Chapter 1: Change
This was the moment that Lightning was waiting for, Cameron was running low on energy and was now nothing more than a stupid metallic punching bag, so as Lightning wailed at the former bubble boy, he noticed that the metal armor he adorned was moving by it's own volition.
"Sha-What's going on?" The athlete boy asked as he looked around for an answer.
"Oh, nothing, I just turned you into one giant magnet." The nerd said as barrels targeted the athlete, surrounding him into a flimsy position where his weapon was pointed to the sky, and as the clouds above ordered, it showered lightning on the Finalist.
The barrels exploded, and now Lightning's hair was white, his eyes were blank, and his muscles were spasming, barely being able to give one step before he simply fell down face first, and soon the armored bubble boy pinned him down.
It was supposed to be a feel-good moment where everyone celebrates the bad person being taken out of the competition, for this was Total Drama, and well, they did it for some time.
Chris, the host, looked a bit worried over something and whispered something to Chef, who nodded before he walked away, quickly shouting at the interns as the others realized that Lightning had yet to move.
"He's fine... right?" Jo was the first to ask as Cameron felt a bit guilty, not that much given that Lightning was trying to severely beat him up, but still some guilt.
"Should we at least turn him over?" Zoey asked as Lightning still had his face on the floor, the only response they got from him was a minor spasm.
"I guess?" Mike said as he turned over the teen only to jerk back in reaction to the athlete's state.
White eyes, and nostrils bleeding, they quickly realized that he wasn't moving by himself, his muscles were being jerked due to the lightning striking him down.
As Chef came with a group of interns, they began to check if Lightning had blood on his mouth, which he had, a lot.
The contestants weren't sure of what to do, the only one who had gone through something similar was Scott, who was quite paralyzed at the moment.
The military man began to order the interns, who in their turn, did their best to follow as the older man shouted that he wasn't going to lose another kid, quickly taking him away.
"Well, don't worry, if he dies we can just make a special," The host said uncaringly as he ushered Cameron and the others to the ship.
"Are you for real?" Sam asked, sure, Lightning was an ass, but he wasn't that bad to have that kind of reaction.
Scout turned its metallic body to Dawn, who just frowned, having not realized what happened to Lightning until it was too late.
"It rests on Chef and Lightning's hands what will happen to him," Dawn ended up saying, trying to quell the anxiety that she could see in her friends.
And as they left the island, they tried to make small talk, it would be like those awkward moments that had them united until they got a message later from one of the interns, saying that Lightning was okay.
"Thank God!" Cameron said as he was the one feeling the most guilt over it.
"Does that mean we can actually see him?" Jo asked as she crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows as the intern nodded at the tomboy.
With that said, they quickly got to the room where Lightning was already awake, being tested to see if he can use his muscles in general.
"Lightning!" Cameron shouted as Lightning slowly turned to look at the group, they quickly took notice of his state, having several machines prodding him, it was similar to Scott but more human.
"Sorry if this feels insensitive but do I know you?" Lightning asked as he rubbed the back of his head, feeling uncomfortable with the stares.
Their expressions must have been funny because Lightning chuckled as he looked at them.
"The doctors said that I had... What was the term used? Dissociative amnesia, I have no idea who the hell I'm supposed to be, but if you guys are here, then we must be friends yeah?" Lightning asked as he laughed.
"Not really? We were contestants in a reality show," Lightning raised an eyebrow.
"A reality show? Huh... Given that I'm on a medical bed, I'm going to assume on a whim that I lost pretty badly," Lightning said as he turned his head to look at the wall in front of him.
"Yeah, but you went far, you were actually in second place," Mike said as Cameron didn't know what to say.
"Wait, when you said that we weren't really friends... Actually never mind, I don't think I will like the answer," Lightning shook his head as he tried to think why he wouldn't be friends with them.
Suddenly one of the nurses came by with a phone and gave it to Lightning, who picked up only to be lashed at verbally, even if it wasn't on the speakerphone, the others could still hear the shouts coming from the other side.
"Okay cool," Lightning said as he suddenly finished the call and gave the phone to the nurse, not before missing the nurse's hand three times before doing so.
"Who *was* that guy? Damn." Lightning asked the intern, who frowned.
"Your father," Lightning raised an eyebrow.
"That does explain the part where I'm disowned by my family, oh well, do I have the age to get a job? How old am I again?" He fired the quick questions.
"Well, I'm sure that your doctor will be able to explain it better, but for the time being, I suggest you take care for the time being, as you will have to go through surgery," The nurse said as that didn't feel right.
"Surgery? For what, Sha-loser?" Jo asked as Lightning chuckled.
"I got cataracts, keraunoparalysis..." Lightning answered the tomboy and seeing that not many understood what he meant, he decided to explain a second time.
"It means that I'm going blind and I'm paralytic, supposedly keraunoparalysis should be going away in the next few hours at best, but I have to do some physiotherapy in case I have to go back with this reality show thing that I'm apparently at," He said as he tried to smile, but it looked fake, so he just stopped.
Lightning tried his best to talk, but the others couldn't help but see the selfish person that left them to defend themselves against the mutated creatures, so it didn't take long until they decided to just tell him their goodbyes.
"Hey, Dawn, right?" Lightning asked the aura reader.
"...Did I really have no friends at any point in this competition?" Lightning asked as the girl sadly smiled.
"You weren't exactly a good person before, if it means anything, I'm sorry that you got struck by the lightning," She said as she also went her way as Lightning got stuck all by himself.
And now, that he was alone? What was he supposed to do, besides break down?
***"FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"*** Lightning shouted at the top of his lungs as he tried to hold down his tears.
He was going blind without the surgery, his legs didn't want to work, and not only he was poor but his own father threw him out like shit in the wind. The amnesiac didn't even know how he was going to pay for any of the surgeries.
So after some time crying down, he couldn't help but realize that all of this felt so similar, clutching his head as memories of a life that he knew for a fact weren't his, given the differences between what he knew and what these memories told him
Lightning may have not known much about himself ever since he woke up, but was able to understand that he was a mean jock stereotype, while these memories were from an American hunter.
"*Whose memories are these?" Lightning asked himself, curious to see if there was such a thing as waking up with someone else's memories.
Did he get someone's brain in surgery? That was the most likely theory since brains are fucky and frankly, no one knew how much is there in the supercomputer everyone calls a brain.
And as such, while waiting for the days to go by, Lightning couldn't help but think.
'So this is it? After all, my life is just a weird cartoon?' He asked himself, trying to understand the memory flow, seeing the show from a perspective of a person that saw the reality show as a cartoon.
But, it was with those memories that Lightning was able to remember himself, little that it was, a jock who got betrayed one too many times and blew up when Cameron took his victory, and that was it.
The more he remembered, the more he realized he had no friends, from the confessionals to his demeanor, he cared for himself only, and no one else cared for him, although... There was a time that wasn't like that, yeah?
A daycare, was it? He had friends there, not many, but... were those memories real? Were those his memories, or part of the new set of memories? Clutching his own head, he tried to understand what terms like 'canon' and 'non-canon' meant to appease his aching heart that had no one.
Days went by and he have been doing well on his physiotherapy, to the point where Lightning had impressed the doctors, if their reactions were telling.
"Lightning! How are you, buddy?" Chris asked as he appeared by himself, without his Chef, his second-in-command, and overall shadow.
"I don't go by Lightning anymore, I don't even know how I was called that... Just call me Rudolph, either that or Jack," He may not have his memories, but what he knows was that Lightning was not a good person. Rudolph wants to change that.
"Doesn't really matter, anyways, as a token of my regret over what happened with you, we will be reimbursing fifteen thousand dollars, American dollars not the Canadian ones, and we will be paying over your surgeries," Rudolph smiled.
"Thank you, although that won't do much, not even the tiny houses are this price," Rudolph told the host as he tried to take the white hair out of his face, it had grown too much for his liking, but there were no barbers on the hospital.
"Well then, the production team has good news for you then, just focus on the next season, it's going to be between this last season's contestants against 14 newbies," Chris said with a sadistic smile that had Rudolph confused.
His memories remembered this future being different, instead, he was supposed to be put in an 'All-Stars' season with contestants from the previous generation.
"Next season, huh..." Rudolph said absently minded as Chris nodded.
"Yup, good ol' Pakhitew Island," That jogged the other's memories, the memories of nobody, the ones that had Rudolph so distressed.
Pakhitew Island was supposed to happen after All-Stars, that much he knew, the contestants hadn't interacted with the previous contestants, besides in that Daycare.
*If* the daycare was real, then he guessed that Max, Ella, Sugar, and himself had interacted with the others, maybe, he still had to filter these memories, maybe log them as well.
"How long until the next season?" Rudolph asked the host with the most, who grinned as he simply put one finger up.
"One month?" Rudolph inquired as the host nodded, which felt like time enough to buy everything he needed if he had to if he wanted to survive the next season.
"Ah, well, thanks!" He meant it, and as Chris got out of the place, he began to list everything he may need.
After finishing the physiotherapy, he had to go back to school, he couldn't recognize anyone there, so he simply apologized and tried his best to ignore the chortles of the people throwing paper and trash at his back.
"I want to graduate early," The white-haired athlete told the school's superintendent, not knowing exactly who he's supposed to ask this kind of stuff.
"I have the money, just let me take the test," He continued as the superintendent raised an eyebrow, but shook his head.
"Give me a few moments," The superintendent said as he left the room, leaving Rudolph to retake his composure, he was pretty close to either breaking down in tears or beating up the asshole who threw bubblegum on his hair, also taking this moment to search for everything he might need to live off-grid until he gets onto the show.
As far as Rudolph Jackson was aware, he was permanently banned from his household by his father, even if he won the next season, it wouldn't be good enough because he already lost his rings, which were obviously, much more important than his own son.
I guess for someone who doesn't have any memories of the man, was a good thing, he could actually focus on himself for the time being, hopefully.
So with a lot less money, and a lot more preparation, whoever saw the 'new' Lightning would rather believe he acted more like Shawn, for his over-preparedness when it came to the apocalypse, or in Rudolph's case, just his day-by-day survival.
Buying a tent, silverware, bed, stove, solar panels, everything that would be needed to live as a hiker... but as a homeless teenager who had finished graduating earlier, to the surprise of everyone who knew Rudolph, and could also drive.
Although given that he was famous, it was hard for him to be hired due to how angry and callous the young man had acted in the last season.
'Apparently, that's enough to be disqualified on the job, bullshit I tell you' Rudolph angrily thought to himself about how he was being robbed, granted, it was true, but he had a doctor's testimony saying that he has amnesia goddamn it.
"Rudolph!" Chris appeared as the white-haired athlete had just finished packing his things, ready to walk on the road, again, it's a very tiring process, and frankly, he was happy that he didn't wasn't recognized anyone from the other Total Drama seasons, now that would've been embarrassed.
"Yeah, so... can I bring these things with me? I don't have a home, nor friends, to hold on to those things for me," Lightning said as Chris shrugged.
"Eh, I don't really care," He said surprising the athlete, who believed he was going to fight tooth and nails for it. Oh well.
"Th-" Rudolph tried to say as he felt something touch his neck, quickly taking it out, he noticed that it was a tranquilizer.
"Classic... Chris..." The white-haired boy said as he passed out.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone