HAPPY NEW YEARS! ADDING THIS IN 40 MINUTES BEFORE I UPLOAD IT, HOPE 2017 IS AMAZING!

Alright! Before I start rambling, I got reviews, so I thought I'd just do this:

To Sun Demigod: First of all, thanks for reading and I'm glad you're enjoying it! Secondly, Herdier fan, hm? :} Thirdly and finally, Forretress went because someone had to, even if he's one of my favourite Pokemon. ;-;

Haven't decided which contestant is going home this episode, but someone's gotta go home, right?

Remember guys, my grammar may not be very good at this point. This is one of the best ways to improve, and I've always loved Total Pokemon Island stories, so if my grammar seems a little bit off at this point in time, it might have improved greatly by the end of it, we don't know!

Oh and a reminder: Some of my Chapter numbers may be a little off in the previous chapters. This is because I deleted the original first one. I hope you understand.

Ok, the penultimate note: The teams are being forgotten already, mainly because all of the challenges I can come up with are better without teams, so I'm adding a new system, which you will soon find out.

Ok, on with the challenge (which I forgot to explain at the end of the last chapter.) With the heavy snow now falling, it's coming up to Christmas time for the contestants! Gliscor had the families of the contestants send them presents, but Heliolisk had a rather cruel plan. Placing each of the presents somewhere around the island, the contestants would have to explore to grab their own presents.

ANYWAY ENJOY!

Many contestants were playing around in the snow. Porygon and Herdier had started a massive snowball fight between the contestants of both teams. Well, most of the contestants were participating. Cryogonal was laying down in the snow, while the dragons and a few of the other contestants weak to ice were sitting inside. Back at the snowball fight, everyone seemed to be happy. Even Ferrothorn was smiling again. Yamask was rather reserved and sat down in the corner. Toxicroak and his alliance were sitting out of the snowball fight, talking to each other.

"So, we got rid of Forretress already. I wasn't planning on keeping him for long anyway." Toxicroak said. "I'm pretty sure Ferrothorn got rid of Forretress by randomly picking him. It was either me or him anyway, so..." Parasect said, walking past. "Listen, shroom. Join us. You were about to be eliminated. I would never let that happen to you. You know about us anyway." Toxicroak grinned.

"I've been waiting for this!" Parasect said, a wide grin spreading across his face.

"Admittedly, that was a bad idea, I'm not going to lie." Toxicroak banged his head against the wall.

"No. Of course not. Alliances are dumb." Parasect replied flatly. "Fine, fine. We'll get rid of you then." Toxicroak stated, his voice cold. "No, you won't. If you eliminate me, I'll expose you. You wouldn't want that, would you?" Parasect asked. Toxicroak spat at the floor bitterly. "Fine, we'll keep you in. For now, at least."

"Of course, this will only get me so far. I can always eliminate Whirlipede and Exeggutor as we go along. They're disposable to Toxicroak, I know that. Getting rid of them will only weaken him. All three of them must stay a while."

Meanwhile, Alomomola was being sent to the infirmary after Mime Jr. sent a HUGE snowball her direction. At this point, everyone stopped playing, scared of what Mime Jr. could do.

Minun was sitting on her own, rather sad. Haunter quickly flew over to her to see the problem. "You ok, Minun? You don't seem very happy." "I mean, usually every season has two contestants like me, but this one only has me. It makes me kinda lonely, ya know?" "I can understand that. I mean, I'm not very social, but I could try to be your friend." "Really!?" "Yeah, really." "SWEET!"

"WE'RE GONNA BE BEST OF FRIENDS! WE CAN DO EVERYTHING THAT BEST FRIENDS DO TOGETHER!" Minun squealed, jumping up and down at an incredible speed.

"OY, YOU LOT! EVERYONE INSIDE, I HAVE SOME IMPORTANT NEWS!"

Everyone did as they were told. Herdier shook vigorously to get all of the snow off, covering everyone else in the icy mess. Gliscor screamed and ran out of the room. Heliolisk rolled his eyes and stood where Gliscor was previously standing. "Well, the first bit of news, the teams are gone already, but-" Everyone gasped. "BUT, that is for multiple reasons. Firstly, we're out of team challenges. Secondly-" "We only had about two." Sableye muttered. "LET ME TALK PEOPLE, JEEZ!" "Nope!" Mime Jr. smiled. She then got kicked out of the hotel by Heliolisk. "Secondly, we're having a new system. Every challenge will work this way. Each challenge has a goal. Every contestant that completes this goal will be safe. Everyone who doesn't complete this goal will be up for elimination. If everyone makes it, then nobody will be eliminated that episode. If only one person fails to make it, they'll be automatically eliminated. Sometimes, it will be different, and sometimes, we'll do the whole 'last 10 people to make it is up for elimination' or whatever, got that?"

Everyone nodded. Some seemed excited about this new change, Bastiodon was kind of worried.

"I HATE being under pressure like this! I won't have fun this season." Bastiodon frowned.

"So, as it's coming up to Christmas time, we got your families to send you presents. The thing is, we... Well..." Heliolisk paused for effect.

"You hid them around the island which forces us to go around and find them," Beheeyem stated.

"...Yes, yes I did. Arceus, stop ruining the fun. Anyway, you heard him. You have three hours, as this island is pretty large. It will start in 5 minutes, everyone, prepare yourselves."

Sableye put his hand up. "Oh... Right... Well, Sableye, we made our own present for you. Sorry, bud." Sableye shrugged. Haunter frowned at Sableye, who looked away.

Quite a few of the contestants were with their friends. Darmanitan and Bastiodon, Tympole and Stunfisk, Herdier and Porygon, the alliance...

"GO!" A rather irritated Gliscor said. Everyone rushed out of the hotel to go and look for their presents.

Haunter quickly rushed over to Sableye, with Minun trying to catch up with them. "What was that about? Do you not have-" "I'd rather not talk about it." "You'd rather not talk about anything, but you need to tell me." "Why do I?" "Because I want to know." "My family don't care about me, that's it." "But-" "Wait, let me rephrase that, no one cares about me." "I do." "Do you now? It's called sympathy, not care. There's a difference." "And what difference is that?" "When it's sympathy, you don't do anything about it." And with that, Sableye rushed off.

Krokorok was walking around. He wasn't trying to look for his present, he was just walking around sadly. Bastiodon and Darmanitan ran over to him, worried. "You ok, Krokorok? You seem like a cool guy, but you were on the other team, so we never got to talk to you." Darmanitan smiled cheesily. "I'm fine! What makes you think otherwise?" "Well, you've been different ever since Ariados-" Krokorok whimpered. "-left." "He didn't die, you know. He'll be out of the hospital in a few days. Christmas eve, in fact. He still gets to spend Christmas with his family." Ariados' expression stayed the same. "He'll be watching this, you know. He wouldn't like to see you upset."

Mime Jr. was sitting back at the hotel with her present. The present had a red circle in the middle and two white circles below it, with blue on the top. "Wha- But- There's NO way you got it that quickly. Yours was all the way on the other side of the island." Heliolisk stared. "I... am... a... WIZARD." Mime Jr. said (While doing a handstand, I might add.)

Magneton and Probopass were both in a forest looking for their presents. Magneton had found three other presents which it left in plain sight so that they could be found easily.

A bruised Alomomola was chatting up Tympole, while Stunfisk stood next to him awkwardly. "You're really hot, you know." "No, I'm not, I'm a fish, I'm from an ocean, I'm cold. So are you, in fact." "You're smart, I like you." Stunfisk sighed loudly and went off without them.

Druddigon and Altaria were talking to each other. "I really hate this snow!" "I know! I am, too." "You know, you're kinda cute." "What?" "I... I mean..." Hawlucha quickly flew over to the two. "DRUDDIGON. I FOUND YOUR PRESENT, SOLDIER! ALTARIA, I SHALL HELP YOU FIND YOURS, COME WITH ME!" And with that, Hawlucha took Altaria's wing and ran off quickly, leaving Druddigon behind. "Why did I say that?" Druddigon said to herself, before looking at her present. It was rather big, and it had her colour scheme.

While Magneton and Probopass were walking, a tiny black and red present flew right towards them and hit Probopass on the head. "Ouch!" She said, before looking down at it. Magneton stared at Probopass in disbelief. She just spoke! "Probopass...?" "What?" Long silence... "Oh... OH... Ok, I have a confession. I could always speak. My boring personality would never be enough to get on a show like this, so I decided to be silent. It worked for B, so..." "And there goes the fourth wall. Anyway, I won't tell anyone. You can talk to me, though." "Cool... Anyway, who's present is this?" On further inspection of the present, it had a gold circle on one of the sides. "Hm... Oh, Yamask?" "Yeah, I can imagine her getting a small present. Matches her colours, as well. I'll hold onto this one, I feel bad for her." And then the two walked off.

Shortly after, Klefki appeared in the same area. "It feels like I've looked EVERYWHERE! OH MY ARCEUS!"

Sigilyph was found by Herdier buried in the snow. "Present?" Sigilyph asked. "Excuse me?" Herdier responded. Porygon spoke to Sigilyph in a strange language. Sigilyph nodded and walked off. "...What?" Herdier asked Porygon. "I was programmed to speak in as many languages possible. Rather clever." "Hey, what's that?" A vibrant box with blue and pink stripes was stuck in a tree. Porygon grabbed it and shook it, making a rattling sound. "I wonder what it is..."

~~2 hours left~~

Back at the hotel, Mime Jr., Hawlucha, Druddigon, Altaria, Stunfisk and Arcanine were all drinking some hot drinks. Altaria was staring at Druddigon weirdly, who frowned. Beheeyem quickly came in as well, holding a very tall and seemingly heavy box. "Can we open them yet?" Stunfisk asked Gliscor, who shook his head. "Nope, we're waiting for everyone." As they said this, Darmanitan and Krokorok came back. "Bastiodon has gotten stuck, Gliscor." Darmanitan frowned. Krokorok just sat down, clutching his small present.

Darmanitan and Heliolisk went over to Bastiodon, to find him sunken into the snow. Muffled yelling could be heard. "Just melt the snow, Darmanitan. Seriously, it's not that hard." "Oh, right!"

Parasect was on his way back when he noticed Swadloon's present, so he ran over to grab it and find Swadloon.

Sigilyph, Sableye, the three alliance members, Baltoy and Cryogonal were all back at the hotel. Porygon and Herdier both made it back as well, now that Herdier found her box.

~~1 hour left~~

Swadloon and Parasect were now back, talking to each other about being bug and grass types.

Darmanitan and Bastiodon were still looking around for their presents.

Alomomola was making out with Tympole, who was trying (and failing) to escape.

Amoonguss was frozen solid after falling into the snow.

Ferrothorn was just a bit slow, he hadn't made much progress.

Yamask was looking for her present only because she was hoping it would a new mask. It wouldn't be the same, but it would comfort her at least a little.

Minun and Haunter were busy looking everywhere.

Magneton was clueless, while Probopass was on her way back. She forgot which way the hotel was, however.

Klefki felt like he had looked everywhere, but continued to look anyway.

~~30 minutes left~~

Minun had found hers, but she waited for Haunter, as that's what good friends do.

Alomomola just remembered the challenge, so she carried Tympole around as she went to look for their presents.

Probopass was completely lost. Since when did this island have a volcano?

Darmanitan and Bastiodon had found theirs and made it back.

Yamask bumped into Magneton and got her present, so she made her way back.

~~5 mins left~~

Ferrothorn had found his present but there was no way he'd make it back in time, so he just gave up and walked back.

Probopass somehow found a cave?

Amoonguss... Well, Amoonguss was still frozen solid.

Minun and Haunter quickly made their way back with their presents.

Alomomola had found Tympole's, but insisted she'd find hers first before it ended so they could go back together.

~~TIME'S UP!~~

"So, Tympole, Ferrothorn, Klefki, Alomomola, Probopass, Magneton and Amoonguss are all up for elimination," Gliscor announced.

About half an hour later, all of the contestants returned one way or another.

"So guys, you will be allowed to open your presents on Christmas day, when I say you can. We're going to delay the elimination so that everyone can enjoy Christmas here, as we will be having a big feast and a party as well." "But wouldn't it be better for the eliminated contestant to be with their family at Christmas time?" Altaria asked. "Yes, but shhh."

The contestants were placing Christmas decorations around their individual rooms and everyone seemed to be in a lively mood. They played many games both inside and out. Sableye skipped the games and spent most of the time staring out of the window until Bastiodon dragged him into a rather peculiar Musical Chairs, in which he got quite far and ended up having a great time. (Arcanine won easily) Every single contestant enjoyed the big feast and had a great time talking to one another. Toxicroak had a lot of laughs, Yamask made many jokes, Beheeyem had a laughing fit when Herdier fell out of her chair, Stunfisk and Tympole were both given the centre of attention when Druddigon realised that they hadn't done much, Swadloon and Exeggutor ended up kissing at some point after drinking a bit too much, Krokorok became great friends with Bastiodon, Hawlucha told many great war stories and even Baltoy enjoyed himself for the few short hours he spent with them. He spent the rest of his time trying to figure out how to open the panel.

Christmas was nearly over, so all of the contestants were brought to the main room. "Contestants, before you all open your presents, I want to show you these..." four picture frames were brought out, and each one had a different eliminated contestant. A Mantine was winking to the camera, Aurorus had a slight grin on her face, Ariados made a peace sign with his hands as he held a beverage of some kind and Forretress was with his family of Pinecos, Forretresses and Durants. "Unown was supposedly found by their parents. That's the call we got, at least. We don't really know." Krokorok immediately lit up when he saw Krokorok's picture and nearly started to cry. "Now, you can all open your presents!"

All of the contestants got theirs except for Klefki. "Sorry, Klefki. One of the other contestants must have moved it or something, yours wasn't where I left it." Gliscor shrugged his shoulders. Everyone opened their presents.

Swadloon found a high-quality leaf mask by "Pokue", known for their fashionable products. Sigilyph got a strange relic, Mime Jr got a new hat which she wore over her original (they looked exactly the same), Minun got a battery and Porygon got a disc in a yellow transparent case.

Bastiodon got a steel gem, Stunfisk got some Pokepuffs, Cryogonal got some NeverMeltIce, Magneton got a simple Magnet and Krokorok opened his present to find a Grip Claw as well as a letter from Ariados, which made him burst out into tears.

Druddigon got a strangely awesome hat, Yamask got a silver replica of his old mask, which he held dear, Arcanine got a TM for Overheat, Hawlucha got a picture frame of her friends from the army and Whirlipede got a TM for Infestation.

Darmanitan got a necklace from his girlfriend, Sableye got a ticket which said "IMMUNITY" on it, Toxicroak was given an Air Balloon, Amoonguss got a Small Mushroom and Haunter got some cool three fingered gloves.

Exeggutor got a Santa hat, Probopass also got a Magnet, Alomomola was given many, MANY cards with love hearts on them, making her blush and throw them away quickly, Baltoy got a Dreidel and Parasect was given a video game.

Altaria was given candy floss, Beheeyem was given the full encyclopaedia series, Ferrothorn got an Anti-Rust substance, Tympole was given a water ring and Herdier got a ball which she spent a while playing with.

"Klefki, because I feel bad, you can get an immunity ticket as well as Sableye," Gliscor said. Heliolisk frowned.

Porygon pulled Herdier away from everyone else, while Baltoy ran off to do other things. "Herdier! Put this disc into my disc slot! This could be anything!" Porygon said excitedly. Herdier did so, only to see Porygon flash brightly. Herdier watched in awe as Porygon slowly smoothened out, their movements becoming a lot less rigid.

"Woah, would you look at that!" Darmanitan said, pointing to Herdier and Porygon. Then, the flashing stopped, and Porygon2 looked around at everyone. "What are you guys looking at?" Porygon2 asked, staring at everyone else. "How do you feel, Porygon2?" Bastiodon grinned. "Porygon2? WHAT? Did I evolve? THAT'S AWESOME! YES!"

"As great as this is, something not so great is elimination. The worst part is, it's happening right now. Come this way, guys."

Meanwhile, Baltoy went through the pipes back to the control room of the cruise. He noticed something grey and pink on the desk. It looked like... Klefki's present! What was it doing there? Did they forget to bring it out? No...

"So guys, 7 of you guys are here, and one of you guys are going home," Heliolisk said, staring at each of them. "First of all, Klefki is safe, I guess."

"Nah, I don't think I'll use my ticket yet, I don't have a reason to be eliminated," Klefki said, smiling at the others, who nodded in agreement.

"Oh, in that case..." Heliolisk smiled. "Tympole is safe, probably because nobody remembered that he could be voted for."

Tympole got up and smiled. That was an advantage of being forgettable.

"Probopass and Magneton are both safe as well."

The two smiled at each other and got up to leave.

"All of you guys have a reason to be here. Amoonguss, stop getting into situations where you end up immobilised. Alomomola, you spent the whole challenge kissing Tympole. Klefki... I don't know, actually. Ferrothorn, you've been up for elimination a lot. Not only that, you're rather slow which doesn't let you do much."

"However, Alomomola, your only vote was from Tympole, so there you go."

"From Tympole? Why would my newest boyfriend want me gone? Already? Wow, that's a record. Still, he's not leaving..."

"...Creep. Anyway, Amoonguss is safe next." Heliolisk seemed rather excited.

Amoonguss smiled and left the room.

"Ferrothorn and Klefki. One of you is going home. And that is KLEFKI! GOODBYE KLEFKI!"

"Woah, wait a second. I saw how many people agreed with Klefki being okay, and I certainly didn't vote for him. I did worse, too. Eliminate me instead." Ferrothorn frowned.

"Nope, no breaking the rules, Klefki is-"

"WAIT!" Baltoy screeched, jumping in. "OBJECTION!"

"Wrong game, Baltoy," Parasect said from somewhere.

"Klefki's present wasn't outside. Someone brought it inside. He shouldn't even be up for elimination!"

Gliscor heard this and entered. "Oh really, so where was it?"

"It was in the control room, you can look for yourself."

"Not only that, Heliolisk seemed very eager to eliminate Klefki. I think he stole it so that Klefki would lose." Ferrothorn added.

"As great as that all is... Baltoy, how do you know it was in the control room?"

"Well, I-"

"He's been climbing through the vents. I thought I heard rumbling from time to time, but I just thought it was just some kind of machinery on this damn cruise. Baltoy, I'd say that you're going home." Heliolisk smiled.

"I'd have to agree. But first, Heliolisk, I have a job for you. Clean the entire cruise ship." Gliscor smiled.

"Uh, excuse me?"

"Well, even if Baltoy broke the rules, you tried to send a contestant home unfairly. What was your motive, anyway?" He wondered.

"HE JINGLED HIS KEYS AT ME!" And with that, Heliolisk stomped out.

O0o0O

Baltoy was on a raft in the middle of a freezing ocean. "It's so cold... IF it snows, I swear I'll kill Heliolisk. I shouldn't have interrupted, I should have let Klefki go home. Stupid heart!" It then started snowing heavily.

And with that, he floated away.

O0o0O

The contestants were back on the cruise, ready to go towards the next island.

Haunter was staring at Sableye through the window. Minun was concerned. "Talk to him, he's not okay." Minun frowned. "No. If he wants to be left alone, he can be left alone."

Sableye was in deep thought, but something felt empty. Haunter wasn't trying to cheer him up. It was a strange feeling, the lack of Haunter made this moment feel a little dull.

"And he'll keep asking you to leave him alone unless you keep asking him to cheer up. It's how brains work." Beheeyem said, entering the cabin. "Wait, what are you doing in this cabin? It's two per cabin." Minun frowned at Beheeyem. "I've been forced to go with Sableye, so I thought I'd try and do something to get him out of his usual mood."

Krokorok was staring out into the ocean. The difference between him now and the day before was the fact that, for the first time in forever, he was smiling.

And that ends that chapter! Baltoy ended up going home, but while I was writing this, it changed multiple times.

Not much to say, hope you enjoyed.

Next Chapter:

Now on their way to the next island, Gliscor struggles to think of what to do for the next challenge. Then, he remembers where they're going. An Alolan island! He felt bad that none of the Pokemon were alolan, so he gets a rather strange idea...