a time mapping out the performance they'd be putting on. Brick barely even wanted to go near the knives, and the twins were deep into an argument over which cheer routine would lend itself best to spinning blades of hellfire. Comparatively, the Team Old School girls were looking like a well oiled machine.

"OH SH-" Leshawna dived out of the way as one end of the flaming knife came flying down at her head. Perhaps well oiled machine was putting it generously.

"Hey, that wasn't bad, you got a lot more rotation than the last attempt," Beth cheered on from nearby. Unlike the others, she was a natural. The way the dance worked was that the knives were attached at one end of a rod. It wasn't quite a baton but it was similar enough to where Beth got the hang of things relatively quickly.

"Easy for you to say, you took to that thing like it wasn't nothing." The sister with 'tude tried out a slower, more careful spin, but after a few seconds she lost the rhythm and it clanked to the ground. "I should have just let you do this solo and gone for the cricket game or something."

"Ah don't say that, I think this works out perfectly!" And not just because this bonding time would hopefully make Leshawna more susceptible to voting against her boys. "Sure I can twirl the knife good, but that's about it. I have no idea how to make the actual dancing part work. But that's way more your style! I can teach you the fundamentals, and you help make our performance actually click!"

Leshawna quirked an eyebrow. "That's... actually a good point. Tch, why's it gotta be on fire though? Was throwing around a big ass knife on its own not good enough for em?"

Nearby with the twins, Sammy getting her sister to see reason was proving about as easy as pulling teeth. "Would you please just listen to me? It's simple, you have better balance than me so you should be the one standing on top for the finish."

"Like, normally that's what I'd be doing anyway but you expect me to trust you throwing that knife straight up at me?" She scoffed. "Yeah, totes not falling for that one."

"You say it like I would trust you with throwing a deadly weapon at me anymore than the other way around," Sammy deadpanned. "I'm used to being in the bottom of the pyramid, I've got the upper body strength to handle it. I do better with cheering while handling weight than-"

"WEIGHT? Did you just call me fat?!" Her sister glared back twice as hard as she had been.

"No!" Sammy groaned into her hands, then looked Amy over a few times with a scowl of her own. "But you know what? Now that you mention it I-... I think you've been packing on too much sweets in first class!"

And in a flash Amy tackled her, kicking off a wrestling match that the pedestrians watched in great amusement. Brick meanwhile shook his head and went back to mapping out a gameplan for how he was gonna make this work.

Not faring much better was Dave, nervously looking back and forth between the bare back of an intern and a reference picture for the tribal tattoo he'd be applying. Every once in a while he'd draw a tiny bit more, but his obsessive nature wouldn't allow him to proceed any further without double or triple checking each move. The state of the interns weren't helping much.

"Good lord you reek," the germaphobe complained. Trying to focus was proving easier said than done when he didn't have some hand sanitizer to offset whatever germs this dude's back was carrying. "When's the last time you washed off, when we were in Ireland?"

"You think Chris actually gives us a shower to use?" the intern replied in a gravely voice. His bored tone quickly made way for a yelp as he felt the tattoo pen carelessly scrape against his torso. Seems the news of just how bad his canvas' hyenine really was could be enough to make Dave flinch. He then dropped the machine on the intern's back all together, too focused on trying to wipe the filth off his hands.

"Ew ew ew, that is so-" Dave peered down. The intern's back was now covered in random violent lines of ink. There was no saving this tattoo. "Oh come on, look what you made me do! Ugh, can I get a new intern over here?"

The lanky dude left, replaced with an equally generic beanpole of an intern. His replacement was instantly nervous seeing what he was getting into but he figured his best bet was to just stay quiet and not deter Dave's focus. Nearby Cody watched the ordeal and chuckled. His progress was slow and steady, but it was coming along well enough.

"Dang, starting over already? Well I guess it could be worse, you could have been nearly done." The Drama bro shrugged. "Not that I'm complaining if you want to take your time finishing. No offense."

"It's not like you're that far ahead of me," Dave grumbled, leering over at Cody's progress. "We got stuck with the dumbest challenge. It'll take ages for any of us to finish."

Suddenly Chris, Chef, and the tribal chief appeared, marching by the boys and paying them no mind. Dave and Cody gawked as the trio made their way over to Dawn's work area.

"Alright Dawn, this better be good. Trent's cricket game was just getting good." Chris stood aside and let the chief do his work.

Miraculously, Dawn's intern already had a full tattoo wrapping all around his torso. The chief inspected the ink thoroughly, fully expecting a sloppy job full of errors and poor artistry. But to his shock, that wasn't here. The detail? Immaculate. The linework? Breathtaking. Resemblance to their local tattoos? Uncanny. Somehow he was met with a tattoo you could tell had care and respect put into it, and it was done in record time.

Bewildered but nonetheless impressed, the chief gave a thumbs up. Dawn smiled while the boys dropped their jaws.

"Huh, good hustle!" Chris clapped and pushed the intern off to go get back to work. "And in one go too, nice. Now let's get back to that game."

Dave and Cody silently exchanged a look. Then they both picked up their needles and furiously got back to drawing, both their interns wincing. Chef trailed behind Chris and the chief, suddenly remembering that Dawn now had nothing to do.

"You can roam around and see how the others are doing if ya want, just don't interfere in the challenges. If not, there's some chairs and stuff back at the waterfall, you can hang with the other guy that finished."

Dawn quirked an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh? Someone else finished already?"

Flashforward a few minutes later and we find DJ lounging on a chair near the top of the waterfall, sipping from an exotic beverage. On his lap was some leftovers of his umu made meal, a taro and veggie dish laced with coconut cream. His ears perked up at the sound of someone approaching and he waved. "What's up, Dawn! Figured I'd be seeing you done sooner rather than later."

Smiling at her newfound company, she took a seat next to the brickhouse and nodded. "I must say it's a nice change of pace to have a challenge that's actually fun for once. I've always been fascinated by the tattoos from countries where they carry such cultural significance, though you might find that surprising just looking at me."

DJ waved a hand dismissively. "Nah, I think you could totally pull a tat off if you wanted to. Me personally, I think they're cool but I know momma wouldn't approve of me getting one." Perhaps not wanting to open the window for a deep dive into his struggles with his mother's wishes, he promptly changed the subject. "So how was Cody doing back there? Think he's doing ok with it?"

"He seemed to be making decent progress though I think his finishing will take significantly longer than mine," she admitted. "And how about Anne Maria? Her aura always radiates confidence but I'm not so sure how easily she'll take to the umu's cooking method."

"Well..."

Over at the cooking station Beardo flinched as Anne Maria let out another frustrated yell. It distracted him enough to let his own potential dish slip out of its banana leaf and fall to the coals below. Watching his food burn up past the point of no return, he imitated the Super Mario Bros sound effect for losing a life.

"Can a girl get a dang skillet or something? This stupid leaf cooking ain't doing it for me." Her pleas were met with silence. "Ugh!"

"Heh, I, uh, guess it wouldn't be much of a challenge if we could just cook things normally, right?"

Anne Maria rolled her eyes. Captain Obvious, much? "Well whateva, I could deal with it being tricky if DJ didn't zoom through this like it wasn't nothing. You'd think the guy was used to cooking like this."

"Well he's basically a pro chef, maybe he's dipped his toes in cooking with coals before." Since he had to start over anyway, Beardo started surveying his potential ingredients. DJ went for a veggie dish and soared right through, now he was starting to doubt his own meal idea. "Uh, hey, if you don't mind me asking what kinda meal are you making?"

The jersey girl gave him a cautious leer. "If you copy me I'll throttle ya. But uh, I was trying to make this pork and chicken dish, maybe add in a bit of banana to shake it up a bit. You?"

"I'm feeling a seafood kinda vibe," he mumbled, imitating some underwater gurgling sounds and bubbles popping. "I got some fish, a bit of octopus, maybe a bit of lobster thrown in. But now I'm kinda worried it might be too, er, fishy. Maybe it needs some veggies or something?"

"Eh, if you think you had a good thing going it'd be dumb to change it up." She shrugged and got to work trying to wrap some meat in the banana leaves. "Assuming you can actually get the stupid things wrapped up to begin with."

Hmm, yeah the fish was easy enough but the lobster and octopus was proving a bit awkward for his unexperienced leaf crafting to suffice. But maybe there was another way even if they didn't have pots and pans to work with. Humming the Jeopardy theme to himself, Beardo kept scanning the supplies until his eyes landed on some coconuts. Suddenly, he let out a ding.

"Hey, I think I got an idea. Wanna help me out and we can both try it?"

Anne Maria raised an eyebrow. "You sure it's smart to be helping the enemy? Pfft, whateva. I ain't getting nowhere with this so count me in."

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

"... A'ight yeah, just handing out hints to someone on the other team probably ain't the best play when it could be the difference between winning and losing. But I couldn't help it! It's been weird enough adjusting to coming out of my shell and talking to groups, being alone with a girl and talking to JUST her is a whole other level." He chuckled sheepishly. "I'm sure my team will cut me some slack... right?"

*** Throughout Upolu Island ***

Montage time! Intense tropical drum music accompanied a series of clips as the competitors made attempts on their challenges. On the Kilikiti side of things, Trent was first up to bat. He swung for the fences and sent the ball flying, but it was caught by an islander on the other team before it could hit the ground. He snapped his fingers but overall took the fault pretty well. Next was Jasmine, who hit the ball with impressive precision and made it bounce along the ground safely while she crossed the pitch. This was in stark contrast to Sugar, who swung wild and ferociously. The ball avoided getting caught before it hit the ground but rather than just run across the pitch Sugar just tried hitting each corner of the field as if they were baseball bases. Jasmine face palmed.

But of course once Lightning had his turn he struck the ball far enough to send it flying wildly into the trees. And once a teammate was gearing up to take his swing, reserve balls thankfully being on standby, Lightning shoved him away and took the bat instead. Just to show off to the chief his batting skills a second time. Elsewhere, the tattoo duo was hard at work drawing. Cody had called the chief over for inspection, but after a quick once over he was met with a thumbs down and a new intern. Dave let himself get distracted while eavesdropping on his enemy's results, leading to a nasty botched line. He cursed and motioned for a new intern to take this one's place.

Finally it was time to check in with the fire knife dancers. Brick was going for a rather intense military drill sort of routine, but despite having a good rhythm going he miscalculated one spin and wound up singing his pants. He abandoned the show to go find some water to jump into. Next up was Team Old School. Beth was killing it with her twirling, really putting those years of baton spinning to use. Leshawna meanwhile was taking it slower but emphasizing her dance moves more. The two tried to synchronize as best as they could but they weren't quite there yet. Instead they bumped into each other and had to jump out of the way when the collision sent their knives flying into the air and plummeting back down. Last was the twins, but their routine quickly devolved into a farce. Each tried to upstage the other with what they felt would be a better dance to match their knife spinning. After one butting in too many, Amy shoved her sister back with the rod. Sammy wouldn't be deterred and pushed back with her own. Soon enough both sisters were essentially dueling, thankfully sticking to just shoving each other with the rods themselves and not swinging the flaming knife ends at each other. The chief exchanged a bemused look with Chef while Chris munched on some popcorn.

"You're SURE we don't need some kinda security watching those two to make sure one doesn't wind up shanked?" Chef asked as the three of them marched into the umu cooking area.

"I'm sure they'll be fine, it's just two sisters that hate each other's guts wielding some bladed weapons. What's the worst that could happen?" Chris wasn't going to give him time to answer that. "Beardo! Anne Maria! You guys got something for us to try or do you wanna keep wallowing in DJ's shadow?"

Anne Maria cracked her knuckles, stepping aside to let the chief have a taste of her meal. "Keep talking smack and I got something to wallow you with right here."

She had prepared a meat dish with chicken, pork, and lamb with a bit of toasted banana on the side. While the food was presented on banana leaves, the actual cooking had been done utilizing some busted open coconuts. Her and Beardo found it easier for themselves to cook with, plus it would hopefully add a bit of flavor since they were already using coconut cream as cooking oil. The beatboxer meanwhile had prepared his seafood dish as intended. A few different fish, octopus, and some steamed lobster.

There was a long tense pause, both hopeful competitors waiting in anticipation. Until finally, the chief burped and flashed two thumbs up.

"Looks like you're both good to go! Hey, maybe Team Radioactive won't suck eggs for once." Chris chuckled to himself. "But that's up to Lightning and Brick."

On that note it was time for the three men to return to the Kilikiti field to watch the teams try playing defense, so they took their leave. Anne Maria seemed confused about something, but that would have to wait. Beardo shuffled over, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for the help, those things can be a pain in the neck to crack open on your own."

"Using the coconuts was your idea, bub, I should be thanking you." She shrugged it off. "Then again I'm pretty great so yeah, you're welcome. Now don't take this personal but I gotta blow this pop stand. The poof needs a few new coats after being around all this heat and I gotta go see what's taking Lightning so dang long."

In the uber jock's defense, no one had qualified from the Kilikiti group yet. With the casual vibe the game took, coupled with having to change out for the three different teams showing their skills, it ensured things were drawn out. A fact Lightning was all too aware of while he stood waiting, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Break time's over! Where the heck that lazy chief at?"

"Dude chill, they'll get back when they get back." Trent pointed a thumb back at some of the tired players. "We've already been going at it for a while, it was about time for a break anyway."

"Ya know what big forehead dude? You're right!" Well he didn't appreciate the shade, but Trent raised his eyebrows in surprise. Had he managed to make Lightning see to reason? "We HAVE been going way too long. What's the damn hold up giving me my pass? I've smoked all you fools on the pitch, I should have been cleared by now!"

And that would be a no. Trent rolled his eyes, tuning the jock out and instead glancing over at what Team Explosive was doing.

"Girlie you can tell me it ain't the same sport all ya like, but the fact that you're saying I should try and catch the ball before it hits the ground? Sounds a loooot like baseball to me." Sugar folded her arms.

Jasmine pinched the bridge of her nose. "I know, I know, just... ok so maybe it's a BIT like baseball but that's not the important-"

"Oh! If you don't want me out in the field then do you reckon I could try bowling? I can hit strikes like nobody's business!"

"Just because the position is called the bowler doesn't mean you handle it the same as-" Seeing that the hosts were returning, Jasmine thought quick and sighed. "Fine, that might work out. Just don't treat it like you're out literally bowling, you need to try and throw the batter off guards, curve the ball and whatnot."

Sugar smirked and scooted closer. "You mean like throwing a baseball?"

"... yes, like throwing a baseball."

Upon the chief's return all the teams lined up to hear who'd be first up to play. Or at least that was the plan until Lightning pushed his way to the front of the crowd.

"Yo, chief dude, how about we just cut to the chase and let me go before I embarrass the rest of these dudes anymore?" Did he need a flex to be convinced? Lightning flexed his biceps in case he needed the extra assurance. "I mean, come on! You already know I'll sha-smoke defense just as much as I did offense! Your time's important, right? Why waste it?"

Silently the chief narrowed his eyes at Lightning, letting him stew in the anticipation of his decision. Then he just snorted and walked past the jock, pointing at Jasmine and Sugar's team instead. Any loud objecting Lightning threw out was swiftly ignored and disregarded.

"Team Explosive, try not to suck out there," Chris added. "Looks like the peanut gallery came along to watch in case any of you make a joke out of yourselves."

Indeed, it seemed DJ, Dawn, Anne Maria, and Beardo had all arrived to spectate the performances. With leftovers of the three cook's meals to pass around it was starting to feel like a genuine festive kilikiti game. Naturally Chris and Chef helped themselves to some of the food despite not being offered any.

"Don't listen to him, y'all are gonna kill it," Beardo cheered on, providing ample ambience to make it feel like a genuine stadium game despite them being in the middle of a tropical forest. Cheers from a packed crowd, cow bells, vuvuzelas, even those meme deejay airhorn sound effects. The chief looked at Chef in confusion, who could only shrug.

"We don't know how he makes them noises either."

For what it was worth, the over the top noises were effective at amping the girls up. Jasmine took a ready stance and Sugar flashed the enemy batter a toothy grin. The country girl made for a surprisingly competent bowler, while it took some getting used to even her first throws nearly duped the hitters. Whenever they came near Jasmine she ran into action and tried to catch. First was a dud, then she passed the ball to a teammate who hit the wicket in time before the enemy was done running. Finally, she was able to catch a ball before it hit the ground. Her and Sugar both cheered, with the later holding her arms up like she scored a touchdown.

"Yeeee haw, way to catch them baseballs!" Jasmine was so hyped up from the victory that she didn't even correct her. "But you ain't having all the fun! Watch and learn, sister."

Sugar took a nice big snort then hocked a loogie on the ball, presumably to put a little extra stank on it. She locked eyes with the enemy batter, taking note of his stance and guessing what way he'd probably try to swing. Taking her time, she slowly winded up and watched for a weak point. Watching... watching... bingo. Sugar bowled the ball to the side and applied a spin to make it curve the other way. It was too late for the batter, he had already swung the initial direction with no chance to correct himself mid-swing. In a flash the ball shot past him and into the wicket. The bails came tumbling down and the girl's team cheered.

"Good on ya, mate." Jasmine laughed, impressed and amused. "Heck of a bowl."

A whistle suddenly rang out and the players turned to see the chief watching them intently. He looked at Sugar, then Jasmine, then around at the other players. After deciding whatever it was he needed to see, he turned to Chris and gave a thumbs up.

"Jasmine and Sugar advance," the host confirmed. "Halfway done for Team Explosive."

Beardo whooped and cheered for his teammates while the others politely clapped. Well, most of the others.

"Hold up, ref, their defense was alright but Sugar's batting was crap! You're gonna give them a pass before me with that mediocre hustle?" He huffed in contempt. "Put Lightning in the game and I'll show you how it's REALLY done."

Once again the chief just silently stared at him for a bit before instead turning to Trent's team and pointing. And yet again he'd ignore any objections.

"Music man, you're up," Chris called.

"You got this, Trent!" DJ clapped in support. He'd offer more if he could, but he didn't have any sound effect prowess.

Unfortunately for Trent he lacked Jasmine's athleticism or Sugar's raw grit. These locals doing the batting were more experienced and playing to the best of their ability. But darn it he was gonna try his best. Time after time he'd chase a ball but just barely miss throwing it towards the wicket in time to bowl out the runner. Nonetheless he kept pushing himself while his teammates offered words of encouragement. Finally after about a dozen tries, he passed the ball to a teammate who successfully got the runner out in time.

Despite this only being his first success, Trent pumped his first victoriously. "Yes!"

Yet again the whistle interrupted the match and the guitarist froze up, fearing that perhaps he did something wrong and got his team a foul. He felt the tribal chief's icy stare, watching him, judging him. All he could offer as a nervous chuckle, hoping for something that wasn't too serious. Eventually the big man once again faced the host and nodded in approval.

"And would you look at that, seems Trent has cleared his challenge too!"

Any celebratory pop off the guitarist was enjoying with DJ quickly became background noise when Lightning stormed up to the hosts in a fury. "No way! Letting them newbie girls pass is one thing, but that boy was flopping out there! He got one good throw outta, what, sha-hundred? You really wanna reward bad gameplay like that?"

"Boy?" Trent mumbled, his tone tinged with offense. "I'm the one that's older than him..."

Needless to say the Team Old School duo didn't want to stick around just so they could listen to more complaining, so they decided to leave and go check on how Beth and Leshawna were doing. Beardo, Jasmine, and Sugar had already done so to go make sure Amy and Sammy hadn't killed each other yet. Anne Maria glanced at Dawn and sighed. They really didn't have time for this...

"Who cares what's up with the other teams, big guy! Just shut your yap and put your money where you mouth is!"

Dawn would jump in with a more gentle approach, clapping in support. "We believe in you, Lightning!"

The jock was unimpressed with the cheering. "Sha-duh you should believe in me, it's SPORTS!" Still, the unamused chief was motioning to the pitch for Lightning to finally take his turn, so he relented and jogged out to get into the zone. "A'ight, stand back and watch how a pro does it!"

He was like a man possessed out there. Each time a ball went flying, Lightning was there to catch it. Even if the balls went too high where the average man couldn't hope to reach, he merely needed to jump good. If the ball went flying to the other side of the field he hauled ass on over there and caught it despite there being other players who were closer. Heck, at multiple points he would even knock his teammates out of the way so he could grab the ball instead. Even the batters who hit low and made the ball roll weren't safe, he could just pick it up and bowl the runner out by hitting the wicket with pinpoint accuracy. Heck since he still hadn't been told to stop yet at one point he just straight up pushed the bowler out of the way to bowl the enemy out himself.

Finally the chief had seen enough and blew the whistle.

"Finally! Lemme guess, you got so caught up watching perfection do his thing that you forgot to call it earlier." Lightning kissed his bicep proudly. "Well I can't say I blame ya. Come on girls, let's go watch-"

Suddenly the chief held his hand out to stop Lightning in his tracks. Dude looked one part annoyed, another part disappointed. He shook his head and gave the jock an enthusiastic thumbs down.

"Ooooh, tough break! Looks like Lightning has still yet to pass," Chris confirmed.

Lightning's jaw dropped in an instant. "I-... WHAT? I played every single thing perfectly! Caught every ball, hit every wicket, scored every point. The hell do you MEAN I don't pass yet?"

Once again the chief just shook his head, strolling off to really give him time to simmer in the sting of defeat. Chris and Chef followed after, the later glancing back with a steely glare. "How about you try and figure out why you're still not cutting it while we go check in on the tattoo stringbeans. Then when we get back, you try it again!"

Well rather than think about it, Lightning seemed to just shut down completely. Once they were gone the athlete just fell to his knees and stared at the ground in bewilderment. "It doesn't make any sense..."

Clearly this wasn't looking good. Anne Maria and Dawn came to their teammate's side for support but he didn't even seem to notice they were there. As he replayed each of his plays back in his head, Lightning couldn't spot a single flaw. He truly played flawlessly. So why in the world was he denied the victory he felt he had earned?

"Alright, yeah, you were playing like a beast out there. Definitely better than any of the others who passed," Anne Maria reasoned. "So it's gotta be deeper than that. You messed up on something else OTHER than having to play good."

"But what else matters?" Lightning asked incredulously. "It's SPORTS!"

Dawn tapped on her chin and hummed in thought. Looking back at the other team's performances she recalled Trent's determination despite not having the skills everyone else had, trusting in the rest of his teammates to help him with the game instead. Jasmine allowing Sugar to play the position she wanted and their reactions to each other bowling out an enemy. Meanwhile Lightning was shoving his teammates out of the way just to show off. Then it all clicked for her.

"Lightning, if I may, I think I have a theory as to why the others passed and you didn't. Remember what we were told before the challenges began, about how much the locals value respect and acting as a unit?" He didn't seem to be following so she'd have to put it in more obvious terms. "I think the problem is you've been playing too selfishly. You're so caught up showing off your own skills that you're making the game unfun for everyone else. Meanwhile Trent, Sugar, and Jasmine took to cooperating quite well despite their varying skill levels."

Now that she understood, Anne Maria would add her two cents. "In others words, you're playing too much like an asshole. When they get back try being more of a team player. Support the other bozozs and all that jazz."

Lightning blinked in confusion. "But... why should that matter? If Lightning is getting the points who cares if it's all just him or not?"

"Because to this culture the game is more than just mere sport, it's about bonding and community," Dawn pointed out. And yet, the athlete still seemed confused all while the chief was on his way back. Fine, maybe she needed to put it more in a way that would get through to him. "Lightning just... LISTEN to us! We're telling you this is what you need to do, so you're going to go out there and DO IT. Listen to us and go be a TEAM PLAYER! If the ball isn't coming to you, just trust in the others, treat it like you're the one watching the game instead of being in it. Whatever suffices for you, just DO IT!"

Anne Maria and Lightning both looked at their teammate in shock. Only when the trio of Chris, Chef, and Chief returned did they finally snap out of it.

"No dice on Dave and Cody, but they're getting there." Chris snapped his fingers. "Alright, let's try it again Lightning!"

Dawn was still giving him a determined expression so Lightning sighed and picked himself up. "Fine, I'll do it your way. But this better work, or it ain't Lightning's fault if we lose!"

Their teammate stormed off to the pitch and Anne Maria scooted closer. "Where the heck did all of THAT come from? I didn't know your voice got that loud."

She tried to play it off nonchalantly but couldn't hide a faint blush from embarrassment. "Ah, well he's very bull headed, Lightning holds his own opinion in such high confidence that it takes quite a bit to break through to him if he's in the wrong. I thought perhaps talking to him as if I was a coach might help."

"Huh. Smart." The Jersey girl glanced over at the pitch, then back at the chief. "Well let's just hope that gave him the memo or we might have to vote him off..."

Moment of truth. Obviously Lightning wasn't feeling as confident knowing he wouldn't be giving this his 100 percent effort, but if Brick had tried to hammer anything into his head all these episodes in a row it was that maybe giving teamwork a try might be worth it. And so, he played. If the ball flew towards him you knew he'd still jump into action to catch it, but he tried to be less forceful throwing it when he had to take shots at the wicket. But more importantly, he let his teammates do their own things too. If he was nowhere near the ball, he let the ones that were go for it. Sometimes they failed to bowl out the enemy in time and it took every ounce of his willpower to not chastise the teammate when it happened. But with Dawn and Anne Maria's cheering and guidance from the sidelines, he'd just politely clap and hold his tongue.

But then something interesting happened. When his teammates did get the job done and bowl out opponents without his help, he felt oddly hyped up. As Dawn had suggested, it was as if he was watching the game unfold on TV rather than him being there, and seeing his team succeed was getting louder and louder reactions from him. Woops, cheers, fist pumps, the works. Soon Lightning was full blown popping off not only when he bowled an opponent out, but when his teammates did too. All capped off when one teammate passed him the ball from nearby, setting him up beautifully to hit the wicket before the runner could reach safety. Could he have ran and got that ball and still hit the wicket without their help? Probably. But something about the cooperation to make the play happen got him more excited than anything.

"Sha-yeah, that's what I'm talking about." Lightning ran over to the team member and jumped in for a chest bump. He was in the middle of dapping them up when the familiar whistle sounded off.

Everyone stood at attention, waiting with baited breath. The chief looked at Lightning, then his Kilikiti teammates. Next he glanced over Dawn and Anne Maria. There was no way Lightning figured out what he was doing wrong in such a short timeframe on his own. Dude had help. Meaning he actually listened to his team and put their suggestions into motion...

He held out the thumbs down... before quickly turning it up and nodding in approval.

"And Lightning qualifies," Chris announced. "Took him long enough."

To his credit, Lightning wasn't going to leave his teammate hanging. He finished dapping bro up before he went over to double high five Dawn and Anne Maria.

"Not too shabby, big guy," the later congratulated between hair spraying. "Told ya you should trust us."

"And did I detect hints of joy and excitement in your aura when you were watching your teammates succeed?" Dawn added. "Perhaps what Brick's been telling you all this time about the benefits to cooperating with others holds some merit after all, hm?"

Lightning wasn't about to admit that he was wrong just yet, so thankfully he could use that to change the subject. "Hey, speaking of the guy we should go make sure he's doing alright. First class is all ours if he can finish before the others. Let's go!"

He jogged off, forcing the girls to trail after him.

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"Look, I ain't admitting that I was wrong or nothing like that. I WAS the star kill-a-cricket player out there and ain't nobody denying that! But... yeah, I guess it's also kinda fun watching your team do good too. Which is why Brick better nail this thing, all that playing I did deserves a first class rest!"

*** At the Fire Knife Area ***

Quite the crowd had amassed to watch the dangerous dance demonstrations. Once the Team Radioactive trio plus the hosts arrived, it was pretty much everyone except Dave and Cody. No pressure on the performers or anything, yeah? Conveniently all three seemed primed to show off their skills, but it looked like Beth and Leshawna would be going first, with the twins standing in line next. Brick took up the rear, whispering words of encouragement to himself.

Perhaps sensing how fucking long this chapter was shaping up to be, Chris motioned for things to begin. "Alright, Beth and Leshawna, try not to maim anyone in the process, yeah? Or at the very least, make sure I'm safe. Show us what you got!"

Some traditional Samoan drum music started up at first, with Beth taking the lead and spinning the flaming knife around wildly. She did a few basic tricks, tossing it up and catching it, swinging it around her body, tossing it under one leg to catch with the other hand. Suddenly a record scratch sounded and the music returned with an R&B type beat mixed in with the drums. Leshawna now joined Beth and the two synchronized their spinning. Beth was going a bit slower now so her partner could keep up but the slower pace better matched the change in music. Leshawna was grooving and schmoovin, much more emphasizing the dance part of the act while Beth focused on crazy spinning tricks. Their dancing was awkward but they were confident and having fun with it so that didn't seem to hinder them. Leshawna would toss their knife at Beth and she would briefly juggle them before tossing it back. For their unexpected finale, they opted for something a bit risky but eye catching. Which is to say, Beth now tossed her rod at Leshawna, but rather than catch it to throw it back the larger girl instead booty bumped it. A move they greatly had to practice to ensure the handle was hit rather than the knife itself. Still, it got a good reaction from the crowd who cheered as the two flourished and struck a pose once their routine ended.

"That... was so... fun," Beth managed to get out between her heavy breathing.

Equally out of breath, Leshawna chuckled nervously. "That damn well better have won because I don't think I can pull that off a second time."

Thankfully for the girls it did indeed work out. The chief smirked and clapped in approval.

"Team Old School passes the test," Chris yelled. "Now they're just waiting for Cody to finish! But this ain't about him right now, let's move on with the show. Amy and Samey, think you can tie things up for Team Explosive?"

Amy looked primed to make some sort of quip about her sister being the one it hinged on, but Sammy cut her off with a stern glare before she had a chance. "We'll do more than just tie it up. We'll-"

"Steal the show," Amy finished, not about to let her have all the glory. She smirked and the nicer twin rolled her eyes, but nonetheless took her position.

The start of their performance was very much just like a classic cheer routine. Except the pom poms were replaced with flaming knife rods. Still, they led the crowd along with cheers to the beat of the drums, spinning their knives around at a slower pace than Beth but still at a good rate. Sometimes they would pass their knife to the other sister and do a cartwheel or midair somersault. They'd then be tossed their knife back and catch it mid-stunt. Next they'd try vaulting off of each other while continuing their spinning, which looked dangerous but the sisters had it down to a science. Finally, Sammy would kneel down and allow Amy to stand on her shoulders, standing up to show off their balance and coordination. The nice twin would toss a knife up for her sister to catch, while Amy would drop one in turn. Sammy would catch it and they'd continue the routine, getting ooo's and aaa's. And for the final stunt, Amy was given both knives and spun one in each hand. She jumped down into Sammy's waiting hands, vaulting off from her sister and letting one knife go mid-air. Sammy caught it and posed in time to Amy's own pose upon landing.

Once again the crowd cheered, many on Team Explosive shocked to see the twins so in tune with each other. For a challenge or not, seeing them work together almost felt unnatural. But no one could deny what a spectacle they put on. Including the chief, who quickly flashed a thumbs up in approval.

"And the sisters nail it! Team Explosive now ALSO just needs their resident nerd to finish a tattoo," Chris confirmed.

Meanwhile the sisters caught their breaths as they recovered from the adrenaline of the routine. They looked at each other, perhaps begrudgingly impressed with the other's performance. Or at the very least, satisfied enough with passing that they wouldn't say anything.

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it Amy really is a great cheerleader when she actually applies herself. But hey, maybe she's saying the same about me right now?"

*** Confessional: Amy ***

"Did you see how great I looked out there? Ha! As if there was ever any doubt how good I was. We should just all thank everything that Sparemy didn't somehow mess it up for us."

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"... yeah, probably not."

*** At the Fire Knife Area ***

While the two girl pairs were soaking up the admiration and cheers from their teams, Brick was left nervously darting his eyes around as he tried not to panic. He had no partner for his routine and didn't have anything overly flashy planned. Having to follow those acts with something vanilla might not cut it at this rate. "Darn it... darn it! I knew I should have tried to go first."

"Brick my man, all eyes on you now," Chris announced. "No pressure or anything but all three of your teammates have already qualified so if you pass you guys win first class! But if you don't that leaves you viable to get passed up by Cody and Dave. Not a good option if you want to avoid being eliminated!"

"I could figure that much out myself, thank you." The cadet sighed and tried slapping himself a few times to psych himself up. "Alright, showtime soldier! You can do this! So what if you don't have these fancy cartwheels, or juggling, or butt bouncing... just some good old fashioned hard work and grit will get the job done! Definitely..."

So maybe he wasn't the greatest at psyching himself up, whoops. Nonetheless, he took a big gulp and marched out for his performance. Things started well enough. For his routine he'd be envisioning his flaming knife as a rifle and go through one of his best rifle spinning drills. As such this involved a lot of him tucking the rod under his arm after spins, letting the flaming knife get dangerously close to his clothes. But he just tried to not think about it, continuing to twirl the weapon around, even maneuvering into an impressive helicopter spin above his head. However, he slipped up a bit when tucking the rod in after that stunt and had to quickly correct himself. With a rife that was usually no biggie. But with this, the error caused the knife to ever so slightly brush up to his shirt. The good news was that it didn't cut Brick himself, just the shirt. The bad news was now his shirt was on fire.

"Mayday, mayday!" Brick stop dropped and rolled, abandoning his act to quickly put the flame out before it engulfed his whole shirt. His teammates cringed out of worry, though the others looked slightly relieved since this was a good sign for their chance at First Class. The chief shook his head.

"Tough break cupcake, best hope those twiggy boys aren't done by the time you're ready again," Chef taunted. The hosts were about to leave to go check in on the tattooing progress, but Brick quickly scrambled to his feet and picked the flaming knife back up.

"WAIT!" Once he had heir attention again he tried to compose himself. "Sir, I'm ready to go, I just had a slip up. Give me one more try before you leave, will ya? I'll finish the whole thing this time."

Chris was intrigued at the idea. One half because he wanted to see the full routine, but on the other hand because he wouldn't mind seeing an even more crushing wipeout. However, he wasn't fully in control this challenge. He looked towards the chief. "Your call, dude."

Much like Chris, the chief was conflicted. On one hand, the kid took his shot and failed. Why give him another go immediately after dropping the ball? Then again, he had to respect the determination and since they had yet to be called it didn't seem like the tattoo boys were ready anyway...

"Ah for Pete's sake just let the guy do it, won't ya?" Anne Maria suddenly piped up. "What's it gonna hurt?"

"He's willing to give it his all, I implore you to let him prove that he's capable," Dawn added.

Lightning cracked his knuckles and tossed his hat into the mix. "Brick you got this, it's easy street! Your team's backing you up and that includes The Lightning, so you pretty much won already!"

Hearing his team cheering him on, especially Lightning shockingly contributing, was all the more drive to make the cadet feel ready. Not about to let wardrobe mess with his routine this time, he even tossed his shirt off. Inadvertently this just made him look all the more fitting for the fire knife dance since locals tended to do it shirtless. Thankfully for him, the chief was a big anime fan. The team cheering him on in a power of friendship moment? Ripping the shirt off as a form change? Shoot, now he had to see what the kid had in store. So he sat down and motioned for the show to continue.

"Guess that answers that." Chris chuckled in amusement. "Alright Brick, take two!"

The routine was restarted, Brick marching forward and spinning his knife in militaristic sort of rhythm. When he came to a stop and intensified the spins he started to get more daring with it. The rotations got faster, he would toss it higher and higher into the air, he'd spin with just one hand and alternate between the two. After completing the helicopter spin that previously tripped him up, he tried out a more flashy move. He let the rod drop to his foot and kicked it back up. Then he started up the alternating single hand spins but even faster than before. What was even more notable, Brick wasn't even watching. He stared forward with a steely expression, he had done this routine with a rifle so many times that he could just do the motions without watching his hands or the knife. After getting a good crowd reaction from his extended no looking routine, he then finished up with some behind the back and unorthodox arm motions to show his proficiency spinning the knife any which way. He tossed the knife up as high as he could one last time, caught it in one hand, and saluted with the other for his finishing pose.

There was a brief bit of silence that struck dread into his heart, but then it gave way to uproarious applause. While maybe not as flashy as the other two performances, the precision and intensity was more than enough to still please the crowd. And it looked like the chief agreed, since he clapped along and nodded in approval.

"Guess that decides it, then! Team Radioactive takes first class!" The announcement got those four cheering even louder but in turn brought the others to a stop. "Which means it all comes down to who can finish this dang tattoo first. Seriously, what is UP with those two, Dawn finished hours ago!"

"Time to go lay the pressure on those fools," Chef added, cackling mischievously.

With the hosts leading the way, Team Old School and Team Explosive followed after to go give their teammate their support. Most of them anyway. As for the winners, they didn't seem in an hurry to go watch.

"Tch, forget that noise. Lightning's gonna go play more Kilikiti while we wait! I don't care which of em loses, all I know is it ain't us!"

"Ya girl feels like catching some rays near that waterfall," Anne Maria added. "Might just take a dip if the water's right."

"I'd love to take a stroll through the island's natural beauty while we have the free time." Dawn looked over at her still shirtless teammate. "How about you, Brick? I'd say you've earned some relaxation."

The cadet chuckled. "I'll catch up with you guys in first class. I gotta find where my shirt went, but after that I still wanna offer Dave and Cody my support! Enemy teams or not, I can say firsthand having the pressure on you isn't the most fun."

His team didn't have any objections so they all went their separate ways to relax. Brick looked around but was having a hard time finding his garment. It was only when scanning the ground that he suddenly happened upon a pair of legs. Looking up, he found Amy holding his shirt. Seems watching a guy spin around a flaming blade while half naked wasn't a bad way to get someone's attention.

"Looking for something?" she asked, though not immediately giving the shirt back. "I gotta say, that was some impressive work up there."

"Thanks! You and your sister put on a heck of a show too." He reached out for his shirt but she pulled it back.

"Why rush to put it back on?" She grinned coyly. "It looks pretty good this way. I didn't know you were so toned under there."

"Heh, yeah they keep us on a pretty strict exercise regime during basic training so-" He paused as it suddenly dawned on him what was happening. "Wait, are you flirting with me?"

Amy pouted. "You're not supposed to just call it out so casually, that takes the fun out of it."

Now it was Brick's turn to frown. Aw geez, how to get out of this? He rubbed at the back of his head awkwardly. "Ah, about that. How should I put this... you remember earlier when I said you were barking up the wrong tree trying to flirt with Lightning when he's anti-relationships?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Well this is kind of like that, but now you're barking up a different kind of wrong tree..."

Amy stared at him long and hard for a painfully awkward few seconds. But soon enough it all clicked and she groaned in frustration, chucking the shirt at Brick's face. "UGH, you've got to be KIDDING me! You better not tell anyone about this!"

She stormed off and he looked at the nearby camera, eyebrow raised. "Well I mean, we're being filmed so..."

*** Confessional: Brick ***

"For the record, I'm just as open to forming something with a lady as I am with a man. But I had to figure something out to make Amy lose interest. I've seen her season and know for a fact she isn't my type." While sitting there he got a flashback to an infamous moment from his original season, furrowing his unibrow. "And I know you guys have all seen what Dawn claims my type is! But there's a darn fine line between having a strong personality and just being a bully. No thank you, not interested."

*** At the Tattooing Area ***

A row of interns with botched tattoos watched on in contempt while Dave and Cody inked away at their latest projects. Most of the failed attempts were curtesy of Dave, but mostly because he would stop and start over much sooner than any of his opponent's failed attempts. This time though he had managed to get about 75 percent of the way done. Which was good in theory, but Cody was putting on finishing touches.

"Just a liiiitle bit more and I'll be ready for a check," the tech geek mumbled.

"No need to call for one," Chris suddenly yelled, waltzing into the area with Chef and the chief in tow. "We're here and ready whenever you need judging."

The germaphobe raised an eyebrow, confused. "What, you guys wouldn't rather wait around at the cricket of knife stuff?"

"About that..." McLean stepped aside to show the remainder of the boy's teams behind them. And also Brick. Amy was notably looking extra ticked off but said nothing. "You two are the last ones standing, Team Radioactive already won. Now it's a race to not get last!"

"You've gotta be kidding me..." Dave looked down at his incomplete canvas, then back to Cody. His heart sank upon seeing the last few details being drawn out on the opposing intern.

"In that case, I'll take a check now!"

Silence filled the clearing while the chief inspected Cody's intern for any sloppiness. This was definitely the guy's best work yet, a lot of the linework and intricacies were given better attention... for the most part. Once he got to checking the intern's front side, the work got a bit iffy. Seems the geek had a hard time adjusting to this particular intern's gut and had to cut corners to try and keep himself on pace. But the shoddy work didn't go unnoticed by a professional. The chief held his fingers barely apart to indicate that Cody had been close but still shook his head.

"Whoops, looks like Cody has to start over!" Chris looked over at Dave and chuckled darkly. "Let's get ready for a hardcore all out TATTOO FIGHT!"

Intense rock music played over a mundane montage of Dave and Cody simply drawing on their interns. Nervous as they may be, the details were clearly important so they couldn't afford to rush it. The bystanders watched on, bored and impatient. DJ yawned and Sugar straight up dozed off while leaning against a tree. It was revealed that Chef was the source of the music, having pulled out his MP3 player to pass the time. Despite being far behind, Dave's slow and meticulous nature was giving Cody the chance to eventually catch up. No cutting corners this time, he was being as detailed as possible while doing it as quickly as possible. Soon he was a quarter of the way done. Then halfway. And then three quarters! Bit by bit he drew away at it until...

"DONE!"

Everyone looked up at Dave, Cody included. The germaphobe had broken out into a nervous sweat but grinned confidently as he presented his finished canvas for the chief to check. Once again every inch of the tat was inspected and admittedly things were looking good. Backside was up to snuff, both sides were on point. Last up to check was the intern's front and-

The chief looked at the intern. Then to Dave. Finally he glanced at Chris and slowly held out his hand. First the thumb tilted downwards, then upwards, switching back and forth until landing on... a thumbs up.

"And Dave does it, Team Explosive is safe!" Chris allowed the team to cheer, with only Sammy not fully enthusiastic since the victory came at the cost of Cody coming up short. He looked over the losing team and snapped his fingers. "Team Old School, that means you guys got a date with the Boot of Shame later. Be there or be square!"

Trent went to console his buddy while a dejected Leshawna walked off. Perhaps to cool off, or maybe to mull over the upcoming vote. DJ was wasting no time, though. He gave Beth a stern look and patted her on the shoulder. "You got this. Y'all bonded over the challenge, now you just gotta convince her to vote with us."

Well that was easier said than done. Gulping, the farm girl tried to ready her nerves. This conversation could be the thing to change the trajectory for the rest of the season.

*** Confessional: Beth ***

"DJ finished before anyone else so I think it's a pretty safe bet that Cody and Trent will vote for me. All it takes is Leshawna's vote and I'm done... ugh! I'm so stupid for letting Courtney just leave like that! But this former finalist isn't going down without a fight. I just hope I can break through to her, at least to give me a chance..."

*** Somewhere in Upolu Island ***

Leshawna trudged through the trees, stirring with inner conflict. Her and Cody had been tight all season, she couldn't just vote off her homeboy like that. But just look at her alternatives. The guy who finished first, or her own partner that she probably held back in a challenge she was already specially equipped for. Maybe if she had just helped Cody out instead of Beth it could have changed things. Maybe this was all her fault?

"Hey, Leshawna, do you have a minute?"

Huh, she didn't know someone had followed her. She turned to meet Beth and offered a bittersweet smile. "Sure, girl, I can talk. What's up?"

"You probably already guessed, but it's about the vote." Beth was a bit fidgety, tugging at her sleeve. "Look, I... I know you're good friends with Cody and Trent. You probably don't want to vote either of them off when you have other options."

She opened her mouth to respond but decided against it. Best to just let Beth say her whole peace before anything else.

"B-but I really want a chance to stay! I'm really proud of the performance we did, we were awesome! So I'm going to vote for Cody, I really hope you might at least consider it." Beth paused and decided to add one more detail. "A-and if not, maybe you could vote for DJ instead? Not to eliminate him but to make the votes a tie? Then it can at least come down to a fair and square tie breaker."

"... I'll think it over, yeah." As much as Leshawna wanted to help her out, she couldn't give a hard promise. Not just yet, she had to decide if that's what was best first.

Beth smiled weakly. She had done as much as she could. "Thank you. And no matter what happens we're still gonna be friends, right?"

"Tch, like you had to ask?" Leshawna offered the smaller girl a hug and after the embrace waved her goodbye. Now to spend the rest of the walk back deciding on where her vote was going. She looked up and sighed, feeling just as conflicted as ever...

Hours passed and soon the five Old School teammates found themselves back in the elimination area, the drama bros in the front row, Beth and DJ in the middle, and Leshawna watching cautiously from the back. Their not so friendly host appeared with the tray of four barf bags, watching over the crew with a sinister glee. Chef was on standby with the parachute, eager to get this chapter finished... er, I mean, elimination underway.

"Well well well, you guys had quite the safety streak going on after Harold and Izzy left, but now that Courtney's gone you decide to show up a second time in a row?" The host laughed tauntingly. "Maybe you just missed spending quality time with me. Can't blame ya, but it's a million bucks on the line, ya know?"

He got no response. Everyone just stared at him, their expressions cold and lifeless. They'd offer zero reaction to his asinine comments.

"Hm, tough crowd. Welp, guess we may as well get started then." He grabbed the first peanut pouch and tossed it at the guitarist. "Trent, your cricket skills could use some work but they were good enough to net you safety tonight. Equally safe is also... Leshawna!"

Unlike Trent, she was a bit less enthusiastic getting her symbol of immunity. She glanced down at those remaining without one and sighed to herself.

"And the penultimate barf bag goes to... DJ!" Another puke packet went flying, caught expertly by the brickhouse. He offered Beth a supportive grin which she returned. She and Cody both gulped, waiting for the moment of truth.

"Just like that, I only have one left to give out!" Chris turned to the geek first. "Cody, you being in the bottom two speaks for itself. Ya done goofed up big today not finishing your tattoo in time, which is the whole reason your team is even here in the first place."

He slouched his shoulders in shame.

"And Beth! Your spinning was good but your people skills may not be so much. Hard to win a personality contest on a team with pop stars, a buff hunk, and everyone's favorite robbed queen, am I right?"

Nerdy girl in question was unamused by the host's taunting. She just wanted to have the band-aid ripped off and see if she was staying or not. Meanwhile Cody came into the ceremony mostly confident, but was starting to get an uneasy feeling in his gut that something may be wrong. Both waited with baited breath, eyeballing the barf bag hopefully.

"Your team has cast their votes and made their decision. The FINAL barf bag... of the night... goes too...

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... nobody!"

Chris gave a hearty laugh, placing the peanut packet back on the tray. "At least nobody yet. We've got ourselves a tie to sort out!"

"A tie?" Cody asked, shocked. Beth breathed a sigh of relief. While she obviously would have preferred Leshawna just flat out voting him off with them, this was at least a second chance to earn her safety.

"Eeyup, a tie. Things were 2 to 2 to 1. So now the question is how we decide to break it. Chef! If you'd be so kind?"

Chef chuckled nefariously, opening the parachute to reveal it actually wasn't a parachute at all! Instead it was just a regular backpack full of a few things. Mostly balls, lots and lots of balls. But also inside was a wicket, which Chef erected on the ground in front of Chris' podium. Then he retrieved two big cricket bats from within the sack and tossed them the nerds way. Beth had the wind knocked out of her as he bat struck her in the gut, while Cody's bonked off of his head.

"We're gonna have you guys compete in a fast version of one of the challenges, and we didn't feel like waiting for you to finish cooking," Chris explained. "Plus you both have stringy nerd arms, so this'll be more funny to watch! Since the Samoans created their own spin on cricket, I've devised a version of my own. We'll call it Sudden Death Cricket! The rules are simple, the two of you stand on the other side of the room and Chef will start tossing cricket balls at you. Using your bats, you're both gonna try to hit your balls and make one strike the wicket. The first person who can hit the target gets to stay, the other is outta here. Sound good?"

Cody foolishly opened his mouth as if he was actually going to get a chance to speak.

"Good! Get in positions and get ready for the carnage!" Chris glanced over at the three bystanders. "Oh and uh, you guys might wanna brace yourselves in case any rogue balls come flying your way. I wouldn't trust these two to be the most accurate swingers."

Well they didn't have to be told twice. DJ, Leshawna, and Trent ducked behind the bleachers, poking their heads out but ready to tuck them back in if the coast wasn't clear. Chris meanwhile stood behind the safe wall of muscle that was Chef. Cody and Beth were both a bit nervous, but also both hyped up and determined to be the ones to stay. They exchanged a quick hand shake for good luck and took their positions.

"Alright, maggots." Chef drew his arms back and let the first two balls fly. "Play ball!"

The big man's throw were mighty and non stop. Most of the swings Cody and Beth took failed to hit their mark. Those that did sent the balls ricocheting all over the room, bouncing from the walls, to the floor, to even the roof. Chris' podium was knocked over, one of the lights were knocked out, Trent nearly took a blow to his forehead until Leshawna pulled him out of the way. Pretty much everything EXCEPT the wicket was getting pelted. One ball even somehow bounced out of the room, ping ponged all the way through economy class much to Team Explosive's bewilderment, winding up all the way in first class where it hit an unsuspecting Brick in the crotch. His teammate's crowded around, exchanging looks of confusion.

But eventually something was going to have to hit the mark with all this wild bouncing. One nerd swung for the fences, shutting their eyes and hoping for the best. The ball spun through the air and just barely grazed up against the wicket. Nonetheless, it was enough to knock it over and definitively decide the winner. Chef blew a whistle and the peanut gallery poked their heads out to gaze upon their champion.

"And it looks like... CODY has taken the win," Chris announced, the aforementioned geek panting heavily as he looked down at his bat in disbelief. The final barf bag was tossed at him but it just bounced harmlessly off his head. Beth dropped her weapon and fell to her knees in defeat. "Which of course means that Beth is the one going home!"

"That... was WAY too close for comfort." Cody looked at his fallen adversary and sighed in bittersweet relief. He was safe, but had to personally take down his foe by his own hands. "Sorry, Beth. You really had me on the ropes there."

She sniffled, trying her best to keep her composure. "It's ok, you had to try and stay safe too."

Trent was the first to approach the duo, giving his eliminated teammate a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. Though Cody honestly looked worse for ware what with all his heavy breathing. "Dude, are you gonna pass out or something?"

Seems Cody was going to need help getting back to economy class. Trent took the initiative to lead him back, while DJ came to his friend for comfort. "You tried your best, Beth. You really went out swinging. Er, no pun intended."

Leshawna bit her lip, feeling a tinge of regret at watching Beth's despair. Should she have just voted for Cody instead? She didn't deserve to get cut like this. "Sorry, girl. I just didn't have it in me to be the deciding vote to get out stringbean this time. But I did want to give you the chance..."

Beth forced a smile, even chuckling. She didn't want to be the one to seal Cody's fate with a vote? Sounded familiar. "I'll be ok. It's a bummer, but I'm more happy going out this way instead of just being voted off."

"How sweet," Chris cooed in a mockingly sweet voice. "Hope that sentiment helps cushion the fall for ya! We're burning daylight here, so get to stepping."

The farm girl narrowed her eyes but couldn't do much else to object. Chef tossed her a parachute and she approached the open door. Beth wasn't a big fan of heights so she opted to just stay facing the others and let the boot decide when she did the falling.

"Guess that's it then. Oh! And DJ, before I go let me tell you something." The brickhouse raised an eyebrow. "I don't know how you haven't realized it yet but you're totally being checked out by-"

Before she could finish the boot came swinging down and cut her short. Or kicked her short rather, sending her plummeting to the ground. DJ scratched his head, unsure what just happened.

"Huh, wonder what she was about to say?"

Leshawna folded her arms. "You really can be clueless, ya know that?"

But enough about all that. We flashed forward to Chris and Chef in the cockpit ready to do the usual signoff.

"I don't know about you but this felt like a heck of a long stop. Maybe we went a bit overboard with the challenge this time."

Chef shrugged. "Meh, I had fun. We swiped some good food, got to watch some ball games. I call that a win."

"Hmm, true. Maybe I should have pushed someone off that waterfall to bring it all together." Chris laughed mischievously. "Ah well, I'm sure I'll get a chance to later! And so ends another episode for these contestants. What'll I have in store for them next time we land? Will DJ figure out a way to improve his position by the time he finally gets a clue about Dawn? Has Lightning truly opened his eyes to the benefits of teamwork? And can the twins learn to coexist now that they've shown how well they work together if they try?"

"Doubt it," Chef mused.

"Same. But who knows what could happen? I guess you'll just have to tune in next time to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

Beth stamped Cody's passport, trying to keep her breathing steady. "I guess this is the moment of truth, huh? Hopefully Cody being the one to not finish was the last thing I needed to win Leshawna over. But if not... well, I guess that's what I get for not helping Courtney when she needed it last time."

With a heavy sigh Cody cast his vote against Beth. "I really screwed up today. Honestly it feels kind of unfair to be voting for anyone else when they all passed. But I'm not a quitter so it was either this or DJ and he finished first. Sorry, Beth."

"I might just be screwed if Beth couldn't pull this off, so let's hope it all works out." He stamped down on Cody's face. "And hey, if I can be the last man standing in a disaster like Team Victory, I'm sure I can figure something out for this too."

Leshawna's eyes darted between Beth and Cody's passports. She hovered her hand over the tech geek's face, coming inches away from voting him out... but ultimately deciding to stamp DJ instead. "I ain't gonna choose between which of my friends I want to eliminate. So I'll let the tie breaker do the deciding for me. Good luck y'all, hope there ain't no hard feelings no matter what happens."

As for Trent, he was short and to the point casting his vote against Beth. "I know it sucks but what am I gonna do, vote my band bud out when I know he's always gonna have my back? Sorry Beth, I don't have much in the way of options."

Votes for Beth: 2 (Cody, Trent), lost tiebreaker

Votes for Cody: 2 (Beth, DJ), won tiebreaker

Votes for DJ: 1 (Leshawna)

After the Boot of Shame:

Beth flailed her limbs for a while, damn near screaming her head off, until she finally remembered the parachute. Once that was safely deployed she could finally stop fearing death long enough to talk to the camera. "Darn it! I really did try my best and it still wasn't enough. All I could do was make Leshawna NOT vote for me, and even then I couldn't beat Cody at some stupid cricket!"

She pouted for a while but slowly floating down was a good way to make her think over her whole journey. Eventually she sighed in acceptance. "But I guess even influencing her vote itself was a win, and that tie breaker was close. I guess this is a bit of karma for me not giving Courtney the same chance I just had. Still wish I would have won, though! Hopefully DJ can figure something out. I'd hate to see him following right after me."

After enough plummeting she finally landed in some running water. The landing took her by surprise but she smiled at the relatively smooth dismount. "Hey, a not painful landing! My luck's turning around already!"

Suddenly it sounded like the water ahead of her was getting loud. REALLY loud. Sure enough, a simple turn of the head would reveal that she was actually at the top of the Fuipisia Falls from earlier and was rapidly approaching the edge. Rather than desperately try in vain to swim away or grab on to something, Beth just sighed and resigned herself to the inevitable. "Yeah, that sounds about right..."

With a loud echoing scream, she tumbled over the waterfall to make a big splash below.

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: Cody, DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, Brick, Dawn, Lightning

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Sugar

Elimination Order:

15th: Beth

16th/17th: Courtney and Scott

18th: B

19th: Shawn

20th: Dakota

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris narrated. "Beth felt the heat from putting her and DJ in the danger zone, and the big guy decided to step up and actually become strategic! Amy flirted around with the likes of Lightning and Brick, but kept striking out with whatever she tried. Once it was challenge time we stopped by tropical Samoa, taking in the rich culture and making the contestants really become one with the island. By forcing them to split off and finish a bunch of different crap to earn the island chief's approval."

Clips played of the various challenges, focusing on the victories. "Team Radioactive was able to dig deep and score themselves a win, while Team Old School faced the chopping block thanks to Cody's crappy art skills. Beth tried her best to get Leshawna on her side, but the best she could manage was convincing her to force a tie. It was close, but Cody ultimately won the Battle of the Nerds and Beth met her maker! Now we're creeping up on the halfway point to the competition. Will Leshawna stay loyal to Trent and Cody, or can DJ convince her to switch sides? Will Amy continue to strike out with every boy she flirts with? Can Team Radioactive ride the momentum from their win to avoid elimination? Let's sit back and find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Intro Credits ***

To change things up, the episode was going to open on some of the contestants genuinely enjoying themselves rather than any drama. First class was lively with Team Radioactive enjoying the fruits of their labor. Lightning had the music blasting, Anne Maria was shaking her groove thing, even Dawn was helping herself to some top of the line organic snacks. Brick was giddy seeing his team in such high spirits and clinked a glass full of (probably non-alcoholic) grape juice to get their attention.

"If I may, I'd just like to give a toast! I know things have been looking rocky for us lately, but we really dug deep in that challenge and I think we've grown tremendously as a platoon!" The four of them clinked their glasses together.

"Agreed, I think our time in Samoa was a significant stepping stone for us." Dawn smiled at the jock in particular. "Especially for Lightning, I believe it was quite the enlightening experience for him."

Normally a star athlete like him would enjoy being the center of attention, but calling out that he had something he needed to grow on wasn't something he needed them dwelling on for too long. "Pssh, the whole squad carried their weight. Brick dug deep for that fire twirling, and you chicks got done like crazy fast!"

Anne Maria sipped on her beverage, shrugging it off like it was no big deal. "I'd have been stuck wrapping stuff up in leaves longer but that dude with the big fro helped me out. Probably wasn't the smartest move for him, but hey, at least the guy didn't have to worry about getting voted off."

Voted off... that gave Dawn pause. Team Old School going to elimination was potentially worrisome. Theoretically DJ should have been safe, he finished before anyone else after all, but if he found himself on the wrong end of an alliance situation there was a non zero chance he could be a target. "Hmm. If you'll all excuse me, I think I'd like to go check in on how Team Old School is doing."

"Oh yeah?" Anne Maria smirked. "Why's that?"

Before she could answer, Lightning assumed it was a question for all of them and jumped in. "Probably because she wants to make sure DJ didn't get cut, right? But they'd have to be stupid to vote bro off, you don't kick off a guy when he finishes fist! If they know what's what the definitely got rid of skinny dude for sure."

Dawn gave her teammate an annoyed scowl. Was it seriously so obvious that even LIGHTNING could pick up on it so easily? She huffed in frustration and stormed off. The athlete seemed confused, so Brick just chuckled and patted him on the back.

"Yeah I'm guessing a lesson on tact is in order next."

*** Cockpit Confessional: Dawn ***

"I suppose there's no use in denying it at this point." She sighed. "It is indeed DJ that I've formed a bit of a crush on."

"We already knew that," Chef grumbled from the pilot's seat.

"And I don't recall asking for your input," she shot back, perhaps a bit more snippy than intended. "It's strange, while I've certainly been attracted to people before, this is the first time I think it's actually left me a bit flustered. I suppose there's just something different this time, I truly feel like I've met a kindred spirit with him. His appreciation for nature, his genuine kindness... and he's certainly attractive. I usually tend not to focus on superficial aspects like that but I'm finding it hard to ignore in this instance."

The cook chuckled to himself. "He's also a big ol' wuss!"

Dawn turned to glare and perhaps feeling her icy stare shooting daggers at him, his tone got more serious. "Look, I've had to work closely with the guy before when I tried to strike up a secret alliance with him. So here's some advice. Man's a goody two shoes mama's boy that's chivalrous to his own fault. No matter how much he may or may not like you back, he ain't gonna make no first move. He ain't got that dog in him. You wanna try and make things happen, you're gonna have to take the lead and be stern with him. Tell him straight up how it is and make sure he listens!"

Dawn paused for a moment, digesting that info. All things considered, it seemed to line up with what she could already tell from DJ's aura. Her annoyed glare turned into a surprised smile. "That may actually prove to be useful advice. Thank you, Norbert, I really appreciate it."

Chef laughed and waved it off, not noticing her silently leaving. "Ah don't mention it, I'm rooting for-" Suddenly he realized what she had said. "Wait, how do you know that name?!"

He turned around but she was already gone. "Hey get back here, I ain't done talking to you!"

*** Outside Economy Class ***

As luck would have it, soon after leaving the confessional Dawn found herself bumping into DJ in the jet's hallway. She perked up upon seeing that he was, indeed, still airborne. "Greetings, DJ. I hope you're holding up well after the elimination ceremony."

The brickhouse smiled back, but noticeably weakly. "Well the good news is I'm still here. Bad news is Beth's not. She was pretty much the only real ally I had left on the team so I'm looking at a pretty rough spot right now. She tried to get Leshawna to vote with us but all that wound up happening was her throwing the vote so it'd go to a tie."

"Hmm. Well that's at least better than if she had just voted for Beth outright, isn't it?" Dawn pointed out. "It certainly sounds like she had made some sort of progress with Leshawna. Perhaps you could finish bridging the gap to earn her support in case your team has to vote again?"

Well it wasn't like he wanted to deal with yet another elimination, if only that damn Team Explosive would stop avoiding losing so many times. "Yeah, that's what I'm holding out hope for. My plan is to try and talk to Leshawna sometime soon and convince her that it's better for the both of us if we work together. She's been tight with Trent and Cody this whole time so it'll be tough, but I gotta try, right?"

Looking down at his companion he was starting to get an idea. "Actually, I was about to go bounce some talking points I'm thinking of using on her off of Chef, but he may wind up just ignoring me. Wanna lend me an ear? If it's no trouble, that is."

She beamed happily up at him. "Of course, I'd be happy to help."

While those two began going over DJ's plan, elsewhere in economy class a different potential relationship was seeing a development. Or rather, Cody was looking on in deep thought as he met Sammy's gaze. The two exchanged a wave and Cody returned to his seat. Something was definitely on his mind.

Same was true for Trent, though for him he was focused on the vote they just survived. Him and his bandmate had been on pretty much the exact same wavelength all season, he knew they voted together. And there was a tie, so DJ and Beth probably both voted against Cody. Hard to blame them considering his performance in the challenge, but still. What bothered him, though, was the fact that it was a tie in the first place. That meant Leshawna didn't vote with them. With either pair. Cody was in serious danger of elimination in a tie breaker like that, why on Earth wouldn't she-

"Psssst, Trent. You got a sec?"

Cody knocked the guitarist out of his daze and he tried to put the ceremony out of mind for now. "Yeah man, of course. What's up?"

The tech geek darted his eyes around and kept his voice to a low whisper so only the two of them could hear. "I think it's time you gave me... The Talk."

Trent's eyes went wide. "Er, what kinda talk are you thinking?"

"Uh, a dating talk? The heck did you think I-" He shook it off, it wasn't important. "But yeah, the date talk. I want to get your advice on how to not mess this up, I wanna try and make my move."

Oh thank goodness, it's just that. Trent sighed in relief. "You really think you need advice for that at this point? Do you even realize how many fan girls you have?"

"Unfortunately yes, I think you of all people should know from all the horror stories I've told on the tour bus. There was a lot of stuff that didn't even make it to air in World Tour. Want me to remind you of the sock incident with Sierra?" His friend suddenly tensed up and vehemently shook his head. "Didn't think so. This is different. Something, you know, legit? I think me and Sammy have a really good bond forming, but I have no experience on how to do this without dropping the ball. You on the other hand..."

"You say that like the world didn't get to see me drop the ball with Gwen live on TV. She seems to really like you, dude, you'd have to go pretty out of your way to somehow mess it up." Ah hell, now Cody was giving him the puppy dog eyes. Trent couldn't stand it when he whipped those out. "Fine, fine, I'll give you some pointers. Not like we have much else to do for passing the time anyway."

*** Confessional: Cody ***

"I came inches away from getting eliminated in that tie breaker. If Beth would have beat me, I'd be gone and I wouldn't have gotten any closure with Sammy. This isn't like my dumb crush on Gwen or... whatever you want to call everything that happened with Sierra. I think this could be the real deal, so I'm not about to let there be any regrets. Who knows what could happen if her team or mine go to elimination next, so I'm going for it!" He looked to the side nervously. "Harold pulled it off, right? So I should just follow his lead. Well, the romance part at least. I'd rather avoid the whole winding up in a wheelchair thing, been there done that."

*** In Economy Class ***

Of course that just left one more team to check in on, not that things were particularly lively for Team Explosive. The six of them were starting to feel like they were in a sort of limbo, they were the only team with significant drama within themselves, yet at the same time they had somehow managed to avoid elimination since Shawn was cut. Beardo and Sugar looked at the situation in a glass half full kinda way, for Jasmine and Amy it was glass half empty, while Dave and Sammy were somewhere in the middle. Whatever the case, they largely just sat in an awkward silence. But the pageant queen could only take that for so long.

"Say, Davey boy, you still talking to Sky these days?" If she was picking this particular subject matter out of pure curiosity or specifically to get under the guy's skin was anyone's guess. "Y'all probably had a hoot talking about everything from that finale, didn't ya? Maybe make you and that Keith feller throw down for the right to date her!"

Dave narrowed his eyes but wouldn't meet Sugar's gaze. "I haven't spoken a word to her since Pahkitew Island and I have zero interest to ever do so. If I had to wager a guess, I'd assume the feeling is pretty mutual."

"Oh. Guess that must suck for y'all then. But hey, maybe it ain't all bad! Maybe she's got like a sister or something you could date instead." That idea seemed to amuse her for some reason, putting her deep in thought. "What do you guys reckon her kin would be named anyway? Ground? Water? Maybe Sand?"

Former flame of the girl in question didn't look amused at the train of thought. "She could be named Lava for all I care, it'd just mean being near Sky anyway and making things awkward. No thank you to that either."

Beardo has been making sound effects to accompany each of Sugar's suggested names, ending on a sizzling skillet for Dave's. The germaphobe gave him an annoyed glare and he stuck his hands up defensively. "Heh, sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood."

"And you know I hate those sound effects," Dave pointed out. "So why the heck would it lift my mood?"

"No need to be so grumpy about it," Jasmine spat. "Bloke's just trying to pass the time."

Now it was Amy's turn to jump in. "You're one to talk about being grumpy, you've had a stick up your butt ever since Italy."

"Gee, I wonder why that could be."

Sammy sighed, uninterested in participating in any of this. By now she was well aware that trying to dispel arguments between her sister and best friend were fool's errands, and she wasn't about to involve herself with Sugar provoking Dave's relationship baggage memories. This was just gonna have to run its course, so for now she excused herself to go sit literally anywhere else. Or perhaps more specifically next to someone else.

"This seat taken?" she asked, popping a squat next to Cody. Thankfully him and Trent had been keeping their volume low, seems she didn't realize they had just been talking about her. Her crush tensed up and quickly tried to compose himself after an elbow from Trent.

"Yeah, for sure." He paused and shook his head. "Er, I mean yeah you can sit here, not that the seat's taken. Heh."

Trent raised an eyebrow at his friend's lack of rizz but it got a giggle from Sammy. "Thanks. It just gets exhausting listening to... all of that so often. Things any better with your team?"

"Well I'm still here!" He chuckled awkwardly. "But er, I almost wasn't. Had to compete in a tiebreaker that got way too close for comfort."

Seems this was gonna be as good an ice breaker as any. Trent gave a subtle nod to his friend and did one of those fake yawn and stretch things. "If you don't mind I'm gonna go take a walk and clear my head. I'll leave you guys to it."

With a wink towards his bandmate Trent took his leave. On his way out he met Leshawna's eyes and paused. Trying to get a read on her was tough, he could tell she didn't want to talk about the ceremony. Eventually she looked away and he wasn't interested in pressing the issue for now, so Trent kept walking. The eating quarters were nice and empty for now, so he pulled up a seat. At some point along the way he had grabbed his guitar, so he tried strumming a tune to pass the time.

"Tch, I know she has to play her own game. It's not like I'm mad at her or anything, I just wish she would have been straight up with us instead of letting Cody get blindsided with a tie." Realizing he was talking to himself, he laughed it off and focused on his playing. Nothing helped clear the mind quite like getting into the zone on his guitar. He could just think over things in peace. Would Cody successfully ask out his crush? How was Harold's injuries healing up? Could Justin-

"Sounds nice, watcha playing?"

He stopped, looking over to find Amy of all people now sat beside him. Why? He hadn't the faintest clue. He tucked the guitar away and raised his eyebrow. "Uh, nothing in particular. Just trying out some potential new tunes I guess. Can I help you?"

"Ugh, I got tired of listening to Jasmine, she just doesn't know how to let something go." Which was true, though she mostly left because she noticed Trent walking away and saw an opportunity. "So I thought I'd take a walk and I was drawn to the sound of your guitar. You don't mind an audience, do you?"

"Well it'd be weird if I did considering the whole band thing and all," he deadpanned, not buying the innocent act. "But why are you REALLY here?"

Huh, a tough nut to crack, eh? Well Amy could work with that, maybe the chase would be fun. "Do you really need another reason? I mean come on, you're all alone out here with just you and a pretty girl and you're questioning things?"

"Pretty girl?" Trent snickered, now catching on to what her motive must be. "So you followed me out here to flirt?"

Amy's expression fell and she stared at the guitarist in disbelief. "Ok seriously what is with guys here and sucking the romance out of the air by calling attention to it?"

Trent scoffed. "Yeah, sure was a lot of romance going around when this is like the first conversation you've ever had with me. Not that I don't know who you are or anything, though. You DO realize people still watch the show even if they're not competing on it, right? As in I know what your whole deal is?"

She blinked, not following. "What's your point? You know I'm a super hot girlboss, what else is there to get?"

"Yeah I was thinking more the gaslight portion of the trio," Trent mumbled, shaking his head. "I don't know, maybe the whole emotionally abusing and bullying your sister thing? Ring any bells? You strike me as one of the most unpleasant people to ever compete on the show, you really think I want to pursue a relationship with someone like that? And people used to call ME crazy."

The cheerleader glared in offense. "Now wait a minute, you can't-"

He just put a hand up to cut her off. "Amy I can not stress this next point enough. I really don't care. I've been doing this band thing for a while now and I got my superficial date any hot girl that crosses my path phase out of my system really early on. I'd rather not have to deal with this anymore going forward so I'll nip this in the bud right now. I have zero interest. Heck, there's negative interest if anything. So please don't waste either of our time."

She glared at the musician, stewing in rage. But Trent was unbothered and just went to tuning his guitar.

"Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go back to playing. If you're going to sit and listen I can't stop you, but I don't have any interest in talking."

Yeah, somehow the idea of getting a private concert wasn't so appealing to her anymore. Amy stormed off and true to his word Trent just resumed strumming his instrument.

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"On one hand that was probably harsher than I'm used to being. On the other hand?" He shrugged. "I kinda don't care."

*** The Next Day ***

Thankfully the other interactions hadn't been as disastrous as Trent and Amy's. Both DJ with Dawn, and Cody with Sammy were able to enjoy each other's company and spend most of the night talking. Jasmine was also able to enjoy a rather peaceful night, for reasons she didn't know the mean twin wasn't in a talkative mood when she had returned to economy class. And as for the rest of Team Radioactive? Shoot, they were well rested and in high spirits.

A new day was upon the contestants and they were tolerating their grueling breakfast, pun intended. Beardo was very slowly making progress on his meal, making whining dog sounds as he toughed through it. Chit chat was shared and things remained relatively peaceful... until Chef barged into the room dragging a large basket next to him.

"Aaaaand here we go, right on cue." Dave sighed. "What, Chris couldn't be bothered to get out of bed this time so he's got you doing the work?"

Normally Chef would have a stern comment for some sass like that, but this kid in particular probably wasn't going to like what they had in store next so he just ignored it instead. The large man sat cross-legged behind the basket and whipped out a unique reed instrument, the pungi. He started (poorly) reciting a low humming tune from the pungi and slowly the basket started to open. Chris gradually rose from the container, swaying his body like a hypnotized snake. The fact that he had the restraint to otherwise be dressed in his normal clothes and not be clad in full turban and sarong was a shock for most.

Once Chef's song was done and Chris had removed himself from the basket, Dave sat there with crossed arms unimpressed. "I think I'm more upset at your lack of proper research if anything. You do realize snake charming is illegal in the country and has been for decades, right?"

"Hey now, let's not jump to conclusions here," the host defended. "I haven't even said where we're going yet!"

He was met with various unamused leers.

"Alright, sheesh, yes we're going to India. Don't blame me, blame my research team! I've got better things to do than look up silly things like laws before we enter a new country. You gotta admit, I pulled off the snake act pretty well."

"I really don't think that's the bragging right that you think it is, mate," Jasmine pointed out. "Just means you're a naturally slimy bludger."

"Have an intern look up what that means so we know if it has to be censored or not." Chris whispered to his co-host before turning back to the contestants. "Anywho, I know you guys are dying to know what we're gonna be doing today! Downright giddy even!"

Silence.

"That's the spirit! So first thing's first, before we get started I'm gonna need you guys to each pair up with one of your teammates."

Obviously that was just going to raise questions, with Amy voicing the obvious. "Aren't you gonna, like, tell us what the pairs are for?"

Chris grinned devilishly. "Of course I am! I'll tell you... right after you've made the pairs. It's more fun that way. Now chop chop, time is money!"

Annoying as the lack of information may be, there was no use arguing over the matter. So the contestants did as they were asked. Jasmine and Sammy wasted no time linking up, with Beardo and Sugar pairing up soon after. Obviously that left Amy and Dave together by default. Lightning and Brick were quick to team together, but Dawn and Anne Maria had no qualms with also being a duo. Finally was another obvious pair in Trent and Cody, leaving DJ with Leshawna. A free excuse to talk to her one on one so he can try to convince her to vote with him? That suited the brickhouse just fine.

"Interesting, very interesting," Chris mused as he looked over the various pairs. "Cool! Now before I get into the challenge details let me just do one more little thing first..."

*DING DING DING*

Instantly everyone was at attention and on edge. The usual whines and groans over a song rang out, with others even scrambling to finish their food since they were still mid-breakfast.

"Seriously, right now?" Leshawna protested, gesturing at her bowl. "I ain't even done eating... whatever this crap is."

Chris waved off the complaints. "Relax, relax, we're not actually doing any singing... yet. The reason I'm playing the tune now instead of when the song starts is because it's not meant to blindside you all this time. Instead, the song is actually going to be a major part of the challenge!"

That got everyone to ease up a bit, though now their curiosities were piqued.

"So how's that gonna work?" Anne Maria asked. "Team with the best singer wins?"

"It ain't that simple," Chef mumbled. "He told you what country we're going to, but he didn't say WHERE in the country."

"Right you are, dude," Chris followed up. "We're gonna be touching down in Mumbai! Formerly known as Bombay, aka the home to Bollywood! Believe it or not, Hindi cinema is actually the biggest center in the world when it comes to producing movies, even more than America. The town is crawling with a bunch of aspiring actors looking to get their big break into showbiz. Sucks to be most of them since not everyone can have actual talent like me! And while Bollywood joints like to pull from all sorts of different genres, there's one thing more associated with their movies than anything else. Their bombastic and earworm inducing musical numbers!"

Chef nodded and mumbled a sound of agreement. "So today y'all are gonna be performing your song in front of a legit Bollywood film crew. International market is gonna use it for commercials to advertise the season or something."

"Network is looking to make a big push into the Indian market with this season, the songs kinda help with that," Chris explained. "Anyway! That brings me to the pairs. You're gonna work together with your partners to prep for the performance. What you'll wear, what you're gonna be doing during the song, all that junk. The film crew is then gonna vote on how you suckers did! When the votes are tallied, we then distribute points. The best ranking team gets 7 points, second best gets 6 points, and so on."

"Doesn't that give Team Explosive an advantage since they have an extra team compared to us?" Leshawna pointed out.

Chris laughed. "Gee, it's almost like you guys should try avoiding going to elimination or something, it helps you out down the line! By all means if you wow the crew enough you can still beat Team Explosive, you just gotta work for it."

Everyone mumbled amongst themselves to soak all the info in. Team Explosive was in high spirits thanks to their extra pair, though it helped that the likes of Sugar and Beardo were already confident in their singing abilities. Likewise, the Drama Bros duo was just as eager to show what they had, though Leshawna and DJ were less excited. Team Radioactive weren't about to squander the boost in energy first class had afforded them. Even if they lacked professional singers they'd still try to make it work.

"So obviously the team who rakes in the most points wins first class," the host continued. "As for the team who ranks dead last, you should all know what happens to them by now. We'll be touching down near Film City soon, so finish up your meals and look sharp!"

The hosts left the contestants to their own devices, some talking over potential plans for their upcoming song and others just resuming their meals or conversations. Something was bothering Sugar, though.

"Film City? Didn't he say we was going to Mummy Eye or something?"

Dave rolled his eyes. "Mumbai is the actual town itself. Film City is a massive studio, they shoot a bunch of movies and TV shows there. They actually renamed it sometime ago but it's for the best that we didn't have to hear Chris butcher pronouncing Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari."

Sugar blinked a few times in silence. "That's the new name? I reckon people just say the old one because it's easier to pronounce then." Dave wasn't amused.

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"Huh, I guess I actually have a bit of a South Asian homefield advantage. Never thought having to endure countless movie nights from my parents would actually help me out in a challenge, but here we are. I've seen more than enough musical numbers to know what we need to bring to the table and win this easily." He looked out the window, reflecting on everything. "Hopefully Team Old School loses again and actually follows through on eliminating Cody this time. Why the heck did they save him when he did the worst last challenge? If they're that stupid they deserve wiping themselves out."

*** Film City, On Set ***

Eventually the cast had been released into Film City and guided to points of interest. Namely where they could find various props and wardrobe options, though they were free to explore and see if they found anything that would make things better for their performance. Soon enough everyone was scattered about and divided into their pairs, each with their own idea of what to do. Some were more confident than other, such as Cody and Trent who found themselves perusing the instruments section of the props to pick something appealing.

"So do you think we actually have a shot at this?" the nerdier of the duo mused while looking over some drums. "I mean, obviously there's no question on our abilities but being two pairs against three is rough."

"Have you actually been listening whenever Sugar or Amy open their mouths during any of the songs?" Trent shivered. "I think we'll manage just fine. We just gotta do what we do best and trust that DJ and Leshawna will pull through. People might start calling us hack frauds if we somehow botch a challenge actually based around singing."

Somehow Cody wasn't convinced, flashing back to his narrow tie breaker escape. "Speaking of which, have you had a chance to talk to Leshawna yet? She's been real quiet since the ceremony happened."

No kidding, she's only had like one line this whole chapter! Trent shook his head. "Nah, she didn't seem up to it last night and I didn't want to grill her over her decisions when they're her's to make. It's not like we were ever officially an alliance or anything, just friends. She WAS paired up with Beth last time after all, voting for her may have been like admitting that she thought she messed up herself."

While not intentional, the mention of messing up just reminded Cody of his failure at his own challenge. Trent noticed his friend slouching his shoulders and decided to change the subject. "Hey, we all have our off days, don't worry about it. I'll talk to her after the challenge if we have to, alright? But enough about the downer stuff, how'd things go with YOUR talk? You and Sammy decided where you wanna go on a first date when the season is over?"

Cody chuckled nervously, twiddling his thumbs. "Er, heh, about that..."

The guitarist stared silently into Cody's soul. It was a knowing look, one of harsh judgement, annoyance, perhaps a twinge of disappointment.

"I-I mean it really was a great talk! She's awesome spending time with. It's just that I sorta... kinda... chickened out when it came to actually closing the deal." His bandmate inched ever closer, his harsh gaze sending a shiver down Cody's spine. "Next time I talk to her I'll do it, honest!"

Trent's eyebrow shot up. "That so? A'ight, bet."

Not giving the geek any time to react, Trent grabbed him by the ear and started dragging him away. Any protests or complaints would be ignored, he had to find what he was looking for. Thankfully, Sammy and Jasmine were just a few rooms over looking over wardrobe options.

"Tch, they're making it hard for me to find something that fits a shiela my height," Jasmine noted, rummaging through some extravagant costumes that were mostly far too small for her tall frame. "How's it going on your end?"

"There's so many," Sammy replied, nearly drowning in a sea of fabric. "All these colors, all these different patterns. It's kind of overwhelming picking out just one to wear. You think I could get away with wearing different stuff for different verses?"

Before Jasmine could reply, the pair were interrupted by the Drama Brothers barging into the room. Or rather Trent subtly pushing Cody in and blocking him from running away. With both girls looking at them, the tech nerd had no choice but to proceed. The Aussie exchanged a confused look with her partner and picked up on Cody's nervous expression.

"You alright, mate?"

"Actually we're in a bit of a pickle," Trent answered before his friend could try and weasel his way out of this. "There's a cool looking guitar back in the other room that we really want to use, but it's high up and I can't find a ladder anywhere. If you don't mind, think you could come help me out?"

Jasmine blinked in confusion. "Er, you DO realize this is a competitive challenge, don't y-"

Subtly Trent tried to motion with his eyes the true intention for needing to draw Jasmine away. He tried using his gaze to motion from Cody to Sammy, then back to the tech geek, waggling his eyebrows. She was in a relationship and was surely rooting on Sammy's end for the couple to become a thing, would he be able to break through to her? It took a brief moment but eventually she caught on. Trying not to smile, she sighed and followed Trent's lead.

"Fine, fine, I'll help you out. I reckon Cody can stay here and give Sammy a second opinion on the outfits in the meanwhile." She glanced over at Sammy, then back to the boys. "We can't take long though."

Trent nodded appreciatively and patted Cody on the back. "Hear that, dude? We won't be too long. Better hurry up and get to giving Sammy that second opinion."

With one last serious look at his friend, Trent took his leave with Jasmine following. Sammy smirked in amusement as Cody cautiously approached, mustering up his strength so he could look her in the eye.

"Look, Sammy, before we talk about the clothes thing, I have something I want to-"

"Do you want to go out with me?"

Cody paused, flabbergasted at what he just heard. "I-... huh?"

"Do you want to go out with me?" Sammy repeated, smiling nervously. "I mean, I've kind of got the feeling you like me too but you still hadn't asked yet and since we're here alone right now I figured this might be my best chance to ask."

The geek's jaw was dropped. All that pressure from Trent, all that build up to finally get the courage to bite the bullet, everything he had mentally mapped out... only to get beaten to the punch? He groaned into his hands. "Dang it, I was JUST about to finally ask you!"

And like a weight being lifted off of her, the nice twin could finally let out a relieved breath. She giggled and ruffled Cody's hair. "Well that's what you risk if you take too long! So is that a yes?"

"Of course it's a yes, I'd be stupid if I didn't say it!" He joined in on the laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. "I'm just sorry I didn't ask you earlier."

She waved a hand dismissively, though it did give her an idea. "Well if you wanna make it up to me, how about we hang out once the challenge is over? I know the plane isn't the BEST date spot ever but we can make it work."

Cody got a dorky grin. "You bet! Only problem is I don't really know where we could go for privacy. Even if one of our teams win, I don't think we're supposed to just freely sit around first class with each other."

Sammy rolled her eyes playfully. "The cargo hold should be pretty quiet and secluded. Maybe we could do a 'zombie check' for old time's sake?"

Damn, he didn't think of that. Had she been secretly planning this out for sometime now? Whatever the case, he nodded enthusiastically. "Sounds like a date then! Wish we could hang out now but, you know, dumb challenges and all."

"Tell me about it." Noticing that Jasmine and Trent were arriving back, Sammy pretended like she was focusing again on the outfits. "Well thanks for the input, good luck to you guys with the song!"

Cody hobbled over to Trent and the boys took their leave. The guitarist gave him an expectant look, so the shorter guy flashed a discreet thumbs up. Trent grinned proudly and punched him in the arm as a silent congrats. Likewise, Jasmine was unable to hide her sly grin upon rejoining Sammy at the clothes.

"So how'd it go?"

"Oh you know, just having a nice talk with my boyfriend is all," Sammy said, acting nonchalant.

"Hmph, I'm sure, ya cheeky devil." Jasmine chuckled and surveyed the outfits. Oh right, there was still a challenge going on. "Welp, back to work then. Lets pick you something out that's gonna knock Cody's socks off. Sound good?"

Sammy blushed and nodded in agreement, while a few rooms over Trent was already grilling Cody for details, busting his chops over getting beat to the punch. As jovial as their mood was, things were a bit more awkward over with DJ and Leshawna. The duo was practicing some dance moves and DJ was... unsure, to say the least, that they'd be able to pull out a win if Team Explosive were bringing their A-game. At the very least, potential elimination was something they had to prepare for. Meaning he very much needed to capitalize on this one-on-one time while he had it.

"Alright, strategic DJ time. You can do this," he whispered to himself for encouragement, getting psyched for what comes next. Just remember big guy, what would Courtney do? He faced his teammate head-on with a smile. "Let's take a breather for a second, we should probably go ahead and get our wardrobe sorted out before we lock down what kinda dancing we're doing. Wouldn't want to commit to a routine when we're wearing something that makes it uncomfy, right?"

"Worried you're gonna wind up with some ripped pants?" Leshawna snickered and turned off the nearby stereo. "Sure, I could use a quick break."

DJ took a breath to compose himself. "While we're doing that, you mind if I talk to you about something? It's, uh, related to the game."

His partner's expression fell, but she sighed in acceptance. She figured she's be hearing from him or Trent soon enough anyway, no reason to decline. "

"Didn't take you for the type that likes talking about that kinda stuff."

He chuckled. "Believe me, I don't, but at this point it's either this or resign myself to being the next one out. May as well finally show up and take things seriously, you know? Beth talked with you about not voting with Trent and Cody last time, right?"

"Well yeah, she wanted me to vote Cody out." She eyed him up skeptically. "Did y'all have some kinda alliance or something?"

"Courtney was the one to form it, but yeah." He averted his eyes for a moment due to the awkwardness. "She uh, sorta felt it was a necessity since it looked like Harold, Trent, Cody, and you were gonna be impossible for us to survive a vote against."

Leshawna folded her arms. "It wasn't like some big official alliance against y'all or something."

"Sure, but it would have been an unspoken thing where the four of you work together anyway," DJ pointed out. "Let's be real, if Harold hadn't got injured then Courtney would have been the next one out for sure. Then me or Beth, and the other leaving immediately after. None of y'all would have voted against each other when there were other options. And it'd work out evenly, at four it would have been you and Harold on one end, Trent and Cody on the other."

She looked off to the side saying nothing. There was no use denying it, dude had a point.

"Which is totally fine! I'm not like, mad at y'all or anything, that's just how the game goes. But one things led to another now, and I really think it's time we started reevaluating things. Tell me something, say something goes wrong this challenge and we go to elimination. I get voted off, right? But what happens if we lose the next challenge after this one too?" DJ gave her a serious look. "Who'd be voted off next?"

Leshawna was still silent for a moment, but nodded in agreement at what DJ was implying. "The boys wouldn't turn on each other, they'd vote for me. That's only IF we lost two more times in a row tho-"

"Girl, we were both on Team Victory, it can happen. You and me know better than anyone that it can't be ruled out." Alright, now to enter the next important talking point. "And even if y'all DO all make it to the merge, think about what could happen then. Cody and Sammy have been like PB and J together. He ain't gonna want to vote her off, and Trent isn't gonna piss off his bro for no reason. Add in the fact that she could also be bringing along Jasmine as a tight ally..."

Damn, that would make her what, the FIFTH wheel? The ghetto girl's eyes widened a bit in surprise. Just what in the world had gotten into this dude to be spitting all these facts? "So, what's the play here then? You're saying I should just rip the Band-Aid off now and make an alliance with you instead?"

"I mean... yeah?" DJ chuckled awkwardly. "Look, I know it may sound like a jerk move on paper, but this IS a game after all. You gotta do what's best for you to try and get that bag. Trent and Cody would understand, they wouldn't take it personally. And heck, at best this is just gonna put me in a tie breaker if we lose again anyway, so all this could be me blowing hot air for nothing. But at least this way we're giving it an honest shot."

He could tell she wasn't fully convinced, even if she was understanding of his perspective. Time to try and close the deal, just like how he practiced with Dawn! "This is the fourth season for both of us, right? We did pretty good in Island, Action didn't really pan out the way we hoped it would, and World Tour... speaks for itself, right?"

"Mhm," Leshawna mumbled, glaring off to the side. "Damn Alejandro..."

"So if I were a betting man." He paused and looked at the nearest camera. "Which I ain't! Don't worry, Momma! But yeah, IF I was, I'd wager you're feeling a lot of what I'm feeling this season. I'm tired of being an afterthought, tired of people not taking me seriously, tired of the idea that I'm just gonna roll over and do nothing while the bigger personalities get to ride to the finale. Who says this can't be MY turn to be a finalist! Or YOUR turn! Any of that sound like it's hitting close to home?"

Honestly, Leshawna couldn't help but laugh in disbelief. All of this coming from someone like Courtney would have made sense, but DJ? Guess this game could continue to surprise her even after all these years. Still, while his points were solid, the idea of Cody linking up with Sammy in the merge did bring a counterpoint up. "One thing, how do I know you won't find yourself with someone else come merge time that you'd rather keep over me?"

DJ blinked in surprise, unsure who she even had in mind, but thought fast. "Then we'd find a fourth member to link up with you so everything stays fair. Sound good?"

He stuck his hand out, trying to mask his inner nervousness. The conversation went pretty much beat for beat how he and Dawn had practiced, would she be convinced? Leshawna stared at the hand for a while, letting everything digest properly. On one hand, she didn't want to make Trent and Cody feel betrayed. On the other, maybe DJ was right and they wouldn't take it personally. She really did want to give winning a genuine shot this time, and she couldn't do that if she was being on the receiving end of another Team Victory situation. Eventually she made a decision...

... and shook his hand. "Fine. I don't know what the hell's made you so savvy all of a sudden, but I ain't complaining."

"A million bucks is a pretty good motivator for change," he replied with a relieved grin, finally able to let out the breath he'd been holding in. "But let's get back to it. It'll save us some stress if we just win and don't have to worry about the ceremonies."

Leshawna nodded. "I hear ya. I'm gonna run down the women's wardrobe then and see what they got, you check out the men's selection. We'll meet back up in 20. Sound good?"

"Sounds good," he confirmed. Leshawna jogged off and DJ started searching for his destination.

*** Confessional: Leshawna ***

"Tch, I guess I should have caught on that the game's getting serious now with the way Beth approached me last time." She folded her arms and sighed. "I still can't believe DJ of all people is the one asking for an alliance, but he brought up too much truth for me to turn a blind eye. Trent and Cody are my friends and all, but I ain't about to get third wheeled out of a million bucks for them. DJ ain't the backstabbing type, I think I can trust him to be a solid ally. But I got my eye on him, the moment him and Dawn get too chummy, I'm making sure I got that second ally to make sure it ain't the same story with a different crew!"

*** In Film City ***

Because the studio was so large, it was pretty easy to get lost in the halls. DJ had passed by multiple sets in mid-shoot, Beardo and Sugar experimenting with some instruments, even Dave preparing some headgear. Eventually he could hear the boisterous voice of Lightning coming from somewhere down the hall.

"Yo Brick, check out this scarf! Think it fits for the show, Lightning's kinda feelin it!"

Ah, good, just the room he was looking for! DJ rounded the corner... only to find his path blocked by Amy lying in wait.

"Hey big guy, your partner go missing?" Not like she was going to let him answer, this wasn't about Leshawna. "That's so crazy, me too! Wanna take a walk with me so we can look for them?"

"Uh... no?" To say he was confused would be an understatement. "I didn't lose Leshawna, we're just both getting our outfits ready. No need following her into the women's room, right?"

He tried walking around the mean twin but she shifted positions to keep him blocked. "Well that's good, it saves us half the trouble. I could really use some help finding Dave, though. This place is so big, so many rooms, a bunch of sets. I could really use a big strong man to help me out..."

DJ blinked once. Twice. Three time, trying to wrap his brain around what was happening. Had he even exchanged any words with this girl all season? Was someone pranking him right now? He looked around for the hidden cameras but all the cameramen for the show itself were around so that was pretty much fruitless.

"I, uh, saw him getting some headgear earlier so he's probably still doing that. He was just down that way." He jutted his thumb behind him down the hall and used the momentary distraction to slip past Amy. "I gotta get back to work, hope you find him though!"

And he just waltzed on into wardrobe as if Amy hadn't just dropped a flirty comment towards him. The cheerleader stared off in disbelief, mouth agape. Lightning was one thing, guy was an idiot. And apparently Brick was gay? So whatever, no dice there. But between Trent's vitriol and DJ's lack of any reaction even a confident ego as solid as her's was starting to have its doubts. But then again, her lesser sister was able to catch a boy's attention. Surely she'd be able to too, and this time with a hot one!

"... maybe he's just so focused on the challenge that he's being oblivious. Yeah, yeah that's it." She composed herself and regained her confident aura. "I'll just hit him up again when this is over."

"Hit who up?" a new voice said, somehow immediately behind Amy. She jumped back with a yelp, and hey speaking of aura it was Dawn! "I certainly hope you aren't planning something physical."

A shiver ran down Amy's spine. Something about just talking to this weirdo gave her the heebie jeebies. "Yeah, no, as in flirting with a guy not literally hitting someone, duh."

"Ah. Well if your romance life is as superficial as your aura lets on, I'd feel truly sorry for the unfortunate soul on the receiving end." She either didn't notice or didn't care about the twin's offended reaction. "Though somehow I doubt you'd have much success with the boys of this cast."

Was that a bet? Amy scowled and flipped her hair to the side defiantly. "Hmph, what would you know about what I can and can't pull off? You'll be the one looking stupid when I have DJ wrapped around my finger before the day is over."

Dawn's expression changed subtly from stoic and uncaring to deadly serious. Amy would need to choose her next words very carefully. "DJ?"

"Yeah, he seems like the only decent options left. Especially now that he's not stuck hanging around that gross nerd a bunch. Just watch, give me one hour after the challenge and-"

"That's not a good idea, Amy." Dawn suddenly cut in, inching closer to the Explosive member. "In fact, it's a terrible idea. Disastrous even."

The cheerleader folded her arms. "Oh yeah? Says who?"

"Says me." She scooted ever closer. Amy tried taking a step back, but the moonchild followed so that no distance was put between them. "And you should take care to listen to me if you don't want to look like a fool."

"What are you-"

"You're not DJ's type. In fact, he detests vain people such as yourself." Dawn tilted her head to the side, now uncomfortably close to Amy and piercing her with a menacing leer. "If you were to ask him out, things might start looking bad. You could wind up hurt, Amy. Do you want that? You may look like a fool on international television. Do you want that? DO you want that, Amy?"

She didn't dare respond, just stare at Dawn in a mix of fear and confusion.

"No. I didn't think so." A smile crept its way through as Dawn observed Amy back away slowly. "So leave. Abandon the idea. Right now."

Amy didn't need to be told twice. With her permission to escape, the mean twin turned around and booked it down the hallway to get as far away from her as possible. Dawn was satisfied with her work, grinning proudly, though once she was gone it started setting in that she might have gotten a bit too intense. The camera panned over slowly to reveal Anne Maria standing behind her, eyebrow raised.

"So... you think she got the message?"

Truly in what must have been a rarity, it was the moonchild's turn to tense up at someone else's sudden appearance, her face turning a crimson red. "I believe so, yes. And I'd appreciate if we both moved promptly along from this and never spoke of it again."

Anne Maria smirked, taking note of Dawn's refusal to meet her eyes. It was rare seeing her so flustered. "Eh, if you ask me it was some hot girl material right there. But if you don't want DJ knowing you went off on a bitch, I ain't go no reason to spill."

"I thank you for that. Truly." She sighed and led her partner elsewhere. "Let's get back to it then."

*** Confessional: Dawn ***

The girl's head was buried into her hands, once again that bright glow of red. "Dear Mother Earth, WHY am I letting this influence me so significantly? You don't even need to read DJ's aura to know he wouldn't give a loathsome bully like Amy the time of day. So why did I still let that trigger a jealous reaction in me? Sound as Norbert's advice may be, perhaps it's for the best I just focus on the challenge for now before I make a fool of myself."

*** Confessional: Chef ***

"That AIN'T my gosh darn name!"

*** In Film City ***

Since his own partner was currently missing, Dave had found his way to Beardo and Sugar and was trying to teach them how to dance Bollywood music video style. An uphill battle since the beatboxer's movements were stiff and awkward, while Sugar was going for some sort of line dancing approach.

"No no no, you've got to sway your hips like this," the germaphobe protested, doing a little shimmy for demonstration. "Do it again!"

There was zero change, Sugar just shook her groove thang however she pleased while Beardo attempted to get his head in the game by humming the tune for Tunak Tunak Tun. Unfortunately he couldn't quite match the movements that Dave was making.

"For two people who actually LIKE to sing you guys don't really have any rhythm, do you?" Dave was about to make them start over, but all three paused when they noticed their teammate stomping into the scene. Her partner was too annoyed at her absence to notice the clearly pissed off scowl. "There you are! Where the heck did you wander off to?"

Not in the mood to talk, the cheerleader stormed past the group and looked for something to blow off steam with. Unfortunately for her, Sugar caught a glimpse of her scowl and pieced together a theory.

"You strike out with another one of them fellers?" She chuckled when Amy snapped back to send her a dirty look. "Guess so! Can't be as bad as what happened with Trent, right. What did pretty boy say about you again? That you were-"

Amy stomped up to her ally, having to exercise what bit of restraint she had left to not pounce on the larger girl. Perhaps Sugar was just trying to get a bit of friendly banter in with her. To her it didn't matter, the sting of defeat was too fresh and she was much too bitter to feel up for joking about it. Seeing a potential cat fight about to break out, Beardo let out a siren sound effect and forced himself between the two.

"A'ight break it up, we don't gotta start a scene! We're all teammates here, right?" Amy moved the glare his way and he chuckled nervously. "Uh, I t-think me and Sugar are gonna go keep practicing our dance moves somewhere else. Like, a few rooms over. Dave just come holler if you need us."

Sugar shrugged innocently and followed after her partner. Her mood seemed jovial as ever, it was unlikely she would have taken Amy's hissy fit seriously until she actually made a move. Dave stood to the mean twin's side, trying to decipher what he had just witnessed.

"What was that about striking out?"

"Drop it."

It was rare to see an ice queen like her so flustered. Dave thought that perhaps he was truly concerned for his partner, though in reality he was likely just worried that her being out of it would be a hinderance for the upcoming challenge. Either way, she needed to be calmed down.

"Look, if you need to talk about it with someone, I'm all ears" he offered. "I don't mind-"

"WHERE DOES SHE GET OFF THINKING SHE CAN TALK TO ME LIKE THAT?" Amy's fury erupted into a banshee screech. She picked up one of the nearby potted plants and tossed it wildly in a rage. Dave just narrowly ducked out of the way in time. "Next time she even THINKS about trying to tell me off, I'll really let her have it!"

The germaphobe cautiously approached his teammate, going in for one of those reassuring shoulder rubs. "I know, I know. Sugar can be in her own world sometimes, but you can't-"

"This isn't about Sugar, you idiot." She slapped his hand away and huffed off. "It's that stupid hippie girl from the other team."

"Dawn?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "I guess? You think I actually take the time to remember these loser's names? Whoever she is, all I was doing was trying to flirt with DJ and suddenly she comes in out of nowhere to try and make me look dumb! Who the hell does she think she is? Better yet, who the hell does she think I AM? She has a lot of nerve sticking her nose in my business."

"Ah." Well the good news was she didn't seem to actually be too mad at her own teammate? Still, things would be a lot smoother if Dave could get Amy to get over it. He racked his brain for a moment, looking around at the set they'd soon be doing their music video in. "I don't really have the full context about what's going on or what she did to piss you off, but if it's got you so mad maybe we can get a little payback?"

Now he had her interest. She quirked an eyebrow and composed herself a bit. "Go on..."

"You remember when I suggested you guys should sabotage B, right? It worked like a charm and we got him kicked off." He'd ignore the part where they still lost the challenge and supposedly would have lost someone had the vote not been a tie. "Maybe we should do something like that again. We mess with Dawn's pair, get them to screw up during the performance, and their team loses for sure. It's not like a bunch of bumbling meatheads like Brick and Lightning are gonna rake in a bunch of points to compensate. And if you're them, who would you rather vote off? Tough as nails Anne Maria, or someone who looks like a light breeze could knock them over."

Amy looked Dave up and down. He wasn't wrong, but him being the one to point out Dawn's twiggy stature was amusing to say the least. Still, guy was talking her language. "Getting that weirdo kicked off WOULD make me feel better... alright, I'm in! Congrats, you just trumped Sugar in being the better ally. At least you're actually suggesting something useful."

Dave smiled. Feeling appreciated was rare for him these days, he'd savor it where he could.

"Leave it to me, we'll get this sabotage prep done real quick then finish up rehearsing. Just follow my lead." As the pair walked off to find some tools needed for the foul play, Dave's mind wandered to Sugar's grilling that had kick started all of this to begin with. He tugged at his collar, whistling nonchalantly. "And you know... if it's a relationship with a guy that you're looking for-"

"Don't push your luck," she hissed, pushing him forward.

"Fair enough." He sighed.

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"In retrospect I'm kind of shocked we've been able to avoid elimination for as long as we have. It's made things a bit too quiet here on my end. If I'm going to make people back home take me seriously, I need to start making more moves. Things go well, and I'll earn some more respect around here. And hey, if something goes horribly wrong, it's Amy that's taking the blame since she's the one feuding with Dawn." He got a sort of sinister grin. "I call that a win-win."

*** In Film City ***

Sometime later once prep time was over, everyone had gathered around for the music video. Since things tended to be unpredictable and wacky once the singing started, a picturesque outdoor set with a town façade had been chosen for the contestants to stretch their legs. Everyone was dressed up in different brightly colored outfits to match the location, with the girls wearing the likes of lehengas, saris, and blouses. For the men they wore sherwanis, achkans, or jodhpuris. Dave had even opted to wear a pagri. If you don't feel like Googling any of this don't worry, point was that they were all looking spiffy.

While the usual Total Drama approved cameramen were around, they were also joined by a large Mumbai film crew. Some even had clipboards out to take notes, while others had their eyes glued to the nearby monitors that would be displaying the video. With all the lighting, film grade mics, and more it was feeling much more official than their usual improvised song numbers.

"Almost feels wrong to be doing this with so much of a heads up," Leshawna noted while adjusting her sari. "Anyone know what we're supposed to be singing about anyway?"

"Glad you asked," Chris suddenly announced, watching in with the crew alongside Chef. "Remember that this is for a commercial that's going to be used for advertising the show. So with that in mind, you guys should really hype yourselves up and make Total Drama sound as enticing as possible! Suspense, danger, romance, whatever you think is gonna hook viewers into tuning in."

Cody and Sammy exchanged a look at the romance suggestion, both giggling. Her sister similarly shared a laugh with Dave, though that was after glancing over at Dawn. She was never gonna see it coming...

"One minute," a member from the Mumbai crew announced.

Chris was in the middle of passing popcorn to his co-host when he suddenly remembered something. "This is probably redundant at this point, but for the sake of tradition..."

*DING DING DING*

Game faces were on. Lightning and Brick exchanged a chest bump. Trent radiated confidence that could only come from a professional musician in a singing competition. Amy grinned wickedly, while Dawn raised an eyebrow as something started to feel off.

"Lights," the crew member spoke up once again. "Camera, and... action!"

Song Start!

"Come Watch Our Show." Parody of "Let's Groove," by Earth, Wind, & Fire

[A funky, almost disco-esque beat played as the sun rose in the background. Shrouded in darkness, the contestants were lined up in the town square now with a new piece to each of their outfits. Roller-skates. Beardo was in the center and the first to have the sunlight shining on him, forcing him to lead in the song.]

"To-tal Drama's on, tune in and watch.

To-tal Drama's on, this show's topnotch.

To-tal Drama's on, come down and see.

To-tal Drama's on, can't miss TV."

[By now the entire cast was bathed in light and subtly grooving to the music. Synth and brass echoed in the background, bits of percussion and electric guitar starting to leak in. Once Beardo's intro was done, the music swelled into a more upbeat poppy tune. Most branched off into their respective pairs and danced around on their skates. Beardo would briefly keep up repeating his portion, but Sugar circled her partner to kick off the pre-chorus.]

"Come watch our show! Listen to the song.

There's nothing better on. So come and watch our show!"

[Beardo and Sugar began syncing up their dance moves, earning a discreet side eye from Dave nearby as they let loose and grooved in an unorthodox hip hop-esque way that didn't really fit the flow of the song. Still, they were clearly having fun. Jasmine and Sammy rolled past and the camera followed them.]

"It's the show, that's got it all. There's drama, drama, draaaamaa.

The title, says it right there. Such drama, drama, draaamaa.

[The friends sung in unison, moving around gracefully despite passing nondescript silhouettes depicting the likes of a fist fight, a couple kissing as someone else watches in secret, and someone literally being stabbed in the back. Jasmine used her strength to lift her friend up and twirl her around. Sammy's outfit was a bit more revealing than what she was used to, something that Cody took notice of as the duo passed him. Trent quickly shook him back to his senses.]

"Juicy romance out the wazoo, it's all here. Cooome watch.

Hookups, cheating, dudes getting dumped, it's scandalous. Coooome watch."

[Cody zoomed past a collage of familiar scenes remade in paper mache while doing his song. One that resembled Geoff and Bridgette kissing in Action, another was the infamous Gwen and Duncan confessional kiss, finally was Ella's heartbroken reaction to Dave friendzoning her.]

"It's nooooot just mush. There's fights that hit like a truck

Our boooones will break. And it's aaall, caught on camera for you to watch, yeah!"

[Next was Trent moving around effortlessly while strumming an electric guitar. His set of scenes passed were more focused on brawls and injuries. Harold punching Duncan, Leshawna slapping Heather in the alps, Scott in the trauma chair, Owen being hit in the face with Chef's manifesto. Cody was now playing backup synth and the Drama bros both showed off their experienced dancing in full force.]

"Gross out food, making us puke. It's nasty, nasty, naaaasty.

Check it out, see for yourself. It's nasty, nasty, naaaasty."

[Anne Maria and Dawn were next on the scene, showing off various Styrofoam props that resembled food from challenges over the years. Lightning's frosted maggot, the bunion soup with nails in it, expired Juggy Chunks, the prison food. More curious though was how on edge Dawn immediately looked. Every once in a while her eyes would go wide and she'd suddenly jerk Anne Maria and herself into another direction. The Jersey girl was clearly confused but couldn't do much else since there was a song to focus on. Once the two were finally out of the area Dawn finally seemed to relax until she looked back at Brick and Lightning now rolling into frame.]

"Want the funny? We've got your back! Guaranteed, you'll laugh.

Groin shots, slapstick. Gaseous galore, we've got it all. You'll laugh."

[As Brick sung it looked like originally they had just planned going by little standees displaying each of his talking points much like previous pairs. However as they rolled past each area Dawn had jerked herself and Anne Maria away from, something seemed to take them by surprise. A bit of oil making Brick fall, mousetraps snapping him out of nowhere, a blast of fire that singed his unibrow. At the word 'groin' a bowling ball inexplicably missed hitting his foot but somehow bounced off the oil and hit his crotch instead. Somehow still singing through the pain, a stink bomb cloud nearly made him pass out with only a slap from Lightning keeping him lucid.]

"You'll laugh at our pain. It's fine, we probably will not die.

We'll get maaaauled by these beasts. And we'll keep coming back for more."

[Lightning managed to sing despite the obvious concern by everything Brick was going to. Soon enough both boys were finding themselves pelted with trash or being jolted by electricity. For the mauling line they were supposed to pose in front of some elephants but something seemed to have irritated the creatures and they chased the boys away.]

"Wait, there's more! How bout some tunes? They're groovin, groovin, groooovin.

This season, you'll hear us sing. It's ear worms, ear worms, eaaaaar worms."

[While Lightning and Brick worried about not dying, Dave and Amy rolled into shot while singing in unison. They exchanged a look, Amy seeming annoyed that it wasn't Dawn taking the sabotage, but Dave looking satisfied with his work. Their dancing was the closest to resemble the choreography that you'd see in a typical Bollywood musical number.]

"Round the world, pushed out a plane. We're fallin', fallin', faaaallin'.

New locations, never the same. Go worldwide, worldwide, woooorldwide."

[Sugar and Beardo joined in with the singing, doing their more bombastic dance moves that got annoyed looks from their teammates. Amy and Dave glared until the two finally relented and matched their more traditional motions.]

"Pick a fav, hope they win, or get sparred, better pray for them.

Or they'll lose, and fall out, of a speeding plane."

[Speaking of weird looking dancing, DJ was up for starting the bridge while his partner danced behind him in a way only Leshawna could. 24 Chris McLean standees were set up in front of him and with each breath he'd toss a bag of peanuts at one to send it tumbling down.]

"One can win, no one else. It's a million buuuucks.

Total Drama... is on!"

[As Leshawna sang she joined her partner in pelting the standees with nut packets, quickly whittling it down to just one left standing. She started repeating the "Total Drama is on" line a few times while DJ sang backup, mirroring Beardo's lines from the intro.]

"Come watch our show! Yeah, by now you know.

Go grab the remote. And tune in to our show!"

[Sammy sung the first line of the pre-chorus while Jasmine took the second. In the background DJ and Beardo alternated between doing bits of the "To-tal Drama's on" intro. The girls continued exhibiting surprisingly in sync dancing while circling around Trent and Cody playing their instruments. Once they were done it was time for a horn solo, curtesy of Brick, though he was keeping one eye open to watch out for any incoming hazards.]

"Chris McLean, hosting the show. With drama, drama, draaaama.

What else can, we really say? There's drama, drama, draaama."

[Dawn and Anne Maria covered the chorus again, which spelt bad news for the horn player. Try as she may, Dawn only had time to get her and Anne Maria out of harm's way. Brick and Lightning kept rolling into the path of various traps before she could reach out to stop them. One would be hit with eggs, the next a pissed off cat with sharp claws, the next a plank of wood. By the end of it all Brick was just straight up flattened under a piano, Lightning hurrying to dig him out of the rubble.]

[As the song slowly went to an outro, various pairs took turns repeating renditions of the chorus for a last bit of brownie points. Trent and Cody on their instruments, Dave and Amy with their faithful dancing, DJ and Leshawna getting their groove on. Team Radioactive, while still singing, were now too busy grouping together and making sure Brick survived to the end of the song.]

"Aaaaand cut!"

The Bollywood film crew immediately crowded around to deliberate on results while Chris and Chef looked on bemused. "Nice work out there, dudes! I especially liked Brick and Lightning's strategy of beating the snot out of themselves to really drive home the whole slapstick appeal, good stuff."

Lightning blinked in confusion. "Uh, WAS that what we were doing out there? That'd explain a lot."

Brick responded with an incomprehensible happy gurgle.

"What the heck was all of that anyway?" Anne Maria piped up. "I mean, it was ONLY happening to us! Where did all that crap even come from?"

"I have a few theories," Dawn said, giving a stern glare Team Explosive's way. "I sensed sudden spots of negative energy during the song, but unfortunately I was only fast enough to stop us from crossing its path. I'm truly sorry that I couldn't get you out of the way in time, boys."

Always full of wisdom, the cadet acknowledged her with a pained thrum.

"A'ight contestants, the results are in," Chris announced, gathering everyone around for the announcement. "And it was a CLOSE one. Seriously, each team even had a pair that got ranked in the top 3! Results were all the way over the board with this one."

Riding the high of watching his sabotaging work so well against Brick, Dave chuckled and pretended to brush dust off his shoulders. "Told you guys showing off authentic Bollywood dance moves would do the trick. If all of you would have just listened to me we'd probably ALL be the top 3."

"Nice confidence there, Dave! Would really be a shame if someone did something to put a dent in it." Not missing a beat, Chris turned to face a different explosive pair. "Totally unrelated but, Jasmine and Samey! You girls were popular for your super sweet dancing and seamless chemistry, BUT it wasn't enough to beat the other top contender teams. So it looks like you guys ranked 3rd!"

He'd give a few moments for the germaphobe to realize he hadn't even cracked the top 3 and despairing over it before continuing. "Trent and Cody, you wowed the crowd with your instrument skills and professional level singing! However, you were missing a bit off that pizzaz to get you the highest amount of points. 2nd ain't bad though."

The recently formed couple exchanged smiles over their high placements, though Trent looked a bit disappointed over not securing first.

"Which means Dawn and Anne Maria were actually the ones to get the full 7 points! Seems the crew thought you guys looked, moved, and sounded awesome. We're not really sure what was up with all your erratic movements, but whatever the case the crowd thought you oozed star power!"

"Tell me something I didn't already know," the Jersey girl boasted, applying a celebratory coat of hairspray. Her more peaceful teammate just gave a neutral smile.

"So now that you guys know who on your teams didn't screw up today, let's get down to business. The pair that scored 4th locks in our First Class riders this time around. Thanks to them their team is safe and sound tonight, and that pair is..." Chris paused for dramatic effect, pointing out a finger and hovering it back and fourth between all remaining duos. Eventually it landed on... "Lightning and Brick! Which means Team Radioactive wins first class again!"

Genuinely surprised all things considered, Anne Maria and Dawn embraced in excitement. Lightning cheered and held his hands up victoriously, though that allowed Brick to fall like a sack of potatoes. To his credit, he managed to squeak out a victorious murmur despite his state.

"WHAT?" Dave and Amy yelled simultaneously.

"The crowd's spoken, they didn't think the singing was too great but they loved the entertainment Brick and Lightning brought by taking all those hardcore stunts on! Hehe, yeah, stunts. Let's go with that. Can't go wrong with making your audience laugh to rake in some points."

In other words, the punishment from the sabotaging actually worked in their favor. The mean twin gave her partner a scowl, him just chuckling nervously.

"So obviously Team Radioactive scored 11 points total. Our losing team scored 8 points while the mid middling morons got 9!" Ah, sweet sweet dragging things out for added suspense. The host surveyed the remaining three pairs with a sadistic glee. "DJ and Leshawna! Obviously you dudes got your work cut out for you, it's both of you compared to two whole other pairs. However, if you guys ranked 5th, it means you're safe and Team Explosive loses. But if either one of their pairs are 5th, it's back to elimination for you guys! If you're curious, the crowd liked your enthusiasm, singing was ok, but the dancing... yeesh."

Leshawna glared in contempt. Was her boyfriend seriously the only one on the whole planet that could appreciate her amazing dance skills? DJ was feeling the sweat.

"As for you explosive dudes, the crowd actually really liked Beardo... but Sugar was their least favorite out of everyone. Hated her singing, hated her dancing, hated her outfit, hated her everything!"

"Y'all ain't got no taste," aforementioned pageant queen screamed at the film crew, tossing a shoe. "This is why the pilgrims won!"

Chris opened his mouth to respond but quickly shut it and shook his head. Maybe the best call was to just move right along and not acknowledge what was wrong with she just said. Yeah, probably the right call. "Anyway, Dave and Amy. The crowd didn't mind your singing, they liked your attire, and they'd normally appreciate your dance moves that felt straight out of a Bollywood flick, but they didn't really think it fit for the song you performed. Maybe if it had been an Indian pop song or something-"

"How was I supposed to know it wouldn't be?" Dave protested. "It's BOLLYWOOD, why wouldn't it be a song that'd fit?"

"Save it for someone who cares, brah." Chris chuckled in amusement. "But enough stalling. Since DJ and Leshawna's placement is the deciding factor we'll go ahead and reveal their placement. And they... came in... not last place... that was Beardo and Sugar by the way... yes they hated Sugar's singing that much... but anyway... they... got-"

"Boy if you don't hurry your ass up!"

The host ducked a shoe this time thrown by Leshawna. "Hey! Sue a guy for wanting to milk the sweet sweet tension, geez. Now I don't feel bad saying that you guys came in 6th! Amy and Dave got 5th, meaning Team Explosive is safe! Team Old School, you guys got a date with the Boot of Shame!"

Groans echoed out from not only the losing team but even members of Team Radioactive. Seems even the winners were raring to see Team Explosive finally kick someone off again. But haters be damned, most of the team would celebrate their 2nd place finish. All except Sammy, who looked on at her boyfriend in concern. As everyone started to disperse, she approached Cody and offered a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, it's gonna be alright. We're gonna have that date, remember?"

Cody perked up a bit but a cloud of doubt was lingering in the back of his mind. Could he truly promise that it would happen? "There's a good chance I'm going to be put in another tiebreaker, Sammy..."

"Which means there's a good chance you're going to WIN another tiebreaker," she reassured him, smiling confidently. "It'd be me doing one against my sister if our team lost. I would have kicked her butt, so you're going to kick butt too. You've got a date to look forward to, use that as motivation."

He couldn't help but smirk, turning a light shade of red. "Yeah. Yeah! I AM gonna kick some butt. I mean heck, if it has to be related to the challenge like it was last time, that means it'll be singing related. I can win that easy."

"Despite how little you sang back in World Tour, right?" Sammy giggled and pulled him in for a hug. "I know you can do this."

For the time being, the two would enjoy their moment, but others had to get to work. Trent caught Leshawna's eye and gave a knowing nod. They needed to talk, and soon. DJ wouldn't miss a beat though, soon he was at the girl's side. A strange bit of static flickered across the screen.

"So, we still good for this vote?"

Leshawna faced her teamate. "-#&!/"

"I gotcha," he responded. "For what it's worth I'm thinking the vote should be for ?!-~"

"[[[[[[]]]]]?"

Meanwhile nearby, 244569420110378675309-...?

*** C0nfe22i0nal: D?!- ***

...

Audio crackled and popped in a glitchy high tone, gargled static making whatever was going on incomprehensible. Eventually the static changed to shades of scarlet and violet before the screen went completely dark. An elaborate Pokémon reference or something more sinister? Who knows. For a few moments there would be nothing but silent blank nothingness. No audio, no picture, nada. But eventually, the screen flickered back to life, showing an extreme closeup of Chef.

"Is it working?" Chris' voice echoed behind him.

"Think so," the larger man grumbled. He stepped back, revealing that they were in the elimination ceremony room. Chris tapped his foot impatiently behind his podium while a confused Team Old School sat on the bleachers. A few interns crowded around the camera and tested a few more things.

"You're telling me EVERY SINGLE ONE of our hundreds of camera all went kaput just like that?" Chris seethed. "All at once?"

Chef shrugged. "Apparently? Tech nerds say they went out pretty soon after the challenge ended."

A beat passed, Chris' eye twitching as the info sunk in. "Which means we lost HOURS of footage between then and now?"

Well that he didn't know, so Chef looked to a chubby intern for the answers. The overworked employee whispered something in his ear and he sighed in relief. "Nah, they should be able to recover the footage in time for editing the episode. They were rolling, something just... went wrong with em I guess."

"Oh thank goodness." Chris' usual upbeat demeanor started to return, though there were still concerns. "But this is the only one working right now?"

The chubby intern nodded.

"Well we don't need anything potentially juicy from the other teams getting missed while things are rebooting." Time to whip out a tried and true classic! From out of nowhere the host produced his megaphone, Team Old School just barely plugging their ears in time. "Team Explosive and Team Radioactive! Due to technical difficulties, I need your butts down at the elimination ceremony pronto! Look on the bright side, you can sit in and watch someone get kicked off. You'll be able to return once we have the cameras up and running!"

Oh yeah, speaking of the vote maybe he should be prepared for that. Due to all this cameras fucking up nonsense, Chris had yet to even look at the votes! He peered at the passports, but had been working on his poker face so as to not give away what they revealed. Instead he merely chuckled and looked over the various interns.

"Well what are you waiting for? Get the cameras back to working! Time is money, people!"

As the interns filed out, the other two teams started to trickle in. Some annoyed, others confused, and a few curious about what was going down. They crammed into the bleachers to the best of their ability.

"This is weird," Leshawna noted, her teammates nodding in agreement. "You'd think the cameras would be the first thing they'd make sure is always working no matter what."

"Totally." Trent felt something a bit ominous in his gut about all this but shrugged it off. "Guess it's not our problem, though."

Once everyone was seated, Chris could whip out the tray with three barf bags at the ready. "Huh, maybe it's a bit cramped but I'm kinda liking this change of pace! Maybe I should let the other teams sit in on all ceremonies going forward. Just for funsies, ya know? But enough about that, let's talk turkey! Team Old School continues to suck eggs, so now one of them gets to take a dive. The good news is you guys have a 75 percent chance of it not being you. The bad news? 25 percent says that you're screwed."

Team Old School weren't the only ones nervous. Dawn and Sammy both looked on in concern for the guys they were supporting. Beardo was hopping the Drama Bros would make it out unscathed. Anne Maria knew what a robbed queen Leshawna was, wouldn't be fun to see her leave.

"First one to get a barf bag full of peanuts is... Leshawna."

A few eyebrows in the crowd shot up, some confused glances, others that felt they saw it coming.

"And also sitting pretty is... Trent!"

Sammy sucked in a breath, but remained optimistic. Her boyfriend could do this. Dawn meanwhile uttered a silent prayer to Mother Earth to give DJ strength.

"Which leaves us with Cody and DJ," Chris announced. "Codemeister, welcome back to the bottom two, I'm sure you missed it after your fun duel against Beth. And Big Deej! I know you've been pretty safe so far this go around, but I'm sure this is still familiar for you. You were in the bottom two, what, EVERY single time with Team Victory?"

The gentle giant glared back defiantly. "And I wound up safe every time until I was the last one standing."

"Sure, if you ignore the fact that Harold quitting saved you the one time, and you tried to throw it another." Chris chuckled and glanced at the nerdier teammate. "Plus Cody made it all the way to 3rd place that season, so if it's the one you wanna compare stats on..."

"Just get on with it already," Cody complained.

Usually Chris would have a snarky comeback, but he was excited to get things rolling. So he shrugged and held up the final puke packet. "One barf bag left, two dudes vying for it. Who's it gonna be, whoooo's it gonna be? The final... barf bag... of the night... goes to...

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... DJ."

A chorus of gasps rang out across the crowd. Even the safe boy in question was too shocked to grab his peanut packet in time, it bouncing off his head. "It... wasn't a tie?"

"Nope! No tie, Cody's just done like dinner, the votes don't lie."

Just as shocked as the others, Leshawna shook off the blindside enough to ask the first thing on her mind. "How's that even possible? Shouldn't it have been 2 to 2?"

Chris raised his hand and was about to speak when suddenly an out of breath Chef barged into the room.

"The cameras... they're all... back on again."

"Perfect!" The host gave the nearest camera a sinister smirk. "Yo editors! I think now's about when you should put in what all led to this, yeah?"

*** After the challenge ended ***

Things flashed back to the earlier scene immediately after the results of the challenge were announced. Sammy had just given her boyfriend a pep talk while Trent exchanged a knowing nod with Leshawna. DJ joined his teammate, nervous about the coming ceremony.

"So, we still good for this vote?"

Leshawna faced her teammate. "Yeah, I got your back. No use going back on an alliance immediately, ya know? I really ain't looking forward to having to tell Trent it ain't happening, though."

"I gotcha," he responded. "For what it's worth I'm thinking the vote should be for Cody. Nothing against the guy, but if it's something physical like it was last time it's my best bet."

She nodded in agreement. "Makes sense. Just make sure you don't underestimate that stringbean! He'll take the win from you if you're not careful. Better bring your A-game."

While the two of them continued to banter and speculate on what the tie breaker may be, they failed to notice a figure behind them finally moving around a corner, their eavesdropping done. Once the coast was clear and he was sure no one could hear him, Dave caught his breath and started to brainstorm. So half the team was voting for Cody, eh? He could work with that. Scenarios raced by in Dave's mind, ideas he could use to take advantage of this and help make a desirable outcome. If he could rope Amy and Sugar into this, with just a bit of convoluted scheming...

"Yeah, that'll work." He smirked to himself.

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"So the force Dawn to get voted off plan didn't go exactly as I envisioned it. I should have known things would be dicey with this being a challenge involving judges. Even if that plan was a dud, who's to say I should stop there? I think Amy's going to like what she hears."

*** Outside the Jumbo Jet ***

Speaking of the evil twin, her and Sugar had just finished putting up their Bollywood outfits. The pageant queen was in relatively high spirits, but Amy? Knowing that not only was Dawn NOT in danger of elimination tonight, but she was also enjoying the luxury and comfort of first class? When it should be AMY sitting pretty in there right now? Even the lack of elimination wasn't enough to stop her from stewing in her own rage.

So needless to say, she wasn't the most enthralled when Mr. Botched Plan himself popped up and motioned them away from anyone else's earshot. "What do you want, Dave?"

"Look I know the Dawn sabotage wasn't my best work, but I think we should try one more thing before the ceremony. It'll be worth it, I promise."

Sugar chuckled in amusement. "You gonna try to convince Dawn to quit or something?"

"We're putting a raincheck down for getting out Dawn. We'll make it happen, just not tonight." He glanced over at Amy and grinned. "But what if... we got out your sister's boyfriend instead."

Amy's eyes shot open. "Keep talking..."

"I overheard something really juicy." He peeked around to make sure they weren't being listened in on themselves. "DJ and Leshawna? They're voting for Cody. Sounds like they're expecting it to be a tiebreaker too, with Cody and Trent voting against DJ."

"Ooooooh, I getcha." The country girl smiled. "We're gonna rig the tiebreaker so DJ wins!"

"... no, not that. We don't even know what that would be or how we could go about rigging it." He held a finger up for a dramatic pause. "What we CAN do, though, is trick one of the band guys into switching their vote. And if those two don't vote together..."

"The two votes against the dork is enough to send him packing," Amy finished, unable to contain her wicked grin. "So that sounds good, but how do we make it happen?"

Alright, time to lay out the plan. This was gonna earn Dave some respect for sure! "It sounds like Trent is gonna try getting Leshawna alone to try and convince her to vote with them. While he's distracted doing that, we can strike. It's going to take a lot of moving pieces, though. Sugar, how close does Beardo feel to you?"

Huh, didn't expect to hear his name come up for the plan. "He trusts me just fine, I reckon. I don't think the boy ever had much friends so he's pretty much latched on to the idea that we're cool as a cucumber."

"Perfect. And Amy, do you think you could make a big yelling match happen with you and your sister?"

"What, are you kidding? I could do that in my sleep."

Oh yeah, it's all coming together. "Then we should be able to pull this off. Here's the plan..."

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

"You're sure there's nothing I can say to change your mind?"

Leshawna leaned against the wall and sighed. "Trent I'm sorry, but no. It's my bad that I didn't give you guys a heads up last time, but I'll be straight up here. I'm voting for Cody. I've gotta do it. You and me both know that if I just voted DJ off and we lose again, I'M the one getting kicked off next time."

Trent racked his brain for something to retort, but there truly wasn't anything to say. He wasn't just gonna lie and promise to vote with her against Cody next time if it came to it, she had a point he couldn't deny. "I... I get it. It just really sucks that it's come to this."

"Agreed. But hey, Cody gets the chance to defend himself in the tiebreaker, right? Maybe he can pull off the win and none of this winds up mattering." She shrugged. "Either way, my hands are tied."

While this conversation was wrapping up, something malicious was brewing elsewhere on the plane. As per the plan, Amy and Sugar waited in economy class where Cody and Sammy were too wrapped up in their flirting to suspect any foul play lurking. DJ and Jasmine had excused themselves elsewhere so as to give the couple some privacy. Finally, for things to be pulled off seamlessly Beardo couldn't be in the room when things started. So Dave had called him out to the nearby hallway for a totally genuine and not at all distracting talk.

"Listen, I just want to apologize for snapping at your about the sound effects." Dave's acting wasn't half bad, so his tone seemed genuine enough for the beatboxer. "You see, I've got this hearing sensitivity and loud noises just kinda set me off. But I know they're kind of your thing, so I didn't mean to put you down over them."

"For real? Ah don't worry about it, man!" Beardo was positively giddy, here he thought this dude hated him! "I've been trying to cut back on em, but I guess they're kind of a coping mechanism, ya know? They just sorta come out. Sorry that it sets off your hearing thing."

The germaphobe had been watching the entrance to economy, waiting for his signal to go back in. "Hmm? Oh, right, it's no problem. You know, I'm sure you get this a lot, but how DO you pull those sounds off anyway?"

"Lots of practicing, mostly. Having a vocal coach helps." Beardo chuckled. "You'd be surprised what you can pull off when you learn how to really utilize your voice! I realize that might sound kinda ironic since I struggle talking to people at first, but-"

Suddenly the sound of two banshees screeching at one another blared from within economy class. Beardo was too startled to notice Dave's smirk, he'd never heard people yell at each other before with such vitriol and intensity. "What the heck is that?"

"I don't know, it sounds pretty serious," Dave replied, putting on his best fake concerned tone. "Maybe we should check it out and see if they need help?"

The boys entered the room only to immediately have a suitcase thrown into them. Amy and Sammy were locked into a screaming match that had quickly escalated to expletives and throwing things. What the argument was even about was hard to tell, it was as if the mean twin was making a fuss over nothing and pressing the right buttons to force her sister to clap back. Ready to step up, Cody was by his girlfriend's side and defending back just as loudly at Amy's hatred, also having to hold Sammy back to prevent her from jumping into a full on cat fight. Sugar meanwhile was staying out of the argument, but was likewise restraining Amy. In truth neither villain actually intended to escalate the argument any further, but they needed to make it look convincing. Once she noticed the boys standing there, Sugar gasped and slid up to them.

"Thank goodness y'all are here. Dave, hold Amy back while I talk to Beardo, would ya?"

Sugar pushed him into the battleground without warning and Dave did as planned, making it look like he was really struggling to keep Amy out of striking distance.

"The heck are those two so angry about?" the beatboxer asked.

"Ain't got a clue, you know how they like to go at it like cats and dogs. But it sounds really bad this time." Sugar moved the two of them out of earshot from the scuffle and pretended to look on in concern at Dave's struggle. "Look, scrawny boy don't seem like he can hold Amy back long so I gotta make this quick. Once they started getting real bad, Cody freaked out and told me something. Asked if I could go find Trent to tell him about the vote. I guess he wants to vote for Leshawna and Trent don't know it yet? He was gonna tell em himself but who knows how long those two are gonna be fighting and he ain't leaving Samey's side. He asked me to go tell him, but it looks like I'm gonna be stuck holding Amy back too."

Dave mused have hammered this script into her head a dozen times to make her go over it all without a hitch. Thankfully he seemed to be buying her acting. "You've talked to guitar boy a few times, right? You reckon you could pass on the message for him instead?"

Beardo stammered a bit, going wide eyed. Heck of a lot of responsibility to dump on the dude all of a sudden. "You're sure Cody really said that? You'd think they'd want to vote for DJ since she's closer to them..."

Darn it, she needed to hurry this up. Trent was gonna be walking this way any minute now. Amy intensified her yelling to signal that Sugar was cutting it close. "Of course I'm sure, he told me himself! Said she'd be easier to beat in a tiebreaker. You got my promise on this, just go let Trent know. Alright?"

He took a look at the yelling match, then back to Sugar. He gulped but nodded. "I'll tell him."

Sugar smirked and wordlessly went back to Amy's side, joining Dave with the restraining. It wasn't long after he left that Beardo wound up running in to the guitarist. They weren't far from economy, so the screaming match could still be faintly heard.

"Amy and Sammy are going at it, it's real bad," Beardo answered, noting Trent's puzzled expression. "Actually, I was just looking for you. Cody wanted me to pass on a message since he's busy keeping Sammy back. Something about wanting to vote for Leshawna tonight."

The musician's eyes shot open. Where the heck did that come from? "Instead of DJ? You're sure he said that?"

He nodded. "Something about thinking she'd be easier to beat in the tiebreaker than him. He was gonna tell ya but now he's got his hands full with that."

Hmm, something felt weird. He needed to see for himself. Trent peeked into economy, confirming that there was indeed quite the spectacle going on with his bandmate restraining his girlfriend. And Amy was so heated that she needed TWO people to hold her back? Sheesh. Still, this seemed like a pretty spontaneous decision for someone like Cody. He returned to Beardo, eyebrow raised. "And you're promising that he really wanted that?"

Beardo hesitated for a moment. If he heard it from Cody himself it'd be one thing, but he was trusting Sugar on this one. She wouldn't lie to him about this... right? He'd have to trust her. "Yeah, it's what he said."

Suddenly the intercom flickered on. "Team Old School, get those votes in ASAP, it's ceremony time soon!"

Trent looked at Beardo, then towards economy, finally at the intercom. On one hand he didn't really want to vote off Leshawna next, but... on the other hand she told him herself that she was willing to vote for his buddy. "Alright. If that's what he wants."

With the flashback over, the scene returned to the elimination ceremony and Chris smiling for the camera. "So yeah, that's what happened!"

Silence filled the room, the shock of Cody's elimination still settling in. Lightning finally spoke up. "Bro what do you MEAN that's what happened, you just sha-stood there without showing us a dang thing!"

"It's only important for the viewers to know, I don't need to show you guys anything."

Trent was fuming, his normal calm and collected attitude giving way for heavy breathing and slight shaking. He caught on pretty quickly that he had been duped, but just to confirm it... "I know what happened. Cody, who did you vote for?"

Still blindsided over the results, the tech whiz had to collect his thoughts before he could speak. "Uh, I voted for DJ obviously? No offense to him obviously, it was just sort of my only option."

"Thought so." The guitarist's head snapped towards the human soundboard, giving him an intense stare full of rage and betrayal. "Care to explain yourself, Beardo?"

"Wh-what?" Realization finally dawned on him that something had gone terribly wrong. If Cody actually voted for DJ... oh God. He looked around in a panic, staring at Sugar desperately for answers. She was silent. "I'm just as confused as you are, man! I got no idea what just happened."

"So you're just going to keep lying, huh?" Trent shot up and pointed at him accusingly. "Because I remember pretty freaking well what you told me before I put my vote in."

Suddenly Sammy stepped between the two, giving the guitarist a stern look. "This can wait. We have to see Cody off first. THEN we'll get our answers."

Both looked to see Chef dragging the boy in question towards the open hatch, Chris at the ready with the Boot of Shame button. Thinking fast, the nice twin charged at her host while he wasn't looking. She staggered him back, but more importantly caused him to drop the remote. Before he could react she tossed it behind the bleachers. "We are getting to say goodbye to him whether you like it or not!"

"Alright, sheesh, you don't gotta be so extra about it!" Irony was not lost on Chris for him to be the one saying such a thing. He snapped a finger and motioned for an intern to go retrieve the button. "Make it quick."

Trent had pulled his friend in for a noogie, trying in vain to mask his frustration with the situation. "Sorry this happened, man. It's gonna get lonely up here without you and Harold. Tell him I said hey, would ya?"

DJ and Leshawna also lingered by to offer a fistbump and hug respectively. They didn't really know what to say, sure they had willingly tried to get Cody eliminated, but they weren't expecting things to go down like this. All they could do was not talk about it so as to not potentially add insult to injury.

Then there was Sammy, who didn't miss the smug grin coming from her sister. Somehow she had a part in this, she could just feel it. But she had to be strong. She had to control herself for just a few more minutes before blowing up. Instead she thought spiting her twin was in order, so she pulled Cody in for a surprise kiss that got some amused cheers from the crowd.

"We're still having that date the next time I see you, got it?"

Cody was in a trance for a moment, swooning from the smooch. But then he remembered he truly was about to leave and straightened up. "Totally! I'll take you somewhere awesome, it'll be my treat."

Sammy grinned. "Hmm, I don't know. I'll be a millionaire by the next time you see me, it could be my treat too."

"I guess we could always-"

Before he could continue the sickening thud of the Boot of Shame connecting with his cranium rang out and Cody was sent tumbling down. Thankfully he had managed to put a parachute on beforehand. As soon as he was gone Trent's sour expression returned and he resumed giving Beardo the stink eye. Sammy, though, took a few moments to fully process everything. Finally a bit of happiness in this game, something going her way, the boy she was crushing on making it official. And now he was gone before they could even enjoy one day as a couple. A few tears rolled down her face, but she refused to sob. She was far too pissed for that.

"You did this, didn't you?" Sammy turned her piercing gaze towards her sister. "That stupid random argument you started... that had to have been part of this. Admit it!"

All eyes were on the evil twin now. She flinched at all the attention but wouldn't back down. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Your lame-o boyfriend is eliminated either way, so what are you gonna do about it?"

That's all she needed to hear. The smug satisfaction in her tone told the story. Sammy exchanged a look with Trent and the two marched towards Team Explosive. "You... you... you catty, miserable, hateful fu-"

Suddenly a pause symbol appeared in the middle of the screen. A zoom out and the perspective now found itself in the cockpit with Chris and Chef on either side of a monitor. Seems it was now later in the night, long after the fallout to Cody's elimination had passed.

"Aw come on man, you paused right as it was getting good," Chef protested.

"I know, right! I could watch that fight back over and over again, that was great! Buuuuut I think the episode is already going long enough as is." Chris grinned at the camera, fully aware of what he was doing. "They really let each other have it, eh?"

"Oh yeah." The larger man chuckled darkly. "That was one for the record books. You just don't get juicy drama like that much these days."

"Right you are, my dude. As a matter of fact, I bet the viewers wanna see what all went down. Like what all do Amy and Samey wind up saying to each other?"

"Can Beardo explain himself to Trent?" Chef added.

"And just where the heck did Anne Maria find that popcorn?" Chris finished, smiling in satisfaction. "Well I guess they're just gonna have to tune in next time to find out!"

Both men shared a laugh, arms around each other as they reveled in the audience's frustration. "Aaaah, no one does clickbait quite the way you do, man."

"Darn right they don't! So we'll see you guys next time and pick up where we left off. Right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

"I have NO idea how Sammy has put up with her sister for so long. That chick's a nightmare. Anyway, hopefully Trent was able to convince Leshawna to vote with us, but if not... well, I've already won a tiebreaker already, right?" He stamped the brickhouse's passport.

On the flip side, DJ gave Cody's passport a stamp. "No clue what Chris is gonna throw at us, but I'm not gonna underestimate Cody. I'm coming at him in this tiebreaker full force, so he better be ready. Momma didn't raise no quitter... the, uh, times I quit in Action and tried to in World Tour don't count."

"Tch, sorry about this twiggy boy. I know Harold would have wanted to keep you safe if he had the chance, but this is my game to play." Cody's passport was marked. "Good luck in the tiebreaker... but I am rooting for DJ. If he wins I'm safe as can be next time. If there is a next time. God I hope there ain't."

"Well if she's willing to send Cody home I guess she can't take it personally if he chooses her to go against in the battle instead of DJ." Trent was hesitant but eventually stamped Leshawna's passport. "You got this bro. One tiebreaker win down, what's another one for the pile?"

Votes for Cody: 2 (DJ, Leshawna)

Votes for DJ: 1 (Cody)

Votes for Leshawna: 1 (Trent)

After the Boot of Shame:

Cody was pretty glad Sammy wasn't around to hear this since he was screaming his lungs out. Sure Chris forced them to fall out of the plane from time to time when arriving places, but something about the disorientation that the sudden boot added into the mix made things truly terrifying. He finally found enough sense to pull the handle and deploy his parachute.

"I... still don't really know what happened. Like, I kinda picked up that Beardo did something and Trent didn't vote the same as me, but how did that even work? Seriously though, did fate seriously have to do this to me the MOMENT I made things happen with Sammy? Guess I emulated the way Harold did things a bit too closely."

Was he hurt? Angry? Kinda relieved to be out of the dangerous game? Trying to focus on the upside of now having a girlfriend? Maybe a bit of everything. "Well, I may not have done as good as I did in World Tour but all things considered I think I can live with that. Now I guess I just sit back and root for Sammy and Trent."

Suddenly he crashed through a roof back at Film City, landing in one of the many wardrobe rooms. Thankfully the fabric broke his fall, mostly, and he stumbled into the hallway clad in a swanky new getup that had him looking like a film star since the turban and sunglasses were masking his usual nerdiness.

"Ah, there you are," a film director called out from nearby, grabbing Cody by the arm. "We've been looking everywhere! Come on, we have to film the scene where you jump over a flaming bus on your motorcycle."

The geek blinked in confusion. "Uh, I think you have the wrong guy."

"Haha, very funny. Now hurry up, we're behind schedule." He continued dragging Cody along, with the Drama Bro giving the camera a concerned look before it faded to black.

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, Brick, Dawn, Lightning

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Sugar

Elimination Order:

14th: Cody

15th: Beth

16th/17th: Courtney and Scott

18th: B

19th: Shawn

20th: Dakota

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

"Last time on Battle of the Generations... we gave our passengers a taste of the A-list life by letting them compete in a Bollywood musical number challenge to see who could impress some film making bigwigs. All sorts of juicy things unfolded in between the singing. A new alliance formed between DJ and Leshawna, a relationship blossomed between Cody and Sammy, Amy continued to strike out with every guy she flirted with, and Dawn got some advice from our friendly neighborhood Chef." As always accompanying clips from the episode accompanied each talking point.

"But one dude working overtime was, surprisingly, Dave! He tried to sabotage Dawn during the challenge to help get her voted off, but it backfired and wound up helping Team Radioactive win first class. Oops! But he ran it back and tried out a second plan to mess with Team Old School's vote to get Sammy's new boyfriend out. And it worked! Cody was donezo, courtesy of Dave's plan. Who knew the kid had it in him?"

Back in the cockpit, Chef tugged on Chris' sleeve. "Enough of that crap, you promised they'd get to watch the fallout from the elimination ceremony!"

"That I did. Let's pick up where we left off then. Get ready for another action packed episode of TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Opening Credits ***

Things quite literally started from the moment Chris had paused at the end of the last episode, with Sammy mid-sentence.

"-cking bitch!"

Some gasped, while Anne Maria did a little 'ooooh' between bites of popcorn.

"Is it me or have they been way more lenient with us cussing this season?" Brick whispered to his teammates before noticing her snack. "When the heck did you smuggle popcorn in?"

To both points she just shrugged.

But enough about that. Amy was aghast, jaw dropped and brow furrowed in utter contempt. "Just where do you get off thinking you can talk to me like that?"

"Oh would you just SHUT UP already? You're one to talk when you've spent every waking moment of your life for YEARS trying to make my existence a living hell." Angry tears started to fall down the nice twin's face. Jasmine leaned in to try and calm her down, but she just continued to march forward. "And for what? What have I ever done to make you treat me like this? Why can't I have one thing in life that makes me happy without you trying to screw with it?"

"Puh-lease, it's always me me me, isn't it?" Her sister put on a mockingly high pitched voice. "My name is Sparemey, I need to be the center of attention all the time! My life is soooooo hard, my sister doesn't baby me like our parents do. Why doesn't she just shower me in attention like them?"

"I just want you to treat me like a human being, Amy. We don't have to like each other, but why do you hate me so much? Because mom and dad aren't always focusing on just you 24/7?" By now she was getting dangerously close to her twin. Jasmine and Trent were on standby to get between them if things got ugly. "At the very least you could just leave me alone and we'd stay out of each other's business. But no! You have to always be there to mess things up if anything goes well for me."

By now Lightning was sampling some popcorn from Anne Maria's bucket. Brick and Dawn shot them unapproving glares to cut it out. As soon as they stopped, Sugar swooped in to take the snack for herself.

"Right, you're the only one who ever gets it tough. It's not like I have to put up with any BS too." Amy rolled her eyes. "Do you have any idea how much crap I've had to listen to since last season? All these random losers running up to me to say I'm this horrible nasty bitch that abuses you or whatever. As if I've ever even laid a finger on you! It's every day with it too, them just telling me over and over about how evil they think I am."

"Wow, it's almost like your actions have consequences," Sammy yelled back. "I had to put up with it for years because you're so good at manipulating that no one ever believed me, but you were too stupid to think about what would happen if you treated me like that on national television!"

"International television," Chris corrected, absolutely loving all of this.

"Shut up," the nice twin snapped before facing her sister again. "I had the strength to stand up to you back then because Jasmine made me realize I wasn't crazy for thinking what you were doing to me was wrong. If you didn't want people coming to support me and letting me know that I'm valid, maybe you should have thought about that before bullying me in the first place?"

"There's that stupid word again! Oh, Amy's such a bully because she doesn't fall for her sister's dumb crybaby act. Get over yourself! The way I see it, I did you a favor getting rid of that dumb boyfriend of yours. It'll save you the heartbreak of him spending too much time with you and realizing what a boring moron you are! He would have dumped you eventually."

DJ and Leshawna winced and exchanged a look, almost regretting their votes if this was what it was going to cause.

"At least I can get a boyfriend," Sammy spat, smiling in contempt at her sister's shocked reaction. "Oh yeah, I know about your little flirt flops. Word spreads around the plane pretty fast. And you call me pathetic? Can't say I'm surprised, when you let the world see how nasty you are why would any guy want to risk having to put up with you?"

By now both twins were shaking in rage, but that got Amy to her feet with his fists balled up. Jasmine preemptively stepped in front of her friend for protection. That wouldn't stop Amy from clapping back though. "God you are so annoying! This is what I've been talking about all along, things would just be so much better without you here. What did I do to be cursed with being stuck to you? Why couldn't you have just died in the womb?"

A hush fell over the jumbo jet. Everyone stared at Amy, some in disbelief, others in disgust, and hurt in Sammy's case. Sugar dropped the pop corn bucket in surprise. The hosts exchanged excited looks with each other, practically salivating at the idea of including this in the episode. For a while it was nothing but the deafening silence until finally a piercing SMACK jolted everyone to attention.

"We're supposed to be sisters," Sammy mumbled, hand sore from how much oomph she had put in that slap. Tears covered her face and she had to storm off before she truly lost it. "Why are you like this..."

Jasmine gave Amy a quick hate filled glare before running off to comfort her friend. Not that the mean twin noticed, she was preoccupied rubbing her sore cheek. Leshawna and DJ were the next to leave, though they'd also take the opportunity to look on at the mean twin in disdain on their way out. Finally Team Radioactive would file out, though not without a bit of commentary from each.

"Unbelievable," mumbled Brick.

"Deplorable," added Dawn.

"Crazy bitch," spat Anne Maria.

"Sha-psycho..." Not sure who said that one.

Meanwhile, Trent had decided to hang back. Not just because he was shocked at the whole exchange, but also because he had a vendetta of his own to stew over. He turned his glare from the mean twin to Beardo, who shrunk under his gaze. Watching all of that go down filled the beatboxer with a mix of emotions. Disgust, horror, shame. The fact that he had unknowingly contributed to this blowup was weighing heavy, to the point where he was practically hyperventilating.

"Bro... I'm begging you... I PROMISE I didn't know! Sugar was the one to tell me that Cody said that, I swear that's what happened. I didn't think she had a reason to lie about it! I am so... SO sorry. You gotta believe me!"

For a moment his fellow musician seemed to stare into Beardo's soul, as if trying to read how genuine his explanation truly was. He was certainly playing the distressed part well, but who's to say that wasn't an act like his appeal on the plane to switch Trent's vote could have been? Eventually the guitarist snorted and walked away without any indication of what conclusion he had come to.

With him gone Beardo groaned and buried his face in his hands. Sugar was able to finally pick her jaw up and offer a supportive arm around the big man's shoulder. "Ah don't worry about him none, Beardo, he just-"

Suddenly the dude with the fro swatted her arm away and backed up. "Don't touch me. You think I'm stupid? You think I don't get what happened here?"

The pageant queen quirked an eyebrow. "Er, what are you on about?"

"Y'all used me! You tricked me into telling Trent that just so Cody would leave, huh? If I hadn't, they'd have voted together and Cody might still be here." He stared at the floor in disbelief. "And he wouldn't have listened to y'all, but me? Oh God..."

"Come on now, you ain't thinking straight-"

A loud buzzer sound rang out. "Nah, I'm thinking just fine! I was just a tool to you, huh? You never though we were really friends? Because if we were, you wouldn't have put me in this position! Well consider me out. Next time you need to manipulate someone into doing what you want, I ain't gonna be the one to do it."

He took his leave, though not before giving Amy a pointed glare. "And the only reason I ain't gonna vote for Sugar immediately is because I will gladly help vote yo ass out the next time we lose."

And then he was gone, leaving just Amy, Sugar, and Dave to their devices.

"Huh... well that was a bit dramatic," the germaphobe noted.

"Shut up, Dave," both girls hissed.

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"You know, it's stupid but every once in a while I start holding on to this little bit of hope that one day Amy will somehow get over whatever this grudge is and finally start treating me like a person. That we'll move past all of this and finally be sisters." She wiped away the last bit of tears and clenched her fist. "But I'm starting to see that the day isn't ever coming. So if that's how she wants it to be, fine. Once I beat her and win the million, I'm cutting her out of my life for good. Maybe without me around she can finally learn how to look in the mirror and figure out how to change."

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

To say that the vibe on the plane was awkward following Cody's elimination would be an understatement. Silence filled economy class, all the negative emotions there stewing. The only place with a little bit of levity was First Class. Team Radioactive were certainly reeling from all the drama, but it was thankfully drama that didn't concern them. Still, Brick was deep in thought.

"Geez, back when the season started and I saw Scott on our team, I never woulda thought we'd be the CALM ones of the bunch," Anne Maria mused.

"Indeed," Dawn added. "It's clear to me that the issues between Amy and Sammy has gone untreated for far too long. I know it's not really our business, but still..."

The cadet broke out of his trance and loudly cleared his throat. "Then if I may, I have a suggestion. It's something I was kind of mulling over even before the ceremony, but after seeing that I'm more sure of it. And I'll preface this by saying our own victory as a team will always remain the top priority no matter what!"

Lightning raised an eyebrow.

"If the opportunity presents itself, I think we should try to strike up a temporary truce with Team Old School in the next challenge." He paused to let everyone process his suggestion. "Team Explosive has been slipping past elimination for far too long now. Not to mention how I doubt anyone wants to spend any more time on the plane with Amy than necessary. If our two teams can work together, we'll practically guarantee that she's the next one eliminated."

He was expecting them to take a while to make up their minds, but Anne Maria immediately shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

Dawn nodded. "Agreed, I think it's a wonderful plan."

All three looked to their final teammate, his arms crossed and staring back at them in contemplation. "Well... you're SURE we'll still make winning the goal if things can't work out?" Brick nodded enthusiastically. "Sha-fine with me then. If we can make it happen, let's do it!"

The cadet grinned proudly. "Alright! Hopefully Team Old School is just as enthusiastic about it as we are."

"Probably. Especially with them having to deal with all the mess in economy." Anne Maria relaxed, enjoying an intern shoulder massage treatment. "You think those two have tried to kill each other yet?"

Not yet it seems, as the camera switched to show economy in all its silent glory. Some like DJ just kept to themselves not wanting to escalate things any further, while others such as Amy glared forward. A tumbleweed inexplicably rolled past, though only Sugar seemed to notice.

Sammy eyed the empty seat next to Trent and sighed. Jasmine offered a smile in a bid to cheer her up, but between Cody being gone and the fallout with her sister, there was little anyone could do to lift her spirits. Suddenly one of their teammates scooted closer, keeping a wear eye towards the villainous trio.

"Psst, girls," Beardo whispered. "You, uh, mind if I say something?"

The nice twin didn't seem enthused with the idea, he had unknowingly played a part in her boyfriend's elimination after all. But Jasmine was curious. "Sure mate, what's up?"

After making sure the rest of the team wasn't paying attention to them, he gulped and looked down in shame. "I just wanna apologize. When I say I didn't know what they were up to convincing me to change Trent's vote, I really mean it. If I knew they were lying I never would have done it. Y'all can bet I ain't EVER gonna help those girls again."

"Don't beat yourself up too much." The Aussie sighed. "They may not be the brightest shielas but they're clearly good at manipulating people."

"And if you want to make it up to me, just make sure you help us vote my sister off," Sammy finally added. "Then we'll be even. Deal?"

"For sure! You didn't even need to ask." Talk about a load of his shoulders. Though... there was still another matter to clear up. He glanced Trent's way and tensed up. "I got no idea how I convince Trent I didn't want Cody getting eliminated, though. I mighta messed that up for good."

Jasmine sized up the brooding guitarist and shrugged. "Give him time to come around, right now I reckon he's just sore over everything. Maybe you'll find a way to help make it up to him down the line."

"Yeah... yeah! I just gotta think of something to make up for it. That's gotta work... hopefully."

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

He makes a deflating balloon sound, sinking back into the seat. "When I got eliminated first back in the day, I remember getting home and being all bummed about the things I missed out on experiencing. I told myself if I got a second chance, I'd have a nice full Total Drama experience! Guess I got it... be careful what you wish for, right?"

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

Sometime had passed since the fallout from the previous ceremony. Like in many episodes it was a new day and the contestants were eating in the cafeteria room, but things were a bit different. Normally there'd be three tables filled with one team each, but noticeably the Team Explosive table only had Dave, Sugar, and Amy sitting at it. Jasmine and Sammy were sitting with Team Old School while Beardo sat with Team Radioactive. Chris and Chef strolled in, the former chuckling at the sight.

"Guess there's still some sore feelings after what went down! Interesting seating arrangements, you guys hankering for a team swap that badly?"

Leshawna quirked an eyebrow. "You really gonna do one?"

"Nah, kinda defeats the whole purpose of the season theme if I mix and match you guys together, doesn't it?" Those sitting away from their team groaned in disappointment. "But hey, for all you guys know it could be time to merge!"

Everyone looked on in unimpressed silence, Anne Maria eventually speaking. "But it isn't, right?"

"Right you are! So Team Explosive just has to suck it up." He high fived his co-host for his wicked sweet trolling. "Anyway, let's talk turkey! As you guys can see, I'm very fittingly dressed for today's location."

He was literally just wearing his normal clothes.

"You're literally just wearing your normal clothes," Jasmine pointed out.

"Well of course he is," Chef barked out. "Dude's a celebrity!"

"And we're going somewhere that treats celebrities with all the adoration and obsession that they deserve! Los Angeles, California!" He gave a few moments for a reaction, but no one seemed to really care. "You get it? We're going from Bollywood to Hollywood. Damn I'm clever, they should seriously give me a raise."

Once again he was just meant with disinterest.

"Hmph, well I'm excited for us to go there. Anyway, on with the challenge rundown. First thing's first, I'm gonna need a volunteer from each team. Someone who you guys think has ruthless aggression, the drive to dig deep and hunt like no other!"

Lightning immediately perked up and was about to run forward before remembering the progress he had made. He looked back to his team for approval and they each gave him a thumbs up. Jasmine could see Sugar about to stand up so she quickly joined the jock before the chance could even be presented. "Sounds like a fit for me."

"Cool, that just leaves Team Victory... ah, sorry, slip of the tongue." Chris grinned slyly. "I mean Team Old School! This should be quick, they don't have a whole lot of options."

None of the three were impressed, though it didn't seem like any of them were particularly enthused to volunteer. Not really a fan of this awkward vibe, Leshawna eventually shrugged and raised her hand. "I'm down to do it... whatever this is. You planning on giving us an explanation?"

"Sure, but first think fast!" Chris tossed each of them what looked to be a camera while Chef shoved a fedora on Leshawna and Lightning with a little paper sticking out that said 'press.' Jasmine was trickier since she was already rocking some headgear but he shrugged and shoved the fedora on top of her existing one anyway. "You guys are gonna be playing paparazzi! Your goal? Capture some candid shots of the celebrities you're hunting for."

While this was explained, Chef moved on to fitting everyone else with some sort of mechanical bracelet. On each was a dimly lit screen displaying the faces of everyone without a fedora. Anyone that fiddled with it would find that they could also access a map of LA which had an odd red circle surrounding it.

"And that means the rest of you are playing the celebs," Chris continued. "So here's the rundown. We're gonna give you guys some time to find a hiding spot in the city and lay low from the press. That's when we release our paparazzi into the wild! If one of them successfully captures a picture of one of you, your bracelet will fall off and you'll be eliminated."

To demonstrate this, the cook borrowed Lightning's camera to take a picture of his own bracelet. The screen turned off and it fell from his wrist.

"To make things interesting, there's two bonus rules. First, once someone is eliminated they can return to the Jumbo Jet and become a paparazzi themselves! So the more people get eliminated, the more hunters there will be to take out whoever's left standing. And second, to prevent things from getting too boring with someone finding the perfect hiding spot, every once in a while we'll shrink down or change what part of the city you can safely hide in. That'll be indicated by a red circle on your maps. If you're outside of the circle after a certain amount of time, you'll be eliminated automatically!"

"So it's basically just a more complicated version of hide and seek," Sugar called out happily.

"I... suppose it is, yes. And you guys have probably pieced together the rest. The team to have the last person standing wins first class. Meanwhile the team to get wiped out first is sending someone home." He looked over Team Explosive's numbers, then Team Old School. "Yeeeeeah, for some of you the hiding spots better be good ones!"

DJ and Trent exchanged a look of determination. Awkwardness of the last ceremony aside, they couldn't let themselves lose again. Brick, Dawn, and Anne Maria were similarly amped to bring their A-game, though it was clear some of Team Explosive seemed conflicted.

"Sorry if this gives the editors more work or whatever, but doesn't a challenge like this seem like a really dangerous idea?" Brick asked, glancing at Trent. "Considering, er, recent events?"

"Not to worry, the bracelets have a GPS tracker in them. If anything weird happens, we'll know about it," Chris assured them with a rare serious tone. "Chef will be watching your locations like a hawk here on the plane."

Beardo suddenly perked up with an idea. "I got my deejay outfit packed up somewhere, if Trent wants to use it. A heavy coat, some shades, a hat. It'd disguise him up real fast."

"Uh, he's on the enemy team?" Sugar pointed out. "We ain't helping him!"

The beatboxer was about to protest but Trent cut them off. "I'll be fine, this isn't my first time sneaking past paparazzi. I can make a disguise of my own just fine."

Sugar seemed satisfied despite her teammate's stink eye.

"Glad to hear it! We'll be landing soon, so everyone get ready! Except our paparazzi, you guys can go wait in economy class or something."

At Chris' command the three seekers look their leave, though not without Lightning of all people rubbing his chin in contemplation. While Jasmine continued to march on to economy, he held a hand up and stopped Leshawna in the middle of a hallway.

"Lightning's got something he wants to say, real quick," he whispered, making sure the Aussie hadn't noticed their absence. "You're gonna want to hear this."

Obviously Leshawna was confused but curious. "A'ight brother, what's on your mind?"

"Me and the squad have been talking and we think Team Explosive is about due for another elimination. Enough that we were gonna ask y'all to team up if we could to make sure it happens. And with the way this challenge works, Lightning thinks we could do that right now."

"So you wanna call a truce, just target their people and leave each other's alone until they're out of the challenge?" He nodded in approval, getting a smirk from her. "Oh hoho, say less. I'm in."

*** Confessional: Leshawna ***

"No shade to Trent and DJ, but I'm more than happy to take an agreement like that where I can find it. Our team's small enough as is and I know Jasmine has some crazy tracking skills up her sleeve. Now let's just hope them boys can hold out long enough for us to clear out Team Explosive."

*** Throughout Los Angeles ***

Speaking of which, the perspective switched to show the 10 non-paparazzi being released into the big city. Since the circle was going to at first allow them to hide anywhere they want, a montage followed due to the sheer size of what they had to work with. Trent immediately slipped into the first store he saw that seemed like it wouldn't recognize a pop star, an edgy looking gothic apparel store, and exited with a disguise that looked more Ennui than himself. Amy somehow wandered into Venice Beach and looked around for somewhere to actually hide. Dave walked past a large pit of tar and felt a shiver go down his spine. Anne Maria decided to check out the Hollywood Bowl and see if she could blend into a crowd catching a show, but nothing was playing at the moment. Sammy made it to the Getty museum and tried blending into the crowds of people looking at exhibits.

Things ended on Sugar, out of breath and leaning against a wall after too much running. Her bracelet suddenly lit up and Chris' voice echoed out. "Alright, we're releasing the paparazzi! Hope you celebs are ready!"

"Ah fudge nuggets, this darn city's too dang big to just keep running around! I need something that'll let me stay put... where am I anyway?"

She looked around and found herself in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard, directly outside the Chinese Theater. She could take in all of those celebrity stars lining the street if it weren't for the distracting performers in costumes trying to get some cash from tourists. Various hustlers dressed as superheroes, cartoon characters, mascots and more danced and posed for the cameras... wait a minute. That gave her an idea. After a quick bit of browsing the sea of characters, one caught her eye. A bootleg version of a girl mouse character with a red polka dot dress and bow.

"Oh my gosh it's... my favorite character," she loudly gushed, shuffling up to the mascot. "I just GOTTA get a picture with you!"

The performer held their hand out for payment. Sugar felt around her pockets and feigned surprise. "Uh oh! I must have dropped my wallet in that alley over there. Come and help me find it, would ya? I'll give ya a big tip if you do."

Well it's not like they were gonna say no to extra money. The dubious little creature followed Sugar into a nearby sketchy alley, soon out of sight from the camera. Suddenly loud banging noises and a scream of pain echoed out. A trash can was thrown, a cat screeched, and punches landed. Once all was silent, the southern girl emerged from the alley in the mascot suit, chuckling in satisfaction. "Heh, sucker."

She slipped the mascot head on and returned to the crowd of performers, none of them any the wiser that their colleague was knocked out nearby.

Elsewhere, by pure chance both DJ and Beardo had ran into each other in the downtown art district and were briefly keeping each other company while thinking over new hiding spots.

"I'm telling ya man, I can already tell this ain't gonna be my kinda challenge," an out of breath beatboxer lamented. "Way too much ground to cover, and I don't exactly blend into a crowd well. All they gotta do is pick my fro out from a distance and that's a wrap. I thought I'd have the hang of this place, there's this video game that takes place in a parody of LA that I play a lot, but man is it easier said than done in person."

"I feel ya, place is massive," the brickhouse agreed. "Hard to tell when we should be on the move and when we should-"

Suddenly two hands emerged from the darkness of an alleyway and dragged DJ inside. Beardo kept walking for a moment before the uncanny silence gave him pause.

"DJ?" He looked around and found no one there. "Bruh? The heck did he go?"

As his eyes darted around, he froze in place at something down the road. Lightning was running from building to building, poking his head into each and yelling out for any potential targets. All it took was one glance down his way for the jock to notice the distinctive afro and massive frame of the beatboxer. Thinking fast, Beardo noticed a nearby double decker tour bus preparing to depart and scrambled inside before a picture could be taken. He crawled his way to the upper level to peek over the side.

"At least bro can't outspeed a vehicle, right?"

He looked over to find Lightning very quickly catching up to the vehicle. He instinctively tried to snap a pic as Beardo took a peek, forcing him to flop back into the bus.

"Crap crap crap!" Only one thing Beardo could fall back on to try and save this. Getting as close to the edge as possible without exposing himself for a picture, he threw his voice to loudly simulate the sound of a fast approaching car honking followed by the screech of tires. The ploy worked and Lightning jumped out of the way in a panic. When he got back up, Beardo then switched the sound of an ambulance behind him to similar results. "I don't know how many of these I got in me..."

Meanwhile in a nearby alleyway, DJ mumbled in confusion at the dainty hand around his mouth but was relaxed by a shush from his captor.

"It's ok, it's just me," Dawn whispered, finally releasing him. "Apologies for approaching you in such an unorthodox way, I needed to separate you from Beardo."

"Why? He seems like an alright dude to me."

"Oh I agree, there's quite the sweet soul buried under all of his crippling insecurities." She started leading him deeper into the alley, keeping their voices low. "But unfortunately he finds himself on Team Explosive."

Her companion was clearly confused. "Perhaps I should explain. My team came to an agreement that we'd like to call a temporary truce with your team so we can ensure Team Explosive are the next one's to leave. Especially with what happened at Cody's ceremony, it's clear they're the centerpiece of strife on the plane. And since the nature of this challenge makes teaming up possible..."

"I think I get it. So y'all aren't gonna target me and Trent, just the other team?" She nodded in confirmation. "I guess that sounds good... so what'd you need to drag me into an alley for?"

To that she sighed. "Well as driven as Lightning and Leshawna may be, Jasmine is likely to especially excel in her role this challenge. Hiding from her will be no small feat. I'm quite confident in my own skills to evade her, but when all she needs to do is find you and Trent to spare her team from losing..."

DJ gulped. "Right. The truce won't even matter, Team Explosive just survives again. So you wanna help keep me hidden at the same time?"

"It's mutually beneficial, two hands are better than one as they say. Your strength may prove useful in accessing things I would otherwise struggle with. Basically, we help each other stay safe from the enemy team until the others have managed to knock them out. Thankfully none of them have to FIND Jasmine, just her teammates."

"But what happens once it just gets down to the two of us?"

"I suppose we just cross that bridge once we come to it." She offered her hand so they could continue down the dark windy path. "Do we have a deal?"

He hesitated for a moment, wondering if this was truly the best means to survive. But the thought of having to outsmart Jasmine on his own when his team was so small as is kept ringing in the back of his head, so he accepted the gesture. "Sure, let's do this."

*** Confessional: DJ ***

"It's a risk, I know. If Jasmine or one of her teammates find us, we're both knocked out in one swoop and the whole plan is useless. But I trust Dawn, we've seen her skills in action and I know they're legit. This is probably the best bet I have to get us out of economy and back to First Class." He shrugged. "There's definitely worse people I could spend the challenge with."

*** In the streets of LA ***

Back on the tour bus, a noticeably winded Beardo had just finished imitating the roar of a stampeding elephant. What would a creature like that be doing wandering the roads of a major city? He hadn't the faintest clue, but as long as it tricked Lightning he wouldn't question it. Speaking of which, at some point the dude with the fro had gotten so tired from his repeated sound effect distractions that he had to sit down and just keep doing them. He hadn't actually checked if the jock was still tailing him or not.

Carefully he peeked over, finding nothing behind the bus but various tourists. "Huh. Guess I finally lost him!"

He turned around to see Lightning suddenly climbing up the the side of the bus and action rolling towards him. All he could do was yelp in surprise before the camera was whipped out and his shocked expression was captured. "Sha-snap! As if you could give Lightning the slip! We ain't anywhere near no zoo, you gotta do better than elephant noises!"

Beardo groaned and sunk back into his seat. The bracelet fell off and he hung his head in shame. "Guess I get to be the first one out again for once. Hopefully Jasmine's doing fine to make up for it."

Good point, how WAS the Aussie doing? Perspective changed to show a terrified Brick running through the backlot of some movie studio, Jasmine's tall figure visible in the background. No matter how fast he ran, how many erratic turns he took, or even how many props and crew members he zipped his way around, she continued to keep pace with him, an unstoppable force growing ever closer.

"You could save us both time by just tossing in the towel, mate," she called out, vaulting over a car and ducking under a clothes rack. "I could do this all day, may as well make this easier on yourself."

"Appreciate the offer, but I think I'll have to pass." Thinking fast, he spotted a nearby studio building and crashed his way inside. Some sort of sitcom was filming, so Brick slipped into the audience while slowly making his way to the other side. The occasional forced laughter from the crowd did a good enough job masking the sound of his movements, and the darkness kept him shrouded since all lights were on the set.

"Solomon, is that REALLY what you're going to wear to dinner?" a schlubby looking scrawny actor asked.

"Zimbabwe," his nerdier co-star quipped, making the audience erupt in laughter.

"Look, you better be on your best behavior. I want to impress this girl and I don't need you scaring her off!" Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Or rather a knock sound effect. "Oh great, she's early!"

The first actor went to the nearby door, only for it to open prematurely with a scrawny blonde actress falling through it. Jasmine stepped into frame behind her, wincing at her tumble. "Whoops, sorry mate. I'm in a bit of a hurry, so-"

All of a sudden the audience applauded as if she was a guest star they all recognized. She froze in confusion and while the actors clearly didn't expect this, they just kept rolling as if this was part of the show.

"Oh wow, THIS is her?" the geekier character asked, looking her up and down. "Don't you think she's a bit too much for you? You know what they say about girls with big feet."

Jasmine scoffed in offense and retaliated with a stomp to the guy's foot, followed by shoving him out of the way. "Piss off."

She tried scanning the crowd but their raucous laughter was distracting. The first actor was trying to salvage this mess by pretending this was all part of the script, even straddling up to Jasmine. He'd get an elbow to the ribs for his troubles. It was then she noticed a small bit of light pour in from across the room and spotted a certain cadet trying to sneak out of an exit. "There you are!"

Brick yelped and booked it, Jasmine pushing past some cameramen to tail after him. While that chase continued to go down, Leshawna had taken up biking down Venice beach. She had a sneaking suspicion that she could potentially find SOMEONE here, but if that would be one of her targets or not remained to be seen. It seemed to be a particularly busy day, so bobbing and weaving through the crowds were enough work as is. She noticed a scruffy dark skinned man that appeared to be people watching on a bench nearby. Maybe asking for some help wouldn't be out of the question.

"Hey, this is probably a long shot but I gotta question for you, I'm looking for some people." He raised an eyebrow at her. "You seen a blonde in a cheerleading outfit, scrawny Indian kid with a sweater vest, or big haired country girl come through here recently?"

Though his expression didn't change from its glazed over look of disinterest, he did turn his head and point casually down the path. "That one of the people you're looking for?"

She followed his gaze to a workout area on the beach, various exercise machines and equipment strewn about. Multiple meatheads and athletes were getting their fitness on, but more importantly was a certain cheerleader leaning against the railing and admiring all the buff dudes showing off their bods.

"It can not seriously be that easy..." Leshawna pedaled towards her prey, camera at the ready. Amy finally broke her distracted gaze long enough to notice the paparazzi approaching and ran off. But with her pursuer on wheels, she was losing ground fast. In her panic to think of something to give Leshawna the slip, she failed to notice as she stumbled into the Venice Beach skatepark. Impressive since there were dozens upon dozens of skateboarders around doing their thing.

With a small eep, Amy tumbled down one of the half pipes. By the time she was up, Leshawna was already looking down at her and flashing the camera. "Yup, it's that easy."

Amy's bracelet fell and she groaned in annoyance. "Whatever! I'd rather do the stupid paparazzi part of the challenge anyway."

"Girl be serious, we all know you ain't finding squat. If your team finds anyone, it's probably gonna be because of Jasmine." An unimpressed Leshawna biked away, leaving the mean twin to fend for herself getting out of the skate pit.

"Hmph, I'll show her. If Jasmine's so great why hasn't she eliminated anyone yet?"

On that note, back to the outback girl! She was able to track Brick's movements, eventually leading her to a bizarre site. What looked to be the remnants of a neighborhood in the aftermath of a warzone. Houses caved in, crushed cars, debris strewed everywhere, even a destroyed plane was broken into pieces. Thankfully it was just a detailed set, not actually the worst timeline, but still. As she looked through various nooks and crannies, a trolley full of tourists slowly drove behind her, a few even snapping pictures of Jasmine as if she was part of the scenery.

"Wait a minute..." Jasmine approached the tram, peering over the group of tourists as she scanned row by row. Up near the front of the vehicle, a figure suddenly stood up and tossed off their hat, revealing a buzzed head. Brick made a run for it while Jasmine was distracted, but once again she quickly noticed him and followed.

After winding down one path he eventually came across a fake motel, and a man stuffing a body into the trunk of their car. Brick bumped into him but kept running, only offering a quick, "Sorry!"

Jasmine was not as polite, since soon after she just barreled over the guy. Just as she had finally caught up to her target, he decided to throw caution to the wind and dive into a nearby lake. Or at least it looked like one. Just as she was about to dive in after him, a mechanical shark rose from the water with a screaming Brick flailing in it's mouth.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me..."

In more peaceful news, DJ and Dawn were hiding out in a museum, taking in the art and enjoying some tranquility before the map forced them to move.

"Well it's good that she agreed to an alliance."

"Yeah, I mean obviously I hate how things went down. But I'm still here, so I guess it all worked out." DJ sighed. "Don't know if it's a guarantee she keeps me if we lose again, though. She's safe either way so she can just pick her poison."

"She made a deal with you, and Leshawna prides herself on staying true to those she's given a promise. I'm sure she'll stay loyal." She glanced at her bracelet with a smile. "Plus thus far things are going well. Only Beardo and Amy have been eliminated."

On cue, Brick's face suddenly blipped off the screen. DJ chuckled. "Spoke too soon."

Back in the studio tour, a washed up Brick was dragged from a pool of water by his pursuer. He had somehow slipped out of the whole shark ordeal and continued the chase, but eventually stumbled into an area that simulated a flash flood. Not a whole lot he could do against a giant wave sending him tumbling down the road.

"Sorry mate, least you gave me a heck of a chase," Jasmine offered apologetically. "If I had saved you for last I might not have had the stamina to keep up!"

He had to cough up a glob of water before he could talk. "Thanks. What's with this city, though? Feels like it was throwing everything but the kitchen sink at me! I thought that fuel truck was going to flatten me back there!"

"Give it a bit more running and I think you were gonna run into the dinosaurs." With him properly eliminated and not drowning, Jasmine left him to recoup. "Welp, I'm off to eliminate the rest of your mates. Don't go getting yourself killed out there!"

*** Confessional: Brick ***

"Alright, first one out from my team doesn't make this my greatest moment. But I'd like to think I gave Jasmine a real run for her money! I bet if I had-" Suddenly he interrupted himself with a heave, throwing up a mouthful of water. At the end of the vomit was a little goldfish, swimming around in the toilet peacefully. "Is it bad that I can't tell if that's from the shark lake or the flash flood?"

*** Outside the Jumbo Jet ***

Those that had been eliminated eventually made the pilgrimage over to LAX. Chris was sat outside the plane's entrance, lounging in a beach chair and enjoying a smoothie. "One capture each for our paparazzi, very nice! Hope you dudes suck less at seeking than you do hiding. This ain't a good look for elimination, ya know."

"Man just give us the dang stuff," Beardo grumbled.

Shrugging, the host tossed each of them a camera and one of the press hats. Though one of them just got wedged into the beatboxer's afro. "Eh, good enough."

While he and Brick were eager to get right back into the fray, Amy lingered around to pout. "Don't we at least get like a break or something?"

"You're welcome to use the bathroom first if ya want, but after that you need to get your butt back out there. Now if you'll excuse me, I have very important host responsibilities to get back to." And by that he of course meant relaxing in his chair and doing nothing.

Still, Amy wasn't exactly raring to go, so she'd take up the offer. The jumbo jet was deathly quiet while all the interns and camera crews were busy keeping up with everyone in the city. It was such a ghost town that even the faintest sound from somewhere in the plane would be easy to pick up on. Soon enough she was startled by the distant sound of Chef's voice.

"Is she going TOWARDS Lightning? Gutsy move, kid."

A curious Amy tip toed her way towards the voice, leading her to the cockpit. Inside she'd find Chef sitting in front of a few monitors. One displayed a map of the town with faces to represent each of the contestants scattered throughout. Others were live feeds from the cameras. She could see her sister's head on a pier, Dave's on a college campus, and even DJ and Dawn's oddly close to each other. Chef was thankfully too engrossed watching the movement to notice her presence. The important takeaway was this means of seeing where everyone was. She knew all too well that she'd be facing some heat if they lost today, the best bet to make things as easy as possible for her was to make sure their team didn't lose. And if she could use this to see where everyone was...

Speaking of scheming, Dave had tucked himself into a quiet nook inside the library on UCLA's campus. Way he saw it, it was pretty unlikely for anyone to come looking for competitors in one random building within a pretty massive college. To pass the time he had been mulling over scenarios for the game, running down some out loud in a hushed tone.

"Maybe Sugar can convince Beardo to get over it and vote with us again. Maybe if we target Jasmine this time instead of Samey? Then we can just vote her out next time regardless of what he does..."

His bracelet suddenly beeped and the red circle on the map had shrunk, now only circling a portion of the city near the Hollywood sign. And just his luck, he wasn't within the safe zone anymore. "Crap..."

As far as he could tell everything seemed to be quiet. He peeked around different bookshelves, peered outside the windows, even glanced up at the ceiling for anyone hiding in the rafters. There were plenty of people, but all seemed to be students. No one he knew. "Alright, no big deal, we'll just stay off the major roads and sneak out way somewhere clean and quiet in the safe zone. I wonder if I can get a free taxi ride if I throw around my celebrity status?"

While pondering these deep philosophical thoughts, he failed to notice someone barreling towards him the moment he exited the library. It was only after the blinding flash and the ear piercing call of "SHA-SNAP!" that he realized his mistake.

"Lightning's two for two! Dang, I make this look EASY."

Dave stared up incredulously at the celebrating jock. He had literally just looked out the window minutes ago and saw no sign of him. Did he seriously run into the area in the short time it took him to go down the stairs?

"Where did you even come from, you can't tell me you seriously just HAPPENED to be the same place I was hiding!"

Doubting his abilities? Lightning shook his head in disappointment. "Fool, you best believe Lightning wasn't passing up a free campus tour while we're here to check out their field and courts! Shoot, I'm gonna be hitting USC up next to see what they got cooking. Running in to one of y'all is just the cherry on top!"

Clearly he had a full schedule planned, so Lightning was off, leaving Dave flabbergasted and frustrated.

Elsewhere, two contestants had already maneuvered their way to the Hollywood sign itself to remain in the safe zone. DJ and Dawn both let their legs dangle as they sat on one of the O's, gazing out at the city below.

"Like I get it, I know WHY people keep giving me so much flak for being a momma's boy. But can you blame me? After pops bounced, it was just her taking care of me and my brothers. She worked hard, taught us how to be decent, always provided for us. Why wouldn't I want to show her appreciation for everything?"

Dawn nodded along to his stories, expression remaining neutral. "I don't think anyone doubts the immense love you have for your mother. It's a truly beautiful thing. Still, I do wonder if you've perhaps let yourself grow too dependent on her and her wishes. You are your own person, after all."

He quirked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well you mentioned that if you win the first thing you want to do is help her return to see Jamaica, correct?" She waited for him to nod. "But a million dollars is obviously more than enough for that. What's your intentions after you've finished?"

"I... haven't thought too much about it I guess." The brickhouse looked on contemplatively. "Guess I figured I'd save it or something?"

"In other words, you've made no plans truly for yourself, just for helping her. That's precisely my point, don't you have anything you wish to do for yourself?"

Damn girl, he didn't come up her to get all introspective! DJ hummed in thought, struggling to come up with an answer. "I guess I haven't really thought about it. Buckling down to try and win has been a big step for me in the first place, maybe I figured I'd get more ideas of what to do with it once I get there. What about you?"

"Oh there's countless causes I wish I could provide monetary support for. Countries struggling with lack of food or medical supplies, forests being bulldozed, pollution on the rise. Honestly a million dollars would just make a small dent in helping mother earth try to heal." She sighed sadly. "I'm unsure if it ever WILL fully get better, but I can certainly try what I can to make the world a better place."

"Huh." He looked back over the city feeling conflicted. "Must be nice to have some set in stone goals like that."

"No one said life is easy, I'm sure something will come to you once the time is right. I didn't mean to put down the idea of helping your mother, I just wanted you to know that you should also be open to helping yourself as well." Suddenly their watches beeped and she glanced down to see the circle shrinking. It was also just now when she saw the most recent elimination. "Dave is out, only two left!"

DJ chuckled. "You sure we should be hanging out here to begin with? Seems kinda like the first place someone should look."

Dawn shrugged. "Sometimes hiding in plain sight is better than trying to find something more obscure. We can move out if you'd prefer."

The brickhouse took another look out over the city, relaxed in his O seat. Between the view and the talk, he was a bit too comfy for leaving just yet. "I guess we can stay a bit longer."

Aw how sweet. Must be nice to get to relax during the challenge. Couldn't be Trent, who found himself sneaking from street to street, breathing heavily. The goth getup wasn't agreeing with the blistering California heat, especially the makeup. In his panic to try and ensure it wouldn't run so badly that he'd be easily identifiable, he failed to notice any of the pedestrians in front of him. He bumped into someone large, falling on his ass.

"Crap, my bad man, didn't see where I-" He froze in place. Big dude in question was none other than Beardo. The two locked eyes and spite slowly filled the guitarist up once again. "Great. Of course it's you."

"Trent?" The beatboxer resisted the urge to snicker. "What's with the getup, you trying out for an emo band now?"

There was a distinct lack of amusement from his fellow competitor. "Just go ahead and flash the stupid camera."

Beardo paused. He looked from Trent to the camera, then around at the crowd to confirm there was none of his teammates nearby. Nothing he could see at least. Just a whole lot of people and one twerking mouse mascot posing for pictures. Huh, weird. Still, once he knew the coast was clear he made a buzzer sound.

"Nah. Even if I was tricked or not, I did you dirty. I'll make it right how I can, so the least I can do is let you go."

Genuinely taken aback, Trent still wasn't fully convinced. He looked around skeptically, half expecting Jasmine to drop in outta nowhere while he was distracted. "Really now? Even though it's a dumb idea for your team?"

The bigger lad confirmed with a register ding. "If we lose I just vote for Amy. And if they wanna vote for me instead, I guess it be like that sometimes."

Trying to stare the guy down for a sign of lying wasn't yielding any results. As far as Trent could tell, dude was serious about this. Without a word, Trent slid back into the darkness of an alley and kept running.

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"Am I being too hard on Beardo? Maybe. But can you blame me? Sure, he probably DID get finessed by Amy and Sugar, but he didn't even suspect that something fishy might be going on? He could have asked Cody himself to make sure!" He paused, looking down in realization. "Then again, I guess I could have too..."

*** Throughout Los Angeles ***

A short montage played that switched between Lightning and Brick's perspective. Both boys were tailing Sammy, occasionally finding signs of her only to come up short each time. The cadet would wander through Bel Air, passing by lavish buildings, fancy cars, and even some guys chillin' out, maxin', relaxin' out cool, shooting some b-ball outside of a school. But when he ran after a cheerleader watching the basketball game that he was certain could be the target, it was just an unrelated blonde. Lightning found himself outside the Staples Center, staring in disgust at the arena's new name (look it up) before spotting a cheer squad hyping up the pedestrians. Their uniforms were strikingly similar to Amy and Sammy's, but when he approached they were all brunette, had black hair, or literally any color besides blonde.

Brick tried to ignore the mouse mascot doing the griddy outside of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, just assuming it was part of the advertising. What was really important was the clearly Sammy shaped figure in red stood atop the main entrance. Unfortunately once he finally finished climbing the oddly shaped building, he found nothing but a mannequin dressed in the uniform. Last was the jock diving into a pond fountain at the Getty Center. He saw her for sure this time, hid in a maze-like garden within the pond! But once he finally managed to traverse the maze, all he got for his efforts was a potato sack wearing a blonde wig. And now he had to find his way back out again...

Nearby, a head poked up from a manhole to confirm Lightning had fallen for the trap before descending back into the sewers. Sammy smirked at the camera and jogged her way through the grime and filth to put some distance between her and the hunter. "You hang around Jasmine and Shawn long enough, you start to learn a thing or two about stealth."

Back at the walk of fame, Beardo had returned to the prowl. He was almost certain he spotted Anne Maria's distinctive poof bobbing and weaving out of the crowds. Unfortunately the horde of people was massive and he wasn't exactly the most nimble guy to maneuver through them. He briefly paused to scrunch up his face in disgust at the Chris McLean star, just by chance getting a glimpse of the Jersey Girl ducking behind a corner in time. "Gotcha!"

He got his camera and dove around the corner just in time to snap a picture of... a lamppost.

"Huh?"

Looking around in confusion, he'd find not a person but just a lone can of hairspray left on the ground. Did she drop it in her rush to escape? As he slowly approached, he wasn't aware that behind him Anne Maria herself stepped out from behind some garbage cans. She bided her time until eventually he was bending over and could easily be tackled. Which is what she did! He hit the floor with a grunt and before he could even know what was happening she punted the camera as far as she could manage.

"Wh-what?"

She planted a foot on his gut triumphantly, smirking at his flustered expression. "Tough break, big guy, but you were too slow. You're gonna have to hustle harder than that to catch me!"

Before she left she'd make sure to retrieve her hairspray bottle... only to find it missing.

"Looking for this?"

Hearing the clearly Australian voice, her shoulders slumped in defeat. "Of course..."

Jasmine flashed her with one hand and tossed the hairspray bottle back with the other. "Happened to be in the neighborhood. Can't drop your guard for a minute when I'm on the prowl, mate. Nice job keeping her distracted, Beardo... Beardo?"

Both girls looked down at him stammering, struggling to get a word out. Much of his face has turned red and the best he could do for a response was the sound of a rapid heart rate monitor.

"Uh... you alright, mate?"

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

"A'ight so hear me out... you ever read people online say something a bunch and kinda wonder why they're being so weird? Like, hypothetically, saying that they wanna be stepped on." He cleared his throat loudly, unable to look the camera head on. There was an awkward silence he tried to fill with the noise of a timer ticking down. "Maybe... those guys are on to something? Hypothetically, I mean. I'm just saying!"

*** On a Battleship ***

While others were busy having awakenings and learning new things about themselves, the show had to go on for everyone else. Eager for three first class stays in a row, Anne Maria wasted no time hustling back to LAX for her paparazzi gear. The safe zone changing and some running eventually brought her to a massive battleship that had been repurposed to double as a museum. Even if no one was hiding there, seemed like a solid vantage point to look over the city.

Eventually she had to stop and catch her breath, giving someone else a chance to catch up to her on their bike. "I don't know about you, but between Montreal and this I'm about done with them making us run around a whole ass mega city."

Leshawna came to a stop next to Anne Maria, who smirked. "No kidding. So since you're taking the time to chat, I'm guessing you know about the truce deal, yeah?"

"Lightning gave me the rundown," she confirmed. "So I've only been targeting Team Explosive. Even got to eliminate Amy myself! How bout you, any luck?"

She shrugged. "I only just got eliminated a bit ago. I think we still got Sugar and Sammy left. Dawn, Trent, and DJ are still out there at least."

"Y'all are down to one left?" Leshawna's eyes went wide. "Don't that worry you?"

Suddenly the perspective changed to check in on Dawn and DJ to see how they were doing. The duo was laying low in a Korean style pavilion, with a giant bell housed in the center. They remained vigilant for any sign of the others, but currently were secluded enough to continue talking.

"So then he reveals that he just made me think the fish broke my curse. And wouldn't you know it, all of a sudden a bunch of animals line up to get in my path when I go again." Despite how long ago it was, the memories still stung the brickhouse. "So what do you think, was I ACTUALLY cursed or what?"

If anyone was going to take him seriously, it'd be someone as spiritual as Dawn, right? She mulled over his story, humming in thought. "Ordinarily I'd say it was possible. Karma would certainly have a bone to pick with someone disrespecting a dog's resisting site. But I think the important thing to keep in mind is that you were paying your respects to the dog before it crumbled."

"Meaning it was all in my head?" He hmphed in confusion. "Or maybe I was just that unlucky."

"Perhaps, though it's also entirely possible to convince yourself so strongly that something is true that you force it to become fact. It appears to me that you truly did believe yourself to be cursed, and that likely led to you putting yourself in more precarious situations than normal." Then another point came to mind. "Plus, I'm sure Chris was well aware of your belief. I wouldn't put it past him to purposely agitate the poor creatures that would be crossing your path for the challenge."

"Huh..." A smile spread across the large boy's face. "I never thought about it like that."

And then we were back with the girls at the USS Iowa, Anne Maria shrugging. "She'll be fine, sneaking is kinda her thing. Let's just focus on knocking out those Explosive chicks."

"True that. We just gotta figure out where they-" Leshawna stopped herself when she noticed something odd up on the battleship. "Is that the same mascot AGAIN?"

The girls watched as the person in a feminine mouse suit did a little jig for a crowd of adoring tourists. For a price, of course. They'd have to pay up if they wanted a picture.

"What, ain't those hustlers in costumes pretty common in a city like this?" the Jersey girl asked.

"Sure I guess, but I swear I've been seeing that exact same character popping up all over the city." Leshawna started listing them off on her fingers. "The Walk of Fame, near the tar pits, outside the baseball stadium, now here? How does a mouse make sense for a battleship anyway?"

A long silence fell over the duo, both starting to put the pieces together. Popping up in places the character shouldn't be, the exact same mascot all over the city, and was that a square dancing style diddy that it was doing? A lightbulb went off and the girls smirked at each other.

Blissfully unaware of any imminent danger, Sugar kept on dancing for the crowd. "Alright, who's next! Throw in an extra 20 bucks and I'll let ya record a video message!"

"Ooooh, can I go next?"

Expecting a paying customer, Sugar gleefully turned to greet... Leshawna giving her a cocky grin. "S'up?"

You couldn't tell due to the mascot head, but Sugar blinked a few times in confusion. Maybe she could just outrun her? It's not like taking a picture of the mouse costume would work, right? She make a break for it but was barely able to get a few steps away before getting assaulted with a noxious hairspray cloud. The suit was already hot and stuffy enough as is, adding those fumes to the mix just made it even more suffocating. She had no choice, Sugar tossed away the mascot head so she could actually breathe.

"Cute costume, maybe don't make yourself stick out so much next time," Anne Maria quipped while snapping the picture. "Ha! One down, one to go."

Even if she was in the middle of hacking up a lung, Sugar couldn't help but notice the oddity of what her opponent said. "One? Whadda mean one to go? Ain't DJ and Trent still out there too? Are y'all working together?"

Both girls shared a look and said nothing.

"You are! That ain't fair, you can't just gang up on one team together!"

Leshawna shrugged uncaringly. "Nothing in the rules that says we can't."

"For all you know it's all just one big coinkydink that the two of us ran into you at the same time." She elbowed her temporary partner and started walking away. "Now come on, I gotta feeling it just so happens we'll wind up coming across Sammy before anyone else."

Sugar's glared in disbelief, but the girls remained unbothered. With them gone the best the pageant girl could do was quickly get back to the plane and help Jasmine take them out first. Oh right, speaking of which how IS Jasmine doing right now anyway?

"Crap crap crap CRAP..."

Trent was running with all his might, holding up a trench coat behind him as a makeshift block from getting his picture taken. Jasmine was hot on his tail, camera at the ready for the moment he slipped up. He did his best to push past any pedestrians to keep as much distance between him and her as possible, but it was clear he was running out of options. Eventually he found himself cornered and with no choice but to make a dash across a large green suspension bridge. Best case scenario was that she'd maybe get winded since she had been running around all day. In the worst case scenario, maybe he could at least try and escape into the water?

It was once he was halfway across that Trent realized he didn't hear footsteps running at him anymore. Even once he slowed his pace he still couldn't sense her behind him. Just where the heck had she gone?

"Did she actually get tired out?" Trent cautiously turned around... and there was still no tall lady in sight. Not on the other side of the bridge, not dangling from the suspensions above him, nothing. "Huh. Guess so."

Still, best to get as much as a head start as possible when it comes to her. He'd keep going and-

"Gotcha." He was nearly blinded by the camera flash before he could even realize Jasmine had been waiting behind him.

"Wha-... how did you-"

"Crawled underneath, figured you wouldn't be checking there," she explained casually, as if it was a mundane skill that anyone could have pulled off. "Then crept my way up behind you while your back was turned."

"... great." Trent sighed and started wiping his makeup off. "And here I thought the disguise would throw you guys off."

"It definitely threw me for a loop at first, but I figured out who you were soon enough. You have a very, uh-" She stared at his abnormally tall ass forehead for a moment before shaking the thought away. "Distinctive swagger to you, it could only hide so much."

*** Confessional: Jasmine ***

"First Brick, then Anne Maria, and now Trent. Don't think I haven't noticed that I seem to be the only one on my team eliminating anyone. Sammy's still out there, and I saw Beardo at least try, but what the bloody hell are the others standing around doing?"

*** Outside the Jumbo Jet ***

Speaking of the others, Sugar had made it back to the plane to collect her paparazzi gear. Dave wasn't far behind her, his clothes looking torn and his hair disheveled.

"Didn't you get knocked out hours ago?" the country girl scolded him. "Where in tarnation have you been?"

"I may have got lost on the way back and wound up in Skid Row without realizing it. It was uh... it was an experience, let's just say that much." She inched closer, her eyes pleading for more details. So he brushed past her, scowling. "I don't want to talk about it. Before I head back out I'm gonna need at least two bottles of sanitizer to make up for-"

Before he knew it the germaphobe was getting yanked into the plane. Obviously curious, Sugar followed. The two of them found Amy, motioning for them to keep their voices down.

"Speaking of where in tarnation people have been..."

"Waiting for you idiots, that's where I've been," the mean twin hissed, motioning for them to follow her. "I bet my lame-o sister is just itching to throw this challenge so she can try to vote me off or whatever, so I've got a plan to make sure we win just to spite her."

"It ain't just her," Sugar whispered. "Leshawna and Annie Rhea basically teamed up to get me eliminated, and they ain't even on the same gosh darn team! I reckon they're in cahoots to try and make us lose."

That seemed to genuinely get Amy a bit shaken. She was expecting the other half of the team to be working against her, but both enemy squads on top of that? Ugh, why did it feel like the whole world was against her, she didn't even do anything! As far as she believed, at least.

"All the more reason to put the plan into motion," Dave pointed out to get everyone's heads back in the game. "What do you got for us?"

Amy nodded and led the two towards the cockpit entrance, taking care to be as stealthy as possible so they could get a good look at Chef watching the monitor. Then led them back out of earshot.

"Chef's watching everyone like a hawk and I can see who's hiding where this way. DJ and Dawn are the only ones left for the other teams, eliminate one of them and we're safe. And guess what? Those idiots are hiding TOGETHER!"

Sugar gasped dramatically. "Aw hell nah, they're going around being all mushy gush everywhere in the city? All while Chef watches? Them hippie folk sure are into weird stuff."

"Ignore her." Dave folded his arms to appear more serious. "It's a great plan, but there's one problem. The safe zone switches, so even if we memorize where they are now, by the time we get there they'll already be gone."

"Not if I stay here and watch Chef's screen while you guys go get them! And let me guess, you're about to ask how I can tell you what to do when we're separated. With these!" Grinning proudly, she pulled two flip phones from her skirt pocket. "Ta-da! I keep one phone, you two take the other, then I call and give you instructions on where to find those losers at!"

"Huh." Dave looked over the phone, relatively old school and rudimentary. "Doesn't look like your style."

She scoffed in offense. "Oh my gosh, you think I'd trust you two with something I own? As if. Remember how I got good at pickpocketing? I just lifted them off some people outside the airport."

Dave blinked in surprise. "You... stole them?"

"And? They'll probably get to be on TV because of it, it's fine. Now hurry up, you have to get this done before my dumb sister gets eliminated. Can't be much longer now."

On that note, things switched to show Sammy trudging through the sewers. The safe zone had just changed again, but the odor was starting to get to her. One she was all clear she'd have to hide above ground for a while and just hope for the best. "Let myself get caught, keep hiding and wait it out. Let myself get caught, or keep hiding and wait it out."

She repeated her options over and over to pass the time, sighing in frustration at her bracelet. "What are those two even doing to stay safe so long? Dawn I understand, but Jasmine can't find a buff guy like DJ anywhere?"

Ah, time to check in on those two again? Fine then. The nature lovers had expertly maneuvered throughout Los Angeles as if it were child's play. Anytime if seemed they were reaching a dead end, Dawn would point out some obscure way to continue on. Climbing fire escapes and gutters, crawling through tight spaces, blending into dense crowds before disappearing into side paths unseen. DJ's size meant some of the short cuts that would normally be available to her were off the table, but in turn his strength allowed him to more easily scale rough surfaces or reach areas she couldn't. Plus his charisma leant itself well for the times they'd have to enlist the help of locals, whereas Dawn likely would have scared people off with her usual quirks.

With the safe zone changed, the two found themselves at Griffith Observatory. Thankfully a place with plenty of obscure nooks and crannies to hide themselves in if Jasmine or any of the other Explosive crew members showed signs of snooping around. After ignoring the weird wolf and owl creatures having a moment, they found a spot with a good view where they could take some time to relax while having plenty of room to escape.

"Getting down to the wire, huh?" DJ noted after checking his bracelet. "Think we'll make it?"

"There's no guarantee, Sammy is a talented young woman despite all the trauma she's endured to tell her otherwise after all." Dawn smiled, taking in the beauty of the view. "But having five people all working together to hunt her down isn't in her favor."

Her larger companion smirked. "Sure... but there's ALSO five members of her team looking for us and we ARE standing around together. Odds are pretty neck and neck, I'd say."

"Touché." As the two gazed out at the city, Dawn would sometimes catch glimpses of what she thought to be Jasmine's hat, or Beardo's massive hair, but they'd always turn around to reveal someone else. Their skills were good, but the tension was real. Very soon the challenge would be over. Didn't matter if it was Sammy taking the fall or them, things were sure to be near the climax. While they were enjoying a moment as peacefully as they could, she couldn't think of many better opportunities to finally test the waters. "Mind if I ask you something?"

"Of course not! Fire away."

"All of this being for a challenge aside, have you enjoyed yourself? Spending time with me and whatnot."

DJ chuckled. "Well yeah, obviously! Checking out all these cool sights, putting our heads together to sneak around, getting to have all these talks. You bet I've been enjoying it, you're always super easy to chill with, ya know?"

"I'm glad you feel that way." She noticed what looked to be a glimpse of a sweater vest and large blonde hair in the distance but just kept a watchful eye for now. "And you'd consider me a friend, correct?"

"Tch, is that even a question? We ain't even on the same team and you've helped me out a bunch! No offense to your teammates but I wouldn't have had this much fun having to spend a whole day with them. We're friends for sure."

The two figures almost certainly seemed to be Dave and Sugar, but for now they were stuck searching around the outside of the observatory. Time was running out, though, time to get to the point. "Then as you friend, I feel I owe you transparency. You see, while I was telling the truth about my team wanting to form a truce, I did have ulterior motives for asking you to accompany me today."

"That right?" The brickhouse chuckled as if she was joking. "You lure me out here to toss me in the back of a trunk or something?"

"No, quite the opposite. I was hoping to find a good moment to admit that I've developed a crush on you."

Between the matter of fact tone, the suddenness, and the pure bluntness of it all, DJ's poor mind had to take a moment to figure out if he had heard things correctly. Each moment of his silence adding another drop of sweat to Dawn's forehead. Had she misjudged her timing?

"Wait... wait wait wait, hold up." DJ held his hands up and tried to focus. "You said you have a crush on me? Like, feelings, wanting to date, that kinda thing?"

"Yes, I suppose that sums it up." Her sharp gaze froze him in place. "Thoughts?"

First she'd get more silence as he let his mind go over the implications of the bombshell. Then various memories started flooding back. "Wait a minute, is this what Scott was about to-"

"Yes."

"And what Beth was trying to sa-"

"Yes."

"Even what Leshawna was scolding me over?"

"Yes, DJ. Perhaps by some sort of display of Mother Nature's odd sense of humor, I'm fairly certain you were the only person on the plane left that didn't realize I had developed feelings for you."

"... Huh." He let himself slide against the wall, unable to resist a small giggle. "Damn I'm dense. That explains a few things. What made you decide to tell me all of a sudden?"

"Norbert advised me that it would likely be my best course of action." Obviously he was confused, but she was moving on before he could even ask about the name. "I just wanted to be honest about this being part of my intentions. Regardless of how you feel in turn, I do hope we can remain friends... but that being said, what DO you feel?"

He raised an eyebrow before realizing what she meant. "Oh! You mean if I like you back? Sorry, this is all kinda new to me. I ain't ever really done the whole romance thing before."

"I've noticed." Seamlessly shifting back to therapist mode, Dawn continued to check in on Dave and Sugar periodically while trying to focus on DJ. "Matters of the heart typically stick out prominently in one's aura. Passionate love, anguishing heartbreak, regret over things left unsaid, and everything in between. It's incredibly common, most people on the plane even have something in the aura related to their love life. Not you, though."

DJ chuckled bashfully. "I'd say so, I ain't ever dated anyone. Haven't even tried asking a girl out before. Always figured that with momma's overprotectiveness and high standards, she wouldn't have approved of... well, anyone really."

"And as we've discussed, you should be able to think of what YOU want for yourself without worrying about her input." Her eyes were clearly searching him for an answer, though more out of a wish for him to think for himself than anything. "So what does DJ the individual think?"

He sighed in contemplation, leaning over the observatory railing. "I think that you're fun to hang out with. You're cute, you're caring, and you're kind of weird. But it's like, the kinda weird you wanna be around, ya know?"

She could already feel that there was a second part to this. "But?"

"But, I don't know how this whole relationship thing works. I DO know, though, that I wanna win the game this time. Like, I really wanna do it. Not even for the money, really, just prove that I have it in me." He returned to leaning against the wall, thankfully right before he would have been in eyesight of Dave and Sugar. "And I know that relationships hurt your chance to win. I've seen it from a bunch of friends. Geoff and Bridgette, Duncan and Courtney, Trent and Gwen. All of em at one point or another got screwed over because of their relationship. Heck, look at what's happened this season! Scott and Courtney got knocked out because they were wrapped up in their baggage, Cody just got screwed because he was attached to Sammy, I'd even wager it ain't a coincidence that someone as useful to a team as Shawn got taken out as early as he did considering what a powerhouse him and Jasmine are."

All very true examples. Dawn couldn't deny his worries about the game. She didn't personally care about winning all that badly, but it was clear as day to see how bad he wanted it. But even then, did that mean they had to drop the idea entirely? "Well, at least Harold wasn't eliminated because of his relationship, hm?"

She successfully got him to laugh, though his expression returned to a serious one. "Sure, but guess who Courtney wanted to target first back in Ireland before there was an official alliance with me, her, and Beth? And the main reason she wanted him out specifically was because..."

"... he was attached to Leshawna. Point taken." She took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm sorry for causing you unneeded stress, we'll drop the conversa-"

"I didn't say no," DJ cut off sternly. "It's just... not yet? Let me have some time to think about it and everything, ya know? This doesn't seem like something I should just rush into. And until I've decided, we can still work together and be friends, yeah?"

"Is that even a question?" She smiled sweetly up at him. "Of course, take all the time you please. For now we'll focus on the game... and on that note, we need to move."

DJ raised an eyebrow. "We leaving?"

"No, going out into the open is too risky, Dave and Sugar are nearby and who knows where Jasmine could be hidden." He tensed up but she quickly patted his arm reassuringly. "Follow my lead, hopefully the others are almost done."

*** Confessional: Amy ***

"Ugh, gag. Having to watch all of that from Chef's monitors was so not how I wanted to spend my evening." She flipped her hair dramatically. "I'm not, like, beating a dead horse or whatever. But if I was the one who asked him, he would have said yes on the spot!"

*** At Griffith Observatory ***

Long ass ship establishing scenes aside, there was still a challenge to finish. Dave and Sugar were hot on the trail, the former handling the cell phone since he didn't trust his teammate to even know how they work. "This place is massive, you're going to have to be more specific."

"Fine fine, just hurry up those stairs, the others are closing in on Sparemy." Amy glanced at a monitor in disgust. Her sister was running for her life through the park near the observatory. The various members of Old School and Radioactive tailed her, cameras flashing in an attempt to get a lucky shot. "Get a picture of the dumb witch girl first if you can."

Dave rolled his eyes. "No promises!"

Amy instructed them to a Planetarium within the facility. The darkness made for a good cover, but faintly through the crowd they could spot two figures. One short pale and blonde, the other tall buff and dark skinned. While Dave wanted to sneak up nice and slowly, Sugar threw caution to the wind and action rolled towards them.

"Gotcha, suckers!" The camera flash went off, revealing... a pair that certainly fit their description. Only this 'DJ' was about 20 years older with a bushy beard, while 'Dawn' had glasses and was somewhere in her 60s.

"Do you mind?" The old lady scolded. "The show's about to start!"

Dave and Sugar looked at each other in bewilderment, unaware that behind them on the other side of the room two figures were sneaking out the door.

Elsewhere, Sammy ran for her life through the park, sometimes having to duck behind trees to avoid detection. Brick would pass her by and she'd change directions, only to then have to give Leshawna the slip. Anne Maria would come from one side while Trent came from the other. All she could do was tumble down an incline to avoid their capture.

"Wait a minute..." She peeked around a tree and looked at each pursuer. Trent... Brick... Anne Maria... Leshawna... "Am I missing one?"

On cue, a victorious yell echoed above her. Quickly sliding his way down the hill as if he was gliding on air, Lightning vaulted just as soon as Sammy caught sight of him. He flipped through the air one... twice... THREE times before sticking the landing behind her. She tried in vain to run but before she had even taken her first step the camera had went off and the bracelet fell. She groaned and allowed herself to rest by collapsing.

"Sha-victory! We did it!" He raised his camera as if it was the World Cup, cheers echoing up the hill from the others. Back at the jet Amy stared slackjawed in disbelief before tossing the cellphone down and stomping it to bits. Dave tried to reach her on the other end, but he got no response.

Outside the planetarium, DJ and Dawn watched and grinned once Sammy's face disappeared from the screen.

"Guess it's just us now." He let go of the breath he was holding in. "I'll head back in so they can capture me."

Dawn's smile dropped slightly. "What do you mean? You're not giving up, are you?"

"Your sneaking is what got us the win, you earned it." He shrugged. "I was just the sidekick this time, ya know?"

Her smile returned and Dawn shook her head. "My team enjoyed first class twice in a row. You guys deserve a break."

DJ was, of course, going to protest. But before he could act, Dawn slipped back into the room and faked a gasp. Sugar's reflexes were on point, and she snapped a picture in an instant.

"Yee haw, I got her!"

But she wasn't upset. In fact, Dawn looked downright happy for the challenge to be over. Sugar was confused, but Dave immediately realized the implications and facepalmed. Just for a bit of added flair, DJ strolled in and displayed the remaining bracelet happily.

"Contestants, get back to the Jet pronto," Chris voice echoed from the device. "We'll make the results official!"

Soon enough everyone had been corralled back at the jet. "And it's official! DJ was our last man standing, so Team Old School is finally out of the doghouse. First class is all yours, dudes. On the flip side, Team Explosive's lucky streak is up! We'll be kicking one of your guys off later tonight." He paused for dramatic effect, then chuckled. "Or rather, one of you gals. We actually gotta stay here in LA for a bit so lets make this snappy, I wanna hit the town."

"We're actually staying put for a bit?" Trent asked. "Why? You guys run out of gas again?"

"Scheduling issue, that's all you need to know." He shared a knowing look with Chef and they chuckled ominously.

"So, what, you had the plane take off JUST so you could shove someone out?" Anne Maria pointed a thumb to the nearest window. They were indeed airborne.

"Yup! An elimination without the fall just doesn't hit as well, ya know!" Everyone gave him confused or unamused looks. "Presentation, people! It's more important than you realize. Now get to voting!"

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"I guess this is finally it. With Beardo on our side for sure we know it'll go to a tie breaker. I've been bracing to do this for a while now. I can't wait to beat her and-

*** Confessional: Amy ***

"-finally get her off the plane! It's going to be soooo satisfying finishing her. And hey, maybe she'll get lucky and that boyfriend of hers won't have had time to move on yet."

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

Elsewhere in the halls, Sugar followed the smell of lemons to the cafeteria. But all she'd find was Dave sitting alone nearby, slathering on a fresh coat of hand sanitizer.

"Hey twiggy boy, you know where that smell's coming from?"

"Hm? Oh, that observatory had a pretty nice gift shop. I picked up a few fresh bottles of sanitizer before I left." He held up the bottle and waggled it. "See? Lemon scented."

"... can ya eat it?"

Dave stared in disbelief. "I worry about you sometimes. But since you're here, have you voted yet? I've been meaning to run something by you."

She shrugged. "I ain't voted yet, but what's there to go over? We're just voting for Samey and letting them sisters fight it out!"

"Yeah about that..." As far as he could tell there was no one nearby and no one who could hear them. Still, he kept his voice low. "I've been thinking we should maybe just cut our losses and distance ourselves from Amy while we can. We could vote her off with the others as a way to save face."

Her normally jovial expression switched immediately to a glare. "You wanna be a turncoat? The heck's wrong with you?"

"I just think we need to weigh our options here," he quickly shot back, hands held up defensively. "You said it yourself, the other teams were working against us today. Why? Because they all hate Amy's guts. If we keep associating with her once the merge rolls around, that's basically guaranteeing we become targets once she's gone. But if we help get rid of her and play it off like she just manipulated us, well..."

"Show some gosh darn backbone." She jabbed a finger at Dave's chest. "I don't mind a good backstab, but that don't make no sense. They'll still pick us off next if we eliminate her if we lose again!"

"Maybe not! If we get rid of Amy, maybe you can smooth things over with Beardo. Then we're back in-"

As this had been going on, a snooping Amy listened from the shadows and balled her fists up. Tempting as it was to punch the wall, she had to think fast to shut this down. She did her best to channel the rage into sadness and marched out from the darkness to bump into Dave mid-sentence. Hard enough to make him drop his sanitizer bottle.

"Oh, hey Amy!" Dave chuckled nervously and scooted back. "You, uh... heard all of that, didn't you?"

He braced himself for the insults. Yelling, cussing, she was probably going to even kick him in the kiwis. The dread was strong enough that he even shut his eyes while waiting for the worst... only to open them when he heard a sniffle.

"So you're just going to leave me like everyone else does?" Tears started to stream down the cheerleader's face. "Fine. Do it then. I'm used to it by now. Everyone always takes her side in the end. I just thought... you might be different."

Dave relaxed, looking at Sugar in confusion. She was just as lost as him. "What do you mean?"

"Y-you were working so hard to help me. That idea you had with B, that plan to get out Dawn, and even when that didn't work you went all out to help us with Cody!" She sobbed into a handkerchief she had pulled out of seemingly nowhere. "I really thought we were forming something special! But I guess you just hate me too like everyone else..."

"Whoa whoa whoa, I don't hate you?" Suddenly his eyes shot open. "But what do you mean something special?"

Bingo. It took every fiber of her being not to smirk, Amy had to keep the act up. "W-well you did imply last challenge that if it was a boyfriend I wanted you'd be interested. With the bond we were forming I thought that maybe..."

"... maybe?" Dave continued, eying her up hopefully.

Once he seemed fully within her snare, she went in for the finisher. She grabbed Dave's face and pulled him in for a kiss. Sugar gasped dramatically.

"S-sorry, I don't know what came over me." Amy sighed. "I know, you hate me now. Why would you ever want to-"

"Of course I'll be your boyfriend!" Dave quickly cut off, laughing giddily. "I am SO sorry Amy, I have no idea what came over me. Please don't hold it against me, as far as I knew you weren't interested."

"Don't be silly, of course I'd want to be with you." She glanced out the window, noting how dark it was getting. "But you better hurry and vote for Samey, we don't have much time left."

Well he didn't need to be told twice. Dave rushed off, more elated than he had been all season. Amy watched him, satisfied with her work. All the while Sugar started to get misty eyed and wiped away a tear.

"Love is just so beautiful..."

And then Amy spat and furiously wiped at her lips. "Oh my gag, you didn't actually believe any of that, did you?"

"Huh?" Sugar blinked in confusion. "Buy what?"

"That dumb romance act, duh. You think I'd actually be caught dead dating a scrawny dork like that in the real world? As if." She sighed in contempt, sinking into a nearby chair. "But I couldn't let him start thinking about betraying us. I've been waiting to send Sparemy out of the plane too long to let him ruin it. If I have to suffer through a kiss every now and then to keep him in line, whatever. At least he's not like, super ugly or something."

Finally realization caught up to Sugar and a bemused smile formed. "So you were just selling him a bill of goods to get him to keep working with us? That's a slick trick, girlie."

Finally, genuine praise for her skills! She smirked back. "Ugh, I know, I'm so good I even surprise myself. Now hurry up and go vote for my sister, I've got a tie breaker to mop the floor with her in."

Not too much later, Team Explosive returned to the ceremony for the first time in a while. Not counting when they sat in on Cody's elimination at least. Many of the contestants had hard to read expressions, but most notable was definitely the determined scowls that Sammy and Amy were both rocking. They stared at each other, thirsty for the chance to see the other kicked out of the jet. As always Chris had the plate of barf bags at the ready, reading the votes and laughing to himself.

"Well now, welcome back Team Explosive! Only your third elimination all season? Heck of a lucky streak you guys broke, and all it took was giving the others a reason to work against you! But enough about all that." He grabbed the first puke packet and tossed it at the Aussie. "Jasmine scored 3 out of 4 eliminations for you dudes, and since Dawn gave herself up I don't really feel like giving credit for the 4th one anyway. It'd be kinda messed up if you guys kicked her out."

"Like that'd stop them," she mumbled, offering her friend a reassuring pat on the back.

"Probably not. Anyway, also safe is former friends Sugar and Beardo!"

The later pumped his fist and did a recreation of jingle when Kirby clears a level. As for Sugar, once she was done scarfing down the peanuts she offered him a high five, but Beardo pretended to not notice her.

"And the penultimate barf bag goes to... Dave!"

He dodged the retch receptacle, opting to just smile without much comment or fanfare.

"Which unsurprisingly leaves us with the twins! Amy, Samey, the two of you got serious history, and beef for days. Total Drama's seen a lot of rivalries, but a hatred between sisters just hits different, ya know? I'm gonna miss the great TV having you two together brings." He gave a minute to let them continue glaring at one another. On one side Jasmine was backing up her friend, on the other Sugar eager to root for her ally. "But of course only one of you can stay."

It was time. This had to end. Chris held up the final symbol of immunity and pointed for dramatic effect. "The FINAL... barf bag of the night... goes too...

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... Samey!"

Amy and Sugar's gasps were drowned out by the cheers from everyone else. Sammy held her barf bag up victoriously and hugged Jasmine.

"Now hold on, that can't be right," Sugar protested.

"It was a tie," Amy yelled, shaking in rage. "Check the votes again!"

Chris shrugged and held up the passports, cycling through so each so the contestants could see. "One for Amy, one for Samey, two for Amy, two for Samey, three for Amy, aaaaaand four for Amy! 4 beats 2, brah."

As both girls continued to try and comprehend how that could be possible, someone suddenly cleared their throat loudly and leered their way.

"That's right, it was me," Dave announced. "I'm done being manipulated by you!"

"Bloke told us everything," Jasmine added, relishing in the evil twin's despair. "Explained how you played him and that he was going to make it right by helping us get rid of you."

"He... WHAT?" She stomped forward towards the germaphobe but Beardo blocked her path. "What the hell, Dave!"

For a moment the two locked eyes and Amy detected a bitter hatred in his gaze. Dave looked down and shook his head. "I overheard everything."

Just as confused as her ally, Sugar pushed forward. "Overheard what?"

*** Earlier in the night ***

"But you better hurry and vote for Samey, we don't have much time left."

Dave hurried off, a skip in his step and a song in his heart. Vote Samey off? Sure! He had a girlfriend now! A real girlfriend! It was the least he could do for her. What was he thinking trying to backstab her, he should have seen the clear signs that they were becoming an item. The fact that she still wanted to be with him despite his scheming? It was enough to make a guy swoon. Soon Samey would be gone and the two of them could enjoy their time as-

"Wait, where's my hand sanitizer?" Dave felt around his pockets before remembering when Amy bumped into him earlier. It sent the bottle tumbling to the floor. He chuckled at his forgetfulness and rushed back to grab it before Sugar tried to eat it. Yet as soon as he neared the room...

"Oh my gag, you didn't actually believe any of that did you?"

Amy's voice. Dave raised an eyebrow and sneaked his way to the entrance of the room, keeping out of sight while listening in on her and Sugar's conversation. He heard it all clear as day. She had tricked him. There was no bond, no actual crush. She was just using him for his vote. Her cocky tone, Sugar's amused reaction. It was taunting him. Here it was happening again. Just getting strung along to watch him be crushed. Dave was the fool, same story different girl. He trembled with rage and had to cover his mouth to stop himself from yelling out.

"Now hurry up and go vote for my sister, I've got a tie breaker to mop the floor with her in."

No time to stick around. Dave jogged out of there before either girl could realize he'd been listening. As he stomped back to the confessional, he balled up a fist and punched the wall.

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"Again... It's happening... again." He stared at the camera, then down at his hands, finally out the window. After a few manic rapid breaths he let out a furious scream and punched another wall. He was met with a sore hand for his troubles. "No! I am NOT letting another girl make me look like an idiot on TV. This isn't going to keep happening, I won't let it. Amy wants to play that way? Alright! I'll play that way. Who's going to look like the idiot when this is all over? Not me! That's for sure!"

*** At the Elimination Area ***

Back in the present, Dave stared at the ground pretending to be filled with regret. "You knew I was feeling vulnerable after what happened with Sky and you manipulated me into going along with all your schemes. You made me help you sabotage Team Radioactive, had me take part in that Cody stuff, you even tricked me into voting off my only friend on the team!"

Amy gaped in disbelief. She tried to lunge at the guy, but Beardo's massive frame was still blocking her. "Those were all YOUR ideas you lying little twerp!"

"Save it, Amy." Sammy also put herself between her sister and Dave. "You lost. Your actions caught up to you. Now it's time to pay for them."

"But I'm not lying, this was all him!" Chef dragged her to the open hatch, shoving a parachute in her arms. "Dave you spineless loser, what did you do! You think I'll let you get away with this? Do you have ANY idea who you're dealing w-"

Before she could finish the boot came swinging down and the mean girl was finally gone from the jet. Everyone except Sugar once again cheered, with Sammy nearly in tears from the weight being lifted from her shoulders. Beardo recited the fanfare from Sonic clearing a level, and Jasmine gave Dave a sympathetic pat on the head.

"We should go break the good news to the others," Sammy told her team. "Let's celebrate!"

Her, Jasmine, and Beardo filed out towards economy class, the later even letting out a victorious trumpet fanfare. But Dave? He stuck around for a moment, scooting closer to the still shell shocked Sugar. She looked at him in disbelief and he just smiled back.

"Fun ceremony, eh?" He reached into her pocket and retrieved his lemon scented hand sanitizer. Thank goodness, seems she had only had a small swig of it. "Thanks for holding on to this for me."

And with that he left, whistling a merry tune. Things switched to Chef and Chris in the cockpit for their usual outro.

"Well now! Seems like wimpy Dave has upgraded to vengeful Dave. I'm proud of our little incel." The host chuckled. "Gonna miss Amy being a menace to Sammy and the others though."

Chef raised an eyebrow. "You using her regular name now?"

"Eh, the gag doesn't really work with her sister gone. And now that she is, what will happen for the rest of the cast? Will Dave continue going scorched earth, or will Sugar hatch up some revenge? Is Dawn going to get a yes from DJ, or will she be banished to the friend zone? And just why did we have to stay here in Los Angeles for a minute? Hmm, maybe it's because of that dumb Aftermath show? So for just this one time, I'll tell you guys to go tune in for it. Then you can come back for the REAL show, right back here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

Amy stamped her twin's passport with a cocky sense of confidence. "I hope you're bringing your all to this tie breaker, Sparemy. It'll make it more embarrassing when I kick your butt! Tell your nerdy boyfriend that I said hi!"

Beardo held the stamp like it was the handle of a sword and swung it around while making lightsaber noises. Then he brought it down on Amy's passport with an electric crackle.

"You brought this on yourself. Maybe if you had kept your mouth shut I would have stayed tricked and you could have survived a few more episodes." Dave bitterly cast his vote for his former ally. "Oh well. Thanks for the kiss, asshole."

The grumpiness that usually accompanied Jasmine ever since Shawn's elimination was finally gone and she happily stamped Amy's face. "It's been a long time coming, but you finally made one enemy too many. From your sister? This is for Cody. But from me? This is for Shawn."

Speaking of which, Sammy was actually quite calm in stamping her twin's passport this time. She had an air of closure and acceptance to her. "Not even trying to petty, I just mean this genuinely. This may be the last time I ever see her. I don't think we'll be in each other's lives after this. So... bye, Amy. I hope you can change someday for whoever has to deal with you in the future."

And then there was Sugar, who took a swig of Dave's sanitizer before stamping Sammy's passport. "Darn it, smells like lemons but it don't taste like it! Has a bit of a kick to it though, really cleans out the pipes... oh yeah, uh, don't let the door hit ya on the way out or whatever."

Votes for Amy: 4 (Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy)

Votes for Sammy: 2 (Amy, Sugar)

After the Boot of Shame:

Amy hadn't had the chance to actually put her parachute on before getting booted out, so she screamed bloody murder while rushing to slip it over her shoulders. Nothing to help keep her focused on not dying like venting at the camera. "Tell me that did not just happen. Eliminated by Dave? DAVE? No. Nuh uh. This isn't real. I'm going to wake up, Sugar's going to tell me that I won the tie breaker, and everything's going to be the way it's supposed to."

But there was no waking up, just plummeting to the ground. She let out a banshee screech and finally deployed the parachute. "Don't think that this means you won, Samey! It's a total fluke! I'll get the last laugh somehow, just you wait!"

Suddenly she realized that she was landing in a large body of water. But it wasn't the ocean or a river, just... a massive swimming pool? Indeed, she surfaced to find herself in a long rectangular pool, nestled behind a fancy upscale house on the hills of Hollywood. The temperature was just right, and the view of the city was immaculate.

"Well I guess I've earned some rest for now. Where am I, anyway?"

The camera panned over to show some lounge chairs nearby. On one was a breathtaking actor with a long black mane, sweet facial hair, probably knew kung fu. The kinda celeb that gets maximum wholesome chungus 100 upvotes on Reddit. And clearly he was very confused why some cheerleader had fallen out of the sky into his pool.

"Oh hey, it's you!" Amy acted nonchalant, leaning against the edge of the pool. "I really liked that movie where you killed a bunch of guys with a pencil."

"Thanks, I did all my own stunts for it. Say, hold that though, would you?" He reached under his seat to procure a walkie talkie. "Security, we've got a code green located in the pool."

On cue multiple burly men with taser guns popped out from around every corner, every tree, even one from the hot tub. Amy yelped and tried to run away but was bombarded with electricity while the screen faded to black.

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, Brick, Dawn, Lightning

Team Explosive: Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Sugar

Elimination Order:

13th: Amy

14th: Cody

15th: Beth

16th/17th: Courtney and Scott

18th: B

19th: Shawn

20th: Dakota

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Chapter Text

Once again instead of the typical Chris narration intro, some royalty free music blared as the Aftermath logo appeared word by word. It'd be present in between each clip, the first of which started after a flash of white. It showed Beth and Scott, locked in their banjo duel during the Nashville tiebreaker.

"You ain't too shabby, squirt," Scott complimented, genuinely impressed that Beth could keep up with him.

"Thanks," she replied gratefully, peering over at the crowd and suddenly grinning as an idea popped into her head. "Oh, by the way. I know she may be trying to deny it super hard. But Courtney? She's totally still into you."

"What?!" Blindsided, Scott's momentary loss of focus caused him to drop his banjo. "Crap!"

With that, Beth strummed one final set of notes, using extra emphasis on the last one. Team Old School erupted into cheers.

The scene then transitioned to show a moment from the Colombia challenge, Sugar distracting B so Amy could mess with his singing device.

"So if ya wanna put a little extra sugar on that chocolate after the season is over, call me!" She gave the large boy a wink and returned to her own team, leaving him absolutely dumbfounded.

*** Confessional: B ***

Obviously without saying anything, the disturbed boy wretches and proceeds to throw up into the toilet.

For the next scene it took us back to Mumbai, moments after Cody and Sammy had become official.

Cody got a dorky grin. "You bet! Only problem is I don't really know where we could go for privacy. Even if one of our teams win, I don't think we're supposed to just freely sit around first class with each other."

Sammy rolled her eyes playfully. "The cargo hold should be pretty quiet and secluded. Maybe we could do a 'zombie check' for old time's sake?"

Damn, he didn't think of that. Had she been secretly planning this out for sometime now? Whatever the case, he nodded enthusiastically. "Sounds like a date then!"

Rather than getting individual clips, two of the episode's guests would share the next one, a moment of them together during the Istanbul heists.

"Hmph, let me try."

Courtney moved to test her luck but Scott just looked on in annoyance. "If I couldn't fit through that tiny thing then there's no way you can."

He quickly regretted his wording as she jumped down, landing on one of his feet and getting a wince from the guy. "And just what is THAT supposed to mean? Explain yourself."

Sensing imminent danger, he quickly tried to think of an excuse that wasn't his initial thought being because her butt wouldn't fit. She was too smart and had a big head? It couldn't handle her big personality? None of these options felt viable. "... No, I get the feeling I made a mistake, somehow."

And finally was one last clip, this time taken from the most recent episode in Los Angeles focusing on Amy and Sugar.

"Oh my gag, you didn't actually believe any of that, did you?"

"Huh?" Sugar blinked in confusion. "Buy what?"

"That dumb romance act, duh. You think I'd actually be caught dead dating a scrawny dork like that in the real world? As if."

*** Opening Credits ***

Another rendition of the Aftermath logo and theme song transitioned to a shot of the stage while the audience cheered enthusiastically. On the left side was a set of couches half empty and half occupied by the first six boots. The right side of the stage was once again shrouded in darkness, though it was clear that people were sitting there. Perhaps if the audience squinted at the silhouettes they could just faintly guess some identities. And finally, smackdab in the middle was Topher and Ella, smiling and waving at the adoring spectators. They had traded in the blue outfits from last time for a yellow set. The wannabe princess was channeling her inner Belle with her elegant gown, while her co-host was serving looks with his dapper golden suit.

"Welcome back to the Total Drama Aftermath," Topher happily yelled, adding in a dazzling smile. "Once again we're coming to you live in front of a studio audience in Toronto! We're your hosts Topher-"

"And Ella," his co-host finished, in a cheery singsong voice. "We're oh so glad to be back! Even if it's just been weeks, it almost feels like it's been years since we saw you last."

"Don't you worry! We've got a heck of a show planned, one you are NOT gonna want to miss." After giving the crowd a moment to simmer down, Topher shifted his view to the left couches. "But before we get into that, how about we check in on the peanut gallery? First up, it's the chumps who got eliminated before the last show!"

Back to raucous whoops and clapping for the audience. The camera panned over each of the former competitors one at a time to give them their closeup. Rodney grinned bashfully and waved. Dakota blew a kiss to her adoring fans. Shawn smiled nervously, not really up to doing much else. Staci seemed oddly unnerved while she waved, and it was quickly revealed to be because Izzy had an arm around her while she used the other to flash the spectators a finger gun. Finally was Harold, who notably had switched out his wheelchair for a normal seat on the couches. Instead he had a pair of crutches next to him while he waved.

Ella took quick notice. "Oh my, Harold! Out of your wheelchair already? It's wonderful to see you healing up so nicely."

With the attention already on him, Harold pulled himself up with the crutches to demonstrated that he could even stand now. "A benefit to suffering so many injuries over the years is that I've built myself up to be a wicked fast healer. It's pretty much a superpower. Plus as much as I told her not to worry about it, Dakota insisted on introducing me to some mad skilled doctors."

"Daddy knows a lot of the world's best! Surgeons, physical therapists, you name it!" The heiress flashed her stomping victim a smile. "It was the least we could do, the injury was my fault after all."

"So you've been hanging out with Harold a whooole bunch ever since the last Aftermath, eh? Flying him out to fancy hospitals and everything, basically showering him with gifts? Huh, very romantic! What is it with you and geeks?" Topher chuckled along with the crowd, though Dakota didn't seem amused. "Maybe it's the voice?"

"Topher the episode JUST started, please at least save the dramatics for a few more minutes," Ella pleaded, looking for something to change the subject. "Staci, Izzy, the two of you seem to be quite jovial. Do I detect the signs of a new unlikely friendship?"

The compulsive liar side eyed her ginger companion. She was essentially trapped in place with that arm around her.

"Yah, we've been like, hanging out since the last show and stuff," Staci explained. "She says she wants to help me with my lying problem..."

"And it's the perfect solution." Izzy cackled ominously. "Since her problem is that she thinks all her stories need to be lies because she doesn't think she's interesting, Izzy fixes that by giving her plenty off exciting experiences that are real. Jumping into the lion enclosure at the zoo, swimming near the edge of a waterfall, tightrope walking above a crocodile pit. We're planning to go bungee jumping from the CN Tower tomorrow!"

Apparently this was news to Staci since her eyes shot wide open.

"Sounds like a blast. If anything goes wrong, be sure to send us the footage, yeah? It'd go great in the That's Gonna Leave a Mark segment!" Topher turned to face the other set of couches, still shrouded in darkness. "But for now, I think it's about time we introduced our bonus guests for this episode's peanut gallery!"

Ella clapped excitedly. "You heard us right, the guests actually switch each episode. It was Topher's idea."

"More names each time means more reasons for people to tune in. Which equals more ratings!" He rubbed his hands together and chuckled. "Just wait and see who've I've got lined up for the next Aftermath. Views are gonna be through the roof!"

"But for now, today's special guests! Last Aftermath we brought back the Ridonculous Race alumni who were snubbed from securing a spot on the cast. And while it was wonderful having them join us, the group was lacking in girl power."

Topher nodded in agreement. "So to make up for it, today's special guests are all chicks. And not just any girls, some of Total Drama's most athletic and powerful!"

Both hosts nodded at each other and announced in unison. "Please welcome... Bridgette!"

A spotlight shone on each guest as they were introduced, the surfer chick waving politely at the crowd losing their minds.

"Eva!"

In contrast, the powerlifter snarled at the camera despite the audience clearly showering her with love. I-it's not like she enjoyed them cheering for her, baka.

"Jo!"

Another spotlight revealed the jockette posing, one arm flexing and the other outstretched dramatically. Eva leered from nearby but said nothing.

"A former finalist, Sky!"

Cheers ramped up as the Olympic athlete waved politely.

"And finally, one of Total Drama's most dominant females of all time... Zoey!"

And there she was in all her glory, soaking up the spotlight and attention. Zoey was in her iconic two toned purple ice skater dress, leg warmers, intense grin, black hair done up in a ponytail... hey wait a minute-

"Josee?!" Bridgette was the first to vocalize the obvious, her friendly demeanor faltering. Even if she hadn't competed in the race herself, she had watched plenty of the ice dancer's antics while tuning in to see Geoff. "Who invited you?"

"Ok, Brody last time at least made a bit of sense since he came with Geoff." Topher pinched the bridge of his nose. "But how the heck does THIS happen? Where's Zoey?"

"i have no idea what you mean, I received my invitation just like the other girls here." To prove her point she flashed the paper for the camera. "Sure, I thought it was a bit odd to be invited as a guest for a show I never competed on, but who am I to deny the spotlight with my presence?"

Totally ignoring anything she just said, Ella looked to her co-host in concern. "I'm really not sure, the producers were quite clear that they wanted the other four and Zoey on the guest list. This doesn't make any sense..."

Being ghosted? Rude. Josee loudly cleared her throat to get the attention back. "Ok fine, you've got me. Let's just say a little birdie told me about the show's desire for strong female guests and I expressed my interest! I guess some wires must of got crossed and the invite intended for this Zoey girl wound up with me! You should be appreciative of the upgrade, honestly."

"A little birdie?" Topher repeated, just more confused if anything.

Suddenly they heard a violent sneeze from nearby and all eyes turned to the source. A tall man standing behind one of the cameras wearing dark sunglasses and a particularly fake looking mustache. A blonde pompadour was jutting out of his hat, and while he was wearing baggy cameraman clothes, bits of purple fabric much like Josee's outfit were poking out of the sleeves. When he noticed everyone looking, he chuckled awkwardly and ran off.

"Why am I not surprised that they can't even manage decent background checks here?" Topher groaned into his hands. "I have a pretty good idea why she wants to be here in the first place, too-"

"Does any of this crap matter?" Eva suddenly barked out. "She's just a stupid Aftermath guest. Zoey, her, who cares. Just get on with it."

Ella shared a look with her co-host and relented. "I suppose you're right. And since we're getting back on track, it's great to see you Eva! So many fans really miss seeing you in action."

She snarled in contempt. "Them and me both. Why the heck do I keep getting snubbed for these new seasons? Are they scarred I'm gonna steamroll everything and make it boring?"

"Biiiig talk coming from the one season wonder," Jo taunted from nearby. "You just know your legacy is in the dumps when you're only in the same breath as those pink wearing valley girls from the first season. Here's a better theory, they probably don't invite you back because they don't care!"

"Oh that's rich coming from the knockoff version of me!"

"Last I checked I actually managed to be successful in my first season and get an invite back." Jo grinned smugly. "So if anything, you're the knockoff!"

"I competed first, that doesn't even make sense!"

Both jockettes seemed primed to settle this in combat here and now, so Bridgette quickly got between them to break it up. "Girls, knock it off. You can both coexist as different badasses, right? No one is a knockoff of anyone else."

Topher frowned at the potential brawl being broken up, so it seemed moving on would be the next best thing. "Well while we're talking about who actually is or isn't competing, you gals care to tell us who you're rooting for? I'm especially keen to hear who Sky's supporting."

The gymnast narrowed her eyes at him but wouldn't back down from answering. "I'm rooting for Jasmine, but there isn't really all that much interesting a reason for it. She's strong, doesn't take crap from people. I always thought she was a great competitor."

"I'm biased towards the ones from my generation," Bridgette admitted. "But if I have to pick just one, DJ. A guy that nice deserves to have things go his way after the last season he had to suffer through."

Eva shrugged uncaringly. "Anne Maria I guess? I like the cut of her gib."

Josee took a minute to think it over since she had literally never interacted with any of them. "She may be rough around the edges, but I rather like that Sugar girl. Pageantry may not be ice dancing, but it's a similar enough field. She knows the value of being a winner and the importance of showmanship!"

"Plus she got 3rd place on her last season! I guess it makes sense you'd be rooting for her." Topher then realized that one of the guests wasn't answering. "How about you, Jo? Lemme guess, you're rooting for Brick or Lightning?"

"Me? Root for those dorks?" She laughed mockingly. "As if! None of the losers on that cast deserve to have me cheering for them, those dweebs especially. Only way you're gonna get me supporting someone is if you put ME in the game."

Ella shook her head, sighing dramatically. "Oh that's too bad. I had always thought you and Brick had the most lovely unspoken chemistry back when I watched season 4. Sure, it may not have been the most healthy dynamic, but the tension was so enjoyable!"

Jo was unamused. If anything, she seemed ready to throw hands then and there. Topher cleared his throat and decided it was time to move on.

"I'm sure we'll get to hear more from you gals as we interview our new guests. And on that note, I think it's about time we brought them out, yeah?"

Attention was called to the big monitor above the host couches, playing a highlight reel of moments from the second arc's eliminations. B's gadgeteering prowess coming in clutch to help his team many times, Courtney's attempts to lead a new alliance to keep herself safe, Scott reluctantly doing things like the zombie watch to help repair his image, Beth's performances with Leshawna in Turkey and Samoa, Cody gradually connecting with Sammy and hanging with his Drama Bros friends. Finally was Amy, in all her scheming and catty glory. The clips were all scattered in no particular order since, as anticipated, and flash of the mean twin on the screen was met with boos from the audience.

"Please help us in welcoming," Ella began, motioning towards the edge of the stage. "... our guests! All of them at once!"

Indeed all 6 former contestants were roughly shoved into frame from off stage by various interns. Beth had to flail her arms to stay balanced, Scott and Cody both faceplanted, while Amy and Courtney glared at the stagehands with the later even faking them out with a lunge. B? He was unbothered. Just shuffled to the side of the crowd with an eyebrow raised.

"That's right, we're pacing things a bit differently this time," Ella continued, smiling apologetically at their startled guests. "For reasons you'll see soon enough, I'm afraid we had to cut out the whole intros for each individual aspect of the interviews. So here's everyone together!"

Amy pushed her way to the front of the group, not looking too pleased. "Are you serious? You should be giving me way better treatment than that, I deserve the spotlight."

Sensing an opportunity, Topher chuckled to himself and shot some finger pistols at the twin. "If you say so, sure! Look everyone, heeeeere's Amy!"

A deafening chorus of boos and jeers flooded the building. Various curses were hurled her way, which then upgraded to actual trash and tomatoes being thrown instead. B shielded himself from the splash zone with his trench coat, while Amy yelped and had to hide behind the couches for cover.

"Was the spotlight everything you ever wanted and more?" Topher teased, grinning for the camera. "We'll get back to her later. That's a whole can of worms we gotta work our way up to before opening."

"Agreed," Ella added, trying to calm the crowd with her peppy demeanor. "So for now let's talk to a Total Drama fan favorite! Cody, would you like to take the stand? As you can imagine, there's a lot we want to talk to you about!"

Nerd in question was in the middle of high fiving Harold, taken off guard by being called out first. "Uh, sure! Figured you were gonna go in elimination order instead, hehe. Do I have to play any of those weird lie detector games?"

"I've chosen not to bring back Truth or Electrocution after some complaints," Topher replied, pointing an annoyed glance as his co-host. "So nah, just some good ol' fashioned questions! Let's start nice and easy. As someone who made it all the way to the final episode in his last season, are you shocked to be sitting here with us before the merge could even happen?"

He narrowed his eyes at Amy. "With the way I wound up here, maybe. But the fact that it happened to begin with? Nah, kinda hard to be surprised when I had just got done fighting Beth in a tiebreaker beforehand. I get it, Trent and me were never going to turn on each other and I'm seen as the easier one to fight. If I'm being honest, I never felt too confident that I'd be making it as far as I did in World Tour."

"And yet I'd say you still made the most of your time on the show," Ella pointed out, squeeing in excitement. "Most apparent with you and Sammy! Fans around the world were on the edge of their seats waiting for the two of you to become official. If I had to guess, I bet being torn from her just as the two of you got started may sting worse than losing a chance at the money."

Cody giggled sheepishly. "Well you've got me there. That's definitely the part that sucks most about getting eliminated. No more deadly challenges or Chef's cooking? No more drama or stress about how to stay in? All good in my books. But leaving behind a new girlfriend is rough."

A dramatic gasp came from the peanut gallery, Josee cartoonishly holding her hand to her forehead as if she was about to faint. "More concerned with a schoolyard crush than tasting the gold? Thank goodness he was eliminated when he was! It'd be a travesty if he made it any farther."

Despite the negative reaction it got from the crowd, Cody seemed to take the comment in stride. "Well since Amy got taken out immediately after me it's hard to feel hung up on anything. I get to sit back and watch, catch up with Justin and Harold on band stuff, all things considered I don't have any regrets."

"Speaking of the band, that does raise a question I'm curious about," Topher cut in. "Let's say the final two came down to Trent and Sammy. Which one would you wind up supporting?"

Before he could reply, Amy suddenly stood up and cut him off. "Oh my God, who the hell cares? You can't just gloss over him talking about my elimination, can you? It's time to give me my questions now! Hurry up, chop chop."

Topher raised an eyebrow but managed to keep a nonchalant demeanor. "You know what? Sure, we're pressed for time so we should keep things moving. Let's move on to our next interview... B!"

The silence genius raised an eyebrow all while the audience cheered him on to drown out Amy's protesting. He looked around at the hosts, then the peanut gallery, finally at the camera. Bro had no intention of suddenly speaking now of all times, so he shrugged.

"Real gripping stuff," an unimpressed Eva grumbled. "How are you gonna interview a guy who won't even speak?"

"Not to worry, we thought ahead." Ella motioned off stage where an intern was wheeling out one of those old school bulky 90s desktop computers, parking it next to the inventor. "After all, since B managed to use his tinkering to figure out a way to participate in songs, we thought he could do something similar here!"

B inspected the device, skeptical. Thing looked like it had been collecting dusk in some middle school storage closet for decades. Was this thing somehow more rudimentary than the finnicky singing machine he had made on the jet from literal assorted junk? Still, there was no harm in humoring them, so he tried typing out a test phrase. The device then echoed his words in a Stephen Hawking-esque mechanical voice. "HELLO WORLD."

Even the hosts seemed a bit surprised that it actually worked. Topher wasted no time jumping in, less he risk the crummy computer suddenly crumbling to dust just from B's typing. "Let's get down to the nitty gritty and ask the main burning question at the start. We've heard you scream so we know that you ARE capable of talking in some way. Why is it that you willingly choose the be silent all the time?"

He saw it coming, but the question still got an annoyed (and silent) sigh out of him. After tapping his chin and pondering for a bit, he started typing. "GOT USED TO BEING TALKED OVER WHEN I WAS YOUNG. VERY TALKATIVE FAMILY, VERY LOUD SCHOOL. GREW TO ENJOY THE QUIET. WORDS ARE UNNECESSARY. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER, AS THEY SAY."

"I told you it was a simple personal decision," Ella whispered to her co-host. "Topher thought you perhaps had some sort of traumatic experience to cause it. We're glad to hear that's not the case! Still, it must have made things a bit difficult communicating with your team in a game like Total Drama."

B shrugged. "HAVING DAWN HELPED. NOT SURE HOW SHE DOES IT, BUT SHE'S A BRILLIANT TRANSLATOR. VERY MUCH ROOTING FOR HER GOING FORWARD."

"Speaking of your team, she wasn't the only one you had a bit of history with on Team Radioactive." The more dramatic host directed attention towards Scott, relishing in his uncomfortableness. "We could tell from your reactions early on that you weren't happy to see Scott back. Do you regret sparing him in the first elimination ceremony, or are ya glad you did it?"

Hmm, an interesting thing to ponder. The genius looked at Staci, then shared a look with his former adversary. "WANTED TO VOTE FOR HIM, FIGURED HE WAS LYING ABOUT IMPROVING. DIDN'T TRUST HIM, HAD TO BE CONVINCED BY DAWN TO GIVE A SECOND CHANCE. HE'S STILL A PRICK. HOWVER, HE HAS CHANGED. A MELLOWED OUT PRICK. GLAD I DID."

While the audience reacted joyously, Scott leered in annoyance. "Gee, talk about some high praise."

"Some fans were a bit divided on this friendlier approach from Scott to say the least. Fans of his first season's run claimed he had gone soft and lost his edge." Ella clapped happily. "But personally, I'm overjoyed to see someone undergo such growth! It just makes me want to sing a merry song."

Just as she was beginning to start, Scott shot up in protest with his arms outstretched. "Why do people keep telling me crap like that! I ain't some sissy or nothing! Maybe I'm just not stupid enough to try my first strategy when people have already seen it and knew it would be me. Playing dirty didn't give me the win, it ain't weird to just play it straight afterwards!"

"Oooh, did we hit a sore spot?" Topher shook his head. "Just embrace it man, there's a lot of people who eat up the redeemed villain becomes a good guy story. That's like, guaranteed screen time handed to you on a silver platter!"

"But I still AM a villain," he continued to protest. "One of the best villains the show's ever seen!"

And for that he was met with... laughter? Many in the crowd giggled at his flustered tantrum, while his fellow competitors had many resisting the urge to crack up.

"You weren't even in the top 3 biggest villains of this season," Jo yelled out. "You got out villained by the hick who spent a challenge doing the griddy in a fursuit. You're part of the goody two-shoes club now. Get over it!"

Unable to come up with a good comeback, Scott flopped back down and mumbled obscenities under his breath. Courtney playfully patted him on the shoulder in sympathy.

"Welp, guess we're moving on to Scott now. Unless B has anything else he wants to add?" Topher gave the large boy a look, receiving a shrug in response. "Cool! Scott, let's dig a little deeper into this. I mean, your first go around you were pretty much a menace. Throwing challenges, using blackmail, eavesdropping on confessionals. What changed from that season going into All Stars and this one?"

"I lost and got injured to the point of being stuck in a trauma chair for months," he spat, sounding dumbfounded. "Seriously, it ain't that deep! There was no way I could make that work a second time, so I just decided to play it straight and narrow afterwards. I got plenty of other strengths to rely on besides just playing dirty."

Some of the others laughed, not helping his mood. Ella was among those not ridiculing the dirty boy. "I'm sure you do, you actually helped your team quite a lot throughout the challenges! Well, besides the Turkey challenge... and I suppose Antarctica ended badly too. Ah, and you couldn't beat Beth in that banjo duel-"

"You made your point," the farmer grumbled. "Man, screw all y'all! Laugh all you want, I came outta this season with a smoking hot girlfriend and finally getting some of the respect I deserve. Far as I'm concerned I did better than most!"

He did glance over at B to see if the point about respect was accurate, thankfully getting a thumbs up. Finally the crowd started to turn around and cheer instead of laughing.

"Well said! And let's talk more about that respect you earned," Ella continued. "Obviously with the reputation you had coming into this season, you really had your work cut out for you. How difficult was it proving your legitimacy?"

"Harder than I would have liked, that's for sure. I mean come on, sticking me on a team where Lightning is pretty much the only one without a grudge against me? So not fair! The fact that I won Dawn, B, and Brick over alone was hard enough, I don't think I ever got Anne Maria to get off my case. Which is super weird by the way, she wasn't even one of the ones I got eliminated!"

"To be fair, I believe she just said that you were shady and untrustworthy, she never claimed you were responsible for her elimination." Ella pointed out. "And with her on the outs of the team, I suppose it was in her best interest to take any opportunity she could to avoid elimination."

"Pfft, that's her problem, not mine." Scott sighed and stuck his feet up on the seat below him. "Well whatever, I guess it didn't matter what I did. I still wound up here anyway."

And that was Topher's cue to butt in. "And the reason you wound up here is, of course, because of a steamy rekindled relationship made finally official this season! So now let's talk about-"

"AHEM?" Amy loudly cut in, complete with over the top cough.

Rude. Both hosts gave the mean twin unimpressed stares before exchanging a look and coming to the same conclusion.

"Actually, how about we give Scott a break and circle back to his relationship when we talk to Courtney," Topher said.

"I couldn't agree more! Instead we have a member of Total Drama royalty to talk with." Ella motioned towards the couches, with Amy smiling in satisfaction... only for the spotlight to shine on the girl next to her. "After all, Beth is a former finalist! We're just dying to check in and see how she's doing."

This time Amy wasn't going to let the snubbing slide. The others were one thing, but this was over the line. "HER?! No one even remembers that she was on the season! What did she do, play a banjo then let Courtney get screwed over? Whoop-de-do! Do you want people turning the channel or do you want something people actually care about?"

"She really never stops, does she?" Sky whispered from the guest couches.

"Seriously," Bridgette agreed. "I'd hate to be the therapist she needs to sort all of this crap out."

But whispering would do nothing, someone had to tell Amy off to her face. And the one to stand up was, of all people, Rodney.

"Give it a rest already! The more you complain, the more they'll just ignore you. People don't care about what you have to say as much as you think they do. How about instead of wasting all of OUR time with your constant complaining, you sit down, shut up, and wait your turn like everyone else! You already know the entire crowd here hates you, I think you can be patient and wait a bit before letting them hate you even more."

Amy went silent, as did the rest of the room. Some smiled at the mini rant, others were too shocked to hear who it had come from. Realizing the awkwardness of the situation, Rodney cleared his throat and returned to his seat, his cheeks turning red.

"Uh... ok, wow." Topher shook it off and turned his focus to the giant farmer. "Talk about changing up your opinions on someone since the last time we saw you! Where the heck did THAT come from?"

"I may or may not have been giving him some advice on how to handle himself around women since the last Aftermath," Shawn cut in. "Since you have us sequestered here until the season's over I needed someone to watch my back and a guy with his strength would be useful in a zombie apocalypse. Seemed like a fair trade. Plus Harold helped."

Nerd in question nodded enthusiastically. "As a former hopeless romantic myself, I couldn't stand idly by and let Rodney continue to have his heart broken. I figured the obvious first step was helping him break the infatuation he had for Amy and helping him realize how awfully she treated him."

"They even helped work me up to asking the cute girl at the hotel desk out instead of just assuming we were dating like I used to!" Rodney sighed dreamily. "Sure, she told me no, but at least she was nice about it! Unlike someone I know."

Perhaps embarrassed by being told off by Rodney of all people, Amy had finally opted to stay quiet and look off as if she didn't care.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you for growing! I just know you'll find that special someone out there sooner than you think." But Ella didn't need him thinking that it was going to be her again, so she quickly turned attention back to the former finalist. "Anyway, let's get back on topic to Beth! We received a few different questions from fans over your performance, but one was asked the most by far. Your choice to not vote against Leshawna. This caused Courtney to be voted off with no chance of a tie. We have to ask, do you regret the way you voted?"

Beth locked eyes with the CIT, gulping as she felt the judging gaze trying to get a read on her. With her deduction skills she'd have to tell the whole truth here, Courtney would see through any lies. "Yes... and no. It was definitely unfair to Courtney and I take responsibility for her being here... to a point. But at the same time it WAS her and Scott's fault for messing up the challenge. Plus with Leshawna becoming such a good friend, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I know it wasn't the smartest thing, but just being a strategic robot always making the best moves has never been my style, you know?"

"Sure, but if that's the problem why not just tell Courtney and DJ they need to vote for one of the boys instead?" Topher shot back. "I mean, Courtney knew her butt was on the line, what was she gonna do? Tell you no when she knows your vote HAS to be on her side to even tie?"

"Excellent point," Courtney agreed, narrowing her gaze. "Your response?"

Beth gulped and chuckled awkwardly. "Uh, my response is that Courtney is very intimidating. I already knew what it was like to have my suggestions ignored by Heather, I guess I didn't want to risk being told off and denied again."

The CIT rolled her eyes, though in a way she couldn't help but take being called intimidating as a compliment. She was well aware of it, but it's always nice to have someone else confirming what a girlboss she is. "Hmph, well I definitely would have agreed to it."

"Guess that's why karma came for me in the next episode." The nerdier girl sighed and looked on apologetically. "For what it's worth, I AM sorry. I guess if there's any silver lining, DJ picked up where we left off. Now he has Leshawna as an ally, plus Dawn helping him out from outside the team!"

"Something tells me she'd rather it be her in that situation instead of him," Topher pointed out with a chuckle. "But hey yeah, good on the guy for actually taking some initiative! Beth, you were probably DJ's closest friend up until your elimination, what's your thoughts on the still unfolding situation between him and Dawn?"

Many in the crowd whooped and cheered at the pairs mention. Beth herself also noticeably perked up, unable to contain her grin.

"I think they're super cute together! Can't believe it took her telling him straight out to realize she had feelings, but I'm glad he finally knows." Then again, they weren't truly 'together' yet. Her face scrunched up. "Ugh, but why didn't he just go for it and say yes? It's so totally obvious that he likes her back, why bother hesitating!"

"Well he had a really good point about the dangers of being in a relationship during the game." Bridgette chuckled bashfully. "I can speak from experience. For all we know they would have wound up like me and Geoff did in season 2, then they're as good as eliminated."

"Speaking of relationships, I've had some people curious about something. ESPECIALLY since you haven't mentioned him this season." A devious chuckle came from Topher. "How are things with you and that Brady guy? You couldn't stop talking about him in your last run, have things slowed down for you?"

Beth's smile dropped and she stared down at the floor in a somber silence.

"Oh? So maybe he wasn't so real after all? Maybe he was a hired actor, or-"

"He was too real," the nerdier girl yelled. "But then we got home and watched the season. He hadn't seen it yet since he was busy building homes for the impoverished in Honduras at the time. And when he got to the part where I kissed Harold... well, we weren't able to rebuild trust after that."

Speaking of, the uber geek shifted his eyes at the repressed memory being brought up. "Er, I'm sorry? In my defense I wasn't expecting you to do that so suddenly."

"No, no, it's my fault for misreading the situation and getting caught up in passion. I should have known that your heart belonged to Leshawna and her alone. Although I did consider calling you after the breakup. I wound up deciding to take a break from romance instead."

"So Brady's single now," Eva murmured to herself, eyebrow slowly raising. "Interesting..."

Next to her Jo snickered. "See, that right there is enough to prove you're the lesser me! Wouldn't catch me dead thirsting after some generic pretty boy as soon as he's available."

"I AM NOT!"

"ARE SO!"

"You wanna go?"

"Just try me, unibrow, it's your funeral!"

Bridgette and Sky scooted away, while Josee grinned in amusement. At the host couch, Ella glared at her co-host for starting all this and loudly clapped to get everyone's attention. "I think it's time we move on to Courtney, shall we?"

"Yeah, totally," Topher added. Normally a catfight would be ratings gold, but one between those two? Probably a recipe for collateral damage, and they didn't have a telethon going on to help cover any potential destruction. "But before that, let's take a quick break. With an Aftermath classic segment... That's Gonna Leave a Mark!"

As the jaunty whistling tune played over the clips, the faint yelling match between Eva and Jo could still be heart in the background. Voices from the likes of Shawn, Rodney, and Bridgette could be heard in attempt to calm them. They'd be fine. Probably.

For the first clip, Brick snuck through the streets of Los Angeles with his camera, tailing what he though was Sugar's large hairdo. He jumped around a corner and started flashing pictures. Instead of his target, he found a former child actor that used to star in some cruddy reality show with a suspiciously similar vibe. Unluckily for him she had two security guards with her, one violently tackling the cadet. While he twitched on the ground, a certain figure in a mouse mascot costume from nearby came over to do the default dance over him.

Next up was Amy and Jasmine running away from the Turkish bazaar with the gold coated artifact in hand. The cheerleader had opted to carry the Turkish delight, which would have been fine, had it not been for a pack of feral cats crossing the girls path. Hisses rang out and the feline horde pounced the mean twin, Jasmine just barely catching the dessert midair and wincing at the scratching sounds.

In the third clip, the groups practiced their fire knife routines in Samoa. Things were going fine for the twins and Leshawna/Beth pair, but Brick was struggling. At one point he tossed his stick up and yelped to avoid it falling on his head. He grinned at his successful dodge... only to take a step forward and dislodge a plank of wood, seesawing it to thwack his face.

Colombia's beautiful scenery set the stage in the following clip, showing as multiple people landed at the finish line on their hang gliders. Most had a smooth landing, including Cody who perked up at his flawless dismount. But the celebration didn't last long and soon enough Trent collided with him, tangling both up in the remnants of the glider.

Finally was new shots from the song performance in India. And they were full of, what else, Brick taking abuse from the traps Dave had set up. Every time Dawn and Anne Maria would sway out of the way from one, he'd run into it. A large church bell swung into him, a banana cream pie hit him in the face which was then swarmed by  monkeys. Even his horn solo wasn't safe, as a whole ass alligator somehow popped out of the instrument and chased him away.

Eventually the scene returned to the Aftermath set, both hosts looking up at the monitor in concern.

"Do they have good health insurance in whatever military he's enlisted in?" Ella asked.

Topher shrugged and shot the crowd two finger pistols. "And we're back! Sorry for the holdup, folks, we just had to get things calmed down here on set. I think we got it all sorted out."

The camera panned over to show the guest couch, with Bridgette, Sky, and Josee all placed between Eva and Jo. Both jockettes scowled, but were otherwise docile.

"Which means we can move on to our next guest," Ella excitedly continued. "And talk about a certified Total Drama legend! Courtney is one of the most popular competitors the show has ever seen, with thousands, perhaps even millions of fans worldwide! And yet, this is the only time we're seeing her eliminated before the merge since the very first season."

"Ackchyually, when you really think about it she probably would have merged on the first season too, had it not been for circumstances out of her control," Harold pointed out, getting an eyebrow raise from the girl in question. Why was HE of all people pointing that out? "Just figured it was worth a mention for completion's sake."

"In other words, this has been her suckiest season hands down," Topher continued. "I'm not saying you fell off, Courtney, buuuuut it's gotta sting being here so early. Wanna tell us what happened?"

"Sure, I got put on a team where half of it was a tightly knit band and one of their girlfriends," she deadpanned, unamused. "It was only natural that I'd be targeted sooner rather than later, I was by far the biggest threat not included in that group. Not to mention the stupid decision that stopped me from getting to attempt a tie breaker. No offense, Beth."

The nerdier girl shrugged. She ain't wrong.

"So you place the whole blame on the Drama Brothers, eh?" As the meaner host looked from Harold to Cody, his gaze then shifted to her nearby boyfriend. "Are you sure emotions didn't get in the way? Anger, jealousy, greed, romance, it's all things that's bit you in the butt before."

Courtney folded her arms and shook her head. "Nope. I got the short end of the stick, that's all. Look, I know I can be emotional. I've struggled with it in the past, I'll probably keep dealing with it in the future. But I'd like to think I played a pretty by the books game this time, and I did everything I could to stay safe by making an alliance and trying to split the vote. Even if me and Scott didn't mess up the Turkey challenge, I was still gonna be the one they voted for first before Beth and DJ. I was in the bottom two with Harold in Japan after all."

"Yeeeeeah, my bad." Cody chuckled awkwardly. "All things considered, I figured I'd look like a hypocrite if I voted my buddy off for being injured. At least Trent threw you a bone!"

"Let's say things would have went differently back in Ireland," Ella proposed. "Since you're one of the show's best strategists, we're curious to know what your plan was. In a scenario where everyone agreed to vote with you immediately and Izzy wins a tiebreaker against Harold, how would things have proceeded from there?"

Ah finally, a question she actually sink her teeth in! "We probably would have taken out Cody next, then Trent. After that, since I suspected DJ and Beth would have solidified their own alliance together by then, I would have approached Leshawna to join Izzy and I to pick them off. I highly doubt we would have suffered any further losses, but I could always just stick with one or the other to vote the third off if it came to it."

"Oooooh, you really had it planned out to a T!" Izzy cackled to herself. "Too bad Izzy probably would have just joined the LeshawnBethJ squad and voted you out instead."

Just like that, the confident aura washed away and Courtney was left to look on in contempt. Seems she was always destined to wind up with a middling placement regardless of how things played out.

"As one of your fans, I must unfortunately ask something that's been on a lot of our minds," Ella continued. "You've competed on the show more than anyone else thanks to this run. A whopping five seasons! Are you still hungry for more, or is this perhaps the last hurrah?"

"Hmm, good question. On one hand, I KNOW the ability to win is within me. Had it not been for the chart fiasco, I probably would have won All Stars. And without Harold rigging the votes in season 1 or me and Gwen having our falling out in season 3? Sky's the limit."

The camera briefly panned to Sky, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"But coming back time and time again is honestly exhausting. Plus I have a law degree and a relationship to focus on." After a bit of thinking she finally came to a conclusion. "Tell you what, maybe if they actually offer me some money upfront for showing up, I'll consider it. I know my worth and the ratings I bring, from now on I'll just let them come to me."

"Yeah, wring every last cent out of those assholes," Scott added, grinning wickedly. "It's about time they started giving us some appreciation, I don't see them busting their butts in challenges!"

Ah, good, just who Topher was hoping to get a comment out of soon. "Hey Scott, speaking of challenges, I hear the producers were actually pretty keen on watching your performance in particular! In fact, there's one thing they requested we get a rerun out of. And since we have the perfect duo here to pull it off..."

*DING DING DING*

As the crowd went ballistic over the promise of a live musical performance, the farmer's eyes filled with dread.

"You're gonna make ME sing?"

"A little," Ella clarified. "For the most part you'll be playing an instrument. Cody is going to be the primary singer. Producers orders, he's a member of a famous boy band after all."

Harold threw his hands up in anger. "I'm literally in the exact same band and they wouldn't let me be the singer for last Aftermath!"

He would go ignored. Sorry bro, all the dope rap verses during finales in the world couldn't make people forget how shit 'Baby' was.

"Chin up, at least you're going to be playing alongside a gifted musician that can carry you through it," Courtney teased. "So what are we playing?"

Topher and Ella looked at each other, then avoided eye contact with the CIT. He was the only one with the heart to tell her. "Uh, well, we never said YOU were the other member of the pair."

"Actually, it's Beth," his co-host finished, smiling apologetically. "The producers loved their banjo duel, so they wanted to try a rematch with a different instrument!"

Suddenly two interns came out carrying violins. Which only served to make Courtney further incensed.

"You've gotta be kidding me, I actually practice the instrument! Surely letting me play would be more entertaining. Do they even know how to use those?"

"What, the fiddle?" Scott took his violin and quickly strummed the bow across to play the first line of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. "Sure, my grammy taught me what she knew."

"How many instruments do you inexplicably have experience in?! If I wasn't so frustrated it'd be kinda hot..." She glared over at Beth and pointed. "But I've never heard her mention anything about knowing how to play! It just makes more sense for me to do it instead!"

Beth rolled her eyes and offered the instrument up. "For what it's worth, she's right. I only had a little bit of banjo experience, but I've never played the fiddle in my life. If she wants to do it, it's all hers."

Damn, so no epic rematch? Topher sighed but relented. "Fine. But if she's not part of the duel, Beth has to be Cody's backup singer. It's not like anyone else was gonna volunteer to do it instead."

Ella and Harold both glared at him.

"Don't get too cocky, lady," Scott challenged, sneering at his girlfriend. "You might not know it, but I've probably been playing the fiddle just as long as you have! Odds are you ain't gonna win this."

"It's called the violin," she snapped back, unable to stop her confident smile from returning. "And by all means, give it your all! It's not gonna be good enough to beat me."

Yes, yes, a quarrel between boyfriend and girlfriend was all well and good. But Cody hadn't even had a chance yet to react over being forced to sing! "What kind of song is this going to be anyway?"

"Oh yeah, about that." Topher flashed the geek a finger pistol. "Hope you like country music, my guy."

"Aw crap..."

Song Start!

"Scott Went Down to the Courthouse." Parody of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by the Charlie Daniels Band.

[An intense country style violin tune echoed out, accompanied by piano. It seemed that the video took place in hell itself. A red and orange courthouse was nestled between all the fire and brimstone. Avoiding the hellfire shooting from the ground was Scott, somehow in a more redneck attire than his usual drip. Instead of pants he had on a pair of farmer's overalls, and he'd added a straw hat. He narrowed his eyes in determination and marched forward. Behind him were Cody and Beth watching, dressed as little hell imps with tiny horns and black formal clothing.]

"Ol' Scott went down to the courthouse, he was looking for a fight to pick. They said he went soft, so no matter the cost, he had to find a butt to kick."

[Cody was both keyboarding and singing, though the lyrics and tempo nearly had him sounding more like spoken words rather than what he was used to. Beth meanwhile was on drum duty, keeping the beat up in time with the song. Both imps followed behind Scott, who marched up to the building with a piercing glare full of conviction. Some musical notes were floating through the crack of the door, so he promptly kicked it down.]

"So he stomped up to this demon playing on a fiddle that he'd disrupt. And Scott slid up to the witness stand and said-"

"A'ight girlie, here's what's up!"

[Once the courthouse door was kicked down it revealed a violin playing Courtney in slightly more professional gear than she was usually in. A red and black lawyer's outfit with suit jacket, slacks, dress shirt, tie, even cufflinks! Her hair color had also notably been changed to white, with little black devil horns poking out. The seats of the courtroom were filled with the Aftermath peanut gallery, all clad in fiery red prisoner jumpsuits as if they were sinners awaiting their judgement. In the jury seats were various generic demon imps dressed similarly to Cody and Beth. Speaking of which, Cody had sung the first line, only for it to transition to Scott's voice as he slid up to Courtney.]

"Go ahead and feast yer eyes, your boy's a fiddle player too! And here and now, I'll make a bet before this entire crew.

I'm sure you play a fine fiddle Courtney, but give your boyfriend his due. I'm gonna call your bluff and bet on my luck, I can play it better than you."

[Scott showed his violin off for all to see, ignoring any unamused scowls from his foe. As he sung he marched around the courtroom, motioning to the sinners when emphasizing the crew, and even glaring down at the imp jury all while continuing to talk himself up. Next to Courtney, Cody gulped and tugged at his collar.]

"The girl said-"

"If you say so, I'll take that challenge, Scott. I'm telling you now, it's gonna go south. You aren't ready for what I've got!"

[Just as Cody began to sing, Courtney roughly shoved him away and took over the lyrics. She marched up to Scott, violin at the ready and a sinister grin playing at her lips. Both violinists stood on opposite sides of the courtroom and got into playing position.]

"Scottie, you better hope your bite can match that giant bark. Time for you to sink or swim and you're playing with a shark.

And if you win, you'll get to hear us all cheering your name. But if you lose, Courtney puts you to shaaaaame."

[While Scott and Courtney played the violin tune together, Cody and Beth sang. They stood on either side of the audience, who all watched the duel in varying degrees of intrigue and concern. The redneck played with a cocky smirk and leaned forward in an assertive manner, while the lawyer demon kept herself more composed and nonchalant while matching his playing.]

"Scott cracked both his knuckles and said-"

"Let's git r' dun!"

"He psyched himself up with a yell, all ready to have his fun."

[Cody was back to solo singing while Beth focused on percussion. He was momentarily interrupted by Scott's outburst, but all he could do was glare in annoyance. As noted, the farmer cracked his knuckles, slapped himself in the face a few times, even beat his chest to get himself into the zone.]

"Then he brought that bow up to the strings, and he gave the crowd a grin.

He dragged some chumps into the mix, took that fiddle for a spin."

[Indeed, before starting Scott turned to the crowd of sinners and hatched an idea. He grabbed a few members, some who he genuinely wanted backing him up and others that just seemed like they'd want to participate. Once he had a band assembled, he returned to his position across from Courtney and readied his violin. It was time for his performance.]

[First the various other instruments began. B was getting funky on the bass, big Rodney put on the drums, Harold was in his comfort zone with the keyboard, Josee wasn't about to pass up a chance at shoe horning herself into the mix via guitar. Somehow even Jo had been dragged into this mess, haphazardly shaking some maracas. With the groundwork laid, Scott made his move. He furiously strummed away with his bow, his fiddle solo starting scratchy and frantic before eventually settling into a more pleasant sounding country rock vibe. He strutted his stuff around the courtroom while playing, the rest of the crowd and even the jury tapping their feet along. Once he was done, he finished with a cocky little bow for flourish.]

"As soon as Scott was done, Courtney said-"

"Aw, that wasn't half bad, Scott!"

[Once again Cody's brief lyrics were cut off by Courtney singing instead. She flirtatiously traced a finger down her opponent's chest, immediately flustering him out of his confident demeanor. And before he could realize what was happening, she pushed him into a seat, towering over him.]

"But now it's time you pop a squat, and let me show you what I've got!"

[Suddenly the courtroom's lighting turned an intense red while the jury imps cheered on what was about to come. With Cody and Beth behind her on the keyboard and percussion, Courtney got her violin ready. Hellfire sparked from the strings as she glided the bow over them, and all Scott could do was watch on in shock.]

"Scott say your prayers, your plum screwed sport!

Never test your luck with this court."

[Cody and Beth sung fast and in unison while playing their instruments. Between the smiles and upbeat tone, it was clear they already knew the outcome mere seconds into the solo. Courtney blared away on her violin, playing fast and smooth in a way Scott and his band could barely keep up with. The jury was jumping up and down to the beat while hellfire continued to erupt from the instrument.]

"Think you had a chance to win this thing, bro?

Up against Courtney? Yeah, that's a no."

[Even after the imps finished their chorus, Courtney continued to play her heart out and making it look effortless all the while. As the intoxicating tune of her solo went on, member's of Scott's band quickly realized who the winner was and snuck off to avoid being caught up in the embarrassment. One by one Rodney, Harold, Jo, and Josee returned to their seats, some cringing and others shaking their heads. As her performance came to a climax, B offered Scott a solemn pat on the shoulder before joining the others. The redneck's face had turned a bright crimson, partly because of all the flames but mostly because of the seething rage he was filling with. But then a smug Courtney distracted him by finishing her solo with a final shot of inferno that singed her opponent's hat.]

"Scott stood there shaking mad because he knew that he'd been beat.

And he crushed that poor ol' fiddle on the ground beneath his feet."

[Cody was narrating the obvious. Clearly the loser of the battle, Scott angrily tossed his violin down and started curb stomping it into oblivion. Some of the spectators winced, others looked on pitifully at the tantrum, others yet couldn't help but be amused. The jury of demons cheered on their victor, who sauntered up to her beaten opponent with a playful smirk.]

"Courtney said-"

"Oh Scott, just say the word if you ever want to try again. But now you know, no matter what you do, I'm the one who always wins!"

[One last time Cody had to be cut off mid-lyric, Courtney's singing oozing with gleeful satisfaction. She tossed off her boyfriend's still burning hat and ruffled his hair playfully, only further flustering him. He didn't know whether to stay pissed at losing AND being taunted over it, or if he should be enjoying the flirting. It was a conflicting mix of both.]

"She played: Scott say your prayers, your plum screwed sport!

Never test your luck with this court.

Think you had a chance to win this thing, bro?

Up against Courtney? Yeah, that's a no."

[Beth rejoined her co-singer for the repeat of the chorus to close out the song. Courtney returned to give an encore of her fiddle performance, the jury and even the Aftermath sinners stomping their feet happily along to the tune. As Scott stood there stewing in his defeat, a circle opened up behind him and a few small imps began pulling him deeper into the depth. Unable to do much else, he shook his fist angrily at the roof and Courtney finished the tune with a wink at the camera.]

Once the song was over, the studio filled with cheers and applause from the audience. Even most of the peanut gallery was giving it up for the performers, though it was clear Scott was still sour over the loss between his bitter snarl and refusal to meet his girlfriend's eyes.

"Come on, Scott, NO ONE is beating me in a violin duel. Honestly I'm just impressed you can work that bow as good as you do. Keep your chin up, no one else could have given me a run for my money like that."

"Hmph... yeah, they really wouldn't have, would they?" He finally perked up and regained his trademark condescending sneer. "Bunch of bozos couldn't hope to be on my level!"

Bridgette, who was somehow now next to Courtney, grinned at the exchange. "You know, I had my doubts watching at home but seeing you guys together in person? I think you two really make it work. But it's always the bad boys with you, isn't it? Couldn't help yourself?"

"Guess I have a type." Courtney shrugged innocently. "But hey, it feels nice finally opening myself up again after all this time. For a while there I thought-"

"Uh, hello?" Amy suddenly yelled. "Anyone want to tell me why I'm sitting by myself over here?"

The camera zoomed out to reveal that everyone other than Amy had been over to the guest couches with Bridgette, Eva, and the others.

"Ah, right, that was my call," Topher answered. "Figured I'd go ahead and move everyone since they'd want to get out of the way."

Ella cocked her head in confusion. "Get out of the way for what?"

"Amy wanted her spotlight, right? A time to shine all on her own with no one distracting her. And maybe get some real hard hitting questions? And just think, what else hits hard? A hammer!"

And just like that, the "Truth or Hammer" logo appeared on screen as the comically large hammer was lowered from the rafters in swinging range of Amy.

"Ok seriously, if you pull out the anvil next Aftermath I think Geoff is actually within his right to sue you for copyright infringement or something," Bridgette grumbled.

"Topher, you said you weren't going to do that horrible game again," Ella pleaded. "Even if it IS Amy, it's inhumane."

"First of all, the producers own the rights to everything that shows up on the Aftermaths, Geoff doesn't own squat. Second of all, I promised I wouldn't do Truth or Electrocution again. You never said anything about Truth or Hammer!" He held his hands up defensively. "All she has to do is not lie and there's no violence. Simple as that."

It wasn't much to help the wannabe princess feel any better about it, but it's not like she was convincing him to call it off. "Fine, but let me handle the questions. This is going to require a gentle touch, Amy is clearly a very troubled individual."

"I am not," the cheerleader exclaimed before immediately yelping and having to jump out of the way from the swinging hammer.

"Please try to be truthful," Ella pleaded. "Let's... try and start with something positive, shall we? You seemed to form quite the formidable partnership with Sugar this season! As much as I didn't approve of your methods, you were still undeniably an iconic duo! Do you foresee your friendship continuing once the season is over?"

"What friendship? I don't even like her." Everyone winced and braced for the hammer swing, only for nothing to happen. "Working together was her idea, was I just going to say no? She's like, super gross and uncool, I just tolerated her since she was at least less lame than my sister's group."

For a moment Ella seemed taken aback, but she cleared her throat and continued. "Um, ok, well what about your fans? Believe it or not, you do have quite the dedicated fanbase. Are you excited to speak with them and tell them about your experiences on the show?"

"Heck no, do you realize how much crap I have to read from Total Drama nerds on the internet? If they like me so much they should do a better job defending me! I don't owe them anything until they do a better job showing their support."

Once again, no hammer, no lies detected. The princess seemed genuinely confused. If the friendship angle didn't work at showing her positive side, nor did the fan angle, what would?

"Look, I'm fine with you doing the asking, but we all know what people want to actually hear from her," Topher cut in. "You're gonna have to ask about the sister sooner or later."

"Fine, fine." Ella sighed and thought of how to word it properly. "Amy, we've all seen that you and your sister struggle to get along. And I don't mean to point fingers, but you ARE the instigator in most cases. Before we get started, let's get this out of the way. I think it'll be a big weight off your shoulders! No matter what you say, regardless of whatever act or bravado you put on, I think deep down you know how it truly is. You don't ACTUALLY dislike your sister, do you?"

"Yes, yes I do."

Everyone looked up to see... the hammer staying still.

"Wh- you do?!" The nicer cohost shook her head in shock. "Why? What's Sammy done to earn your ire?"

"Oh she's done plenty!"

AND THEN the hammer came swinging down, this time catching the mean twin by surprise and sending her flying. An intern would have to help her back to her seat while Ella tried to wrap her head around this.

"That can't be right. I mean, she doesn't consider anyone a friend? She doesn't appreciate her fans? She's spiteful towards her sister for no reason? It's horrible, her personality is horrible. She's horrible! She's an irredeemable monster!"

"Oh, no," Topher mocked in a faux Ella-like voice. "What took ya so long? Seriously, the girl straight up said she wished Sammy died in the womb."

"Yah, they added like 6 things to the TV Tropes page from that one line alone," Staci noted sagely.

"Maybe some people are just genuinely born rotten?" Shawn suggested, shrugging. "Like maybe there's no explanation for why she's so mean, that's just in her nature."

It was then that Amy finally stumbled her way back to her seat. Ella was still trying to comprehend being met with someone that's just truly nasty, so Topher rubbed his hands together.

"Let's find out, shall we? Amy, you just admitted against your will that Sammy hasn't actually done anything to make you hate her. So what's the deal? Was there some kind of traumatic experience that caused you to turn against her? Or do you genuinely just wake up in the morning and decide you want to be a hater?"

Amy glanced up at the hammer and winced at the pain still ringing in her head. Lying just wasn't worth it right now. "Ugh, I don't know, I've just always felt annoyed by her! Like, I didn't ask to be born with someone else. Growing up attention always had to be divided between us. We always had to share everything, always had to do everything together. It got old! I wanted to be my own person but I'm always getting compared to her. I have to be 'the mean one,' or 'the bossy one.' Even when things were going better for me, I was still just 'the popular one' still getting lumped in with her."

"But it's not like Sammy asked to be stuck with you at birth either," Cody yelled out in defiance. "So what's treating her like garbage do to change that? Does it just make you feel better or something?"

She narrowed her eyes. "A little, I guess? I don't know, I figured maybe she'd eventually get fed up and run away or something."

"Wow, she really is simpleminded," Eva mused. "No wonder that Dave guy was able to pull one over on her."

"Ah, that was a lovely showing," Josee added, chuckling mischievously. "Between the plan he weaved for the nerdy boyfriend elimination and the act he pulled for Amy's, he's a deceptively competent performer."

"That's one way to put it," Cody huffed. "I've got a bone to pick with him, it's his fault my time got cut short with Sammy!"

"AGREED," B typed out furiously. "HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR HIM, I'D STILL BE IN THE GAME. IF I WANTED TO TALK, I'D HAVE SOME CHOICE WORDS FOR HIM."

"What's even up with him?" Shawn mumbled in disbelief. "I seriously had no idea my jittery buddy from last season had all this venom in him. Was the normal nice guy schtick back then just an act all along?"

Over on the other couch, Amy blinked in confusion. "Um, guys, this is supposed to be the part about me, remember?"

"Alright, listen, can we lay off on Dave for a minute?"

Everyone went silent, staring at the source of the voice. None other than Sky, standing and giving the others a stern look of disapproval.

"I get it, he's been playing more dirty this time. And maybe he's letting emotions influence his decisions, sometimes for the worse. But can we really blame him? We all saw what a toll Pahkitew Island took on him. And he told us himself in the confessional how hard it's been for him between seasons. Put him back in a high stress situation like Total Drama and something is bound to break eventually."

Topher blinked in confusion before shifting back into host mode. "Uh, rewind. Can we focus on the fact that YOU of all people are the one sticking up for him? Do I detect some lingering feelings of things left unsaid?"

"No," she said flatly, glaring. "Any crush I had on him went away after last season's finale, and I'm pretty sure he feels the same. But! I've had a lot of time to think over everything since then and I've made my peace with it. I made mistakes with how I handled things, same as him. And I've definitely had to hear my fair share of flak from the fans over it. Some of them get REALLY nasty. The guy clearly needs therapy or something, so having to deal with all of that definitely wasn't helping him."

"Seriously, why are we spending all this time talking about Dave, he's not even here?" Amy complained, before Topher hit the mute button on her.

"Sky I hear what you're saying, but does that justify him backstabbing people?" Shawn asked. "Or messing with the other teams?"

She shrugged. "That comes with the territory of the game, doesn't it? Me personally, I'm just kind of impressed he managed to do things in a way where Amy took the fall for everything. It's not like he's done anything truly over the line yet. Sure he got Cody eliminated, but he's still going to be dating Sammy by the time its all said and done, right?"

A silence fell over the others. Love it or hate it, she was raising some good points. The only one willing to speak, er, or type, was B.

"WELL, I'D STILL TAKE THE CHANCE FOR PAYBACK IF I COULD."

There it is. As good a moment as any. Topher grinned excitedly and clapped to get everyone's attention. "Funny you should say that. What if I told you guys that maybe, juuuuust maybe, someone could win a chance to re-enter the game right here before the show is over!"

Gasps rang out from audience and peanut gallery alike. Ella squealed in excitement, relieved to finally be able to talk freely about the twist. "That's right! We're going to hold a Second-Chance Challenge right here right now on the Aftermath. The winner gets to join the cast starting next episode!"

"YES!" Josee stood up and pumped her fist. "Finally, all that filler and fluff was getting suffocating. Time for me to shine on the main stage!"

"The hell are you so hyped up over?" Jo asked. "We're just guests, we can't join."

"On the contrary," Topher shot back, chuckling. "EVERYONE on stage is eligible to win the comeback challenge!"

"Everyone?" Courtney repeated.

"Everyone," Ella confirmed, practically vibrating with excitement. "That includes the guests, and even Topher and I!"

"No wonder she wanted to be on the guest list," Bridgette mumbled, watching Josee continue to bounce up and down.

Topher motioned for the crowd to calm down. "So let's head to commercial break and when we come back, it's time to find out who's coming back to the Jumbo Jet!"

"Which brings us to today's sponsor," Ella began. "Have you ever wanted to watch movies and TV shows available to stream in other countries but aren't on a globe trotting world tour of your own to get the experience?"

"The solution to your problems is a VPN," her co-host continued. "Which is why we're proud to talk to you today about today's sponsor, Nor-"

While this was going on, a buff female intern approached the couches with a pen and clipboard in hand.

"Excuse me, we have two quick things we need to sort out before we proceed. The big wigs say we need an even number of contestants for this Second-Chance thing but including the hosts there's 19 of you. We need a volunteer to sit out, so... anyone here NOT want to go back to the show?"

For a brief moment there was silence. As bad as the conditions were, for one reason or another pretty much everyone there had reason to want to return. Money? Reuniting with someone on the cast? The spotlight? There's a reason the show always manages to get new casts when they want one. However, one hand did shoot up relatively quickly.

"I'll sit out," Sky volunteered. "I probably would have just lost on purpose anyway, there's really no reason for me to go back to Total Drama."

"What, you don't want to make up with that Dave twerp after all the defending you did for him?" Eva grumbled.

"Nope," she confirmed. "Like I said, there's no lingering feelings there. Plus I'm sure me being around would only make things worse for him, and I've got my hands plenty full with Olympic training as is."

No one could object to her reasoning, so everyone mumbled various agreements. Buff intern lady scribbled the development down.

"Second order of business. Spoilers, but you guys are competing in a one on one sorta thing to start the comeback challenge off. Apparently Chris gave some sort of verbal agreement to give Izzy an advantage if something like this was going to happen? So here's her advantage, she gets to pick her first opponent instead of having it picked for her."

"Ugh! How is that fair?" Josee protested. "Obviously she'll just take the easy victory and choose something she can't lose, like fighting the cripple!"

Harold glared in annoyance.

"Hmmm, getting a salty runback against my fellow Irishman IS tempting," Izzy pondered, stroking her nonexistent beard. "But I want something a bit more challenging! Sooooo... how about Shawn?"

Zombie nut in question pointed at himself in shock. "Me?"

"Yeah! I've been high key wanting to see what you and Jasmine are made of face to face, this is basically a free pass to take it. And then once I win maybe I'll get a chance to duel your girlfriend!"

"... right. Too bad I'll be too busy being the one to win for you to get the chance."

"Guess that settles that." The intern updated her clipboard and scurried off. "You guys are back on in three... two... one-"

"So use code AFTERMATH15 for 15 percent off your first three months today!"

Once Ella was done, the camera panned out to reveal that the center of the stage now had a giant ball pit taking up most of the space. The monitor above had a "Second-Chance Challenge" logo displayed and everyone was kicked off the couches to allow for more room. An intern motioned Sky to the back of the stage behind the pit, while the co-hosts joined the others at the side.

"And we're back! Sky has graciously volunteered not to participate, so she'll instead act as the finish line for this first part of the comeback challenge." Topher paused for dramatic effect. "That's right, it's in multiple parts! For part 1, 9 golden balls have been hidden within this massive ball pit. Each of us will have a rival we've been paired up with at random. The first one from each pair to retrieve a ball and deliver it to Sky advances!"

"So the number of contenders will be shrunken by half after round one," Ella added, pointing out the obvious. "Now let's see what the matchups will be."

Everyone looked to the monitor where two faces cycled through the portraits of everyone present. Every once in a while the cycle would stop, landing on two faces to confirm the battles. In order, they went: Izzy vs Shawn, Eva vs Jo, Courtney vs Scott, Bridgette vs Josee, Cody vs Amy, Topher vs Ella, Harold vs Dakota, Staci vs B, and Beth vs Rodney.

"... you sure this was supposed to be random?" Scott asked.

"Fate works in mysterious ways." Topher shrugged and motioned over to the gymnast, now clad in a referee shirt. "Let's send it over to Sky!"

Not really knowing what to do, she took a step back from the pit and cautiously stared at Eva and Jo in particular. "Er, everyone try to have a good clean match out there. And please don't hurt anyone? Alright... begin!"

Immediately everyone dove into the pit, balls flying through the air and even splashing into the crowd. Some frantically swam and stomped through the sea of balls, while others focused on hindering their opponents. Both Eva and Jo as well as Izzy, despite Sky's plea otherwise, immediately jumped into a wrestling match to prevent their rivals from making much progress. Ella was hyped up and moving more frantically than usual, while Harold did his best to hustle despite his injuries. But someone was bound to find a golden ball soon enough, and the first to punch their ticket was Cody. He scurried out of the pit and handed it over to Sky, inevitably getting a yell of anger from his opponent.

"No fair, he must have cheated," Amy protested. "How was I supposed to find one that fast?"

"Skill issue," Cody shot back, standing behind the gymnast and spectating the chaos.

Scott had managed to find a golden ball, but his girlfriend wasn't about to hold back and pounced to try and wrestle it from his grasp. Dakota managed to find one, but rather than turn it in she tossed it at Harold and winked. The nerd was grateful and cashed it in to join his bandmate. Up next to procure his prize was Rodney. Beth noticed and since she was too far to try and stop him, she tried turning on the charm to flirt her way into getting it from him. But the anti-simp training held true, and the mountain of a man kept the ball to himself. Finally there was the first girl to qualify. Josee, after roughly yanking a golden ball from Bridgette and bouncing over to Sky with expert grace.

"Psycho," the surfer spat at her opponent, rubbing her hand. "She better not be the one to win, I swear."

Not long after, another girl managed to qualify. Staci, of all people, managed to pull a golden ball from one of the pit corners and clumsily stumbled her way to Sky before hugging her in celebration over her first sorta challenge win. B was naturally dumbfounded, but he accepted his defeat with a silent sigh. Topher was next up to find a prize, but before he could exit the pit he felt Ella pounce on him and ruffle his hair. Naturally he had to focus on tidying up his hairdo before anything else, giving his co-host the window to take the prize for herself and qualify. The others were surprised yet impressed to see some dirty strategies coming from her. That just left three battles that has come down to wrestling matches, with Courtney the first to emerge victorious and hand over her ticket to the next round, Scott slumping out of the pit while out of breath.

"You... you only won because I held back," he wheezed between breaths.

Courtney giggled. "Uh huh, sure you did."

And then there were four. Eva and Jo had yet to actually find what they needed, they were just focused on trying to one up the other in their grapple match. Shawn had long since managed to locate one of the golden balls, but Izzy was incredibly persistent and slippery. The two were going blow to blow in their struggle for the prize and try as they may, they couldn't seem to outwrestle the other. They were slowly inching towards the edge of the pit where Sky awaited, but the ball kept trading back to back with no sign of one giving the other enough of a window to win.

"You're pretty good!" Izzy cackled with excitement. "It's not everyday I get to fight someone else with moves like this."

"Yeah, well, zombie training will do that to you. Gotta be ready to fight anything."

Hmmm, that gave her an idea. "Very true, very true. But hey, you wanna know something I bet you DIDN'T prepare for against zombies?"

Suddenly she switched tactics and focused on... tickling? She furiously ticked at Shawn's armpits, genuinely something he didn't see coming, and sent him deep into the pit laughing up a storm. The moment he was deep enough to give herself an opening, Izzy swiped up the ball and vaulted over to Sky before her opponent had enough time to recover. Some gasped, and Shawn himself groaned and tugged at his beanie in frustration.

"And that's eight," Sky announced. "Now we just need a winner from Eva vs Jo... assuming they're planning on stopping anything soon."

Both girls were splashing balls around left and right as they violently tossed one another around. Eva would go for a suplex, while Jo would counter and try to tackle her opponent to knock the wind out of her. It didn't work, she just stood defiant and no sold the attack. Maybe getting more aggressive would work? Eva tried to clothesline her rival, but Jo was too agile and ducked. She then took the opportunity to jump onto Eva's back and apply a chokehold.

"Give it up already," Eva screeched, falling backwards over and over in an attempt to force her opponent to let go. "I'm bigger and buffer than you, it's going to end with me winning regardless!"

By now Jo had eyeballed the final golden ball, having rolled to the edge of the pit after all the rough tussling from their match. She grinned and braced herself for the onslaught of falls. "All those muscles don't mean squat if you can't outdo your opponent. Had you got anyone else, you probably would have been fine. Guess that sucks for you, instead you get me!"

She tightened her hold as much as possible, taking any of Eva's defenses like a champ. No matter what the powerlifter tried, Jo just couldn't be shook off. Despite her best efforts, Eva finally started to feel a little woozy and wobbled to her knees. That was enough to decide it. Jo suddenly released the hold so she could instead pull herself up and vault off Eva's shoulders. Landing right next to the golden ball, Jo scooped it up and pounced over to Sky, just narrowly avoiding Eva's attempts to jump after her.

"That seriously didn't need to be so extra," Sky mumbled, shaking her head. "But alright, I guess that's our winners?"

Indeed, the nine advancers stood shoulder to shoulder, some happy, others excited, a few unsurprisingly smug. Courtney, Cody, Izzy, Harold, Staci, Jo, Rodney, Ella, and Josee. An odd assortment of qualifiers to say the least.

"That was so fun," Ella cheered excitedly. "What's next?"

Topher raised an eyebrow at her but decided not to say anything. Clearly she wanted that spot, the lack of singing opportunities on the Aftermath was definitely taking its toll. "Up next? We've got ourselves a team challenge! Much like the teams on the show, we need the nine of you to break off into teams of three. Two teams will move on to the next part, while the losers all get cut from the running!"

Immediately Harold and Cody dapped each other up and solidified their partnership. Rodney was quick to scoot over and chuckle nervously.

"You guys mind if I join you? The training is going great, obviously, but I'll probably focus best on a team of all boys."

"Consider it done," Harold confirmed. "With your strength and our brains, we'll be unstoppable!"

"Tch, screw that, brawn is the most important part." Jo stomped over to Josee and poked her in the shoulder. "Twinkle Toes, looks like you know what it's like playing to win. We're teaming up!"

"Ooooh, I love hearing the attitude of a winner! Of course you'll wind up losing to me when it comes to the final battle, but for now you have me as a teammate."

Jo nodded in satisfaction, then turning to point at Izzy. "Wackjob! You went toe to toe with a big name like that and came out without breaking a sweat. You're on the team!"

"Aww, really? I wanted to team up with my buddy Staci. But how can Izzy say no to a request like that!"

Courtney looked from Ella to Staci, then over at the other teams, and raised her hands in protest. "Hold on, don't I get a say in this?"

"Nope. On to the challenge!" Topher motioned to the monitor where the font for Second-Chance Challenge had turned into a western theme and also displayed an old timey revolver. "It's a shoot out! With paintball guns, obviously. We'll do three battles where someone from each squad stands in a triangle Mexican standoff style, no one can fire until we say so. But once we do, you get one shot! If you land a blow, that's a point for your team. But if you get hit, that's a point lost for your team, maybe two if both opponents aimed for you and gotcha. Team with the worst score at the end is out! Let's see who's battling first."

The screen shuffled through the available options before displaying three faces. Rodney, Jo, and Staci. By now the ball pit had been somehow removed, so the competitors were guided to their positions and given their guns. A western movie style cut in formed, with a zoom in on everyone's eyes shifting around. Even a royalty free knockoff version of some spaghetti western movie music played. Jo's glare was narrowed and focused. Staci's brow was sweating but she shifted her eyes around sketchily. Rodney seemed calm and collected. And then suddenly-

"FIRE!"

All three drew their guns and fired, with Jo diving to her side midshot. But once the dust settled she realized it was unnecessary. Staci had a blue splotch of paint on her shoulder from Rodney's shot. But the farm boy himself? He had both a red and green bit of paint on different parts of his overalls. Looks like both girls had the same idea. Go for the larger target.

"Looks like team Jo is currently the safest, while Team Rodney is in trouble," Topher narrated. "Who's up next?"

Once again the monitor shuffled through scenarios until it landed on its next battle. Cody, Josee, and Ella. They replaced their teammates at their respective spots and got their weapons ready. As the music returned, it ramped up in speed and intensity. Josee's gaze was relaxed and cocky. Cody had one eye closed and his tongue out somehow to help with his aim. Ella's eyes were wide open, hungry for that precious spot on the show to finally be able and sing again.

"FIRE!"

Learning from Rodney and Staci's mistakes, this time everyone tried to dodge. Cody dove forward, Josee did a stylish pirouette, and Ella ducked. Also this time was everyone getting fired at, with Cody targeting the winning team, Ella aiming to widen the gap of how bad the boys were losing, and Josee going for what she thought was the easiest target. And that proved to be a sound decision, since Ella and the red bit of paint on her dress was the only one hit this round.

"Athletic girl team continues to be safe, but now Ella's team is tied for sucking with the boys." Topher chuckled at his co-hosts frustration and pointed a thumb at the monitor. It was already displaying the final matchup. "We already know Harold, Izzy, and Courtney are up next by default, so let's get to it!"

Now the music was at its fastest. Harold leered from one girl to the next, feeling an aura of danger in both directions. Izzy was in full head empty mode, either confident that she wouldn't be targeted or having too much fun to care either way. And of course, Courtney had her eyes on the prize while she glared in determination.

"... FIRE!"

While both girls fired, Harold did something a bit different. He moved to the side before taking his crutch and suddenly spinning it with all his might, allowing it to gyrate around like a makeshift fan. As he predicted, Izzy and Courtney both had fired at him, and his crutch deflected the paintballs where one proceeded to fly off and hit Amy in the eye while another hit Scott in the crotch. Before the girls had time to react he then drew his weapon and hit his mark. Courtney was splattered.

"Harold saves it for the guys! Courtney's team is out!"

While Staci was mostly ambivalent, her teammates both let out wails of despair. Cody and Rodney both rushed to hoist Harold up on to the later's shoulders and parade him around victoriously.

"Don't get too cocky, Beta Boys," Jo barked out. "My team did the best! I know who I've got money on being the next ones to get eliminated."

"Let's put that to the test then," Topher called out while a sniffling Ella rejoined him. "Because this next round is another team affair, three on three. We were gonna let you guys repick squads if you wanted, but let's go ahead and lock in this Battle of the Sexes as our way to go!"

"... yes, and it looks like it's going to be a contest of Battle of the Generations trivia," Ella added, a bitter twang of depression in her tone. "We'll ask you a series of questions and the first team to get three right wins..."

"Booya! I excel at trivia games," Harold boasted, high fiving his comrades.

"And the only reason I don't win them is because he usually does," Cody added. "But I totally kick anyone else's butt!"

"I am also here," Rodney added helpfully.

Jo seemed eager to protest something as lame as trivia being used to decide a returnee, but Josee was quicker with her smug laughter. "We'll just see about that. Hosts, let's get these questions over with. And make them maximum difficulty!"

"Max difficulty? Hmm, we can do that." Perhaps still a bit bitter, Ella looked at her notes and picked out the first annoyingly hard to remember question she could find. "Name every single location they visited during the Venice challenge in chronological or-"

"Doge's Palace, Piazza San Marco, Palazzo Grasi, under the Rialto Bridge, Marco Polo's house, Chiesa di San Simeon Piccolo, aaaaand the Constitution Bridge."

Everyone stared in disbelief at Josee, who merely beamed with a smug satisfaction. Ella checked her notes and sighed. "That's... correct."

"What the- you weren't even ON the show," Bridgette protested. "How do you know that off hand?"

"If you intend to make a grand entrance and win the prize, you had best do your research beforehand," the ice dancer answered simply with a shrug.

"Ok, then how about this question?" Ella cleared her throat. "List each elimination from the Los Angeles challenge in order, including who eliminated th-"

"Lightning eliminates Beardo, Leshawna eliminates Amy, Jasmine eliminates Brick, Lightning eliminates Dave, Jasmine eliminates Anne Maria, Anne Maria eliminates Sugar, Jasmine eliminates Trent, Lightning eliminates Samey, Sugar eliminates Dawn."

Harold had actually been just about to start, but Josee was just a bit quicker than him. "GOSH! There's no way you studied the little things like that so quickly, that's something I would do!"

"Next questioooon," Josee taunted in a sing song voice. "I've studied the competition from top to bottom, so I guarantee I'll get it right!"

The competition, eh? But perhaps not the personal things with little to no weight on the game itself? Ella smiled to herself, a plan brewing. "Very well, here's another one. Out of everyone here on stage... who has had 7 confessionals this season?"

Not just Josee, but also the boys, were immediately stumped. Confessionals? Who keeps track of insignificant things like that with pretty much no bearing to the plot? There was no fun trivia to be had memorizing that, nobody could-

"Oh, oh, it was Scott," Izzy suddenly yelled happily. "Yeah, he was totally chatty all season, that's even more than some of the people still left in the game!"

Jo and Josee shared a look and turned to the hosts. Ella dropped her notes in surprise but eventually nodded. "That is... correct."

"Which means the boys have been eliminated from the running," Topher announced. "Tough break, bros."

Both Drama Bros embraced each other and yelled in frustration, Rodney offering reassuring pats to the shoulder with his massive mits. Meanwhile the final three were celebrating, Jo flexing for the camera, Josee going hyper from excitement, and Izzy just generally happy to be here.

"But before we move on to the final challenge that decides our winner, we still have one more to go." Ella motioned to the monitor where it displayed... a vote ballot. "One of the most important parts of Total Drama is the social game! So let's test how well you three have left an impression on each other with the simplest challenge yet. Simply choose one of your remaining opponents to vote off. If someone gets two votes, they're out."

"Scandalous! Both girls are fierce and worthy opponents for Izzy in the final round. But, Jo DID choose me to be teamsies and that was pretty nice of her!" The wild child grinned at her older teammate. "So I guess I vote off Josee."

The ice dancer scoffed in amusement. "Really now? Well too bad for you that I've already formed a winning athletes bond the likes of which you can't hope to match! Obviously I vote off Izzy. Go ahead and put her out of her misery, Jo."

So she was already advancing regardless? Sweet. Our jockette grinned mischievously, first staring down Izzy before then sizing up Josee. One was a wild card, the other a certified Olympic athlete. Izzy had the Total Drama experience, but Josee clearly did her homework. One was unhinged, and the other... was also unhinged. Eventually her humming ceased and she sneered at the loser.

"Yeah, nah, there's only one alpha chick punching her ticket to that plane. Hit the road and find a different show to bug, Bronze Betty."

"Fitting nickname," Topher cheered. "Looks like Josee is out! But hey, 3rd place isn't so bad, right?"

Naturally, the ice dancer had gone dead eyed over the blindside, slowly sinking to her knees as she stared off into the cold dark abyss. Those vile, filthy, acursed words echoed in her mind like nails on a chalkboard. "3rd place... 3rd place? 3RD PLACE? THIIIIIIIRD PLAAAAAAAACE?"

One ear piercing shriek later and a group of buff interns had to be called in to drag Josee away from the premises, leaving only Izzy and Jo standing in the middle of the stage. The girls grinned at each other, one excited for the coming challenge while the other got hyped up on confidence.

"This is it, gals, our final challenge to decide our qualifier." Topher rubbed his hands together and cackled in delight. So much so that he didn't notice Ella's phone going off and her turning away to answer. "And this is gonna be a doozy! The winner will be whoever is the first one to complete an obstacle course referencing all the challenges thus far. Here's the rundown. First, you must go through the freezing cold ice box where a yeti tries to block your path. Then you'll face an onslaught from a high pressure shoe cannon while you try to get a cold coin. Next, you'll enter a go-kart and-"

"Topher?"

"Eat through 20 pies at the country fair, followed by-"

"Topher!"

"You'll make me a microwavable pizza, topped with-"

"TOPHER!"

The meaner host snapped his head towards Ella, clearly annoyed. "Do you mind? It's a long rundown, I don't want to have to repeat it."

"It's the producers," she said apologetically, handing him the phone. Quickly his bravado left and he snatched the device. "Guys, what's up! We're uh, kinda in the middle of the Aftermath here, ya know?"

Everyone had to sit there and wait while Topher got through his phone convo, only hearing him occasionally mumble "Uh huh" or "Yeah" with no idea what the other side was saying. Izzy and Jo raised an eyebrow, Eva tapped her foot impatiently, B checked his watch, even Staci gave Dakota a look who could only shrug in response. Eventually the call seemed to reach something important as he yelled out.

"So what am I supposed to do about the returnee?" His face scrunched up in confusion before eyes shot open. "What, really? You guys are sure about this? Oh, Chris might get annoyed? Say less, I'm on it."

That done, he tossed his co-host the phone and regained his pearly white grin. "So I've got good news and bad news! The bad news is the producers tell me we don't have enough time to do the final challenge. You ask me, I think they just cheeped out and decided not to spend the money on what I told em, but hey, they make the calls not me."

"And the good news?" Izzy asked curiously.

"Get this. Since we don't have enough time to decide a winner." He paused for dramatic effect, perhaps even for a moment or so longer than necessary. "They told me to just declare BOTH of you the winner! Which means Izzy AND Jo are heading to the Jumbo Jet!"

"What?" Scott yelled, nearly drowned out by the audience erupting into cheers. "Is that even possible? Jo wasn't even IN this season at the start!"

"Neither was Blaineley," Bridgette pointed out. "Didn't stop them from letting her on."

But enough about the peanut gallery, what about the winners? Izzy of course clapped in excitement, grin spreading even wider as she fed off the raucous cheers from the crowd. Jo was initially shocked, but that cocky swagger soon returned as she pumped a fist, then pointed and laughed at everyone else. "Like there was ever any doubt! In your face, chumps!"

"Izzy's return record grows even bigger," the psycho hose beast bellowed. "This'll be so much fun!"

And that's all they get. Suddenly the buff interns from earlier emerged to usher them away, Staci in particular sighing in relief once she realized bungee jumping was off the menu for tomorrow now.

"Which means they have a flight to catch. The producers will let Chris know they can leave LA, and when they get to their next location Izzy and Jo will be waiting for them!" Ella's sad funk from losing finally gone, she could focus on the hype of this major development. "And unfortunately I guess that means our time is up."

"It's been one heck of an Aftermath," Topher confirmed. "And it's just gonna keep being crazy! So be sure to tune in with us next time for more TOTAL..."

"DRAMA," Ella added.

"AFTERMATH," they finished together, most of the peanut gallery waving as the camera faded to black.

Chapter Text

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

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

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

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

*** Opening Credits ***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*** Confessional: Sugar ***

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

*** Literally just outside the confessional ***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*** Confessional: Dawn ***

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

*** The Next Day ***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Huh?"

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

"Oh."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I got bored of waiting." Izzy shrugged.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*** Confessional: Trent ***

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

*** Confessional: Jo ***

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

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

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

*** Confessional: Izzy ***

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

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

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

"Yo, Trent! You got a minute?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*** Confessional: Anne Maria ***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*DING DING DING*

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

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

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

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

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

Song Start!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"They're writing WHAT?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Oh yeah, for sure."

*** Confessional: Leshawna ***

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

*** In the Arena ***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*** Confessional: Trent ***

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

*** In the Arena ***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Tied?" both yelled out in offense.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"It's Big Protein Pu-"

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

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

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

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

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

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

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

*** Confessional: Jo ***

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

*** In the Arena ***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Samantha has been eliminated."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Cleaner has been eliminated."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Boss has been eliminated."

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

"No one cares," Chris cut off.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"King of the Jungle has been eliminated."

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

Nearby an intern coughed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Oni has been eliminated."

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

"The Vagabond has been eliminated."

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

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

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

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

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

"Neat! These suits are real handy."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"DJsaurus Rex and Shawnie Showtime have been eliminated."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jo snickered, unimpressed. "You should be."

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

"Corporal Carnage has been eliminated."

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

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

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

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

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

"Riptide has been eliminated."

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

"Just sha-beat it already!"

"How about you make me!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*** Confessional: Sugar ***

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

*** On the Jet ***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I am NOT CRAZY!"

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

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

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

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

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

"You should have just kept your head down."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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... Dave!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Voting Confessionals:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Votes for Dave: 2 (Dawn, Sugar)

Votes for Jo: 2 (Brick, Lightning)

Votes for Lightning: 1 (Jo)

After the Boot of Shame:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remaining Contestants:

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

Elimination Order:

14th: Sugar

Merge, Izzy returns, Jo debuts

15th: Amy

16th: Cody

17th: Beth

18th/19th: Courtney and Scott

20th: B

21st: Shawn

22nd: Dakota

23rd: Rodney

24th: Harold

Eliminated: Izzy

25th: Staci

Chapter Text

"Previously on Total Drama..." Unlike last time, the narration was back to its usual state with Chris and Chef in their aviation outfits. "We had probably our most action packed episode in more ways than one! First up, Izzy was back! And somehow classic competitor Jo managed to tag along, giving us two returnees in one fell swoop. Next, I disbanded the teams and blindsided everyone by announcing the start of the merge!" Shots went through some of the various alliances from Jasmine/Sammy/Dave, to DJ/Leshawna, and then Brick/Lightning. Followed by the new partnerships formed last episode. "Cue everyone scrambling to find them some new allies."

"After that we landed in Mexico City for a hard hitting no holds barred pro wrestling battle royal! The contestants gave it their all, some more successfully than others." Cue clip of Dave's 1 second elimination. "But in the end it was Izzy who snuck in a win while Sugar's back was turned. Speaking of, Beardo and Trent were set to lead a crusade that would make sure our country bumpkin would be voted out. But Sugar had an ace in the hole. Using Izzy as proof that Dave had been up to no good!"

More footage showed Sugar's desperate pleas, all of which fell on deaf ears. "Unfortunately for her, Izzy pulled a shocker and came to Dave's defense with some lies of her own. And everyone believed it! So it was see ya never Sugar, our first victim of the merge. What's up with Izzy, and why did she want Dave in first class with her? Will we see any more unlikely pairs form? And who will be the next chump getting a mouthful of boot? Get ready to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Opening Credits ***

Economy class was more packed than usual, most still choosing to sit near their former teammates even if things had been disbanded. Sandwiched between Dawn and Anne Maria, Jo stirred from her nap and popped her spine back into place with a sickening crunch.

"Geez, you guys weren't joking about that sleep. Just a few days and I can already see the chiropractor bill."

Brick scoffed from nearby. "If you're not cut out for it we'll be more than happy to send you back home. Not everyone's able to handle roughing it here like the rest of us!"

She rolled her eyes and started aggressively doing sit-ups. "Psh, nothing a good workout can't fix. Watch and learn, ladies."

Not one to be outdone, Lightning plopped down nearby and starting doing reps of his own. "You call those sit-ups? Lightning'll show you what REAL sit-ups look like!"

As the two picked up speed, suddenly a tall slab of Australian grit got down between them, somehow matching their insane pace. "Hope you don't mind me getting in on this. Last one to 100 has to do an extra set!"

Both jocks exchanged a look of surprise before steeling their resolve and going double-time.

*** Confessional: Jo ***

"Outback Jack's alright, I like the cut of her gib. Strong, doesn't take crap from anyone, knows how to take care of business. If she weren't already attached to the hip with that froo froo pretty girl cheerleader she probably would have been the one I approached for an alliance." She snickered to herself. "What do you think hurts her back more? The crappy economy seats or having to carry Lamey through the competition?"

*** Confessional: Jasmine ***

"Things couldn't be better! With Amy and Sugar gone there shouldn't be anyone left right now that's chompin at the bit to kick me out. Not to mention the load off it is knowing the harpies that screwed over Shawn are gone. Now it's down to business." Holding up three fingers, she pointed to one for each name. "Me, Sammy, and Dave are a pretty solid group on its own, and big alliances are too messy for my liking so I'll probably keep it that way for now."

A thought crossed her mind and she snort laughed. "I know, it's weird right? Sammy is obvious, but here I was ready to strangle Dave not too long ago for voting off Shawn. What can I say, he brings some brains to the table and it's not like I can blame him for getting manipulated. I reckon he must feel awful about everything that happened."

*** In first class ***

"I can't believe those idiots actually bought it," Dave mused to himself, half a bag deep into some chips and salsa. "Hate to say it, but Sugar was right. What a bunch of suckers."

"Personally I'm more of a jawbreakers kinda gal." Izzy suddenly slid down the seat next to him, startling and nearly causing Dave to choke on a chip. "But suckers are alright. Made the trips to the dentist worth it at least! Well, that and the laughing gas."

The germaphobe scooted a seat down, giving her an uneasy grin. "Oh hey Izzy! Yup, don't mind me, just talking about my favorite kinds of candy back here, hehe. Nothing else. Thanks for bringing me back here by the way, I want you to know I really appreciate it."

She grinned back playfully. "Of course I was going to pick you, silly. How else would I get you alone for some super secret one on one time without the others knowing?"

And we were right back to the mood being uneasy. "You... wanted to get me all alone for a reason?"

Since it looked like he wasn't going to finish them, Izzy swiped the rest of his chips. "Sorry, but it's not for the lovey dovey kinda reasons. Don't take this personally, but I like my men a bit more, shall we say, wild and dirty. I guess you kinda got the wild part down, but the dirty? Not so much."

All things considered normally a girl suddenly rejecting him regardless of his feelings towards her might have triggered something in the guy. But instead he felt... a bit of relief? Yeah, something like that.

"Ok, well what is it that you DID want to talk about?"

"It's not as fun if you don't guess!" She closed the distance by scooting another seat closer. "Come on, think about it. Don't you think I did something weird after coming back?"

"Uh, doesn't weird describe everything you do?" He'd been hoping to play off the moment before the last vote as just her being strange and not calling more attention to it. Guess he wasn't going to be so lucky. "Alright fine, you mean the fact that you defended me against Sugar's accusations, right?"

"Mhmmmmm," Izzy confirmed, grin getting a tiny bit wider. "Now why would that be weird?"

Dave chuckled nervously, not about to expose anything quite yet before knowing what cards were on the table. "Before I answer, I need some clarification. Did you REALLY get to watch all of the show while you were out of the game?"

"Sure did! I really loved the Samoa episode, that fire dance looked so fun." Was he not convinced? Maybe he needed more concrete proof. "If you don't believe me I can mention stuff you said in the confessional. Let's see, what was it you said people were calling you post-season. Dave the Dateless, Dave the Incel, friendzone D-"

"Alright alright, you made your point." He huffed in annoyance. "So if you watched everything... you know how things really went with Cody, Shawn, all of that?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Not gonna lie, your plan to get Cody out was pretty slick! I think that's when you really came into your own, commercially and artistically."

"Commer- nope, doesn't matter." He peeked over his seat to confirm no one happened to be lingering around anywhere, then ducked back into the convo. "Then that means you know Sugar was actually telling the truth about everything. Not that I'm complaining, but why did you stick up for me and lie about it in front of everyone?"

Now thoroughly done with her chips, Izzy patted at her lips with a napkin and shook her head. "Ah David, poor naïve David. Tell me, what do you think of this whole Total Drama game?"

What kind of question is that? Was she just avoiding having to answer by changing the subject? His brow furrowed in confusion. "Uh, well it's stressful as heck, the food sucks if you're not in first class, the plane is a deathtrap so I'm always a little anxious, the people are frustrating, Chris is demented, we're constantly in danger. Overall it's a pretty crappy time, if it weren't for the money none of us would be here."

"I disagree," she shot back defiantly. "I think the game is super fun! It's where I've met some of my bestest friends, my hunky chubby on again off again boyfriend, even Chef! He's a blast to mess with, you know. Plus it never gets boring here thanks to all the neat challenges and crazy blindsides!"

Yup, she really lived up to the insane reputation. "Ok. And that's relevant how exactly?"

"Because even though I love being here I hardly get to play. I was out pretty early in Action, World Tour, even this time." She held up a finger in front of his face. "Except in one season, the first! Izzy got to stick around a while that time. Wanna know what was different?"

Dave blinked in confusion. "You were slightly less unhinged back then?"

"That season Izzy was willing to work with Heather," she continued. "I helped her with a bunch of votes, even basically became her main ally by default once Lindsay was gone. Probably would have made it even farther if I hadn't tranquilized her and left her immobile for a few days."

Catching a worrying glint of joy in her eye, Dave checked to see if he had any more seats he could use to scoot away from her. No luck. "What's your point?"

"My point, dear David, is that she was the mastermind of the season. The big bad villain! Sure, she did some unsavory things here and there, but they never involved me and they kept things interesting, so who was I to brush her off?" She leaned in closer, giving him a good look at her unsettling grin. "Izzy's been doing a lot of thinking after getting voted off and came to a decision! If I came back, I was going to help the season's villain again."

After a few blinks the germaphobe finally picked up what she was putting down, his worry turning to offense. "Me?! You think I'M the villain this season? What about Amy?"

"Too small potatoes to go the distance as the big bad. More Justin and less Courtney." She shook her head in disapproval. "She was a villain alright, just not a main one."

"Oh yeah? What's the difference?"

Izzy posed dramatically, arms stretched out wide. "Presentation! And well, you know, being able to scheme, knowing how to weasel into safety, so on and so forth. In the end, she was just kind of a jerk and mostly focused on her sister. But you? You've actually got things done and taken out targets on every team." She nudged him with her elbow. "Not to mention dealing with Amy herself. Which means..."

"... I'm the main villain?" Dave's tone was still annoyed and standoffish. At first. But then he started really thinking about it. All that hate and venom sent his way following Pahkitew Island. Reading fan sites and seeing his face at the bottom of all those stupid fan rankings and tier lists. Long ass video essays from nerds with grating voices on why he was just the worst. But who did he always see talked up favorably in those things? The villains. Heather, Alejandro, Scott, Courtney, Duncan, heck even Mal. They all had legions of fans. Plenty of people that wanted more of them. Contestants who had done far worse things than him and yet were beloved for the entertainment they added. At the very least, fans actually respected them. And now he was being talked about in that kind of company? "I'm the main villain... huh. I like the sound of that."

Yeah. Yeah! This was the solution! Getting the respect he deserved, making sure fans stopped treating him like garbage, the key was to run this game like all the villainous greats before him. He had to own it! Wow, who would have though Izzy of all people would lift his spirits... oh yeah. Izzy was still here. "Alright, so that's why you made sure Sugar left? You want to work with me?"

"Got it in one, my guy." She flashed him a finger pistol. "You can consider that one a freebie. Going forward I'm willing to vote together and all that jazz and it doesn't have to be some kinda big super binding alliance." A worrying giggle sent a chill down his spine. "Buuuuuut if you DID want a full on alliance Izzy can do that too! I gotta warn ya tho, I take agreements like that veeeery seriously. We'd be ride or die to the end, you and me, so if you try to pull a fast one on me I might just have to let the truth slip to the others."

Of course there had to be a catch. Ugh. Dave couldn't exactly be discreet in his contemplating what with Izzy staring deep into his soul, he even had half a mind to suggest putting a pin in this and making a decision later. But as far as he could tell she seemed genuine about being his ride or die, and he couldn't really afford to drag his feet at this point in the game...

"Alright, I can live with that." He offered a handshake to make it official. "I've been cooking up some plans and this should fit into it nicely."

Izzy enthusiastically accepted the gesture, nearly giving the poor guy whiplash with her violent shaking. "Oooooh sounds fun!"

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"There's a lot of sayings about what you should and shouldn't do when it comes to crazy chicks, but this fits way too well into the strategy I've been mulling over to not go for it. She's already had my back once, maybe Izzy will wind up being more helpful than expected."

He gave the camera a devilish smirk. "Yeah, of course I'm making plans. I'd be stupid not to, right? At this stage you can't afford to get lazy, especially with that million bucks on the line. I'm sure everyone left has their mind on the booty."

*** In Economy Class ***

Cue a hard cut to the others in economy, the camera focusing on Beardo indeed with his mind on the booty. Just not the same kind as Dave. Across the room Anne Maria was deep into girl talk with Leshawna, getting the deets on her beauty techniques, comparing fashion preferences and the like. The kinda stuff that he'd have literally no input on. Bro was in such a daze that he was absentmindedly whispering the kind of bird chirping sound effects you'd hear when a cartoon character is knocked out. But as he watched the Jersey girl, Trent's face suddenly blocked his vision and snapped a finger to get his attention.

"Beardo? You still with us?"

He yelped and straightened up, very poorly trying to play it off nonchalantly. "Hm? Yeah, course bro. Musta just dozed off is all. My bad."

Trent cast a glance back at the girls, then at the beatboxer. "Dozed off. Right." He shook his head and returned to the seat next to him. His voice lowered to a whisper. "For the record, girls typically don't like it when you stare at them like that."

Beardo's eyes went wide, the best he could offer being an embarrassed chuckle.

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

"I've been trying to keep it on the down low, but I guess Trent's got me clocked. Yeah, I've been crushing on Anne Maria for a bit now. Can ya blame me? She's cool as heck!" He did a little wolf whistle for emphasis. "We're not even just talking looks here, it's her personality that won me over if anything. She's confident, proud, doesn't let anybody tell her what to do."

Slowly his enthusiastic smile began to falter. "Er, basically all the things that I'm not. And there's one small issue. I got no game. I'm the man who could not cook. Working my way up to talking with people is hard enough as it is, trying to ask a girl out is a whole other beast." But then his mood picked up again. "It might not be a lost cause tho! Now that Trent doesn't hate me anymore, maybe he can help me out. Who better to be my Professor in Rizzology than one of the most thirsted after dudes in the music industry?"

*** Back in Economy Class ***

No time like the present to get the ball rolling. Brick had long since joined the workout group in their contest that had now moved to squats, while Sammy was enjoying a pleasant convo with DJ and Dawn. They'd be able to talk discreetly without anyone noticing.

"Keep it real with me, man. Do you think I got a shot, or am I out of my element?"

Trent quirked an eyebrow. "I mean, sure, we all have a shot. As far as I know there's nobody gunning for you so you're not likely to be eliminated anytime soon. That's as good a shot at winning the game as any."

Now it was Beardo's turn to furrow his brow. "Uh, I'm talking about a shot at asking out Anne Maria..."

"I know, just messing with you." Get prank'd, nerd. "I'll give what advice I can, but it's going to be an uphill battle for sure. She strikes me as having pretty specific tastes and I'm not sure if you're cocky or in love with yourself enough to fit the bill. Not impossible but no guarantees, basically."

So he's saying there's a chance! "Shoot, I'll take those odds! Thanks, man."

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"Guess I should be glad season 2 didn't kill my dating advice reputation. Maybe I should look into being a relationship counselor if some sorta freak accident causes me to not be able to play guitar again."

Oof, what an awful though. Let's move on. "Most people would probably look at a club frequenting narcissist like Anne Maria and a sound effect spitting introvert like Beardo and assume there's not a snowball's chance in hell they can become a couple. Heck, I would have said that back before I started the show. But this IS Total Drama." He started counting off examples on his fingers. "Scruffy smelly conspiracy theorist lands a relationship with gorgeous outback giantess. Schlubby couch potato successfully woos literal millionaire heiress. Beth getting into a whirlwind romance with a crazy hot super model who wasn't even on the show."

"And respectfully." He grinned apologetically at the camera. "Harold and Cody manage to make it work with the likes of Leshawna and Sammy. Will Beardo trying to woo her be tough? Oh absolutely. But honestly? Stranger things have happened."

*** Sometime Later ***

As time had passed on the plane, two contestants found their way to the cargo hold in a bid for some privacy. Though truth be told it was also for a change of scenery, one downside of being stuck in the jumbo jet instead of an island was a lack of places for them to stretch their legs and take in some nature.

"So you guys searched the place every single time?" DJ asked, haphazardly sorting through junk in one of the crates. "His zombie thing was for real?"

"If his aura was anything to go off of, something in his childhood must have traumatized him into believing they existed. A particularly bad experience during a movie he had no business watching while so young perhaps?" It wasn't her place to pry, so she never got around to asking before he'd been eliminated. "But yes, every time we reentered the plane. It was actually rather pleasant having a sort of rapport with those from Team Explosive, it forced Scott to socialize and seemed to do wonders bringing Cody and Sammy closer together. Honestly I kind of miss the searches."

The brickhouse chuckled to himself. "Maybe we could start them back up? I get Leshawna, you grab Brick, we could try making sure there's no Ezekiel or something lurking around here?"

"Hmm. Perhaps. Though I must admit I also brought you here to pick your mind on something without the others eavesdropping." She sighed and popped a squat on one of the boxes, her crush raising an eyebrow. "What did you think of that whole ordeal with Sugar and Dave?"

DJ cringed a bit. Honestly he was kinda hoping the last of that whole nastiness had passed with her and Amy's eliminations. "She really tried her best throwing the poor guy under the bus, huh? I don't know why she thought it'd work. Her and Amy didn't exactly do a good job of hiding how nasty they were."

So he full believed Dave's side of the story? Hmm, interesting. She stared off in contemplation.

"It's true that Amy and Sugar were deeply troubled individuals. However, I must admit... I'm having a hard time writing off everything that she said regarding Dave. Surely her intentions were indeed mostly vindictive to drag him down with her, but yet she spoke with enough conviction that I have a hard time believing she made it all up."

Just more reason for DJ to be confused. "But Izzy straight up told us Sugar had been lying. And I wouldn't put it past her to try and bribe a returnee with no stake in the drama to back her up."

"Nor would I. But that doesn't necessarily mean that she DID do that." Not to mention how Izzy wasn't exactly the most trustworthy source out there, but that was a whole other can of worms. It was clear he felt pretty positive in his viewpoint so she wouldn't press matters too much. "I suppose I just wanted to let you know I have doubts. We should keep an eye out for him, see if anything suspicious arises. Perhaps Sugar being petty and trying to tarnish his name, and Dave not giving us the full story isn't mutually exclusive."

DJ nodded in understanding. "A'ight, got it. And hey, maybe if things keep sitting wrong you could always just try and talk to Dave himself? See if you can get a better read on him face to face and all that."

Not a half bad idea. If Dave was telling the truth, she could confirm as much in person and let the nagging feeling in her gut ease off. And if it was Sugar who was truthful, perhaps she'd be able to pick up on Dave's lying and start planning how to deal with him accordingly. Dawn was about to give her crush a thanks when suddenly the intercom flickered to life with Chris' voice.

"Attention passengers, please make your way to the dinning hall for a rundown on your next challenge. And make sure you're ready for a good time, because this one's gonna be a party!"

Somehow it was hard to believe anything Chris considered a good time would be anything to look forward to. DJ and Dawn exchanged an uneasy looks before a transition showed everyone gathered around. The dining hall had been decked out in various generic party decorations, from streamers, to balloons, and even a cheap looking disco ball.

"Nuh uh, I don't trust like that," Leshawna mused, eyeing a bowl of punch with skepticism. "I bet 5 bucks this party is gonna wind up being us getting thrown in prison. Alcatraz or something."

"I'll take that action." Jo grinned confidently. "Lemme get 10 bucks on the party being in the middle of nowhere where it's gonna suck for everyone. Let's go with... stranded in the middle of the Australian outback!"

Seeing her friend take immediate offense to their home turf being trash talked, Sammy quickly stepped in front of Jasmine. "Not that it wouldn't be fun to see Australia! Still though, what if the whole party thing just turns out to be legit? Chris already knows we don't trust him, so maybe the big twist is that he was actually telling the truth for once? If that's the case maybe the location will be somewhere fun, Las Vegas or something."

Anne Maria rolled her eyes from nearby over all this speculation. Who cared about the venue? These bozos were missing the point!

"Don't matter where it is or when it is. If it's a party we're doing, I already know that you guys ain't holding a candle to me. The clubs down in Jersey are basically my home away from home, this one's in the bag."

Beardo felt an elbow jabbing into his side courtesy of Trent. With his ally's attention, the musician flashed him a subtle number 3 sign and finally it hit him. "Tip 3, try to to find common interests," he whispered to himself. "Alright... here we go."

Suddenly the beatboxer stepped forward, trying his best to keep cool despite the sweat dripping from his forehead. "T-that's what you think! If a-anyone knows their way around a club here, it's gotta be me. Heck, I don't just show up to the party, I make the party!"

Oh, someone was challenging her clubbing cred? Interesting, very interesting. "That right? How do you figure that, big guy?"

"I-I'm actually a professional Deejay." He spared a glance at Mr. Devon Joseph and smiled bashfully. "Uh, no relation. You know, a d-disk jockey. Venues call me up to get behind the turntable and get the club booming."

He had her curiosity, but now Beardo had her attention. She rudely scooched Brick out of the way. "Oh, word? Didn't take you for much of a clubbing guy."

"Heh, yeah, I really know how to get a party going with my beats." He noticed Trent giving him a discreet thumbs up from the corner of his eye. "Well, except this one time I let a vinyl of my sound effects demo get mixed in with the club music. One minute everyone's pumping their fists to the latest chart topper, the next minute they're listening to-"

Instantly he broke out into a flurry of sounds. First it was animal noises like frog croaks, an elephant trumpet, a hyena cackle. Then it turned to power tools such as a buzzsaw, multiple drills, even a jackhammer. Next up a reverberated fart, followed by a firecracker. Anne Maria's interest had already long since dissipated by the time he made it to the thunderstorm ASMR.

"Yeah, I think we get the picture," she loudly interrupted, walking off to go stand with Leshawna instead. Unaware of his fumble, Beardo beamed towards Trent and flashed a thumbs up of his own. The guitarist just face palmed once he looked away.

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"Alright... maybe I got my work cut out for me on this one."

*** Back in the Jet ***

"Not that this isn't all fascinating, but we still don't have a bloody clue what we're doing," Jasmine pointed out. "Where's Chris?"

On cue, the lights dimmed and the disco ball sprung to life. Strobes flashed while a generic rave beat boomed through the speakers. Finally the host made himself known, though rather than rocking glow sticks or funky glasses, he instead strolled in with a Middle Eastern style attire. Some simple black trousers and a white tunic, as well as a skullcap and dogushi hat.

"Ask and you shall receive! Who's ready for the most wicked party in Total Drama history?"

He wouldn't get much in the way of answers since his attire had just further served to confuse everyone.

"Er, where exactly is this party happening?" Brick asked.

"Technically speaking, in Marvdasht. A nice little city tucked right smack dab in the middle of Iran."

Izzy enthusiastically applauded, but just more bewilderment from everyone else.

"Man, when you said party we were thinking something like Paris or New York," Lightning pointed out.

Chris waved a hand dismissively. Darn kids had no creativity!

"Been there, done that. We're thinking outside the box today. This ain't gonna be no run of the mill modern shindig, this time we're partying like it's 1999... BC! Because we'll be holding our little celebration right here, in the ruins of the ancient city Persepolis."

A nearby monitor flickered to life to show pictures of the ruined city. Remains of columns and architecture toppled centuries ago. Outlines of where massive buildings used to stand with the occasional bit of greenery. Dawn almost felt compelled to point out how Persepolis likely wasn't built until long after 1999 BC, but she figured it'd be little use to derail Chris' monologue. As if he cared about keeping historical accuracy.

"Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the First Persian Empire. That means if a big festival, reception, birthday party, New Year's celebration or whatever else was going down that the kings wanted to celebrate, this was the place to be! The big wigs back in the day probably partied the night away for years down here. At least they did until Alexander the Great and his posse showed up to burn the place to the ground. Every party needs a pooper."

With the presentation done, Chris leaned in to elbow DJ.

"Supposedly the fire was suggested by one of his mistresses and Big Al just went along with it. Simps will do anything to impress a girl, am I right?"

An awkward silence filled the room. They all stared at him, judging, unamused, appalled.

"Boy you are WAY too old to be using lingo like that," Leshawna chastised.

Chris gasped in resentment. "Well I'll have you know that Chef thinks I look great for my age. Downright youthful, even!" Speaking of which, where WAS Chef anyway? Best to move on before anyone asked. "Anyway, that's the backstory. Once we get to Persepolis itself we'll explain what this party is gonna entail and how you win immunity. Until then look sharp and enjoy the punch."

Brick would be the one to brave the mysterious bowl and take a swig from a solo cup. Instant regret kicked in as the foul liquid sent his gag reflex on red alert and he ran off to go throw up.

"Huh, we probably should have refrigerated it. You'd think only being left out to stew for a few weeks wouldn't have messed with the flavor." Oh well, not his problem! Chris waltzed off, whistling a merry tune while the others had to listen to Brick's retching.

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"Oddly enough, I think I might be more prepared than anyone else here! We all know whatever this party is about is gonna suck. But my entire life has consisted of crappy parties thanks to Amy constantly crashing them any way she can. For my 7th birthday she replaced the cake's candles with firecrackers to try and cover me in icing. Long story short, she didn't realize how powerful those fireworks were." She looked down with a sigh. "That really was a nice dining room table. WAS."

No use dwelling on the past though. A smile emerged despite everything. "Compared to what I've seen this challenge is gonna be a breeze!"

*** In the ruins of Persepolis ***

Soon enough the crew found themselves in what remained of the ancient city. For the most part it appeared identical to how the monitor on the jet showed it. Lot of ruins, mostly destroyed architecture, the works. With one concerning addition. Nestled between two of the columns was a massive rundown turntable and speakers on either side. A sick EDM beat was already booming, but no one was actually manning the station yet. Beardo was naturally drawn to the familiar sight, but Chris quickly shooed him away before they could touch anything.

"I've got no idea how long this challenge is gonna last, so I'll be catching up on some much deserved relaxation time while you guys have your fun. While I'm gone, you're at the mercy of today's host."

"Wait-" DJ's eyes shot open in a panic as realization began to hit him. "You mean you AREN'T hosting this one?"

"Nope! But don't worry, I'm leaving you in capable hands." He motioned towards the turntable where a smoke machine was dramatically building tension for a hulking silhouette approaching from out of nowhere. "Today's host and master of ceremonies is none other than our own... Grandmaster Chef!"

Emerging from the fog like some kind of eldritch monster, Chef snarled at the crowd to a chorus of gasps. Mostly from fear and dread, though Izzy's was noticeably more excited. In stark contrast to the near PTSD flashbacks that DJ, Trent, and Leshawna seemed to be going through. Though he was still in his usual getup, he'd added some sunglasses, gold bling, and headphones to his attire. Plus he was covered in some of those glowstick necklaces.

Naturally Chris was living for the panic. "Figured he was long overdue to host another challenge. You guys have fun!"

With him gone, Chef marched down the line of contestants, sizing each up and trying his darndest to put the fear in em with his icy stare. Brick straightened up and visualized being back in his boot camp lineup. Lightning envisioned his coach giving a rundown before the big game. Both Jasmine and Jo seemed unimpressed, exchanging eyerolls at how the others were acting. So of course they'd be who he stopped between to bark out his orders.

"That's right, I'M running the show today! Which means y'all have the honor of attending my rave. Count yourselves lucky." Looking around it was pretty clear that no one was feeling too lucky right now. "Rules are simple. I start playing a song, y'all fall in line and dance! Each track I'm gonna be giving y'all something new to make it hard staying on the dance floor. If you're not able to keep up with the beat or get knocked out of bounds, you're out of the challenge! Party keeps going until there's one person left standing. That's how you win immunity."

"So it's gonna basically be his boot camp challenge with a new coat of paint?" Leshawna whispered to DJ. He'd have no time to respond, Chef jumpscared the pair by popping up between them.

"And try not to piss me off! I'm the disc jockey AND the bouncer of this club, so if anyone gets out of line, I can toss em out of the challenge in an instant. Don't test my patience." He snapped his head towards Brick. "Are we understood?"

"Sir yes sir," the cadet yelled back, complete with salute.

Chef would linger on his stare just to make sure Brick really felt that dread sinking in. "We'll start out nice and easy with the mosh pit. Everyone get to the dance floor, ASAP!"

*** Confessional: DJ ***

"Ever since the whole secret alliance incident, I'm always at least a little on edge around Chef. Last thing I wanted was having to go through another one of his challenges." A shiver ran down his spine, memories of TDA flooding back. "Then again, it's been ages since they've let him actually do much for the show. Maybe he's mellowed out since then?"

*** Persepolis Dance Floor ***

"For this round you'll be sharing the dance floor with a blindfolded black bear." Chef stepped aside as a massive ursine came charging at the cast, stopping mere inches away from a screaming Dave. It started furiously headbanging to the sound of everyone's yelling, showing off the dyed spikey red mohawk in her fur. "You wanna talk about a party animal, Vinnie here loves mosh pits like no one else! She's gonna be thrashing around like crazy, so if you wanna stay in the running for immunity you'd best stay out of her way."

Conveniently, an unlucky lanky intern guy demonstrated just that when as soon as they finished administering the blindfold, the bear's massive arm windmilled into him and he went flying a few yards backwards.

"Y'all really dyed a bear's fur just for a challenge?" DJ observed. "That don't seem ethical."

"Actually, I believe Vinnie dyed the hair herself... somehow." Dawn yelped as the bear switched to furious air punches that came inches away from knocking her out. "If her aura is anything to go off of, she's deceptively happy when it comes to all things metal."

"Which is why the first track is gonna be the hardest metal I got! Now get your gosh darn behinds ready so we can get this show on the road!"

Per Chef's orders, everyone spread throughout the safe zone. The dance floor was about half the length of a football field, marked with a white chalk outline. Most put as much space between them and Vinnie the bear as possible, though Izzy, Jasmine, and Jo seemed excited to be moshing near the ursine. Soon enough a record scratch signaled the beginning of the song. A face melting death metal track that threatened to rupture everyone's eardrums. With the guitar solo shredding like there was no tomorrow, Vinnie started hopping around and headbanging. While the girls near her were bouncing off each other and the bear herself, the others all began their own dances. Some were into it, Lightning whipping out a radical air guitar or Trent whipping his hair around. But most were just awkwardly copying what the others were doing, trying their best not to be deterred by the deafening music.

"People actually listen to this for fun?" Sammy was headbanging and throwing up the devil horns, keeping an uneasy side eye towards the bear.

Somehow even more ungainly was Dave, doing a poor man's imitation of Lightning's air guitar and bouncing his way towards his fellow Pahkitew alumni. "Well at least one of us is enjoying themselves."

Over at the mosh's center, Jasmine was gleefully bobbing and weaving around the bear's erratic arm flailing and kicking. Occasionally they'd bump against each other, then she'd bump against Izzy or Jo. The jockette was more amused than anything watching her work.

"You dance with bears often, Crocodile Dundee? Way you're moving it feels like this ain't your first rodeo."

Jasmine snort laughed, jumping away to avoid a windmill claw strike. "Nah, but I've wrestled a few of em from time to time. You do that enough and something like this is a piece of piss."

Suddenly they both heard a wild cackle, getting a brief glimpse of Izzy punching the air while standing on top of Vinnie. The bear's hopping was getting more erratic and started charging at some of the others.

"Got nothing on that sheila, though."

Back with her allies, Dave and Sammy now found themselves too close for comfort with the bear. Anytime they tried moshing their way somewhere else, Vinnie would hop into their path. Even if they tried to stay stealthy, they'd soon find themselves being cut off again. It was only a matter of time before the flailing bear connected with one of those violent movements. Something had to give, and the germaphobe hatched an idea.

"I think we should try reaching Jasmine," he called out, his voice barely audible thanks to the death metal.

"WHAT?"

"I said, we need to try and go over to Jasmine," he repeated, a bit louder. "You know, for protection?"

"... HUH?"

Yeah, nah, this was too much of a headache. Thinking fast, he decided to alter the plan. As close to her ear as possible, he'd yell out, "MAKE A BREAK FOR JASMINE, I'LL DISTRACT IT!"

Before she had time to object he ran off in the direction opposite of Jasmine, awkwardly trying to match the screaming lyrics of the song in a bid to draw away the bear. And it worked! Vinnie charged at his direction, giving Sammy ample time to mosh over to her friend for some much needed cover. Of course this quickly led to a couple hundred pounds of fur barreling at Dave so fast that he went careening out of the dance floor. Painful for sure, but when he saw the shocked expressions of the girls he offered a weak thumbs up.

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"I hate dancing, and I could tell pretty quickly I wasn't winning this one against the likes of Lightning or Izzy if all the rounds were going to be like that. Taking a dive that way gives me an early exit, AND it convinces Jasmine and Sammy that I'm loyal to them so they won't suspect anything. That's what I call a win-win." He smirked confidently for a moment before violently coughing and gripping his side in pain.

*** Back on the dance floor ***

The club couldn't even handle Izzy right now. She continued rocking out on top of the bear, who somehow didn't seem to mind lugging around a whole person while they were busy moshing. Same couldn't be said for Chef.

"You got 5 seconds to hop off that bear before I disqualify you!"

"Aww, I thought you were a disc jockey, not the fun police." Still, she did as he asked, vaulting off Vinnie and hopping away mid-air guitar.

Elsewhere Beardo and Trent were sticking close, bouncing off each other and letting their hair whip wildly to the music. Anne Maria also happened to be passing by, unenthusiastically hopping and punching in tune with the music. Naturally once he noticed her nearby, the beatboxer would have to offer his input.

"Sweet tunes, huh?" he yelled. "Really makes you wanna let loose."

"Not really?" she called back. "This garbage ain't the kinda crap I'd be caught dead listening too at least."

Seeing as how the song was in the middle of a particularly slick guitar riff, Trent recoiled in disgust. "Garbage?" He shot his ally a judging leer.

"Oh! Uh, yeah, it ain't really my vibe either." He chuckled awkwardly. "Maybe the second song will be some R&B or-"

Suddenly he felt himself get tugged backwards by Trent, just narrowly avoiding a charging Vinnie roaring past the group. His ally's expression turned annoyed.

"I... should probably focus on the challenge, huh?"

Anne Maria rolled her eyes and hopped away. "Ya think?"

While this was going down, Leshawna had ignored the fact that everyone else was doing mosh/rock style dancing and had instead been doing her iconic usual grooving despite any sort of weird looks from the likes of Brick and Jasmine. Seeing as the whole intense violence of the other's dancing wasn't really their cup of tea, DJ and Dawn were following her lead and just doing their own thing. If Chef didn't have a problem, why not?

Perhaps distracted at watching Dawn's elegant dance moves, DJ didn't notice as Jo subtly inched her way closer and closer towards him. While appearing to headbang, she was actually looking back and forth between him and the bear, loudly stomping her feet in an effort to get the ursine's attention. Soon enough it did the trick, and Vinnie came charging in her direction. After a quick check to make sure Leshawna and Dawn weren't paying attention, she waited for the perfect moment before aggressively bumping her hip into him.

Before he even knew what happened, DJ went stumbling forward right into the warpath of the moshing bear. He may as well have been hit head-on by a train. DJ went tumbling forward, all the way out of the dance floor and left a crumpled mess. Soon after, the music came to a stop.

"And that's time," Chef barked out. "Dave and DJ are out. You maggots catch your breath while I get stuff ready for track two."

DJ was thankfully not dead, but he'd nearly been knocked unconscious, left groaning and pained. Leshawna and Dawn rushed to check on him, no one any the wiser that Jo had done the deed. The jockette smirked... and turned to find Brick staring her down.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you! Playing the game is one thing, but he could have got seriously hurt!"

Jo scoffed. "Did I do that? I have no idea what you're talking about, Jarhead. Whole point of the dance is to move around violently, ain't my fault if he bumped into me. Guy should have watched where he was going."

"Don't play coy, soldier, this is exactly the kind of stunt you'd try to pull." He crossed his arms and shook his head in disappointment. "What, too afraid that you can't win the challenge legitimately? Gotta resort to some foul play to have a chance?"

Accusations of playing dirty she could brush off all day. But accusing her of being afraid of the lamer contestants? Jo's cocky grin turned into a scowl. "I didn't do squat. Now get off my case."

*** Confessional: Jo ***

"Obviously I did it on purpose, but what does he think, I'm just gonna decide to spill the beans because he knows?" She scoffed. "GI-Joke is lucky I don't knock HIM into a bear for daring to call me chicken. It's not that, it's this stupid challenge. Singing is bad enough, but now they want me to dance?"

Just the mention nearly made her want to vomit. "I don't do dance. So if the opportunity comes up to knock a few chumps out earlier to speed things along, why WOULN'T I take it?"

*** On the dance floor ***

With Vinnie the bear gone and 11 contestants left standing, Chef did a little record scratch to signal the next round. "Song number two is gonna be... K-Pop! Apparently it's hip and happening with the kids these days. Ain't my kinda thang, but a good deejay knows how to appease a crowd. So feel free to be doing any of those newfangled Korean dances while the track plays. As for me? Hehehe... I'm gonna bring the POP!"

Suddenly he held up two gigantic cannons, one in each hand. In his left the signature pasta launcher he'd used in many a challenge beforehand. In his right, the shoe launcher from the Ireland challenge once wielded by Ezekiel. His guns were locked and loaded and he chuckled with a sinister sort of elation.

"I don't think that's the kind of pop those songs are about," Izzy pointed out helpfully.

"Oh it is on my dance floor. And if I hear another dumb quip out of you, it's an instant disqualification!" The song started up and he wasted no time firing both guns at his psycho hose beast rival, Izzy barely Matrix dodging both the spaghetti and a pair of snow boots. "Begin!"

If a blindfolded bear kept them on their toes, Chef dual wielding had everyone working overtime. Leshawna was grazed with the pasta at one point, and mama mia that was a spicy meatball. Thankfully she was able to catch some fluffy boots in midair to try and wipe it off. Trent was channeling his boy band dance moves, barely avoiding some creased Jordans from striking him in the head. Beardo wasn't so luck, trying to impress Anne Maria with the trendiest and most relevant dance move of all. The little Gangnam style gallop. A golf cleat seemed personally offended by the gesture, zeroing in on his crotch to knock him down. He was thankfully still in, but weakly had to do the worm to stay dancing since he wasn't standing anytime soon.

Not all was a struggle. Jasmine and Sammy actually seemed to be enjoying themselves, dancing next to each other and making their friend laugh with their stiff movements. Catching them having FUN? Chef couldn't allow that. So he hyper focused his pasta pellets their direction, forcing the Aussie into a series of backflips to get out of harm's way. With her guard dropped, he then turned his focus to firing at Sammy. Normally she would have had the reaction time to dodge. But Jo was lurking, and seeing an opportunity she bumped into the cheerleader's back just in time for the pasta to connect. She went flying all the way out of bounds and sticking to an ancient pillar.

Meanwhile Lightning had decided to catch shoes as they flew towards him and started juggling while grooving just as an extra flex. Chef taking it as a challenge didn't matter, bro was a dodging machine out there. Ultimately he had to give up and fire at Izzy. Equally disappointing results, she enjoying herself and the projectiles just made it better. Dawn however? She looked like a sitting duck. Her and Brick were sticking close, just kinda awkwardly copying other people's moves. But her reflexes weren't as good as the cadet's.

She held her own for a bit, dodging a bit of pasta here and a sneaker there. Brick flashed a thumbs up at her nimble footwork... only for Jo to suddenly swoop back in to booty bump her towards the most fearsome weapon of all. The mighty chancla. Dawn had little time to react before the sandal hit its mark, sending her back with just enough force to remove her from the dance floor.

"Whoops! Butter fingers." Jo grinned, winking at Brick before grooving back into the fray with the others, uninterested in hearing any of his chastising. Once again the music came to a stop, just as Chef squeezed the triggers only to get an out of ammo click from both.

"Tch, knew I should have gone for the double barreled model. A'ight, hippie girl and the twin are out! Stand by for round three."

Jasmine and those already knocked out rushed over to remove Sammy from the column before the spaghetti hardened. With most so focused on seeing if she'd be free, once again Brick pointed an accusatory finger towards his rival. But Jo walked away before he could speak.

"Don't wanna hear it. I tripped, that's all, get over it."

Playing dirty AND brushing him off? How cruel could someone be? "You're just setting yourself to be voted off! If you wanna play the game like a jerk, don't be surprised when you get eliminated for acting like one."

From nearby Leshawna took notice. Of all people to be getting into an argument, Brick had to be the last one she expected. Even if she didn't know the situation, she had to see if a bit of tea could spill. "Ain't you usually Mr. Positivity no matter what sadistic crap the game is throwing at us? You two must have some serious beef if she's managing to get you all hot under the collar."

He sighed in embarrassment. "Yeah, something like that."

"Hmm. Maybe it ain't my business, but the way I see it you might need to give her a taste of her own medicine. If you think she's playing like a jerk, throw it back in her face and see how she likes it. Might be the key to making her chill. At the very least, it might get her leave you alone." She shrugged. "That's what I'd do at least."

A taste of her own medicine? So he'd have to play dirty against her? Brick gulped, looking deep in thought.

*** Cockpit Confessional: Brick ***

"Fighting fire with fire against Jo's shenanigans isn't a bad idea, but it'd go against my code to play dirty like that. I don't want to stoop to her level! When I joined this season, I fully intended to win the game with integrity, intensity, and intelligence. The integrity part is important!"

Chef chuckled from the pilot's seat. "Too bad you ain't covering those other two anytime soon. Plus ain't integrity what got you voted off last time?"

"I'd rather leave with my head held high than stay hanging it in shame. This time will be different! Everything was going great before she came back."

"Tch, what's you beef with her anyway?" Now he was invested, so Chef turned to face him. "Heck, Chris used to think you two were gonna wind up as a couple. Personally I'm more of a Joning kinda guy, but Jock ain't bad either."

Brick sighed in annoyance. "Admittedly I probably did have a crush on her when last season started. But she turned out to be such a jerk! No matter what I did, regardless of how hard I contributed and worked to be an asset to the team, she was always condescending and treating me like dirt. I've been having such a productive run, making a genuine friend and getting to prove my worth, so you can imagine how having the most toxic person towards me suddenly added to the game throws me off."

"Sure, but Lightning was a jerk too and you made a whole big show about trying to set him right. Why not try the same wi-"

"WOULD YOU TWO STOP WASTING TIME," Chris suddenly yelled, poking his head into the cockpit. "You're supposed to be down there doing a challenge right now!"

*** On the dance floor ***

"Track number three," Chef bellowed as if he hadn't just been on the jet moment ago. "A club staple, techno!"

Immediately Beardo and Anne Maria cheered.

"And I'm specifically making this electronica. As in electric." Chef pressed a button, causing a portion of the dance floor to turn blue. Those close instinctively jumped away, just in time to avoid the area becoming electrified. "EMPHASIS on the electric." He cackled sadistically.

Aaaand the cheering turned to groans of fright. No time for dillydallying, Chef immediately started the beat and everyone got down with their bad selves. Brick doing the robot, Trent moonwalking, Jasmine cabbage patching, and Leshawna... still doing the Leshawna dance.

While all this went on, those eliminated were sitting around a different area of Persepolis awaiting results. With Dawn and DJ naturally gravitating towards each other for one of their chats, that left lonely Dave to suddenly be joined by Sammy. Wasn't hard to notice her approaching what with the stench of spaghetti lingering.

"On the bright side, it's probably better than his usual food, yeah?" he offered.

"That's one way to look at it." She nearly ripped out some hair yanking some noodles clumped into her bangs. Well at least her sister wasn't here to make some quips about it. "Sorry about getting out so early. Don't know what made me trip like that."

Dave raised an eyebrow. "Why are you apologizing?"

"You went through all that trouble distracting the bear so I could get away. That couldn't have been easy."

"Ah. Eh, nothing an ice pack can't fix." A twinge of pain shot into his side, forcing a strained grunt. "Ok, maybe two packs."

"And even after all that I couldn't even make it through one more round." She sighed, sitting next to him with a sickening squish from the pasta sauce. "Definitely not my best work."

"Don't sweat it, Jasmine's still out there and if any of us were winning it was probably going to be her anyway."

Speaking of, the perspective switched to show the Aussie in question expertly flipping out of electrified zones with the greatest of ease. If anything she was waiting for close shaves on purpose just for the sake of an extra thrill. Unlike most of the others she was even laughing.

"I could do this all day! May as well call the challenge now and save the rest of these blokes the trouble."

Not to be outdone, Lightning matched her moves while adding a few extra spins, kicks, and even a bit of gyrations. "Sha-please. You think anyone else is gonna do a better job dodging lightning? I'm literally NAMED Lightning! Show me one person here who's doing it better than me."

Nearby Izzy was... actively poking at some of the electrified field for some of those sweet sweet volts. Why pass up free electroshock therapy? It was bad enough that Chef had to scold her a few times to remind her to dance. Jasmine and Lightning shared an unnerved gaze.

Back with Dave and Sammy, the nice twin had some time to think things over. As far as she knew, they'd come a long way since their uneasy pair up during the Istanbul challenge. "Hey, it's totally cool if this is still a sore subject and I'll drop it. But I've been wondering, are you holding up ok after everything with Amy?"

He blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Her messing with your emotions and forcing you to do things you didn't want to do. It must have been rough. I just wanted to check in and make sure you were doing ok despite everything."

"You're... worried about me?" Bro couldn't believe it. Shouldn't this be the last person asking about how someone else was doing because of her sister? "Considering everything she's said to you, if anything you're the one people should be checking in on, right?"

She chuckled, a mix of bitterness and melancholy to her tone. "Horrible as it might be to say, I'm used to Amy doing terrible things to me. She might outdo herself now and then, but I learned to stop being surprised by it a long time ago. Doesn't mean her being the worst to other people is any less important. I know firsthand how much it can hurt."

Dave's mouth hung open for a moment at a loss for words. How to even respond to that? The genuine concern made keeping the facade up hard enough as it is. "I'm... I think I'm doing fine, yeah."

"I'm glad." She patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. "Don't beat yourself up over it, ok? It's not your fault. Hate to give her credit, but I know Amy is really good at manipulating people. All the crap that she pulled is on her and her alone. None of us hold it against you."

"... thanks. I appreciate it." Oof. Dave nearly felt like he was about to break into a sweat. Was this... guilt? Total Drama villains aren't supposed to feel guilt! Better switch topics before he let it linger too long. "So how do you think the round's going?"

Ask and you shall receive! Things switched back to the dance floor, with the song starting to wrap up. Most of the competitors were holding strong, but Beardo was clearly struggling. Between his lack of cardio and massive fro working up a sweat, running out of the way was becoming a battle. Let alone dancing all the while. Suddenly he noticed the area his crush was cutting up a rug in starting to glow. Maybe she was too into the groove to notice?

"Watch out!"

He rushed over to yank her out of the way, just barely getting her to safety before she got zapped. While relieved at first, quickly she was more confused than anything.

"The heck are you helping me for? It's a challenge, ya dolt."

"Uh..." He stammered trying to think of an answer. "Instinct just kinda kicked in I guess?"

From nearby Trent groaned into his hand. "He's trying way too hard. I gotta make him reel it back in before he-"

Before he could finish, once again Jo found an opening and was ready to seize it. She stuck a leg out in the path of his moonwalk, sending him tumbling forehead first into an electric field. Once he was done convulsing from the voltage, he laid crumpled and charred, very clearly not dancing.

"Trent?" Beardo noticed his ally and stepped to go help... only to slip on a puddle of his own sweat. And as luck would have it, falling backwards right into Anne Maria. Both fell into the electricity he had just saved her from, filling both with the zap. Jo chuckled in amusement and disco danced away. Didn't even have to do that one herself.

Chef gave them about 10 seconds before calling it. "Trent, Beardo, and Anne Maria are all out!" And there Izzy went poking at the electricity again! She had the audacity to keep goofing around when he already told her to stop? Not in his club. "And ya know what? I'm disqualifying Izzy for wasting too much time messing around instead of dancing!"

On cue the song finally came to a stop, the former three smoking and twitching while the later stamped her foot in disappointment. "Aw, for real? You're no fun!"

"Mess around and find out," he grumbled. "Once those three are able to stand, get em off my dance floor so we can move on!"

*** Confessional: Izzy ***

"Ok, so that totally wasn't my smartest move. But I couldn't help it! You have no idea how fun it is to mess with Chef." She rubbed her hands together, cackling. "I wonder if he discovered the whoopee cushion I made for him out of a cactus I smuggled from Mexico City."

*** Confessional: Chef ***

Slowly and painfully he uses a pair of tweezers to pick cactus spines out of his butt. "I hope she gets voted out..."

*** On the dance floor ***

And then there were five. Brick and Lightning exchanged a fist bump, Jasmine and Leshawna nodded in acknowledgement. And Jo smirked confidently, eyeing up the remaining prey and thinking over who could be next.

"We're getting spicy with track number 4," Chef announced. "It's gonna be a salsa dance. Mmmm, love me a good homemade salsa. When the spice hit just right? That's how you know the meal's gonna be good." Suddenly he held up a new button. "Say, salsa's hot, right? Wanna know what else is hot?"

Suddenly pillars of fire shot out from the dance floor, thankfully missing any of the contestants but succeeding in putting them on edge.

"Lawyers told us we can't let y'all stay on fire, so no trying to be a big macho hero and tank through it if it happens! Any of y'all maggots catch on fire, you gotta stop, drop, then roll your way on outta here. Plus we got professional firemen on standby."

The camera panned over to a few sickly interns holding fire extinguishers.

"Yeah... probably best to be on your a-game for this one. Let's get to it!" Another record scratch transitioned into a drum heavy Cuban beat.

Jasmine and Leshawna decided to have a bit of a dance off, locking eyes and synchronizing their moves while bobbing and weaving around the fire blasts. Brick was having the hardest time staying cool under pressure, but did his best. Yet with the girls inadvertently keeping an eye on each other and the cadet on to her methods, Jo only had one potential target left prone. Lightning was knee deep in the thick of it, surrounded nearly all directions by an inferno. Ain't no biggie, if anything he welcomed the challenge. But one little push and he'd probably be toast...

But Brick anticipated this. He knew she was bound to target one of them sooner or later. And he wasn't about to let his buddy get taken out by her dirty tactics. What better round to fight fire with fire? So after some careful maneuvering to sneak up behind her, he'd make his move. Brick let out a battle cry and charged towards his adversary. The intention was to merely tackle her out of the way. Perhaps they'd both be wrestling for a bit and he'd get eliminated for not dancing just as she would. But it was a sacrifice he was willing to make to ensure she didn't win immunity.

... However, this is Brick. So naturally he misjudged the trajectory, especially when Jo braced herself hearing the yell, and instead the two stumbled straight into one of the flamethrowers. Immediately their clothes caught fire and they were forced to roll around, getting sprayed by the extinguishers. But hey, it more or less worked. Lightning was taken off guard, but quickly recovered and was still safe.

But what about the girls? A dance battle literally red hot from the flames could only end with someone slipping up. Chef had increased the amount of flame pillars by tenfold, soon enough the entire dance floor looked like some sort of hellish landscape. Eventually one inferno blast emerged from between the two. Leshawna and Jasmine both jumped back, but one of them had just barely been singed enough for their top to catch fire right as the music ended.

"And it looks like Brick, Jo... and Leshawna are outta the contest," Chef announced, the former Old School member patting out the fire in annoyance. "It's down to Jasmine and Lightning, the next song decides who wins!"

"Heck of a nail biter, that one." Jasmine offered a handshake. "Let's square up again sometime?"

While still bitter about just coming up short, the idea of a rematch certainly felt appealing. She accepted the gesture, both girls sizing up the other's grip. "Mhmm, and next time you ain't gonna get off so easy."

Things were equally cordial with the other eliminated contestants. And by that I mean not at all. After wishing Lightning luck in the final round, Brick stormed off in a mess of emotions. On one hand, he successfully got his foe out. On the other, he eliminated himself in the process. But even worse, he had resorted to doing something she would. Hard to be proud when the results only came from foul play.

"Where'd that come from all of a sudden?" Jo suddenly barked out, tailing behind him. "Since when did you have the cojones to actually step up and do something about it? Here I was expecting you to be a crybaby over me until it came down to just the two of us."

Brick refused to look back. "I wasn't going to just stand idly by while you slithered your way to immunity because of shenanigans! Seems only fairy that you had your own strategy used against you to see how it feels."

Yeah, not having immunity sucked. But if anything she was more just amused that the literal last person that she expected to make a move against her was the one to do it. "So what you're saying is you had to come join Big Bad Jo in the real world of not having to play like a coward, right?"

He wasn't going to dignify that with a response. But no matter how much he tried to stomp away, she staid on his tail.

"Tch, don't be so dramatic about it, Doughboy. Heck, you should be thanking me." That was finally enough to make him look, eyebrow raised in bewilderment. "Look, you wanna get serious about this game? You ain't gonna win trying to keep things all smiles and rainbows 24/7. You already have a meatshield ally, so-"

"Lightning isn't just some trivial ally in a game," he barked back. "He's my friend! Not just some kind of means to an end."

"Call him whatever you want. Point is, you're doing more this time around to actually have a chance. But unless you're planning on just rolling over and handing Meathead the million bucks on a silver platter, sooner or later you're gonna have to think about how you beat him." She pointed a thumb backwards towards the dance floor. "And that back there? You're gonna have to do a whole lot more of that kinda stuff to make it to the end. How many other little friend groups do you think are forming? How long before some of them starts looking at the two buff guys that keep making it to the end of challenges?"

Once again Brick returned to silence.

"For the record, I'm not even mad. If anything I'm impressed to see you take initiative for once. You actually trying just makes things more interesting for me." Finally giving him time to think, she passed Brick by, her expression pertinacious. "But if you really do want to get serious about winning, it's about time you stop just thinking about friendship and honor, and start preparing to get results."

It sure was a lot for a code worshiping goody two-shoes to consider. So for now, we'd return to the dance floor where Lightning and Jasmine awaited instructions. Trash talk was high, but Chef's patience was low.

"That dance battle Leshawna lost gave me some inspiration. So y'all gonna be doing something like that for the final round! And the name of the game is... breakdancing!" A funky hip-hop tune started up, and Chef plopped down a giant cardboard box full of bowling balls. "Y'all bring the dance, and I bring the break."

"Not really my style, but nothing I can't handle. Let's get this over with quick, first class is waiting." Jasmine smirked confidently towards her opponent. "Good luck, you're gonna need it."

"Nah." Suddenly Lightning whipped out a flawless spinaroonie, transitioning into a headspin that finished into a freezing handstand. "I really don't. Prepare to get sha-served!"

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"Guess what's getting added as an official sport in the Olympics soon? Sha-look it up! Shoot, I've been sprinkling breakdancing into my cardio workouts just to shake things up a bit. Ain't no thang for Li-to-nang!"

*** On the dance floor ***

Indeed it was proving to be a lopsided dance off. Jasmine could merely copy what her oppnent was doing as Lightning kick stepped, helicopter, and knee rocked his way over all the bowling balls Chef flung at them. Thankfully he seemed really into styling on her, so she was banking on him getting too immersed. Sooner or later he'd fail to notice one of those projectiles hurtling his way. It was simply a matter of staying safe until then.

At least, that's how it should go in theory. But despite some close shaves, he seemed to pop, lock, drop, and step his way over every single bowling ball without fail. Of course she could easily dodge too, but who knew how long they'd be here without a slip up. He certainly wasn't getting tired out anytime soon. Even Chef seemed ready to wrap things up, so he started flinging balls with extra oomph with no care for where it'd land. Even still Lightning's sweet moves were holding steady... until one ball in particular came flying towards his face.

"Sha-bam!" But at the last second he brought his arm up to deflect the ball with a mighty flex. The bowling ball bounced off his bicep and started ping ponging from pillar to pillar, not slowing down anytime soon. Eventually it came back towards the dance floor, but instead of the jock it was making its way towards Jasmine. Naturally she saw it coming, so it was as simple as just jumping over-

"Whoa!" But as she jumped, she landed on a different bowling ball entirely. Not exactly stable ground, she rolled backwards and landed with a thud... with part of her leg poking out of the safe zone.

"And that's game," Chef yelled, his tone a bit cranky. No one got hurt even a little bit that round! Lame. "Lightning's immune at tonight's vote. Assuming he plans to stop dancing anytime soon."

It was unknown if Lightning was even aware that he'd won yet. Bro just continued to helicopter away to his heart's content.

As everyone returned to the plane, Jasmine was groaning into her hat with Dave and Sammy close behind.

"Uuuuugh. I'm such a bloody drongo. This close to first class and I let it slip through my fingers over a stupid mistake."

"You say that like dancing around flying bowling balls is supposed to be easy," Dave deadpanned.

"Yeah, don't worry about it, we'll get the next one." Sammy checked to make sure they had some privacy and lowered her voice. "But I guess now we need to think of who we're voting for, right?"

Without a clear target in mind, both girls turned to Dave. Surely he'd have a plan.

"Well it's clear Lightning is a beast and he's kind of an obvious duo alongside Brick, right? So I guess the logical choice is to vote Brick off while he's immune."

Not who Sammy was expecting to hear. A Jo or an Izzy perhaps, but him? "Aw, but he seems so nice."

"Dave's right, though. They're definitely a threat. Better for us to get rid of em sooner rather than later."

And so it was agreed. The girls bid their ally adieu to go cast their votes, while he'd go check for an ice pack to ease the bear pain. Totally. No ulterior motives to be found. It was just a coincidence that Izzy was waiting near the fridge, already with an ice pack in hand. And oddly enough, Jo was waiting there too.

"There's the man with the plan. Think fast!" Izzy tossed the ice pack into his gut at mach speeds. Very helpful, he only had the wind knocked out of him a little bit.

"What was so important that you needed to come whispering about a meeting out of nowhere," Jo demanded. "I don't need people thinking I'm tangled up in your whole mess if they catch us lurking."

Dave groaned, clutching at his side. "And yet you still showed up, so clearly you're interested in what I have to say. I'll cut to the chase, I need help with tonight's vote. And with who I'm planning to target, there's not a lot of options for who can help me. You guys just joined, so I figured you'd be the most receptive."

Best to not let Jo get an inkling that an alliance already existed between him and Izzy. He definitely needed her help this time, but he wasn't so sure he'd want to bring the jockette into the fold long term.

"Tch, why shouldn't you help ME with the vote instead? Corporal Killjoy was on my case hard today, it'd be pretty funny seeing the look on his face if he winds up with the boot while his buddy's immune."

So more people were thinking about voting Brick? Shoot, now he was regretting suggesting it to the girls. Oh well, he could adapt.

"If you want to do that, my vote is good as yours next time. All you have to do is help me tonight. Same goes for you, Izzy. I'll totally owe you one, so anyone you want gone down the line I'll be willing to help."

She gasped dramatically. "That's so thoughtful of you! But there's three of us and a whopping 13 votes total. Are you sure we'll be enough to get it done?"

"We should, but we'll have to put in a bit of effort to break up the other votes. If everything goes right, it should wind up being a 3-2-2-2-2-2 vote." Risky for sure, especially if he wound up as one of those 2 votes, but if he could pull this off... "Of course, that also means I'll need help swaying the others."

"You want me to put in legwork too?" The audacity of this kid! Jo had half a mind to walk out and leave him hanging then and there. But... if Brick went around blabbing about her pushing, it might not end well. Her little pep talk might work against her with him feeling inspired to take her down now. "Psh. Fine, whatever, I'll help." She jabbed a finger into his face. "But if I'm voting with you tonight, you're not just helping me with one elimination. Let's make it two... no, wait, three! Agree to that, and you have a deal."

Yeeeeah, that wasn't going to work for him. But he could figure out how to weasel his way outta the deal when the time came. "Sure, sounds fair to me."

Hah! Another successful bargain made by mastermind Jo. "Great! Question is, who are we voting for?"

A bit of a montage followed with each of the secret three approaching different group. First up was Dave, finding Brick and Lightning working out in economy class.

"Hey, you guys got a minute to talk about the vote?"

Lightning vaulted up from his pushups and shook his head. "Sorry small guy, we already got our minds made up. No changing our-"

"Jo, right? You wanna vote for her?"

Brick blinked in surprise. "Why do you ask?"

"I've barely known her for a few days and it's already getting under my skin how much of a jerk she is. Maybe it's because she views me as an easy target, but she won't stop bothering me. I noticed she seems to hassle you guys a lot in particular, so if you want to send her packing I'm all in on helping."

The friends exchanged a glance, sizing up how much they could trust him or not. If he was telling the truth, that was one more vote to possibly send their foe out the plane. And if he was lying, it's not like it changed much. They'd still be voting for her regardless. What would he even have to gain from lying about it?

"Then we'd be happy for your support." Brick beamed brightly. "Let's hope we make it happen."

"Sha-yeah, bossy dude is going down!"

Next in the montage was Anne Maria and Leshawna, both complaining about the rough challenge and checking each other for any burn marks from the fire and electricity. Being tucked away by themselves in the dinning area, Jo waltzed right up to them and forced her way in the middle.

"Sup, hope I'm not interrupting some kinda alliance meeting." She gave her own ally a suspicious leer. "Figured you two might want an extra vote in your corner tonight."

"We was just chatting about that bogus challenge, that's all," Anne Maria assured, though she wasn't the most convincing liar. Leshawna would quickly try to call attention away from it.

"You ain't gonna catch me complaining about votes if they're not against me." She raised an eyebrow. "Lemme guess, you wanna vote off Brick since Lightning's got immunity?"

Unfortunately not. Hopefully next time though, if that pipsqueak is good on his word. "Nah, he took a good beating in that challenge. He won't be a threat anytime soon. But I did see Afro Annoyance knock you into the zap. Bet it'd be nice to get him back for that, eh?"

Leshawna shrugged ambivalently. It was as good a choice as any for her, at least it wasn't one of her allies. But Anne Maria hesitated for a bit, feeling conflicted.

"I don't know, the guy's kind of a big goober, ain't he? Had to have been an accident, otherwise he wouldn't have knocked himself out too." Still, she'd best think up a better answer otherwise there was no reason NOT to do it. "How about Izzy? Chick's nuttier than a jar of cashews and she's already won a challenge. Who knows how long she would have lasted if Chef didn't disqualify her."

Meh, still worked within the plan, so it was fine by Jo. "Works for me, can't go wrong with axing a challenge threat." Leshawna nodded in agreement.

With that done, Izzy was up. After a bit of snooping from up high she spotted a wild DJ and Dawn talking in the cargo hold. Well, talking or flirting. Hard to tell from up in the vents. So she'd drop down near them, unphased by the lovable giant's scream of terror.

"Watcha doing guys? Talking about the vote?"

Dawn's expression remained stoic, but her tone had a bit of an annoyed bite to it. "Izzy, I can sympathize with you inability to recognize people's boundaries, but it's really quite rude to interrupt people trying to find privacy."

"My b! Got bored slithering through the vents so I just picked the first people I saw." She grinned innocently. "I can make it up to you by voting for who you guys pick. Three heads are better than one I always say!"

"Uh..." DJ considered the pros and cons of letting such a wild card in on their plans. It's not like their choice was being talked about by many others. At least, Leshawna didn't seem concerned with him when DJ brought it up. Still, it was entirely possible Izzy would just keep asking until they gave her what she wanted. "Well we were kind of thinking Dave."

Having fully intended to not tell her anything, Dawn sighed in agreement. "Yes, I'd ask you not pry further as to why since I'm still unsure on all the details myself, but-"

"Cool! I'll vote for him with you."

The pair blinked in surprise.

"Uh, just like that?" DJ asked.

"Sure! He does seem a little shifty, better him than me!"

And before they could ask anything further, she backflipped on out of there, leaving them more confused than ever.

Last on the montage was Trent and Beardo, chilling in one of the halls near the confessional. Dave poked his head out from around the corner and smirked with malicious intent.

Time passed and finally the ceremony was upon them. All 13 contestants crammed together in the bleachers with Chris walking out looking refreshed and rejuvenated.

"Hope you dudes enjoyed the party. I definitely had a wicked time kicking back and enjoying some of that Iranian sun." But all that time away relaxing meant missing out on prime opportunities to make the others miserable. Time to fix that by crushing someone's hopes and dreams! "I want you guys to know that this was surprisingly one of our closest votes ever! Whole buncha people got votes, so you better hope you haven't made any enemies if you wanna be safe."

Seems most hadn't been expecting a close ceremony. Many were taken off guard, others shifted their eyes nervously. Dave and Jo joined in on the act by also appearing on edge, but Izzy was all smiles as per usual.

"Alternatively, you can be safe by not sucking in the challenge. Which is what Lightning did." Chris tossed the jock his peanuts. "So he's safe."

He gave Brick a rather loud high five, and the cadet took notice of Jo's glower.

"Also safe are... Trent, Leshawna, Anne Maria, Dawn, DJ, aaaaaaaand Beardo."

All except Dawn caught their puke packets with varying degrees of cheers and smiles. Naturally, she'd remain stoic. Though as always Beardo added a little video game jingle, this time the sound from Banjo and Kazooie when you find a jiggy. While Chris wouldn't announce as much, that just left the people who had received votes. Brick and Jo, Dave and Izzy... Sammy and Jasmine. Not that the later two were nervous. Obviously it wouldn't be them... right?

"Next up let's say..." Chris held up two bags, his eyes darting from one of the remaining six to the next. "Jo and Dave!"

While the later faked a big sigh of relief, Jo got to keep her usual cocky demeanor, waggling her retch receptacle in her rival's direction.

"Penultimate bags go to... Izzy." Chris let a nice big pause linger while the psycho hose beast made short work of her peanuts. "And... Brick!"

Now it was his turn to let out the breath he'd been holding in. Of course that left one packet left and two besties gasping in shock. They exchanged looks of disbelief and scanned the crowd of people. Who the heck would vote for one of them?! Everyone else seemed just as puzzled. Leshawna's jaw agape, Anne Maria feeling like she's just saw someone throw a punch in the club, Dave's eyes wide in confusion. Ah, well at least he surely had nothing to do with this.

"Which means either Jasmine and Sammy are out of here!" Chris chuckled at their mutual despair. "Shocker, eh? But the million dollar question is which of you two are tonight's lucky loser. Big threatening comp beast Jasmine, or lovable sympathetic social beast Sammy?"

As much as they wanted to object, ask questions, wake up from a trance, there really was no escaping this. So instead the two of them clutched each other's hands and waited with baited breath.

"The final barf bag... of the night... goes to...

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