BLANK SLATE || the challenge: spies, lies, and allies

04 - heli heist.

Of course, the party had to start as soon as everyone got back to the house. For once, Roxanne found herself thinking about anything other than the game, joining everyone in the fun until, eventually, they all tired themselves out and decided to head off to bed. Roxanne changed before slicing into CT's room, laying down next to him without a word. He accepted it, wrapping both of his arms around her and laying his head against her shoulder. "Good day today?"

"Stressful day today." Roxanne laughed softly. "Damn, that deliberation. You weren't making it any better, pissing yourself laughing."

"Yeah." CT chuckled, shaking his head. "But we did good. One less problem to worry about."

"Yeah. Now it's just a matter of who's next."

"Don't worry about that right now." he mumbled, kissing her shoulder gently. "It'll be good. Promise."

"I dunno, C." Roxanne sighed. "I don't have a good feeling."

"Hey. If something goes wrong, I will do absolutely everything  in my power to make sure you don't go in. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay. I love you." he smiled, placing another little kiss against her shoulder. "We're gonna do great. Just get some rest."

Later the next morning, Roxanne found herself in her own room with Kaycee, Josh, Amanda, Kyle, Faysal, and Ashley, who all seemed to be on the same page—the vets had to stay together, no matter what.

"I think what we need to do is somehow, someway, without it being so completely obvious, get all of us vets together and be like," Roxanne inhaled. "Look, here's the thing, the past seasons, we've all gone against each other, we have to stick together this time."

This got nods of approval from the rest of the group, especially Josh. "I think that the ring leader of the rookies is Kelz. The only reason why I didn't voice anything was because he was with Tori, but now he's not. I think taking him out first is best."

"I agree. I mean.." Roxanne looked around as Ashley finished her thought.

"I think that's probably where we're gonna go this week."

"A thousand percent."

Now, this season was called Spies, Lies, and Allies.

Roxanne found TJ's dedication to the theme incredible. "Headquarters", "Agency", "Mission", "Agents", "Compromise"—it was really impressive and a hell of a good time.

What she didn't  expect was for TJ to make his entrance at that day's Daily in a black Lamborghini, followed by two identical Range Rovers, and a helicopter with the Challenge  logo on both sides of it.

"Holy shit!" Roxanne laughed, clapping along with the rest of the contenders—who all, basically, had the same reaction as she did. "Goddamn, alright, James Bond!"

The car stopped and he stepped out with a very, very  casual "What's up, guys?", only to earn more  cheers from everyone else. "Alright, Agents! Welcome to your next mission. There's been a heist at Headquarters, and it is up to you  to recover the stolen gems. Today's mission is called Heli Heist.  Two teams at a time are going to be playing this game. One partner is going to be in the helicopter where the gems have been located. The other partner will be positioned in the sunroof of a Range Rover. It's up to you who does what. The person in the helicopter will toss down bags of gems to their partner hanging out that sunroof. At the end, the Range Rovers will come to a complete stop. You will then jump out with the gems and race to the finish line as fast as you can. The team to recover the most gems the fastest will win today's challenge and be the only team safe from elimination, as you will become the new Agency. The rest of you will be on the chopping block. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Alright. Good luck."

Usually, Roxanne would take this as an opportunity to watch how the other teams do—but, wholeheartedly, she could not  tell. It really was something that she had to wait and see. In the meantime, her and Gabo agreed that she would be throwing and he would be catching. They managed to collect twenty-six gems—not bad, especially compared to some of the other teams. 

When they made it to the last round, it would be Fessy and Esther, against Josh and...

His partner was deactivated.

So, with TJ's word, another car came drifting in, a blonde figure opening the doors and stepping out with two arms in the air.

"The champ is here!"

Amber B.

Roxanne, Ct, Josh, and... pretty much everyone else, really, got pretty damn excited. Amber had won last season with CT, she was smart, a vet, and clearly knew what she was doing. She'd make a great addition.

— — — — — — —

"I'm looking at Amber, I'm like, 'hell yeah!'" Roxanne laughed. "Even though our time together last season was limited, that's one more person I know I can trust and that I'm down to work with."

— — — — — — —

"Alright!" TJ addressed the group. "Amazing challenge today, huh? Two teams did amazing  today, and they were— Fessy and Esther, and Kaycee and Emanuel."

Roxanne was a little disappointed, but Fessy and Kaycee were two of her closest allies. She figured the bad feeling she'd had the other night would go away, but, interestingly enough? 

It didn't.

"Fessy and Esther," TJ continued. "You recovered thirty bags of gems. But Emanuel and Kayce... You recovered twenty-eight."

It took a second to set in before everyone started applauding. Even TJ couldn't help but smile at Esther's reaction. "Alright, so Fessy, Esther, you are now the Agency. The rest of you are on the chopping block. I need you to go back to Headquarters. Deliberate and nominate one team. Then, our Agency will nominate one man and one woman from any team to take on our compromised agents. Alright. I'll see you soon. Get out of here."

— — — — — — —

"I'm confident in my alliance, but I gotta say is, he's called 'Messy Fessy' for a reason." Roxanne sighed. "Maybe he's changed? Maybe?"

— — — — — — —

Roxanne had asked Emy to be her spy. She didn't expect to turn into the spy herself.

It was accidental—once they made it back, the door to one of the rooms was cracked open as she walked by and she just so happened to hear a conversation going on. She didn't know who was in the room—she knew it wasn't  CT, or Tori, or Aneesa. Probably not Big T. But she knew Josh was in there, and Ashley, and probably Amber by association. Maybe Fessy. For all she knew, it could've been the whole vets alliance from before, that whole group that had talked. She didn't know, ot even want to know, because when she walked past, all she heard was Josh, talking about her.

"If it works out and Tracy and Kelz are compromised, then I think Rox and Ed are good options because, like, they can probably send them home but if they doesn't then it gets rid of someone like Ed."

"And what about Rox?" came a voice, Amanda's voice.

"I think she's someone we can afford to lose. We can all make it, you know, farther in the game without her."

"This completely goes against everything we've been talking about, Josh."

"I know, but I think it's, like, best case scenario. Emanuel will be on our asses, Emy will be on our asses and we don't really need that right now. Ideal scenario is Tracy and Kelz get booted but, if not, then we lose two people we don't really need."

That was enough for her, and she walked away.