Sunny with scattered clouds, the sky was clearer than it had been for days. Everything seemed tranquil and relaxing and it was perfect weather for perhaps getting a tan or just simply sunbathing. The ground was dry yet not barren and the sand was soft and warm. The only part of the island that didn't look wonderful was the dock, which instead was as damp as ever. On it, two figures stood, one smiling much harder than the other.

"Last time on Total Pokémon: Rebooted!" exclaimed Diancie. "After having to postpone the intended challenge, a conversation over breakfast gave us the idea for a new one."

"The competitors were forced to endure terrible challenges shaped around their deepest, darkest fears," added Zeraora. "While it was nice to see them succeed, it was much funnier when they didn't."

"The funniest of these was Torracat, who wasn't able to conquer his strange fear of cheese. The way he attempted was just… grate."

"Other than him, we had the creepy, the odd and the plain traumatising," Zeraora mentioned, as flashbacks of Xayah's fear of Giratina, Mecca's fear of jelly beans and Hunter's fear of losing his loved ones appeared. "Phoebus had way too much fun making a dream for Hunter that might have scarred him forever."

"Phoebus and Torracat ended up being the ones on the chopping block but it was ultimately Torracat that left the island," said Diancie. "The teams never forgive or forget, dude!"

"Now, it's the Poipoles who find themselves on a losing streak. Can they return to their successful days now Torracat's gone, and will Litten's day get better without him?"

"Find out today on another thrilling episode of… Total Pokémon: Rebooted!"

Daisy stirred in her sleep, drooling and smacking her lips together before she began to cry.

"What's up with her?" asked Doriann.

Shawna, who occupied Daisy's top bunk, shrugged. "She'd be up and at it by now if Torracat was here to yell at her for crying."

"Katie, I'm coming!" Daisy wailed, sharply sitting up, banging her head on Shawna's bunk. She tumbled out of her bed and onto the floor, where she woke up in a panic.

"Woah," she gasped, rubbing her eyes.

Alice quickly jumped out of her bed, slid down her bunk's ladder and ran over to Daisy. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," giggled Daisy. "Had an amazing dream, I was back home and Katie had come over. We were watching Fashion Famous."

"It didn't sound like an amazing dream," said Xayah. "You were crying a lot."

"Hmm, maybe I was screaming at the TV."

"Eww, gross!" cried Gloria. She had just woken up to find herself in a gigantic tray of chocolate pudding.

Gwen snickered.

"Ever since all that was revealed in the fear challenge, Gwen has not been letting it go," Gloria sighed, digging chocolate out of her shells. "She's been finding as many ways as possible to tick me off and it's just irritating."

"You are so easy to prank," smiled Gwen, as Gloria got out of the tray.

"Put a sock in it," the Gorebyss murmured. "I'm going for a shower."

"Don't trip on your way out!"

Gloria grumbled and left the cabin, leading Gwen to high-five Mecca.

"That was a week's supply of pudding, y'know!" Mecca yelled. "Litten is gonna be so annoyed when he finds out!"

"Nice!"

"Campers! Today's challenge is one we postponed last episode because of the bad weather!" cried Diancie. She was out in the courtyard, speaking into her trusty megaphone. "It's a fun one, and I hope you're all ready for it!"

"Yeah, fun, right," muttered Hunter. "If it's anything like last time's it absolutely won't be fun."

"Go eat breakfast, then report to the campfire for the rundown."

"Today's challenge is a good old-fashioned scavenger hunt," explained Zeraora. "Each team must search for twenty items around the island and whichever team gets all of them back here first wins immunity."

"Kartanas! Since you won the last challenge, one of you has the honour of picking the lists," said Diancie. From Litten's little area, she pulled out two rolled-up pieces of paper, tied up in a bow like a message in a bottle.

Instantly, Gwen pushed to the front of her group and declared that she would choose.

"No!" cried Gloria. "Stop being a control freak! And don't involve your cronies."

"Who do you want to pick, then?" asked Gwen. "Other than yourself."

"I can do it, you know," said Remington. "It's my survivalist—"

"Fine, whatever."

Remington walked over to Diancie and looked carefully at the options before taking the scroll in Diancie's right hand. She threw the other one at the Poipoles, where it was caught by Alice.

"Don't open them yet," Diancie told them. "Wait until you separate, I want this to be a fair game." Gwen tutted.

"Okay, then, if you're all ready… the challenge starts now!" shouted Zeraora.

The two teams dispersed and Zeraora and Diancie glanced at each other.

"Just you wait," grinned Zeraora.

"Do we have to do these all in order?" Daisy asked as she looked over the list. "Where are we supposed to find a boat motor?"

"No, no, I don't think so," replied Alice. "I think we should devise which ones are easier to find than others. Like, a frying pan! I'm sure there's loads of those in Litten's kitchen."

"On it!" cried Marissa, flying off.

"And a plunger. Ew."

Diancie laughed. "Some of these are really gross, you know. I guess it's lucky for them that we haven't had any clogged toilets… yet."

"A bus tyre?!" gasped Catrina. "Where could one of those be?"

"I think there's a few in the arts and crafts centre," answered Gregory. "Why they're there is beyond me."

"Aww, babe, you're so smart!"

Gregory blushed once again and, as if someone had snapped their fingers, the two began to make out. Gloria groaned a little but shook it off.

"So, what do we do now, Remington?" asked Gwen.

"Am-am I the team leader, then?" he spluttered.

"Well, Gloria here doesn't want me to be the leader. And you seem to be competent so I guess you're leading."

"Don't let her control you," Gloria whispered to Remington.

"Don't think I didn't just hear you say that."

"Oh, hello, Marissa!" cried Litten. "What's up?"

"Doth thee have a frying pan?" she asked.

"Do I have a frying pan?" Litten repeated. "What size do you need?"

"Any."

"Well, you're gonna need a clean one at least, so none from the pile." He pointed to a large pile of dirty pots, pans and dishes in the sink. "Unless you need those."

"The list does not call for grubby ones," said Marissa. "Nay specification."

"Noted."

"Since Torracat hath left, Litten has been very, very chirpy. Not to say the fellow was not already," Marissa uttered, "but much more so since."

"Hey, a pair of skis!" Leaf noticed.

"You know where some are, right?" asked Catrina.

"If they're still where I left them from the fear challenge, yes."

"Good, good," nodded Remington. "Go with Catrina and find some."

"Catrina and Gregory, right? I can go with them, right?" pleaded Gregory.

"No, we need you. You mentioned the bus tyre, didn't you?"

"Yes?"

"Well, go find it! Take Clacie with you."

Gregory let out a quiet but long sigh and ushered Clacie along. Catrina walked over to him and gave him a slight peck on the cheek, causing him to blush once more. It wasn't long before the two were kissing, not to anyone's surprise.

While the two were at it, Gloria pulled on Clacie's face and dragged her over to a corner.

"Can I trust you to get info on Gwen from Gregory?" she questioned.

"Yes, yes, yes," said Clacie, nodding excessively.

"Good! Be discreet, got it?"

"Got it, got it, discreet."

"Thanks," Gloria grinned. She took Clacie back to the group, where she joined Gregory, looked back and put her thumb up.

"What did you tell her?" spat Gwen.

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Because—"

"Oh, shut up!" yelled Dallas. "Is it impossible for you two to go a day without screaming at each other? Leave each other alone for once, please!"

The two groaned at him.

"Besides, it's not y'all's business to know absolutely everything about each other. Zip it."

"Dallas, can you go with Jasmine to find a walkie-talkie?" asked Remington.

Dallas sighed and began to murmur.

"Litten did lend me one of his spare pans," said Marissa.

"Great!" Alice nodded. "So, that's one thing off the list… nineteen to go."

"Eighteen!" beamed Daisy, a shovel twice as tall as her in her mitts. This was an item much lower down on the list.

"Where'd you find that?"

"Ironically, it was buried in the sand," replied Shawna. "I think it was one left over from the fear challenge."

"Okay, very good. Has anyone found a plunger yet?"

"I don't miss him, like, at all, but can I be honest for a second? Without Torracat, things have gotten kinda boring," said Alice. "He was a giant twit but he made things interesting, you know? Now, it's just 'Hey, can you do this thing?' 'Sure, gimme a second!'. Boring."

"So, how's Catrina?" Clacie asked.

"Beautiful…" murmured Gregory.

The two had arrived at the arts and crafts centre and had begun their search. While on the way, Clacie was much too distracted by the sights to ask Gregory anything about Gwen, but she was asking him everything all the time now they were there.

"Do you think you two will be together forever?"

"I sure hope so," said Gregory, looking all over the room for a giant tyre. "She's so dreamy…"

Clacie grinned as she searched the shelves. "Did Gwen help get you two together?" she asked.

"I guess you could say that. If it wasn't for her in the trivia challenge, I don't think I'd have realised how smart and… cute Catrina is."

"Aww, that's nice. Is any sort of thing going on between you and her? Not romantically, of course, but—"

"No, no, no," interrupted Gregory. "Not at all."

"You three and Mecca and Leaf do a lot of things together," Clacie noted.

"Yes, I know. We're just close friends."

"Yeah, but you know they pretty easily agreed with Gwen about sending you up. Did you make an alliance?"

Gregory hit his head on a metal pole from the minor shock. "Who told you about that?"

"Aha!" exclaimed Clacie. "So there is one!"

"W-what?!" the Dustox spluttered. "I-I… no…"

Clacie slowly raised one of her eyebrows.

"Fine, there is an alliance! But I'm not in it!"

Clacie raised it higher.

"Fine! I'm in it! I was one of the founding members, along with Catrina! Mecca and Leaf joined before the trivia challenge…"

"Wow, that was hard to get out of you."

"Please don't tell anyone about it…" pleaded Gregory.

"Okay, okay," said Clacie. "Do you know anything else about Gwen? Anything more personal? I won't share, I promise."

"Hmm," he pondered. "Well, she wears sunglasses all the time to try and look cool, but it doesn't really work…"

Paddling a ball in her left hand and sipping from a soda in her right, Diancie let out a loud sigh of relief. She and Zeraora were chilling out on one of the smaller stretches of beach on the island near their private lodges.

Zeraora had set up a limbo pole and was seeing how low he could go. "This island's pretty beautiful when it's quiet, you know?"

"Yeah, I get ya," grinned Diancie, perfectly throwing some tortilla chips into Zeraora's mouth. "Score!"

"What's Litten up to?"

"Lunch, I recall." Diancie put her paddle in the sand and retracted her chair so she laid flat.

"Ah. You think the campers are gonna be okay on their own?" asked Zeraora.

"Not at all," Diancie chortled.

"All I'm saying is," said Gwen, "Remington's kind of controlling."

"That makes a change," groaned Gloria.

Remington had directed each Kartana to find one of the remaining artifacts. He had sent Shawn with Leaf to find a Poké Doll in the shape of a Clefairy, much to both's delight, and had given Ishtar and Lyko the task of hunting down a meat grinder of all things. Pretty much everyone had agreed to find what they needed to find, something Gwen was not used to.

"Maybe if you were nicer with your orders people would listen to you," said Remington. "Just a word of advice."

"Oxymoron," Gwen murmured.

"You see what I did there? Oxymoron?" Gwen smirked. "Lord Arceus, I am terrible."

Only Gwen and Gloria had not been selected to find anything.

"All I'm asking is for you two to find any of these," said Remington. "There's a trombone, I've definitely seen a few instruments backstage. If you dig deep enough I bet you could find one of those."

"Whatever," Gwen muttered.

"Just…please don't argue. We're all sick of it."

The Poipoles had already managed to knock seven items off their list: the already-retrieved frying pan, plunger and shovel, a basketball, the Kartanas' flag, a broken DVD player and a thick fashion magazine. The flag was one of two completed during a little crafts competition the day before and was as simple as the Krazy Kartanas' logo on a disgustingly yellow background. The Poipoles' flag was similar but was a more appealing purple colour.

"Do we get to keep any of these items after?" Daisy asked, dropping the magazine into her team's barrel rather hesitantly. "This is the newest issue of Vague and I've never missed an issue since—"

"We get it, you like fashion," grumbled Doriann. "Your girlfriend's probably bought a bunch of them for you back home."

Daisy spluttered and blushed. "Me and Katie aren't dating!" she protested. "Even though it wouldn't be terrible…" She shook her head. "No, no, not dating!"

Doriann shook her head in mild disbelief. "Wild."

A rather obscure thing the team had to find was an ocarina, which Alice referred to as 'one of those weird holey instruments that kind of looks like a potato'.

"B-backstage?" Aero suggested this when the team pondered where it could be located.

"Good thinking, Aero!" cried Alice. She smiled at him softly, causing him to blush a little. "You want me to come with you?"

"Sure."

"Hey, just a word of advice," Orville said to Alice. "Don't keep babying him. Nurturing him is fine and all but he's not really going to be able to do things independently if you keep helping."

"I'm not babying him, he's insecure."

"And sheltering him isn't really going to help with that. It's fine to help him but if he ends up outranking you it's not going to be great for him."

"You… that's not the worst advice. Aero! Are you fine going on your own?"

"I-I guess…" he sighed. "Do y-you not want to come with me? Did I d-do something wrong?"

"My point exactly," the Octillery muttered.

"I really think I should—" began Alice.

"No. Leave him be. It's going to be okay, Aero! Just go to the stage and look for an ocarina. If you can't find one, return here, okay?"

"O-okay…"

Alice looked sternly to the side. "What was that advice for? Aero isn't dependent on me…is he? Oh Arceus, please make sure he's okay, please…"

"It's a surprise that Aero even feeds himself considering how much Alice nurtures him," said Orville. "Was I really the only person irritated by them, seriously?"

Back at the hosts' lodges, the two had some popcorn, a big, bouncy sofa and a live feed of the challenge not unlike Litten's. It was now showing Jasmine and Dallas on their trek to find a walkie-talkie.

"Oh, come on, when are they gonna get to the seriously gross things?" groaned Diancie, throwing the kernels in her hand at the TV. "Boring!"

"These challenges start slow, you know," said Zeraora, biting one of the pizza rolls he had sloppily tried to heat up using his powers. "Ow!"

"Last week's challenge was way cooler, though…" Diancie complained. "So funny, exciting and gross, all the time. Where's the puke, guys?"

Jasmine glanced at the camera that was following them. "You know we can hear you, right?"

"Yeah!" cried Dallas.

"Not every single challenge needs to be disgusting. Besides, everything he's been talking about is pukeworthy."

Dallas frowned. "What do you mean? I thought you didn't mind me…"

"I don't. The problem is that you're hitting on me and have been doing that since we got here. I'm an adult."

"D-didn't you say you were just…not interested in me? I thought you…I thought you cared about me…"

"I do! But listen, as nice as you are, you're ten. I'm not interested in any relationship right now, anyway. Ten-year-olds don't date adults, got it?"

Dallas' eyes began to fill with tears. "Y-you…jerk! I trusted you. Foolish, foolish!" He screamed and ran into the forest.

"Hey, if they're not making drama," said Diancie, "I'll do it."

Jasmine sighed loudly. "You're terrible, Diancie."

Diancie grinned and changed the feed over to Gloria and Gwen, who were once again squabbling over something.

"What's the matter now?" Zeraora asked.

Gwen folded her arms once again and stared directly at one of the speakers, frowning while doing so.

"She's complaining that she has no power now Remington's leading," explained Gloria. "Superiority complex much?"

"Shut it," Gwen snapped.

"And she's sulking because I said her alliance wouldn't last."

"I said shut it!"

"She won't believe that the members are smart enough to make their own opinions," said Gloria, "and possibly outlast her."

"Okay, that's it!" Gwen jumped onto Gloria, knocking her to the ground and slapping her in the face.

"Oh, you want to fight? Let's fight!"

The two began to rumble, pushing, shoving and hitting each other into shrubs, trees and rocks.

"Now this is what I love!" Diancie cried. "Will this fight continue to entertain us? Will Gloria and Gwen be badly injured? And will they find that trombone? The first two are a certain 'yes', but the last one is less certain. Stay tuned to find out when we return, on Total Pokémon: Rebooted!"

Aero trembled as he walked on the path to the stage. Every sudden movement scared the life out of him.

"W-what d-did Alice mean?" Aero trembled. "She d-does like me, right? I didn't u-upset her…right? Right?"

The Starly eventually found his way to the stage, a place unusually empty. "O-ocarina, ocarina, I c-can find one of those, ocarina, ocarina, I-I can f-find one o-of those…'' he recited. "One of tho-those potato-looking things, like Alice said."

Aero entered the impossibly large backstage room and began his search, praying that it wasn't somewhere high if it was even there. What instruments would one be with? What was an ocarina even made of, wood or clay?

"Stubborn, self-obsessed—"

"Backstabbing, fake little—"

"Piece of crap!"

The fight had gotten worse. Gwen and Gloria had given up their hunt for the trombone as they continued to hurt one another.

"If we lose tonight—"

"You are—"

"Out of here!"

Ishtar and Lyko had retrieved their meat grinder from a garbage pile near the luxury lodges and saw the two's quarrel on their way back.

"Are you two okay?" asked Lyko.

"Yeah, we're perfectly fine…" scowled Gwen as Gloria pulled on her ears. "Does it look like we're okay?"

"Okay, okay, calm down."

Gwen grumbled as she pulled on one of Gloria's fins sharply, causing Gloria to punch her right in the stomach. Lyko and Ishtar nudged around the tumble and quickly scooted off.

Shawna attempted to open a drain, touching as little of the grimy metal as she could. At the bottom of it, covered in a pile of mud, sick and a bunch of other waste, there was Phoebus' necklace.

"I swear Diancie only put that one in to annoy us," she told Xayah, who had joined her.

"Yeah, absolutely. You know, a lot of the other ones are gross as well."

"Mhm." Shawna finally got the drain unstuck and reached down to try to grab it, to no avail. "It's too deep, and we don't have anything to hook it on," she said. "One of us needs to go down there, that's the only way we're gonna get it."

"Or, we could get a fishing rod. I think that'd be easier, you know."

"Yeah, right, right."

The two heard crashing from the nearby stage, where Aero and a bunch of broken instruments emerged. He was holding an ocarina.

"Where's Alice?" Xayah asked.

Aero sighed. "S-she didn't want t-to come with me."

"What?!" cried Shawna. "But you two are close! Of course she wanted to come with you!"

"N-no, why would she s-say that she d-did and then a-ask if I'm okay on my own?"

"I…don't know…"

"Hey, if you can help us get Phoebus' necklace from this drain, I'll talk to Alice when we get back, okay?" smiled Xayah.

"O-okay."

Aero tossed Xayah the ocarina and stuck his head through the pipe and reached down, flailing his feathers to and fro to catch it.

"One o-of you is g-going to have to h-hold me, I w-won't be able t-to reach it otherw-wise."

"Hang on!" Shawna grabbed Aero's claws and slowly lowered him into the drain. The further he went down, the further and further forward Shawna leaned. Soon enough he was at the bottom, where he began digging his hands through the disgusting heap and eventually pulled out the dirty necklace, as well as what seemed to be one of Clacie's many gems covered in a thick layer of dirt.

"P-pull me up!" yelled Aero. "I've got it!"

Shawna did as she was told, slowly and carefully pulling the Starly up the drainage pipe.

"O-okay, steady, steady…"

"Alright, campers!" Diancie's voice screamed through all the loudspeakers. In shock, Shawna swung Aero forward. He hit his head on the side of the pipe and almost dropped the things in his hand. "We've reached the halfway point of today's challenge. Deposit the items you've just found in your barrel and report back to the food hall for lunch, pronto!"

Aero sighed as Shawna pulled him out of the drain. "C-careful."

Shawna looked a little surprised. "Sorry."

The first two contestants to enter the hall were Gregory and Clacie. The two had found the bus tyre—it was in a box of broken vehicle parts on one of the highest shelves in the building.

"I see, she really told you all of that?" questioned Clacie.

"Well, not all of that, but you figure a lot of stuff out by spending a lot of time with her," Gregory replied.

Next came Jasmine and Dallas, the latter giving the former a very dirty look.

"I said I was sorry…" Jasmine muttered.

Marissa, Daisy and Alice entered next. Marissa and Daisy were engaged in a conversation while Alice anxiously looked through the list, making sure absolutely everything was marked where they were supposed to be. After them came Leaf and Catrina, both exhausted and sweaty.

"I swear, those skis would be at the top of the cliff!" sighed Leaf, rubbing her forehead and making it turn bright red. "That was where I left them… I think."

Aero, Shawna and Xayah next entered. Aero's wings were covered in whatever was in the pile aside from the necklace and gemstone.

"A-Alice!" he exclaimed, darting over to her and giving her a big hug. "I-I… I missed you!"

"Oh, please, you were separated for, what, an hour?" frowned Orville, the next camper to arrive.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked Aero, ignoring Orville. "I really wanted to come with you, but someone made me send you on your own." She glared harshly at the Octillery, who grinned back at her.

"Aww, i-it's okay…"

"Why are your wings so dirty?"

"Oh, I helped Shawna and Xayah get their item from a drain."

"Good boy," smiled Alice. Aero went faintly red.

Next to enter was Remington, holding his list securely, then Doriann, Dennis and Hunter. Phoebus drifted through the door, creeping Hunter out once again.

"How far do you seriously think you're going to get in this competition?"

"I could ask you the same question."

The show's biggest rivals had finally entered: Gwen and Gloria. The two were disfigured from their fight—both had bumps, bruises and cuts all over their bodies, especially their faces. From how swollen Gwen's face looked, it looked likely that she had lost a tooth. Neither had managed to retrieve their trombone since.

"Oh, Gloria! I got the—" began Cali.

"Shush!" the Gorebyss hissed.

"What did you tell her to do?" asked Gwen.

"Get out of my face."

"You get out of my face!"

The two growled at each other before Ishtar pushed them apart, Lyko following her. "We kind of broke the meat grinder on the way back…" he said.

Following on from them were Devin, Shawn, Orville and finally Mecca. Mecca was as bombastic as ever and her paws were covered in dirt, having managed to find three things all on her own. The last two people to enter were Diancie and Zeraora, since Litten was already there.

"Good job to you all," Zeraora smiled. "Could Diancie and I see your lists?"

Remington and Alice handed them to Diancie, who made a bunch of strange noises, including a few laughs and ews. "Well," she said. "You lot are a lot further than I thought you'd be. The Poipoles have found eleven of their things but the Krazy Kartanas have only found nine."

"At this rate—"

"Litten will be seeing the Kartanas at the campfire ceremony tonight," Gwen finished. "We get it."

Many people had noticed how beaten-up Gloria and Gwen were, which elicited multiple murmurs. "What happened to your face?" Catrina asked Gwen.

"Don't ask."

"Did you end up getting the trombone?" asked Remington.

Aero went pale. Had he destroyed all of the trombones, finding that ocarina?

Alice hugged him. "Is everything okay?"

"I-I might've broken the t-trombones finding my ocarina…" he quietly said.

"No, no, I know you didn't. And If you did, it was an accident."

"I guess…"

"Aero does kind of depend on me, but is that the worst thing ever?" wondered Alice. "He's sweet and helpful, and a bit… cute. But I don't have a crush on him, got it?"

"Alice i-is so nice," said Aero. "S-she really helps me wh-when I'm feeling down, and she g-gives me anything I need f-for challenges. S-she's j-just the best, and I w-wouldn't mind sleeping in her arms all day. B-but I don't have a-a crush on h-her, got it?"

The items the Krazy Kartanas had found were the bus tyre, walkie-talkie and meat grinder as well as an empty Poké Ball, a broken video game console, a full jar of expired mayonnaise (as specified on the list), a butter dish, a limited edition Rage Candy Bar and the flag of the Poipoles. Mecca had found the first three all on her own, claiming that they were nowhere near each other; many predicted the console had been working before but the Minun accidentally destroyed it in her frenzy.

Since they had last checked, the Poipoles had found Aero's ocarina, Phoebus' necklace, the weird cloud remote from the fear challenge and a Soothe Bell. The remote was in a little shack near the cliff (which also housed the skis Leaf and Catrina needed) while the Soothe Bell, chiming all over the place, was in Litten's cabin.

"You didn't take the one that was in my bag, did you?" he asked Doriann as he fried some eggs using his other frying pan.

"I, uh…oh. Crap."

"It's fine, it's fine, I have more of them," sighed Litten. "Wow, Torracat would've made fun of me for having those if he was here," he muttered to himself, squealing ever so slightly.

"After we've finished, you and Catrina are gonna go find the skis," Remington told Leaf. "Gwen and Gloria, stop fighting and find the damn trombone, okay?"

Gloria humphed.

Remington looked through the rest of the list and winced. "One of you has to find Torracat's retainer."

"Eww, Torracat wears a retainer?" gasped Shawn.

"Yeah," nodded Litten. "He had braces when he was my age and got them off a while back, but he still needs a retainer."

"Hmm.. the more you know, I guess."

"Where would you even find one of those?" queried Gregory, looking up at the ceiling. "He didn't leave one in the communal bathroom, did he?"

"There is a chance," said Remington. "Go with—"

Gwen put her finger in front of Remington's face and sternly said, "Gregory's going alone this time."

Gloria began to mumble again.

"Did Gwen not learn anything from all that?" groaned Gwen. "She's still a controlling twit even after that fight. I seriously can't wait until she's gone."

"What should we try to find next?" asked Alice. "What's next?"

Hunter put one of his paws on the page and the other on his chin. He used the paw on the page to scroll through before stopping it on a pair of oven mitts. "Hey, Litten, got another pair of those?"

At the moment, Litten was taking a batch of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven, donning a pair of flowery mitts bigger than his entire body. Why he needed to use them considering his Fire typing was not known.

"No, I don't, but I'll let you borrow these once I'm done, okay?" he smiled.

"Okay!" Alice marked the mitts off her list, leaving eight more items not yet discovered, including a suitably-named Rare Candy.

After lunch, everyone dispersed to find the remaining things under the direction of Alice and Remington. Hunter threw the mitts in the barrel and went off to find a Pokédex marked low down on their list.

Meanwhile, Mecca had gone on her own trek to find something deep in the forest, passing Gwen and Gloria on the way. Despite continuing to argue, the two made their way to the stage pretty quickly, passing where they had fought an hour prior. There was blood on the neighbouring tree trunks and a pair of cracked sunglasses on the floor, formerly belonging to Gwen.

Both noticed the sheer mess Aero had left. There was a whole band of instruments sprawled across the wooden floors, including a few broken drums, a warped violin and, in the middle of it all, a trombone. Gwen grabbed it before Gloria could, holding it proudly and arrogantly up to the sky.

"See you at the barrel!" she cried, running off and blowing a raspberry at Gloria, tripping down the stairs on her way out. "Oww…"

Gregory crept into the communal bathroom, carefully stepping over the dirty and permanently wet patches that dotted the room. Since it was near the pool, a lot of people used it to clean themselves after their swimming sessions, causing it to smell strongly of pool water—not the most pleasant smell ever, especially to Gregory.

Holding his breath to keep the smell out, he looked in the showers, on windowsills and, to his dismay, in the toilet stalls. No luck. He looked through the cabinets, past Gwen's excessive amount of shampoo and found something bumpy—Torracat's retainer? No, more of Gwen's face cream.

Nearby, Clacie had rejoined Gloria. The former had been instructed to find a surfboard and she was unsure if they had them at the pool or by the beach.

"So, what did you end up getting out of Greg?" asked Gloria.

"Way more than I was expecting," Clacie replied. "For starters, did you know that he's in an alliance with Gwen, Catrina, Leaf and Mecca?"

"With Mecca?! I thought she hated her—that's why they agreed with her about Catrina and Gregory!"

Clacie nodded. "You wonder if she's recruited anyone else?"

"I doubt it. It was obvious from the start that she and the two bugs were in an alliance," said Gloria, "but I think Leaf and Mecca are enough for her. Four other people and a little persuasion are enough to skew the votes in your favour, you know."

"Hm, I see. She wears those sunglasses to look 'bad', fun fact."

"Of course she does…"

Marissa threw the Rare Candy in her team's barrel, followed closely by Hunter and his Pokédex, which he had found in a locker in the pool changing rooms. She looked proudly at it. "Six left," she grinned.

"Yes, yes," nodded Alice. "Since Orville's off finding a toilet brush, and Daisy's off with Doriann getting a Diancie-branded alarm clock, that should leave us with…four other items we need to find. I think we can win this." She looked to the side and muttered, "What's Diancie's obsession with herself and toilet cleaning things?"

Remington, who was nearby, said, "We still have ten items left."

"Oh. Good luck, I guess."

"Nine!" Gregory, holding Torracat's retainer, which was soaking wet and covered in algae, dashed up the bridge and tossed it over to the Kartanas' barrel. It missed it completely, instead bouncing on a bunch of rocks and onto the grassy ground below. The Dustox sighed, flew over to the retainer and continuously attempted to throw it into the barrel.

"Are you done?" Remington looked at him disapprovingly.

"It's so gross! Do you want to know where I found it?"

"Not particularly."

"In one of the cisterns," said Gregory. "You know, those box things—"

"Yes, yes, I know," muttered Remington. "Just hold it properly and throw it in, then go wash your hands."

"Okay." Reluctantly, Gregory picked up the retainer and dropped it in the barrel. It clunked and crashed as it made its way to the bottom, where it made its home next to the video game console.

Catrina and Leaf sprinted up to the campfire area and threw the skis into their barrel. Gregory, who was about to leave, noticed her.

"Catrina!" he cried.

"Greg!" Catrina ran over to her and immediately kissed him on the cheek. "Oh my lord, I missed you so much!"

"So did I!"

Remington shook his head. It had only been forty minutes since lunch, when the two were constantly locking lips and calling each other pet names.

Gregory embraced Catrina and kissed her on the lips. She felt his rather grimy arms and hands on her back, but shrugged it off, and began to make out with him for the umpteenth time, causing Alice to rather uncomfortably step back.

Daisy and Doriann were polar opposites in personality but, despite their rocky start to the day, were getting along rather well.

"You know, even though Katie wasn't here for that long, we definitely got close," said Daisy. "I never expected anyone on this show to like fashion as much as I do."

"Katie was on the other team," stated Doriann.

"I know, I know, but still. We had something."

Doriann had predicted that the alarm clock would be in Diancie's private lodge, inconveniently far away from the campers' cabins. The two were on their way over, taking their time but still being wary of it—the sun was lower now and, in a few hours, it would be dark.

"How did you end up watching your show out here?" the Scolipede asked. "With Katie, too?"

"Well, she was only here for two nights, and only one episode aired, on the second night," Daisy told her. "We sneaked out of the cabins at, like, eight PM to go watch it at Litten's place."

Doriann coughed. "Litten watches Fashion Famous?!"

"He has taste," smiled Daisy.

"Did he mind you two coming over?"

"No, no, he was fine with it."

"Cool."

Daisy continued to chat about her shows, Katie and Furfrou, a contestant on Fashion Famous whom she claimed to have a crush on. She went on about the trims he would employ in every episode which would infatuate the judges and everyone in the audience and mentioned how her dream was to meet him one day.

"He lives on Vernal Avenue in Lumiose City, not far from Friseur Furfrou," Daisy uttered. "I bet he has his own personal hairdresser."

It was perhaps a little creepy that Daisy knew this, but Doriann was truly curious about it. "I wonder if he could give Diancie a run for her money."

"Oh, absolutely. He's vain and rich but he's just so… amazing…"

Diancie, watching the two from her cabin, giggled. "Yeah, right, as if. While they approach us at a not-so-alarming rate to find an alarm clock that may or may not even be here, we're going to take another break. Stay tuned!"

"Come on, Pangoro, Mecca wants to survive another day!"

While most of the items in the scavenger hunt were easy to find (if disgusting at times), a bunch were stashed in the woods. Three of these, which the Kartanas needed to find, were a computer keyboard, a coffee maker and a microwave. No one wanted to trek into the woods to find it, with many risking getting trapped in the river, running into wild Pokémon or just getting lost. No one except Mecca. The Minun's hyper attitude and history of exploring temples made her the only eager person to do it, and, considering she herself had already managed to find a bunch of the items her team needed, no one objected. She had already found the keyboard, stashed in a nest in a tree, and was attempting to retrieve the coffee maker from the clutches of a large, angry-looking Pangoro. It was sleeping in a cavern, one Mecca had accessed through a bunch of intricate cave systems.

Mecca threw a bag full of sand up and down in her hand as she found the easiest position to grab the coffee maker out of the Pangoro's hand without waking it up. She looked behind it, seeing if perhaps the microwave was in its stash as well. It was not.

Mecca readied herself, shaking her arms, head and body, and grabbed the coffee maker, quickly placing the bag of sand in the bear's hands. She stepped back and braced herself, but when no reaction came she let out a relieving sigh before fixing her cap on her head.

The Pangoro began to stir, feeling what it now had in its hand. The grin on Mecca's face faded as it felt the soft yet coarse sand and the bamboo leaf in its mouth began to twitch. It began to wake up, groaning while it did so.

Mecca began to back away as its eyes slowly opened. The Pangoro threw the bag away, making it burst open on the jagged rocks, and let out a mighty roar.

Crack. The cave began to collapse. Rocks fell off the walls, tree trunks dropped from the ceiling and a bunch of rocks began to chase Mecca. She darted off as the Pangoro began to pursue her and ran through the rooted cave paths, dodging anything that the Pangoro flung at her.

The entrance to the cavern was blocked off by the rocks and boulders, but this did not deter Mecca. She continued to run away from the Pangoro before she stopped at a large pit and noticed a teammate on the other side, holding what appeared to be a whip.

"Mecca?! What are you doing here?" cried Gwen.

"What are you doing here?"

"Remington said that he thought one of the items was here—the coffee maker! Yes!"

"No time for chatter!" cried Mecca. On the other side, the exit was beginning to close. "Gimme the whip!"

"Throw me the coffee maker," demanded Gwen, holding her hand out. "No time to argue! Throw me the coffee maker, I'll throw you the whip!"

Mecca sighed and threw it over the gap. Gwen caught it, stumbling in the process.

"Gimme the whip!" Mecca repeated.

Gwen grinned, coffee maker in hand, and dropped the whip on the floor. "Adiós, señora."

She ducked under the closing exit and darted off. A little aghast, Mecca jumped over the pit and hit the other edge. She stumbled up, bits of rock falling into the abyss, and grabbed onto a lone root. The more she pulled, the more it came out and the more she fell back. Eventually, she managed to crawl up, rolling under the exit and grabbing the whip before it sealed shut forever.

Mecca was safe. Except… the Pangoro was behind her! She shrieked and ran as fast as she could away, dodging every tree root, loose stone or odd patch she came across. The Pangoro tumbled down the cave, chasing after Mecca angrily.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap!"

Mecca finally left the cave and ran like a champion sprinter through the forest. When she stopped at the campfire area, everyone looked at her like she was mad. The Pangoro was long gone.

"I-I…I found the coffee maker," said Mecca before she fainted.

"Well, that's another two off the list," noted Remington, taking the keyboard from Mecca's hand and the coffee maker from Gwen. "Only six more to go."

Gwen fake-coughed loudly, showing him the whip in Mecca's floppy palm.

"Five, then. Where did you even find that?"

"That was the scariest thing Mecca's ever experienced," the Minun said, taking her hat off. Dirt, dust and other debris fell out of it like a mini-landslide, clattering onto the floor. "But what an adrenaline rush! No idea what that was all about with Gwen, but eh. Did you see that whip? Wild!"

Diancie and Zeraora were watching the campers once again from their lodge when they heard a knock on the door. It was Doriann and Daisy.

"Official Poipole business, no time to explain," Doriann said, overturning sofas and tables.

"A-are you looking for my alarm clock?" Diancie asked.

"Yeah!" smiled Daisy. "I guess there would be one in her bedroom."

"Good thinking." Doriann dashed through Diancie's lounge, looking in all of the many rooms for her bedroom. She had two, the first of which contained a bunch of memorabilia branded with Diancie's face including a bedding set, a nightlight, coffee and hot chocolate, a couple of water bottles and even a speedboat. "Diancie, you're pretentious," muttered Doriann.

"Hey, I'm glad someone can tell."

Doriann searched through this bedroom while Daisy looked through the other. The Scolipede looked through piles and piles of clothes, from sparkly pyjamas that dazzled Diancie's face to pairs of plain high heels. Nothing.

Diancie doesn't even have feet, why does she need these? thought Doriann.

"Hey! I found it!" cried Daisy. Doriann dashed into the other room, where Daisy was holding one of the countless alarm clocks that littered the floor alongside even more useless junk with Diancie's smug face plastered on them. She tossed one to Doriann.

"Nice! Let's get going, then!"

Doriann and Daisy dashed out of the room and were almost out of the door when Diancie stopped them. "Are you going to pay for that?"

Doriann sighed loudly. "No. We need this to win the challenge."

"Hmm, give me a second." Diancie grabbed a piece of paper off the coffee table next to her sofa and quickly scribbled something on it. "Read this, and I'll let you take it for free."

Doriann snatched the paper out of Diancie's hand, reluctantly turned to one of the many cameras in the room and recited it. "This alarm clock is available on the Total Pokémon website for the low, low price of 6,500 Pokémon Dollars or four monthly payments of 1,300 plus interest, alongside much more cool stuff," she said, squinting to read the additional, much smaller text Diancie had just added. "By buying these products, you agree that Total Pokémon, Inc. and its affiliates are not liable for any harm or illness caused by them, including radiation poisoning, heart failure, strokes, diabetes or cancer. Certain purchases may not be backed by the twelve-month warranty promised on the website and some may not be refundable regardless of state."

Diancie beamed. "Thank you."

"You're terrible, just terrible." Doriann threw the piece of paper to the ground and ran out of the cabin, followed closely by Daisy, who looked at her with the same scathing expression on her face as Doriann.

"Well, they were nice, weren't they?"

"You do confuse me sometimes, Diancie," said Zeraora.

Since a few members of the Poipoles had found the toilet brush, an incubator and, somehow, a boat motor, the team was now down to three remaining items. The Kartanas, conversely, had four—Cali ended up finding her surfboard on the beach, near one of the docks, something not especially surprising to her teammates.

These were the notably difficult ones. "Seriously, where on this island are we supposed to find an incense holder?" asked Alice.

"Maybe Litten's cabin?" Shawna suggested.

"No, no, I saw one in the food hall, I'm sure of it," claimed Hunter.

"That rubbish pile looks suspicious, I bet there's everything we needeth in there!" Marissa yelled.

"Well, you three go and look. Orville, you'll go with Shawna. Devin, go with Hunter, and Marissa, I think you're fine on your own."

Marissa nodded and flew off, while Devin and Orville joined their partners rather reluctantly.

Remington began to worry. "We… really need to step—"

"—up our game, if we want to win this, otherwise we'll be the ones voting off someone tonight. We get it," said Gwen.

"What is your incessant need to interrupt everyone and finish their sentences?" groaned Gloria.

"What is your incessant need to complain about everything I do?"

"At least I don't treat my teammates like garbage."

Gwen's fist clenched once again, cracking every knuckle and joint. "At least I'm not trying to be nice and weak to people to shield who I truly am."

Gloria pulled a large clump of pudding out of a crack in her scales. "This is from this morning, you know. I was in the shower for over ten minutes trying to get every little bit of it off of me."

"Well, maybe if you didn't make that video—"

"I didn't make the damn video!" Gloria yelled. "The producers of this terrible reality show made it, and you want to know how? Because every little thing is recorded. Absolutely everything."

"Which means they should pick up your true identity," frowned Gwen.

"That isn't the point! Why are you so upset at me for telling the truth?"

"Oh, maybe because it's not true!"

While the two squabbled, Daisy and Doriann returned to the campfire ceremony with their alarm clock in hand. Throwing it in the barrel caused it to turn on, blaring out lines like, "Time to get up! Tonight's thrilling episode of Total Pokémon: Rebooted airs in four hours!" in Diancie's annoying voice, which further added to the madness that was going down.

Alice, witnessing Gwen and Gloria's argument, sloppily marked the clock off and murmured, "Only two now, holy crap." The Kartanas had not found another item yet as they were all distracted.

"You're such an egomaniac, so utterly full of yourself," Gloria spat. "Wow, you're so bad, wearing a pair of sunglasses all day. Definitely doesn't make you look like a snowboarder."

"Oh, like you're any better," said Gwen.

"Yeah? Try me. Come up with something. Something that isn't just a creative way of saying I'm fake."

Marissa had retrieved the incense holder from the pile she predicted it to be in. The Poipoles literally had one item left.

Alice looked at the last item on her list, right at the bottom of it—a pair of Aero's glasses. "Oh my Arceus," she whispered, pulling a pair out of her pocket. "I-I…"

"How can I come up with anything when that's all you have going for you?" Gwen asked Gloria.

"Wow, I'm boring, am I? One-dimensional, too? That's new."

Alice slowly walked over to the barrel, glanced at the glasses and dangled them over it. The Kartanas had noticed her.

"No! Stop her!" yelled Remington. It was too late. The pair now rested at the top of the barrel, in the incense holder.

Diancie and Zeraora appeared in a cloud of smoke. "We have our winners!" the former cried. "The Poipoles have finally ended their losing streak and Litten will be joining" —she stopped for a second to see if Gwen would finish her sentence— "the Kartanas at their third campfire ceremony!."

A collective groan swept over them while the Pushy Poipoles cheered. Alice and Aero hugged, causing both to blush very faintly.

"I-I'm so proud o-of you," smiled Aero.

"Aww, thank you, so am I." Alice fished through their barrel and pulled out the ocarina. "It's a bit grimy, but I'd love to see you learn this."

"I-a-okay," Aero spluttered. He turned away from her and his face turned a very dark shade of red akin to cheap ketchup.

"So, um, what do we do with these?" Gregory asked.

Zeraora looked over the barrels. "Most of this stuff needs to be returned to where they came from," he told them. Almost everyone sighed.

"On the plate in my hand, I have twelve poffins, each of which represents the campers that will continue to be campers," said Litten. "You've all voted for who you believe should not spend another sucky day on this island, in our pristine confessional booth."

Gwen and Gloria scowled at each other, murmuring, "You're dead."

"If you turn out to be the one without a poffin, you must immediately walk to the Dock of Shame, board the Lapras of Losers and go home. And you can't come back. Ever. Tonight's first poffin goes to today's team leader, Remington."

"Yes!" he cried, coming up to collect it.

"Catrina, Mecca and Leaf, you three are also safe."

"Score!" Mecca dashed up and snatched her poffin from the plate before Litten could hand it to her.

"Shawn and Lyko!"

The two silently came up to take their poffins.

"Ishtar, Jasmine and Dallas."

Jasmine and Dallas, who were still a little annoyed at each other, collected theirs before Ishtar.

"Clacie!"

The Drilbur, holding a new gem similar to the one Shawna had found, punched the air as she collected her poffin.

"Campers, there are two more poffins on this plate," said Litten. He looked at Gwen, Gregory and Gloria, the three people still sitting down.

"Why is Greg in the final three?" Catrina whispered to Leaf. "What did he do?" Leaf shrugged.

"The final two poffins of tonight's ceremony go to…"

Gwen and Gloria grinned at each other, while Gregory was utterly petrified.

"Gloria and Gwen."

"What?!" screamed Gregory. "You guys voted for me?" What did I do?"

Every single attendee was shocked, including Litten. Gloria was the only one not utterly confused, instead smugly grinning as she plucked one of the two remaining poffins from the plate.

"Gregory is one of the nicest people here, what could he have done to tick you all off?" asked Catrina.

"Oh, no, I know for a fact that four of us did not him off!" yelled Gwen.

"Seriously, he was such a big help during all of these challenges, especially the trivia one," added Leaf. "There was no reason for us to vote for him."

Zeraora had arrived to see what was going on. "What's the ruckus?"

"I was unfairly voted off!" Gregory screamed.

"That's what they all say." Zeraora snapped his fingers and two strong interns grabbed him, pulling him away from the campfire and onto the Lapras of Losers.

"I do not concede! I do not concede!"

Catrina dashed over to the dock before the Lapras could set off. "Greg, wait! Please!"

The Beautifly brushed her small hands on Gregory's face.

"I made this for you!"

Catrina handed Gregory a locket with a picture of the two kissing for the first time while celebrating their victory in the trivia challenge at their cabin. Gregory began to sob.

"I'll treasure this forever," he snivelled. The two leaned in for a final kiss, dramatically and slowly, but before they could do so the Lapras began to move.

"I love you so much, never forget me!" screamed Catrina, herself in tears.

"I won't! You're my girl, Catrina!"

"Bye, Gregory!"

Gregory beamed one more time and blurted out, "Win the hundred million for me, okay?"

"Okay!"

Nearby, Diancie, rather distracted, was filing her nails. "Oh! What will next week's challenge have in store for our campers? Will it be more heart-pumping, dangerous and plain stupid than this one? Probably. Find out truly next time on the reality show that is keeping this network together, Total Pokémon: Rebooted!"

Gloria roasted her poffin over the fire pit, causing it to set alight and burn away. She had a giant grin on her face.

Clacie, hiding behind the nearby pair of rocks, had a very worried and guilty expression on her face.

"As much as I'd love to skew the votes against Gwen and get her out of my life," said Gloria, opening the chest full of everyone's votes with a screwdriver and switching the votes in there with a stack in her bag, "that's not what the plan is. Getting one of her cronies out is part of it, but you'll see what it's truly about. You'll all see!"

Gloria let out a very loud cackle and turned to the camera. "Yes!"

Hi again! I've been getting these chapters out quickly, it's only been two weeks! Anyway, I'm very happy with this one, it was again lots of fun to write and it was great to expand characters like Remington, Orville and Doriann, who admittedly weren't particularly fleshed out in the older chapters. I don't think this is the funniest one I've done, but it's got enough gags, shocking moments, strange scenes and references (yeah, guess what of) that I'm satisfied with it. Remember to PM me if you'd like to share more information about your characters, and read and review for more. If things go well, I bet Chapter 8 will be out in September! Thank you!