The episode resumed at the cabins, where all of the campers were just beginning to arrive. The cabins had banners across their fronts, and both of them displayed the logo of the team it belonged to. On the left was Team Maskwak's pink confused bear, and on the right was Team Kinosewak's green floating salmon, both of which were hastily painted on after the name mishap from earlier. What was more, the original logos, that of an eagle and tiger respectively, were crudely crossed out in red paint.

Some of the contestants were examining these logos, such as Scarlett and Topher on their side (both of whom were shaking their heads in disgust), and Beardo, Leonard and Dave on theirs (who were all laughing jovially at the rush job). Others were chatting amongst themselves, like Jasmine and the twins, though it was really Jasmine and Sammy who were chatting while Amy seemed to be observing her fellow competitors. Others still were making their way towards their designated rooms.

Ella, Sky and Sugar approached their cabin and took in the sights. Visually, it looked identical to the cabins used in previous seasons, with its dirty walls and windows and rotting steps and supports. "I'm not really liking the look of this place," Sky mumbled as they climbed the stairs. She tested one step and winced as it loudly creaked under her weight.

"I'm sure it's better on the inside," Ella happily suggested. She threw open the door to the girl's room and walked in, the others following, and they twisted their faces in revulsion once the musky stench hit their noses. "Okay. I'm wrong. This place stinks."

Sky walked over to one of the beds and sat down on it, which produced another loud squeak. "I'm sensing a pattern here," she mumbled. She began rummaging through the track bag that was already sitting on it, indicating that the bed was hers. She sniffed loudly once and cringed. "Did they even bother washing these sheets?"

Ella, inspecting the nearby vanity, frowned at the reflection of Sky in the mirror. "You know, I honestly doubt they did."

-ELLA-

Ella begins her confessional by hesitantly sitting on the seat, sniffing, and shuddering. "Ooh, it's even worse in here." Her disgust quickly vanishes as she looks at the camera. "Oh wait, this is already on." She clears her throat, and the look of surprise is replaced by a pleasant smile. "That being said, it's exactly what I expected when I joined the show! I've been waiting for this moment ever since watching the third season, and now that I'm old enough it's my time to shine!" She pauses. "I hope I don't get hurt here. Or worse, make any enemies. Hmm, but then again, that's the whole Total Drama experience, isn't it?" She puts a finger to her chin in thought. "Maybe I should make some enemies…"

-END-

"Dang," Sugar said, testing out the bottom bunk of the other bed herself. A few bright pink suitcases were on this one in particular. "This place is more run down than my room back home! Never thought I'd miss my itchy blankets as much as I do now."

"Yeah, these cabins are in pretty bad shape." Sky bounced up and down on her bed a bit. "I thought the contract said double the quality?"

"It wasn't of very high quality to begin with, I don't think," Ella said. On the bunk above Sky's was a plain, dark blue suitcase, and she waltzed over to the ladder and climbed up. "It's a shame they couldn't rebuild that spa hotel from last season. It would've been nice to live in the lap of luxury for once."

"That'd be the life," Sugar replied. "Though one of these days it will be my life. Just so you ladies are aware, I intend to win this here pageant, and I ain't afraid of fightin' dirty if I have to."

Ella looked at her with a bit of a surprised frown, and while at first Sky did the same, she soon grinned and slid off her bed. "Well just so you're aware, I also intend to win, and I'm gonna do it without playing dirty. So get ready to get your butt kicked, fair and square!"

Sugar scoffed. "We'll see how far that gets ya!"

Ella then quickly jumped off her bunk and held up her hands in a placating gesture between them. "B-But that's not until after the merge right? Until then we're on a team, and because we're on a team we should all get along." She looked back and forth between them rapidly. "Right?"

Sky was the first to recover, and laughed. "Yeah, of course. We have to work together to win the first few challenges after all. We don't have a choice. But we'll be fine!"

The two looked over at Sugar for confirmation. She had her lips pursed in thought, though when she noticed the girls waiting for a response, she smiled and hopped off the bed. "Well duh! I was just talkin' 'bout the future, when we have to go for it on our lonesomes. 'Til then, it's all for one, one for all!" Sky and Ella nodded and smiled at that, which prompted Sugar to smile even wider.

-SUGAR-

Sugar laughs with glee. "A'course, if either of them get a little too close for comfort, I might have to do somethin' about it. I'll keep things on the downlow and play nice for now, but they best watch themselves as the days go on. You cross Sugar, you get the horns!" She mimics bull horns above her head and, oddly, howls like a wolf.

-END-

In the Maskwak boys' room, Beardo and Leonard were lounging on their shared bunk bed, while Dave was pulling out a bottle of hand sanitizer from his bag. Smiling, he applied it and rubbed his hands thoroughly.

Leonard looked down from his top bunk and into Dave's open bag, where several more bottles sat. "Oh, wow. You manage to fit your clothes in that bag of sanitizer?"

Dave rolled his eyes as he cleaned between his fingers. "Ha ha. I can assure you, there's a reason I have so much of it with me."

"And that reason is?" Leonard asked, curious.

Dave frowned, but didn't think about it for too long. "I've… got sort of a weak immune system. And I've been sick enough times to know that being on this island is putting me at risk of catching some funky new disease, one that probably doesn't even have a name yet. If I want to go far in this game, I need to be prepared."

"Huh," Leonard said. "I didn't realize that. Sorry if I offended you."

Dave simply waved him off. "Nah, no offense taken. It's something I'm used to now."

Beardo, listening in, asked, "Hey, uh, why'd you join if you knew you might catch something?"

The germaphobe shrugged. "Why else? A million dollars isn't going to hurt. Plus, being here might help me develop my system, you know?"

Beardo nodded. "That's smart."

Dave looked from his bag, to the boys, and to the walls surrounding them and, humming in thought for a bit, said to them, "Hey, thinking about it, I do have plenty of bottles to spare, so if you guys want I could set one up in here for you to use."

Leonard was halfway to licking his thumb to turn the page of his book, stopped to look at it, and put the hand down entirely. "You know, I might just take you up on your offer."

Smiling once more, Dave took one of them and placed it on the vanity's counter. "All yours."

-DAVE-

"Sharing my sanitizer is the least I could do," Dave says as he sits in the outhouse. His hands are jammed firmly into his pockets. "A lot of the surfaces here are coated in germs - or, rather, all of the surfaces - so if these guys want to stay healthy they're more than welcome to use some. And hey, maybe the team will keep me around longer if I give them my stuff." He frowns and puts a hand to his chin. "Wait, that sounds weird when I say it out loud."

-END-

The door then slammed open and a drowsy looking Shawn sauntered in. He looked to his left, where Leonard and Beardo were lying in their beds, and then to the right, where Dave was sitting on his. "Uh, hey there," Dave tried, waving a hand. "You're… Shawn, right?"

"Yup," Shawn replied. He pointed to the bunk above Dave, where his bags were clearly seen. "This my bed?"

"Uh, yeah-"

"Cool." Without another word Shawn hauled himself up the ladder and flopped onto the pillow, almost instantly passing out and snoring loudly.

The three other guys stared in varying degrees of bafflement. "That's, uh, not gonna be a problem for us, is it?" Beardo asked them.

"If it starts to be, we'll make sure he knows." Dave said evenly. "We all have to contribute if we want to stay on the team."

"Agreed. Plus, I don't think he should expect to get by in this game just because he's tired," Leonard added. "Every good adventuring party needs all of their members to have long rests and be in peak condition before setting out!"

"Uh, yeah," Dave said, not really understanding. "What he said."

Despite that, Beardo still looked nervous. "I-I guess."

In Kinosewak's boy's room, Max and Rodney were mostly keeping to themselves as they unpacked their luggage, with Max's bunk being above Rodney's, but despite their silence Topher was talking enough for the three of them. "Wow!" he exclaimed, swiping a finger along the surface of their room's cracked mirror and inspecting it. "They even made sure to let these babies settle with dust for a while! The set guys here definitely know their stuff."

"Of course they do," Max said, fishing out a box of animal crackers. "They've done this thing five times over by now, they've had ample opportunity to get it down to a science."

"I'm aware, obviously," Topher said with a roll of his eyes, "but I can't help but admire stuff like this. Like, who even uses these mirrors? And yet the attention to detail is so realistic, it just makes me appreciate the work that goes into everything here all the more!"

Rodney shifted his weight a little bit on his bed, and immediately fell through it with a crash. "Oof!" he grunted, and tried to wriggle free. "Uh, I think I'm stuck."

Max immediately set out to help him, while Topher clapped his hands in delight. "Rickety old beds! A Total Drama staple." He then thought for a second, then jabbed a thumb to the other ground-level bunk, where several brand-new suitcases of varying colors sat. "You, uh, can have mine if you want. The top bunk suits me better anyway."

Rodney, who looked at that bed calmly despite his situation, merely shrugged. "Sure. Thanks, I guess."

Struggling to make any progress and failing at it entirely, Max glanced over at Topher. "A little help here?!" he asked through his teeth.

"Who, me?" Topher asked. A dramatic sigh escaped his lips. "And here I was hoping to not sweat on the first day." He grabbed a hold of Rodney's other hand. "Let's get you out, big guy."

Next door, in the girl's room, Amy was unpacking her suitcases on the top bunk of one bed, while Sammy did the same underneath. The younger twin took a glance at the bottom bunk around her, and gave a sigh that was heard by the others.

Jasmine, who was tall enough to unpack her stuff on the other top bunk from the floor, looked her way. "You good, sheila?" she asked.

"Huh?" Apparently she only just realized how loud the sigh was. "Oh, uh, yeah, I guess," Sammy said with a hint of uncertainty. Without another word she went back to her clothes.

Above her, Amy raised a brow and hung over the side to look at her sister. "C'mon, Sam, tell us what's on your mind."

Sammy frowned and rubbed one of her arms. "I dunno. It's dumb."

Scarlett, who was lying on her bed and deep in her book once again, looked up from it to glance at the younger twin. "Feel free to speak your mind. You'll receive no judgment here."

"Really? Wow, thanks," Sammy said with a genuine smile.

Scarlett gave Sammy a bit of a frown and returned to her book. "I say that only because I don't care either way."

Sammy blinked at the bluntness of that sentence, but pressed on regardless. "So, whenever we would sleep in bunk beds," she motioned to herself and Amy, "I'd almost always get the bottom bunk. I was… kind of hoping I'd be able to sleep in the top bunk this time."

"Ohh," Amy said in understanding, and then smiled. "Is that all? Yeah, sure, go ahead."

"You don't mind?" Sammy grinned at her sister. Despite her trepidation, she didn't seem all that surprised by this response.

"No? Of course not!" Amy replied with a shrug. "All you had to do was ask. I don't mind."

-AMY-

Amy sits on the seat with one leg crossed over the other. "Sam and I have different interests and friend groups and junk, but we're still close. I'm the older one by 17 minutes, so it kinda makes me sorta, like… protective of her? Cuz when we were younger, there was this-" Amy stops short and coughs awkwardly. "I mean, she, ah, had some hard times growing up, so I've sorta been looking out for her for a while. She's sweet, but has trouble defending herself at times. And that's where I come in." She points at herself with her thumbs, a prideful grin on her face.

-END-

Amy continued to speak as she pulled herself back up and started re-packing her clothes. "I mean, it's just beds, right? And crappy ones to boot. It's not like one is better than the others." She then paused. "Right? There isn't some sort of secret bed that's actually better than the others, is there?"

"I highly doubt it," Scarlett answered, not looking up. "From my research, the overlords of this show seem to want us all to have as miserable a time here as possible. Allowing one of us to get a decent amount of sleep would likely go against their modus operandi."

Amy pursed her lips. "M-Modus op… Uh. I'll take that as a 'no.'"

Jasmine examined her own top bunk, and then looked down at Sammy. "Say, if you want, I could swap with you instead."

Sammy stopped putting a shirt away. "Wait, really? You're sure?"

"Sure I'm sure. There's more space between the two bunks than there is between the top ones and the ceiling. You'd be doing me a favor if you give me your spot, really."

"Okay, that sounds great, thanks!" Sammy resumed her clothes packing, while above her Amy gave Jasmine a grin and a thumbs up, which was returned by the survivalist heartily.

Quietly, Scarlett let out a sigh of relief.

-SCARLETT-

"With the condition the bunk beds are in and the likelihood of them collapsing on us due to an excessive amount of weight placed on them, it's rather relieving that Jasmine chose to give up the one bed above me." She reflects on that for a moment. "I would have been less concerned if it were one of the twins underneath her, but in the spirit of teamwork and camaraderie, this works out beneficially for all."

-END-

A half an hour of settling in later, the loudspeakers rang to life in a squeal. "Now that you've had time to get to know your teammates, it's time to begin the first challenge!" Chris declared through them.

"What about lunch?" Max called out to the open air through the door. In his hand was a small packet of animal crackers, which he was swiftly working through. "I'm running on practically nothing here!"

"Lunch will be provided after the challenge," Chris answered, to which Max groaned. "For now, follow the path leading south of your cabins. You'll know where the designated meeting area is when you see it!"

Leaving their rooms, the four groups of guys and girls merged into one, and they all walked together on their way to the challenge. Some of them formed even smaller groups, and conversations broke out amongst them, though the majority of them ended up being along the lines of 'What do you think the challenge will be?', to which no one had a solid answer.

Soon they entered a large area encircled by craggy hills, where in the center were several giant mounds of garbage. This garbage ranged from old tires, sheets of metal, broken pieces of wood, destroyed appliances and the odd space satellite. The 14 contestants looked at these piles in varying degrees of astonishment and dread as they walked towards the center of the area.

"Aaand we're already knee deep in garbage," Dave droned. "Just my luck."

"Hey, it probably won't be that bad," Sky said to him. "If we have to go digging through it, just avoid the sharp edges and it should be fine."

"Avoid the sharp edges, and everything else here," Dave said with a nod. "Got it." Sky looked at him with a raised brow, but didn't get the chance to say anything more.

"Welcome to part one of your first challenge!" Chris announced to them once they reached him. "We're going to be starting things off nice and simple with this one: grab what you can from these junk piles, bring it back to a spot somewhere on the island, and use them to make statues of your team's animal!

"Team Kinosewak will bring their materials further inland, while Maskwak can pick a spot closer to shore, so as to not interfere with each other's work. Collecting the materials, however, is fair game for interference, so don't be afraid to steal!"

Some of them, particularly Sugar, rubbed their hands in glee.

"The statues have to be big," Chris said, "not something you can easily hold in your hand, so Kinosewak, don't make your salmon to scale."

Both sides sighed, either in relief or in agitation. "There goes the easy win for us," Topher moaned.

"Anything from the piles can be used, so long as it actually comes from this area. If you find something while walking to your spots and want to use it, be advised that your team will be penalized if you choose to do so. Once the building starts, you also can't take from the other teams, so keep that all in mind.

"Also, and perhaps most importantly, you have a time limit for how long you have to find materials."

He stopped there, and didn't continue, prompting the campers to look at him and each other in confusion.

"And that time limit is… how long exactly?" Jasmine asked with a raise of her hand.

Chris grinned widely. "However long it takes for Chef to shoot all his tennis balls at you guys."

The host motioned behind him, where Chef Hatchet stood on a tall rock with a wicked grin on his face. He pulled back a tarp that had been covering something, and produced a giant minigun almost the size of him, trained on the cast below. Also around him were several buckets of tennis balls, one of which he picked up and dumped into the blaster.

"He's going to be shooting at you guys the entire time," Chris explained, prompting everyone to adopt a look of shock, "so my suggestion would be to wait for him to pick on someone else before making a pass for the goods. You have until I reach where Chef is before he starts firing. Find yourself some cover if you don't want him to target you the second I get up there."

That spurred everyone into action. "Alright, Salmons, this way," Jasmine hollered, motioning towards the woods and taking off for some overturned logs. Her team followed her immediately.

Sky saw the direction they had left in, and looked opposite of it. "Bears, behind those rocks!" She ran towards the direction they had come in, and just like the other team, her allies followed right behind her.

Both teams found cover just as Chris hopped to the top of the rock. He casually dusted himself off and cleared his throat. "And your challenge starts now!" he declared, sounding off his air horn.

Of course, no one moved a muscle, as they were all too busy strategizing to make any runs. Team Kinosewak poked out from behind the log, and all of them were taking a moment to look around.

After a few moments of observing, Jasmine smirked, nodded and said, "Here's what we do-"

At the exact same time, Rodney squinted his eyes at the field and said, "Alright, listen up-"

Both of the tall teens stopped mid-sentence and looked at each other in surprise.

"Three of us should-" Jasmine tried to continue.

"We should each grab-" said Rodney, doing the same.

They ended their sentences once more, as the other five watched on in curious silence.

Rodney quirked his brow at her. "What do you think you're doing?"

Jasmine narrowed his eyes at him. "What am I doing? I'm telling us how to win, that's what I'm doing."

Rodney only frowned at that.

-RODNEY-

Rodney is hunched over in the confessional, as his large frame makes for very little room. "Back on the farm, it's just me, my dad, and my five little brothers. Dad's getting up in the years, and none of my brothers are old enough to work unsupervised, so I'm kinda the one who has to take charge." He sits up as straight as he can and confidently crosses his arms. "I know for a fact that I can lead this team to victory! If only I get the chance to do it."

-JASMINE-

Like Rodney, Jasmine has little room in the outhouse, and so has to bend her knees close to her body to make room. "It's always the big guys who are intimidated by me. They see a girl with the same height and musculature as them, and they start wetting themselves and are forced to nurse their male ego. Actually, it's small guys, too." She pauses and puts a finger to her chin. "And… most girls. Uh… I may have a bad habit of intimidating people when I get worked up about something I enjoy doing. And unfortunately, I think leading a group like this is one of them."

-END-

"Anyways, just listen to my plan!" Jasmine continued, grabbing Rodney's shirt by the collar. "We need to decide what items are important and make sure we get 'em. Got it?"

Rodney felt the heat coursing through his cheeks from being so close to her, and he did his best to push her away as gingerly as possible. "Well, yeah, but that's just common sense," he countered. "What we really need is something that'll let us carry those items, to make it easier on all of us. No offence to you guys, but I don't think many of us can carry giant stacks of wood at once."

Amy nodded in agreement. "No, no, you're right about that."

"So we need something to literally carry the burden," Topher surmised in joke form. Sammy snorted and had to hold back a laugh.

"Exactly," Rodney said, ignoring the pun. "Something like-"

"A wheelbarrow?" interrupted Scarlett, standing up and pointing into the area. She managed it for about a second before Chef Hatchet began shooting her way, and the team yelped as one and ducked back behind the logs. "There's a wheelbarrow not too far from our position," she continued, an irritable glare being sent in Chef's direction. "If we're able to secure it, we should have a considerably easier time attaining the necessary materials."

"What's good for building a statue anyway?" Sammy asked, her hands covering her head as the tennis balls continued to bombard their shelter.

"Based on what's here? The wood and sheets of metal will be key," Jasmine told her. "Along with anything that we can piece together. And by the looks of it, there's more than enough to grab."

"I'll get the wheelbarrow," Rodney offered, "and we'll use it for the bigger items. Uh, let's see," he looked between all of them, making a plan in his head. "Jasmine, Topher, can you help me collect the materials? And the rest of you guys, how about something to hold this thing together?"

"Can do," Topher said easily. "Though, uh, just don't expect me to take too much. Don't want my shirt ruined on day one, you know?" Scarlett glared at him and shook her head.

As he spoke, Jasmine sent an unimpressed glare at Rodney, and looked like she wanted to say something to him. However, Scarlett's gaze then turned from Topher to her, and she placed a hand on Jasmine's shoulder. "The last thing we need is an argument breaking out so soon," she said with a bit of an edge in her voice. "So please do us a favor and keep any squabbles to a minimum, at the very least until the end of the challenge."

Jasmine sighed heavily through her nose. "Fine," she said. Under her breath she scoffed and muttered, "At least he has an idea on what he's doing."

"What about, like, sprucing it up or something?" Amy asked. "If we want to win, we should stand out from the other team's statue by making ours flashy and cool-looking."

"Ah, I'm not sure how cool we can make a fish look," Sammy said. "But I agree, we should at least, like, paint it."

"Our team's logo is green, so see if you can find any green paint," Rodney told them. "Doesn't matter if it's not exact."

"So we need paint, paint brushes, glue, maybe nails and a hammer if we have to, and most importantly, the wood and sheets of metal," Jasmine said. "If anyone finds anything else they think might help, don't hesitate to grab it."

"We all good then?" Rodney asked, to the collective nod of several heads. "Awesome. Let's go!"

Six pairs of feet thundered into the plain and towards the piles of garbage, though one person remained. Max watched them all go all at once, sighed heavily, and followed suit.

-MAX-

Max begins his confessional by standing on the toilet seat and looking out the window, before falling back down and addressing the camera. "Feh! They didn't even ask me if I wanted to get glue and paint! They didn't even look at me that entire time! That…" He pauses and sighs. "That was quite rude of them."

-END-

At the same time, Team Maskwak were going over their own strategy. "I can see wood and sheets of metal," Sky announced to her team as they stood behind the large rocks, "so we should use those as the main materials for the bear."

Dave made a noise of discomfort. "I… really don't like getting my hands dirty." He sighed. "But if it'll help us win, then I guess I'll do my best."

"Great!" Sky said to him, and she turned to the others. "Ah… Beardo and Shawn, can you help him with that?"

Dave's eyes widened. "Oh, wait, I didn't mean getting the wood-"

Beardo nodded quickly and spoke up. "Uh, aye-aye, Captain," he said, giving a lopsided salute.

"We're on it," Shawn said, though he said it in a yawn. He and Beardo dashed away when Chef's gaze wasn't in their direction, and Dave followed them with a glance at his hands and a determined yet worried look on his face.

"What else do you think we need?" Sky asked her remaining teammates.

"We need some way of keeping it together," Leonard said. "Do you think they left a box of nails and a hammer around here? We can literally build a bear with that."

Sugar burst out laughing at that. "Ahahaha! I get that one!" Leonard seemed proud of his joke.

"We have to make it look good, though," Ella suggested after her own giggles died down. "No way is Chris going to accept just a bear. It has to stand out amongst the crowd! That way, you're more likely to win the audience over and get an encore!" Sky raised a brow in her direction, causing the singer to chuckle awkwardly. "Ahh… I suppose that's more for my band than anything else, though."

"Making it look good is good," Leonard agreed. "And, actually, I have just the thing in mind." He pointed to the base of a pile, where a large bale of hay sat. "Bears have fur. So ours should as well!"

"Oh yeah! That'll work! I like the way you think, wizard boy!" Sugar said, elbowing him in the gut.

"I'm not… actually a wizard," he said weakly in a wheeze, "but thank you."

"We'll need something to keep that fur on," Sky said. "Sugar, can you go with Leonard and bring the hay over? Ella and I can look for glue or something similar."

Sugar frowned at her for a moment, but the grin popped right back up. "Sure can, Sky! Let's go, Mister Wizard!"

Without waiting to see if the coast was clear, Sugar leapt out of cover and dragged Leonard with her. "Once again, I am not a wizard!" he attempted to say as they left, though his words fell on deaf ears.

"It's you and me," Sky said to her last remaining teammate. "And don't be afraid to go for something else if you see it and think it's good!" Ella nodded enthusiastically.

-SKY-

"It's nice to have such cooperative teammates!" Sky proclaims as she sits in the outhouse. "A lot of the girls on my track team are really stuck up, so this is a breath of fresh air! I, ah… hope they don't mind that I sort of took over as team captain without asking. Maybe if we win this challenge, they'll let me keep the spot! And if we lose, I…" Her eyes widen and she gulps. "If we lose, I may have just made myself a target."

-END-

"I spent a lot of time thinking about what our first challenge would be," Amy quipped.

"You did, I was there for a lot of those conversations," Sammy confirmed.

"I thought it would be a racing challenge, or an obstacle course, or even a game of hide and seek."

"I remember you also saying a wrestling tournament?"

"That was just a joke guess."

"Ah. Still would've been cool."

"Still would've. But not once," she said, suddenly full of ire, "did I think we'd have to root around in literal garbage."

The twins had planted themselves at the base of a pile, opposite to where Chef was stationed to avoid getting hit by him. They were digging through old boxes and hauling things out from the bottom in the hopes of finding what they had been tasked with looking for.

"It's not enough that we're getting shot at while we do this," Amy continued, grimacing as she pulled out cardboard that had gotten soggy from somewhere, "but we have to do this without gloves and proper shoes." She tossed the cardboard away and presented her fingernails to her sister - expertly filed and polished, alternating in red and black to match her clothes, with her ring finger painted yellow in a similar shade to her hair. "I paid good money for this mani-pedi, and if I so much as ruin one of them…"

Despite her sister's agitation, Sammy only laughed. "Yeah, that kinda sucks, Sis. But just think about it: if you win the game, you can get all the mani-pedis you want. So what's the harm in breaking a nail or two now, when it doesn't really matter in the long run?"

Amy pursed her lips in thought, before nodding slowly and returning to her search. "You make some strong arguments," she conceded.

Sammy grinned, and shoved the box she was looking through away to start on the next one.

-SAMMY-

"I love Amy to death," Sammy tells the confessional camera. "I have ever since we were born. We have different interests, sure, but we're always there for each other and, most importantly, we're friends. But there are times where she can be… Uh… Let's say, impulsive." She smiles awkwardly at saying that. "I don't say that as an insult, that's just who she is. She's more of a trend chaser than a trendsetter - she'll buy the newest phones and purses without thinking about their prices first, just so that she could say she owns them. Though I guess that impulsiveness is what landed us a spot on this show, so it's not all bad!"

-END-

"Oh!" Sammy shouted as she opened the next box. Several other boxes were opened and discarded behind her, more than there was before the confessional. "I found paint!"

"Really?!" Amy asked, and immediately threw away the bag of used socks she was holding. The twins peered into the box as they started pulling out miniature paint cans, and almost immediately their smiles fell away. "'Gamboge'?!" Amy read aloud incredulously.

"'Feldgrau'…?" said Sammy, slowly reading hers'.

"Who the heck named these? A monkey at a typewriter?" Amy asked bitterly.

"And the worst thing is, you can't tell what color they really are," Sammy moaned, uselessly clawing at the lid.

"Doesn't matter!" shouted Rodney as he ran past, a wheelbarrow full of supplies being pushed ahead of him. He was currently being hit in the back of the head by a barrage of tennis balls. "Grab what you can and make a break for it!"

The twins wasted no time in closing the box and carrying it out of the field, though they were almost immediately fired upon by Chef.

"Heave, and ho!" Sugar shouted as she and Leonard lifted the bale of hay. Despite Sugar's noticeable strength, even she was having trouble lifting the hay, which said nothing about poor Leonard. "Holy hamstrings! What the heck's in this thing that's makin' it so dang heavy?!"

"I-I-I don't know," Leonard gasped. "But m-m-maybe we should get it out of h-here quickly!"

"You got it!" Though she was fully capable of walking faster with it, she respected Leonard's spindly arms, and the two of them took their time carrying it out.

Meanwhile, Sky and Ella were rummaging at the base of one of the piles, similarly to the twins. "Anything?" Sky shouted over to her teammate.

"Nothing yet!" Ella responded. "There's a lot of stuff here that isn't glue!" She pulled a container out of the pile. "Rusty nail clippers…" She tossed them away and pulled out a can. "Expired broccoli soup…" She tossed that away as well, and then hauled out a large box and opened it. She immediately yelped and recoiled in terror. "Okay then! Decapitated doll heads! Great!" She shoved the box away. "I didn't need to sleep tonight anyway!"

At the same time, Jasmine and Topher were making a pile of materials for the wheelbarrow, and planned on piling it up when Rodney got back with it. "How much more are you thinking?" Topher asked the taller girl.

"Probably more than is necessary, really," Jasmine answered. "The more we have to work with the better, not just because we'd have more options, but it'd give the other team less."

"Ooh! Not a bad idea!" Topher complimented with a smirk. "A brilliant strategy so early in the game can only lead to future achievements! If I had a hat, I'd tip it your way, madam."

Jasmine gave him an odd look, but didn't dwell on it. "Uh, thanks!" Jasmine replied, though her focus was stolen by the end of a rope sticking out from under the piece she just picked up. "Oh, nice!" She exclaimed, and reached for it.

"I'm not having any luck at all," Sky grumbled, both arms buried deep in the trash. But then, her eyes lit up and she gasped. "Wait a minute!" Her hand had managed to find the end of some rope, and she started pulling it out of the pile as quickly as she could.

Jasmine was doing the same thing, wrapping it around one arm to keep it together easier.

Unfortunately, both girls soon felt the rope get taut. As was to be expected of this very specific situation, they both believed it had gotten snagged on something underneath the pile, when in reality it was because both were pulling on the one rope at the same time.

"Aw, c'mon, really?" Jasmine groaned, and started yanking on it with all her might.

"Shoot, it's stuck!" Sky cried, and dug her heels into the garbage to pull harder. "Ella, help me out here!"

"Coming!" Ella said, tossing away the container in her hands. She hastily gripped the rope and pulled with Sky.

"Here, let me give you a hand," Topher offered, and he took a part of the rope not held by Jasmine and pulled.

Both parties began unknowingly playing a game of tug-of-war, with neither side fully giving way. They all pulled as one, and were oblivious to the fact that their opponents wanted the rope just as bad as they did.

Soon, the four of them stopped simultaneously. "Ugh! This isn't working," Jasmine said, glaring at the rope.

"Let's try for one more pull," Ella said to Sky as they wiped the sweat from their foreheads. "Maybe we can get it with enough force."

"Good enough for me," Topher said to Jasmine. "On three, cool?"

"Okay," Sky nodded. "Three…"

"Two…" said Jasmine.

"One…" said all four at once.

"Pull!"

They once again all pulled at the same time, and with the amount of strain placed on it, the rope snapped in two right down the middle. Both parties were sent flying backwards and tumbled into heaps.

While all of this was happening, Chris and Chef watched the scene unfold, and started cackling to themselves. "Can you believe that just happened?" Chris asked his partner. "What are the chances?!"

Sky quickly sat up and examined the rope, and was pleased with the results. "It might not be the full thing, but this might be just enough to keep our bear together!" Ella sat up as well and cheered, and the two of them high-fived.

Jasmine readjusted her hat and measured her length of rope carefully. "Yeah, this'll definitely help." She stood and began to walk off. "You did good, mate!"

Topher's eyes spun in circles as he pushed himself up. "Is my hair okay?" he asked, not realizing he was alone.

A little ways away from them, Scarlett was tossing things out of a pile without care for where they landed. She had the look of someone determined to win, who wouldn't be bothered if they hurt someone along the way, even if that person was on her own team. She hauled out a small black box and opened it to reveal, of all things, a pair of rusty handcuffs, which she eyed with confused suspicion.

Max, meanwhile, wandered up to her and took a spot nearby. He glanced over at her, put on an uncaring face, and proceeded to copy her every movement. Scarlett, of course, picked up on that, but only rolled her eyes and chose to ignore him before continuing.

After a few moments of tossing things away in silence, Max let out a surprised "Oh," and pulled out an unopened bottle of glue. "This is what we're looking for, right?"

Scarlett looked down at him in slight shock, and nodded curtly. "Indeed it is. Nice work."

Max's eyes shot open wide.

-MAX-

Max gasps loudly as stars shine in his eyes. "I think I've found a new friend."

-END-

Shawn had scaled one of the piles near the center, and was rapidly tossing down several wooden boards and metal sheets to Beardo and Dave below. Both boys spent more time dodging the incoming materials instead of catching them however - while the sheets ended up okay, if a little more bent than before, most of the wooden planks would splinter or break from the impact of the ground.

"Any chance that you can slide them down, instead of throwing them over your shoulder?" Dave shouted up to him.

"No time!" Shawn called back. "Do you want to be responsible for not having enough stuff to make the statue out of?"

"No, but I also don't want to be responsible for only bring back unusable stuff, too!"

Beardo winced at the shouting match, and tried to find something around them that could help. Luckily he spotted something, and he raced over to a box not too far from him and pulled out a large, dirty, yet surprisingly well-maintained blanket. Feeling it was suitable for use, he ran back over to Dave and offered him one side of it. "Here, we can use this to catch it all!"

Dave flinched at it, and took one step back. "Ugh! Why does it smell so bad?!"

Beardo raised a brow and sniffed it. "Huh, I, uh, guess you're right. I can try for a different blanket?"

He pointed back to the box, and when Dave noticed that all of the blankets in it were dirty and most likely smelly, he could only sigh. "No, no, it's fine, we'll use it." To his benefit, he only hesitated a bit before he took the other end of the blanket in his hands, and the two of them pulled it tight. "Keep sending them down!" he shouted up to Shawn.

"Was gonna keep doing it anyway!" Shawn replied.

"Aaaaand made it!" Sugar declared as she dropped her side of the hay. This only caused Leonard to buckle under the weight of his side and collapse underneath it with a groan. "Phew! Ain't never lifted hay this heavy before. You alright, wizard guy?"

"Never better…" he said, his voice strained.

"Good to hear!" She turned back to the game area with a devious grin. "Now pardon me as I… help our team out."

Leaving Leonard to his fate, Sugar ran back in as she giggled maniacally. At the same time, Sky and Ella were talking. "I'll bring this back behind the rocks," Sky said to her, the rope coiled around her arm. "You keep looking for some glue!"

"Yes ma'am!" Ella cheerfully said as her team captain ran off. She peaked around the pile she was hiding behind, scanning her surroundings for anything good, when she stopped and squinted her eyes. "Is that… a bucket of glitter? Here?"

Despite her having run off for the other side of the area, Sugar practically materialized next to Ella, coming up behind her with wide eyes. "Did you say glitter?!"

Ella screeched in shock, and both girls had to go back to hiding when Chef started firing at them.

"Hey, watch where you scream!" Sugar admonished.

Ella gave Sugar a surprised look. "Me? Maybe you shouldn't just scare people like that!" she shot back.

"Oh, whatever," said the pageant queen, waving a hand and no longer caring. "You say somethin' 'bout glitter?"

The singer was taken aback at the sudden topic change, but went along with it and pointed to the other side of the pile. "Uh, yeah, there's just a bucket of glitter on the ground, for some reason. It looks really out of place in a garbage dump."

Sugar looked ecstatic, and sprang up in unbridled glee. "I know what I'm gettin' then!"

"Huh?!" Ella flinched back as Sugar barreled past her, seemingly uncaring if the singer got trampled or not. "But what's the point?!"

"It'll make the bear look a thousand times better!" Sugar hollered back.

Ella frowned, then shrugged and went off to find that glue.

-ELLA-

"I suppose in some cases glitter would help make a bear look better. But we've already got fur. Aren't there more important things to be looking for? Like, you know, stuff to actually hold it together?"

-END-

Sugar made a beeline for the bucket, giggling like a child in a candy store. Chef, who had momentarily turned his attention on Max and Scarlett, looked over and grinned maliciously at the seemingly defenseless girl.

"Say 'night night', punk," Chef said, and fired several shots in her direction.

Shockingly, because of her one-track mind focusing solely on the glitter, all of the tennis balls bounced off of her as if she didn't even feel them.

Chef balked at the sight. "What in the-"

"Woo-hoo!" Sugar cried as she held the bucket above her head in triumph. "Victory for Team Sugar!"

Feeling spiteful, Chef growled and fired one last tennis ball. Instead of aiming for Sugar, however, he instead aimed for the bucket and knocked it right out of her hands.

She gasped and screamed in despair as the bucket fell to the ground. She attempted to make a grab for it, but there wasn't enough time. "Noooo!" she yelled as it impacted, spilling glitter all over the ground and making the garbage around her sparkle in the sun.

Chef chuckled darkly from his perch, and went to take aim once more, but he took another glance down and stopped cold.

Sugar was glaring right up at him, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists. "You just made an enemy for life, mister," she hissed. Despite the distance between them Chef visibly gulped.

Bending down and collecting several of the fired tennis balls, Sugar quickly began throwing them right back at him, her arms pinwheeling and the balls flying up at him in rapid succession. The larger man couldn't react fast enough, and got several balls to the face, one after another.

"Ow ow ow! YEOUCH!" The last ball thrown caused him to collapse onto his rock platform, as it had hit him square in the eye. He groaned in pain and didn't look like he'd be getting up any time soon.

"Bullseye!" Sugar yelled, performing a poorly-choreographed dance in the middle of the junkyard. "Don't mess with this gal!"

Both her's and Chef's shouting had drawn the eyes of the others. Now that they had seen that the one person who had been impeding their search was down for the count, everyone bolted back into the game zone.

"Move move move!" Jasmine instructed, motioning her hands for Amy, Sammy, Scarlett and Max to get back in.

"Now's our chance! Get in there!" Sky shouted, pointing to the piles and getting Shawn, Dave and Beardo back in, though she herself took a moment to push the bale of hay off of the still-trapped Leonard.

"Thank you," he moaned as he sat up. "I think my legs are asleep though…"

"Wake them up and get back at it when you can!" Sky told him before rushing in herself.

What proceeded was a mad dash to find as much as they could and carry it back to their bases. The twins were desperately searching for a paint brush in any other box they came across, however they couldn't find one, and in the end settled for a snapped off wooden broom as a substitute. Rodney threw boards and sheets of metal to Jasmine, who filled the wheelbarrow up with them and sent it away with Scarlett and Max. Ella had lucked out in finding a canister of adhesive paste that was on the cusp of becoming expired, plus a handful of grungy cloths to use it on, and took them back to the rocks. And Shawn, not being one for caring much about hygiene, actually dug a little ways into one of the piles and managed to pluck out a semi-rusted handsaw, which he seemed to accept and take it back to the base.

As all of this was happening, Chris casually strolled up to the still unconscious Chef, snapped a finger in front of his face a few times, and shrugged when he didn't respond in any way. "Out cold. Looks like he's not getting paid for the full episode."

He stepped up to the edge of the rock and blew a whistle, prompting everyone to stop what they were doing and look. "Seeing as how Chef is going to be honorably discharged from the rest of today's challenge, you will now only have 10 more minutes to get everything you need! So don't dilly-dally!" That caused everyone to quicken their pace twofold.

Max struggled to lift the wheelbarrow up and dump the materials into the heap they were making, while Scarlett simply stood there and watched him. "C'mon… c'mon…" he groaned, until the wheelbarrow was at just the right angle for everything to slide out. "Phew!" he let out a wheeze as he let it fall back to the ground. "How many more of these do you think we'll need?"

"However many we can get in before the timer counts down to zero," Scarlett replied, and motioned for him to follow. "We mustn't dawdle. Hurry up."

"Can I… rest for a moment?" Max asked. Scarlett rolled her eyes and walked back to him.

"I think I'll just take this from you, thanks," she droned, and pulled the wheelbarrow out of his grasp.

"I- uh-" Max quickly sucked in a few breaths and ran after her. "I'm suddenly feeling much better! Wait for me!"

Unbeknownst to them, however, two individuals were watching as they strode into the area. Hiding behind a conveniently placed set of bushes, Beardo and Dave poked their heads through the leaves and watched the two Salmons approach.

"Remind me why we're hiding here again?" Dave asked.

"I'm kinda liking their wheelbarrow," Beardo answered, "and I got an idea on how to get it."

Dave hummed. "Chris did say stealing from the other team is okay… What are you gonna do? Jump out and scare them?"

"Ah…" Beardo looked sheepish for a moment. "Not the jumping out part."

"Oookay."

"Also, you may want to cover your ears."

Dave narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Should… I be worried?"

"Nah, not really. Oops, quick, hide!" Beardo commanded, and the two pulled their heads back in.

"Why does it have to be a salmon, anyway," questioned Max as the two of them walked by the bush. "They had the chance to make it so much more intimidating and they went with a fish. What a waste of potential!"

"Chris literally explained it on the beach earlier," Scarlett sighed, not bothering to hide any contempt in her voice. "Which, might I remind, you were there for."

"Oh," Max said simply. "I suppose I wasn't paying atten-"

That was when a horrible, ear-splitting, gut-wrenching roar filled the space around them, penetrating their eardrums and causing both Max and Scarlett to jump and scream in terror.

"AHHH-! What- Who- Where-" Max attempted to get out in the midst of his panic.

"Ursus arctos horribilis?!" Scarlett shouted. Despite her haughty and confident demeanor she had presented the entire time she'd been on the island, she suddenly looked incredibly frightened. "Here?! Now?! No way! I refuse to deal with this!" She took off back towards their team's base of operations, and Max was swift to follow her. Neither bothered to bring the wheelbarrow back with them.

Once the coast was clear, Beardo leaped out of the bush with a grin of exhilaration. "Alright!" he cheered. "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"

Dave followed suit, slightly frazzled by the noise but more surprised than anything. "That was… something else," he said, unsure of what else to say. "How did you do that?"

"Oh." And almost immediately, Beardo's momentum died down and he looked bashful. "It's, ahh, sort of a thing I can do. I can make sound effects and I've been told they're pretty spot on."

"Wow," Dave said with wide eyes. "That… could probably come in handy." He gestured to the wheelbarrow. "Like right now, evidently."

"Yeah, that's what I thought!" Beardo agreed. He grabbed the cart's handles and quickly dragged it back off to their base. "C'mon though! We don't have much time!" Dave nodded and followed.

-DAVE-

"I honestly didn't think that would be his thing," Dave explains in the outhouse. "Not that it's a bad thing, per se. As long as it's not, like, his sole method of communication, then that's kind of an awesome skill to have. If he was a radio host, he wouldn't need to press any buttons for the sound effects - he could just make them himself!"

-END-

Leonard, who had finally managed to wake his legs up, was desperately climbing a pile and searching around. Five minutes remained on the timer, and aside from the hay he hadn't found anything decent for building a bear.

"Okay, something good, something good, something good," he muttered, tossing items away after quickly glancing at them. "C'mon, anything useful would be useful! Argh, why didn't I put more points into investigation?!"

Scaling right to the top of this particular pile, his hand grasped something metal - not surprising given all of the sheets of the stuff around them, but this one didn't feel rusty or all that damaged.

Curiously, Leonard grabbed a hold of it and hauled it up out of the rubble, only for his eyes to shine in complete awe.

"Is this… an actual medieval shield?!" he shouted, holding it out in order to see as much of it as he could. It was large and ungainly, and had an old fading image of a dragon on it. "Holy cow! This is the last thing I would have expected here!"

At the base of that particular pile, Jasmine and Topher were attempting to carry back some more materials when they heard Leonard and looked up. "Huh," Jasmine said. "That could actually be a good base for our fish."

"Thinking we should snatch it from him?" Topher asked with a smirk.

Jasmine hummed. "Tell ya what," she said, and plucked the smaller amount of items from his arms. "I'll bring this all back, and you take it from him."

Topher balked in surprise. "Me?! Surely you're a better fit for this."

"You really think that guy's gonna put up a fight?" Jasmine asked him.

He opened his mouth to reply, then stopped. "No, no, fair point." He groaned and started climbing the pile. "Alright, fine. But this better let us win!"

Leonard was still admiring his discovery as Topher pulled himself up. "Hey there!" he called out to the taller boy, prompting him to turn his way. "Couldn't help but notice you found something pretty spiffy there. That's quite a find, if I say so myself!"

"Isn't it?!" Leonard asked. "I would've never dreamed of finding something like this on Total Drama of all things!"

"Neither would I!" Topher said, and he leaned in closer to it to examine it. This prompted Leonard's grin to falter, and he backed away slightly. "Say, might I be able to take a quick look at it? I'm a sort of… connoisseur, shall we say, of things like this."

-TOPHER-

Topher leans against the back of the outhouse with his hands behind his head. "You gotta know your targets before you approach them," he explains. "Dumbledore over there is a book that you can't even close. Just try and appeal to his tastes and he'll think you're his best friend for life. It's probably happened to him before."

-LEONARD-

Leonard looks at the camera unimpressed. "I've seen his type before," he says. "He's one of those people who dumped everything he had into charisma!" He points at the camera. "I know your game, bub! I won't be falling for it!"

-END-

"Uhhh…" Leonard took a step backwards, nearly falling off of the pile but managed to stay upright. "Sorry, but how about I show you after the challenge is over? 'Cuz I'm gonna take this back to my team."

Topher looked surprised for a moment, and decided to change his game. "So you can use it in the challenge? How would you even get that to work? Your bear is confused, not ready to defend his kingdom!"

-TOPHER-

"And if buttering them up doesn't work…" He smirks wickedly. "Make 'em sweat a little."

-END-

Leonard shrugged at Topher's remark. "I just think it's neat. We'll make it work somehow!"

"You sure you want to do that?" Topher asked, stepping forward. Leonard's eyes widened. "How would your team feel if you brought back something that couldn't be used whatsoever? While everyone else got something usable and worthwhile, you just brought back a glorified frisbee. You sure you want to get on your team's bad side by bringing this back, and not something you'll be able to use to put a bear together? Especially if you guys end up losing. How would that make you look, then?"

By this point, Leonard was sweating buckets, visibly shaking, stammering and darting his eyes to and fro.

-LEONARD-

Leonard now has a finger to his chin in thought. "In hindsight," he said, "he's pretty good."

-END-

Looking around the different piles, Leonard seemed to have spotted something and gasped, before ditching the shield and making a mad dash for it. Topher, meanwhile, grabbed the thing before it could fall and allowed himself to smirk. "Ha! Hook, line and sinker."

A loud buzzer sounded out, prompting Topher to look across the area. Several of the others did as well - Ella and Sky looked up from the box they were inspecting, Rodney stopped running with an assortment of rocks, sticks, and small boxes in his hands, and Scarlett looked up from inspecting the inside of a dryer as Max popped out of the lid of a nearby washing machine.

"Show's over, kids!" Chris called out to them. Chef Hatchet had yet to move from his position on the ground, yet the host ignored him completely. "Take what you've gathered and head to your spots! You have four hours to complete your statues, at which point we'll judge whatever you've made, regardless of if you manage to finish in time. So huddle up and hurry out!"

Everyone proceeded to do just that, as Chris turned to the camera. "Our first challenge of the newest season, and we already have our first casualty!" He motioned to Chef, who let out a grunt but otherwise didn't move. "What sorts of creations will these kids make? Will they glue themselves together or hammer nails in their hands? I'd certainly want to know! Find out after the break, when we return to Total… Drama… Paaaahkitew Island!"

And here we have the long-awaited follow up to the Psyche Shift prologue/prototype I posted last year! It's been a while since I posted it, and since then I completed my first fanfiction, Twinning With a Twist, and took a break from writing for a hot second. But now I'm back, and with me being several chapters ahead of schedule there's plenty to fall back on if I need to step back again (which, let's be real, happens to me much more than I would like to admit).

So the premise, obviously, is still the same - 14 teens duke it out for a million bucks on a brand new deserted island after their old one sunk. We know this, but the main selling point of this fic is the fact that some of these teens have much more 'reasonable', 'realistic', and 'relatable' personalities. These are very fun to write, and I've had a blast getting to know these characters bit by bit. I worry that I may end up going off the rails with characterization and make someone act differently than I had originally intended, but those are just the standard fears that come with presenting a work of something to people around the world I guess!

Uploads will happen whenever I feel comfortable uploading a chapter; like in my previous fic, there's no set schedule because I can't stick to one for the life of me. With that said, I'm going to desperately try to make these chapters shorter than how I did it in Twinning - I've come to realize that having more chapters to read that have less content than otherwise is a good strategy to employ.

I also promised myself I wouldn't talk too much at the end here, so I'll leave it at that before I give too much away. Thank you very much for your interest! Please leave a review if you liked what you read, and I'll see you next time!