A beautiful oceanic backdrop opened up the beginning of the first episode, where a beach lay in the foreground and a handful of small islands stood in the far distance. Walking in from the side was Chris McLean, and as always he wore his familiar dark blue shirt, brown khakis, and black and white sneakers. "Greetings, Total Drama fans!" he announced to the cameras. "Hope you're ready for some big surprises! Because we're here for the newest season of the hottest reality TV show in the country!"

The camera changed positions to now be looking at his back, and the host quickly turned around to accommodate for it. "This time, we're on a totally brand new location: a Cree island in western Canada!" The camera zoomed out to give a shot of the island, with its sloping hills and craggy outcroppings, before static signalled the shifting of the scene. "As you may recall, during our Heroes vs. Villains finale, someone - and I prefer to remain nameless - accidentally destroyed our old island." This was accompanied by a clip playing of Wawanakwa Island sinking into the ocean, and paused just as the splash hit the camera.

The scene shifted again, and Chris was shown walking through a grassland with trees, plants, and cliffs in the distance and surrounding area. "So this is where we landed. Unfortunately, a lot of stuff was lost in the transition, but we managed to replace it all with lodgings that have double the quality!" The shot lingered on images of the contestant's cabins, which looked completely identical to the cabins of previous seasons, and to the main lodge that looked just as bad as before. The shot cut back to Chris, who added as an aside, "But when the quality's already at zero, what're you gonna do?

"Lucky for us, we did manage to salvage a Total Drama staple: the confessional!" The shot focused on the outhouse confessional, sitting in an undisclosed location on the island. "That, and the horrific smells that live inside it." An intern with a plunger pushed open the door, gasped for air, and promptly collapsed on the ground. "No need to replace this beaut.

"With new twists to the game in store for our competitors, who among them will make it out on top? Who will backstab who? Who will fall for who? Who will chew who up and spit them out like the weaklings they are? Find out the answers…" He checked his watch. "...right now! As the cast make their grand entrance from above!" With two index fingers extended to the sky, the camera panned upwards as the scene faded to black.

In the open air, several thousand feet above both sea level and the island, a zeppelin baring Chris's face flew through the sky, its engines making a muffled hum while a trail of black smoke left its exhaust. Even from a distance, one could tell that the blimp was not put together well at all, with patches of duct tape covering rips in the fabric and holding together pieces of the aircraft that were threatening to fall off.

But the outside of the zeppelin was not important. What was important was the group of 14 teenagers inhabiting its cabin.

They were all of different races, ethnicities, heights, sizes and shapes, and every one of them were excited to be there. It had taken a while for their audition tapes to be seen by the show's executives, and even longer still for them to be accepted, but they were here now, and they could all easily say that simply being on the show would be one of the greatest achievements in their lives so far. Everyone wanted to win, and everyone wanted to do so in their own way, whether that was through skill and determination, through manipulation or exploitation, or through positivity and making allies. None of these teenagers were going to go down without a fight; for a million dollars, they'd be willing to do almost anything.

One of those teenagers, a Cree girl with short black hair and feathers as earrings, wearing a beige sleeveless shirt with a lone purple stripe, matching purple sneakers and black leggings, was sitting on one of the cabin's many rickety seats and staring suspiciously at the swinging light directly above her head. With an uneasy groan, she began rooting around in her pockets, and pulled out a packet of gum before popping one in her mouth. Deciding it would be the courteous thing to do, she turned to the girl to her left to offer her some.

Said girl was three-quarters white and one-quarter Japanese, and also had black hair, but hers was a touch longer, ending just above her chest, and styled to elegantly fall across one of her shoulders. She wore a sleeveless, one-piece pale pink dress, with large black buttons going down the front. She also wore cute pink heels, which were buckled over her bare feet. The girl, while dressed as if going to a social gathering, was listening to a song through the pair of earbuds sticking out of her ears, and was playing a rather mean air guitar.

Sky was hesitant to interrupt her, but ended up not needing to as the girl opened her eyes and looked her way. "Oh, hi there," Ella said cheerfully, removing one of the earbuds and smiling brightly at Sky. "What's up?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted some gum," Sky said as she held out the pack.

"Ooh, gladly! Thanks!" Ella took the treat and easily popped it in her mouth. "Mm, cinnamon! You've got good taste."

Sky gave her a smile and a thank you, and turned to the person on her right. He was a pudgy boy with a head of short dark brown hair. He was frightfully pale, and wore a purple t-shirt with a picture of the Earth split in two on it, plain black shorts, and brown sandals. He had crossed his arms and was glaring around the room, although it looked somewhat forced. Sky frowned at that, but didn't back down and held out the pack in offering anyway. "Want some gum?"

Max looked down at it, and then at Sky. "I hope you don't expect this to make us friends or anything. But…" The glare morphed into a smile and he happily slid one out of the pack. "I'll take one, thank you."

He practically threw it in his mouth and began chewing viciously, but started gagging and turned away to cough.

"Whoa, are you okay?" Sky asked, patting him on the back out of concern.

"Y-yes, I am," Max sputtered. "I just didn't expect it to be that spicy."

He hacked up a lung once more, causing saliva to fly out of his mouth. Nearby, sitting on a crate, an Indian boy with black hair, wearing a pale yellow shirt and blue sweater vest, brown slacks and black and white shoes yelped and backed away instinctively. "Agh! Careful where you throw your spit!" he said to Max, covering his face with an arm.

Sitting next to him on another crate, a rather lanky black boy with short black hair, a green long-sleeved shirt with a golden twenty-sided dice on it, blue jeans and green and white sneakers, looked up from the book in his lap and towards Dave. The book in question was titled Monster Manual, and was open to one of its many pages. "Hm? Who's throwing what now?"

Dave flicked his arm to get whatever remaining spit that was on it, off of it. "Uhh," he said. "Nothing. Say, what'cha reading there?"

"Oh, I'm making plans for my next tabletop session," he replied, turning back to it. "I've got the encounter locations down, but I'm just trying to figure out what I can put there. Do you think an abyssal chicken would make sense in a haunted farm ground?"

Dave only blinked at him in bewilderment. "Uh… Is this one of those fantasy game things?"

Leonard nodded enthusiastically. "It is indeed!"

"I see. I've never played them myself, but from what I've seen they're apparently a lot of fun."

"They can be! It all depends on if you've got a good group of friends to play with. You can create stories with those people the likes the world has never heard of!"

"Huh," Dave said, surprised. "And now you're trying to figure out what to do in a haunted farm?"

Having overheard the conversation, Ella shouted over to them, "Hey! If you want something creepy, go for carrion crawlers. Last time I played, those things scared the bejesus out of me."

"Carrion crawlers, eh? Yes, that could work!" Leonard then realized what Ella had said. "Wait, hold on, you play too?"

Ella shrugged casually, fully removing her earbuds and putting them in a pocket. "Once or twice, maybe thrice. One of my bandmates DMs and I thought I'd give it a shot. I played a cute little gnome sorcerer named Poppy Pinprick! It was actually pretty fun!"

"Interesting!" Leonard replied with a large grin. "When I'm not playing the role of Dungeon Master, I play the role of Gallarias Theodorus, elven wizard extraordinaire!"

"Ooh, good name!" Ella complimented happily.

Sitting on the floor in the middle of the cabin and also listening in was a large black boy with an even larger afro and beard combo. He wore a grey shirt and dark blue jeans with suspenders, along with black and white sneakers on his feet. He looked ready to jump into the conversation, but wasn't able to do so as Leonard and Ella were talking a bit too fast. After a few moments of trying and becoming increasingly discouraged, he luckily found his chance, and said softly, "I-I play too."

Thankfully, both of them heard him. "You do?" Leonard asked. "Epic! What characters are you running at the moment?"

"Uh," Beardo stammered, visibly overwhelmed by the attention despite wanting to join in. He swallowed nervously. "A minotaur barbarian with a love for music. His name's uh… Maurice. Gave it to himself. Not very bright but he's a blast to be around, y'know?"

"A minotaur musician?" Ella asked, immediately intrigued and also picking up on his nervousness. "Okay, that's got to be the best combination ever. You've got some good ideas!"

Beardo laughed in embarrassment. "Ah ha, thanks, I guess."

Sitting on more stools off to the side, and also listening in, were a pair of identical twin girls. They were both blonde, skinny and white, but aside from physical looks they were quite different, in terms of sitting postures, mannerisms and how they dressed. The one on the right, who had a beauty mark under one eye, wore a stylish red halter top, her arms and shoulders exposed while the fabric looped around her neck. A portion of her stomach was revealed, and below that she wore a black skirt that went halfway to her knees. Black heels adorned her feet, and a pair of golden hoop earrings were hanging from her ears. She watched the group talk in bafflement, and turned to her sister. "Uh, do you have any idea what those guys are saying?"

The younger twin, in contrast to Amy, was much more casually and simply dressed. She wore a short dark blue tank top with a simplistic picture of a cat's face on it (which also partially revealed her stomach), white shorts that stopped at her thighs, and white sneakers. As opposed to Amy's hair cascading down her head in curls, this twin had her blonde hair done up in a high ponytail, coming out near the top of her head. She had a smile on as she listened to the others talk, and gave her sister a chuckle and a shrug. "I do, but I really doubt you'd be interested."

"Hm," Amy replied, eyeing them with disinterest. "Well, whatever. If you see any hot guys here, let me know." With that, she closed her eyes to rest.

Sammy snorted behind a hand. "Yeah, sure thing, Sis." Sammy took the opportunity to look around a bit more, and her eyes settled on the other person sitting in their row of chairs. "Hi there!" she said happily. "I'm Sammy. What's your name?"

The girl sitting next to her was black and easily the tallest member of the cast. Her black hair was in a short ponytail, and on top of her head sat a slouch hat. She wore a short white t-shirt underneath a beige vest, along with beige shorts and black hiking boots. Before Sammy spoke to her, she had been eyeing the aircraft's interior warily, but gave the girl next to her a warm smile when she introduced herself. "The name's Jasmine," she said in a thick Australian accent. "Pleasure to meet'cha."

"Likewise," Sammy said. There was the briefest hint of awkwardness between them, but Sammy hastily filled that hole. "So, like, are you excited to be on Total Drama?"

"You know it," Jasmine replied, with a smirk.

"I am too!" Sammy said, clapping her hands together. "Though I guess I'm also kinda nervous. This show tends to get… difficult, especially near the end."

"It does, yeah," Jasmine said with a nod, "But I'm sure they'll have precautions in place to prevent anything dangerous from happening."

Sammy tilted her head. "You're not worried?"

Jasmine waved a hand. "Nah. I've been mastering how to survive on the Australian outbacks for years. Something like this is going to be cakewalk for me."

"Oh, wow," Sammy said in awe. "That's so cool! I, uh," she trailed off in thought, "went… camping once? It was pretty fun. I got bitten by tons of mosquitoes though…"

Jasmine laughed. "I guess the wilderness isn't for everyone."

"Probably not, no…"

"But don't worry, you look like you have a lot of fight in you." Jasmine punctuated this by lightly tapping her fist against Sammy's arm. "I'm sure you'll get far in this thing."

"Aw, thanks! I hope so!" Sammy would have continued, but she spotted something past Jasmine. With a grin, and without looking at her, Sammy jabbed her elbow into Amy's gut, startling the older twin awake with a grunt.

Before she could say anything, her eyes were drawn to the white boy walking across the length of the cabin. He wore a light green button-up dress shirt with the top few buttons undone, revealing his broad, bare chest underneath. On his legs were a pair of white dress-pants, and on his feet were a pair of black dress-shoes. His hair was coiffed upwards, looking as if it had taken an entire bottle of hair gel to get it to stick at such an angle, and a pair of star-shaped sunglasses sat above his forehead. He looked like a bonafide movie star, especially with the way he carried himself.

Topher was aware of Amy looking at him in surprise and interest, though he didn't act upon it. Instead, he was keeping an eye on everyone in the cabin and making mental notes. Talking quietly to himself, he said, "Twins, huh? They seem close. It'd be a shame if something were to come between them." He set his eyes on the three people avidly talking about Dungeons & Dragons, and the three others who seemed to be only vaguely paying attention. Topher smirked behind a hand and continued on his walk. "So many good opportunities here! So many people just waiting to be hit by the drama bomb. The network won't know what hit 'em when I get started on these guys."

"What're you mumblin' about?'' asked a southern voice in front of Topher. Stopping just before the end of the cabin, he blinked at a chubby white girl filing her nails. Her blonde hair was naturally curled into a flashy style, yet despite that she wore a simple pink crop top with the shoulders cut off and frills on the end of the sleeves, and a pair of blue jeans on her legs. A pair of pink heels were on her feet, and she was giving Topher a suspicious glance as he approached her. "You got somethin' to say, you say it for all of us to hear."

"Oh, pardon me," Topher said as suavely as he could. He adjusted the collar of his shirt and made it pop out even more. "I was just thinking about what a delight it is to be here with so many unique people. Tell me, are you dolled up for the camera, or do you always look this good?"

Sugar leveled an unimpressed glare at him. "Mister, I'll have you know that normally, flattery would get you everywhere. But I know these sorts'a shows like the back of my hand." She held up the palm of her hand as an example. Topher raised a brow. "And I know for a fact that you're just tryin' to get in my head from the get-go. So kindly take your compliments somewhere different-" She grabbed a hold of Topher's popped collar and pulled him in close to her face, "-or else the ocean'll be gettin' a pretty boy to snack on in two minutes flat!"

Before Topher could even think to reel back in terror at the threat, a completely uninterested voice spoke from nearby. "Three minutes and six seconds."

Sugar, disrupted from her spiel, looked around in confusion. "Wait, what? Who said that?"

A sigh from the same person could then be heard. Standing up from the other side of a few more crates was a white girl with long orange hair tied off in a ponytail, which easily reached her hips. She wore a sleeveless cream-colored button up top and a dark green skirt that ended just above the knees. Black buckled shoes adorned her feet, and in her hand was a thick book titled A Short History of Nearly Everything.

"I said 'three minutes and six seconds,'" Scarlett repeated, giving the two of them a cool stare. "If you were to throw Mr. Hair Gel here off the plane, it'd take three minutes and six seconds for him to hit the ocean. I'd explain why it's that amount of time, but I'd rather not waste my own."

Sugar stared at Scarlett, and quickly shoved aside Topher (who yelped and fell to the floor) to walk up to her. "And just why would you think I'd need an explanation?" Sugar asked, her glare even fiercer than before. "Go on, tell me!"

"Surely I don't have to spell it out for you," Scarlett countered, not flinching from Sugar's close proximity in the slightest. However, the hints of a smirk appeared on her lips. "Unless you want me to go into a detailed explanation on how the force of gravity plus his natural mass would allow him to fall at terminal velocity, but only after he fell 1,800 feet within 14 seconds, at which point it would take him roughly two minutes and 52 seconds to fall the remaining 30,200 feet due to him moving at 176 feet per second and thus, landing after three minutes, six seconds has passed in total."

Sugar's glare had disappeared from her face entirely, leaving only a blank, wide-eyed stare. "Uhh," was all she managed.

Scarlett's smirk doubled in size. "But again," she said in a cheeky whisper, "only if you want me to."

With that, she walked away with her book tucked under her arm, leaving a stunned Sugar and Topher both to gawk at her.

Scarlett glided by the two remaining passengers on the ship without even giving them a passing glance. The boy on the right was white and easily had the most muscle mass of them all. He had unkempt orange hair and a gap between his front teeth, and he wore a plain white shirt, blue overalls, and large brown worker's boots on his feet. He stared at Scarlett as she passed by, with a startled yet curious look to his face.

He let out a low, impressed whistle. "Wow," he said simply. "She's intense." He looked to the guy sitting next to him. "Don'tcha think?"

"Hm?" mumbled the guy next to Rodney. He was also white, had long, shaggy brown hair and a stubble of facial hair under his lips. A dark green toque sat on his head, and he wore an orange t-shirt with a caricature of a zombie on it, dark blue jeans and grey sneakers. He blinked rapidly and shook his head, as if he was just waking up from a nap. "Sorry, man, what did you say?"

Rodney looked back up at Scarlett, who was making a beeline for the other side of the cabin. "Uh, nothin'," he said. "You doing okay, though? You look wiped."

"Ah, yeah," Shawn said with a loud and somewhat obnoxious yawn. "Since we won't have constant access to our stuff, I wanted to marathon as many movies as I could before I left. Ended up staying awake pretty late and nearly missed my flight because of it." With a lazy grin he settled his head back on his knees. "Totally worth it though."

Rodney raised a brow, but ultimately shrugged. "Whatever you say, man." They sat in silence for a moment before he continued. "So, you excited to be here?"

Shawn only snored in response. Confused, Rodney snapped a finger in front of his face, but didn't get anything other than that. With another shrug, he turned away and looked out the window.

What he saw immediately gave him cause for concern - black storm clouds were quickly approaching, and even from where he was he could see the lightning crackling within them.

"Hoo boy," he muttered, and turned back to the cabin. "Uhh, guys?" he said loudly, gaining the attention of nearly everyone. "Might wanna buckle down, there's a storm comin'!"

"What?" Sky asked in surprise, as she, Ella and Max turned to the windows behind them. One look outside told them all they needed to know. "He's right," Sky gasped loudly. "I can't see anything but storm clouds!"

"Huh," Max said, pulling away from the view with a worried expression. "That… doesn't seem very good."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Leonard reassured as he and Dave pulled back from their windows. "We have Chef Hatchet as our captain! He wouldn't do us any harm."

"Uh, did we sign up for different shows or something?" Amy asked him with a raised brow. "'Cuz the Chef Hatchet I've seen on TV does not like teens like us. If you think he'd stick his neck out for us, you've got another thing coming."

"I always thought he was one of those guys who acted mean on TV but was a nice person in real life," Sammy pitched in with a finger to her chin. Amy only shrugged in response.

"I wouldn't bother putting my life in the hands of anyone here, given the show's track record," Scarlett grumbled, swiftly securing herself to one of the empty seats by hugging its base. "Anyone else's life… Well. The jury's still out on the rest of you."

"Fair enough," Jasmine told her, though not without a bit of a glare. "Kinda rude, but fair all the same."

Conversation was quickly halted when the aircraft began to shake violently. Various bits of the shoddy interior fell out of place, with nuts being forced out of their holes and panels loudly collapsing onto the floor. The group of 14 campers screamed and held onto something for dear life, whether it be the seats or each other.

In the cockpit, a haggard and distressed Chef Hatchet kept his eyes on the skies as he piloted the zeppelin. "I don't get paid nearly enough for this," he muttered under his breath. Without looking he grabbed the intercom and pressed the button. "Look out! This might get hairy!" he warned the kids, and resumed maneuvering through the storm.

Lightning flashed brightly outside immediately followed by the rumblings of thunder. The soon-to-be campers did everything in their power to stay out of harm's way, but several of them ended up with superficial injuries, such as Sammy getting hit in the head by a loose bolt and Shawn bouncing off of his seat in his still half-asleep state.

"Huhwhat?" he groggily asked after falling to the ground.

"Hit the deck!" Rodney cried, and pulled him out of the way from a falling light fixture.

"Holy crap!" he screamed, now wide awake and trying to hide in Rodney's encompassing arms. "You saved me! Thank you!"

"Don't thank me yet!" the bigger boy called back.

The storm lasted for roughly a minute altogether, before it disappeared all at once. In a single flash of lightning, the rumblings stopped, the thunder vanished, and before everyone's eyes stood Chris McLean, his cheap TV smile on his face as if he had always been in the room with them.

"Greetings, newbies!" he yelled at them, his voice not giving way to any fear he might have been feeling. "Who's ready for some fun in the sun? For the opportunity of a lifetime? For a shot at one million bucks?!"

No one answered him, and only stared in fright and confusion. Weakly, Ella raised a fist. "Um… Y-Yay?"

Chris pursed his lips and shook his head. "Mm-mm. None of you are gonna be winners with that attitude."

"Uh," Dave started, looking up from beneath the seat he hid under, "what happened to the storm?"

"Never mind that for now," Chris told him. "Let's get right to it." He strolled up to the set of crates sitting by one of the exits as everyone cautiously rose to their feet. "This hunk of junk zeppelin kinda stinks. In case of emergencies, we've supplied it with boxes full of parachutes." He cracked one of the boxes open and held up a backpack. "The problem is, we've accidentally only put actual 'chutes in half of these bags. The other bags are filled with who knows what else, but they would definitely not help you if you plan on using them in case of an in-flight emergency."

Confused by his statement, Sky raised a hand. "Uhh, okay. But that's fine, right? This ship isn't going down anytime soon."

Chris giggled, and pulled out a remote. "Oh, to be young and innocent again."

He pressed the button.

BOOM!

A fiery explosion engulfed one of the engines, sending its pieces careening off into the sky. A nice few of them also got lodged into the side of the airship, startling several of the campers and sending them backpedaling away from the wall. Some of them, namely Jasmine and Scarlett, figured out what was going on immediately and had the idea to grab a pack from the crates, which prompted the rest of the cast to do the same. Not everyone got their packs on correctly on the first try (Max in particular messed up clipping the straps together a total of seven times), but soon they all managed it and were running out of the two exits. They yelled in varying degrees of excitement, determination or fear, though the latter was what the majority of them were feeling.

Chris, all the while, watched with amusement as the teens rushed out of the falling aircraft. Only one of them had the sense to run up to him with two additional parachutes. "I have extra 'chutes for you and Chef!" Ella shouted, presenting one of the two to him. "Hurry, before the ship hits the water!"

"Oh! How sweet of you," Chris said, though he held his hands up. "But it's a useless gesture. I'm actually a hologram."

"A what?!" Ella asked in shock.

"A hologram?!" Chef did the same, rushing out of the cockpit. He attempted to poke Chris in the back of the head, but his finger phased through him entirely, sticking out of his forehead and startling Ella further. "You gotta be kiddin' me! Why ain't I a hologram?!"

The Holo-Chris simply shrugged. "I 'unno. Wasn't in the budget, I guess."

Chef Hatchet growled, but said nothing as he snatched the outstretched parachute from Ella's hand and jumped out the door. "Abandon shiiiiiiiip…!"

"Oh god, oh geez," Ella mumbled. She took one last look around for any stragglers, tossed away the remaining parachute when she found none, and leapt out herself.

The campers fell at blinding speeds, passing the storm clouds entirely and entering into a bright and sunny sky. None of them noticed the change in scenery however, as they were too focused on falling with fear etched into each of their faces.

"A koala says 'cluck' to the platypus for luck!" Jasmine chanted, pulling the string on her pack. Her face lit up in joy as the 'chute flew out and slowed her fall significantly. "Oh, good, I didn't think I'd actually have one!"

Beardo, watching her from below, tried to calm himself down. "C'mon, c'mon, be a good one!" He pulled the string, only for several varieties of cooked eggs to launch themselves up into the air. Some were hard boiled, some were sunnyside up, while some were scrambled. He stared up after them, and clutched at his stomach. "Aw, man! I didn't have breakfast this morning! Come back to me!"

Amy and Sammy had jumped at the same time, and as such were still falling together. They shared a look of worry, before Amy gripped her string in determination. "Three…"

Sammy did the same, though still with a terrified expression. "Two…"

"One…"

"Pull!"

They did so in unison, and were surprised when they felt themselves lurching upwards. With both of them carried by a parachute each, they grinned at each other and high-fived. "Oh yeah! Who rocks?!" Amy shouted.

"We rock!" Sammy yelled back.

Sky was focused on the water below her, and after letting out a big breath pulled on her string. However, several toy cats and kittens were launched out of her bag, all of them robotically mewling as they flew away. "Purrfect," she groaned, crossing her arms in annoyance. "Just purrfect."

Sugar, not too far from her, also pulled her string and also got bogus. In her case, it was an assortment of trophies and tiaras. "Wait, awards?!" she cried out, attempting to snag one but missing them all. "Does that mean I win? I won right? Right?!"

"Something tells me we're actually in the loser's bracket," Sky said to her.

"Aw, really?" Sugar asked, and crossed her arms just like her flying partner. "Dang it! So close!"

Above Sugar, Dave managed to dodge the gold trophies flying right for him. Deciding now was the time to test his luck, he pulled his string and was shocked to see several pounds of feathers burst free. With a sigh, he just allowed himself to continue to fall. "Yup. Feathers. I get it. Ha ha, so funny."

Topher, meanwhile, was attempting to keep his composure but was failing miserably at it. "N-Nothing like a little skydiving to wake you up in the morning!" he cried, and attempted to give the camera a confident smile. He pulled on his string, and let out a sigh of relief when a parachute slowed his fall. "Oh thank god!" he cried, before looking around him in worry. "I mean, I wasn't scared! All that much."

Leonard, who was clutching his Monster Manual tight to his chest, was mumbling quietly to himself as he fell. "Something good, something good, something good, something good!" He pulled his string and stared as tambourines and other musical instruments flew out of his pack. "Aw, rats!" he cried. Looking back down to the ocean, he cringed and laughed awkwardly. "Hope the damage isn't double my HP!"

Ella, just above him, blocked her face from being hit by the tambourines. "Hey, be careful where you open that!" she called down to Leonard.

"Sorry!" came his reply.

Frowning, she pulled on her string, and looked back just in time to see a teddy bear emerge from the pack, only for it to have a parachute open from the pack on its back. "Oh no! Parachute, parachute!" she cried, desperately reaching for it only to have it slip her grasp. She groaned and glared upwards. "Ugh! Way to tease me like that! So not fair."

"Girlie, this is Total Drama!" Chef Hatchet called out from alongside her. "It's nowhere close to fair! Trust me, I would know!" He pulled on his string, and gawked at the assortment of meats that came flying out. Grumbling, he turned back to the one who gave him the pack in the first place and added, "Oh, I know alright." Ella could only smile sheepishly.

Rodney attempted to flap his arms to see if he could slow himself, but for some reason that wasn't working for him. Instead, he pulled on his parachute string, and got an actual parachute to come out of it. "Nice!" he hollered, holding his hands above his head. All of a sudden, he heard screaming, and two bodies latched themselves onto his arms.

"Ahh!" Sky cried as she and Sugar landed. The athlete instinctively hung on with all her might, and when she realized she wasn't falling anymore she turned to Rodney and gave him a shaken smile. "Uhh, hi! Hope you don't mind but we're hitching a ride!"

"Yep, gonna have to!" Sugar added, also having attached herself to Rodney. She looked down at the ocean below. "Hittin' water's like hittin' concrete! We wouldn't've been walking away from that one, no sir!"

Rodney's cheeks noticeably turned red, but he shook his head to refocus himself. "Uh, yeah! No problem, ladies!" He heard more screaming from above, and quickly stuck out one of his legs. "Grab a hold!" he tried yelling.

Whether or not she heard him, Ella managed to grab his leg and hang on. Though the extra force sent them off course a bit, Rodney managed to maneuver the parachute to get them back on track. Ella screwed open her shut eyes and made sure she wasn't dead, and then looked up at the farm boy. "Thank you!" she called up to him. "I seriously owe you one for this!"

"Don't worry about it!" Rodney told her as he looked up at his chute. "Though with one parachute and four people, I dunno how slow we'll actually go!"

"We'll be fine!" Ella cried out. Despite the positive outlook, her eyes were wide with fear. "I hope."

Still falling, Scarlett eyed the Earth's surface warily, and pulled on her string to produce a parachute. "Phew," she said, wiping the sweat from her forehead and holding her book close to her side tightly. "I hate making educated guesses. Good thing this one turned out alright or someone was going to pay."

Screaming beside her, Max plummeted at an alarming rate, waving his arms and panicking all the while. "What do I do what do I do what do I do-" he shouted over and over.

"Pull the string, man!" Topher shouted at him as he passed him by.

Just barely hearing him over the wind, Max gripped the string flailing around and pulled it hard. His chute opened up and stopped his fall, but the sudden change in inertia caused him to turn a sickly green. "Ooh, that wasn't good for the tum-tum," he said to himself in a strained voice.

Lastly, Shawn stared with wide, bloodshot eyes down towards the ocean. "How the heck was I supposed to prepare for this?!" he shouted to no one before pulling his string with force. When the only thing that came from his pack were hot dogs, ketchup and mustard (the actual sauces, with no bottles), he groaned in irritation. "This is going to ruin hot dogs for me, you know!"

All of a sudden however, he was caught by the leg by a strong arm, and he looked over to see Jasmine smirking at him. "You're better off without 'em," she said to him. "You know what they put in those things? Bloody mess of critters, that's what."

"Whoa! You saved me!" Shawn screamed, too thrilled at living to hear her. Despite that, he blinked. "Twice in ten minutes I've been saved. I really gotta get better luck."

Before she could reply, Jasmine heard more screams, and managed to grab a hold of Leonard with one hand and stick her legs out just in time for Beardo and Dave to latch onto. The added weight nearly sent them off course, but she managed to correct herself quick enough. "Everyone good?" she called out to the boys.

Beardo, looking upwards, caught one of the falling hot dogs and held it out for some of the ketchup to land on it. "Doing excellent!" he called out, and took a bite out of it.

"I'm fine, but I don't think I'll be flying ever again!" Leonard screamed, clutching at his book for dear life.

Dave had his arms and legs wrapped around Jasmine's leg, and only opened one eye after a solid five seconds of nothing happening. "I-I think I'm alright! Maybe! Let me get back to you when we land!"

"That's good enough for me!" Jasmine replied, and steered them all towards the beach.

Not too far away, Sammy and Amy, still floating together, watched the scene unfold. "Wow. That was really nice of her," Sammy said to her sister.

"Yeah, for real," Amy agreed. "Especially since it could've gone wrong in so many ways." They heard a deep scream from above and looked up just in time to see Chef Hatchet falling their way. "Oh crap, grab him!"

They both managed to grab a hold of his arms, and though the extra weight sent them spinning they quickly righted themselves and continued their descent. Once Chef had calmed down enough he let out a large sigh of relief. "Goshdang, that took some years off my life!" he said, and looked up to his twin saviors. "You girls are getting an extra serving for dinner tonight!"

The sisters looked at each other with mixed feelings. "Double the TD gruel for dinner?" Sammy said with a grimace.

Amy rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Wow, hooray, go us."

On the beach down below, Chris McLean stood in all his physical glory. He was watching the contestants through a pair of binoculars, and addressed the camera as they neared the surface. "And here they come now!"

One by one, the campers touched down onto solid earth: Topher, Scarlett, and Max all on their own (with the latter still looking quite green); Rodney and Jasmine with three to four passengers on each limb, most of whom hastily got off and took the time to appreciate the solid ground; and Chef Hatchet, who ended up slipping from the twins' grasp and landed face first into the sand.

"And shockingly, we have everyone!" Chris declared after doing a headcount. He laughed and began writing on a clipboard. "Better than our test run, that's for sure!"

Overhearing him, Amy turned to Chef. "Uh, please tell me he's joking."

Chef grumbled, wiping the sand off of him and readjusting his pilot's hat. "He's joking alright," he growled, walking towards the host. "This time."

Amy and Sammy shared a mortified look.

Chef approached an unaware Chris and crossed his arms. "Why didn't you tell me we were doing a skydiving bit?!"

Chris looked up to him as if he weren't a giant scary man with too many veins popping out of his forehead. "Because it was leagues funnier this way, dude!" he said all too casually.

Chef didn't look convinced. "If you didn't want me in on it, the least you coulda done was set aside a parachute for me anyway."

Chris hummed in thought, and ultimately shrugged. "Coulda. Woulda. Shoulda. But I didn't. Oopsie!" Chef glowered even further. "But you're right, and I forgive you." And perhaps only to add insult to injury, Chris booped Chef on the nose with an accompanying sound effect. His ire peaked, Chef grabbed his pilot's cap and threw it to the sand before stalking off. "Make sure to change!" Chris called after him. "We don't want to confuse people on why we call you 'Chef'!"

The cook stormed past the other contestants, while at the same time Jasmine and the boys were picking themselves back up from the fall. "Thanks again for catching us," Shawn said to her as he straightened his toque out.

"Ah, for real," Beardo said, trying to calm his nerves down. He was hoping that the others believed his worried look was because of their fall, and not because he was talking with strangers. "I don't know what would've happened if you didn't."

"Probably best not to think about it," Jasmine said to them with a laugh.

"I don't think I've ever enjoyed being on the ground as much as I am right now," Dave said, sitting on the sand and refusing to stand. "Any chance that that's going to be our last time in the air for this whole show?"

"I wouldn't count on it," Leonard told him. "Launching contestants into the air is used in a lot of challenges. I'm sure there's going to be at least one more time where that happens to us!"

With a sigh, Dave flopped onto the ground. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

Likewise, the girls who had taken a ride with Rodney were all attempting to compose themselves. "Remind me never to get on a plane ever again," Sky muttered, removing her phony parachute and kicking it aside. "Lousy host blowing up the lousy aircraft…"

"You did good savin' us like that," Sugar told Rodney, punching him in the arm. Despite his size and stature, he yelped at the impact. "You ain't so bad!"

"Uh, thanks, I think," he said as he rubbed the spot and winced.

Behind them, with only his lower half sticking out from behind a tree, Max was throwing up and doing a poor job at hiding it. Parting from the group she landed with, Ella approached him out of concern. "Um. Hi there," she said, recoiling as he dry heaved. "I can't help but notice you're puking. Are you okay?"

Max looked up for a brief second to speak, but his cheeks bulged and he went right back behind the tree. Ella waited patiently for him to finish (and did her best to hide the disgust on her face) until finally he was well enough to come out.

"Well, I'm fine now," he said, unaware that he had a stain of barf around his mouth. "But I am in need of a new breakfast. Do you know when we're getting food?"

"Nnnno, unfortunately I don't," Ella replied, drawing out the word. "You, uh, also got a little something-" she motioned to her own face, spurring Max to quickly wipe at his mouth. "Ahh… Yeah, there you go. All good!"

Max felt around his face, just to be sure. He smiled up at Ella. "Thank you, kind stranger. I appreciate it!" He blinked, as if remembering something, and then his smile vanished and was replaced with a glare. "But don't think this means anything!"

Ella stared at him as he walked away, a startled expression on her face. "Oookay then."

As Max stalked away from her, he passed by Scarlett, who had sat down on the sand and resumed reading her book. Topher strode up to her with a confident grin, and lowered the book so he could look the redhead in the eyes. "Those were some fine landing skills you demonstrated," he told her. "If I had to guess, I'd say you'd done this sort of thing before."

Scarlett frowned at him, and yanked her book out of his grip. "No, it isn't something I've done before, if you must know."

Topher raised an eyebrow. "Really? But you piloted that 'chute like a natural!"

She shrugged. "Because I studied the extreme sport of skydiving one day when I had the time to do so." She went right back to her book.

"You… studied skydiving?" Topher asked incredulously.

"Indeed." Scarlett didn't look back up. "I mean, I had finished all of the other books in the library. I figured I'd complete what was left for bragging rights."

Topher gawked at her, opening and closing his mouth for something to say, only to instead walk away while rubbing his head in confusion. "How do you become a master of skydiving by reading about it…?"

After a few moments more of chatting and calming down, a whistle from the host drew everyone's attention, and they all slowly began forming a misshapen circle around him. "Alright, we're going to resume soon!" Chris called out to them. "If I could get you guys to form up into two groups on either side of me, that'd be great. Over here," he motioned to his left, "will be the people who managed to snag some parachutes. On this side," he motioned to his right, "is everyone who didn't." Some people said goodbye to others, and formed their groups. "Line up so the cameras can see everyone!" he called out when they were beginning to clump together. "Sheesh, it's like I'm working with amateurs here."

"That's because most of them are!" Topher shouted to Chris. "Me, though? I've got several years of on-camera poise classes under my belt. You could say I'm already a professional."

"Excuse you!" Sugar called out to him, hands on her hips. "I've been in live TV pageants since I was a little girl! I know my way around a few cameras. Heck, I was practically born in front of them!"

"Ew! Okay, TMI much?" Amy muttered as she and Sammy recoiled, the latter nodding in agreement.

Chris, along with a few of the others, merely raised a brow at the lot of them. "Right, okay, enough of this," Chris replied. "Everyone listen up: when the cameras start rolling again, I'm gonna call out all your names. Do like… a little flourish or something to give the audience at home a taste of your unique personalities. Cool?"

Everyone nodded in agreement, some speaking up on how that was a good idea.

Chef hastily returned to the scene in his proper cook outfit, consisting of a yellow shirt with the sleeves rolled up, green pants and matching boots, along with a white chef's hat and apron. He still looked completely sour from his earlier plummet. Once everyone was in proper formation, Chris grinned again and signalled the show to proceed. "Welcome to our new island! Starting today, the people standing next to you are your new teammates! On the right," he motioned to his left, "is everyone who managed to get a parachute. Scarlett."

Scarlett, her tome still held under one arm and ensuring that its thickness was visible to all, smirked lightly for the camera and simply waved once.

"Topher."

Topher popped his collar out even further, winked, clicked his tongue, and sent finger guns in the camera's direction.

"Rodney."

Rodney hesitated for just a moment, and chose to flex his muscles and grin widely for the audience.

"Max."

Max smiled at the camera and folded his arms, but his squinted eyes made it seem like he was glaring at the same time.

"Jasmine."

Slapping a fist into her open palm and cracking her knuckles, Jasmine smirked and narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Amy."

Amy flicked her hair with one hand, batted her eyelashes, and waved at the camera in an almost flirtatious manner.

"And Sammy."

In contrast, Sammy bounced on the balls of her feet and waved both hands excitedly at the camera, a wide grin sported on her face.

"Your team will henceforth be called, 'Pimâpotew Kinosewak', which is Cree for 'Soaring Eagles'!"

A quick fanfare played from somewhere, startling some of the cast. When it died down however, Sky raised her hand from the other group. "Um, sorry, but you're wrong! Pimâpotew Kinosewak translates to 'Floating Salmon', not Soaring Eagles."

Chris gave her the stink eye for the interruption. "Really? You sure you're not just making that up?"

Sky quickly nodded her head. "I'm Cree myself, and I'm fluent in the language, so I definitely know what you said. And what you said wasn't Soaring Eagles."

"I can corroborate," Scarlett said from the back of her line. "I, too, am fluent in the Cree language, among many others. What you said was, without a doubt, 'Floating Salmon'."

With two trustworthy sources, Chris seemed genuinely surprised by this information. "Huh! Learn something new every day." He fully addressed the first team. "Guess you guys are the Floating Salmon then!"

"Wait, seriously?" Amy asked with her hands on her hips. "But that's so lame! Why can't we switch to whatever Soaring Eagles means?"

"Because the Cree name's already been decided on, brah. Like, formally written down, sealed with red hot wax, and stamped with the official TD logo! There's nothing we can do about it now."

Amy huffed and folded her arms.

"Anywho," Chris said, and motioned the cameras to the other side. "Everyone on the left, are those who failed to grab a parachute. Shawn."

Shawn was in the middle of yawning when Chris called his name, but he quickly stopped and waved with a sheepish grin.

"Leonard."

Leonard took his Monster Manual and started flipping the pages to it, while looking at the camera and wiggling his eyebrows.

"Ella."

Ella twirled once on the spot, and then kicked up a leg behind her, gave the camera double peace signs and a big, toothy grin.

"Dave."

Dave chose not to go for something too flashy or outlandish, and instead folded his arms and nodded at the camera with a smile.

"Beardo."

Beardo popped the remainder of the hot dog in his mouth as Chris called his name, and ended up burping loudly. He quickly covered his mouth and blushed, looking at the camera in embarrassment.

"Sky."

Sky chose to focus on her athleticism by stretching: first both arms across her chest, one after the other, and then both at the same time above her head. A confident smile adorned her face all the while. Likely on purpose, the hem of her shirt rose just a bit, and displayed a set of prominent abdominal muscles underneath.

"And Sugar."

Sugar let out a holler and waved at the camera. As if by accident, she hit Sky upside the head and knocked her out of the shot.

"Oops! Sorry 'bout that!" Sugar called out to her, though she made no attempt to help her up.

"Ah, i-it's fine!" Sky called out from off-screen.

"You guys, from here on out, will be known as Waneyihtam Maskwak, which means 'Ferocious Tigers'!" Another fanfare penetrated the area, but everyone was expecting it this time. Chris's grin vanished the moment it died down, and he turned to Sky. "Or maybe I'm wrong?"

Sky, receiving a hand up by Beardo, gave Chris a sympathetic nod. "Yep. Waneyihtam Maskwak means 'Confused Bears' in English."

Chris looked over to Scarlett, who merely nodded. He groaned under his breath, and tore up his queue card. "This is what you get for using a free online translator," he growled at Chef.

Chef Hatchet scoffed. "My bad," he said as sarcastically as he could.

Chris cleared his throat and put his smile back on. "And so, these are the teams! After their exhausting skydiving sesh, we're going to let them get accommodated in their swanky new cabins!" The cast all cheered happily. "After which, they'll get acquainted with what makes Total Drama what it is: good old fashioned painful and overly-dangerous challenges!" The cheers immediately quieted down. "What do we and this brand new island have in store for them? Will any of these guys survive?" He moved closer to the camera and whispered in a conspiring tone, "My bet's on 'no'!" He moved back. "Find out right here when we return on Total… Drama… Paaaahkitew Island!"

New story, who dis?

But yes, welcome to Psyche Shift! This is the new story I was talking about uploading in the latest chapter of Twinning With a Twist. This is moreso a pilot/test than anything else - I'm just looking to gauge interest in this concept for the time being, so don't expect anything new anytime soon.

The main premise, as I explained in the summary, is thus: the canon cast of Pahkitew Island are freaking weird, man. They took these guys and shoved them so far into their stereotypes that a lot of them are completely unrelatable. If I end up continuing with this story, I intend on changing that by making them, dare I say, more normal. Let me give an example: Shawn would no longer be a zombie-fearing, apocalypse-predicting ninja dude, but now he'd just be some kid who likes watching horror movies a bit too much and has an atrocious sleep schedule because of it. And the twins wouldn't have one be completely dominant over the other, but actual friends who have their differences yet support one another in what they do. I don't know about you guys, but while I do find the canon cast of Pahkitew Island entertaining, I find it much more appealing to give them more dimensions than what most of them actually got.

Not everyone will be different, however. Characters like Sky and Jasmine are close enough to 'normal' that I don't think changing them is necessary. And characters like Sugar and Dave will likely just get some tweaking, while staying mostly true to canon, though not to a, uh, 'controversial' degree. Otherwise, as you could probably tell from the chapter, everyone else is fair game in one way or another.

Another thing I plan on doing different is changing up the whole wilderness theme of Pahkitew Island - foraging for food and making your own shelters were unique, sure, but nowhere near necessary for the show, so as was shown in the chapter opener, I'm bringing back the cabins and main lodge! This, obviously, changes up the first challenge, but not to a drastic extent. I also intend on adding some new twists and turns along the way, but I won't say what specifically. I will say though - due to how Twinning With a Twist has been developing, I've been wanting to explore more than one person's perspective on things in a story, but eliminating characters and taking them out of the plot entirely just didn't sit right with me, so I may have done something about that.

Make no mistake - even though the formatting may be a bit different, this will still be a competition fic, just without the constant referral to camera shifts and sound effects. It's still likely to be character driven, but far less internal and will ensure that everyone gets a turn in the spotlight. Besides, there will be proper confessionals this go around! I'm quite excited for that!

Buuut yeah, that's all I have to really say for this right now. I hope you guys found this prototype somewhat enjoyable and/or interesting. Leave a comment or review if you did, and if you want, maybe pitch some ideas for what I could do in the future - not everything for this story is set in stone yet, after all. Anywho, see you guys later, and thanks for tuning in!

01/14/2021: Altered some scenes featuring Dave to make them less negative, as well as cleaned up some lines to make them sound nicer and read better.

01/27/2021: Minor edits, plus changed Ella's race to fall more in line with the popular theory that she's partly Asian.

06/03/2021: Quick edit to change the consistency of the state of the falling ketchup (it makes sense in context).

06/15/2021: More altered scenes, etc.