A wild Wingull slowly woke up from its nest atop a flagpole. Squawking, it stood up and took flight before falling straight to the ground, panting and sweating as it did so.

"Last time on Total Pokémon: Rebooted!" yelled Zeraora, who had a coconut filled with juice, a straw and a few small umbrellas in one hand. "The twenty-five surviving campers partook in a fun scavenger hunt for a bunch of odd, gross and dangerous items. With Alice as team leader, the Poipoles took an early lead while the Kartanas, led by Remington, lagged behind."

"The sudden lack of authority didn't sit right with Gwen," added Diancie, herself holding a surfboard in her hands as well as a pair of goggles and a soda. "Shocker."

"She was also very ticked off after Gloria ratted her out in the challenge before, so the two began arguing, again, eventually having an all-out brawl on their way to find a trombone."

"Orville finally convinced Alice to let Aero go alone, Doriann took an alarm clock from us without paying and Gregory and Catrina kissed like madness; when all this was said and done, it was the Poipoles that took the victory with a little help from Alice and Marissa."

"The Kartanas smelt something fishy when Gregory, one of this season's most-liked competitors, was mysteriously voted off. Confession cams revealed that it was Gloria who changed the votes to get revenge on Gwen, Greg's alliance mate," said Zeraora. "Which seems rather unfair, but you've got to admit it's sneaky."

"Today's challenge will be more heart-pumping, more dangerous and more shocking than before," Diancie grinned. "And with twenty-four players still in the running, it's safe to assume things will be unpredictable. Who will crack under the pressure?"

"What will happen to Catrina now her lover's gone?"

"And can we sell even more crap—I mean, memorabilia before the end of this episode? Find out right now on Total Pokémon: Rebooted!"

Waving his hands in front of his face as a way to cool himself down, a Machoke intern struggled to hold up a strange totem pole. Behind him, a Raichu held a pair of water skis and a dirty, broken mattress and was constantly ushering the Squirtle behind him to fill his mouth with water.

Nearby, the campers were asleep in their beds. In the Krazy Kartanas' cabin, Remington was already awake, stretching his muscles and exercising to some rather odd workout music, waking up Gwen.

"Can't you do this outside?" she asked.

"Nope," he replied, chugging a whole water bottle in seconds. "Too hot."

Gwen groaned and looked outside. The horizon was shaking like a frightened Teddiursa and the grass had turned yellow—a heatwave had begun.

Catrina woke up and sighed. "I still miss him, you know," she said to Leaf.

"It's gonna be fine, I know you can do this without him."

It had been a few days since Gregory left the island. While Catrina had gotten over losing him, she had no way of communicating as she did not have his phone number, and she wondered what he was up to.

"With Gregory out of the game, my alliance has lost a member," explained Gwen, dowsing herself in water. "And, since Gloria screwed everything up, there's no way I'll find anyone else. How am I supposed to win this thing when almost everyone despises me now? Oh, and people are blaming me for all this. Why would I vote off someone I like?"

Clacie glanced over at Catrina and frowned guiltily.

"Are you seriously sad about what you did?" Gloria whispered. She was currently in the seat next to Clacie's bunk bed instead of her usual position below Gwen's bed. "She had it coming."

The Drilbur shrugged sloppily.

"Look, I don't really like Gwen, but I still feel like what I did was terrible," sighed Clacie. "I distracted Litten after all the votes were cast and let Gloria steal the chest. She was the one that changed the votes. She's the reason Gregory was voted off. She told me that if I told anyone she'd do it again, to me. Uhh, she isn't going to see this, is she?"

The sound of a plane flying much too close to the cabins woke the other campers up.

"Campers, it's challenge time!" cried Diancie, the one in the cockpit. Since the recap, she had quickly changed into a shoddy pilot's outfit. She flew it to the ground, landing it much too fast and causing it to skid much further than it should have. It rolled along the bumpy grass before coming to a halt just a few metres in front of a tree. "I can't wait to get my pilot's license!"

Daisy groaned loudly into her pillow. "Diancie, it's seven in the morning!"

"7:05, actually," she grinned.

"Whatever…" Daisy noticed that she was sweating. A lot. There was a noticeable wet patch under where she had slept. "Ew, ew, ew!"

Most of the other Poipoles had awoken, the vast majority because of Diancie's plane. Others had noticed the sweat all over them, on their clothes and on their bedsheets, but most were not nearly as verbal as Daisy.

Aero and Alice arose from their slumber at the same time, unintentionally mimicking each other's actions. They yawned, stretched and mumbled in unison before opening their eyes and turning to each other.

"Oh, morning, Aero," said Alice, still a little drowsy. "Hang on, Aero?!"

The two had been sleeping in the same bed! Alice screamed, which Aero repeated after it dawned on him.

"I wasn't—"

"W-we weren't—"

"He wasn't—"

"She wasn't—"

"I absolutely, one hundred thousand percent do not have a crush on Aero, I promise!" protested Alice. "He was afraid last night and I guess he climbed into my bed. But I didn't… Well, I did kind of enjoy it, but only because his feathers are soft, got it?"

Orville snorted. "Looks like you two are up."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alice frowned.

Orville picked up his phone with one of his many tentacles and showed her and Aero the most recent video in his camera roll. It was recorded in the early hours of the morning when it was still very dark, but light enough that Orville's camera easily picked up Alice and Aero's bunk.

"W-why were you r-recording us?" asked Aero.

"Just watch," Orville commanded.

In the video, the two were soundly asleep, until Aero began to stir uncomfortably in the heat, waking up Alice. She looked down at him, sighed a little and climbed down the ladder. Next, she grabbed him carefully and held him in one hand, bringing him up to her bunk. She slotted him in her bed next to where she slept and gripped him tightly as she fell back asleep. A very faint grin formed on Aero's face and he began to calm down.

"Why were you recording us?" gasped Alice, who had gone red.

"Oh my, you're blushing," Orville snarled. "Admit it, you lo—"

"Campers! Get up!" yelled Diancie. "Last warning, or no one's eating breakfast!"

Soon enough, everyone was outside, on the beach. Mecca was as energetic as always, but no one else except Remington seemed to be nearly as peppy, but everyone was unfathomably hot.

"Today's competition is dangerous, extreme and legally distinct from torture," smiled Diancie.

"And that's supposed to mean what?" Gwen asked. She, along with a bunch of other campers, was flapping her hands in front of her face, attempting to cool down.

"The first of today's challenges is a water ski ride through the jaggedy rocks on the other side of the lake," explained Zeraora, ignoring Gwen once more. "One of you from each team will be attempting the race, and if you can avoid the rocks and finish the course first, your team will gain an advantage in the second challenge: a fifty-foot skydive from this old thing." He patted the side of Diancie's plane, causing half of a wing to fall off and onto an intern.

Diancie arched her eyebrows at him. "Another two of you will be skydiving into a waiting mattress target down below."

The Raichu intern pulled the mattress onto the sand and tripped into it, causing it to wrap around him tightly. "Help," he said as he attempted to pull himself free.

Gwen folded her arms. "I think I speak for all of us when I say it's way too hot for this."

"You know, for once I agree with her," murmured Gloria. "This heat is causing my scales to peel."

Diancie sighed. "What about the water? Wouldn't that cool you down?"

"Yeah, when we get a face full of rock. Besides," said Gwen, "you're clearly going to enjoy this heatwave and leave us to suffer."

"But… I can't abandon this challenge! You know how much crap I needed to order for this?"

Every contestant looked at the things that littered the beach and began to laugh. Even Zeraora joined in with them but stopped once Diancie shot a glare at him.

"Listen, we can't keep postponing challenges," she told them. "The network execs weren't particularly happy when we did the fear challenge instead of the scavenger hunt, and I don't think they'll be happy about this."

"But we did the scavenger hunt," Catrina noted.

"Yes, the episode after it was intended."

Daisy pondered everything for a moment. "Did you make the fear challenge up on the spot when it was all thundery and stuff?"

Diancie nodded. "Every challenge has been pushed back once, and we really can't afford to push them back again."

"Could we just cancel this one and do something fun instead?" Mecca asked, Marissa's sword in her hand. "Like sword fighting." Mecca mimicked a fencer, thrusting the blade side-to-side and forward and back before Marissa took it back and sharply frowned at her.

"No," groaned Diancie. "It doesn't work like that. Plus, you lot didn't complain when there was that storm."

"Yeah, because at least it wasn't a billion degrees outside then," claimed Gwen.

"It's not that bad, stop overexaggerating this." As soon as Diancie said that, a tree caught fire. "They do that all the time."

"Diancie, you're trying to reason with a bunch of kids," said Zeraora, which led a bunch of them to frown at him, notably Orville. "What's the harm in pushing the challenge till next episode?"

"Did you listen to anything I said?" she groaned. "I'm not really best buds with the network right now considering the whole incident with Phoebus…"

Phoebus looked at her coldly, causing everyone in his vicinity to shiver and back away.

Gwen whispered something to Mecca, Leaf and Catrina and they followed her to the dock. Gloria narrowed her eyes.

"Cali, do you mind going to—"

"Yeah, fine, whatever."

"I have a proposition," Gwen told her alliance mates. She brought them closer to her and quietly explained her plan. Clacie walked over to them and attempted to listen in on their conversation without looking suspicious.

"Ooh, are you sure it's a good idea?" asked Catrina.

"It's the only way we're going to convince her," Gwen replied. "Now listen…"

Clacie arched in closer and closer to hear them but ended up hitting her foot on a rock and tripping. She fell face-first into the sand, which stuck to the sweat all over her body.

Gwen looked at her like she had farted and turned back around. Clacie dusted the sand off and walked slowly closer.

"And remember, if all else fails, plead!"

The alliance returned to Diancie, Clacie following behind. Diancie was now blabbering about everything that the challenge was going to bring, all while everyone suffered straight below the scorching sun.

Gwen put her hands together and smiled. "Diancie, I have a proposition for you," she said.

"I've been over this multiple times, I'm not changing today's challenge," sighed Diancie.

"Not even for… a double elimination?"

"What?!" yelled Gloria. Everyone, even Phoebus, was shocked. Many began murmuring to each other, aback.

"I-I-I… I don't know…" spluttered Diancie. "It would shake things up a little and it'd be great for the ratings, but I'd have to check with… give me a minute."

Diancie took her phone from a pocket and tapped a few numbers before putting it up to her ear.

"Hi, it's Diancie again. I know things aren't peachy between us right now, but the campers want an easier challenge and—I know we had to postpone that one! That's what I've been telling them!"

Gwen and Gloria glanced at each other in confusion, both with one of their eyebrows low.

"No, no, listen to me, Gwen claimed it's way too hot and she wants—yes, Gwen, the annoying drama queen with the sunglasses."

Gwen scoffed. "Is that my defining trait?"

"Listen, let me speak," frowned Diancie. "She's proposing that, if we do a more relaxing challenge this week, the losing team has to vote off two people tonight. Yes, a double elimination. Yes, yes, got it." She hung up and looked at everyone.

"So…what did they say?"

"They've cancelled today's challenge, which means, yes, you lot have an easier one, and yes, it's a double elimination."

Mostly confused cheers came from the crowd and the interns moving items around sighed loudly and collapsed onto the floor.

"But! To make things a little more intense," said Diancie, "we're going to shake it up a little. You'll be voting on who's going home in two separate campfire ceremonies, one right after the challenge and one in the evening like usual."

"Now, go change into your swimsuits, because it's beach time!" cried Zeraora.

"That is a strange way to do a double elimination, Diancie," said Gwen. "But I guess you can't make it easy, can you?"

"Gwen is terrible," Gloria muttered. "But props to her for making this challenge tolerable, I guess."

"Truth be told, we kind of wanted to relax today too," said Diancie, rubbing sunscreen on her face. "It is really hot."

"But you wouldn't have let us relax if not for that offer," added Gwen. She was wearing a rather tight one-piece swimsuit, complete with another pair of sunglasses. This pair had white rims that matched perfectly with the stripes. Her outfit had attracted a lot of attention, notably from Dallas. He himself was in a saggy pair of swimming trunks that made him look like a Scrafty, a rather ironic juxtaposition.

"Dallas, not this again," groaned Jasmine.

"I reject Dallas and he moves on to another person," said Jasmine. "I wonder how he's going to feel when he finally gets to the age where he realises what he's doing is wrong."

"Okay then, campers!" cried Zeraora. "While you were all eating and getting changed, Diancie and I came up with today's new challenge."

In the audience that was watching was Aero, wearing a pair of goggles that had already put red rings around his eyes. Without his glasses, his eyes looked tiny and he had to squint to see.

"Do you not have any contacts?" Alice asked him.

"N-no, and swimming with c-contacts is bad," replied Aero. "I-infection a-and all that."

"Oh, got it."

"So! Today's challenge consists of three parts," explained Zeraora. "First of all, beach volleyball! Two contestants from each team will take part and, no matter what, you are not allowed to sit out. No substitutions. One set, first team to twenty-one points wins the game, got it?"

The campers nodded.

"Good, good. Now, disperse!"

Everyone separated into their teams and Gwen was the first to speak up.

"First of all, Gloria, shove it. Second of all, I was captain of the volleyball team three years running, so I think I should—"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," said Gloria. "You and who?"

Jasmine stretched her arms and legs. "I can do it," she grinned.

Gwen and Jasmine walked onto the volleyball pitch, a small area marked sloppily with some tape containing a net and a volleyball. Once again, however, the Poipoles had not yet picked their players.

"We need two tall, bipedal Pokémon who won't burst the ball," noted Alice. "I'm way too short, Doriann has those spiky things—"

"You mean horns?" asked the Scolipede.

"Yes, yes, horns. A bit too dangerous, I'm sorry."

"It's fine…"

Alice looked over the whole team and tapped her chin in thought. "Shawna, Marissa, you're the only ones tall enough and spikeless to match them. You two are going to have to go up."

"Ooh, okay," said Shawna. "Is that okay with you, Marissa?"

The Decidueye was wearing a strange green dress-like swimsuit covered in wizard hats, strange beasts and odd incantations—not really one fit for beach volleyball. "Well, I've never partaken in the sport, but what's the harm in giving it a go?" she replied.

"Okay, then. Kartanas are heads and Poipoles are tails," stated Litten, a coin in his paw and the volleyball in the other. He was to serve as the referee for the match, and this coin toss would decide which team would serve first.

Both teams' players had gathered at the middle to witness it, having prepared for a little with some volleys, throws and dives. The Kartanas seemed much more prepared for the match than the Poipoles, and they admittedly did look more athletic, but this would not deter them. Marissa was able to fly, which could give the Poipoles the upper edge.

Litten flicked the coin into the air and it spun quickly before landing in his paw. He slapped it onto the back of his hand and looked at it. "That's heads!"

"Yes!" cried Gwen, taking the ball from Litten. She and Jasmine moved to the side of the court west of his chair while Marissa and Shawna moved to the other side.

Everyone else, who had moved to a little patch not far from the pitch, sat down to watch as Gwen slowly walked back. Litten tweeted his whistle and she ran, threw the ball up and smacked it as hard as she could. The ball travelled across the net, straight past Marissa, and landed just outside the court.

"Out! One point to the Kartanas!" cried Litten. Gwen and the rest of the team cheered and whooped while Zeraora, who had been rather cruelly designated 'ball boy' for the game, passed it back to her. It was Jasmine serving this time.

Jasmine did exactly what Gwen did, although the ball did not go as far. Instead, it almost landed on the other side and Shawna dived to hit it. She passed it to Marissa, who uneasily passed it back to her, and hit it over the net. Unluckily, Gwen was able to catch it, hitting it back to Jasmine, who spiked it quickly and gave the Kartanas their second point.

Gwen and Jasmine high-fived and the former grabbed the ball from Zeraora; she was serving again.

This next rally was more favourable for the Poipoles. When Gwen served the ball over to their side, Shawna was able to bounce the ball over to Marissa. Marissa bounced it back to her and Shawna spiked it over—despite their efforts, neither Gwen nor Jasmine could hit the ball, meaning the Poipoles had finally scored a point.

By the time the players swapped places on the court, the Kartanas were ahead with five points to the Poipoles' two—Marissa had been able to score a rather lucky point when she served, which was not repeated in the following rally.

"Okay, strategy," Shawna said to Marissa. "If Gwen serves the ball the way I think she will, you'll need to stand far away. Not outside the court, but as far as you can go, got it?"

"I… think so," replied Marissa.

"Good."

Another tweet came from Litten's whistle and Gwen ran, jumped and smacked the ball right out of the air. It sped across the court like a bullet and straight towards Marissa.

"Hit it back as soon as it hits you!" Shawna yelled. Marissa obeyed and tried to push it but ended up stopping dead in her tracks, ball in hand.

Litten blew harshly into his whistle. "That's carrying! Another point to the Kartanas!"

The Poipoles all sighed while the Kartanas cheered.

Marissa was confused. "Wh-what? What hast I done?"

"You held onto the ball, also known as carrying," Gwen told her. "Volleyball 101: carrying is against the rules, and the team that carries has to forfeit the point."

Marissa humphed. "I wasn't told about yond!"

"Is she allowed to fly?" Shawna asked Diancie, as Jasmine walked back to serve yet another rally.

"Surely not," Gwen complained. "What advantage would that even bring?"

"She'd be really good at spiking."

Litten blew the whistle once more and Jasmine hit the volleyball. It travelled over to Shawna, who bounced it over to the other side.

"That isn't really fair," said Gwen, who passed the ball back to Jasmine. The Mienfoo jumped up to spike it.

Shawna dove to hit the ball over the net. "You think Diancie cares about fairness, Miss Captain of the Volleyball Team?"

Gwen scoffed as she attempted to hit the slow-falling ball, missing. The Poipoles now had their third point.

"So, seriously, is she allowed to fly?"

"I mean… I don't really see why not, but there isn't much point," replied Diancie. "Hovering isn't really flying."

Gwen grinned rather smugly and effortlessly arched back to hit the ball, which ended up landing outside of the court on the Poipoles' side, giving the Kartanas yet another point.

As the scoreboard changed to 'Krazy Kartanas: 7, Pushy Poipoles: 3', no one noticed Gloria leave the crowd with Clacie.

"Why do I have to do this?" Clacie complained as she and Gloria walked back to their cabins. She had begun to sweat really badly, as it was much warmer inland than by the beach.

"Because you're, like, the only person on the island I can trust."

"And why's that?"

Gloria groaned. "You're the sanest person on our team," she told her.

"Does that incl—"

"You know what I mean!"

While the two were watching the volleyball match, Gloria had engaged in a chat with Cali about what they had done during the scavenger hunt challenge and what the next step was. To put it simply, they needed to retrieve the real votes from Gloria's tote bag in case the Kartanas ended up losing. Clacie was hesitant but Gloria was able to win her over by assuring that she would not be voted off in either of the campfire ceremonies.

"I can't explain why we need them just yet, but you'll see," said Gloria. "Just, be on the lookout for anyone that could compromise this whole operation, okay?"

"Fine…"

Gloria arrived at their cabin a moment before Clacie and immediately dashed for her bag. It was not under her bed, where it usually was—someone had moved it! She held back the urge to groan again as she looked everywhere else in the cabin, but she had no luck.

By the time the teams did their second switch, it seemed rather clear who was dominating the tournament. Gwen and Jasmine had managed to bag another three points while Marissa and Shawna could only add one more to their total.

"I told thee, I'm a novice!" cried Marissa, as she failed to hit the ball over the net once again. "I know not how all of this works!"

"I guess you regret choosing her," Gwen chuckled, retrieving the ball from Zeraora. "Yeah, Marissa being able to fly is really helping you."

"Stop," frowned Shawna. "Hey, by the way, what do you gain out of being mean to people?"

"Don't turn into Gloria. I don't need another person breathing down my neck…"

"I'm not—answer the question!"

"Why?"

Shawna groaned loudly and smacked the oncoming ball across the court, inadvertently scoring the Poipoles one more point.

"You ever hear bad things about someone and think it's just bias or something, and then that bad stuff turns out to be true?" Shawna questioned. "Yeah, Gwen is as bad as everyone says—no, she's worse."

"A-Alice, why did you h-hug me when I-I was a-asleep?" Aero asked.

"Well, you were stirring, so I assumed you were having a bad dream. The easiest way to calm you down was… hug you." Alice blushed and put her paw to her face in an attempt to block anyone from seeing it—a fruitless attempt, as her paws were nowhere near large enough to cover it. Everyone and their mother caught it.

Alice thanked Arceus that Torracat was out of her life because he would not have let her hear the end of this. Unfortunately for her, however, Orville had noticed.

"You are in love with her!" he yelled.

Alice went even redder. "N-no…"

"Y-yes! Don't deny it. You and Aero have been at each other forever. Why don't you take the next step and kiss him?"

Aero glanced at Alice, himself a little pink. "D-do you actually have…" he began.

Alice sighed. "Fine! Yes, whatever! Ever since the first episode of this stupid show, I've had a crush on Aero! He's kind, he's sweet, he's… incredible."

A loud, universal gasp followed, followed by some cheering and clapping, confusing Alice a little.

"What? I-I didn't think people cared about our relationship that much!"

"Oh, uh, they're not cheering for you," said Leaf, a little confused. "Shawna just scored another point against Gwen."

Alice grumbled a bit as Aero waddled closer to her. "I-I… you're…" he spluttered as he fainted again.

"Cali, come here for a second!" ordered Gloria.

"But you said—" Clacie began. She had been keeping a keen eye on everything that was going on outside to not let Gloria down, a job that bored her. No one was going to investigate for a while—they were watching the game!

"Now."

Clacie grumbled and walked inside. Gloria had turned the whole place upside down searching for her bag—every mattress was off its bed, every pillowcase had been pulled from its pillow and most bags were open, including Clacie's.

"Holy moly," the Drilbur gasped. "What have you been doing?"

"Searching."

"I can see that… What did you want?"

"Did you take the votes with you?" asked Gloria, rather suspicious.

"Of course not!" cried Clacie. "Why would I?"

Gloria had begun to sweat badly from paranoia. Combined with the sweat that the intense heat had produced, the moisture was practically pouring down her pink, piscine body. "You-you… you wanted to spill the beans! You don't trust me, why should I trust you?"

"Gloria! Calm down! Breathe!"

"But—but—"

Clacie grabbed Gloria by her neck and slapped her hard, leaving a large, leaf-shaped mark on her face. "Get a grip, or so help me Arceus I will hit you even harder!"

"Okay, okay, I get it! I'm calm, I'm calm!" Gloria rubbed the mark and toppled back, tripping over a large bag. Her tail hit her face and the back of her head hit the wall, causing the poffin trophy to fall off the cabinet by the door and onto her tail. It turned red in sheer pain. Disoriented and ticked off, she glanced at the bag—black, overflowing and hastily arranged, it was her duffel bag, complete with the true votes from the night before.

Gloria hastily held a bunch of ice packs around her face, attempting to balance them as. "Clacie has guts," she said. "Guts that got me badly injured and guts that probably won't benefit her in the long run, but guts nonetheless. Now, how do I exploit them—I mean, work with her so that we can get far in this game? Got any ideas?"

The four players took their first time out once they had scored twenty-one points in total. The Kartanas still led with twelve points, but Shawna's disdain towards Gwen had helped the team catch up and they were not lagging far behind.

Everyone got some water, reluctantly retrieved by Diancie. The pairs caught up with their teams as Gloria and Clacie rejoined the Kartanas, attempting to look as unsuspicious as possible.

"Gwen, you did so well out there!" cried Catrina. "And Jasmine, too."

"Thank you, thank you," Gwen smiled. Jasmine, on the other hand, grumbled a little. "Now, we have to—what happened to you two?"

Gloria was covered in bumps, bruises and cuts, while Clacie's large paw was throbbing. "W-what do you mean?" asked Clacie, sheepishly laughing and whistling in time with Gloria, who was using Clacie's other paw to dig a hole as discreetly as she could.

"What are you doing?" Gwen frowned at Gloria.

"Nothing, nothing," she replied. "Mind your business."

Gwen's nostrils flared a little.

The Poipoles were surprisingly happy with the performance of Shawna and Marissa. Even though it was Shawna who had scored the vast majority of their points, Marissa still received quite a warm welcome, especially from Alice.

"I know you want to switch," she said, "but I believe in you. We all do."

"Besides, Zeraora said you can't," grinned Orville. He was sipping a cup of tea formally and nonchalantly.

"You're not helping…"

Orville pulled on his tentacles and braced himself. "You weren't even paying attention, Alice."

"Don't you dare."

"You were more focused on Aero. Precious little Aero, a literal lovebird."

Alice went red again and frowned.

"See? See?" Orville pointed at her. "She declared that—"

"Shut up!" she yelled. "No one even heard me!"

"Sure…"

Alice put a sleeping Aero to the side as she stood up and cracked her joints. "I said, shut up!"

"Oh-ho-ho! I see where this is going!" Orville curled his front two tentacles so they looked like fists in boxing gloves and started prancing about like he was in an old-fashioned fisticuffs fight.

Diancie, who was watching the challenge up on a lifeguard chair, grinned. "Yes, this is what I'm talking about! Will they fight, or will they wimp out? Find out when we return after the break, on Total Pokémon: Rebooted!"

"I don't want to fight you, Orville," said Alice. "Too many fights happen on this show. This…this isn't worth it."

"I can take it, don't you worry!" the Octillery grinned, still prancing left and right.

"No, it's not you… it's me. I can't take it. I don't want to fight you. I don't want to get badly injured, please…"

"Then admit—"

"Admit what? I told everyone I loved Aero! It's not my fault they didn't hear me!"

Another gasp followed, this time actually because of her. Orville stopped moving and snarled even harder.

"Do I have to repeat everything I said? That I've had a crush on him forever? That he's the one person that I'd love to… spend my life with."

Many of the people watching, mostly the girls, awwed, but Orville snorted. "So lame," he murmured.

"Oh, shut up, dude, this is cute," said Daisy. A couple of people nodded in agreement.

"Okay, everyone! Your break is over, back to the challenge!" shouted Diancie.

"Really? We only had three minutes," Xayah complained.

"No, you've had all the time in the world. It's these four who have had three minutes."

Gwen and Jasmine had eagerly walked back to the court, though Shawna and Marissa were a little more reluctant.

"You know what I meant…"

"Get a life, Orville," Alice frowned, as she and her peers turned to watch the game once more.

Alice flicked her legs to and fro as she glanced at the confessional's camera. "Torracat 2.0?"

"We can do this, Marissa," Shawna smiled, as she readied up to serve. "Don't let Gwen push you around."

Litten blew on his whistle and the Gardevoir ran, threw the ball up and slammed it through the air. Gwen herself jumped up to hit it, and the game resumed.

Dallas was still oodling over Gwen and Jasmine, which was a little unsettling to his teammates and rather distracting to the two. Their disgust towards him had managed to lose them another rally.

"What happened to Dallas?" sighed Jasmine. "He was a kind little guy before I rejected him, and now he's this angry, weird creep. Does he know boundaries? Does he know what's socially acceptable? Is… is he bipolar? I think he mentioned that, but what does that even mean?"

"Can we time out the game for a second? I need to chat to someone," Jasmine asked.

Diancie groaned. "Do you have to?"

"I mean, one time out per team, thems the rules," Zeraora told her.

"Whatever, okay."

Jasmine whispered something to Gwen and the two walked over to Dallas. He was in a daze, which Gwen took him out of with a slap.

"Get this into your tiny brain, Dallas. You're ten. Ten years old. You have not evolved, you have not reached adulthood. You're a child. You should not be attracted to people like us."

Dallas was flabbergasted for a second before he began to sniff excessively, tears welling in his eyes.

"Oh, don't you even think about it!" Gwen yelled, harshly rubbing the tears out of his eyes.

"You… you… Screw you! I hate you all!"

Dallas dashed far away from them, across the beach, until he could not be seen. Everyone was too shocked to speak, except Gwen.

"Well then, let's return to the match. We're not going to win this by standing around."

"I-wha-huh?" spluttered Gloria. "I don't even know… was that a good thing to do?"

"I mean he was kind of odd to me, but what in the name of Arceus…" Daisy muttered.

Gwen was the only one who had returned to the court. "Come on! We gotta finish this," she said, throwing the ball over to Zeraora. He was as utterly shocked as everyone else; as such, it bounced off of his head comically. "Come on!"

"Well, uh, I guess you heard her…"

Other than the shock everyone had over Dallas, the game was played as normal. The teams switched positions again when the scoreboard read 'Krazy Kartanas: 15, Pushy Poipoles: 13'. Marissa had scored more points in this bit of the set with some reassurance from Shawna, while Jasmine's aghast reaction to Gwen had caused them to lag behind. The gap was closing, even if the Kartanas only needed six more points to win the match.

"I hope you can all see where my criticisms of her are coming from," said Gloria.

Something on the mind of everyone was what the next two parts of the challenge were going to be about. The beach volleyball match had started to bore many people—it was just hitting a ball over a net, occasionally diving or knocking into each other, and mindlessly trash-talking the other team. Boring. Some people were even fighting to stay awake, including Litten and the hosts.

Another switch took place after the next seven points were scored. Now, the scoreboard read 'Krazy Kartanas: 19, Pushy Poipoles: 16'. A slightly larger lead the Kartanas now had, but one that the Poipoles still could catch up to.

Jasmine readied up to serve what could have been the penultimate serve of the game, which piqued the sudden interest of many. When the two were taking their other break as mandated by the Poipoles, Gwen asked if she could perform the potential final serve. Jasmine saw this as a selfish and inconvenient thing on the Lopunny's part and something that had messed up the flow of it all, but she didn't want to start yet another argument.

Jasmine jumped up and hit the ball and it began to travel across the net. Marissa hit it back over to Gwen, who passed it to Jasmine, who passed it back to her. Gwen tossed it back to Shawna, and this cycle repeated for a little while.

After Gwen had hit the ball over the net with an impressive dive, Shawna analysed where it was most likely to land and moved over to there, her hands in a bowl-like position. "I've got this, I've got this, don't move," she told Marissa, who nodded. The ball began its descent and it was coming straight for her. "Yes, yes, yes, yes… no!"

It landed right next to her, giving the Kartanas another point; one more and they would win unless the Poipoles scored four points before they could gain another.

"Best not to evoke Shawna even further," said Jasmine. Zeraora grabbed the ball and tossed it to Gwen, who sighed and nodded.

"Can we gloat when we win?" the Lopunny asked.

"No."

"Fair, fair." Gwen slowly walked back and absolutely everyone went silent.

Five. Alice and Aero gripped each other tightly, a rather cold sweat forming on Aero's face.

Four. Litten put the whistle in his mouth and prepared to blow it for potentially the final time.

Three. Diancie quietly slurped on her drink, which she had finished twenty minutes ago.

Two. Gwen lined herself up behind the Kartana's part of the pitch.

One. Litten blew on the whistle and Gwen threw the ball up and jumped up higher than she ever had before. High above the dazzled crowd, Gwen smacked the volleyball as hard as she could. It bent around her paw and shot off like a high-speed train. Marissa and Shawna watched in awe as Gwen's spike slammed right between the two, travelling a while and leaving a deep indent in the sand until it hit a rock, came to a stop and burst.

Everyone in the audience cheered, even those from the Poipoles. The Kartanas had won the match. The team ran over to Jasmine and Gwen and picked them up, whooping as they did so. It had been exhausting, yet in the end it was worth it. The players high-fived as the team began to parade back to the cabins.

"Where do you all think you're going?" asked Diancie.

"We won the challenge, we're getting changed," Gwen replied. Jasmine smiled at her for not saying that she did it alone.

Diancie began to chuckle. "Di-did you forget? This is the first part of today's challenge."

The Kartanas stopped partying and let go of Gwen and Jasmine, who fell to the floor.

Shawn loudly sighed. "Right, right, we have two more parts to this, don't we?"

"Correctamundo," nodded Zeraora. "We had a commercial break ten minutes ago, do you think we'd end the challenge that soon?"

A scuffed Gwen stood up, dusted herself off and folded her arms angrily. "We did all this crap for nothing?"

"Oh, no, not for nothing," said Diancie. "For winning the volleyball, the Kartanas get one of three points. If they win the next part, they'll win the whole challenge."

"So… no advantage or anything? Not even a reward?"

"What advantage could you possibly need for surfing?"

"Surfing?!" screamed Gwen. "Are you… why surfing?"

"Okay, if you quit whining, we'll throw in soda for everyone," said Diancie. "Happy?"

"Okay, fine, whatever."

"As we said, this challenge is surfing," Zeraora explained, "as this intern is demonstrating."

An uneasy Charmeleon intern was out at sea, surfing a wave on a chipped and mouldy board that was barely staying together. He was attempting to keep his tail dry, a difficult feat as he had to also try and stay on the board. Everyone watched in horror as he fell off of it, landed straight into the centre of the wave and reemerged lifeless, the wave carrying him to shore.

"I-Is he okay?" Aero asked.

"Yeah, I think," replied Zeraora. "Can you call a paramedic?" he whispered to another intern, this one a Vulpix.

"In this challenge, you'll be sending up everyone, except the ones that did the volleyball challenge. It's just not fair on them," Diancie told everyone, eliciting mixed opinions from the crowd. "There will be ten rounds where one of you from each team will go against each other. You'll try to stay on your surfboards as long as possible, and the one that stays on theirs the longest wins a point for their team. The team with the most points when the rounds are up wins—if there's a tie, there'll be one more to declare the winner."

"This means that if the Kartanas win, it's an instant victory for them, no third round and they'll be immune. But if it's the Poipoles that win, we'll have one more round and whichever one wins that, yes yes, gets immunity."

"Now, go choose your first people!"

"It's crap that you get out of doing this because you did the volleyball," Gloria sulked as she grabbed a wet and sandy ice pack from under Gwen's legs.

"We were out in the scorching sun running and diving to hit and catch a ball for, like, an hour. What were you doing all that time?" Gwen frowned.

"You don't want to know…"

"What was that?"

"I said, you don't want to know! Mind your own business!"

Gwen was about to lash out and start an argument with Gloria but calmed herself. It was not worth it. "Fine."

"Dallas has a point, you know," said Gwen. "Me and Gloria argue all the time and neither of us are gonna get far if we keep at it, and it is kind of annoying. Where is Dallas, by the way?"

The first people that were sent up from each team were Shawn and Hunter, two of the strangely low number of males still in the competition. The two were wearing similar pairs of swimming trunks, only different in colour and size—Shawn's pair was purple while Hunter's was burgundy. When they met, the two shook hands and said, "May the best man win."

The two looked out to sea. "Where are our boards?" Shawn asked.

"Oh, you're not surfing out there," smiled Diancie. "Come with us."

Everyone shuffled over to a rectangular glass arena that had been constructed in the middle of the beach.

"We were going to use this for today's original challenge," they were told by Zeraora, "but I think this one's a lot more fun."

Inside the arena, two surfboards—one painted purple, the other yellow—had been attached to some sort of mechanism shielded by wooden waves. It seemed much too complicated to figure out with its ropes and springs and levers. Shawn and Hunter gulped.

"H-how were you intending to use this originally?" asked the Houndoom.

"You don't want to know," Diancie replied. "Now! This mechanism will simulate the unpredictable waves out at sea, but it's much funnier because, if you fall off, you'll fall into ice cream instead."

Sure enough, a comically large bowl of ice cream had been placed under the boards, complete with giant scoops, giant sprinkles and a huge wafer that stuck out of it. The only way the contestants could climb onto their boards was via the back, where there was not any ice cream.

"Let's just hope you fall into it, and not back there. Even though that'd be funnier."

"Shut up, Diancie." Shawn led the way as he and Hunter got onto their boards and stood up as straight as they could.

"Well then. Litten, when you're ready!"

Litten, who was far away operating the mechanisms, nodded and pulled down a lever.

The surfboards began moving forward, back, side to side and in every other direction. It initially started slowly, allowing Shawn and Hunter to develop a pattern of leaning forward and backwards, before gradually speeding up. The faster it went, the more unpredictable it was. Neither could maintain much of a balance, but they were hanging on.

"Any second now…" Diancie grinned. "Any… second… now…"

Splat! Litten stopped the mechanism. In the cold, soft splooge was Shawn. Hunter had managed to maintain his place on the board although he was clearly disoriented. As he climbed down from the board dizzily, the reset scoreboard now read 'Krazy Kartanas: 0, Pushy Poipoles: 1'.

Next to climb onto the board were a pair of girls: Mecca and Alice. Alice's team had started to warm up to her now she had finally admitted to being in love with Aero, although the two were still a little too awkward to start a formal relationship. In response, Alice had begun to warm up to them—something she never thought would happen.

"I'm… I'm still mixed on my team," she admitted, "but maybe they're not terrible. Other than Orville, of course, no one's been mean to me about… Aero…" Alice's entire face went crimson.

In fact, the Poipoles were actively cheering her on while Mecca had received next to nothing for her team. They chanted "Alice! Alice! Alice!" when she was offered the chance to go up and moved out of the way so she could get up.

With the two on their boards, Diancie grinned at Litten. He took it as a reason to flip the lever once more. Unprepared, the hearts of Alice and Mecca skipped a beat and the two jolted up and down and to the left and right to maintain their place.

"Di-i-i-i-d y-y-y-you-u-u-u te-e-e-e-s-st th-this-s b-b-e-e-fore?" Alice asked, attempting to keep the barf in her mouth as her cranium rocked back and forth in her head.

Diancie let out a single, loud 'hah'. "'Did you test this before?', of course we tested this before!" Diancie put her mouth up to Zeraora's ear and whispered, "Did you test this before?"

"I thought you did."

"S-slow it d-d-down!" the Minccino cried. She was having difficulty keeping hold, while Mecca was effortlessly staying on board, a little overconfident.

Litten did as she asked and Alice was sent flying, slamming into the back of the box and sliding down awkwardly. The Poipoles, save Orville and Phoebus, dashed over to her to see if she was okay.

"Move out of the way!" yelled Aero. He tossed a few people aside and ran straight to Alice. He felt her pulse, looked at the bumps and bruises and, worried, put her mouth to his beak.

As Aero breathed air into her windpipe, he pushed on her chest to start her heartbeat again. He got more and more worried the longer it took.

Alice woke up, blinking slowly, and noticed Aero. His mouth was touching hers. Was he… kissing her?

Alice shrugged, closed her eyes and kissed him straight on the mouth. Aero, entranced, did not comprehend exactly what happened for a few seconds.

Once again, the Pushy Poipoles cheered. Alice smiled and made out with him as he attempted to comprehend what was going on, until a light bulb went off in his head.

For what must have been the millionth time, Aero fainted, falling into the arms of Alice. She did not care that the Kartanas had just snagged a point, and seemingly neither did anyone else on the team—the warm feeling of this bird sleeping on her was all she needed.

Alice slowly rubbed Aero's forehead before falling asleep behind the mechanism with him.

Shawna was relaxing with Marissa, watching the next two people—her friend Xayah and her acquaintance Leaf—board their boards. She never really talked to Leaf, but the two were on fine terms and had swum together a few times.

One thing she had noticed was some weird smoke coming from Leaf's head. What was that about? Leaf hadn't put gunpowder on her head or something, had she?

She noticed that the ice cream was much more liquid than it should have been at this point. The giant wafer had sunk into it, and the toppings looked a little… burnt.

"Hang on…oh crap."

It was hot outside, but inside it was burning. Literally. The glass box was like a giant greenhouse, roasting everything that it held.

Leaf felt a tingle on his head and reached up to scratch it. The tingle spread to his hand, down his arm and around his body.

"Leaf, you're on fire!" Shawna cried.

"Aww, thanks!" she grinned. "But I'm not on your team. shouldn't you be cheering your own one?"

"No, you're literally on fire!"

Leaf looked around and screamed. She tried to pat it out to no avail, tripped and fell into the ice cream. It put out the flames but singed a hole in the bottom of the giant bowl.

"Ahh…"

The scoreboard changed so that it now read 'Krazy Kartanas: 1, Pushy Poipoles: 2'. To this, the Kartanas complained.

"That's not fair!" Gloria cried. "You didn't even start the surfing thing!"

"Well, Leaf fell off," said Diancie.

"And? Did you not see him? She was on fire!"

"Well, good for h—"

Shawna stomped, rattling the place. "Shut up!"

Clacie attempted to calm Gloria down, patting her on her arms. "Gloria, it doesn't matter."

"No, no, it does. What if we lose by one point?"

"I mean, we have one more round, so…"

"One. Point." Gwen looked to Diancie. "Can't you just let her have a try?"

"Does she want a try?"

"Uhh, not particularly," Leaf said, snapping a piece of the wafer off and scooping some chocolate ice cream into his mouth. "Would love some more of this ice cream, though, exquisite!"

Gloria groaned.

"Was that a nice experience? Not really," shrugged Leaf. "Might have changed how I think about fire if I'm honest."

After Leaf and Xayah (who was oddly annoyed that she didn't go up) finally left, the elusive Phoebus took on Catrina. This one wasn't even close—as soon as the surfboard mechanism started, Catrina's one tossed her side to side before plopping her in the ice cream within seconds, all while Phoebus stood completely still on his violent board, not reacting to anything. Creepy.

Next up: Orville and Remington. The former had received a very negative reaction from his peers when he stood up to take his turn, while the latter's was nothing special. Aero and Alice had left a strange impact on their team.

Orville and Remington were two contestants with a weird relationship. Despite them being on different teams, they had a rivalry that simply puzzled everyone they met.

While they gradually got on their boards, they eyed each other suspiciously and faced each other despite the odd angles they were at. Litten pulled on the lever and the surfboards shot back and forth in a frenzy. Like most of the other instances, they started off slowly before picking up the pace.

Remington performed some breathing exercises to calm himself so he could focus on the challenge. Orville simply wrapped two of his tentacles around his board. Such, it was not much of a surprise as to who fell off first.

Krazy Kartanas: 1, Pushy Poipoles: 4.

"Lucky schmuck," muttered Remington.

Dallas' disappearance hadn't particularly bothered the Kartanas, but as the Poipoles' lead over them grew he was brought up again and a few people began to worry. Three more points and it would be impossible for them to win this challenge, and, without Dallas, they really needed two.

"Why haven't Zeraora and Diancie gone to find Dallas?" asked Catrina. "What makes him different from Logan?"

"This is much more entertaining for them," Gwen replied. "They aren't gonna abandon this. I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but the trivia competition was a bit, y'know, lame."

"Hmm… I wanna go find him. Besides, this place is a literal dumpster fire." A Trubbish intern mopping up glared at her, emitting a pungent stench as it did so. It was in flames.

"Fair point," said Gwen. "Okay, then go with Mecca and Leaf. I don't want that psycho perving on me again."

Catrina nodded and grabbed the two, leaving the box with her promptly.

The Kartanas chose to send Ishtar next. The arrogant but relatively silent Kommo-o seemed like the best pick—she had the most upper body strength, she was big and they were running out of people to send up. On the other side, the Poipoles had chosen Doriann for similar reasons. Both teams had confidence in their pick.

The two nodded at each other and shook hands in a similar way to Shawn and Hunter before separating, climbing up onto the boards and steadying themselves. They then simultaneously put their thumbs up as the boards began to shake.

Both dug their claws into the boards, keeping their centre of gravity as stable as possible. It was more a battle to see who could stay focused now.

One. The cheers, screams and whoops grew louder.

Two. Doriann and Ishtar stared deeper and deeper into each other's eyes.

Three. The boards shook faster and more erratically.

Four. Gwen yawned.

Five. Aero sneezed in his sleep.

Six. The grips grew tighter.

Seven. One's claw broke a chunk of wood off and they lost their focus.

Eight. They lost their balance and started tumbling.

Nine. They were thrown off the board, landing in the ice cream with a single splat.

Ten. The Kartanas roared. Doriann now sat in the bowl, neck-deep in the now completely liquid goop.

"What was the point of this?" groaned Doriann.

Krazy Kartanas: 2, Pushy Poipoles: 4.

"Dallas, Dallas, D-Du-D-D-Du-Dallas!" Mecca sang as she cartwheeled on rocks, swung from trees and tumbled on the sand. Nearby, Leaf and Catrina were pondering.

"Dallas couldn't have gone far, right?" wondered Catrina. "He's small, but… he is fast…"

"Hmm, do you think he's out of the game if we lose tonight?"

"Oh, definitely. No one's gonna forgive him."

Mecca continued singing, scatting and nodding her head. "Dallas, where are you? Dallas, Where are you?"

"Mecca, that isn't going to—"

"What do you want?"

Dallas was directly in front of them, skipping stones into the ocean dejectedly.

"We need you for the challenge," Leaf said.

"Oh, why does it matter anyway?"

"You could be the one to turn the tables, y'know," Catrina replied, smirking sheepishly. "We're not doing the greatest."

Dallas spat on a rock and tossed it as far as he could into the waves. It skipped for a little bit before sinking down deep. "What makes you think I know what I'm doing?"

"That's not what we're saying."

"Then what are you saying? If we lose tonight I'm gonna be out anyway."

"If we lose tonight. C'mon, dude, it'll sorta redeem… what you did."

Dallas groaned. "Fine."

The next round ended in a surprise victory for the Kartanas, leaving them one point behind the Poipoles. It had been between Gloria, still beaten and bruised, and Dennis, who was not hurt. Despite the Gorebyss' lack of limbs, she stayed on considerably longer than Dennis, who, in his overconfidence, tripped and flew off the board seconds after it began. Unfortunately, he did not land in the bowl, nor outside of it—he instead landed straight on the side of the bowl, straight on his crotch. Youch.

After them, it was time for Lyko and Devin. This was a quick one. The pudgy Devin tripped off his board moments after the mechanism began.

The Kartanas and the Poipoles were now tied four to four as the challenge drew nearer to its conclusion. The pool of options was getting smaller. The four campers left were relatively small Pokémon: Aero, Daisy, Clacie and Dallas. Aero was deep in his sleep and Dallas was nowhere to be found, so the penultimate round was going to be between Daisy and Clacie.

Marissa smiled at the uneasy Daisy and ushered her on. "We all believeth in thee," she said.

"Don't screw this up for us, capisce?" Gloria spat at Clacie. She nodded intuitively.

The two chambered onto their boards and watched as the crowd stared up at them. Behind them were Diancie and Zeraora and off on the left was, of course, Litten, his paw on the lever awaiting instruction.

"Okay, then," whispered Diancie. "Two, one…"

Litten pushed the lever to one side and the boards began spinning around erratically without any warning to the campers. Daisy and Clacie grabbed onto the boards in an effort to stay on, but it was no use. Both of them flew off their board at the same time.

Gloria smacked her own face as the scoreboard remained exactly the same.

"Well, it's all down to the final found, I guess," said Diancie. "Aero and… uh… Dallas, wherever he went."

Like he was on cue, Dallas threw open the door, which slammed straight into the glass and rattled the whole building, inciting a bit of fear in Diancie's eyes. "Let's get on with this crap."

"This show isn't scripted, right?" murmured Gloria. "Right. So what's with all these tight finishes? How likely is that to actually happen?"

Dallas' team looked at him in contempt as he made his way over to the mechanism. Conversely, the Poipoles woke up Aero and Alice slowly and carefully.

"Psst, buddy," smiled Xayah. "It's your turn."

"I-it is?" Aero yawned. "Gimme a s-sec." Aero and Alice embraced one more hug then Aero climbed onto his board.

"Is that what we're doing?" Dallas asked.

"Shut up and get up there," hissed Ishtar. She grabbed him and slammed him onto the Kartanas' board.

"How do I… how do I do this?"

"J-ust stay on th-the board a-as l-long as you c-can," Aero told him. "It's g-gonna get faster, s-so y-you've gotta s-stay alert."

"Huh, okay."

Once again there was near complete silence throughout as everyone braced themselves for the last round of this challenge, admittedly one less eventful than that prior. Through a series of nods, Litten indicated when to pull the lever and a click, click, click set it off.

This was another one that started off slowly, almost completely still this time. It sped up gradually—it took almost a minute and a half to get the boards to a pace that affected the contestants, and it would take another three for one of them to start clinging on. To no one's surprise, that was Dallas.

"Aren't we supposed to be having another challenge after this?" Gwen questioned.

The boards were still at a slow enough pace that Aero could easily read his book without even adjusting his spectacles.

"Yeah, but—" began Diancie.

"Remember the whole double elimination thing?"

"I—oh, right."

The boards began to jolt up and down at crazy speeds, flinging Aero's book straight out of his wings. Alice caught it in her paws and carefully laid it down by her.

"C'mon, Aero…" she whispered. "Do it for us…"

Dallas was hanging on for dear life when Aero finally began to grip his board. When Aero began to balance himself, Dallas was holding on by a finger. Until he slipped.

Every contestant watched in horror, some delight, as Dallas went flying off his board, dramatically travelling through the sky until he landed in the ice cream tub.

"Oh, darn it."

Krazy Kartanas: 4, Pushy Poipoles: 5.

Almost all of the Kartanas were glaring at Dallas as they walked to the third and final challenge.

"I-it's not like we lost by much, right?" he sheepishly laughed, shrugging. No one replied.

Those not focused on Dallas were focused on the challenge. Considering how Diancie had promised a relaxing challenge, and neither of the previous two parts hadn't been particularly easy, they weren't getting their hopes up.

It was late afternoon now. The sun was relatively low in the sky, but it was not cooler in the slightest—in fact, it was hotter now. Diancie had told everyone to meet back where the volleyball match had taken place for the last part of the challenge, so no one really had their hopes up.

"Campers!" cried Diancie, the second they all arrived at the area. "For today's final challenge, I called you all—"

"Get on with it!" Orville yelled.

"Shut it! Anyway, I called you all here. Surfing, volleyball, fine and all, but what's something everyone's done at the beach?"

"Eating overpriced ice cream?" suggested Catrina.

"Trying out new makeup styles?" added Daisy.

"Peeing in the sea!" yelled Mecca. The campers in her vicinity backed away from her, glancing in disgust and concern when she scratched her face.

"No, no," chuckled Diancie. "Sandcastle building!"

"Our tiebreaker challenge is just that," said Zeraora. "This time, everyone will be taking part, no excuses."

"Grr…" muttered Dallas.

"You'll have exactly one hour to construct the best sandcastles you can. Afterwards, our professional sandcastle grader will, well, grade your sandcastles on appearance and sturdiness." Zeraora glanced at Litten, who was not paying attention. He had a poorly cut picture of a sandcastle attached to his shirt.

"Pah," uttered Gwen. "How is he supposed to know—"

"Shut it," growled Gloria.

"Okay, I think we could put aside ten minutes to plan and grab water, then spend the next forty minutes constructing, then—"

"Who died and made you leader?"

Predictably, the Kartanas were not starting this challenge off well, and, even more predictably, Gwen was mad at Remington for declaring himself team leader, even if no one else cared.

"Gwen, Remington knows what he's doing," said Catrina. "I think it's best if he takes charge and all."

Gwen grumbled, which eventually turned into a loud groan and a scream. She kicked and punched the sand and turned away from her team.

"Gwen has a bit of a superiority complex," said Catrina. "No, not just a bit. She definitely has a superiority complex. How do I work with that? How do we both work with that? What do I do?"

The Poipoles had already begun construction of their sandcastle. Aero and Alice were collecting water and wet sand to build up the foundations, while Daisy was fashioning flags out of patterned paper towels. Hunter used tape to establish the perimeters of the castle while Shawna suggested the shape and areas and the potential design.

"Why can't we be as productive as they are?" Catrina whispered to herself as Remington rambled on, scribbling formulae and diagrams into the sand.

"Because this team is full of self-obsessed idiots," replied Gloria.

Catrina's head perked up and she turned around. "What do you know?"

"Virtually everyone on this show is a self-obsessed idiot. Zeraora and Diancie included."

"Does that include—"

"Yes. It does include Gwen. She's the worst of them all."

"But… but she—"

"She what? She's been using you since day one. She's using this alliance so she can leech off of you and everyone else."

Catrina gasped. "Could she have… No, she couldn't have."

"Why does this seem shocking to you?" asked Gloria. "Were you not suspicious of her?"

"I…I don't know. She's nice—"

"She is not nice! She's one of the cruellest people here, bar none."

"I can't—she's—she's just…"

Gloria groaned. "Does anyone have common sense around here?"

After fifteen minutes the Poipoles were clearly in the lead. All four turrets of the team's castle had been placed down and were now being meticulously shaped and crafted by Daisy, who was adding vine-like indents to them. Meanwhile, the Kartanas had only just begun building their moat, which Remington claimed was most necessary.

The Poipoles had built a stream from the sea to their own moat, allowing water to naturally make its way up. The Kartanas had not done that. Their moat was much too deep and all the water had done was wetting the sand that had gathered back in the trough.

"You know we could—" began Leaf.

"We are not copying them!" Remington yelled. "They'll know one of us cheated and four people'll be off tonight!"

"What's with all the numbers?" Dallas asked.

"They're measurements. We need this to be symmetrical."

"Why?"

"There's beauty in symmetry," said Clacie.

Catrina looked over everything and sighed. Gwen was off to the side, still complaining and muttering to herself like a two-year-old, Dallas was being chastised by Remington and none of her teammates, except the never-sad Mecca, were particularly happy. Conversely, the Poipoles were having a wonderful time. Aero had accidentally kicked one of the turrets during a game of tag, but no one really minded.

"We can make it so, like, it's like there's been an explosion that broke it or something," suggested Daisy.

"Yes! We just shape this a little and it's good to go," Alice smiled.

"I really do miss Gregory," frowned Catrina. "He would have loved these challenges, y'know? And he'd be such a help…" She sighed again.

Meanwhile, Litten had returned to his cabin for a little break. He was also going to grab the chest the votes were cast in so that he could put it in the confessional.

Between episodes, Litten typically put it under his bed, which was exactly where it was now. He pulled it out and looked over it. It was like a ballot box, having a single slot at the centre of its lid, although it was wooden instead of glass. The lid was locked down, with the only way to open it being a key that Litten kept in one of the many knick-knacks on his shelf.

"That's fine wood," Litten said to himself as he ran a paw under the lid. No splinters, no rogue bumps and—wait, what was that?

There were small yet noticeable potholes in the wood, about as large as a screwdriver's head.

"Huh?"

Thirty minutes, half of the hour they were assigned, had now passed. Gwen had reluctantly joined back with her team and was begrudgingly following Remington's orders.

The Kartanas' sandcastle was coming along fine, but it was nowhere near as great as the one the Poipoles had made. They had almost finished and it was a behemoth. Everything about it was just brilliant. Each turret had been hollowed out and there were even mini Pokémon made out of clumps of wet sand and stone in them. In the walls of their castle was a whole town, complete with shops, paths, houses and parks.

Both teams took a short break. Gwen used this as an opportunity to call an alliance meeting, huddling the members in a circle.

"We're not winning this," she said, "and destroying their castle isn't worth it. So, I called this meeting to discuss who we'll vote off tonight."

Catrina gulped. She had thought about everything Gloria said and was starting to wonder if her trust in Gwen was misguided.

"Dallas is off first, that's a given. But who's second?"

"Remington's been pushy, but I don't think we should vote him off," Leaf suggested.

"How come?"

"He could maybe be an asset to us. He could join the alliance."

"I don't think that's a proper reason, but okay. Mecca?"

"Gloria!" she exclaimed, eliciting shushes from the alliance.

"You idiot! Don't shout it out loud!" Gwen hissed.

Gloria popped her head out of the crowd and began to walk over to them.

"Why did you do that?"

"I dunno, felt like it."

"The point of a huddle is so no one else hears!"

Gloria tapped on Mecca's back and the circle opened.

"W-what's up?" asked the Minun.

"Um, you were the one that called me, you know what's up," Gloria replied.

"Oh, we were just—that was just—Mecca didn't mean to shout…" said Gwen.

"What are you four even talking about?"

"What do y-you mean?"

"I wasn't born last Friday, y'know. I know you're all in an alliance. A certain someone told another person about it, and they told me."

Catrina was baffled. "Who? Who told who?"

Gloria smiled. "Let's just say he's not here anymore."

Catrina's heart sank like an anchor.

"Greg?!" she screamed. "Wha-who did he tell? Why would he…what in Arceus' name is going on?"

Catrina's eyes began to well and Gwen's face moulded into the largest frown.

She grabbed Gloria sharply by the neck. "Who told you?"

"I'm not—"

"Who told you?" Gwen clenched her right fist hard, cracking the knuckles within it, and swung it close to Gloria's head.

"You don't—"

Zeraora blew his whistle strongly. "Breaktime is over, everyone, back to the challenge!"

Gwen let go of Gloria, who slumped onto the floor like a deflated balloon.

"Oh, she is off tonight!" Gwen yelled. "What a piece of—" Anything else she said was censored by a loud, high-pitched bleep.

Catrina sobbed, blabbering something incomprehensible, and grabbed a piece of toilet paper which she blew her nose into and then used to dab her eyes, unaware of the mucus it left on her eyelids.

"Utter imbecile, vile little—" The bleep continued.

"While they get back to their sandcastles, you'll be watching a few more commercials," said Diancie, now in front of the camera. "But don't you go anywhere!"

"After the break, we'll see the exciting conclusion to today's challenge," Zeraora added. "Who will win? Who will lose? Who's getting voted off first? Who's getting voted off second? Who's gonna faint from heatstroke?"

"Find out when we return to Total Pokémon: Rebooted!"

Twenty minutes left and the Kartanas had all but given up. The Poipoles had finished their castle and it was glorious. Absolutely everything was as detailed as it could be—they had even made a working drawbridge with a little bit of driftwood and some string. The Kartanas' castle wasn't bad, but it was very lame in comparison. There was not much variety and the moat was filled with trash and the water in it was green.

Remington seemed convinced that he could turn everything around.

"Gloria, can't you use Water Gun to fill up the moat?"

"And, what, shoot a hole in the sand? Besides, I'm dehydrated."

Soon the twenty minutes turned to fifteen, the fifteen minutes turned into ten and the ten turned into five. Litten returned, having put the chest in the confessional.

"Five minutes left!" Diancie yelled. "No more, no less!"

"If everyone had followed my rules, the castle would have turned out great," said Remington. "But no, that's far too difficult."

"If we didn't follow Remington's rules," frowned Gloria, "the castle would have turned out great. But no, no one here has any sense of free will."

Gwen was still swearing and screaming, virtually every word now being censored by the bleep.

It didn't seem like anything would change. Unless some miracle happened, or Litten had a preference for poorly made, boring sandcastles, the Poipoles had won.

Everyone had worked on their own little bits, although it was clear who'd done the most. Since she had made the flags, drawn onto the sand and helped to fix the castle when it broke, the team named it 'Daisy Castle' and even scribbled a picture of her on the front. The castle was filled to the brim with all sorts of cool details—the shops were all named and had tiny commodities in them, it was wonderful.

Inside the Kartanas' nameless castle was a pile of sand and stones, but virtually nothing else. Remington had made small people out of some sand, but he did not wet them and they all collapsed.

"Stop trying to rescue it," said Orville. "You've lost."

"Oh, shut up. What have you contributed to your team?" asked Remington.

"Uhhh… oh."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Leave us alone."

"Alright, campers!" yelled Diancie. "We still have four minutes but it seems like you've all finished. So! Do you want to keep going or should we end the challenge?"

"No, no let me—" began Remington before he read the faces of his teammates. "Yeah, we're done."

"Well then, it's time for Litten to rate them."

Litten appeared from the shade and began to assess each sandcastle. He looked at the Poipoles' one first, fascinated by all the little tidbits they had placed in it, then tapped at little parts of it. Nothing collapsed and none of Daisy's designs were messed up.

He next moved over to the Kartanas' castle and his face fell. He tapped the front of it and it collapsed, emptying all the sand and stones from its insides before completely destroying it.

"Well," said Litten, "I think we know which one won. Poipoles! Congratulations!"

The whole team erupted into cheer and they picked up Daisy, Aero and Alice, holding them up as they paraded around the beach.

"So that means that the Kartanas are… um… 'unfortunately' voting two people off tonight," Diancie grinned. "And just like I mentioned, there will be two campfire ceremonies. Poipoles, you can go celebrate, but for the rest of you, you're going straight to the confessional to vote."

"Who am I voting for? Who do you expect?" scowled Gloria, writing on a bit of paper. "And if she doesn't get off from this, she'll absolutely be off afterwards."

"If it wasn't for Dallas, we would've won, and we wouldn't have had to go through… that…" sighed Shawn. "So, I'm voting for him. I'm sorry."

Jasmine, pen in hand, wrote a single word on her piece of paper and stuffed it in the chest. "Dallas, you're a creep."

If I could vote for Orville, I would, but I can't. Gwen, you get my vote," said Remington.

Gwen feverishly scribbled Gloria's name on her paper, swearing as she did so. It was, of course, bleeped out.

Litten welcomed the Krazy Kartanas to the earliest campfire ceremony yet with a simple "Good afternoon, Kartanas." The campfire pit was not lit, since the sun was already high in the sky and they didn't want it to get even hotter.

"Can we get this done quickly?" asked Gwen. "I wanna go swimming."

Litten mumbled and shook his head. "I've received all of your votes, counted them all up and determined who's going home. First, though, are the poffins. The first two poffins go to Catrina and Jasmine!"

"Oh, yay!" clapped Catrina as she and Jasmine came up to collect their poffins.

"Shawn, Mecca, you two are also safe."

The pair grinned at each other and took their poffins off of Litten's plate.

"Lyko, Leaf, you're also safe, and so is Clacie. That leaves us with just three poffins. Remington, Dallas, Gwen and Gloria—one of you isn't getting one."

Gwen blew her fluff out of her face and glared at Gloria with her arms crossed. Gloria glared back harder.

"The next poffin goes to Gloria."

Gwen's jaw dropped as the Gorebyss smugly came up and took her poffin. "Close your mouth," Gloria commanded.

"Two more. The penulimate poffin goes to Remington."

"Nice!" Remington yelled.

"Campers, there is one more poffin on this plate," said Litten. "One of you is getting it while the other is going home. Gwen, your constant arguments and complaining have more than ticked off a few members of your team, and Dallas. Do I need to explain what you did?"

"No," he sulked.

"You creeped out so many female contestants, then ran off and then caused your team to lose the surfing challenge."

"You just said… nevermind."

"So! The first person going home today is…"

Gwen began to tap her feet impatiently and Dallas began to shake in terror. Gloria grinned, Clacie looked guilty and Catrina was confused.

"Dallas. Gwen, you're safe!"

"Yes!" shouted Gwen. "Yes, yes, yes, yes!"

"Sorry, Dallas, your time is up."

Dallas sighed loudly. "Calm, calm, calm," he repeated to himself. "It's not the end of the world."

"Better luck next time," said Gwen.

Dallas' left eye began to twitch.

"If you need someone to talk to, I'm here," added Jasmine.

Dallas' right eye began to twitch now.

"Maybe you'll find someone to date that's your own age when you get home," Gloria snarled.

"That's it!" shrieked Dallas. He lunged for Jasmine and Gwen, swinging his little fists all over the place. "Get over here.

Litten and Clacie held him back and tried to pull him away.

"You're all awful! I hope you regret what you did!"

The same interns that had taken Gregory last episode arrived and pulled him down the Dock of Shame. They threw him on the Lapras of Losers, which looked confused, hot and tired.

"Everyone on this show is a huge jerk!" Dallas jumped off the Lapras, missed the dock and slipped into the water. The interns picked him up, slammed him down on the Lapras' shell and tied him to it. He squirmed and screamed as the Lapras sped off, nodding at the Poipoles on the beach watching.

"Well," said Diancie, "that's the first of today's two eliminations. Anything can change in the next few hours that could change the outcome of the second campfire ceremony. Stay tuned."

"Well, that didn't turn out the way I wanted it to," Gloria told the camera. "It's time to put Plan B into action!"

"Where'd you bury the votes?" Gloria asked Clacie.

"The votes? Didn't you bury them?"

"Whatever! Where are they?"

The Kartanas had moved out of the campfire area and were now doing whatever they could to cool down with the Poipoles. Some were taking cold showers or rubbing ice all over them, but most were by the beach, swimming and sunbathing.

Gloria had dragged Clacie, who wanted to go exploring with Mecca, to the beach. During the volleyball challenge, Gloria had buried the real votes from the previous episode in the sand and she needed them for her plan.

"You've got those claws, why don't you—"

"I'm not a dowsing rod. Look, it's probably gonna be where you sat for volleyball."

Over at the volleyball area, Xayah and Daisy were hitting the ball to each other. Daisy was much too short to do much with the ball and when she finally hit it over it landed on Xayah's spiky tusk and burst. "Yeah, Alice had a point."

"Hey, what're you two up to?" Daisy asked.

"Oh, uh, we're just digging a gem up," Gloria lied. "Clacie left one in the sand when they were volleyballing."

"I see," said Xayah. "We're gonna go get another ball."

"Can't we do something else? This is gonna be impossible…"

The two scooted off, allowing Gloria to begin her search—or, rather, force Clacie to do it for her. The Drilbur reluctantly made dozens of holes in the sand around the court before she hit, and ripped, a piece of paper.

"Yes! Yes! Give 'em here!" grinned Gloria.

Clacie reluctantly handed them over and Gloria cackled.

"Good… good…"

A few Pokémon were at the pool, including Gwen and her alliance. Gwen and Mecca were swimming laps while Leaf was timing them. Catrina was rather worried about something and was on a chair pondering it. She wasn't crying anymore, but still looked upset.

"Catrina, come join us!" Mecca yelled.

"No, I'm fine, leave me be for a bit."

"Your loss, then!" Mecca caught a bit of bread Leaf had thrown her and stuffed it in her mouth while she continued to swim.

Gloria and Clacie entered the pool area holding the votes. They needed to find Gwen's bag to ignite the most crucial part of Gloria's plan.

"Do you think she left it in a locker?" Gloria asked.

"No, she didn't need to get changed so she probably put it on a lounge chair," replied Clacie.

Sure enough, everyone's bags were on lounge chairs. Unfortunately for Gloria, however, the bags were being guarded by Catrina and they were easily in view of Gwen.

"Crap, we're gonna have to distract her."

Clacie groaned loudly and screamed, "Cannonball!", jumping into the water and making a giant splash. The ensuing wave spilt water everywhere and Catrina shrieked, running away from the flood.

"Good job, Clacie," whispered Gloria. Gloria quickly moved over to the bags, ripped Gwen's pink handbag open and stuffed the votes right at the bottom, under her towels and regular clothes, then zipped it back up before flinging herself into the water too.

It had cooled down a little by the early evening. Every camper packed up and ate dinner then returned to their cabins, got dried and changed and relaxed for a while. The Poipoles celebrated their win with drinks and snacks while the Kartanas pondered over which camper they wanted off on the day's second campfire ceremony. Gwen was the only camper not in a cabin—no one really knew where she was.

"Catrina!" called Gloria, who was outside. "I need you!"

"What?"

"I just need to talk to you, just for a minute."

"Fine, okay."

Catrina flew over to Gloria and folded her arms.

"Okay, I think someone changed the votes last episode to vote out Gregory," said Gloria.

"W-what?"

"Yes, and I think it was Gwen."

"What?!"

"Shhhh! I don't want her to hear us!"

"Sorry…"

"It's fine," sighed Gloria. "Just hear me out, okay? I think she knew that Gregory told Cl-someone about the alliance because she knew they'd tell me. And she hates me."

"Yeah, I can tell that," Catrina uttered, "but what does that have to do with—"

"To her, he betrayed the alliance. Besides, three people are much easier than four to manage for her."

"I…that's true. And maybe our romance threatened her or something."

"Exactly."

"But… but we won the trivia challenge because she kept telling us to go up. She doesn't…ugh."

"Textbook manipulation. She wanted you to think that she cares about you so you put your faith in her and follow her obediently."

"I… no…"

"I'm sorry, but that's what I've been trying to tell you since the beginning." Gloria put her shell-like arms around Catrina and patted her on the back. "Don't blame yourself, okay?"

"Okay…"

The two returned inside and sat on their respective bunks. Gwen's bag was, as usual, under Gloria's bunk which itself was under Gwen's.

Gloria lay on her bed and glanced around to see if no one was looking before she ducked her head under, opened the bag a little, and pushed it out of there. Gwen had luckily not noticed the votes when she changed, so they were still there albeit a little wet and ripped.

Soon, Litten arrived with Gwen behind him. "I caught her stealing cake from the fridge," he said.

"Don't act like you're older than me," murmured Gwen. She stuffed the rest of the chocolate in her mouth and trundled into the cabin and over to her bed. "What are you smirking about?" she asked Gloria, as she tripped on the bag and kicked it, knocking its contents out—including, to Gloria's delight, the votes.

Gloria turned over in her bed so she was facing the wall—she didn't want anyone else to see the giant grin the ensuing chaos was going to put on her face. "Oh, nothing."

"What are those?" Litten asked. He made his way into the cabin and picked the votes up off the floor. "These aren't—no way…"

"Let me see that," said Remington, taking them from Litten. "Holy crap." Remington's face dropped as he looked through each piece of paper and he slowly looked at Gwen. "You're an actual piece of garbage."

"What, what did I do?" asked Gwen. She was caressing her knee, unable to stand up from the pain.

Gloria's smile began to grow as Remington showed the rest of the campers the votes. Every single one of them looked at Gwen in utter despair.

"Seriously, what did I do?"

"Don't act like you don't know!" Catrina yelled.

Gloria held her mouth shut as to not let out a childish giggle.

"For the past week you've been forcing us to do everything for you and this is how you treat us?"

"Catrina, you're confusing me."

"Look at these, you twit." Catrina pulled the votes out of Remington's clutches and shoved them in Gwen's face.

"Gwen… Gloria… Gwen… are these last episode's votes?" she asked.

"Oh, shut up! It was you! Stop acting so oblivious!"

"That did what? Change the votes? I can assure you, I didn't—"

"You put new votes in the chest to vote out Greg! Our relationship was too much of a threat for you so you voted him out!"

"I didn't do that! Honest to Arceus, it was not me!"

"That's what the screwdriver marks were about!" realised Litten. "But…I was outside the whole time! I would have heard someone open the chest…what?!"

Gloria squealed a little.

"Why don't any of you believe me?" asked Gwen.

"Stop lying!" Catrina yelled.

"I'm not!"

"Why were they in your bag?"

"Someone put them in there!"

"You're gonna have to do better than that to get us to believe you," said Leaf. "This alliance truly was an effort to use us, wasn't it?"

"No! Absolutely not!"

"Do you think we're all idiots? Do you think we'll let it all go because—"

"I didn't do it!" Gwen screamed as Gloria let out a loud, long, high-pitched squeal.

"Ten to one," said Litten. "Almost unanimous."

The second campfire ceremony had virtually finished by now, and only Gwen and Gloria were left.

"I don't think I need to tell you why you might be going home, Gloria, because you're not. Gwen, what you did was, to put it lightly, scummy."

"Just give Gloria the stupid poffin," Gwen mumbled. She had stopped arguing by now and was just bored.

Gloria took the final poffin from Litten and walked over to Gwen. "Every queen loses their crown eventually," she told her.

Gwen grabbed Gloria by her neck and brought her close. "I know it was you that actually changed the votes. You're the worst person in the world, Gloria."

"Oh, give the theatrics a break."

Gwen let go of Gloria and began to walk off. "Your karma's gonna get you one of these days," she uttered, as she disappeared down to the Dock of Shame.

The Kartanas cheered as they simultaneously roasted their poffins on the campfire.

"Ding-dong, the witch is dead," Catrina said as she chewed on her poffin.

"What's happening to our alliance?" asked Mecca.

"Hmm, I think we can still have it," replied Leaf. "But no leaders or manipulating or anything, okay?"

"Okay," Mecca and Catrina smiled.

The only Kartana that wasn't pleased with the elimination was Clacie.

"I feel so guilty…" she frowned. "It's my fault. I already said I distracted Litten so Gloria could change the votes and then she made me…ugh, you saw it all. Should I tell someone? Should I tell Litten the truth? No… Gloria would kill me." Clacie let out a large sigh.

"Gwen, heard what ya did," grinned Diancie. "Hope you have a big think about it on your way home."

"Oh, come on, can we just get on with this?" Gwen sulked as she climbed onto the Lapras, who was still hot and bothered.

"Okay, party pooper. Have a nice rest of your life, I guess."

"Beware of the ones you trust most," she said, as the Lapras swam away from the island.

"Weirdo," murmured Diancie, as she turned to the camera. "Well, today's episode took many, many different turns. Three different challenges, some more interesting than others, and two eliminations, one definitely more interesting than the others."

"Overall, not bad," Zeraora smiled. "Two very strange people are out and the Poipoles now have a one-person advantage, but everything could change in the next episode."

"But will anyone find out the truth about Gregory's elimination?"

"Will our next challenge be more dangerous than ever?"

"And will I be able to get my shipment of coffee pods here by Tuesday?"

"Find out on next week's thrilling episode of…"

"Total!"

"Pokémon!"

"Rebooted!"

Hi, everyone! This chapter took a while longer to make than the other ones for a variety of reasons—it took me a while to figure out challenges, studying took over my life and I came to the end of my Total Drama marathon meaning there wasn't too much to base things off of. I also kind of lost interest. But here we are after almost two months with what's now the second-longest chapter! I hope you all enjoyed this, it was really fun to make! Thanks again to Ashe for helping me come up with the three challenges because I was really vague when I originally came up with this chapter almost four years ago. Read and review for more and I'll see you all soon. By the way, now Gwen's gone, who's gonna be the queen bee? You'll see!