"Last time on Total Drama Action," Chris began the recap while sitting down as Chef polished a pair of cowboy boots he was wearing, the buff cook not looking too happy about it. "It was one small step for teens and one giant leap in the competition as our challengers acted like space cadets in training with our space themed movie challenge. Dawn and Geoff proved to be masters of zero gravity as they dived for moon rocks with Harold's nerdy knowledge proving to be useful to both teams. The Gaffers were in the clear to keep their winning streak going thanks to their head start and Lindsay being the driver for the Grips rover. But in a surprising twist after hearing her team bad mouth her Lindsay pulled a fast one and got Leshawna to turn Heather and Ronnie Anne into roadkill while she planted her team's victory flag! In the end Leshawna was given the boot, but not before Harold popped the question on asking Leshawna to be his girlfriend with her giving a resounding yes! This week our competitors will be forced to beat the heat in our wildest showdown yet right here on Total. Drama. Action!"
Currently all the members of both teams were hanging outside the trailers…with most of them being completely miserable. The reason being simple, a rather big heat wave was passing by and everyone was feeling the effects of it. Nearly everyone was doing whatever they could do to beat the heat with Bridgette and Ronnie Anne ditching their hoodies, DJ was sitting in a kiddy pool, Justin holding a handheld electric fan to his face, and everyone else sitting under whatever shade they could.
"Uuuugh…" Harold let out as he laid down in the shade of one of the trailers. The geeky ginger was probably feeling the heat more than anyone, mostly due to the fact that his sadness just made the heat harder to deal with. Leshawna was now gone and while they had managed to get together at the last minute before her elimination, Harold wished she was here and could enjoy being a couple together. Or at the very least bear the heat together. "Hot and miserable, what a cruel combo…"
CONFESSIONAL – Harold
"With Leshawna gone and my mojo sweating out of me, I can feel my ability to perform leaving me…" Harold said with a lowered and sweat covered head before crying out in despair. "My mad skills will be destroyed!"
"Wow, you lot ain't lookin' too good," Jasmine walked up to everyone looking none worse for wear. Despite the intense heat beating down on the film lot Jasmine didn't seem to feel it at all as she was up and about like normal. "Can't take the heat huh?"
"It's so…hot dude…" Geoff groaned out, his shirt gone and the party dude using his hat to cool himself.
"Hah, you mates call this hot?" Jasmine smirked as she held a hand up, the Australian Amazon couldn't help but flex a bit on everyone here. "Back home this would be considered freezing!"
"Well not all of us grew up around a freakin' desert…" Tyler groaned as he and a few others gave Jasmine the stink eye for her bragging. "Right Lindsay?"
"Oh I don't know," Lindsay immediately crossed her arms and sent Tyler a glare. "Sure you wanna ask me about deserts? I thought I didn't know anything,"
"Aw come on babe," Tyler whined a bit as Lindsay turned her head away from Tyler.
CONFESSIONAL – Tyler
"Ever since the space challenge Lindsay has been acting cold towards me," Tyler sighed out sadly as he looked downward. He and Lindsay had such a good relationship, he doesn't know what caused the bump they were apparently having. "I don't know why, I keep asking what I did wrong but she told me I have to figure it out for myself! How am I supposed to do that? I just gotta find a way to get back on her good side."
"How…" Heather let out as she glared angrily and enviously at Dawn. The nature lover was currently sitting on top of a picnic table in lotus position. Despite the heat she was still wearing her sweater and didn't even have a drop of sweat staining her skin. "How is she not even sweating?!"
"It's all about mind over body." Dawn answered immediately as she took a deep and slow breath. "Centering your mind to help your body properly fight off the intense elements so they don't affect you."
"Still though," Trent panted after taking a swing of water from his bottle. "You're wearing a sweater in this heat,"
"I've been practicing this for years." Dawn informed everyone with a shrug. "It's not an easy skill to obtain,"
"Wish I could do that," Lincoln spoke up as he admired his girlfriend from the shade of the tree she sleeps on with his shirt removed.
"Me too brother," DJ panted as he scooped up some of the water from the kiddy pool and dumped it on his head. "This heat is killer."
"I think you're just fine," Dawn reassured Lincoln as she looked down at his shirtless body and giggled a bit. "Hehehe~"
"Heat…so…hot..." Mike let out a bit dazed from the heat as sweat poured off his entire body. "Can't take this anymore!!!"
CONFESSIONAL – Mike
"Have I ever mentioned I don't do well in the heat?" Mike asked a bit awkwardly before sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "Because I don't, hehe…"
Everyone watched as Mike bit the bullet and took off his shirt causing him to gasp deeply as his hair was slicked back. "Oh...oh…hey what's with this freakin' heat? It's like a microwave out here…" Vito panted as he slumped down and began fanning himself, the jersey boy certainly not liking the heat. "Why'd you bring me out now?! Mike you jackass!"
This earned a lot of strange looks from everyone. "Well someone officially lost it," Heather commented as she rolled her eyes.
Meanwhile Trent looked a little worried.
CONFESSIONAL – Trent
"It's getting a bit hard to keep Mike's secret lately, especially when his personalities come out randomly like this," Trent stated as he put his hand to his chin in deep thought. "Had some close calls during down time, maybe I should try and convince Mike to come out about it to everyone…"
"Ugh can't even laugh at him right now…" Ronnie Anne let out as she poured some water from a bottle to her head. "Haven't dealt with this kind of heat since I was 11…"
"Quick question, aren't Hispanic people supposed to have a tolerance for the heat?" Justin asked as he turned to Ronnie Anne. Ronnie Anne's response was only sending a glare Justin's way leading him to raise up his free hand. "Just asking,"
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
"AH!" Everyone yelled out as the sounds of gunshots going off nearby made everyone briefly forget about the heat and look around in alarm.
"Aaaah!! Get down!" Izzy, who was sitting on one of the branches of the tree and had been using the leaves to try and fan herself, eyes widened as she jumped down and hid behind the tree. "They found us! It's everyone for themselves!"
"Not so fast, partner!" A familiar voice yelled out in a western accent. Turning to the source of the gunshots, everyone watched as Chris walked into view with two revolver guns in his hand and was decked out in a black cowboy outfit. "Hehe, ok you all can relax. Guns are just blanks, I can't afford more animal lawsuits from last season."
"Good to know," Dawn nodded in satisfaction.
"Hope y'all are beatin' the heat!" Chris put back on his western accent as he walked in the middle between the two trailers so that all eyes were on him. "Cause we're goin' west this season!"
CONFESSIONAL – Lincoln
"Oh cool cowboy movies, that's kind of nostalgic," Lincoln chuckled a bit as he looked up, fond memories entering the loud boy's head. "Reminds me of when my sisters and I really got into western books. Good times."
"Are you kidding me…" Ronnie Anne panted as she glared at Chris. It was way too freaking hot to compete today! They could all barely stand! "You can't expect us to do a stupid challenge in this heat!"
"Brbrbrb!" The sound of a familiar platypus was heard, everyone watched as Edward appeared and waddled up to Ronnie Anne, a cowboy hat on his head and a revolver in his mouth.
"…That's a prop right?" Ronnie Anne asked, a little bit worried as the platypus aimed it at her.
"Wanna find out?" Chris asked with a smirk.
"…Fine" Ronnie Anne grumbled as she stood up.
"Good! Now then!" Chris then clapped his hands and Chef walked up dragging along with him racks full of cowboy outfits, complete with hats of course. "Everyone get dressed and be at the bar by high noon!"
"Ooooo!" Lindsay immediately rushed forward and grabbed a pink cowboy outfit from the rack. "Super cute!"
CONFESSIONAL – Mike
"Oh boy…" Mike, who was dressed in one of the cowboy outfits Chris provided, looked at the cowboy hat he grabbed with an hesitant tone. He knew if he wore this one of his personalities would come out. Well…hopefully Chris wouldn't throw too much of a fuss if he showed up without it. "I'm just gonna…" Sneakily, Mike hid the hat under the vanity and just hoped no one would find it.
CONFESSIONAL – Jasmine.
Jasmine, who was also wearing one of the provided outfits, looked over the cowboy hat she grabbed over a little bit. The Australian Amazon took off her own hat before putting on the cowboy hat. Humming about, Jasmine took a second to look at herself in the mirror before smiling. "I like it!"
CONFESSIONAL – Heather
"Well it's not a wig…" Heather slowly said as she made sure the cowboy hat was firmly on her head. "But at least it covers my head nicely."
Luckily everyone remembered where the cowboy set was from their first day on the lot when Chris was giving the tour so it didn't take them long to find it after everyone was decked out in their cowboy/girl outfits with all of them having the typical cowboy boots, pants, vest, and hat with Geoff wearing his usual hat and Mike being the only one without the hat.
Now that they weren't passing it by on the cart everyone was able to get a good look at the set. The ground was covered in sand and with a few cacti setup here and there. And of course given that this was a cowboy movie set the town that was set up had an old west feel with all of them being made of wood and having saloon doors on them. The heat of the day was still beating down on them all but they would just have to deal with it for the sake of the challenge today.
Like Chris instructed they all arrived at the bar on the set with Chris exiting it and greeting all the contestants. "Well howdy there cow folk, glad y'all could make it!" Chris kept up his southern accent much to the annoyance of a few of the contestants, though it seemed others didn't quite mind as much. "Now then, you can't have a good cowboy movie without good cowboys! There are a few skills that are necessary to survive in the old west. How to ride a horse, how to shoot, how to kick butt so you can rough up the guy that's cheating at Poker by hiding cards up his sleeves. And of course how to safely roll off a moving train that the big bad outlaws rigged to explode."
CONFESSIONAL – Lindsay
"Oh I love horsies!" Lindsay clapped with an eager grin on her face. "I always ride them whenever we visit a zoo! Although for some reason they sometimes have big humps on their bag."
"What about the pretty dame?" Lindsay asked as she raised her hand up. "There's always a pretty dame in these movies!"
"None of your beeswax!" Chris snapped at Lindsay, making her flinch. But Chris soon chuckled as his usual demeanor returned. "Nah just messing with ya, they usually hang out at the saloon during the bar brawl."
"Bar brawl, cool," Harold grinned at the thought of that.
"So what's the challenge already?" Heather asked impatiently as she took her hat off her head and used it to fan herself. "And please tell me it takes place in a room with air conditioning."
"They didn't have AC during the old west, they were all tough enough to take the heat!" Chris stated as he grinned after hearing the groans of despair coming from the contestants. "But as for the challenge, just follow me inside and you'll see for yourselves what's in store for y'all today!"
Chris then walked back into the bar with all the teenagers following. Once they were inside they saw that the bar was a lot bigger than it looks like from the outside. It was designed like a typical old west bar with the usual bar counter at the back with shelves containing various bottles on it. Tables and chairs were spread out all over with a few poker tables added into the mix. There was an upstairs area that they couldn't see the top of, barrels were placed around in a few locations including a bunch set up on the wall with nozzles attached to them. And to the very side of the bar was Chef wearing his own cowboy outfit and was playing a piano providing music to the bar.
"Woah cool," Lincoln grinned as they all looked it over. "This actually looks like one of those old timey bars that you see in one of those old west tourist traps."
"I know right," Chris nodded as he grabbed a glass from one of the tables and walked over to one of the tables. Everyone then watched as the host with the most approached one of the barrels on the wall and twisted the valve of the nozzle with all the looks being sent Chris' way turning envious as they watched ice cold root beer fill up his glass. Chugging it all down and earning himself some glares in the process, Chris let out a satisfied sigh. "The interns really went all out on this,"
"Hey you better share that!" Ronnie Anne yelled out at Chris as she pointed to the barrels. "We're sweating our asses off over here,"
"I might consider sharing with the winning team," Chris stated before pulling out a remote and pressing a button. A wooden wall then rose up blocking the rest of the bar off from everyone with two BB Guns being attached to the wall, one on each side. Then lowered from the ceiling were two score counters that were set to zero with one having the Gaffer's logo on it and the other having the Grip's logo on it. "Now then for the first challenge…wait a minute, something's wrong here." Chris narrowed his eyes at the contestants a bit before focusing his sights on a completely hatless Mike. "Mike, bro, where's your hat? You can't be a cowboy without a hat. They're required."
"Oh, um, uh…there wasn't one for me!" Mike tried to think of the best excuse he could make. He had hoped Chris wouldn't make a fuss about him not having a hat but it looks like he wouldn't be so lucky. So the best he could hope for now is make up an excuse and hope Chris would buy it so he wouldn't have to put it on. "There just wasn't enough for all of us it seems, hehe, oh well."
"No worries bro, I got you," Chris shot some finger guns at Mike making him flinch as the host turned to the piano playing cook. "Chef! Hat him!"
Mike's eyes widened in horror as Chef stopped playing the piano and pulled out a cowboy hat seemingly out of nowhere before walking over to Mike. "W-Wait!" Mike tried to plead as the buff cook approached him. "You don't have to-"
But his pleads were unheard as Chef put the hat straight on his head causing Mike to let out a deep gasp. The contestants leaned forward to see what would happen as they quickly picked up that, that was the que that Mike was going to put on another one of his 'characters.' Soon Mike had a confident smirk on his face as his eyes squinted. "Well g'day everyone! Quite the scorcher we got here ay?" 'Mike' said in…an Australian Accent of all things. "Well nice to meetcha, the name's Manitoba Smith!"
Everyone shot Mike, or rather Manitoba, looks having never seen this 'character' before. Meanwhile Trent simply face palmed.
CONFESSIONAL – Trent
"And personality number 5, so that's who comes out when he wears a hat," Trent scratched the back of his head nervously. At least he finally knew about all of Mike's personalities now so that was good. "Now I see what he means about Manitoba offending Jasmine. Maybe it won't be so bad? Maybe she'll just see it as a fun little joke, hehe…"
CONFESSIONAL – Jasmine
"...…..Is he making fun of me?" Jasmine asked with a bit of an offended look.
"Huh, an Australian Cowboy," Chris let out with an amused tone as everyone was still shooting Manitoba weird looks with Jasmine giving him a light glare. "Ya know if I had a nickel for all the Australian cowboys we have here I'd have two nickels. Not a lot but it's still weird that we got two of them haha."
"That guy just keeps getting weirder and weirder," Heather whispered as she crossed her arms.
"Well don't underestimate him," Ronnie Anne pointed out as she narrowed her eyes on Manitoba. At first she thought he was just some skinny wimp but it was clear that there was definitely more to this guy than meets the eye. "You saw what he can do with his whole Svetlana shtick, the guy's hiding some skills underneath that weird actor persona."
"Not to mention the dude can hit pretty hard…" Geoff pointed out as he rubbed his cheek, recalling the time Mal punched him in the face.
"Now then for the first challenge of the day we have a classic cowboy shoot down!" Chris announced as he pulled a remote out of the pocket of his cowboy vest. "Now each team will choose three members to go against each other in shooting various targets that appear in the bar, three minutes for each round. The goal is simple, score as many points as you can and the team who has the most points by the end of the third round wins. To score points you simply gotta hit the right targets."
"Hope Heather's head doesn't blind us," Lincoln cracked with a smirk on his face getting laughs from his team.
"Hey!" Heather was quick to glare at the white head in response.
"It does kinda shine in the light a bit," Geoff commented as he looked over Heather's head, now earning himself a glare from the queen bee.
"Heheheh," Ronnie Anne couldn't help but snicker.
Chris, who was watching the exchange in amusement, then pushed a button on the remote and popping up from various places in the bar were cardboard cutouts of cartoony looking robbers, complete with black and white striped suits. "Shooting the robbers earns you 500 points." A single cardboard cutout of Chef in his cowboy outfit then appeared. "Shoot the big bad outlaw, and you earn yourself 2,000 points."
Heather grinned as she picked up one of the BB Guns and aimed it at the real Chef. "You shoot me with that you die," Chef threatened, not even looking up from the piano as Heather flinched and quickly set the gun down.
"But these are the only ones you want to shoot, if you shoot a civilian you lose 500 points," Chris then pressed a button and replacing the cardboard cutouts of the robbers were cardboard cutouts of some familiar faces, those being past campers/contestants with cutouts of Katie, Cody, Gwen, and Owen appearing around the bar. "And lastly, if you shoot the incredibly handsome Sheriff your score will be cut in half!" Finally replacing the cutout of Chef was a cutout of Chris himself wearing his cowboy outfit.
"So be very careful not to shoot him!" Chris warned them but it also sounded like a bit of a threat as well. Finally Chris pointed to the bar counter. "And as I pointed out, cheering you all on is the pretty dame!"
Hopping on the bar counter was Lily wearing a pink western style dress complete with a fan she was covering the lower half of her face with. "Good luck out there y'all," Lily told everyone with a southern accent. "Play nice out there ok,"
"Aaawww, she's so adorable!" Lindsay again couldn't help but gush at the adorableness that was Lily.
CONFESSIONAL – Justin
"I don't think that's gonna stop anyone from trying to shoot the sheriff anyway," Justin joked before chuckling a bit.
"So teams, pick out the best three shots you have and let's get to the showdown!" Chris told both teams, giving them some time to pick who was gonna be stepping up for the challenge."
"Ok, I'd like to volunteer myself to be one of the shooters," Lincoln offered as he raised a hand with a grin. "I am a pretty good shot if I do say so myself,"
"You did do well during the paintball challenge last season," Bridgette said with a grin as everyone shared a good laugh as they remembered that particular challenge as well as what happened to a certain queen bee that day. "Ah good times~"
"Achoo!" Heather sneezed before glaring over at the Screaming Gaffers. "They better not be talking about me over there…"
"Focus Heather," Ronnie Anne scolded the bald teen before looking over the rest of her team again. "Look, we finally broke our losing streak with the Gaffers and quite frankly I'd like to turn it into our own winning streak, so we need to give ourselves the best possible chance of success that we can. I'm being one of the shooters no question, so who wants to be the other two?"
"Ooooo! I'll go!" Izzy offered as she jumped up and down while raising her hand. "I'm such a good shot! I've bagged plenty of things before! Koala bears, crocodiles, anacondas, Bruce Willis, my school's Janitor!"
"…Are we sure we wanna trust her with a gun?" Justin asked Ronnie Anne cautiously. "BB or otherwise?"
"Hmmmm…" Ronnie Anne hummed a bit in thought at that. Izzy was…definitely the most unstable of the team by a wide margin. But she meant what she said about wanting to give herself the best chances at winning as possible. And quite frankly she wasn't too sure about her team's ability to shoot. She wanted to use Justin for something else this challenge and Tyler would probably find a way to hurt himself while doing it. That only left Izzy, Heather, and Lindsay as other options and of the three of them…Izzy probably would be the best shot. "Alright, fine."
"Woohoo!" Izzy cheered as everyone flinched a bit.
"I'll be the last shooter!" Lindsay quickly volunteered before anyone else could.
CONFESSIONAL – Lindsay
"I've been kicking butt these last few challenges," Lindsay said with a grin. Sure she did kind of mess up during the Classic Monster Movie challenge but she won the first half of the prison challenge all by herself and she freaking won the space movie challenge! Sure her team still thought of her as the dumb blond but she didn't care, she was a winner and she wanted to try and keep it like that. "I wanna keep my winning streak up! I know I can do this! Even if everyone else thinks I can't, I'll just prove them wrong again!"
"Lindsay?!" Heather yelled out before shaking her head. "No way, I'll-"
"Fine," Ronnie Anne quickly covered Heather's mouth before the queen bee could finish, leading to Heather glaring at her. "You can be one of the shooters too."
CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne
"Don't get the wrong idea, I definitely still remember what she pulled during the last challenge and I plan on getting payback for it," Ronnie Anne both growled a bit at the memory as well as winced a bit as she remembered the pain of getting run over. "However, she still did win the last challenge for us so it looks like she's more useful than she looks. I'll keep her around a little longer and see how she does. If she fails we'll dump her like Heather wants, but if she succeeds I could have myself a new trump card~"
"I'll go too," Jasmine offered to be the second shooter for the Gaffers as she smirked confidently and pointed a thumb to herself. "Me mum and dad go on hunting trips all the time back home, bagged meself a fine number of critters in the past." A horrified gasp from Dawn made Jasmine wince a bit. "Ooooo…sorry mate…"
"Well then count me in as well mates," Manitoba stepped up as Jasmine sent a glare down at him. "Heh, I got quite the good eye myself, never once lost the shooting range whenever the carnival comes to down,"
"Dang really?" DJ let out in an impressed tone. Despite Mike's weird…'characters' so far the guy never really did anything to rub him the wrong way, and hey gotta give a brother credit where it's due. "And those things are supposed to be rigged!"
"Not when you're good enough they aren't!" Manitoba bragged as he adjusted his hat.
"Grrrr…" Jasmine let out as she clenched her fist.
"Hmmmm…" Lincoln hummed and rubbed his chin in thought a bit. That definitely was impressive, and Mike certainly has been performing well on the challenges. Did decently during the surfing challenge, won them the first part of the horror challenge, and easily cleared the obstacle course of the disaster and prison challenges. The guy proved to be a swiss army knife of skills. "Alright Mike, er, Manitoba. You're in."
"Right on mate," Manitoba shared a first bump with Lincoln before looking between him and Jasmine. "Lets win this bloody thing yeah?"
CONFESSIONAL – Jasmine
"I seriously think he's making fun of me," Jasmine said with narrowed eyes, growing angrier about Mike's whole 'Manitoba Smith' character.
With both teams choosing their three shooters, the first two of both teams stood up with Lincoln choosing to go first for the Gaffers and Lindsay going first for the Grips. "Hey Lindsay," Lincoln told the blond as they both picked up their BB Gun. "May the best shooter win,"
"Aaww thanks," Lindsay sent Lincoln a smile and nod before they both aimed forward and got ready to start shooting.
"Alright Chef, give us some good shooting music," Chris requested, with Chef giving Chris a thumbs up before cracking his knuckles and getting ready to play the instrument with all his might. Chris then took out one of his blank revolvers and held it up to the ceiling. "Cowboys ready and…shoot!"
BANG!
Chris shot the gun and Chef immediately started playing the piano as cardboard cutouts quickly started to appear around the bar and Lincoln and Lindsay acted quickly to claim the targets for themselves. The majority of the targets that appeared were of course the typical robbers . "Yippe-cay-aye!" Lindsay cheered as she managed to shoot down three robbers in a row.
Lincoln smirked towards Lindsay as he looked up and spotted the head of a few robbers appearing in the upstairs area and snagged them for himself before Lindsay noticed them. Both seemed to be at neck and neck for most of the round. But once the first minute of the round ended that's when things started to become a bit tougher as the civilians popped up among the robbers with Lindsay being the first victim to this as she instinctively shot the first civilian that popped up. "Oops!" Lindsay winced as she shot a cut out of Owen…right in the mouth. "Sorry Owen..."
"Dang Lindsay," Chris couldn't help but chuckle a bit at that. "Hasn't Owen's jaw been through enough this season?"
CONFESSONAL – Izzy
"Too soon…" Izzy let out a feral growl as she stared at the camera.
Now that they had the civilians to look out for, Lincoln and Lindsay had to stop being so trigger happy and properly scan the area out before shooting as the bar was now filled with a mix between robbers and the familiar faces of the civilians. "Lincoln, look out!" Harold let out as a cardboard cut out of Leshawna appeared next to a robber. Luckily Lincoln hit the robber and didn't accidently shoot the cutout of his girlfriend letting Harold breath out a sigh of relief. "Be careful! You nearly shot Leshawna!"
"Don't worry Harold, I'm keeping an eye out!" Lincoln reassured Harold as he continued to shoot down the robbers that appeared.
Once the two minute mark hit, that's when things really got chaotic. Even more cutouts of civilians were appearing and added into the mix was the Outlaw and the Sheriff. One greatly added to the score and the other greatly reduced it. Lincoln and Lindsay glanced at each other and shared a competitive fire in their eyes before looking forward again and keeping an eye out for any robbers or Outlaws to raise their scores before it ended while doing their best to try and not shoot the sheriff and cripple their score as now their were more subtraction targets rather than addition targets.
BEEP!
An alarm went off as the timer went down to zero with all the cardboard cutouts disappearing. "That's round one! Let's see how well you two did," Chris announced as everyone looked up to the scoreboard. Lincoln earned 16,500 points for his team while Lindsay earned an even 15,000. "Whooooo, nice shootin' there partners! Gaffers are in the lead but Grips ain't far behind!"
"Dang nice shooting out there Lindsay," Lincoln grinned as he turned to the ditzy blond and held a fist out to her. "Put her there partner,"
"Thanks! That was fun!" Lindsay grinned as she shared a fist bump with Lincoln before the two walked away. "Good luck!"
"Good luck," Heather shot Lindsay a nasty look as she joined up with the team again. Ever since the last challenge Heather has been really pissed off at Lindsay, more so than usual. "What's up with wishing our enemies good luck?!"
"It's called good sportsmanship duh," Lindsay rolled her eyes and passed by Heather, refusing to humor the queen bee. "Maybe you should learn a thing or two from it."
Heather let out a gasp before growling at Lindsay and tightening her fist. "Lincoln was right, Lindsay!" Tyler quickly got in front of Lindsay to try and compliment her about her performance on the shooting challenge, desperately hoping to get back in Lindsay's good graces. "You really surprised me out there!"
"Surprised, oh so you didn't think I could do this either?" Lindsay sent him a glare before turning her back to Tyler.
"Wha-no! I didn't mean-I was trying to…ugh…" Tyler face palmed a bit at yet another flop. What was he doing wrong here? He was just trying to compliment his girl but it seemed Lindsay only got more upset with him with every attempt. He's gotta find out what was wrong before he ends up losing Lindsay. Just then catching Tyler's eye was Lincoln who was getting cheered on by his team with Dawn giving him a kiss. Suddenly a light bulb went off in the jock's head. "Hmmmm…"
CONFESSIONAL – Tyler
"Maybe if I get some advice from someone else they can help me with what's going on with Lindsay," Tyler explained his idea to the camera. Maybe he couldn't figure out what was going on, but someone else probably could. "It has to be someone who's in or been in a relationship. No way am I asking Izzy, Harold…not too confident about asking, Ronnie Anne…definitely not. That leaves Trent, Geoff, Bridgette, Lincoln, and Dawn. Lincoln and Dawn seem to have the most stable relationship in my opinion so I'll try my chances with one of them."
"Second round shooters please step up." Chris announced as they got ready to start the next round of the shooting range.
"I got this mates," Jasmine smirked as she stepped up.
Ronnie Anne smirked at this, oh this was too perfect. Ronnie Anne stepped up to take on Jasmine, but before she did the Hispanic teen quickly turned to Justin and whispered something in his ear. "Got it," Justin winked and grabbed a nearby glass before heading outside.
"Shooters ready…" Chris again held up the gun as Jasmine and Ronnie Anne grabbed the guns, sending glares at each other, and pointed them forward and got ready to shoot. "Shoot!"
BANG!
Again Chris shot the gun to start the round and Jasmine and Ronnie Anne quickly got to shooting down the cutouts that appeared. Like with the first round during the first minute only robbers popped up and it was clear who the more skilled one was. "Yeah! Get a load of this!" Jasmine smirked as she quickly shot down each robber practically when they first appeared. "Should've stayed in the streets where ya belong mates!"
"Grrrr…" Ronnie Anne growled a bit as she was struggling to shoot down any targets due to Jasmine picking them off so fast with the Gaffers points quickly getting far ahead of the Grips. "What's taking him so long…"
But thankfully for Ronnie Anne, Justin soon returned with his glass now completely filled with water. Smirking, the teen model approached the shooting wall and leaned on it in between both Jasmine and Ronnie Anne with his eyes aiming at the Australian Amazon. "Oh don't mind me ladies, just had to get some water." Justin said as Jasmine found her eyes drifting to Justin. She tried to stay focused on the challenge but Justin's handsomeness was just drawing her in, and Justin planned on intensifying it. "It's just sooooo hot today I had to get some water~"
Justin then threw off his shirt and cowboy vest and proceeded to dump the water onto his face, letting it slide down on his chest which now seemed to shine. "O-Oh wowie…" Jasmine let out as she stopped shooting to focus on Justin who's good looks were only magnified by the water dripping off him. "Hehe…t-think I'm starting to feel some of the heat myself~"
"Oh really now~?" Justin asked as he winked at her and making Jasmine let out an enamored giggle.
Ronnie Anne smirked in triumph as she began nabbing all the targets for herself in the shooting gallery. "Jasmine! No!" DJ called out as the Gaffers all tried to call out to Jasmine to get her to focus on the challenge instead of Justin. "Look away! This is just what he wants!"
"You gotta focus on the challenge!" Bridgette let out as she raised an arm up to shield her eyes from the sight of Justin, knowing she would easily be charmed by him as well. "Don't look directly at him!"
"Grrrr…" Lincoln growled a bit while glaring at Ronnie Anne.
CONFESSIONAL – Lincoln
"That cheating little perra…" Lincoln growled out as he crossed his arms. "She just can't resist pulling fast ones like this. Hopefully I won't have to wait so long for karma to strike this time."
BEEP!
Again the alarm went off signaling the end of the round. Unfortunately Ronnie Anne's plan worked and Justin managed to distract Jasmine enough to keep her from nabbing many points. When everyone checked the points, it was clear who was in the lead as the Gaffers only had a score of 19,500 and the Grips had a score of 45,000. "Ouf, that's quite the hill to climb." Chris commented as Jasmine returned and was met with a bunch of nasty looks from her team. "Gonna be hard for them to beat the Grips now."
"Sorry mates…" Jasmine let out as she looked down in shame, unable to meet the glares from her teammates. She could've dominated the challenge but again just like with the fantasy challenge she let Justin distract her and keep her from giving her A-Game. "Guess I kinda blundered again huh..."
"Ya did kinda screw the pooch big time sheila," Manitoba commented earning a glare from Jasmine causing Trent to become worried. But adjusting his hat, Manitoba smirked confidently before stepping forward. "But don't you worry none, I got this mates,"
CONFESSIONAL – Jasmine
"Oh that little twig is seriously asking for it!" Jasmine yelled out, now full on pissed at Manitoba. "If he keeps up that little act he's gonna earn himself a world of pain!"
"You guys might as well give up now," Ronnie Anne stated as she formed her fingers into an L shape and held it above her head to mock the other team. "Spare yourselves the humiliation."
This earned her glares from the entire Gaffers team, but Manitoba simply chuckled as he held up his BB gun and twirled it around a bit. "Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that mate~" Manitoba, without even looking, aimed his gun towards the bar. Suddenly everyone watched as Manitoba fired three shots at it…and destroyed three small bottles on the bar counter. "I'd say I still got meself a fair shot."
"Hey watch out!" Lily yelled as she sent a glare at Manitoba. "Standing right here ya know!"
"…" Suddenly Ronnie Anne was not looking so smug. Sending a glare towards Izzy, Ronnie Anne gave the psycho hose beast some…'words of encouragement' you could call them. "Izzy you better not screw this up!"
"Don't worry I got this!" Izzy reassured as she looked over the gun a bit and smirked. "Oh yeah, I can do some damage with this~"
CONFESSIONAL – Geoff
"I don't feel safe…" Geoff let out fearfully.
"Final shooters ready…" Chris held his gun up for the last time. "Go!"
BANG!
Manitoba and Izzy quickly began shooting, and Manitoba showed that little trick with the bottles wasn't some insane beat of luck as he showed to be just as good of a shot as Jasmine was and shot down robbers as they appeared. Izzy certainly wasn't bad and proved to be quite the shot herself, but the Gaffers were quickly catching up with the score but the Grips were still gaining points at a steady pace as well.
As the shooting was going down, Tyler decided to take the chance to go talk to Lincoln. "Yo Lincoln," Tyler got the attention of the white head as he raised his brow and turned to the jock. "Got a sec bro?"
"Oh, uh, sure I guess," Lincoln shrugged. Considering that it wasn't any of the trio of Ronnie Anne, Justin, and Heather Lincoln had no problems talking to Tyler. He was just confused as to why Tyler wanted to talk to him, they never really had a conversation before. "What's up?"
"It's just…me and Lindsay are having some…complications in our relationships." Tyler explained the situation to Lincoln who nodded as he listened to the jock's words. "I don't know what's up but Lindsay's just been so mad at me lately and every time I've tried to see what's up just makes her more upset. I don't know what to do and I don't wanna risk losing Lindsay so…got any advice? You and Dawn have a really solid relationship."
"Hmmmm…" Lincoln hummed in thought a bit as he processed what Tyler said to him. He had a good idea what was going on but he needed to make sure. "When did this start exactly?"
"I think…the prison challenge? Yeah that!" Tyler nodded once he was sure that he got that right. "Ever since then she's just been acting angry at me, heck not just me but the rest of the team as well!"
"I see…" Lincoln nodded again, yep he could definitely say he knew what the issue here is. "Tyler the problem is that Lindsay doesn't think you respect her,"
"W-What?" Tyler stuttered a bit. "What do you mean by that?"
"I heard what Ronnie Anne and Heather said to her during the space challenge, plus during the Prison challenge Lindsay won it by herself while you all were still in the cell arguing." Lincoln pointed out as Tyler took all his words in. "If I had to guess neither you nor your team take Lindsay all that seriously."
"Wha-but I…I mean…" Tyler processed Lincoln's words for a bit before it finally clicked with him. Lincoln was right…he and the rest of the team didn't show Lindsay much respect. "Oh man you're totally right…she's been trying to help with challenges but we just brush her off…even me…"
"Look I totally get it, one my sisters Leni is a lot like Lindsay actually," Lincoln explained to Tyler with a sympathetic smile. "A bunch of times in the past me and my sisters constantly underestimated her because she wasn't…the sharpest most of the time. But she has her own set of skills and things she's really good at and always manages to surprise us. She's smart in her own way and hey Lindsay's the same."
"Yeah…you're totally right…oh man I really did mess things up…" Tyler groaned in despair as all his mistakes with Lindsay finally caught up with him. "How do I fix this?"
"Simple, just apologize to Lindsay for what you did and promise to do better," Lincoln told Tyler with a reassuring smile. "Maybe pull her aside when the challenge is over and just talk with her."
"That's a good idea, yeah I'll totally do that!" Tyler grinned as he hyped himself up. He was gonna give Lindsay the biggest apology of all apologies. It was time to start being a better boyfriend and showed Lindsay he did respect her and wasn't gonna underestimate her anymore. Not only was she the hottest girl ever, but there were plenty of other things she was super awesome in. "Thanks Linc! You're a real pal bro!"
"Happy to help," Lincoln grinned at Tyler as he walked back up to his team.
"One minute remaining!" Chris announced as both teams looked up at the score. "Mike or whatever the heck he's calling himself now is catching up fast but the Grips still have the lead, looks like this might be a close one!"
Everything tensed up as both teams watched. Manitoba did his best to hit the correct targets the second they appeared to get more points for his team. But as for Izzy, she continued shooting stuff down and she found herself growing…excited. "Hehehe…hahahahah!" Suddenly Izzy began laughing loudly, greatly unnerving everyone, before she jumped onto the shooting divider and raised her gun up high. "TAKE NO PRISONERS!!!" Izzy then began shooting around in all directions.
"Crickey!" Manitoba let out as he quickly hit the ground. "Everyone hit the dirt quick!"
Everyone did just that to avoid getting shot by Izzy as she fired every which way. "AH!" Lily let out as she quickly dived behind the bar counter as Izzy shot her directions and destroyed all the bottles on the counter. "You're not supposed to shoot the dame!"
"AHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!" Izzy continued laughing. Just then the cut out of Sheriff Chris popped up and Izzy immediately turned towards it and began shooting at it.
Again. And again. And again. And again.
"IZZY!" Suddenly Ronnie Anne yelled out as she grabbed the gun from Izzy with an angry red face.
"Huh, what the..." Izzy blinked a few times as she returned to reality. "Whoops, hehe, kind blacked out there. What happened?"
Ronnie Anne looked up and saw that due to Izzy's repeated shooting of the Chris cut out…her team's score was now a mere fraction of what it was moments ago. "You…You…" Ronnie Anne raised her hands like she was about to strangle Izzy. Something that was very tempting given she cost them the challenge they had in the bag.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Chris suddenly yelled out as he jumped over the divider and ran to his cardboard cutout which had a ton of holes in it. Chris held it up in his arms like it was a dying person, earning a lot of dry looks from the contestants and Chef. "Speak to me buddy, speak to me!" The cutout's response was for its head to fall of its body. "WHHHHY!?!?!?"
"Oops, my bad," Izzy admitted with a grin. "You'd think I'd learn after the last time!"
CONFESSIONAL – Chris
"Why do bad things always happen to the beautiful…" Chris sniffed as he shed a few tears. "Why is the world so cruel and unfair…"
CONFESSIONAL – Harold
"Mmmmm…" Harold happily let out as he had a hand wrapped around a cut out of Leshawna he managed to steal from the challenge. "She's so beautiful even in cardboard form."
"He was so young…so…beautiful…" Chris sniffed as Chef, who was now wearing an undertaker's outfit, lowered the cardboard cutout of Chris into a freshly dug grave. Currently Chris, Chef, the contestants, and Lily were all together at a train station that was on the set complete with railroad tracks. They guessed that the next challenge would be taking place here…but they were still waiting to even hear what the challenge was. "Why cruel world…why?!"
"Oh get over yourself!" Heather yelled out in annoyance and for once everyone actually agreed with the queen bee. "Can we just get on with the next part of the challenge please!"
"I need a moment!" Chris yelled as he glared at Heather. "Can't you kids see I'm grieving here?!"
"Oh I'll handle it ya big baby," Chef rolled his ears and shook his head before approaching the teams. "Since Chris is 'preoccupied' I'm taking over the challenge! So listen up maggots cause I'm only saying this once!"
DJ as if on instinct stood straight and saluted Chef, a gesture that was returned by a nod and smirk from Chef. "Now then, all good western flicks end in a high action high speed train robbery! So for this challenge each team will choose two members to participate. One being the robbers and the other being the conductors!" Chef explained before everyone heard a train whistle. Approaching and stopping the station was a decently long train that Edward stepped out of once it was fully stopped. "The tracks are on a circle that leads back to this station, and it takes a half an hour to fully circle back. And that cart behind the engine is full of gold which is what the robbers are after."
Sure enough everyone looked and saw that behind the engine cart was a yellow cart with a picture of a gold bar on it. "The robbers have three ways to win. Either A, stop the train before it reaches the station. B, detach the gold cart from the engine, or C, capture the conductors." Chef listed the ways for the robber to win. "And the conductors have two ways to win. Either A, get the train to the station or B, capture the robbers. Gaffers you won so you can decide if you wanna be the robbers or conductors,"
"I think we'll be the robbers," Lincoln instantly decided with the rest of the team agreeing. "Three win conditions over two, the choice is clear here,"
"Grrrr…" Ronnie Anne growled a bit before turning to Chef. "What if the conductors disconnect the train after the gold cart with the robbers still on it? Wouldn't we win then?"
"You wanna explain to your boss how you purposefully lost an entire train?" Chef asked with an amused smirk getting another angry growl from the Hispanic girl. "Now pick your robbers and engineers,"
"If I may be so bold," Manitoba spoke up as he walked up to Lincoln and put a hand around Trent. "Me and Trent here can be the robbers, us two blokes make one bloody hell of a team if I say so meself,"
"Hmmm, that is true you two are pretty tight," Lincoln smiled and nodded at the idea. He definitely knew that Trent and Mike became pretty good friends during the course of the season and he was confident they could work well together. "Trent you ok with this?"
"Definitely," Trent nodded with a smirk as he held up a fist to Mike. "Let's rob this train man," Manitoba grinned and returned the fist bump.
"I'll be one of the conductors," Ronnie Anne instantly said as she stepped up. "And Tyler's with me,"
"I am?" Tyler asked with a blink.
CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne
"If you want something done right you do it yourself," Ronnie Anne claimed as she pounded her fist against the vanity desk. "I'm not losing this challenge because Izzy messed up the first part for us! Tyler seems like the most sane member of my team so I should be able to count on him…assuming he doesn't get himself hurt again."
"Here ya go," Chef then handed Trent, Manitoba, Ronnie Anne, and Tyler a revolver BB Gun. "You can use those to help you in the challenge. Robbers have 6 shots since they won the challenge, Grips only have 3 shots. Conductors start at the engine robbers start at the caboose! Now get a move on!"
CONFESSIONAL - Trent
"Huh, thinking about it now I never actually had any alone time with any of Mike's personalities. Usually the others are around when one of them shows up." Trent pointed out as he rubbed his chin. "Now that I have the chance I can ask them something that's been on my mind,"
Soon the challenge was now underway, Ronnie Anne and Tyler were in the engine while Trent and Mike were in the back of the train just outside of the caboose as the train started up again on its half hour ride. "Looks like we got camera's for all the carts here," Ronnie Anne pointed out a series of monitors that were in the engine room each showing the inside of a different cart with all of them labeled. "We can't lose this challenge! Here's the plan, there's 20 carts so you go to the tenth cart and try to stop them there, I'll see if there's anything I can do to make us go faster and get us to the station quicker."
"Wicked! They won't know what hit em!" Tyler grinned as he held up his revolver and immediately began making his way out of the cart. "It's Tyler time!"
CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne
"Never gonna be a thing," Ronnie Anne deadpanned at the camera.
"Alright mate, no time to waste," Manitoba said as he opened up the door to the caboose and gestured inside. "Gotta make our way up to the engine and fast, that gold'll be ours!"
"Let's do this man!" Trent grinned as he twisted his revolver around in his fingers before following Manitoba through the carts. It was rather uneventful and moving from cart to cart was easy. The only real challenging part was jumping from one cart to the other with constant worry of falling into the tracks and being run over by a train. But the two were good enough jumpers that they were able to prevent that. By the time they reached the fifth cart, Trent spoke up again and decided to finally ask Manitoba what was on his mind. "So hey, Manitoba, was wondering if I could ask ya something."
"Shoot mate," Manitoba said as they passed through the fifth cart and were already making their way to the sixth cart. "What's going on in your head?"
"Now how do I put this into words…what's it like exactly for Mike and…all of you?" Trent began as he tried to form his question into proper words that would make sense. "Is it like…you're all Mike but sort of twisted around or are you all sort of your own person?"
"Hmmmm…now that's a tuffie to explain," Manitoba scratched his head a bit, stopping briefly to think about it before he and Trent made their way past the 6th cart. "It's a little bit of both. Sure we're all our own person but we're all connected to Mike. I guess the best way I can put it personally is that Mike is all of us and we're all Mike."
"Hmmm, yeah, I think I can understand that," Trent smiled and nodded, understanding and accepting the answer. "Must be hard having to deal with all that sometimes huh?"
"Eh, some days are better than others," Manitoba cracked a small smirk as they jumped from cart 6 to cart 7. "Sure sometimes we wanna go at it like wiley dingos but at the end of the day we gotta have each other's backs. Except for Chester…"
"Hehe, didn't know you guys have beef with each other," Trent chuckled a bit as they walked across cart 7 and quickly made their way to cart number 8. "Pfft, haha, sorry now I can't help but imagine you all sitting at a table in Mike's brain and arguing over stupid stuff."
"Hah! Well that's one way of describing it," Manitoba got a good laugh at that before turning to Trent and giving the guitarist a thankful look. "But believe me mate, we can get heated sometimes. Especially with Mal, that bloke can be a real bugga."
"That I can believe," Trent nodded his head. Considering Mal got Mike in juvie Trent definitely didn't doubt Manitoba's words.
"Although," Once they reached the ninth cart Manitoba stopped and turned to Trent, giving the guitarist a thankful look. "We really got to thank ya Trent,"
"Thank me?" Trent rose a brow and gave Manitoba a confused look. "For what?"
"What do ya think ya Muso?" Manitoba chuckled a bit as he put a hand on Trent's shoulder. "Being Mike's friend, things can be hard for the poor guy back home but you really gave him something he needed."
"I just wanted to help the guy out," Trent smiled and shrugged, not thinking it was a big deal. He saw Mike was nervous about being on the show and decided to take the guy under his wing so he wouldn't crumble under the pressure. And when Mike told him about his DID Trent simply honored his wishes and kept it a secret. "Sure he's a little weird but hey who's honestly normal on this show?"
"Hah! Too true mate," Manitoba and Trent shared a good chuckle before looking ahead at the tenth cart, aka the midway point of the train. "Now come on, let's win this thing."
MEANWHILE AT THE TRAIN STATION
Currently the other contestants as well as Lily and Edward were simply standing around the train station…waiting. Nothing much then that. Chris went to go 'grieve' in his trailer and Chef went off to grab something to eat for himself. Everyone mostly had bored expressions on their faces as they really had nothing to do. "Soooooo…" Lincoln slowly began. "I guess we just…wait here until they get back?"
"Guess so," DJ shrugged, not seeing what else they could do.
"Anyone know a way to pass the time?" Geoff asked as he adjusted his hat a bit. "Vibes here are pretty low energy."
"We could play a game!" Lily suggested with a big grin.
"Not interested," Heather rolled her eyes and went to go stand away from everyone.
"Suit yourself," Bridgette shrugged before smiling down at Lily. "What'd you have in mind Lily?"
"Hmmmm…" Lily hummed in thought before thinking of something. "Let's play hangman!"
"Hey that sounds like fun," Lindsay grinned and nodded at the idea.
"Sign me up," Harold also decided to go along with it.
"Ooooo, good idea Lily!" Izzy complimented before looking around the area. "Just gotta find a noose first! Be right back!"
Everyone then watched with great worry as Izzy ran off. "She's…not actually gonna come back with a noose right?" Justin asked with great worry.
Back on the train Manitoba and Trent made their way into cart number 10 only to find someone waiting for them inside. "Well, well, well…" Leaning against the wall with their hat covering their eyes trying to make themselves look cool was Tyler who lifted his hat up to expose his eyes. "Was wondering when you'd arrive…partners."
Trent and Manitoba narrowed their eyes at Tyler and immediately pulled out their revolvers and aimed them at Tyler with the jock doing the same with his half loaded revolver. "Listen Tyler, we don't wanna hurt you," Trent tried to reason with him before things got violent. "It's two of us with fully loaded guns vs you and three shots, be smart about this,"
"Hah! I'll never be smart about this!" Tyler yelled definitely…earning strange looks from Manitoba and Trent. "Try and take that gold and I'll mess you up!"
"Don't start a war you can't win mate," Manitoba threatened with narrow eyes.
Things were tense as their guns were still all raised. Tyler was refusing to back down so now it was just a matter of who would strike first. The only things they could hear was the train moving on the tracks and the occasional whistle of the train. Eventually…someone pulled the trigger and that one was Tyler. "AAAHHH!!!" Tyler let out a war cry as he shot the revolver at Trent.
Trent ducked to dodge it and he and Manitoba were about to open fire, until the BB bullet hit the door frame of the cart and began bouncing across the cart. Everyone watched as the bullet zipped in all directions, bouncing off the cart walls, floor, and ceiling and eventually-
"GAH!" Tyler let out as his own bullet hit him in the head and sent him to the ground unconscious.
"Ouch…" Trent and Manitoba both winced in sympathy. "That's just sad."
"Yeah, almost feel bad for the poor fella," Manitoba said before looking at the cart walls and seeing a rope hanging off it. "But not bad enough to not tie him up, help me out so he won't be getting back to bother us," Trent nodded his head and went to go help Mike.
Meanwhile watching the whole thing from the camera in the cart was a face palming Ronnie Anne.
CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne
"Ugh, I blame myself…why didn't I bring Heather…" Ronnie Anne let out as she rubbed her temples in irritation. "Ok seeing him get hurt is funny but now it's really starting to become a hindrance."
With no other obstacles in their way, making it through the carts was a lot easier and soon they found themselves entering the gold cart, with Manitoba carrying some spare rope with him the whole time. "Huh, wonder if there's anything actually in here or if it's just labeled." Trent said before opening the cart door where they got their answers. A cold breeze blew out from the cart as it was essentially a big freezer and inside were the Gilded Chris awards. "Ah, that makes sense. Man it feels good in here after dealing with the heat all day."
"Gonna have to enjoy it later mate, still gotta win this," Manitoba pointed out as he gestured a thumb to the end of the cart. "And Ronnie Anne's probably waiting for us in the engine."
"Right, gotta be on guard." Trent put a hand to his chin as he approached the door. He was about to reach out and open the cart. But as he grabbed the handle he hesitated a bit. He didn't know what but he just got a bad feeling about it. "Manitoba, aim your gun at the door and fire right when I open it. Got a gut feeling about something."
"Got it mate," Manitoba nodded and stood a good enough distance from the door and aimed the revolver at it. Trent swiftly opened the door while stepping to the side and sure enough Ronnie Anne was waiting right outside and extended her fist out to punch whoever opened it up. But unfortunately for her the Hispanic teen only hit air as Trent managed to see this coming and her eyes widened as Manitoba fired right at her, hitting Ronnie Anne right on the chest with the BB Gun bullet and sending her onto her back on the engine. "Hah! Good call there Trent! Thought ya could get the drop on us ay mate?"
"Ugh, don't think that means you two losers won," Ronnie Anne growled out as she stood up, grabbing the place where she was shot. Meanwhile Trent and Manitoba walked over and hopped onto the engine room with her. "If you two think I'm letting you win this you both have more brain damage than I thought,"
"…Heh, Trent, get to work detaching the cart," Manitoba smirked before cracking his neck and narrowing his eyes at Ronnie Anne. "Leave this bloody little cheating drongo to me,"
"Got it," Trent sent him a thumbs up before jumping on the part connecting the train carts together and began to work on getting them detached.
"Oh you got guts you Steve Irwin wanna be," Ronnie Anne growled at Manitoba as she took out her revolver. She may only have three shoots but she was gonna make them count. "Hope you can keep character while getting beaten up."
"Hah! I've tangled with worse," Manitoba adjusted his hat and twirled his gun around before aiming at Ronnie Anne. "Ready whenever you are sheila~"
"Oh that is it!" In a snap of anger Ronnie Anne fired her gun at Manitoba only for him to easily step to the side. "Crap! Two shots left…"
"Should try and keep your cool there mate!" Manitoba said before running at Ronnie Anne. Ronnie Anne thought he was going in for an attack and raised her arms up defensively, but Manitoba managed to get the edge as instead he hit the ground and slid under her legs. "Better watch your back!"
Manitoba then raised his gun up and aimed at Ronnie Anne's prominent hand and took a shot at it and managed to hit the mark. "AH!" Ronnie Anne let out in pain, but in her reaction she ended up dropping her gun which proceeded to slide off the engine and onto the rails of the train where it was promptly destroyed. "NOOOO!!!"
"Heh, tough luck there mate but looks like I got the win," Manitoba smirked as he jumped at Ronnie Anne from behind and trapped her in a headlock. She tried to struggle out of it but now she was seeing for herself what Geoff meant when he said that Mike was stronger than he looked as she was unable to escape his grasp. "Woah! Feisty one ain't ya!"
"Let! Me! Go!" Ronnie Anne continued to struggle as.
CLICK!
"Yes!" Trent cheered as he managed to unhook the engine from the rest of the train as the carts already started to trail behind. "I got it!"
"No!" Ronnie Anne let out only for Mike to hold her back.
"Looks like I need to get a firmer grasp on ya!" Manitoba smirked as he pulled out the rope he got from the tenth cart. With some fancy rope work soon Ronnie Anne found herself hog tied on the ground. "There we go, that oughta hold ya till we reach the station."
"Ugh!" Ronnie Anne shouted out in rage. "You fake Australian (BLEEP)!"
"I'll meet ya back at the station!" Trent called out to Manitoba who sent Trent a thumbs up.
"Is the answer…The Magnificent Seven?" Harold guessed on their latest round of Hangman where DJ was the one coming up with the phrase. DJ smiled and nodded his head as he filled in the remaining levels as he clapped for Harold. "Yes! Now I can add hangman to my list of mad skills!"
"If you're all done wasting time," Heather pointed out, who was annoyed at having to hear them playing that stupid game the whole time, as she gestured her thumb to the tracks. "The train's coming back."
"Are the carts still attached?" Justin asked as he and the rest of the Grips approached the edge of the stations and much to the team's dread…they weren't. "Crap…"
When the engine reached the station it came to a halt where Manitoba threw the still hog tied Ronnie Anne onto the station. "Heh, anyone here lose this?" Manitoba grinned as all the Gaffers cheered while the Grips slumped down.
"Oh this is too much," Lincoln looked down at Ronnie Anne with a grin.
"Oh bite me…"
"Alright, I'm back. I've had my time to grieve and I'm all good to host again," Walking to the scene was now a recovered Chris who made his way in front of all the teens. "Now, who wo-" Chris cut himself off as he noticed the hog tied Ronnie Anne at his feet. "Ok…judging by this I'm saying the winners are the Gaffers! Grips looks like you're taking the 3:10 all the way back to loserville! Get ready to send someone home tonight."
"Ugh…" All the Grips let out.
"Gaffers while this isn't really a reward challenge a promise is a promise," Chris stated as he gestured towards the rest of the cowboy set. "Care to join me for some ice cold old fashioned root beer?"
"Woohoo!" The Gaffers all cheered as they began to follow Chris.
"I'll catch up with ya," Manitoba said as he began walking in the direction where the train carts were. "I'm gonna go get Trent."
LATER THAT DAY
With the challenge all taken care of and the Gaffers enjoying some root beer after a hot day, the Grips were left to suffer more in the heat. For Tyler, that meant taking the opportunity to finally talk to Lindsay. "Lindsay! Hey Lindsay!" Tyler called out to his girlfriend who stopped to shoot him a glare. "Listen…I need to talk to you. It's important."
"What is it?" Lindsay crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Tyler.
"I just…I wanna apologize. Apologize for…not giving you the respect you deserve," Lindsay's eyes widened at that, but she stayed silent and allowed Tyler to keep speaking. "I completely understand why you were mad at our team. And at me. We all thought you were some pretty face and not much other than that. We…I was wrong. Babe I'm so sorry, you're so much more than that. Not only are you the hottest girl I've met but you've got some seriously awesome skills that I've taken for granted. I promise from now on I'll give you the respect you deserve and if you have something to say I'll listen to you 101%. If you…still wanna be with me that is."
"…" Lindsay was silent at first with Tyler beginning to fear the worst. But then Lindsay broke out into a big grin as she wrapped Tyler into a hug. "That's all I wanted to hear!"
"Oh thank God…" Tyler breathed out a sigh of relief as he hugged Lindsay back. "So…we good then?"
"You're gonna keep your word?" Lindsay asked with Tyler nodding his head and crossing his heart. Tyler was rewarded with a kiss. "Then we're good!"
CONFESSIONAL – Mike
"So Trent wants me to come out about my multiple personalities to the rest of the team since they've seen them all now." Mike nervously said as he anxiously fiddled around with stuff on the vanity. "I get where he's coming from but…ugh what are they all gonna think of me? No, no, it will…it'll be fine I mean…the team can handle multiple personalities right? They won't think I'm just some freakish weirdo right? Right?!"
Mike then gasped as Chester came out and looked at the camera. "Sure! And my saggy old butt will be crowned Miss Canada!" Chester yelled out as he pulled out a bo from under the vanity and put it around his neck. "Here I aaaaam! Miss Canadaaaaaa!"
"Are you sure about this?" Mike whispered anxiously to Trent as they were all sitting around the bar set, drinking large mugs of fresh icy sweet root beer. "I just…what if…"
"Hey, it's ok man I promise," Trent reassured Mike as he put a hand on his shoulder. "You've gotten to know these guys pretty well since joining the show, they won't judge you for it. I promise, you can tell them. Besides, Dawn already knows, remember? So you really only need to tell it to five people. Not so bad."
"I…I guess so. Ok…O-Ok I'll do it." Mike was definitely still nervous but trusted Trent and nodded his head. Trent gave Mike a supportive pat on the back as Mike cleared his throat before getting everyone's attention. "Hey guys…I…I have something I need to tell you all."
All eyes turned to Mike once he said that with Jasmine narrowing her eyes a bit. "Does it have something to do with that little character you were playing today?" Jasmine asked with a not so happy tone making Mike flinch. "Because I gotta say mate, not funny,"
"It…It actually does. Thing is…I haven't been super honest with you all…" Mike revealed getting raised brows from his team. Turning to Trent, the guitarist nodded his head and encouraged Mike to go on. And looking forward Mike saw Dawn giving him support as well. "Thing is…I'm not actually a method actor. The truth about my characters…they're my alternate personalities. I have DID!"
"DID? Oooh, you mean Dissociative Identity Disorder?" Harold asked with Mike nodding his head causing everyone else to give Mike surprised looks. "Huh…that would actually explain a lot,"
"So wait, is that, that thing about him you couldn't tell me?" Lincoln asked as he turned to Dawn.
"Uh-huh," Dawn nodded her head as she gestured to Mike. "I figured it would be best for Mike to tell us himself, I didn't want to cross any boundaries."
"A-And I really do appreciate it," Mike thanked Dawn who gave him a sweet smile. "Look I'm…I'm sorry for lying to all of you. It's just that…my personalities have caused me some trouble in the past and well…kept me from making a lot of friends. I was afraid if I told you guys you'd think I was some freaky weirdo or something…I told Trent because he pulled me away and asked about it during the filming challenge and felt I should tell at least one person."
"Mike's really cool guys," Trent backed him up as he put a hand on his friend's shoulders. "He wasn't being malicious or anything by hiding it, I promise we can still trust him."
Everyone was silent as they looked each other over but soon sent Mike supportive looks. "Mike, we really appreciate you telling us this," Bridgette told Mike in her usually friendly tone.
"R-Really…?" Mike stuttered a bit.
"Yeah man, we can understand how it might have been hard for ya," DJ assured Mike as the brick house put a supportive hand on Mike's shoulder. "It means a lot your trust us enough to tell us something like that, couldn't have been easy,"
"And don't worry, we won't judge you for it," Harold sent Mike a friendly thumbs up. "We're the Screaming Gaffers after all, we're a team. Meaning we all support each other no matter what,"
"Harold's right Mike, we understand why you kept it a secret and we appreciate you telling us," Lincoln told Mike as he approached him and looked his teammate right in the eye. "You're one of us, mental disorder or not, and we wouldn't think about judging you about your condition. You're our friend, and that extends to your personalities as well."
"W-Wow…" Mike was feeling a bit overwhelmed. He's never been around this much…support before. Everyone reassuring him, not judging him for his condition it was…nice. But there was one person who didn't voice anything like that and it was the one Mike was most afraid of. "J-Jasmine?"
"…You promise that you weren't just making Aussie jokes at my expense?" Jasmine asked with not just Mike but Trent and Dawn nodding their heads. After a minute, Jasmine sighed before giving Mike a small smile. "Yeah, we're good mate,"
"Oh thank God…" Mike breathed a sigh of relief before looking over everyone. "I…I don't know what to say…"
"Told you, you could trust everyone man," Trent gave Mike a nod before picking up a mug of root beer. "And ya don't gotta say anything, let's all just keep enjoying ourselves yeah?"
"Yeah!" Everyone could agree to that as they all held up their mugs and clanked them together.
"I am getting tired of waiting!" Heather shouted out in irritation. While the Gaffers had their little root beer party the alliance of Heather, Justin, and Ronnie Anne were discussing who they were kicking off this week. "It's time you hold up your end of our deal, I want Lindsay gone! You said we'd get rid of her the first chance we get but she's still here!"
"But, she's been useful as of late," Ronnie Anne pointed out to Heather who crossed her arms and grumbled. "We need to be smart and so far Lindsay has actually been doing well in challenges."
"True, she's actually pulled through a few times. Plus she's an easy one for me to manipulate," Justin pointed out, agreeing with Ronnie Anne before pitching his own idea for who to kick off. "I say we ditch Izzy, she's a loose cannon we can't control her."
"Fair point, but I have another idea," Ronnie Anne raised a finger up and pitched her own idea. "I say we dump Tyler,"
"Tyler?" Justin and Heather questioned in unison.
"Think about it," Ronnie Anne began to explain to everyone. "All he's done is get himself hurt. He's barely helped us during the challenges at all."
"Hmmmm…don't think he's ever won any of the challenges…" Justin thought about it and in the end nodded his head. "Ok, I'm in."
"I guess knocking her boyfriend off will still sting for that blond bimbo…" Heather grumbled and reluctantly nodded her head. "Fine. But I better see Lindsay on the chopping block soon!"
Ronnie Anne smirked as everything came together.
CONFESSIONAL – Lindsay & Tyler
"Mmmmmm~" Lindsay and Tyler moaned as they made out in the confessional. They were oblivious to everything around them…until Lindsay opened her eyes and separated herself from Tyler. "Hey, is the camera still on?"
"Huh?" Tyler let out before turning back towards the camera. "…Eh," Tyler then crashed his lips against Lindsay again who merely shrugged and began kissing her boyfriend.
THE GILDED CHRIS CEREMONY
At the Gilded Chris ceremony, the voting process was quick allowing Chris to immediately begin throwing the still icy cold foil wrapped chocolate Chris statues to everyone and soon only Izzy, Tyler, and Ronnie Anne remained. "All three of you are on the chopping block today!" Chris announced to the three remaining contestants with Izzy having her usual expression on, Tyler looking worried, and Ronnie Anne smirking confidently. "Tyler, you spend more time getting injured rather than helping your team. Funny, yes. Helpful, no."
Tyler slumped and looked down. "Ronnie Anne, you got hogtied by a dude pretending to be an Australian Cowboy." Ronnie Anne didn't look too worried, but soon sent glares to the Gaffers as they began laughing and sent high fives Mike's way. "Again hilarious but you lost the final part of the challenge for your team."
"And Izzy," Chris sent the psycho hose beast a nasty look. "You're here because your crazy antics can cost your team a victory. Like it did today when you SHOT DOWN MY CARDBOARD CUTOUT!"
"Hey can't blame me for getting the blood lust," Izzy giggled.
"I'd vote you off myself if I could," Chris said as he grabbed one of the last two Gilded Chris awards. "But unfortunately, you're safe!"
"Woohoo!" Izzy cheered as she caught her statue. "I got away with it again!"
Tyler tense up as Chris grabbed the last award. "And the last Gilded Chris goes to…" Tyler began sweating nervously with Ronnie Anne narrowing her eyes slightly as Chris built up the suspense. "…Ronnie Anne."
Ronnie Anne smirked as she caught her statue with Tyler gasping and looking down. "Oh no Tyler…" Lindsay let out sadly. First her best friend got the boot and now her boyfriend is gone.
"It's ok Lindsay, I lasted longer than last time so that's still something to be proud of," Tyler tried to look at the bright side of this as he hugged Lindsay before he started to walk away. "I'll join Beth in cheering you on babe! Good luck!" Lindsay smiled as she watched Tyler enter the Lamosine…and hit his head against the top of the vehicle. "Ow!" After getting hurt one last time for the road, the Lamosine drove off and took Tyler away forever.
CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne
"We can't afford to lose anymore!" Ronnie Anne screamed in frustration. After finally scoring a win they were sent right back to the loser seats. "We're down to 6 members to their 8! I won't let Lame-O hold this lead over me forever!"
CONFESSIONAL – Chris
"And people call me petty, hehehe. Ah I love this show," Chris laughed before looking right at the camera. "Will the Grips be able to pull themselves out of loserdom once again? Will the Gaffers continue to hold the numbers advantage? Who will be the magnet for pain now that Tyler is gone? Find out all that and more next time on Total. Drama. Action!"