Red Alert

Red Alert Prologue
The camera rolled on to reveal Chris McLean standing in front of the Total Drama Colors voting area with a smug smirk. He stood proudly in front of the white paint splattered mess on the Wall of the Shame that represented Alexandria’s elimination.

“Last time on Total Drama Colors!” he cried out enthusiastically

The screen then changed to a series of flashbacks from the previous episode. The first one showed the new cast exiting the bus and greeting their new teammates.

“Twenty-one new and hopeful contestants were sent to an old abandoned city in hopes of showing off their skills, surviving harrowing challenges, and, of course, winning a million dollars! After being split into four different teams, I then sent them off to Mt. McLean for their first challenge. Contestants were asked to build their own sleds and then race them down the mountain. Of course I couldn’t make it too easy..” he says ending with an evil snicker as a flashback showed the The Polkadot Penguins building their sled from cardboard. It then showed the sled beginning to disintegrate from the snow.

“Of course, I did have some help when The Amazing Alexandria decided to fly solo and stole her team’s sled, arriving first at the finish line and leaving them behind and confused,” he went on.

The screen flashbacked to Ashley snatching the cup from Gaile, and yelling at Todd. “Ashley took charge of her team, The Pinstripe Parrots, which brought about some tension between her and her teammates. Especially Todd.”

“Dennis nearly drove Lavender off the deep end and Arizona shocked everyone when she blindly took the reigns of the Paisley Polar Bears’ sled. Despite Ashley’s jeering, the blind girl claimed victory for her team! Ashley and Lavender were justthrilled.” His statement was confirmed as they showed flashbacks of both girls obviously annoyed with their teams after the challenge.

“When the rest of the Polka Dot Penguins got to the finish line last, it was Alexandria who was soaked with white paint and sent packing.The poor girl even voted for herself. That’s what happens when you get selfish, Alexandria! ” Chris cried out victoriously as the scene replayed the moment of Alexandria’s elimination, and her holding up her own vote against herself.

“Twenty contestants still remain, but who will get splashed next? Stay tuned to find out on today’s episode of…. TOTAL. DRAMA. COLORS!!” he finished with his arms up excitedly.

Red Alert Part 1
The four teams, with a severe lack of one annoying contestant, all slowly awake and eat breakfast and the next challenge is revealed.

Plot
The screen slowly faded back in as the show began to start and opening credits came to an end. The scene resumed in a dark hotel room with the curtains drawn. The sound of someone softly snoring in the background could also be heard. After a brief second of pause, the sleeping contestant’s alarm clock began to sound off loudly and Dakota burst up from his bed, ready to start the day. “Wait… this isn’t my room! Where am I?!” The boy looked around in a panic at the unfamiliar bedroom he was sleeping in. After he tried to remember for himself, he reached over for his camera and began to flip through all the pictures he’d taken the day before. “Ah! The contest! The hotel! The contestants! Yes, that’s right!” he cried out with relief. With that, Dakota threw open the curtains to his room to allow some light to pour in before he began to get dressed for the day.

Meanwhile, downstairs in the hotel’s dining hall, the rest of the contestants gathered for breakfast. The camera quickly panned over several of the contestants. Benny was fast asleep beside his untouched bowl of cereal. Gaile was sleepily shuffling around in her Winnie the Pooh oversized night shirt from the night before. Selene was tearing like a hungry wild animal into her sausage patties. Derby was wide awake and dressed, blissfully writing in a notebook. Bailey was searching the fruit bowl for a not-bruised apple and chatting with the Baroness, who was getting orange juice. “Arr, just take this one, matey. I’ll get an orange. You can never have too much vitamin C! No one wants the scurvy!” The Baroness babbled as she handed Bailey her apple. The other contestants were sitting with their teams, and while some were chatting cordially and enjoying one another’s company; other teams had so much tension you could cut it with a knife. The Plaid Pandas were one of the most silent of the teams. Kiki was very busy eating her bowl of cereal, desperately trying to distract herself from the silence. Ry was quietly doodling in his sketchbook and nibbling on a piece of toast. T was sitting the farthest away from the group, quite okay with the solitude. They were kind of shy anyway so this was very non-stressful and actually pleasant for them. As Lavender finished sipping her coffee, she was first to break the silence. “Ok, I know that we all hate each other, but this ‘not talking to one another’ thing is actually driving me nuts! I need communication!” she cried out and glared at her teammates. “I like it when you’re nuts.” Dennis mumbled under his breath with a mischievous snicker. He had a big wide grin on his face. Lavender turned her head and pretended not to hear him. “‘Bout time someone said something! Now you listen up, ya’ll! We have another challenge today ‘nd after yesterday’s sorry a** performance we NEED ta win!” Kiki stated firmly and pounded her fist on the table. T nodded their head in agreement. “How about we wait and see what dastardly and harrowing challenge Chris has in store for us today before we put all our hope in winning.” Ry said calmly, without even looking up from his sketchbook. He brushed some toast crumbs off his drawing. “Ignore him” Kiki ordered sternly, “I think we can pull any challenge off, IF WE ALL COOPERATE.” she articulated loudly, not really trusting her team to follow her instructions. T stared at Dennis and Lavender and nodded again, making a very small and almost undetectable “mhmm” noise.

At the Pinstripe Parrots’ table, Ashley sat at the head of the table, eating her cereal and contemplating her next move in the game. Dakota had just arrived and finally sat down at the table, camera bouncing around his neck. Gaile sat beside Ashley, now wide awake, munching on Honey Comb cereal and gabbing with Jillian between bites so as not to be rude. Todd was on his phone playing Flappy Bird, cheering loudly after every time he beat his score and making Ashley constantly look up and glare at him. He had finished his food way before anyone else, and had an empty plate sitting before him. “Okay team, who’s ready for another day of fun?!” Ashley asked with false excitement. “I am! Let’s win this one, dudes!” Gaile cried joyfully. Jillian and Dakota smiled in agreement. Ashley turned towards Jillian. “Oh my gosh, I love your skirt, Jill!” she cried out in the same phony tone. Jill blinked in surprise that Ashley had actually complimented her. “Oh! Well thank you, Ashley. I like your necklace.” she said meekly. Ashley instinctively grabbed at the locket around her neck defensively. “Thank you.” she stated reluctantly, looking unsure as to if Jillian was really complimenting her or just trying to target her. Todd rolled his eyes and looked back at his game. Gaile took the last bite of her cereal and hopped up from the table to take care of her dishes.

The Paisley Polar Bears were either chatting or off doing their own bidding. Arizona was eating an apple that she picked out herself, only trusting food that she got on her own. Alice was half asleep over her breakfast, and Matt was long done eating and was back in his room freshening up before the challenge. Mallory was up getting a glass of juice and aimlessly trying to chat with Ry, to no real avail. Mika was sipping on her coffee and talking to Arizona. “So there I was. I had this girl passed out at my feet, we’re in the middle of nowhere, and I just ran outta phone battery…” Mika’s story was interrupted when an extremely loud siren went off and the show interns came rushing through the hotel lobby and halls. “GET OUT! GET OUT!” they shouted at the group. Poor Benny jumped out of his seat, so startled by the sudden noise that he knocked over his cereal bowl. Selene began to howl at the siren until Bailey dragged her out of the room. Gaile grabbed whoever was closest to her, which happened to be Dakota. With his hand in hers, she ran the two of them towards the front door. The rest of the contestants evacuated the dining hall and ran outside the hotel in a panic. Most of the contestants covered their ears with their hands. When everybody got outside, Chris was standing in front of huge red fire engine. The siren continued blaring until Chris gave a signal and Chef turned it off. T sat on the ground with their knees pulled up to their chest. “Is something on fire?!” Lavender asked worriedly. Her eyes were locked on the inside of the hotel, obviously worried about whatever items she had in her room being damaged. “Yeah. That siren was pretty loud,” Bailey said with cocked eyebrows. “Nah. No fire. Yet…” Chris said with a snicker. The contestant’s eyes widened. “You’ve gotta be f****** kidding.” Mika grumbled and crossed her arms across her chest. “It’s time for your next challenge!” Chris cried enthusiastically and the group groaned in unison. “Today, the color is red, which means we have a fire-based challenge!”. “Fire?! You’ve lost it McClean.” Ashley scowled at the host, not trusting her safety in a challenge like this. Chris shushed the girl and continued to speak. “In this challenge, teams will be assigned one of the 4 old, abandoned buildings in this city. With Alexandria gone, the teams are now equal. Two-” Chris was cut off as Dakota looked up in alarm. “Alexandria?” he asked, in a bit of a panic. “Yeah, The Amazing Alexandria. Wannabe wizard, completely ruined her team’s chances for victory? That one.” The blue team scowled a bit as Chris said this, obviously still not over their annoyance with the girl. Dakota shook his head rapidly. He pulled out his camera and flipped through the pictures with a rising panic. “Umm… Dakota, buddy? You’re kinda holding us up here, sooo…” “I don’t have a picture!” Dakota cried out, sounding almost in tears. Chris sighed. “Well, I guess we’re never going to get this show going again if you don’t get one. Chef!” he called out. “Bring one of those pictures Alexandria sent.” Chef shuffled away, grumbling like usual. The teams stood in silence for a moment, Chris and a few contestants shooting annoyed glances at Dakota, who was still clicking through his camera. Suddenly, Chef arrived again, carrying a large garbage bag. He shoved it down in front of Chris, and the bag opened, spewing printed photographs everywhere. The wind picked up a bit and many flew out of the parking lot, disappearing along the city streets. “Chef, I said to bring one picture, not the whole bag!” Chris shook his head. “Well, there’s your picture. Go ahead and take one.” Dakota darted forward and took one of the pictures in his hand, now looking a little embarrassed about holding up the show. He looked down at the picture, relieved that he had one. The photo was a stylish headshot of The Amazing Alexandria, posing against a dark blue bed sheet hung on the wall with all of her magic equipment. On the bottom, written in sparkly grey sharpie, were the words “Stay magical” with Alexandria’s outlandish signature below it. “Yeah, she sent about a hundred of those last night.” Chris’s voice spoke up. “All hand-signed, too. Told us to save them to give to future casts.” He snickered. Dakota gently put the picture into his bag with his camera. He looked noticeably more relaxed now. “Am I okay to go now, or does anyone else need some object before we can get started?” The cast shook their heads. “So, as I was saying,” Chris shot another look at Dakota. “Two members of each team will be given flamethrowers and will try to torch their opponent’s building. The remaining three members will be in charge of defending their buildings with these!” he cried. On cue, Chef threw plastic buckets, and big water guns onto the ground before the group. Dennis stepped forward and picked up a big red bucket used for the beach. “Ooh. Effective,” he said sarcastically. “Whoever the three are that are defending your building, you are responsible for putting out the fire and keeping your buildings up!” Chris continued. “Really? How are we supposed to put out a big fire with-” Todd started. “ENOUGH!” Chris shouted angrily. His brows were furrowed into a single unibrow. With a twist of his hand, the host whipped out his remote and cycled through all of the shirt’s colors in rapid succession, making all of the contestants except Arizona cover their eyes. The blind girl just stood, confused as to why people were suddenly screeching. “Guys, what’s going on? Did something happ-” “Meet me downtown in half an hour!” Chris demanded, settling the shirts on a bright red color. He then hopped into his car and was driven away by Chef, significantly over what the speed limit should have been.

Ry was standing alone near the back of the pack, plucking absent-mindedly at his red T-shirt. He wouldn’t admit it, but he missed his hoodie more than he let on, short sleeves weren’t really his style. Unbeknownst to him, Ashley was standing behind him, watching. “What’s the matter, Henry? Red not your color?” The girl called forward, jeering. Ry turned around abruptly to scowl at her. “Yeah, like you look so much better in it. You know what, you actually don’t look pleasant in any color.” Ashley simply laughed, moving forward to bump into Ry before passing him by. “Keep your head in the game today, Henry. I’d just hate for you to be the one going home.” The last sentence was said mockingly, and Ry ground his teeth in frustration with the girl. A little to the left, Todd had seen this whole encounter. He leaned forward to snag Jillian before she walked off too far, the girl almost falling backwards in shock as Todd grabbed her arm. “I told you about Ashley! She’s an evil biatch!!” Jillian glanced forward at the girl, who turned to gave her a slight wave and a tight-lipped smile. “I don’t know what you mean, Todd. She hasn’t done anything wrong, I mean, I haven’t seen her do anything, I mean, she seems nice.” Jillian was clearly uncomfortable under Todd’s attention. The boy released her with a sigh and shake of his head. “I came out to this show to have a good time, and I honestly think she’s going to attack us. Watch your back, Jill.”  Gaile and Dakota were walking together ahead of the rest of their team, unfortunately (or fortunately for at least one person) missing Ashley’s encounter with Ry. “Thanks for helping me out here, G… g…” Dakota briefly faltered, his memory skills failing him. “No probs, Dakota! That’s what buds are for!” Gaile smiled at the other boy, not really picking up on his failed name cues. Dakota decided to just ignore it, knowing that the other girl would fill him in later. “Do you think we should wait for the rest of our team?” Dakota glanced around, trying to locate the other people with red socks. Was it Ashlyn, Tadd, J… something and then G… g… “Nah, they’ll be cool. We’re all going to the same place, right? Not like they’ll get lost.” Gaile smiled at the other boy, and he grinned back. “Can I take your picture… G… Gaile!” The boy’s eyes lit up, knowing he had it right. “Sure, go ahead!” Gaile posed while Dakota snapped a quick picture, wanting to remember the moment of knowing her name. The two were stopped long enough for the rest of their team to catch up, and Ashley strutted past the two. “Hurry up, team. We don’t want to fall behind,” she called backwards, and the rest of the Parrots fell into step behind her, some admittedly more hesitantly than others.

Meanwhile, the Polar Bears were making their way downtown, helping one another out as they walked. Matt and Alice seemed to be talking together, though their words were so quiet it was impossible for the cameras to pick it up. Mika was continuing her story and chatting with Arizona, Mallory now listening in. “Yeah, so, there we were, and I pulled out that girl’s phone and I called my buds, and then they came in their big a** truck and the girl woke up and she was like, ‘DAMN MIKA, you used up my phone battery!!’ and I was like, ‘Fine then, ya can just stay here.’ and we got in the truck and started driving away all slow and she was runnin’ after the truck and it was funny as f***!!!” Mika had to cut off her story to laugh, the memory bringing tears to her eyes. Arizona and Mallory just blinked at her, or rather, Mallory blinked at her and Arizona looked confused before tripping over a piece of crumbling pavement. She was caught mid-fall by Alice, who pulled her up by her arm, leading her forward a bit away from the other girls. There was just enough time to hear Mallory break into her own story, something about setting a bomb in a food truck and blowing candy all over the street before the pair moved out of range. “Arizona, you did really good in the last challenge.” Alice said with a smile, not that Arizona could see her. “Do you really think so? I was worried that you guys would think I couldn’t handle it.” Arizona tapped her cane on the ground, her expression revealing that this was one of her major fears. “I wouldn’t lie to you, Arizona. We were all impressed, even Matt. He’s not too bad, you know, he just wants the team to do well.” Alice turned around and nodded at Matt as she said this, and the boy nodded back at her. “I’m sure you’ll do great in this challenge too, okay? Don’t worry so much.” Arizona grinned and squiggled her arm in the air a little until she caught Alice’s shoulder, giving her a friendly squeeze. “Thanks Alice! It’s nice to have someone who believes in you!” Alice rubbed the blind girl’s hand, though the smile was gone from her face.

The Penguins were messy as always, with members running wherever they wanted to, which was all over the street. “Blue team, over here!” Bailey yelled at the same time the Baroness called out, “Blue team, come ‘ere!” They two girls looked at one another hesitantly, as though they didn’t know how to feel about the jinx moment. Ultimately, the two chose to ignore it as Selene, Derby, and a sleepy Benny came rushing over. “Do you ladies desire anything?” Derby asked cordially, being interrupted as Selene pounced on him. “Glasses are shiny!” The girl yelped, touching Derby’s frames excitedly. Benny rolled his eyes as Selene knocked Derby to the floor, the girl squirming excitedly. Derby seemed quite unable to handle the excitable girl, and was attempting to push her off while he clutched onto his spectacles. “Selene, look what I have!” Benny called, pulling off his own sunglasses and showing them to the girl, who promptly lost all interest in Derby and scurried over to the other boy. “Glasses for Selene?” Selene asked, looking up from the floor at Benny, who stuck the glasses in his pocket. “Maybe. You can get the glasses later, if you stick with the team. Got that?” Selene nodded, her head a blur. “Thanks, Ben-Ben!!!” At this, Bailey coughed, interrupting the scene. “Okay, is everyone ready to head downtown and win this challenge?!” “Aye, I be ready! Now that t’ wrench from last time be gone, we’ll win for sure! Now, let’s go!” The Baroness took the lead, walking off and forcing everyone else to follow. Bailey’s mouth twitched a bit before she sighed and followed the rest of her team.

The Pandas were debatably even more wild and disorganized than the Penguins were. “Okay, Pandas, come over here!” Lavender called, pointing at the ground in front of her. Kiki and T came over quickly, Kiki flashing her a wink and Lavender scowling at her. “Nah!” Dennis called back, grinning. A sudden burst of fire came from between his fingers and the boy dropped his lighter and a can of lighter fluid on the ground before scooping them back up into his pockets. Ry was hanging around in the middle of the two groups, as though he didn’t want to side with either of them. “Okay, team.” Lavender snarled, directing her words to Kiki and T but speaking loudly enough so everyone could hear her. “Let’s go downtown and actually win this time, okay?”  Ry had struck out halfway through her inspirational speech, walking away towards downtown. “Are you guys coming? We’re wasting time,” he called back, and everyone began to follow him, Lavender pouting in the back. Kiki headed back and friendly clipped her on the shoulder, knocking the beauty queen forwards. “Don’t worry ‘bout it, Lav. We’ll pull through in t’ challenge. The team’s a lil’ crazy, but we’ll do fine.” Kiki flashed Lavender another grin and the other girl forced a smile. T pulled back to join the two, a small smile on their face. “Thank you for trying to pull the team together, Lavender. People do appreciate it, even though they act differently.” Dennis turned around and blew Lavender a kiss at this moment, making the girl shiver a little. “Thanks for the thought, T. I don’t know if everyone wants to help out, though.” The girl scowled as she said this, gesturing to Dennis who had sped up and was chatting with Ry, doing some weird pantomime thing which involved puckering his lips a lot and flipping fake hair over his shoulder. Lavender resisted the urge to throw her lipstick and clonk the boy right on the back of his miserable head, instead letting Kiki and T lead her deep into the city.

The camera finally pulled themselves away from the yellow team to switch to a view of Chris in his car. “Lotta drama going on, am I right? Which team will come in first? Which team will go down in flames? My money’s on the Pandas.” Chris chuckled and flashed the camera a grin. “Find out all these answers and see some wicked explosions after the break on Total. Drama. Colors!!!” With that, the camera faded out to commercial.

Staff

 * Chris McLean
 * Chef

Contestants

 * Alice
 * Arizona
 * Ashley
 * Bailey
 * Benny
 * Dakota
 * Dennis
 * Derby
 * Gaile
 * Jillian
 * Kiki
 * Lavender
 * Mallory
 * Matt
 * Mika
 * Ry
 * Selene
 * T
 * 'The Baroness'
 * Todd

Red Alert Part 2
The teams fight fire with fire as they attempt to burn down their opponents buildings

Plot
The show returned from the commercial break to show that  the cast was arriving downtown in their red clothing. Four very large, old, and dilapidated buildings stood in the background. The contestants’ eyes widened worriedly at the thought of it being their responsibility to keep the massive towers up.

“There’s NO way that this challenge is safe.” Todd stated with an unamused expression.

The rest of the contestants nodded in agreement. Some had looks of fear on their faces.

“We may actually die today.” Ry commented as he stared at a pretty unstable looking section of foundation on one of the buildings.

Shortly after he had completed his statement, Chris McLean and Chef arrived in a big red fire engine, siren wailing away and lights flashing in everyone’s faces. They were both dressed in full firemen’s attire.

“Alright guys!” Chris began as he got out of the engine, “It’s almost time to begin! But first, we need to split you off into attackers, and defenders!”

The teams all began to plan out who would attack and who would defend.

“Okay Polar Bears, we obviously need Mallory as an attacker, since she’s like the bomb expert.” Matt explained.

The rest of the team nodded in agreement, except for Mallory who was grinning and giggling giddily. She paused upon realizing everyone was staring at her.

“Eh, I mean I guess I can help destroy a building…” she said calmly, though the maniacal gleam in her eyes was hard to misplace.

“There is NO way I can stand in a burning building …” Arizona stated,  unable to even see what she would be getting herself into.

“Aww, Arizona. Don’t you worry, we’ll find a job for you.” Alice said and placed a sympathetic hand on Arizona’s shoulder.

“She could refill water guns and buckets, and if this death trap starts goin’ down we’ll just grab her and run.” Mika said, shrugging.

Arizona still had a worried expression on her face but agreed.

“That bein’ said, I wanna be an attacker. I ain’t turnin’ down the chance to use a flamethrower.” Mika stated with a grin equal in intensity to Mallory’s.

“Then that’s settled. Mallory, and Mika will be attackers, and Arizona, Matt and myself will be defenders.” Alice stated.

Meanwhile, on the Pandas team, the conversation wasn’t running so smoothly.

Lavender crossed her arms across her chest. “NO.” she said firmly.

“Absolutely f***** not!” Kiki shouted in agreement.

“Aw c'mon now! Ladies, you know that if I had a flamethrower, we’d win for sure!” Dennis coaxed. His wide, “up to no good” smile never budged from his face.

Lavender stuck out her bottom lip and pouted for a second. She then turned to T. “T, what do you think? Dennis as an attacker. Yes or no?” she asked them with a tilt of her head and a bat of her long lashes.

T blinked at her and took a deep breath before answering. “Yes.”

Ry raised his hand halfway. “I can also be an attacker. I’d love to see the look on their faces when their buildings come crashing down on top of them.” he smirked sinisterly.

“Great. Then the rest’ of us will defend the building.” Kiki sounded less than thrilled to have not “won” the argument.

The Parrots stood in a little circle, carefully plotting who would be assigned each role.

“I’d rather defend… if you guys don’t mind.” Dakota started with a sheepish grin, “I’m kind of athletic and would probably be more beneficial to the team inside.”

“And I DEFINITELY want to be an attacker!” Todd cried out and stuck out his chest haughtily.

Ashley stared blankly at the boy before she crinkled her nose and said a very flat, “Fine.” She then turned towards Gaile and pointed. “Gaile, you have to be a defender. The other teams will hear you coming from a mile away.” she stated and lowered her finger at Gaile’s heeled jelly sandals.

Gaile’s face turned a bit pink after hearing that, but she knew Ashley was right. “You got it dude!” she said and held up a thumbs ups.

Jillian’s eyes widened as they often did before she was about say something. Eager for a chance to adventure she spoke up.

“I-I’ll at-attack!” she announced, much to everyone’s surprise.

“YOU GO GIRL!” Gaile cried out and held up her hand for a high five, which Jillian returned.

“Fine. I’ll defend, but you guys had better make sure to do the job right.” Ashley glared at Jillian and Todd, Jillian shrinking down a little under the pressure. Todd attempted to return her gaze until he was finally forced to drop it, glancing off sheepishly and yanking out his phone to pretend he had a reason to look away.

The Penguins team was last to make a decision.

Benny was already getting a little lethargic from the long walk downtown, and Selene was still trying to take his sunglasses. The Baroness, being a natural leader, was first to speak up. “Arrr, I wanna be t’ one settin’ t’ buldings ablaze!”.

“That seems like a wise idea, my fellow teammates. The Baroness is used to attacking other ships so I feel she will be most useful for this challenge.” Derby said and pushed his glasses a little further up the bridge of his nose. “However, I would prefer to defend the building. I fear that my lack of physical strength may prove to be a liability to us.”

“I’ll gladly attack!” Bailey cried, ecstatic at the chance to use such a dangerous tool as a flamethrower.

“Selene defend!” Selene barked.

“I guess Benny is also a defender then.” Bailey pointed at Benny who was completely asleep.

“Oh nononono, those two will only wreak havoc! We need to make certain that Selene and Benny are quite separated so Selene doesn’t get distracted and thus burn the building down. Benny shall attack. And Bailey shall defend.” Derby stated, receiving a glare from Bailey.

“Well then, someone wake t’ lad ‘nd tell ‘im!” The Baroness ordered. Benny was asleep on his feet, his gentle snores making almost everyone else a little sleepy too.

Selene then began to lick Benny’s hand until he woke with a start. He swung his palm defensively to his chest.

“Benny attack.” Selene said, nodding energetically.

He nodded sleepily and removed his sunglasses, placing them on his shirt collar. “Sure, Benny attack,” he responded without really knowing what he was getting into.

The teams’ discussions were interrupted when the fire engine’s siren began to loudly sound off. Jillian and Gaile noticed Dakota tense up a bit and both put a reassuring hand on his shoulders. T seemed to be a bit startled as well but just wandered off by themself for a second to calm down.

“Okay, contestants! Ready or not it’s time to start this challenge! I hope you made wise choices on who is attacking and defending. I’ll give you guys a second to get in place and collect your tools.”

The teams scrambled to get their stuff together under very little time. Finally, all the contestants were loaded and ready to start. Each attacker was given a flamethrower and protective gloves. Each defender was wearing a red fire-proof suit and had their buckets and water guns pre-filled. On the outside of each building was a water spout to refill their buckets and water guns.

“Alright, contestants! Are you ready to turn up the heat?!” Chris McLean’s voice sounded from the intercom speakers implanted in each building.

“NO!” The contestants shouted in perfect angry unison.

“Good! ‘Cause here we go! Oh and one more thing.. When you hear this noise..”

A robotic voice and ringing of alarm bells came through the speakers shouting “RED ALERT! RED ALERT!”

“You better run, cause your building is going down.”

“I’m yellin’ timber.” Todd whisper-sang with a snicker.

“GOOOOO!” Chris shouted and announced the beginning of the challenge.

The attackers then began rushing toward the other teams’ buildings.

“Well, this is how we die. Goodbye world.” Ashley commented dryly as she enjoyed the last few seconds of peace before the building caught ablaze.

In the Penguins’ building there wasn’t much going on in the way of organization. Selene was chewing on her squirt gun, Derby was cautiously rocking back and forth waiting for the first hit, and Bailey was just in a foul mood.

“It should be me out there with a flamethrower! Not sleepyhead over there!” she growled.

Suddenly a loud spraying noise could be heard followed by the slow crackling of wood catching fire. The contestants inside could hear Todd’s laugh from somewhere outside.

“We’re hit!” Bailey cried and aimed her squirt gun.

“FIRE WHERE!?” Selene exclaimed, aiming her own squirt gun.

Black smoke was starting to pour into the room, indicating the source of the flame. Derby was first to notice. “Over here ladies! My bucket will not quite reach up there!” He shouted and pointed at where the smoke was coming in.

Bailey rushed over and pumped her squirt gun to stream water at the fire. The sound of water putting out the flame with a sizzle could be heard but smoke continued to fill the room. “It’s not working!” Bailey shouted, worried for their safety.

“SELENE TRY. HELP BAILEY.” Selene ordered.

“Great idea, Selene! Bailey, you and Selene need to fire your guns together.” Derby explained.

Bailey nodded and re-aimed her gun.

“NOW!” Selene shouted and the two began firing at the flame. Slowly the smoke started to stop coming in.

“It’s working!” Derby cried out, very elated.

Outside with the rest of the attackers, Jillian was creeping up on the Panda’s building. She had her flamethrower in hand, ready to fire, when Ry spotted her.

“I have to do something,” he mumbled as he searched for something to distract her with. But much to his detest, Jillian had already done what she needed to. The building now had a small steady flame blazing away.

“CRAP! I smell smoke…” Lavender cried from inside the building.

The camera then panned to the inside where Kiki was seen grabbing a squirt gun and rushing over to the smoke source, along with T. Together the two aimed at the flame and stopped it before it could spread.

“Great teamwork, guys!” Lavender smiled, having not done any work herself.

Kiki glared at her and stomped away from the rest of the group, still upset she wasn’t an attacker.

While the fire was being put out in the Panda’s building, Ry had started one at the Parrot’s building, and it had grown quite a bit.

“This is insane!” Ashley cried and threw a bucket of water at the source of the fire. Thick black smoke was rapidly filling the room.

“Dudes! It’s getting bigger! Oh man. This is mad awful!” Gaile cried, aiming her water gun at the flame in a different spot than Ashley.

Dakota tried to aim at the flame with his water gun in another spot. “This isn’t good.” Dakota said, face turning a bit pale from worry.

Outside the buildings Mallory was nowhere to be found. She was cooking up something special for the challenge. Something that would clench victory for her team for sure. A calm grin was plastered on Mallory’s face as she tinkered with her weapon.

Meanwhile, her partner Mika was having a grand time. She had set fire to both the Panda’s and the Penguin’s buildings and had run away laughing like crazy. She was completely oblivious to the fact that Mallory was actually doing her own thing.

Inside the Polar Bear’s building, Matt was rushing to get Arizona to refill his water gun outside. He needed to rejoin Alice who was fighting the current flame alone. The fire seemed pretty much under control, but he wanted to make sure Alie could really handle it. As Matt was waiting for his gun to be filled, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. It was Dennis, creeping to the opposite side of the building where the fire was. The prankster reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of matches.

Matt’s eyes widened. Nobody knew Dennis had those!

“Crap!” Matt cried as he watched Dennis light the match and successfully set a second fire to the building, pouring a suspicious liquid all over to further the blaze.

“What is it?!” Arizona cried whipping her head from left to right to try and pinpoint what was going on. Water missed the gun’s hole and spilled on the ground.

“Fire. Another one. Is my gun ready?” Matt snapped.

Arizona took a step back and shook the gun. “Yeah,” she said and handed the gun to Matt.

He grabbed it from her and ran back inside.

The camera panned over to show that the Penguin’s organized system was still working. Derby was now pouring water on lower flames, and the fire was relatively under control. But as the camera panned to the Panda’s building, it was clear that Lavender and Kiki’s animosity towards one another was hindering the team.

“You could help, ya kno’?” Kiki growled as she struggled to put out the current flame.

Lavender rolled her eyes and threw her bucket of water at the fire. The water missed and came crashing back down on top of Kiki and T.

Kiki removed the wet hair plastered to her forehead and glared at Lavender with the fury and the intensity of a thousand suns. She then reached over and grabbed Lavender by the shirt. “You did that on PURPOSE! Didn’t ya, you lil’ princess!?” She roared.

The fear in Lavender’s eyes was genuine. “N-no! I was really just trying to help!” Lavender begged.

T had stopped putting out the fire to listen to their teammates and put a hand on Kiki’s shoulder. When she turned to face them, they nodded.

Kiki sighed reluctantly and let Lavender go. “Just don’t let it happen again. We clear?!” Kiki shouted and cracked her knuckles.

Lavender gulped and nodded in agreement.

The fire had now gotten bigger and the group rushed to put it out.

Outside, attackers ran back and forth in a tizzy. Everyone wanted to see their opponent’s building on fire and watch it go down. From the outside it was the Parrot’s and Polar Bear’s buildings that appeared to be in the worst shape. But while the Polar Bears seemed to have little to no control of their fire, the Parrots had recently teamed up and begun to tame their flames. Gaile, Ashley and Dakota had a pretty good system going now. Gaile and Dakota were firing their squirt guns at the flame, and Ashley refilled the bucket outside so they could reload their guns quickly. She’d volunteered to do the job, to earn a little trust, but her fingers consistently twitched over having to lower herself to this position.

“Ashley, I think we’re out of water.” Dakota stated as he poured the last bit of water from the bucket into his water gun.

“Can you refill it for us, please?” Gaile asked with a grin before turning away to tend to the fire again.

Ashley rolled her eyes. No one told her what to do! But since she had to get on her team’s good side she nodded and complied. “Of course… team.” She snarled as she finished her statement. She then snatched the bucket from Dakota and walked out of the building to the water spout. As she turned the knob on the spout to refill the bucket, Ashley took a moment to survey the outside activities. She saw that all of the buildings appeared to have at least a small fire blazing. Attackers were sneaking around, but one thing caught her eye in particular.

Todd was doing very well as an attacker and had successfully set fire to two of the four buildings. His partner Jillian was also performing very good for this challenge, and the two seemed to be getting along well, acting almost like friends.

“Well then. This simply won’t do.” Ashley murmured with a mischievous smirk. “First, I have to deal with you. Can’t have you two getting too friendly,” she growled, zeroing in on Jillian.

Todd wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. All the running around he was doing, combined with the heat from the fires surrounding him, was really taking a lot out of him. He turned to go set fire to the Panda’s building just in time to see Jillian running away after setting a big fire. “Yeah, Jillian!” He cried out and high fived her as she passed by.

“I-I think that one more good fire will send the Penguin’s building down.” Jillian explained.

“I’ve got this. Don’t you worry, I can save the day.” Todd stated, his eyes gleaming with determination. Jillian blinked in disbelief and Todd took off towards the building. She quickly decided to run the opposite direction, in case the building came down.

“OH!” she shouted as she felt something large and hard hit her in the head. She went tumbling to the ground, totally blacked out from impact. A big red bucket landed next to her.

Meanwhile, The Baroness had been doing her own thing. Whenever she set a building on fire, she also began trying to destabilize them. Right now, she was kicking at the Panda’s building in a spot that was crumbling from the fire. She laughed a hearty pirate’s laugh and continued to dig her boot into the weak spot.

“Arr this job would be much easier with another. Where be the lad anyway?” She pondered aloud and started looking around the challenge area. The camera panned over the whole challenge to show everyone on the outside attacking, except for Jillian. Benny was shown on camera last, and it was clear that he had fallen asleep fairly close to the Parrot’s building. He was standing upright and his sunglasses were still on his shirt collar, but his head drooped and his eyes were shut.

In the Penguins building, all seemed to be well. Their continuous, organized system was still working and no fire seemed to be much of a threat.

“Hey, I think we’re out of water again. Whose turn is it to refill?” Bailey asked.

“SELENE!” Selene howled joyfully.

“Okay Selene, just hurry back.” Derby said.

Selene picked up the bucket from the ground with her teeth and made her way outside to the waterspout. She turned the knob and started to fill the bucket when a drop of water splashed on her hand. Her pigtails perked up.

“Thirsty.” Selene said and threw the bucket out of the way, sticking her mouth in the stream of water instead.

“Ashley! Are you almost done getting the water?” Gaile cried from inside the Parrot’s building.

Ashley furrowed her eyebrows and whipped her head back at the building to yell. “I’M WORKING ON IT!” She shouted before thinking better of it. “Uh, I mean, I’m almost done!” She’d come up with an excuse for her loss of the bucket later. She then looked back at the challenge and began to ponder aloud. “Now for Todd…”

Ashley panned over the scene and saw that Benny had fallen asleep just a few feet away from the Parrot’s building. And much to her delight, Selene was also outside.

“Perfect.” Ashley grinned and walked over towards Benny. “There’s no way she can resist these.” She carefully plucked the boy’s sunglasses off his shirt collar. Benny stirred a bit, but didn’t wake up. Ashley snickered maliciously.“Glasses shiny!” She purred, mocking Selene. She then put them in her back pocket and walked back towards her building.

Selene was almost done getting her drink of water when something caught her attention.

“Oooh, shiny!” She exclaimed and began following the beam of light from Benny’s sunglasses.

Across the way, Mallory finished twisting the last wire on her weapon and shut its compartment back up tight.

“IT’S READY!” Mallory shouted victoriously and rubbed her hands together. Shepicked up her tampered flamethrower in her hands like it was a newborn child. And this was extremely necessary; if the trigger moved even a tiny bit, the whole thing would quite literally blow up in her face.

Mika had heard her shout and peeked into her hiding spot. “There ya are! I’ve been looking for your a** this whole f**** challenge!” Mika swore.

Mallory looked up at her. “You know, normally I’d apologize, but since I’m about to seize victory for our team, I hope you’ll just let this one go.”

Mika raised her eyebrow, intrigued to hear what Mallory had done. She waited for a few moments, but Mallory didn’t offer any information. “How are you planning on-” Mika started to ask, but was interrupted by Mallory.

“You’ll just have to see.” she snickered.

Back in the Parrot’s building, the fire was getting bigger, but it seemed that Dakota and Gaile had it pretty much under control.

“I could mad use that water right now.” Gaile said and shook her near empty water gun.

Dakota nodded. “Where’s Ashley?” he inquired.

From outside, they heard Ashley shriek. “ITS GONE!!” she shouted as she ran back inside. She had on a scared face, which the viewer could clearly tell was fake.

“What happened?!” Dakota cried.

Ashley sniffled a bit to be more convincing and placed the sunglasses undetectably on a table in the building. “S-Someone stole the bucket!” she wailed.

“That’s not good…” Dakota said and tipped over his squirt gun to show how empty it was.

“I still have a super tiny bit left. You and Ashley go refill. I think I have this for a second or two.” Gaile said assuringly.

Ashley nodded, grabbing Dakota and dragging him outside.

It was relatively calm for a few seconds, and then Gaile heard something. It was the sound of running, the steps falling almost as though the origin of the noise was down on all fours.

“SHINY! ” Selene shouted and pounced towards the light beam, which was right behind Gaile. She landed on the ground on top of Gaile and started frantically searching for the source of the shine, which unfortunately made her look just like a huge, red-pigtailed dog. As this was happening, the room began to fill with thick black smoke as the fire grew, unattended.

Gaile’s eyes widened to the size of golf balls and filled with panic and fear. Her normally pale complexion flushed with the small amount of color she had.

“AHHH!!!” she screamed like a girl in a horror movie. Both she and Selene started to cough as it grew harder to breathe.

“AHHH!!! BAD DOG!!! HEEL! STOP!! AHHH!!!” she continued to scream at the top of her lungs. She held her up over her face to protect it from potential bites.

The fire continued to grow and was now too massive to put out with water guns. Bits of debris started to crash down from the ceiling like fiery meteors plummeting to Earth.

Selene saw this and high-tailed it out of the building, leaving Gaile a terrified, shaky mess.

“RED ALERT! RED ALERT!” the robotic voice came blasting through the intercom speakers.

“It’s too late!” Dakota cried from outside.

“Let’s get out of here!” Ashley turned and tried to run off.

“What about Gaile?! She’s still in there!” Dakota cried in return.

“Fine, but we’d better be quick or we’re all going down.” Ashley said edgily.

With that, Dakota and Ashley charged into the rapidly disintegrating building in search of their teammate.

They found her crawling on the ground searching for the exit through the black smoke-filled room. “Gaile, c'mon, we have to get outta here!” Dakota cried grabbing her arm and standing her up.

“D-d-d…” Gaile tried to say.

“No time for small talk, Gaile.” Ashley snapped.

Ashley ran beside the two to make sure Gaile didn’t fall, though she wasn’t pleased about it. The three of them emerged from the smoke, coughing and sputtering just before the building came crashing down behind them. Their faces were all stained from the smoke, and Gaile’s white blonde hair was a bit tinted as well.

“AND THE FIRST BUILDING GOES DOWN! PARROTS ARE OUT.” Chris shouted from the speakers.

Gaile, Dakota, and Ashley headed over to the infirmary where they met up with the still unconscious Jillian.

“What happened to her?” Ashley asked with fake surprise.

“She got hit in the head.” an intern explained and gestured to a red bucket on the floor beside them. They then replaced an ice pack on Jillian’s head.

“My bucket! Whoever stole it must have done this!” Ashley cried.

Dakota and Gaile ran over to sit by Jillian out of concern, wondering who could have possibly injured their teammate. With a reluctant sigh, Ashley headed over beside them. She knew Jillian would be fine, Ashley had no intention to kill her own teammate. Oh no, this was just a distraction for the downfall of the biggest threat to her superiority.

Outside the buildings, Ry crashed to the ground. He had been pretty close to getting hit with a piece of falling Parrot building rubble, but thanks to his quick reflexes, it just missed him.

“Ry! C'mon kid, on your feet! We got a challenge to win!” Dennis cried and ran over to help the boy up. He grabbed Ry’s arm under his shoulder and slowly pulled him off the ground.

Ry smiled a smile so small it was almost undetectable. “Where?” The much shorter boy asked.

Dennis smiled widely and kinda crookedly in reply. “We’re gonna f*** s*** up in the Polar Bears’ building. Pay their happy, peaceful team a little visit.” Denis said slyly and pulled out the bottle of gasoline from his hiding place nearby.

Ry’s eyes lit from anticipation, but his straight face didn’t change. “Let’s go then.” Ry said and started running over to the Polar Bear’s building. Dennis held the bottle of gasoline in his hands as though the bottle were actually a precious gemstone instead of just plastic. Ry was just behind him, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. They finally made it to the Polar Bear’s building and Dennis got into position. He crept up to the very side of the building and poured the gasoline all around it.

“Ry? Would you like to do the honors?” Dennis asked.

Ry nodded, his eyes wide with excitement. Dennis then took the box of matches from his pocket and tossed them to Ry. They landed beside his feet.

Ry’s fingers itched as he picked up the box and slid open the main compartment where the stick matches were housed. He grabbed one from the little drawer and slid it shut. “I’m going to enjoy this.” Ry whispered with a mischievous grin.

He then struck the match against the rough section of the match box and watched in delight as the red tip caught fire. He stared at it for a moment, admiring its beauty.

“Drop it, kid!” Dennis hissed, not wanting to be detected.

Ry nodded and tossed it at the puddle of gasoline on the ground. Dennis ran as fast as he could to get out of the way before the reaction. He grabbed Ry’s arm and dragged him away with him.

BOOM!!!!

“FIRE!! A BIG ONE!” Matt shouted and watched in horror as the flame grew to a massive size. The room the three were in was really starting to heat up and filled with smoke.

“WHAT HAPPENED?!” Alice cried.

“RED ALERT! RED ALERT! RED ALERT!” the intercom speakers blared.

“LET’S GET OUTTA HERE!” Matt shouted and took off from the building as fast as he could. Sweat was starting to form on his forehead from the temperature.

Alice ran off shortly after Matt and was more than relieved to see the light from the outside of the building, indicating her safety.

“Hey guys? Am I close to the door?!” Arizona cried out as she felt along the walls.

She had no clue that she was actually all alone.

Outside the building, the Polar Bears reconvened minus Arizona. Mika and Mallory rushed back to make sure their teammates were all okay.

“Oh, thank goodness you guys are alright!” Mallory shouted and stared at the huge flame in awe, and also jealousy, because she hadn’t caused it. She then averted her gaze and noticed something on the ground. It was a box of matches. Ry hadn’t noticed that they had fallen from his pocket.

“Wait… where’s Arizona?” Matt asked tentatively.

The group began to look around when the blind girl didn’t answer.

Mallory pocketed the matches, knowing exactly who did this. Who else would have matches on their person besides her? DENNIS.

“Uh oh.” Mallory said and glanced toward the rapidly burning building.

“She’s still in there?!” Mika asked coldly.

Matt stared at Alice with a glare. “You said you’d grab her in case this happened.” he hissed.

Alice blinked in surprise that he actually had the guts to say something. “I-I didn’t mean to. I just got scared and ran.” Alice stammered.

“Well screamin’ at each other isn’t gonna get her out!” Mallory shouted.

“D*** right! Get outta my f***** way!” Mika cried and went rushing into the building.

Black smoke was pouring out of the doorway.

“ARIZONA!” Mika called.

“I’m here!” Arizona answered and made her way towards Mika’s voice. “Get me out of here, please.” Arizona whispered, the panic making her start to shut down, and she grabbed onto Mika’s arm.

Mika nodded and began walking Arizona out of the building.

“RED ALERT!” the alarm continue to screech.

“We’re almost there.” Mika assured Arizona.

The two girl were only a few footsteps away from the exit, and the foundation to the building was audibly crumbling down.

“Hurry!” Arizona whimpered, being able to hear every menacing crackle and snap.

Only a few steps later, Mika’s head popped out of a cloud of smoke and the two emerged from the death trap of a building.

The two were coughing and Arizona still had a death grip on Mika’s arm.

“Thank god. Now let’s get outta here!” Alice said. A piece of the building landed with a thud beside the group.

“SHE’S GOIN’ DOWN!” Mallory shouted and ran away from the building.

The rest of the group followed suit and began high-tailing toward safety just as the building came crashing to the ground.

“AND THE POLAR BEARS ARE OUT.” Chris announced.

Ry and Dennis watched it all go down from afar.

“Well, we did it.” Ry said.

“We sure did.” Dennis answered in reply.

Ry had a grin on his face equal in intensity to Dennis’. “One more. Shall we do this again?” Ry inquired.

The grin on Dennis’ face grew bigger. “Of course.”

Mallory had ditched her teammates on the way to the infirmary. She was perfectly fine, and besides, she had work to do! She had a building to blow up and right now it looked like the Pandas were the target. That’d teach that Dennis a lesson, and show him who the real demolition expert was!

She had her tampered flamethrower in hand, and a mischievous spark in her eyes. Her heart was racing in anticipation of what she was about to do. There was just something about blowing things up that gave her such a rush!

She could see the Panda’s defense team through the window. However, she was hidden well enough that they couldn’t see her.

Kiki was putting out a small fire that had formed from a spark on the ground, Lavender was returning from refilling the team’s bucket with water, and T was off in a bit of a more secluded space. They could hear the siren and alarms from the last two buildings and were a bit afraid of the ringing sounds.

“Perfect.” Mallory cried and picked up a big rock from the ground which was most likely a piece from one of the previous buildings. With a grunt, she chucked the big piece of rock through the window, shattering the glass and alerting the team of her next move. She had to let them get out first.

She then gently pushed the trigger on her flamethrower and threw it through the window as well.

T’s eyes widened as they realized what had happened.

“BOMB!!!” Kiki shouted, and she picked up T and threw them over her shoulder. Lavender ran out of the room in record breaking time. Kiki and T got out just after her and they kept running until they were almost completely out of the challenge area.

BOOM!!!

The building was obliterated into millions of pieces. Smoke and bright orange flame filled the sky, and sent bits of flaming debris sailing to the ground. There were loud thuding noises as the larger chunks of the building landed all over the challenge area.

T blinked in shock and stammered, unable to really form words.

“I know.” Kiki responded.

“I guess we–” Lavender started to say.

“AND THE PANDAS ARE OUT! PENGUINS WIN!!” Chris shouted over the speakers, announcing the end of what was surely the most terrifying and dangerous challenge yet.

The Penguins breathed a sigh of relief and ran from their building, which still had a small fire going.

Dennis and Ry stared in shock as they watched their own building go down.

“We…failed.” Ry mumbled.

“We can still blow their building up. Get out the matches.” Dennis ordered, not willing to pass on the opportunity to be destructive without the worry of hurting someone.

Ry nodded and reached into his pocket. His eyes widened and he frantically wiggled his hand around to find that his pocket was empty.

“I don’t have them anymore.” Ry stated sorrowfully.

“Oh really? Well I’m glad it doesn’t matter anymore, then. We still lose.” Dennis said, a little disappointed. He then threw the bottle of gasoline far away from the buildings and walked away.

Ry stared at the strewn bottle, disappointed in himself for losing Dennis’ matches.

“Well? Are you coming?!” Dennis cried from a little farther along.

Ry stared back at the bottle and a smirk formed on his face. His heart raced as he ran towards to bottle of gasoline and picked it up.

Dennis’ eyes lit up as he realized what was about to happen.

Ry then chucked the bottle at the Penguins building and ran away with Dennis as far as possible.

BOOM!!!

The entire cast jumped from the explosion. Dakota shrieked and buried his head in his hands.

Gaile rubbed his back to comfort him and then went back to tend to Jillian.

Selene howled at the noise and began to run around.

“WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” Chris shouted over the speakers. “I SAID THE CHALLENGE WAS OVER. PANDAS, YOU STILL LOSE. PENGUINS STILL WIN,“ he taunted jeeringly.

The Penguins cheered and began to hug and exchange high fives to each other for their victory.

“To hopefully the first of many!” Derby cheered.

“GO PENGUINS!” Selene cried and threw a fist in the air.

“Congratulations! Penguins, you win immunity! But for the losers… I mean the Parrots, you’re voting someone off! Now go on and change and get ready to vote! Oh, and take a shower! YOU ALL SMELL LIKE A BARBEQUE!” Chris chuckled before clicking off of the speakers.

Ashley leaned over and placed a phony sympathetic hand on Gaile’s shoulder.

“Are you okay, Gaile? You were pretty freaked when you came out of the building.” she inquired with very convincing concern.

Gaile nodded and lowered her eyes to her purple scrunchie that was around her wrist.

“Uh huh. I just… a dog attacked me. Selene, I mean. But she looked and acted just like a dog! I am super scared of dogs, man. And the most confusing part is that I don’t even know why she was there! She had no reason to be chillin’ in the Parrot pad!! All she said was 'shiny!’” she exclaimed.

“Shiny?” Ashley questioned with a tilt of her head.

Gaile nodded.

At that moment, Todd came over to check on Jillian. “Hey partner!” he greeted with a smile.

“She’s still unconscious.” Dakota replied, still sounding a bit shaken up.

“Oh. I’ll just chill then.” Todd said and sat beside the group.

Ashley knew that this was her chance to finish her plan. She slipped her hand into her pocket undetectably and pulled out Benny’s sunglasses. She then reached over and stuck them in Todd’s back pants pocket.

Ashley gasped in horror. “Tom? Why do you have Benny’s sunglasses?” she questioned with a wide eyed look of surprise.

“Huh? What are you talking about? I don’t! AND IT’S TODD.” Todd answered.

“I’m looking right at them, you liar!” Ashley pointed an accusatory finger at his pocket.

“You’re deranged! I didn’t steal anything!” Todd cried and reached for his pocket. His face flushed as his fingers touched the sunglasses’ lens.

“Or maybe I did.” he whispered. “NO, NO, I didn’t! This is a mistake!” he assured his team, waving the sunglasses around.

A beam of light flashed around the area as the sunglasses caught the sunlight. One beam landed near Selene.

“SHINY! GLASSES SHINY!” Selene sang and came rushing over again.

“AHHHH NO! IT’S BACK! BAD DOG!” Gaile squealed and climbed onto Jillian’s bed where she was resting.

Jillian woke up with a start as Gaile climbed over her. “Wha?!” she gasped.

Ashley smirked maliciously. “What was that you said, Selene?” she asked knowingly.

“SHINY!” Selene shouted again.

Gaile’s eyes widened as she realized that the glasses had attracted the other girl all along. Dakota made this realization at the same time.

It took everything in Ashley’s being to not start laughing as her plan was clearly working.

“I didn’t! I didn’t! I was framed! I-I didn’t do it!” Todd sputtered.

The Parrots all looked at Todd with disbelief and sorrow, excluding one girl, who caught the boy’s eyes and gave him a tight-lipped, vicious smile.

The camera panned across all of the teams as a final scene before the commercial break. It showed the Penguins celebrating and cheering for their first victory, and the Pandas slightly downtrodden at how close they were to winning. T was still over Kiki’s shoulder, looking kinda freaked out. It then focused on the Polar Bears walking back over to the hotel, and finally the Parrots looking very angry and scowling at Todd because they had lost. The camera focused on Ashley who looked more pleased than angry. The screen then faded out to black.

Staff

 * Chris McLean
 * Chef

Contestants

 * Alice
 * Arizona
 * Ashley
 * Bailey
 * Benny
 * Dakota
 * Dennis
 * Derby
 * Gaile
 * Jillian
 * Kiki
 * Lavender
 * Mallory
 * Matt
 * Mika
 * Ry
 * Selene
 * T
 * 'The Baroness'
 * Todd

Red Alert (Message Recived) Part 3
'''A shocking elimination ceremony breaks hearts and stirs drama between contestants. One contestant shockingly goes home, leaving 19 remaining; one with a broken heart.'''

Plot
The show returned from the commercial break to reveal the cast, who were seated in the voting area. The Parrots were all seated on bleachers in the center of the area, surrounded by the other teams. As suspenseful music played over the scene, the camera panned over the Parrots. It was clear by the variety of expressions that were on each team member’s face that none of them were on the same page about what would be happening. Ashley, of course, had a malicious, proud smile on her face, satisfied with how her plan would undoubtedly turn out. Gaile was playing with the scrunchie on her wrist, tugging and twisting it nervously. She felt like she knew what would be going down tonight. Todd had his hands in his pockets and was leaning back casually in his seat, trying desperately to hide the fact that he was terrified of being sent home. Jill was nervously chewing on the inside of her cheek, obviously feeling the same as Todd and not managing to hide it. Dakota was just sitting with an unsure expression on his face, most likely because he couldn’t remember what an elimination ceremony was like from only a few nights before. Footsteps could be heard as Chris McLean walked into the scene holding a red envelope, and a plastic baggie filled with red rubber bracelets. The tension in the Parrot’s team visibly heightened as he approached.

“The votes are in!” Chris cried as he waved the envelope in the air. “It’s time to find out who’s staying and who’s getting splashed on the Wall of Shame!” he continued energetically. The camera panned over quickly to show the Wall of Shame, adorned with Alexandria’s white paint splatter silhouette. A couple of Alexandria’s signed photos flew by in the wind. The camera followed the pictures towards the cast, where one promptly landed with a slap in The Baroness’ face. She clawed at the picture obstructing her vision, and gave it a good angry look before ripping it to shreds and grumbling something about “floggin’ the wench”.

“Alright contestants! HERE WE GO.” Chris cried and opened the baggie of bracelets. He then tossed three other baggies of the bracelets to the Penguins, Pandas, and Polar Bears, who eagerly distributed the red bracelets that signified their safety to one another.

“When I call your name, that means you’re safe and you will receive a bracelet.” Chris stated and grabbed the first bracelet from the baggie.

“First of all. Dakota.” Chris called and tossed a red bracelet to the boy.

“Gaile.” he continued and tossed another bracelet to the 90’s girl. She fumbled to put in on her wrist with the white one from before.

Chris paused for dramatic effect. “There are two bracelets left, and three of you.” he taunted.

All of the teams began to wriggle in their seats at the anticipation. The Baroness leaned forward, hopeful that her choice was getting splashed.

“Jillian.” Chris continued and tossed a bracelet to the girl who now had tears welling in her eyes.

Gaile put a hand on her shoulder for support.

Chris then dangled the last remaining bracelet in front of the cast and the music intensified. “The last bracelet goes to….” he started with a sinister smirk, dragging on the moment for what felt like hours.

Jillian bit her lip and covered her face with her hands. Ry played with his fingers anxiously in his seat. Ashley’s eyes widened, showing she was a bit nervous, but her smile didn’t change. Gaile continued to rub Jillian’s back, completely distracted from the events going on around her.

“…..Ashley.” Chris announced and tossed the bracelet to the girl who happily accepted and slid it on her wrist.

Ry and the Baroness glanced at one another from the sidelines with equal looks of exasperation.

The Baroness threw her hands up in disbelief. “Are ye kiddin’ me?! Ye sent the lad packin’ when ye coulda’ sent the deceitful sea wench?!” she shouted in an outrage.

“I’m sorry, Todd..” Jillian whispered despairingly from inside her hands.

Ashley turned toward Todd and waved her wrist in his face like a trophy. “Terrible thing to do, sabotaging your own team,” she said in a disappointed voice, but her lips were still curved in a smile.

“Todd, it’s time to go!” Chris cried and gestured towards the Wall of Shame.

Todd nodded with a forlorn expression and slowly stood and headed towards the wall.

The Baroness burst from her seat. “ARE YE ALL ADDLED?! PARROTS, OPEN YER EYES! CAN YE NOT SEE THAT YE HAVE BEEN DECEIVED?! A slimy sea dog now goes free while an innocent salt  has ta walk the plank for ‘er actions?!” she preached with new found vigor in her voice.

“What are you talking about?” Ashley looked over to the Baroness with wide, innocent eyes.

“Are ye actually denyin’ that ye did this? Arr, ‘tis a sad day when a coward can’t take the punishment of ‘er own evil actions. That’s what ye are, Ashley; a coward and a bilge-sucking wench!”

“Me? A coward? If anyone’s a coward, it’s Todd.” Ashley turned to address Todd for her next statements. “I mean, hurting your own teammate and then denying it? That’s pretty low, even for you.”

“WHAT?! Are you saying that I hurt Jillian now too?! I’d never hurt her! I-I-I’d never hurt anyone!” Todd cried in reply. His hands were balled up into fists, his face red from fury.

Jillian buried her face in her hands again. “No, no, no.” she wailed. Gaile and Dakota each placed a hand on her shoulders to comfort her.

“Shh it’s ok, Jillian. I don’t want to think Todd would hurt you either.” Dakota said to her quietly.

“I didn’t do it! Honest! What reason would I have for doing something like that to a teammate?!” Todd cried.

“I surely don’t know, Tad. Why don’t you tell us?” Ashley taunted with innocent eyes.

Todd opened his mouth to defend himself again, but was interrupted by Chris.

“E-NOUGH! Tad– I mean Todd, it’s time for you to get splashed,” he ordered.

“Okay. Bring it on,” Todd said defeatedly and stood in front of the wall.

Chef then walked into the elimination area pulling a wagon with cans of red paint; one for each remaining contestant.

“Alright contestants, come grab your paint cans.” Chris instructed.

The contestants all got up and grabbed their cans, surrounding Todd in front of the wall.

Ashley limped over from her new foot injury to the center of the group, to stand right in front of Todd.

“What fools these mortals be.” Todd mumbled under his breath, not making eye contact with his teammates.

“We’ll throw on three. 1….2….3!” Chris directed and rushed out of the way of the oncoming flow of red paint.

Todd closed his eyes tightly and stiffened as the paint splashed all over him.

As the rest of the contestants tossed their paint, The Baroness and Ry instead dumped their paint on the ground beside them. It splashed and splattered onto their pants and shoes.

“Time to go, bud.” Chris said and pointed to the exit.

Todd opened his eyes after realizing it was over and moved away to look at the red silhouette on the wall next to Alexandria’s white one. He looked very sad and betrayed as he made his way to the exit. Before he left he turned and gave a long, ‘eat s*** and die’ glare at Ashley.

“I’ll be back.” Todd grumbled and headed off.

When he was finally out of sight, Chris stood back in front of the contestants. “And now, Penguins, your reward!” he announced and gestured to Chef, who was approaching with a bag he pulled from under the bleachers in his hand. Chef reached into the large bag and began to pass out the Penguin’s reward, mini plushie versions of the sunglasses emoji.

“Plushies.” The Baroness growled at the object in her hand. She then threw it across the elimination arena where it landed near the Wall of Shame with a squeak.

Ry darted away from his team and strut over towards the Parrots. He planted himself right in front of Ashley. The other Parrots dispersed to avoid the conflict that was surely about to ensue.

“So how’s your foot injury?” Ry teased.

Ashley’s face hardened.

“Congratulations. It looks like your plan was successful. But I must ask, don’t you feel even a smidge of remorse for what you did?” Ry growled.

“I haven’t the slightest idea of what you are talking about, Henry.” Ashley feigned shock.

“Don’t play that game, B****ley. I know you did it. I just know it!” Ry cried, pointing an accusatory finger at the girl. “I must also say that it was quite remarkable how easily you were able to convince your teammates that Todd betrayed you.”

“It really is, isn’t it?” Ashley asked in her best fake sarcastic tone, “I got rid of Todd so easily, huh?! Just imagine how easy it’s gonna be to get rid of YOU.” Ashley hissed out the last phrase.

Ry stood unphased, though inside his heart was beating a mile a minute.

“If I were you, I’d watch your back, Henry.” Ashley said.

“I’m not scared of you.” Ry stated with a straight, emotionless face.

“You should be. This game is only just beginning.” The girl spat coldly, a wide, malicious grin on her face.

Ry then rolled his eyes, turned around and walked away.

The camera panned over the remaining contestants as they were exiting the elimination area.

Ry was angrily staring at the thrown plushie. Ashley was smirking, her plan having been successful. Jillian was still seated with her face buried in her hands.

Chris appeared to close the show.

“What a thrilling and DRAMATIC episode! What’s going to happen between the Baroness, Ry, and Ashley?! Will Todd really be back?! And who is going to get covered in paint next? Find out next time on TOTAL. DRAMA. COLORS!”

The scene closed with Jillian being the last one to leave the elimination area. She slowly looked up from her hands and got up from her seat. She then padded towards the wall and picked up the mini emoji plushie that the Baroness threw. She stared at the wall for a moment with a sad look as she carefully slipped the plushie into her pocket and walked away to rejoin her teammates.

The screen then faded out to black.

Staff

 * Chris McLean
 * Chef

Contestants

 * Alice
 * Arizona
 * Ashley
 * Bailey
 * Benny
 * Dakota
 * Dennis
 * Derby
 * Gaile
 * Jillian
 * Kiki
 * Lavender
 * Mallory
 * Matt
 * Mika
 * Ry
 * Selene
 * T
 * 'The Baroness'
 * Todd