StarHeart Specials: Thanks! We'll have to wait and see what happens with Amy.

Nicky Haugh: Thank you!

SideshowJazz1: It's okay, I hate Amy too. Yeah, she's going to hate interning, and actually she already does. Like I told StarHeart, we'll have to wait and see if Amy gets mutated. Yeah, it would've been really cruel to leave Lindsay on Boney Island at the end of the episode. It's a miracle that she survived in canon. Yeah, I wanted to give Rodney at least a little character development in the six episodes he was competing. I think he sort of realized he had a problem in canon, but the way it was written was terrible so I definitely think I improved that bit. Interesting predictions... keep those in mind as we move forward.

That British Guy: I agree with you there.

OmniPlanckInstant: You're welcome. My main goal with Rodney in this season was to address what canon didn't, and I think it worked out well. Yeah, Sky's having a rough time between Sugar heckling her and trying to muster up the courage to tell Dave about Keith. Her rough time is the main reason she volunteered for the swap. Granted, she didn't know that's what Chris was planning, but it worked out for her. For Dave, not so much. I'm glad you enjoyed Topher's scene with Chris. They haven't had many opportunities to interact like Topher pointed out last episode, and it was fun to write.

Madness is a State of Mind: You're welcome. Lindsay was lucky to get out of there in one piece. And yeah, Jasmine's not going to have a fun time this episode, nope.

TheOneAndOnlyNumber1: Crisis averted! Blast from the Past wouldn't work here since Sammy didn't take Amy's place in the competition. I haven't read Total Drama High Seas, but I'm happy to remind you of that if that's what happened in it.

SilentSinger948: I'm sorry that you're upset about Amy's return. Not to worry, though. She's not having a fun time as an intern, so that ought to make you happy again. Yeah, Jasmine and Shawn's relationship will progress now that they're on the same team. That was my main reason for swapping Jasmine onto Shawn's team.

sdgeek: Thanks! I'm glad to have made you laugh.

Reviews have been answered! Let's get mining!

Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one.

Episode 7- A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste

"Last time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island," Chris narrated over footage of the Rats being chased onto the runway. "We saw how clueless our players are when it comes to fashion, and how useless they are when it comes to rescues." A clip then played of the campers getting hit with barrels, followed by a clip of Rodney getting pushed along by Chef. "In the end, Rodney got tossed, and Jasmine and Sky swapped teams." Jasmine and Sky were seen passing each other on their way to sit with their new teams.

The footage flashed to Chris sitting in a deck chair on the Dock of Shame with one of his feet out of their shoe. "You call that buffing?" asked Chris, who was frowning at Amy filing his toenails. The mean twin scowled as she kept filing. "I want to see my ruggedly handsome face in every toenail." If it was possible, Amy scowled even further, and filed faster and harder. "Ow! You little-!" Before Chris could reprimand her any further, the hair on both their heads start to flutter in the wind as the breeze picked up.

A helicopter, bearing the symbol of the environmental protection agency, hovered down near the dock. "This is the Department of Environmental Protection! You're busted, McLean!" boomed a voice through a loudspeaker.

Chris glared at the helicopter. "Aw man, meddling tree huggers…" He reached into his pocket, and retrieved a walkie-talkie. "Launch Operation Doomsday, repeat, Operation Doomsday! Over!" He then addressed the camera filming him. "What is Operation Doomsday, you ask? Find out right here, right now on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!" As he finished his intro, two more helicopters joined the first one.

(cue intro)

Sugar sat on the Rats' cabin porch, a compact mirror in one hand and a make-up brush in the other. Carefully, she brushed her eyelashes with the brush as she observed in the mirror. A cabin door opened and shut behind her, and soon Beardo walked up to her.

"What're you doing?" The hairy teen asked.

"Trying out mah new make-up," Sugar answered with a smile. "I kept the make-up we got from the challenge the other day, and I say, I'm looking pretty dang good in this stuff."

Beardo raised an eyebrow as one of the cabin doors opened and shut again. "I'm not seeing much of a difference."

Sugar scoffed, putting down the brush and picking up a tube of lipstick. "You're a guy, of course you wouldn't." She popped the cap off the lipstick, and began to apply it to her lips.

"Don't even bother putting that stuff on," Dave remarked as he joined the two on the porch, "even with that stuff, you're still nowhere near as pretty as… Sky." He whimpered, and a few tears gathered in his eyes.

Unnoticed by Dave, Sugar rolled her eyes.

(Confessional- Sugar)

She sat in the outhouse with her arms crossed. "That Dave fellow's been a blubbering mess since Sky went onto the other team. I don't really get what he sees in her. I mean, 'not as pretty as Sky'? Please, I'm probably the most beautiful girl in camp!" She struck a pose at the end of her confession to make a point, not noticing how ridiculous she looked.

Helicopters flew over camp, and interns struggled to carry bags as they walked through camp. Shawn and Jasmine were going the other way.

"Morning," Jasmine greeted as she stepped into pace with Shawn and noticed the frown on his face. "Hey, are you okay?"

Shawn glanced at her before focusing on the walk ahead. "Not really. The helicopters flying around, the interns hauling butt outta here… I can't help but feel like the zombie apocalypse will be on us any moment."

Jasmine chuckled lightly. "Zombies… I'm sure it's nothing. Maybe it's just an intern holiday, and everyone's itching to get out of here as soon as possible? If I had to work for Chris, I think I'd do the same."

"I doubt it," rebutted Shawn, and then he sighed, turning to her. "Look, I'm happy that we're on the same team now, since we haven't been able to talk all that much before, but right now I'm a bit on edge so I apologize if I don't seem interested in some light conversation."

"I suppose that's fair," agreed Jasmine with a nod of her head. "We've all got our worries and such."

"Exactly, and since everything feels off this morning, just keep your guard up."

Shawn and Jasmine entered the mess hall, where Sugar sat impatiently at the Rats' table. Beardo, Dave, and most of the Maggots were standing around between the two tables, and Topher was sitting on top of the Maggots' table, typing away on Chris' phone.

"What's everybody standing around for?" Jasmine inquired, looking at everyone. "Where's the food?"

"There isn't any," Sky answered, "Chef's not here, and nothing seems to be prepared for us."

Sugar walked over, frowning. "Well, that's just great. What do we do now? I'm hungry."

"I suppose we'll just have to make our own breakfast," Scarlett spoke up, "follow me." She turned, and entered the kitchen.

From inside the fridge, Jasmine was shown opening it. "There's no food in the fridge," she reported after a quick glance.

Sammy opened a cupboard, seeing it empty. "There's nothing in here, either," said the nice twin as she looked over her shoulder.

At the kitchen window by the sink, Chef could be seen standing outside. "We should check the walk-in freezer," he suggested before ducking away from it.

Looking up from Chris' phone, Topher shut it with a 'click'. "That's a great idea!" He jogged over to the freezer, and pulled it open. "Score! Food!" The junior Chris ran inside, and everyone else followed.

Once everyone was inside, a pull-down door slid down and they all gasped as they were trapped inside. Outside of the mess hall, Chef was shown starting up a delivery truck and driving it away from the camp.

Inside the truck, a slit opened in the wall, and Chef peeked inside, chuckling, "Challenge time, suckers!"

The camera pulled back to show the campers trying to stay standing as the truck continuously rocked back and forth. Jasmine had her arms wrapped around her midsection, her eyes like that of a deer caught in headlights. Sammy held onto her, and Sugar attempted to eat the cold meat off a set of ribs.

"Space… so small… so dark…" Jasmine mumbled in a whimper.

"What're you going to do with us?!" demanded Shawn.

"You'll see," laughed Chef as he began to close the opening, but yelped as his thumb got caught.

At what looked like the opening of a mine shaft, Chef backed the truck up to it, and tipped the back. The campers fell out into a heap, all producing a scream or cry in the process.

"Good, you're here! Finally," Chris said on a TV monitor, showing him inside of an office of sorts. He then smiled, beginning to explain, "Today's challenge is to find a golden Chris statue in your team color hidden somewhere in this old, abandoned mine. First team back wins!"

"Hah, that'll be us!" Sugar boasted, drawing everyone's attention. "With Sky on the other team now, we're sure to- augh!" She fell over as what looked like an orange backpack collided with her back. The other campers looked to see where the backpack came from, and found Chef, dressed in his hazmat suit, tossing backpacks out of the back of the truck.

"Don't worry, there are enough packs for everyone," Chris teased as he watched several campers, namely Dave, Scarlett, and Sammy, struggle to hold up their packs.

"Man, what are in these? Bricks?" questioned Beardo as he reached for the flap of the pack.

Chris held up a hand on the monitor's screen. "Bup, bup, bup! No peeking! Those fifty pound packs are purely for your torment and my amusement. Enjoy!"

Reaching into a side pocket of the backpack, Scarlett pulled out what looked like a metal armband with a green upside-down triangle on it. "Chemical badges? Why would we need to measure our exposure to toxic waste, exactly?"

"No reason," Chris shrugged, "except I rented out the mine to store hazardous material." This statement earned gasps all around from the campers.

"Are you crazy?!" Sky exclaimed with wide eyes.

Chris shook his head. "No, which is why I'm in a studio right now." The campers gasped again. "Relax, it's perfectly safe- for thirty minutes." A green chemical badge appeared on the screen beside him, and he pointed to it as it turned orange. "Orange means you have fifteen minutes left," the badge turned red, "red is your five minute warning," the badge went black and showed a white skull and crossbones, "and if you see a skull and crossbones, we'll dedicate this episode to you. But no way is it going to come to that.

"I sent Amy down there for forty minutes," Chris explained as he pointed to his watch, and a picture of Amy showed up on the screen. "She's going to be fine-ish," he looked off to the side as he mentioned that.

Elsewhere at a medical tent, Amy let out a loud scream of horror. Inside the tent, she was shown seeing her head in a hand mirror. The reason for her distress was the fact that she was completely bald. "My hair! Chris is dead! Chris is so bleeping dead!" Amy swore, her curse being bleeped out. The intern tending to her stepped away from her, holding the mirror close.

Back at the mine, Chris continued, "Now move it, peeps!"

"Are you at least going to give us a clue where to find the statues?" Topher asked.

"Funny story- the statues have gone missing. Someone, or something, must've taken them."

The camera zoomed in on Jasmine, gulping in nervousness. "It's nice and open down there, right?"

"Girl, it's a mine," replied Chris as if it were obvious, "so no. There are flashlights and a jar of fireflies inside. First come, first serve. Anywho, time's a-wasting, and so are your healthy blood cells. So go!"

Wearing their packs, the Rats were the first to enter the mine, and Shawn was apparently tugging Jasmine along by her hand. Inside, they quickly came to a stop in front of a mining elevator.

"Alright! We got in here first!" Sugar cheered. "Sugar holla!"

Her cheer was so loud that the shaft shook, and a bunch of rocks fell on top of the Rats. They started to crawl out of the small avalanche when the Maggots ran past them.

"I'd recommend being a little more quiet in here, if I were you," Scarlett remarked with a smirk, passing them by.

Dave scowled as he glanced at Sugar. "You hear that, Sugar? Quiet." Sugar glared back at him in response.

Scarlett hopped in the elevator with the rest of her team, and took the liberty of closing the elevator's gate. In the back, Sammy bent over, and picked something up off the floor.

"Hey, we've got the flashlights!" She told her team, holding one up.

Suddenly, the elevator began to shake, and the Maggots were sent speeding down the shaft, screaming for their lives. Soon, a loud crash occurred.

Down in the shaft, it was pitch black, and everyone was moaning in pain.

"Is everyone okay?" Sky spoke up.

"Mostly! I really hope my hair is still good," Topher answered.

"Hold on, I think I have one of the flashlights," Sammy said, turning one on and allowing the team to be seen on-camera. The whole cavern could be seen now, and at the side Sammy was pointing… "Hey, there's a tunnel! Should we take it?"

The team then heard some squealing that they were sure didn't sound like regular old pigs.

Scarlett hummed quickly in thought, "It's a start as good as any. Let's take it." Getting to her feet, she ran towards the tunnel, followed by her teammates.

Up at the entrance, the Rats were now out of the rocks and standing at the edge of the shaft.

"You guys, I don't think that elevator is going to come back up any time soon," Beardo commented, staring down into the darkness.

Shawn frowned. "We'll have to shimmy down the cables."

"Shimmy?" Jasmine repeated nervously as Shawn jumped and grabbed onto one of the cables. "Like, tight and narrow shimmy?"

"Hey, don't worry nuthin'," Sugar comforted her, holding up the jar of fireflies Chris mentioned. "With these babies, we can make the whole place look nice and wide. Catch!" She tossed the jar towards Shawn.

"What?" Shawn yelped, fumbling to catch the jar. Unwittingly, he lost his grip and he began to fall down the shaft. He began to scream.

Jasmine gasped, "Shawn!" She jumped onto the cord he had used, and quickly started climbing down into the shaft, not realizing what she was doing.

Halfway down the shaft, Shawn managed to get a grip on both the cable and the firefly jar. Unfortunately for him, getting a grip on both meant an uncomfortable slide down the shaft with his crotch. "Ah, that burns!" cried Shawn.

Just in time, he slowed enough so that he came to a stop right above the destroyed elevator.

"Huh, I'm down," he remarked with a blink of his eyes for good measure.

"Shawn!" Jasmine's voice called above him. Shawn looked up, and pried himself away from the cable, watching as Jasmine expertly slid down to him. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, but what about you?" Shawn pointed out. "You just slid down a mine shaft like it was nothing!"

Jasmine blinked in confusion. "I did? I slid down… oh no…" Her actions began to register with her, and she started to panic. "It's dark… feeling tight… not enough room… want out…"

Shawn put his free hand on her shoulder. "Jasmine, focus! You're okay, and you're in a wide, open space."

"Wide… open…" Jasmine mumbled to herself, trying to pull herself together.

"Look out below!" Sugar hollered, and before the two teammates had a chance to react, she slammed down on top of them, making them grunt from the impact.

The firefly jar slid from Shawn's hands, and bounced on the floor, opening up and letting out the fireflies. The luminescent bugs began to fly off into the tunnel that the Maggots had taken earlier.

Beardo and Dave soon joined their teammates, and Dave scowled. "Oh, great job, Sugar! The fireflies are getting away."

"Hey, it ain't mah fault that he has butterfingers!" defended Sugar, blaming Shawn.

Beardo jumped down from the elevator. "Quick, before they get away!" Dave and Sugar were quick to follow, Dave grabbing the jar as he went.

"You guys! Jasmine's freaking out!" Shawn protested, still on the elevator with her.

"So? You help that Not-Sky! We'll go get the fireflies," argued Dave, and the trio went off into the tunnel.

"Guys, the light!"

As the cavern grew dimmer and dimmer, Jasmine's breathing got heavier. "Tight… narrow… dark… Shawn, can I hold your hand?"

"Sure, just don't let go." Shawn offered her his hand before the light completely went out. Once it was pitch black, Shawn let out a shrill scream. "Man, you have strong hands!"

The Mutant Maggots panted as they walked through the mine. The packs really loaded them down, making them tire out quicker than they normally would.

"You think we're far away enough from whatever that noise was?" asked Sammy, who was still holding her flashlight.

"Hard to say," Scarlett answered while pushing her glasses back into place, "we'll just have to hope for the best."

Sky then pointed ahead. "Look! Two tunnels!"

Indeed, two tunnels were a few feet away. One of them looked like a built mining tunnel, complete with railroad tracks. The other tunnel looked carved out by something non-human.

"Whoa, look at the tunnel on the right," Topher remarked. He fished Chris' phone out of his pocket, and snapped a picture of the inhuman tunnel. "What do you think made it?"

Scarlett stepped closer to it, and analyzed it while Sammy shined her flashlight on it. "From what I studied of animals before coming onto the show, my best guess is some kind of giant rodent."

"Giant rodent? Ew!" Sammy cringed in response.

"So… left tunnel?" Sky guessed.

"These fireflies better not bite!"

"They look normal to me."

"That's what they want us to think before they reveal some freakish mutation like all the others."

"Just guide them over here."

Beardo held the jar open as Dave rallied the fireflies towards him. Once the glowing bugs were close enough, Beardo scooped them out of the air with the jar, and screwed the lid on.

"Got 'em!" Beardo declared, smiling in victory.

"Finally," Dave complained while walking over to Beardo, "thanks to that, we have no idea if we're even going the right way to the statues. I hope you've learned your lesson about being reckless, Sugar." Nobody responded to him. "Sugar?"

Both boys looked around, and saw that their pageant queen of a teammate was nowhere to be found.

"Um, where'd she go?" Beardo questioned.

Dave stomped his foot angrily, "Dang it! This is just like what happened during the night challenge!"

Elsewhere, the Maggots followed the tracks through the tunnel until they found a pair of mining carts.

"Mining carts? Sweet, a ride!" Topher cheered.

"What?" Sammy gawked at him.

Scarlett smiled, "I'm in agreement with Topher. By taking the carts, we can make a lot of progress through the mine."

"We are on a deadline," Sky agreed, "every second counts." The moment she said that, the green triangle on her badge turned orange. She let out a gasp of shock.

"Sky's got fifteen minutes!" Sammy cried out, only to shriek briefly when hers changed a moment later.

Scarlett turned serious. "Alright, everyone, into the carts." She then got into the front one of the two.

"Right!" Sky jumped in with her.

"I guess Samey and I will take the back," Topher shrugged.

"It's Sam- oh never mind we don't have time for that." Sammy reluctantly got in the back cart with Topher.

Sky glanced at Scarlett questionably. "Are you sure you can steer this?"

Scarlett hummed casually in response as she removed a rock from being wedged under one of the front wheels. "Should be easy to control." As she thrust a lever on the side forward, the team began to roll along the rails.

"Here we go!" Topher grinned as they began to pick up speed.

"This isn't good! This isn't good!" Jasmine repeated in the dark, only her eyes being visible. "I want out! I want out!" She blinked, and her eyes started looking every which way. "Shawn, you're still holding my hand right?"

Shawn's eyes came into from slightly below. "Yeah, I'm here. I've got you. I just think I saw a flashlight the Maggots might've dropped before the room went dark, and I'm trying to find it. Could do without you breathing down my neck, though."

"Am I breathing down your neck?"

"It feels like something is. Oh, hang on! I think I found it!"

Shawn flicked on the flashlight, and the cavern lit up. Shawn and Jasmine were still holding hands, but Jasmine was most certainly not breathing down Shawn's neck. The beam of the flashlight showed a giant, pink, hairless gopher with its eyes scrunched shut. Not a fan of having a light shined in its face, the gopher shrieked at them, spraying them with drool.

Shawn and Jasmine both screamed as they were splattered with the stuff.

In another tunnel, Sugar walked alone, the camera being able to see her even though she had no light source with her.

"Shoot, where'd those boys go? I thought I was right behind 'em," Sugar said to herself out loud. She snorted as she frowned, crossing her arms. "This is just like the Little Miss Honey pageant. You think you're right behind somebody, and the next thing you know, you're all on your lonesome."

As she talked to herself, a dark silhouette emerged in the background, hiding behind one of the toxic waste barrels littered around.

Sugar tapped her chin as she continued to walk. "Maybe I'll get lucky and find the statue by myself. Then they can't talk jack about- me!" She was tackled to the floor by the dark silhouette, removing them from the camera's sight. The camera didn't follow the tackle, so the audience could only see where Sugar last stood and could hear sounds of her being dragged away. "Hey! Let me go, you little mine creep!"

Meanwhile, the Maggots zipped along the mining tracks. Scarlett and Topher seemed pleased with their speed while Sky and Sammy were a bit uncertain.

"Excellent," Scarlett smiled. "At the rate we're going, we should find the statue and be out of this toxic wasteland in no time."

"Scarlett, we may have a problem," Sky commented behind her, prompting the genius to turn around.

Somehow, the two carts were separated, and riding along different tracks. Scarlett gawked at how that happened without her knowing.

"What the-? What imbecile left these carts unhitched?!" The genius growled as Topher joined Sammy in looking frightened.

On their separate paths, the two carts came out to a more open area of the mine. While Scarlett and Sky took a drastic turn downward, and crashed, Sammy and Topher continued straight onward.

Sammy gasped as she and Topher looked ahead with terrified expressions. "The tracks!" The viewpoint shifted in front of them to show what the two were worried about. The tracks seemed to be bent out of shape and broken. "I'm too young to die!"

"And I never got to host a show!" Topher added as they flew off the rails, and fell down past the cliff that Scarlett and Sky hit, both girls unconscious. Soon, there was a big splash.

On monitors in the office Chris was staying in, Beardo and Dave were shown walking through a tunnel with the jar of fireflies in Dave's hands on one monitor while Sammy and Topher's crash site was shown on another, revealing they had landed in water.

Chris smiled with Chef, who was now in the office with him and out of his hazmat suit. "Looks like our players are doomed! Will any of them survive? I have my doubts." Chris chuckled before continuing, "but find out for sure when we return on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

The show then faded to commercial.

The show faded back into Sammy and Topher's crash site, where bubbles emerged on the water's surface. Sammy was first to emerge, gasping for air.

"Topher? Topher!" Sammy called, trying to see through her wet hair.

Topher broke surface, inhaling a deep breath of air and coughing out water.

"Are you okay?" Sammy asked, looking at Topher in concern.

Looking at her under his wet bangs, Topher frowned. "I am, but the phone probably isn't." He brought out the phone, and flipped it open, it spilling drops of water as he did so. The phone crackled, and the screen went black. "Great… I guess that's useless now." Clapping it shut, he threw it off-screen.

"How'd you even have that? I thought anything close to electronic was banned from camp," Sammy noted.

Topher nodded, "They are. That wasn't mine; that was Chris' phone. He dropped it when I went to see him the other day, and I haven't had a chance to get it back to him."

Sammy blinked at him. "Oh, that makes sense." She looked around. "We should go find Scarlett and Sky."

"They're probably fine," Topher assured her. "We should go find the statue. They're probably doing that too. If we go find the statue, we'll meet up with them later."

"I don't know…" Sammy hesitated, and then the two heard the squealing of the giant gophers. "Okay, let's go!"

She and Topher started swimming towards the closest shore they could find.

Up on the cliff, Scarlett groaned as she finally awoke. "Ugh…" she put a hand to her head as she started to get up on her feet. "I hadn't accounted for possible rail destruction or sharp turns with that kind of speed." Turning towards Sky, she glanced at the unconscious girl. "Hm, I could leave her here to her demise, but that would probably reflect me badly if anyone ever found out…" Making up her mind, she kicked at Sky.

"Ow… Scarlett…" Sky mumbled, coming to. She sat up as she rubbed her head with her hand. As her mind caught up, she frowned at Scarlett. "Did you just kick me?"

"My apologies, I needed enough force to bring you out of your state of unconsciousness," Scarlett said insincerely.

Sky's frown sunk into a scowl. "Even so, you can't just kick people like that. You should only kick people like that in self-defense." Suddenly, the ground shifted, and Sky somehow got taller than Scarlett.

Perplexed, the two girls glanced down at their feet, and saw one of the giant mutant gophers. It squealed, and they both screamed as they fled in fright.

Shawn and Jasmine ran with their mutant gopher chasing them down a tunnel.

"This thing is relentless! When will it stop?" Shawn asked Jasmine as they ran.

Jasmine, having temporarily forgotten her fear of claustrophobia in exchange for a fear of mutant gophers, chanced a glance back. In that moment, she tripped on one of the planks laid out for mining cart tracks, and tumbled over Shawn, sending them both to the floor.

"Oof!" she grunted.

The gopher caught up to them, to their horror, and began sniffing at them. It recoiled, whimpering.

"Why is it doing that?" Jasmine wondered as she and Shawn stood.

Shawn looked over the whimpering gopher. "Its eyes are screwed shut, so it's probably guided by smell." He then raised an eyebrow, and lifted his armpit, sniffing it and soon grimacing. "Ooh, I think I know."

"What?"

"…I don't really shower much…" Shawn reluctantly admitted, blushing a little.

The gopher seemed to get over its whimpering, and went back to squealing at the two Rats. Jasmine took a step back in fright while Shawn didn't move.

"You don't like that?" Shawn challenged the gopher, taking a step forward. "Good, because I don't like you!" He then raised his arms, and moved towards the gopher.

Shawn's stench was too much for the gopher, and it began scurrying away.

"You may not shower much," Jasmine began to say as she stepped up beside him, "but doing that pretty much saved our lives. I have no complaints." She smiled down at him.

"Good to hear," Shawn grinned back.

Sugar's eyes fluttered open as she was revealed to be laying on the ground. She groaned, "Where am I?"

The viewpoint zoomed out to show that she was lying in a really spacious cavern populated with lots of mutant gophers. Along with the mutant gophers was the dark silhouette that had ambushed Sugar earlier, sitting on a stone throne. As gophers began to surround the pageant queen, she rose to her feet.

"Hey, back off!" she barked. "I'll roast you all up and eat you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!"

The dark silhouette snapped its fingers, and the gophers backed away from her. The silhouette jumped from its throne down to where Sugar was, bringing itself into the light and revealing itself to be a green-skinned, red-eyed Ezekiel with few strands of hair draped over his face and his clothes all scratched up with holes in them.

"I'll be!" Sugar beamed. "You're that guy that always got voted out first in the other seasons! Ezekiel, right?"

Ezekiel crept close to her, and sniffed her. When he pulled back, he smiled at her while wagging one eyebrow.

Sugar smiled at him. "Y'all have pretty good taste."

Beardo and Dave jogged down a tunnel, their orange badges urging them to move faster.

"Where is everyone? How long is it going to take to find them and the statue?" Beardo wondered.

"I have no idea," Dave replied. "Say, when we get out of here, want to vote off Sugar?"

"Vote off Sugar?" Beardo raised an eyebrow, peering over at Dave.

"Yeah, she's loud, obnoxious, reckless, shall I go on?"

"No need, I get the picture."

"And she's the reason Sky left our team. I want her gone."

Beardo stopped jogging, and stared at Dave more seriously. "So, you want some kind of alliance to get her out?"

Dave halted, and turned to Beardo, smiling. "When you put it that way, yeah! An alliance! That would be great! Can we make one?"

"Um," Beardo hesitated, unsure if an alliance was necessary.

The conversation was interrupted by the gopher that Shawn scared off scampering past them. Dave yelped, and jumped into Beardo's arms, the two boys staring at the retreating animal.

"Beardo, Dave, there you guys are!" Shawn's voice called, and the two named Rats looked in the direction the voice came from.

Shawn and Jasmine soon appeared on the scene. "Finally, we found you," Jasmine happily remarked before noticing something off. "Where's the other girl?"

"Not sure," Beardo replied as he dropped Dave from his arms, "what's new with you?"

Shawn puffed his chest out proudly. "Turns out my lack of showering to avoid being ambushed by zombies has paid off. The gophers can't stand my smell."

Dave's pupils shrank in shock, and he pointed warily at Shawn. "You don't shower? I touched you…" Dave's voice trembled, as did his whole body.

Jasmine shook her head. "That doesn't matter now. We need to find that statue, the other girl, and get out of here." Her knees began to wobble. "This place is starting to close in on me again…"

"Don't worry," reassured Shawn, "with my stench protecting us, we can get through here no problem."

At that moment, the floor shook, and giant gopher paws emerged from the floor, grabbing the Rats by their legs.

"…Oh crud…"

The quartet screamed as they were dragged into the floor.

Sugar sat on a pile of bones shaped like a chair, and held an autographed photo of Ezekiel wearing a hat, sunglasses, and his golden 'Z' necklace. "An autographed picture of yerself?" She scoffed, dropping the photo. "Yer going to have to do better than that to impress me."

Ezekiel walked over with a burnt, silver briefcase.

"Hey, isn't that the case the money from last season was kept in?"

Ezekiel nodded, opening it only to reveal the money had been turned into ashes.

Sugar's face fell into an unimpressed frown. "Yeah, that's not gonna cut it either. What else ya got?"

Elsewhere, Scarlett's slipper-like shoes splashed through a puddle of water as she ran, followed by Sky's sneakers.

"Ooh… I'm not feeling too good, Scarlett," Sky informed her teammate, who was tugging her along by the arm. She then belched loudly.

"The first symptom of chemical exposure is nausea. You should be fine as long as you don't contract any others," noted Scarlett, too focused on finding the statue to care. The chemical badges on both of them beeped, and Scarlett saw that hers had changed to red with a black exclamation point. "Five minute warning- we have to find that statue and exit as quickly as possible!"

"Scarlett, Sky!" The voice of Sammy cheered. "You're okay!"

Scarlett and Sky stopped running, and Sammy and Topher ran up to them.

"For the next five minutes, yes," Scarlett agreed.

Topher reached for the straps of his pack. "We should ditch the packs. They're slowing us down."

An intercom crackled to life, and Chris' voice could be heard. "Those packs of pain will stay on until I tell you otherwise, or your whole team is disqualified! Disqualified!"

"What do you know? Chris is watching us! I knew he wouldn't just leave us down here for dead," Topher remarked, removing his hands from the backpack straps.

"Uh, I wouldn't count on it," Chris chirped, surprising the team. "I'm more of a watcher than a saver." The four Maggots scowled in response to Chris' callousness.

"I'm starting to wonder if Chris is the kind of host I want to be like," Topher commented a bit sourly.

"Boom!" Sugar's voice exclaimed from far-off. "This is perfect!"

Sammy gasped, "That was Sugar! Maybe she found the statues!"

Scarlett turned, and pointed in a direction. "This way!" She tugged Sky along, and Sammy and Topher followed her.

A flash cut to the cavern Sugar was in, and the Mutant Maggots arrived from a tunnel at the edge of the room. When they entered, they stopped and gawked at what they saw.

In her hands, Sugar held up a large diamond. "This is my kinda gift!" boasted Sugar, who proceeded to hug the diamond.

"Yeah," Dave spoke up, the camera shifting from Sugar and Ezekiel to Dave and the other Toxic Rats, who were being held up by their packs by several gophers. "Great that your new boyfriend got you the perfect gift. Can you get him to let us down now?"

"Tunnel… underground… so tight…" Jasmine shivered, her arms wrapped around her midsection.

Woozy, Sky pointed ahead. "Look, the statue!"

Sitting on the armrests of Ezekiel's makeshift throne were the Gilded Chris statuettes the teams were assigned to recover.

"Great, so we just have to sneak around all those gophers to get to it. Perfect," Topher remarked sarcastically, taking note of all the gophers in the cavern.

A pair of gophers seemed to notice the newcomers, and started hissing at them, causing them all to shriek in terror.

"The other team's here," Shawn noticed. "We've got to get down from here somehow!"

"You got it," Beardo grinned, and unscrewed the lid of the firefly jar. "Go wild!" The fireflies flew out of the jar, and started hovering around the gophers' faces, forcing them to drop the Rats and their packs.

As the gophers started to get pestered by the fireflies, the gophers started to run rampant around the cavern. Dave was quick to get back on his feet, pointing. "Shawn, the statue!"

"I'm on it!" Shawn ran to the throne, and jumped on a passing gopher's back to reach it. Once up there, he snatched up the statue with the green base. "Statue retrieved!"

The Maggots gasped in shock as Beardo and Jasmine joined Dave on their feet. "Hey, check it! Mining carts!" Beardo realized.

Off to the side of the cavern was a set of mining carts.

"We can use them to get out of here!"

"Yeah, let's go!" Shawn agreed, moving to do so only for Ezekiel to appear and block his path. Shawn yelped in fright. Ezekiel's green-tinted skin and his bloodshot eyes could only make him think of one thing. "Zombie!" As he screamed the term, Ezekiel tackled him, and the two began a scuffle. The Toxic Rats' statue flew from Shawn's hand as they began to fight.

With all the chaos going on, the Maggots decided to make their move, and ran towards the throne. Scarlett and Topher were the quickest to move, while Sammy and Sky appeared sluggish, Sky with visible sweat starting to form on her forehead.

The intercom crackled to life once more, Chris immediately stating, "If you can hear this, congrats! You're not dead yet! Wherever you are, immediately discard your bomb- I mean backpacks, and run!"

All of the campers grimaced at Chris' words.

"Bombs?!" Topher repeated incredulously as he and Scarlett removed their backpacks, and Scarlett opened hers to verify the claim. "Okay, definitely questioning Chris' hosting style now!"

Scarlett and Topher placed their packs on Ezekiel's throne, and Scarlett snatched up the statue with the red base. "I have the statue. We need to exit immediately!"

Now at the carts, Beardo, Dave, and Jasmine were getting in. Beardo had gotten in first, and was watching for his teammates. "Shawn, Sugar! Let's go!"

"Sure, sure, whatever." Sugar said obliviously, walking to the carts with her pack still on.

Dave was about to climb into the carts when he and Jasmine heard voices.

"You guys," Sammy weakly called, "Sky and I don't feel so good." Dave and Jasmine turned around, and saw Sammy assisting Sky towards the carts while discarding their packs. Before they could get any closer, a gopher appeared and starting squealing at them, frightening Sammy.

"Sky!" Dave let go of the cart, and ran back to her.

Jasmine snapped out of her claustrophobic trance, and came to her senses. "Sammy!" She hurried after Dave. Scarlett and Topher then arrived at the carts, watching in surprise as their fellow campers went back for their teammates.

Shawn managed to get the upper hand in his fight with Ezekiel, and somehow took off his pack in the process. To finish the struggle, he punted Ezekiel across the cavern, over Sammy and Sky's heads, which were being protected by Jasmine holding the gopher back.

Dave assisted Sammy and Sky, putting himself under Sky's free arm, and hoisting her up with Sammy. "Don't worry, Sky, I've got you."

Barely able to stay conscious, Sky gazed at him. "D-Dave, if this is it… I need to tell you that Keith…"

"No time for that now, we've got to get out of here," replied Dave, cutting her off.

Jasmine barred her teeth as she tried to keep the gopher from attacking her. "Back off," she grunted.

Feet darted by the Toxic Rats' statue as a hand snatched it up from the floor.

"Yeah, pick on something your own size!" Shawn agreed, jumping up and smacking the gopher on the back of the head sharply with the statue.

Jasmine took her hands away from the gopher the moment it appeared to faint from the blow. She blinked at the gopher falling sideways, and then at Shawn appearing from behind it with their team's statue in hand.

"Shawn," she smiled kindly, "thank you."

"What're teammates for?" Shawn nodded, and then winced upon seeing the statue break.

Shawn and Jasmine were quick to join the others. Jasmine helped Dave get Sky and Sammy in the carts, and Beardo removed Sugar's pack, throwing it from the cart immediately. Shawn pushed the carts to get them going, and hurriedly climbed in before it could pick up too much speed.

Scarlett, Shawn, Beardo, Topher, and Dave all screamed as they cruised down the tracks. Sugar was too distracted by her large diamond to care, and both Sammy and Sky were too dizzy to make sense of what was going on. Scarlett held the statue tight as they went down their final downward slope.

Outside the mine, Chris and Chef stood, both men dressed in hazmat suits, waiting for the campers' arrival.

"They're really cutting it close," Chris said to Chef, who hummed in agreement.

The campers screamed as their carts flew out of the mine, over Chris and Chef's heads, and crashed into the ground nearby. The Maggots' statue slipped from Scarlett's hand, and bounced over to Chris' feet.

"The Maggots win!" declared Chris.

Scarlett and Topher cheered, being the only ones okay enough to do so.

Chris then pulled out a remote, looking to Chef. "All clear?" Chef nodded, and then Chris announced, "Executing Operation Doomsday!" He pressed the button on the remote, and the packs inside the mine exploded, causing an avalanche inside the mine, chunks of rock sealing up the tunnel the campers had exited from.

As the dust cleared, Scarlett approached Chris with a scrutinizing eye. "This wasn't about the statues at all, was it? It was all a ruse so you could get us to do your dirty work."

"Of course it was about the statues," Chris countered, "and as an added bonus, you just helped me seal off the toxic waste forever, and get the feds off my back. It's a win-win, for me."

The rest of the campers joined Scarlett, Sammy and Sky appearing to be feeling much better as was Jasmine, since she was no longer in the mine.

"That's really slimy, don't you think?" Shawn asked, not appreciating being used in such a way.

"Yeah, I just keep getting better," Chris mused before holding up a finger under his gloved hand, "Rats, hope you're hungry for marshmallows." He then stepped aside as Chef came over with a rather large hose. "But first before there's any permanent genetic damage…"

Chef chuckled darkly before spraying a powerful amount of water at the campers, the spray being so strong it pushed them off-screen.

Night fell over the camp. The Rats' cabin was briefly shown before the camera panned over to the Maggots' cabin, where Dave was standing with Sky beside it.

"So, Sky, we need to talk," Dave began to say. "See, after nearly dying today, being even closer to death than we usually have on this island, I realized that I need to say something." Dave took a deep breath. "I like you, Sky. A lot. After we nearly died, you nearly dying more than me, I realized I couldn't keep it to myself anymore. I think you're awesome, athletic, cute, and really driven. What I'm trying to say is, do you want to go out sometime?"

Sky's jaw dropped, and then a sad frown appeared on her face. "Oh, Dave, that's really sweet. Very thoughtful." She thought for a moment, looking down as she twiddled with her fingers nervously. "I would love to say yes, but I can't."

Dave blinked in confusion. "What? Why not?"

"Dave, I was trying to tell you back in the mine. About Keith, he's my boyfriend back home."

Whatever background music that was playing during the scene came to a record-screeching halt as Dave blinked once more. His jaw then dropped as his eyes went wide.

"What?" He whispered softly.

"I'm really sorry, Dave," Sky apologized. "Everything you said was really sweet, and you're cute and supportive, and I like that about you. It's just, I can't date you. Not right now when I still have a boyfriend." She tried to put on a smile. "But that doesn't mean we can't still have fun as friends. We can still go jogging together, and compete in challenges and help each other out and stuff."

"But-you-the burping-jogging-boyfriend," Dave stammered as tears began to pool in his eyes.

"I'm so sor-!" Sky tried to apologize, but Dave cut her off.

"Leave me alone, Sky! Just leave me alone!"

Dave stormed away, going to the Rats' cabin, throwing the door to the boys' side open and slamming it as he went inside.

Sky stayed standing beside her team's cabin, hanging her head in guilt.

The bonfire burning brightly, the five Rats sat in the first row all in a line. Sugar sat at the far left with her diamond in her lap, and then Beardo sat next to her, Dave, Shawn, and Jasmine on the far right.

"The votes are in!" declared Chris. "Who will receive the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom, and leave the game forever? The following players are safe- Jasmine!" He called her name, and flicked a marshmallow in her direction.

Jasmine caught it with a smile on her face.

"Beardo!" Beardo cupped his hands, catching the treat.

"Sugar!" Sugar's marshmallow bounced off of her diamond, and right into her mouth, at which point she instantly began chewing.

"And… Shawn!" Shawn swiftly caught the marshmallow with one hand. "Dave, you're gone, just like your feelings for Sky!"

Dave sighed depressingly, unintentionally ducking as the glowing marshmallow was thrown his way. "Let's just get this over with."

A flash forward cut to down at the dock, where Dave was sitting in the bucket of the catapult.

"Can you be a little more upset and a little less depressed?" Chris said to him. "You're not making this very fun for me."

"Why should I?" Dave replied bluntly, continuing to look down at his lap. "The island sucked, the girl I liked had a boyfriend, and I nearly died. I asked the others to vote me off. I have nothing to be upset about."

Chris scoffed, a tad annoyed. "Fine, be a fun killer even if the pain of your broken heart is hilarious."

"Hold that catapult!" A familiar voice hollered. Chris and Dave turned to see Sugar approaching with her diamond in hand. Without a second thought, she jumped into the catapult's bucket, sitting on top of Dave and making him extremely uncomfortable. "I've got a big, shiny diamond and a college fund to fill!"

"Uh, the Hurl of Shame is for exits only," Chris retorted, raising an eyebrow at the pageant queen.

"So? I quit then! With this thing," Sugar held up her diamond, "Sugar's goin' to college!"

Chris eyed the diamond, and then smirked, "Not unless cubic zirconia has suddenly become priceless."

Sugar glanced at the host, a dumbfounded look on her face while Dave continued to grasp for breath. "Say what now?"

"Yeah, that diamond is practically worthless. Lamest mine ever! Why do you think I dumped all that waste in there?" Chris circled around the catapult.

Realizing her mistake, Sugar scrambled to get out of the bucket. "Wait! I change mah miiiind!" Before she could get out, she and Dave were flung into the night sky.

Once Chris saw that both were no longer in sight, he turned to the camera for his outro, "How will Sky take the fact that Dave's gone possibly because of her? What kind of insane challenge will the contestants have next? Find out next time on Total Drama: Revenge of the Island!"

(cue end credits)

Sugar- 8th

Dave- 9th

Rodney- 10th

Max- 11th

Ella- 12th

Amy- 13th

Leonard- 14th

We are now officially at our halfway point of the season, and half of the cast has been eliminated. Dave's elimination might come across as a shock, but reflecting on his canon behavior, he's very spontaneous like that. After finding out Sky wouldn't date him, he pretty much told everyone to vote him off, which is exactly what he did here, with the additional knowledge of who Keith is. Personally, I like to think the Sky-Dave storyline went down better than in canon.

As for Sugar, she was never meant to be the main antagonist for this cast like she was in Pahkitew Island. I see a lot of Anne Maria in Sugar. To me, Sugar is basically a mix of Owen and Anne Maria. She's got the sass, the tone-deaf singing, the blouse and the heels, and the crazy hair from Anne Maria while she also has Owen's big eater traits and gas jokes. To that end, I figured that she would accept a diamond from Ezekiel and quit in the same way that Anne Maria did.

I loved this episode in canon for how intense and dangerous it was, and I really hope I did it justice in this story. It really sets the tone for the latter half of the season.

Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!