Author's Note

Alright folks, take a deep breath because we have reached the final pre-merge episode of Total Shuffled Revenge of the Island - and thus the end of the middle third of the show. Needless to say, if things haven't been exciting before now, they should rapidly be getting more so.

Since it came up in a couple reviews, I'll talk a little bit about Staci and her presence on the island last episode. To be blunt, it was my own oversight that I never bothered to explain (or really even come up with a reason) why she was there in the first place rather than just going back to her family, presumably like the rest of the cast did after their yacht left back in episode one. I had in part just assumed that she didn't really need to be explained, much like Ezekiel in canon, but that was clearly a mistake. So for the record, even though I don't know if I'll ever actually say so in-story, let's just say that Staci returned to the island because she wanted to give the whole 'being a werewolf who does werewolf things' thing another shot and figured it might be fun to mess with Chris and the new cast. But because terrorizing people really isn't in her personality, she just...never really did much besides hang out in the mines with the gophers and Izzy, and it just became too awkward for her to admit that coming out there was a mistake and that she should go back home. At least until she was captured and got a free catapult ride off the island, anyway.

So with that taken care of, it's on to the reviews!

SilverWriter0927: Thank you so much, as always!

acosta perez jose ramiro: Yup, that's what I was going for - Cameron proved a little too much of a liability last week, so he was eliminated. Although it wasn't Courtney who removed her backpack before the designated time, it was Cameron - Courtney put hers back on after Chris said not to take them off yet. But Cameron ended up taking his off in fear just a little too early, thus causing the Rats' disqualification. And yeah, I suppose Staci is a 'biological' werewolf rather than a supernatural one, in a manner of speaking.

bruno14: Hmm, well, it does certainly seem like the post-merge alliances are already just about set, at least to some of the cast. But there is still time for those to change... And yeah, Cameron probably wouldn't have had a very good time if he'd been kept around. I'm glad you enjoyed the Gwent moments, and as for Noah...well, he has a fairly decent idea as to what he should be doing.

Tokusatsu-31st Century: Yeah, getting away from your current biggest fear is usually a plus. And as for Gwent lasting longer than Courtney or Noah...well, it's an interesting prediction, at least.

Sarcasm is a Habit: Ahaha, well, I was pretty deliberate with the bits of story she had back in World Tour, so I'm not surprised that some people picked up on what I was hinting at. And yeah, Izzy's return was as ridiculous here as it was in canon, so I guess it all works out somehow? It isn't out of the realm of possibility for the series, at least, which is good enough. Anyway, I hope you enjoy what happens next!

Call Me Ishmael: Ah, well, I'm happy that at least some of my readers will miss Cameron. I will say that while he greatly admires Courtney in a platonic way, he never really considered her romantically (before he was teased about it, anyway). He didn't really have a crush on her, but I could see him developing one in a hypothetical future once he learns more about his own feelings. That aside, I'm glad you enjoyed the rest of the cast, and I hope you continue to do so from here on out.

Animation Adventures: Thank you, I'm glad it was as good as canon in that regard. And you have a point regarding Cameron; though he didn't do as well as in canon in winning the million dollars (or at least getting runner-up), he did still grow as a person and proved that he could handle life outside his bubble. I'm quite happy you enjoyed Gwen and Trent so much, it really helps make my admittedly last-minute decision to include the number 9 story worth it. Regarding Izzy, I'm glad you're accepting of the reason by her return to the game - instead of being eliminated under a different name in canon, it was simply that her name was never formally called out as being the loser before she fled and the ceremony was forced to end. And as for her arms getting fixed...well, do you really think Izzy would want to fix something like that? And as for what you had hoped would be the case with Staci...well, I'll admit that it somehow seems even more farfetched than the mutant thing. Which in turn is odd to say because the mutant thing was already weird enough even by the show's standards.

Gage the Hedgehog: Thanks, as always.

Guest: Well, I'm glad you do like most of the cast, even if Zoey is an exception. And you really think Izzy's arm thing is weird in this, the weirdest Total Drama season yet? Oh well. And yeah, this cast was much more comfortable with Staci and Izzy than the canon cast were with Ezekiel, simply because was actually aggressive and inhuman and generally against the others, while the girls really weren't. Interesting predictions, and to answer your questions: 1) I didn't end up showing the idol being found directly (there just was never any good time); 2) those that make the merge this season will have a high chance of being in next season but it isn't an absolute guarantee and the same can probably be said of the World Tour newbies; 3) new ships are always a possibility but I haven't worked out all of All-Stars yet; 4) you'll just have to read on and find out who this week's cameo is.

moka evans: I'm glad to hear that Cameron was one of your favorites last week! Likewise that you enjoyed Harold being back with people who respect him more, and even moreso that you liked my portrayal of Gwent. As you said, they can be difficult to pull off without things ending messily. I hope you enjoy what comes of Noah and Courtney's strategies, and I can see now why you expected Noah to get the make-up two weeks ago even if it's not something I would've done myself.

Guest 101: Thanks! I wasn't sure how well Izzy's rather Courtney-like stunt would we liked, so I'm glad it wasn't hated.

I. M. Poik: Yes, I suppose if nothing else he did leave his mark on the plot, at least as far as Staci is concerned. Plus he did help with some wins, and with developing Courtney and Gwen and Leonard and such. And...yeah, Izzy's new additions were inspired by a certain Aftermath clip that really struck me as being relevant to my needs. Not much else to say, so I hope you enjoy what happens next.

totaldramacodyfan20: Well, I'm glad you liked it. And as I've said many, many times before I will be doing both Total Shuffled All-Stars and Total Shuffled Pahkitew island.

OMAC001: Well, the thoughtless spontaneity and impulsiveness can continue, anyway. I'm glad you're looking forward to more Izzy this week.

PizzaTheBomb: Yup, I think I've done a pretty good job of keeping the teams even, especially compared to canon which was 2 vs 5 at this point in the season. And yeah, the voting dynamic on the Rats is pretty complicated, and there's a lot of ways those four could go if it were to come to it. I really hope you and everybody else enjoys the lead up to the merge.

StayOuttaMyShed: Well, I'm glad that I was at least able to successfully make him Courtney's second, even if the middleman aspect I also wanted didn't pan out. And I did consider having him go out by way of injury, but ultimately I decided it would be better to use his fear against him to still give a 'for his own good' sort of vibe with the elimination. I can't spoil the next couple eliminations, but I will say that I have been keeping the gender balance more in mind than I have in the past. I'm glad you enjoyed the Gwent developments last week, and yeah, the Rats got most of the focus simply because their dynamic was more interesting, and ultimately more relevant to the outcome of the episode.
With Staci, yeah, a lot of what I did with her was probably fairly easy to predict. I did include an explanation for her being on the island above, so I hope that's acceptable. And her (and Izzy's) lack of hostility towards the cast may have made things a little less exciting in one sense, but I think just the mystery and general dynamic they provided made up for it.
Other than that, interesting predictions as always. I look forward to seeing your reaction to the events of this week's episode.

FOWLKON: Well, only Izzy and Courtney, but Courtney's still in the game, so... And yeah, the radiation at Chernobyl isn't enough to do anything close to the kind of mutation Staci got, but seeing how the series has always ignored how radiation, mutation, and toxic waste work, I figured it was an acceptable break from reality. I'm glad you enjoyed the portrayal of Gwen and Jasmine's claustrophobia, as well as my little shout-out to Zoey's method of dealing with Gwen's panic attack in canon. One of the better scenes from All-Stars, I think. And as for Noah...well, you're right in that right now he has an incentive to stay on Courtney's side, but like you said he's much more of a schemer here than in canon, and the game can shift quickly, so who knows...

Ddynamo: Yup, Cameron was the most expendable last week, even if it is a little regrettable to me. And as for Izzy...I'm afraid you've read the wrong thing into it (and missed a certain...addition she showed off briefly). I honestly had forgotten completely about that gag in World Tour, but considering how it was only a short exposure I wouldn't have read much into it regardless.

CVluvFoxy: First, I'll note on public record that I did go back, apologize, and answer your review. That aside, you're certainly right in that both Noah and Courtney have the potential to be powerful together - the problem is, they're stuck on a team with Gwen and Trent, another powerful duo as you said, making it hard for Noah or Courtney to act. I'm glad you enjoyed Gwen and Trent, of course, as well as Jasmine, and especially Staci as she doesn't have too many fans. Other than that, I'm glad you just enjoyed the episode so much as to call it your favorite!

DSX62415: Ah, well, sorry to disappoint you in that regard. And yeah, Izzy's finally back in the game...she's certain to make things just a bit more interesting.

TheSnakeBehindTheAngel'sFace: I'm glad you enjoyed it, especially Staci! I'm happy my decision to have her keep her mind has worked out so well. And yeah, as I've said myself, I'm a little disappointed to have done so little with Cameron, but ultimately the others just have more left to do. And as for Izzy...well, I hope you enjoy her again this week.

VIPGuest: Ah, yup, that was one of the hints that Cameron was going to go home last week, so I'm glad you picked up on it. I'm a little disappointed you think Izzy's had too much screen time, but at least you're interested in what might become of her. And as for elimination predictability and sneakiness...well, who knows?

ashDanLand: Well, I can see what you mean regarding Cameron being boring in canon. Still, I was hoping I could do just a little bit better job with him than I did, even if you did think I did a good job with him. I'm actually surprised that you didn't read enough of World Tour to know that Staci had changed so much, but oh well. And as for Izzy...well at the very least she'd handle being a mutant better than most people.

Star Saber21: Thanks! Yeah, replacing aggressive Ezekiel with Staci and Izzy was a pretty easy choice to make for me, allowing for both the reintroduction of Izzy as a contestant as well as finally giving some explanation for Staci's current state. Writing both of them lurking in the mines was a bit of a challenge, but I'm glad it worked out so well. And yeah, Cameron may end up glad he's no longer around, if only because he won't have to deal with Izzy. I hope you enjoy what happens in this week's episode!

graveexcitement: Ah, no worries, these things happen. I'm glad you're excited about Izzy's return. And I'm perhaps even more glad you picked up on that subtle little bit with Courtney and Noah, with Noah basically playing more-or-less dumb or at least passive in the eyes of the others. Courtney really has no idea what's been happening...but then again, who really does in a game like this?

Jaspher 4 Me: Yup, it's really the turning point of the season in so many ways in canon - it ends Brick and Anne Maria's arcs, starts the end of Mike's, and the beginning of Scott's slow downfall. In the Shuffledverse...well, I can't say much, but I think it's a turning point as well in many ways. I'm glad you enjoyed the Gwen and Trent moments, and I hope you can accept the explanation of Staci's presence that I outlined above.

P. T. Piranha: Thanks! And yeah, not all eliminations can be shockers, though some ought to and hopefully I can provide a couple more of those going forward. And you're spot on that a lot of the power dynamics this season are rather unwitting; they're the results of certain people having close bonds and being naturally well-liked rather than being an active strategy. It's definitely a change from, say, the shifting alliances of last season.

wifishark: Mmm, yeah, that was another small hint that he was going home - a character sort of reflecting like that usually signals the end of their arc, I think. And yeah, while Izzy's return was practically inevitable, it was offset by the changing double elimination date. I hope you enjoy how it's dealt with.

C. DreadsFanfic. netBUM: Well, I'm glad you think I did better with Cameron than in canon, at least. I do still feel that he can be interesting, I just...wasn't able to pull it off, I guess. Regarding the gender mix I can only say that I'm paying more attention to it than in past seasons. I'm glad you enjoyed so much of the episode, and I hope you can accept the explanation I gave for Staci above. And as for Izzy...well, you'll find out soon enough.

Explorer of the Unknown: Hah, you're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed Trent's role in last week's episode; though primarily focused on his relationship with Gwen, he's still a generally good guy with friends on the other team. The name thing, though...well, Trent might like it, but it's a little too sappy for Gwen. As for Staci, yeah, she's been thinking of herself as a werewolf for a while now so finding out that she isn't one, at least in the classical sense, is gonna be pretty disappointing. And Izzy...yeah, she was a disappointed that Cameron had such a poor reaction to seeing her again, since she's likes to think she's a likable person and such but might have to deal with the fact that it isn't always true. And I'm glad you feel like Cameron still was able to grow as a person, and I certainly agree that if I'd had more time to work with he could have had so much more to his character this season. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this week's challenge!

link9753: It's always nice to hear when someone likes pretty much everyone, even those they normally don't. Hopefully I'll be able to keep that up. And yeah, between the extra contestant and lack of multiple easy eliminations, things are definitely gonna be interesting.

Welp, that's finally out of the way for the time being. All that's left are the usuals: the poll in my profile will remain up for the time being, and as always a TVTropes page for this series exists, and as per usual with such things, could always use more work. I thoroughly appreciate those who've already been working on it, and look forward to seeing what you all add next.

The current players are as follows:

Toxic Rats:Courtney, Gwen, Noah, Trent

Mutant Maggots: Jasmine, Zoey, Harold, Izzy

It's the last episode with the teams, so I hope you're ready for it. Enjoy!

- Fangren


Episode 8 – The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean

"Last time, on Total Drama Revenge of the Island!" The recap montage opened with several RCMP helicopters flying around before cutting to the Toxic Rats entering the mining elevator. "The players went on an impromptu environmental coveru-uh, clean-up challenge," Zoey was shown comforting Jasmine at the bottom of the elevator shaft, then all three Maggots were shown running down a mineshaft, "and tried not to get a toxic make-over like everything down there." Trent was shown struggling with Cameron and Gwen, both looking sickly, and a few shots followed of various mutant gophers running and squealing and dragging the Maggots into the earth.

"Staci showed up," the host continued over clips of the wolfish young woman watching Gwen and Trent from afar, revealing herself to Cameron, and showing off the two statues the teams had come into the mine to find, "and it turns out she's actually a mutant. Izzy showed up as well," the wild child was shown watching the Maggots from the shadows, getting pounced on by Jasmine, and speaking to Chris from inside the cage, "and it turns out she's even more annoying than I remember", the host deadpanned. "And more terrifying too, at least to Cameron," he continued as the bubble-boy was shown recoiling in fright from his former teammate, "and so terrifying, in fact, that the Rats decided it would be best to get rid of him." Cameron was shown standing in shock as Gwen apologized on behalf of the team, then getting hurled along with Staci by Izzy.

"Makes you wanna reflect, don't it?" Chris asked as the last clips finished up. "Maybe...with a cup of Chris McLean Instant Coffee," he said as the scene cut to him standing on the docks holding a mug with his face on the side. He took a sip, his eyes went wide, and he spat it out. "Bitter...better!" he quickly corrected with a forced smile. "Better than the rest." He dumped the mug out into the lake, and a fish promptly surfaced where the drink had landed and vomited in disgust.

Chris held his awkward smile for a second before regaining his composure and walking to the side. "Who will survive? Who will wish they didn't? Find out right now, on Total! Drama! Revenge, of the Island!"

xxx

(Fade to Opening Theme)

Dear Mom and Dad, I'm doin' fine;

You guys are on my mind!

Ya asked me what I wanted to be,

And now I think the answer is plain to see!

I wanna be...famous!

I wanna live close to the sun!

Well pack your bags, 'cause I've already won!

Everythin' to prove, nothin' in my way;

I'll get there one day.

'Cause I wanna be...famous!

(Na-na nanananaa, nanana-nanaa, na-nananananaa)

I wanna be! I wanna be! I wanna be famous! (Na-na nanananaa, nanana-nanaa, na-nananananaa)

I wanna be! I wanna be! I wanna be famous! (Na-na nanananaa, nanana-nanaa, na-nananananaa)

(Fade to Episode)

xxx

The light strumming of a harp accompanied an opening shot of the sun rising over the lake, a few seagulls calling in the distance. A peaceful tune rose up after a moment, and the camera slowly cut from close-up to close-up of the sleeping campers – Gwen and Trent, Courtney and Noah, Jasmine and Izzy, and Harold and Zoey. All eight of them were sleeping on wooden rafts in their usual clothes, until the shot cut to an alarm clock tied to a buoy with large acoustic horns next to the bell. The hands struck approximately 7 o'clock, the serene music scratched to a halt, and a loud ringing sang through the morning air.

Courtney and Noah bolted awake with a gasping start, and so did the Maggots, save Izzy, a few seconds later.

"Hold on, why are we out here?" Jasmine asked in confusion, the camera cutting outward to show the two rafts floating next to each other and the buoy-alarm amid a mass of debris mostly consisting of wood, furniture, and waste barrels. Each raft had a signpost with their respective team logo on it – the Rats on the left; the Maggots on the right.

"Oh no!" Zoey gasped, the camera coming out even further. "Chris must've set us adrift after we went to sleep!"

"I guess so," Jasmine said, scratching the side of her head as the camera moved behind the two girls, showing the island of Wawanakwa off in the distance. "Although come to think of it, I don't remember anything after dinner."

"Dinner! Of course!" Harold said in realization.

/

A dramatic note played as the footage flashed to a close-up of a meal tray, held by Harold as he collected his dinner. The meal was a slimy pile of spaghetti, tomato sauce, butt-shaped meatballs, and feathers, plopped down onto the tray without ceremony.

"Gosh, what is this?" Harold asked as the shot zoomed out to show his mild disgust.

"Turkey buttolini," Chef answered with a grin. "Enjoy your na~ap!" he said before realizing his slip-up. "Err, meal..."

Harold just raised a brow in confusion at the man as he laughed darkly to himself.

/

The scene flashed back to Harold, Jasmine, and Zoey. "Turkey contains the chemical tryptophan, known to cause drowsiness," the dweeb mused. "So it stands to reason that mutant turkey must be strong enough to knock us out completely!"

"I guess so," Jasmine replied uncertainly.

The harp music returned as the focus moved to Gwen and Trent, still sleeping peacefully on the raft. They were facing one another, and as they shifted and murmured their hands reached out and touched, then closed around each other.

"How cute," Noah said dryly as the camera moved to show him and Courtney looking down on their teammates. "And here I am with nothing to take pictures of the happy couple!"

Courtney scoffed. "They're not a couple," she corrected him, "at least not yet. And you know Gwen wouldn't want any pictures of her like this."

"Gee, I never would've guessed," the sarcastic snarker replied. "It would be fun to tease her a little bit though."

"Like we need to give them a reason to vote you off," Courtney rolled her eyes.

Noah snorted. "Yeah, because they totally have the same stick up their butt that you do," he said.

Courtney gasped indignantly. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you're as uptight as a fully-packed broom closet," Noah answered. "It's no wonder Gwen likes spending time with Lover Boy more. Now are you gonna just stand there," he asked her as he bent down between their teammates, "or are you gonna help me wake these two up?"

Courtney hesitated for a moment, then knelt down next to Gwen.

xxx

"Okay, so I'm a little annoyed by the fact that we haven't merged teams yet," Noah confessed. "I can only assume our sadist of a host wants to drag things out a bit longer with Izzy back in the game, but whatever. As long as my team doesn't lose again, I should be in a pretty good position once the merge does hit."

"Between Trent and Harold I should be in pretty good with the Maggots," he said as the confessional footage cut away to a scene of him sitting at a meal table across from Trent, cracking a joke as Harold walked by and making both boys laugh. "And with our not-so-asocial social outcast being a few words away from going all 'teem movie' with her boy toy," the scene shifted to Trent and Gwen sitting in the common area outside the cabins, the musician practicing his guitar while the goth sat a little ways away and drew him, "that leaves Courtney as the odd woman out."

"I don't know if she's jealous of them or if she's just still annoyed that they aren't taking the game as seriously as she is," the scene panned away from the two lovers to show Courtney watching them from the porch of the Rats' cabin for a moment before frowning in annoyance and going inside, "but either way, it's not gonna take much for that kettle full of rage she has to finally to a boil and get her voted out. There's no way she'll make it past the merge."

"After that," Noah said thoughtfully as the scene cut back to him in the outhouse, "I'll probably just try to convince the others to vote out whoever the biggest threat is. That might land me in some hot water, though," he conceded, "but lucky me I finally found this the other day." He smirked, and took the wooden carving of Chris' head out from behind his back. "I doubt I'll have to use it anytime soon, but that just means it's all the more important that we win today."

xxx

The scene finally cut back to the rafts as Noah and Courtney shook their teammates awake. The two mumbled groggily as they sat up, then looked around in bleary-eyed confusion.

"Dude, where are we?" Trent asked.

"Let me guess," Gwen said, "Chris did this?"

"Got it in one, sunshine," Noah answered dryly as the two got to their feet.

The shot cut over to Zoey, who was also trying to wake a sleeping teammate. Izzy was lying with her back to the indie girl, however, and no amount of light shaking seemed enough to rouse her. "Izzy, c'mon, wake up already," Zoey said, continuing to shake the girl nonetheless.

She stopped when Izzy quietly laughed, and the music rose dramatically as the girl suddenly turned around and yelled "Boo!", descending into wild laughter as Zoey gasped and fell backwards onto her butt.

"Izzy, don't scare me like that!" Zoey griped as her newest teammate stood up.

"Haha, you should have seen your face," Izzy laughed. "You so didn't realize that I was awake this whole time and then when I turned around and scared you like that it was so funny, you have no idea."

"Uh, yeah...," Zoey said, rubbing her arm with a wary sort of anxiousness.

Jasmine stepped forward, and put a hand on the grinning girl's shoulder. "Look, Izzy, I think we'd all appreciate it if you took it easy with the practical jokes right now. We've got more important-" She trailed off upon noticing Harold leaning out from behind her and inspecting Izzy's arm with a magnifying glass, stopping upon noticing the two girls looking at him. "Uhh, is there something wrong, Harold?" Jasmine asked as Izzy turned and started making funny faces at the dweeb through his hand lens.

"Not that I can tell," Harold answered, quickly looking away from Izzy and pocketing the magnifying glass.

xxx

"There's no way that Izzy could have survived for so long out in the forest without becoming a mutant," Harold told the outhouse camera. "And since Cameron was so tragically voted off last time, it falls on me to investigate her. I just hope Jasmine won't be too mad at me for closely examining another girl's body," the dweeb added nervously.

xxx

The static cut away to a shot of the rafts from a perspective a little higher, a little further away, and at a right angle to where the camera had been before. The roar of engines and the honk of a horn heralded the arrival of Chris and Chef from the right, the two men riding jetskis and wearing life jackets.

"Morning, suckers!" the host greeted with an exuberant grin. "How'd you enjoy your turkey buttolini?"

"Ehh, I've had better," Izzy shrugged nonchalantly. "You should have asked me to make it, I've become like a genius at preparing mutant meat."

"Yeah, I'm sure you have," Chris replied with an annoyed and disbelieving look. "Anyway-"

"'Cause, I mean, I did have to survive off what I could find in the wild," Izzy continued unabated. "Well, that and what I could scrounge up around camp and the craft services tent. Hey, when are you guys having lobster again? The leftovers from that were so good, like, you don't even know."

"Never," the host answered, both he and Chef looking extremely irritated with the girl. "At least as long as you're around. Chef," he turned to his assistant, "be sure to have the interns increase security on the staff kitchen, okay?"

"I was thinkin' the same thing," the hulking man said gruffly.

Izzy just laughed. "Heeheehee, sounds fun!"

Jasmine and Zoey shared a wary look.

xxx

"Look, I'm not saying she was wrong to take whatever food she could find," the survivalist confessed, "but I just don't think it's a good idea to admit that to Chris. He's pretty hard on us as is, and I don't think he'll get any better if he's mad at Izzy."

xxx

"Anyway," Chris said forcefully before regaining his usual demeanor, "first thing's first: If any of you are still trying to find that McLean Brand Invincibility Sculpture I hid at the beginning of the season," he announced, taking out a photograph of the head in question, "you can stop now. Somebody's already found it," he said, dropping the picture into the lake.

Courtney silently looked around at her teammates with suspicion in her gaze. "And speaking of digging things up," Chris continued as the Maggots were shown watching him more than each other, "today's challenge is all about winning the ultimate reward: Life, itself!" His tone became deeper and more dramatic as he made his declaration, spreading his arms wide for emphasis. "Your first challenge is to race to the shore, by any means possible." He pointed a thumb over his shoulder, and the camera panned over to the island in the distance. "First team wins a handy reward. Last team gets a heinous penalty, before you embark on a quest for buried treasure."

"First you have us blow up a mine, now you want us to dig up buried treasure?" Gwen asked. "What, are all the challenges from now on just things to make your life easier?"

"No," Chris said irritably, "and while there was treasure here once, I found it years ago. How do you think I bought the island?"

"Through all those crappy movies and songs you put out before becoming a host," Gwen smirked. "But I guess those were never successful, were they?"

Chris' brow shot up in shock, and Chef casually snickered behind him. "J-just get moving already, will ya?" the host demanded, backing up his jetski then speeding away with Chef.

"Hah, nice one," Trent told Gwen as the focus moved to the Rats.

"Y-yeah, real funny, Gwen," Courtney interjected with a slightly forced smile, quickly appearing on the goth's other side.

"Uhh, thanks?" Gwen told them, taken slightly aback by their sudden closeness but smiling softly anyway.

"Hey, are you three just gonna stand there or are you gonna come help me with this?" Noah asked, the shot cutting to him trying to break the rigid signpost.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, good idea Noah," the goth said, quickly turning around and moving to help him with Trent and Courtney following right behind. All of them grabbed on to the sign and pulled, and after a moment of effort the post snapped at the bottom.

"Cool," Trent said as he held the broken sign, "we can use this to paddle ourselves to shore."

"I'll do it," Courtney quickly volunteered, taking the broken sign from him. "I learned all about rowing when I was a CIT."

"Hey, fine with me," Gwen smiled, shooting the other girl a quick finger pistol. "Just watch out for sharks."

"Right..." Courtney said with an uncertain look.

The focus shifted over to the Maggots, who were watching their rivals with interest. "Let's just do what they're doing," Jasmine suggested, putting one hand on the top of their sign, bending it slightly, then snapping it with a swift kick.

"Ooh, let me!" Izzy volunteered excitedly.

"Why, do you have some sort of mutant power that'll help?" Harold asked her with an almost accusing tone.

"No," the wild child said plainly, "I've just done a lot of river rafting. Here," she took the sign-paddle from Jasmine before the taller girl could react, "let me show you my technique."

"Uhh, okay, I guess," Jasmine said warily.

xxx

"Okay, how cool is it that I get to do this again?" Izzy asked the confessional camera with an excited grin. "I mean sure, I had to live out in the mutated wilderness for a little bit and then I had to threaten my way back into the game, but it's all fun, right?" She shrugged...with two more arms than she should have.

xxx

A rising note as the focus cut back to the Rats heralded the start of challenge music, and Courtney began to row with her sign-paddle. "Okay, time to put some distance between us and the Maggots," she said, her eyes locked forward. "Stroke! Stroke!"

The camera cut outward, revealing that Izzy's own paddling was keeping the Maggots about neck-and-neck with the Rats, and the shot focused in on Noah, Gwen, and Trent. "Yeah, I hate to say it, but I think we might need more than just Courtney on this," the slacker said.

"Well, what else are we gonna do?" Trent asked. "It's not like there's any oars floating around."

"I...guess we could always just get behind the raft and kick?" Gwen hesitantly suggested. "Although I wasn't exactly kidding when I told Courtney to watch out for sharks..."

"Hey, the faster we get to shore, the less chance we have of becoming seafood," Noah said, walking to the back of the raft and jumping in to the lake. Gwen and Trent shared a wary shrug, then dived in as well.

/

The scene cut to the Maggots, Jasmine and Harold and Zoey standing anxiously near the back of their raft as Izzy continued to paddle them forward. A whoop of excitement caught their attention, and the shot zoomed out to show the Rats' raft moving ahead quickly in the foreground. With her teammates kicking in the back, Courtney was able to pause her paddling long enough to give her rivals a short but taunting wave.

"Well then," Jasmine said with a competitive smirk, "if they can do it, then we can do it better. Into the water!" Zoey immediately nodded and dived into the lake, while Harold lingered with Jasmine. The survivalist took of her hat and blindly passed it back to Izzy, saying "Hold on to this, will ya?"

"Okay," the wild child said plainly and without looking, a third arm sort of...appearing out of her back and taking the hat. Jasmine dived in to the lake without a look backward, leaving the camera to linger on Harold. He moved to dive in as well, then seemed to suddenly realize something and look backward.

The shot panned back on to Izzy as she eagerly paused her paddling to put Jasmine's hat on, with no sign of any extra arms.

Harold's brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed in suspicion, but it was quickly broken when Jasmine reached over from off-screen and pulled him into the water by the leg.

/

Another flash took the focus back to the Rats, but the camera quickly zoomed out as they noticed the Maggots coming up beside them again.

"Gah," Noah spluttered as he noticed their three kickers, "what, are you just gonna copy all our ideas from now on?"

"Hey, whatever gets us in the lead," Jasmine replied with a smirk. She began kicking even harder, and soon the Maggots had taken the lead.

"Yeah! Alright!" Izzy cheered as the focused moved to her. She closed her eyes and started giggling excitedly, but stopped abruptly along with her team's raft as it smacked into something that sounded pink and fleshy. She opened her eyes and looked warily ahead, the camera panning on to her reflection in the massive yellow eye of a truly gigantic octopus that was resting just below the surface with only the top of its head in view.

It shuddered, then bellowed deeply and angrily and lifted its tentacles out of the water. Izzy and her teammates screamed in terror.

The music paused as the shot cut to then sky above, where Chris and Chef were watching the challenge unfold in their helicopter. "Awww, it's playing with them," the host laughed.

/

The music resumed as focus moved back to the Maggots, all four now on the raft with Harold and Zoey cowering in the back while Izzy and Jasmine – who had put her hat back on – attempted to fend off the many tentacles. The shot cut to Izzy as she cackled and jumped and flipped around the first two that struck at her, only for the third to grab her by the leg and lift her into the air. Jasmine, meanwhile, managed to repel one with a strong punch, but the second just wrapped around her arm and lifted her up as well. The camera zoomed out to show each of the two captives girls, and to their teammates' horror the octopus slammed them into each other then dropped them back onto the raft.

"Aww man, how are we supposed to get past that thing?" Trent asked as the focus cut over to the Rats' raft floating a little ways away.

"We're just gonna have to go around," Courtney answered, her wary eyes still locked forward. "With any luck the Maggots will distract it long enough for us to get away before it sees us."

"Well we're gonna have to do that quick," Noah said, fearfully eying a circling shark fin with Gwen and Trent, "because something else just saw us!"

Courtney gasped as the shark circled around to the front and jumped onto the raft, revealing itself as Fang. As the mutant grinned menacingly at the young woman, she held up her sign-paddle in front of her. "W-wait," she said, "you don't want me, do you? Isn't she the one you're after?" she pointed forward, and Fang turned around. The camera briefly cut to Izzy swinging her own sign-paddle at the octopus while Jasmine desperately tried to rescue Harold and Zoey, who were now being strangled by its tentacles.

Fang grinned darkly, then jumped into the water. Courtney wiped the sweat from her brow, silently nodded at her teammates in the water, and together they got their raft moving again.

The music became even tenser as the focus moved back to the Maggots, the camera panning away from the two girls still fruitlessly trying to both rescue their teammates and fend off the octopus to show Fang's fin approaching them. Jasmine and Izzy looked back just in time to see the mutant shark leap from the water at them, and growl ferociously.

"Oh no, not now," Jasmine moaned.

Izzy just laughed. "Hahaha, not this time, Fangy!" she said, whipping around as he pounced at her with the paddle-sign still in her hands. She suddenly sprouted two more arms and grabbed his, then thrust the sign into his mouth so that he couldn't close it. Harold, still struggling against the tentacle around his neck, raised his brow as he looked down at his teammate.

"Okay, y'know what? I'm not going to ask what I just saw," Jasmine said frantically as the shot cut to her, "I'm just gonna get us out of here." She reached forward and grabbed Fang's tail with both arms, then, to the shock of him and Izzy, swung him around with a grunt of effort and slammed him down hard on the octopus's head. It shuddered and bellowed in pain, then dropped its captives and sunk into the lake with the dazed mutant shark.

"Let's go, Maggots!" Jasmine commanded, diving into the water with Izzy following shortly after. "Swim for your lives!" She and Izzy hastily swam off towards the right, with Zoey and Harold quickly joining them.

/

The challenge music leveled off as the scene flashed back to the Rats, slowly rafting along while looking warily around them.

"Okay," Courtney whispered back to her kicking teammates, "I think we're in the clear now."

Their raft promptly rammed in to something. She turned around, and yelped as the shot zoomed out to reveal the angered giant octopus surfacing in front of them.

"Yeah, I think you just jinxed us," Trent replied with an unamused look.

"Well it's gonna eat us if we aren't careful," Gwen added fearfully, looking back over her shoulder and gasping as a couple tentacles rose up out of the lake. She, Trent, and Noah scrambled back on to the raft, and huddled together with Courtney.

"Well, there goes our chance of making it back to shore," Noah said before suddenly realizing something. "Unless...," he said, rubbing his chin in thought before stepping towards the octopus' head and motioning for his teammates to stand back. "Yeah, like I'm scared," he taunted it. "I doubt a monster movie reject like you could hit the broad side of a whale, much less smash the raft."

A dramatic note played as the octopus growled, glared, and drew closer, raising a tentacle high and curling it almost into a fist. Noah just crossed his arms and smirked haughtily, and his teammates gasped.

"Noah, what are you doing?!" Gwen cried out as another sharp beat played.

"Dude, no!" Trent added.

A third note played as the curled-up tentacle suddenly sprouted several large spikes, and the three Rats at the back of the raft screamed...

And then the footage and music ground to a halt, a 'pause' symbol appearing over the slightly-faded scene. "Will Noah's brain outsmart the octopus's brawn?" Chris asked, standing up in front of the paused screen wearing a hat shaped like an octopus head and tentacles. "And what's up with Izzy?" he shrugged as an ominous chanting tune rose up in the background music. "Find out, after the break," he finished, crossing his arms coolly.

(Fade to Commercial and Back)

The background music promptly regained its former intensity as the episode resumed on the giant octopus with its spiked tentacle held menacingly over the Rats. It growled and reared the appendage back, prompting Noah to yelp and jump to the back with his teammates just before the front was slammed down upon, launching all four into the air.

They flew screaming across the lake, their shadows passing over the swimming Maggots, and finally they crashed down onto the rocky beach of Wawanakwa. The music petered out and they groaned in pain, and Courtney was the first to lift her head and look around.

"Wait a minute," she said with growing excitement, "we just made it to the island! We're in first place!" A feminine groan got her attention, and with a gasp she got to her feet and scrambled across the sand towards it. "Gwen, are you al-"

"Are you alright?" Trent finished, getting to Gwen's side first.

"I think I landed on a rock," the goth answered, rubbing her lower back as Trent helped her to her feet. "But I'll be fine."

"Good to hear," the musician smiled. "I'd hate for you to be taken out because of some stupid rock."

"Yeah, me too," Courtney quickly interjected. "And not just because it'd put the team at a disadvantage, either."

"Thanks," Gwen smirked, "I wouldn't something like that to happen to you guys, either."

A muffled cry along the lines of "Would somebody help me already!" got the three's attention, and the camera panned over to Noah, half-buried in the sand with his legs sticking up in the air and flailing.

"Oh crap," Gwen said, quickly rushing over to him with Trent and Courtney right behind. "Sorry Noah, we didn't notice you," she said as they quickly grabbed his legs and pulled him out.

"Gee, I feel so loved," he said scathingly, spitting out a bit of sand.

"Well, at least that plan of yours worked out," Trent told him as a helicopter approached off-camera. "We won!"

"And because you won," Chris called down from above, leaning out the open door of the helicopter as a mildly triumphant tune played, "you get these!"

He dropped down two objects, which Trent quickly caught – one was a compass, and the other fell open to reveal a map of the island. "Sweet, man," the musician said as his teammates looked at their reward, "a map and compass!"

"I'll take those," Courtney said, swiping the objects away from Trent to his annoyance. "As a former Counselor-in-Training, I have loads of orienteering experience."

"Weellll, look who just washed up!" Chris said, turning his attention to the edge of the water as Izzy, Jasmine, Zoey, and Harold finally swam ashore.

"That could've gone better," Harold wheezed before coughing up a small amount of water.

"You're telling me," Zoey said, patting him on the back then recoiling as Izzy shook herself dry like a dog.

"Put a sock in it!" Chris called down to them. "Now, the second part of today's challenge started off as a practical joke involving a couple of our Total Drama classic competitors. Buuuut, it's turned into more of a rescue mission," he said, pointing a remote down at the beach and pressing the button.

The shot cut to the Rats as they turned and looked at a television cart that had just been wheeled over by a long-haired white male intern. The screen cut from static to none other than Topher, the Chris-loving wannabe host, trapped inside what appeared to be a somewhat spacious wooden coffin. He awoke on his belly and tried to push himself onto his hands and knees, but only bumped his head on the lid. "What? Wh-where am I?" he asked, rubbing his head and looking around in confusion. "I'm not, like, buried alive, am I? Haha, c'mon, Chris," he laughed nervously and pounded on the low ceiling with his fist, "you can let me out now. Chris?" he repeated after a second, growing more and more panicked. "CHRIS?!"

"Whoa, you buried him alive?!" Gwen asked in sheer disbelief. "That's horrifying!"

"Yeah," Jasmine chimed in. "Not to mention dangerous." She shuddered in barely-suppressed fear.

"Hey, just be glad neither one of you got voted out last time," Chris told them. "Otherwise I would've stuck you in there with him. But, I did keep the buddy system in mind," he admitted, "and thus made sure he wasn't the only person buried underground."

The cast's direction moved back to live feed of Topher as the panicking suddenly heard the sound of snoring coming from within his prison. "H-hello? Chris?" he said, looking around and spotting a walkie talkie on the floor nearby. He quickly grabbed it. "Hello? Who's there? ...is it Chef?"

The camera zoomed in on the walkie talkie, then the live feed cut to static briefly before resuming on a close-up of another walkie talkie lying on a dark wooden floor, the sound of snoring coming from just out of sight. "Hey, is anybody listening? Wake up!" came Topher's desperate voice over it, and with a dramatic melody the shot zoomed out, revealing Sierra curled up asleep in another spacious wooden coffin. She murmured a little as Topher continued to attempt contact, but didn't stir.

"Yeah, she ate a lot of Chef's buttolini," Chris explained as the focus cut back to the beach, "so she's still gonna be out for a couple more minutes. But once she wakes up and those two realize they only have each other to talk to, man is it gonna be funny," he laughed.

"Not to them!" Gwen told him.

Chris just shrugged. "So what? Anywho, Rats! You've got your compass and map to the general vicinity of the chests at the other side of the island. First team to rescue one of the classic competitors wins the challenge, so go!"

Courtney, Gwen, Trent, and Noah ran off into the woods without another word, but as the Maggots moved to follow Chris landed his helicopter on the sand in front of them. "Uh-tu-tut-tut," he said, "not so fast. To the losers, especially Izzy," the wild child was briefly shown raising an eyebrow, "go the penalty belts. Chef," he turned to his grinning assistant, "lock 'em in!"

The hulking man stepped out of the pilot's seat and walked over to the four Maggots, and the footage skipped ahead to him locking a metal belt around Harold's waist, with handcuffs attached to each side to keep his arms in place. The camera zoomed out and revealed that identical belts had already been locked onto his teammates.

"Gosh," the dweeb complained, struggling under the weight of the belt, "how much does thing weigh?"

"About 120 pounds," Chris answered before slotting a metal detector onto his back.

"Wait, how is a metal detector supposed to help us find a wooden chest?" Zoey asked in confusion.

"It's not," the host smiled, taking out a red megaphone and shouting "Now GO! GO-GO-GO-GO!"

The Maggots promptly ran off into the woods.

/

The camera moved to a nondescript patch of ground somewhere, a muffled pounding sound coming from below it. Topher was then heard grunting in annoyance, and the scene cut inside his chest as he put his walkie talkie down, then frantically pulled out a cellphone. "Okay, if I'm being used in some kind of challenge," he complained as he started dialing, "then that is so not cool, Chris."

A ringing came over the phone, and the screen split down the middle to show Chris answering on the left. "Hello~?" he opened with an almost mocking singsong voice.

"Okay, Chris, the joke's over," Topher said, "you gotta let me-"

He was interrupted by a sleepy "Wha...?" coming over another line, and quickly put his walkie talkie back up to his other ear.

"Hello? Who's there?" he asked into it.

"Uhh..." Chris said over the cellphone.

"Wait, is that Chris?" Sierra asked drowsily as the screen split into thirds with her on the right, grabbing on to her own walkie talkie. "And Topher?!" she added, becoming more awake and more angry with each passing moment.

"Sierra?!" Topher replied into the walkie talkie with disbelief. "Sierra?!" he turned and repeated into his cellphone. "You gave me a direct line to her?!"

"Yup," the host answered chipperly.

"Wait, was that Chris?!" Sierra asked. "Chris! You better get me out of here right this instant!"

"Hey, he doesn't have to do what you tell him to, you ex-fan," Topher retorted angrily.

"At least I was a fan to begin with," Sierra snapped back.

Chris just laughed. "Hah, yeah, I'm just gonna leave you kids alone for now. Have fun!"

"Wait, no!" the two rivals desperately pleaded before Chris ended the call, and their screens slid away.

He sighed happily as he stowed his phone back in his pocket. "Yeah, they'll be fine," he said to himself.

/

The challenge music resumed as the scene moved to the Rats, the four of them arriving at the edge of what the camera soon panned over to show was a massive swamp with smelly, bubbling green water dotted with toxic waste barrels.

Immediately the four began to cough. "Uggh, this reeks worse than my dog after she rolled on a dead skunk," Noah pinched his nose and griped.

"Hmm...well, the map says there's a path around the swamp," Gwen said, leaning over to look at the map in Courtney's hands.

"It looks like it'll take too long, though," Courtney replied.

"Guess we'll just have to brave the stink," Gwen shrugged.

"I can carry you, if you want," Trent offered.

"No thanks," the goth told him. "I can handle a little swamp water."

Courtney giggled haughtily and put a hand on Gwen's shoulder. "Yeah," she told Trent with a sly smirk, "we don't need your help just because we're girls. We're strong enough without you. C'mon, Gwen," she said before running off into the swamp.

Gwen chuckled lightly, then shrugged. "Hey, she's not wrong," she told Trent before running off as well.

"Wow, man, looks like you screwed up a bit," Noah said dryly as he walked over to the musician.

"Hey, I never meant that she couldn't do it by herself," Trent told him in annoyance.

"I know that, and you know that," Noah told him. "Heck, I bet even she knows that. But as far as I can tell, Courtney doesn't. Although she was never your biggest fan to begin with so who knows?"

Trent grunted in disgust. "Figures. I bet she's trying to turn Gwen against me or something."

Noah shrugged. "Probably. But I don't think Gwen would ever fall for it. And personally," he added as he walked to the edge of the water, "I'd rather you all worked things out." He reluctantly dipped a foot into the water, shuddered in disgust, then waded in further.

"Well...that probably would be better," Trent admitted, before running in to the swamp as well. He quickly passed Noah, prompting the lazier boy to start running as well.

/

A flash took the camera ahead to Gwen and Courtney as they continued to run through the pungent murk. "Sooo...how are things with you and Trent, anyways?" the former CIT asked after a moment.

"Pretty good," Gwen answered happily. "I mean, I know you still don't like him," the camera briefly cut to Courtney's look of surprise, "but he's really sweet, and funny, and talented...I really like him, and I think we have a great connection, y'know?"

Courtney's expression became thoughtful. "...wow, that's...great...," she said. "But do you really think you'll be okay once the merge hits and you have to compete against each other again?"

Gwen looked back with a brow raised in mild confusion. "Why wouldn't we? I bet we could go all the way to the finale together and still be cool."

She looked ahead again, missing the look of surprise and hurt on her companion's face.

/

A large purple dragonfly landed atop a stump in another part of the swamp. A pale purple frog sitting on a lilypad nearby promptly shot its tongue out at the dragonfly, only to yelp as the insect caught the tongue in its mouth and bit down hard.

The camera panned to the left, showing the edge of the swamp again, a low but fast tune playing as the Mutant Maggots arrived.

"Ewww, it reeks," Zoey immediately complained, her face scrunched up in disgust.

"You get used to it eventually," Izzy told her offhandedly.

Jasmine knelt down as much as she could with her penalty belt still on, and squinted at the dirt. "I'm pretty sure there's footprints leading into the swamp," she told her teammates. "The Rats must've gone this way."

"Makes sense to me," Izzy said happily.

"Hey, I don't suppose you can use those extra arms of yours to help us get through this place, can you?" Harold asked.

"What extra arms?" Izzy replied in confusion.

"The ones you used to hold off Fang earlier," Harold explained. "I saw them, I'm sure of it."

Izzy gave him a blank look and frowned in thought. "Nnnnnooo, I don't think I did anything like that."

"But-" Harold objected before he caught Jasmine shaking his head.

"I'm sorry, Harold, but we don't have the time. Let's get moving," she said before running into the swamp. Harold groaned, then followed after her along with Zoey and Izzy.

The camera lingered after they left, just long enough to catch the the dragonfly from earlier buzzing out of the swamp still carrying the frog by its tongue.

/

The music turned tense again as the scene moved back to the Rats, Trent having joined back up with Gwen and Courtney while Noah lingered a little ways back.

"Well, we haven't gotten stuck in the mud or anything yet," Gwen said. "It's still disgusting, but at least we're making progress."

"True," Courtney smiled, looking away from her map and back at them. "I'd say we have this challenge ...in the bog!" She laughed at her own pun, and smiled again as Gwen and Trent chuckled as well.

"Hah, yeah," the musician said. "So, how close are we anyway?"

"Hmm...," Courtney said, looking back at her map...and unwittingly walking up onto something rough and green and scaly. "According to this, it shouldn't be much-"

She was cut off by an ominous growling below her, and looked down and ahead just as the small, beady eyes of an alligator rose above the surface of the swamp.

The mutant beast promptly reared up, revealing its long tusks, spines, and tentacle-like forelimbs and tossing both Courtney and the map into the water. She, Gwen, and Trent quickly went back and regrouped with Noah, and all four screamed and ran forward just before the mutant alligator pounced onto the spot they'd just been standing in.

"Quick, get in that tree!" Courtney exclaimed, the camera following her point forward to a large tree in the swamp ahead of them. The four quickly ran over to it, Trent giving Noah a boost into it before scrambling into the branches himself.

"Hurry up, it's coming back!" Courtney told them as the boys pulled Gwen up into the tree next. The ex-CIT looked back over her shoulder and bit her lip in fear as the shot quickly cut to the massive mutant swimming towards them, then roaring and pouncing. Courtney gasped in fear, but was pulled up just in time and the alligator slammed head-first into the tree's protruding roots. The whole tree shook, but the camera panned up to show that the Rats had managed to hang on – Courtney between Gwen and Trent on the left; Noah alone on the right.

"Thanks," Courtney told the two who'd pulled her up, smiling awkwardly.

xxx

Courtney opened her confessional with a sigh. "Look," she told the camera, "I really do enjoy being around Gwen, and...I guess maybe Trent isn't that bad, but I still stand by what I've been telling Noah. So long as Gwen and Trent are, you know, together, they're gonna be hard to deal with. And while being their third sounds nice in theory, there's no way they'll let me get in to the finale if we're the final three. I know that the final two is usually decided by sudden death, but still – I can't risk them ganging up on me. But I can't just vote out Trent and still expect Gwen to be my ally...so I guess all I can do right now is make sure we win."

xxx

"Hey, can we leave before that thing wakes up?" Noah asked, the camera panning up from a shot of the stunned mutant alligator lying at the base of the tree.

"Good idea," Gwen told him before dropping back down into the water. Her teammates joined her, and the shot quickly focused in on Courtney as she patted her sides and pockets with growing dread.

"Crap, I lost the map," she swore.

"No big deal," Trent told her. "I still have the compass," he took the item in question out of his pocket and held it up, "so as long as you know which direction we had to go we should be okay."

"Right," Courtney said warily, one eye on the mutant alligator as she started creeping away. "It should be this way," she pointed, breaking into a run once she was far enough away from their attacker. Her teammates quickly followed, but the camera panned in the opposite direction to show the four Maggots watching from behind another tree.

"Okay," Jasmine said, "let's just circle around a bit and avoid any trouble from that big guy."

"Uhh, I think we're gonna have trouble regardless," Zoey spoke up nervously, drawing the survivalist's attention behind the group to a pair of smaller, paler alligators that were swimming towards.

Jasmine turned around and smiled confidently. "No worries, I can take care of those two little fellas in a snap," she said, trying and failing to move her arms up in preparation. "Or...I could if it weren't for this belt...," she nervously corrected.

The two smaller alligators hissed menacingly, prompting Harold and Zoey to scream and jump back while Jasmine hesitantly stood her ground, and Izzy...grinned. With a dramatic rise in the music one of the alligators pounced, and Izzy jumped forward, sprouted two extra arms from nowhere, and caught it in a headlock prompting her teammates to gasp in shock. The second alligator quickly came after her, but Jasmine swiftly stomped it on the side of the head.

"Get outta here!" she yelled at it, kicking it in the chin again. It yelped and swam away, leaving its companion still struggling with Izzy on its back.

The wild child laughed as the alligator thrashed around in the swamp water, and her teammates warily approached her. "Oh," Harold spoke up first in an accusing manner, "so you didn't know what I was talking about with the extra arms, huh?"

Izzy looked at him blankly as the alligator paused its thrashing. "Ohhhh, these extra arms!" she said as if in sudden comprehension.

"What do you mean 'these'?" Harold asked, now bewildered. "What other arms could I have been talking about?"

"These," Izzy answered plainly, sprouting a third set of arms to her teammates' shock. The alligator tried to throw her off again, but she quickly punched its head with her new limbs. "Hey! Stop that!" she scolded.

Harold's shock quickly dropped into a look of even greater bewilderment than before, a sentiment that Zoey and Jasmine seemed to share. "But...that still doesn't make any sense," he said.

Once again the alligator stopped struggling, and once again Izzy gave her teammate a blank look. "Huh," she said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully with one hand, "I guess it doesn't, does it?" She stood up off the pale alligator, and the reptile quickly took the chance to swim away. Izzy waved it off happily.

"So wait," Zoey spoke up in confusion, "Izzy, you're a mutant?"

"Yup," Izzy nodded happily.

"But...you're so...normal-looking," Zoey continued as the shot cut away to Izzy smiling at her four extra hands, making shadow puppet shapes and hand signs with them. "You know, all things considered," the indie girl hastily added.

"Actually," Harold said with a thoughtful expression, "since every creature is affected by chemical waste differently, it only makes sense that some mutations wouldn't be as extreme. But I still don't get why you didn't tell us before," he told Izzy.

She shrugged, now with only one set of shoulders. "I thought it'd be more fun this way. And it was!" she started to laugh, but stopped quickly. "Still, sorry for messing with you guys. I guess I just can't help my natural spontaneity!"

"Umm...yeah," Jasmine said uncertainly. "Let's just get moving, shall we? Who knows how far the Rats have gotten by now." She ran off to the right, and her teammates quickly followed.

The camera kept on them, and it wasn't long before Jasmine's question was answered as the Maggots came upon their rivals lingering on the outskirts of a massive forest of thorn bushes. "Aaaand, there goes our lead," Noah said in annoyance as he noticed the four new arrivals.

"Oh man, how are any of us gonna get through this?" Zoey asked in awe and horror.

"Who says we have to," Jasmine said, a smirking forming on her lips as she motioned for her teammates to follow her on a route closer to the camera and around the thorns.

The Rats shared a look of wide-eyed shock. "Yyyyeah," Gwen said dully, "we probably should have thought of that."

She, Courtney, Trent, and Noah quickly ran off after the Maggots.

/

A flash took the scene to the edge of a clearing with the thick thorn bush forest visible a little ways in the background. Jasmine, Izzy, Zoey, and Harold arrived from the left, and immediately looked around.

"Is this the place?" the indie girl asked as the group moved further into the clearing.

"Hard to say," Jasmine replied.

"Get me out!" the muffled-yet-distinct voice of Topher called from underground, immediately attracting the Maggots' attention.

"No, get me out!" Sierra retorted from a little ways towards the edge of the forest, also drawing the Maggots' attention.

The two pleas were followed up by the arrival of the Rats. "Okay, this looks like the place," Courtney told her teammates. "There was a clearing on the map."

"But where do we start digging?" Trent asked.

Noah cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted "CHRIS MCLEAN IS A TALENTLESS HACK!"

"Hey!" the two captives indignantly replied, drawing the Rats' attention to their relatives locations underground.

"Score," Gwen said, bumping fists with her long-time teammate. "Great job, Noah."

"Don't thank me," he smirked, "thank their pointless devotion."

"C'mon, let's get digging," Courtney said, leading the rest of her team toward where the closest voice had come from – Sierra, near the edge of the forest.

The camera panned back to the Maggots. "Well, I guess that leaves us with Topher," Jasmine said.

"On it," Izzy said with an excited grin, a dramatic tune playing as she sprouted her four extra arms, then jumped over towards where Topher's voice had come from and started digging.

"I hate to say it," Harold told Jasmine and Zoey as the camera panned to them once more, "but as cool as Izzy's mutation is I don't think it's gonna be enough here. We need more hands to dig."

"But how are we gonna get out of our belts?" Zoey asked while Jasmine narrowed her eyes and peered at the metal detector still sticking up from Harold's back.

A sudden realization hit her, and she smiled. "The metal detector, of course!" she said, earning her friends' attention. "Even Chris wouldn't just give us something completely useless," she reasoned. "Well, not to only one of us, anyway."

"So there must be something metal around that can help us out!" Zoey added.

"Like a key!" Harold declared bending down at the waist so his detector could get a scan of the ground.

/

The footage skipped ahead again, briefly panning from the Rats digging their hole, to Izzy digging hers, to Zoey and Jasmine following Harold up to a rock located on the other side of their team's hole. A whooping bleep from the metal detector caused them to gasp in excitement, and Jasmine quickly knelt down and lifted the rock up to reveal a key ring with two keys on it.

"The small one's probably for the cuffs," she said, picking the keys up and inserting the smaller one into Harold's belt.

"So that means the bigger one...," the dweeb thought for a second, rubbing his wrists after his belt fell off, "must be for the chest!" he declared in sudden realization, the camera zooming out to show Zoey's belt falling off and the indie girl taking the key and inserting it into Jasmine's belt.

"Alright," the survivalist smirked as the camera panned up to her rubbing her wrists, tense challenge music welling up in the background once more, "let's win this." The shot zoomed out as she pulled the metal detector off Harold's back and ran off with it, her friends following close behind.

The shot cut to the Rats' hole as Noah lifted his head, looked back towards the Maggots, and narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Wait a minute..." he said slowly before his eyes popped open in realization. "Crap," he said, scrambling out of the hole and running off to the side.

Courtney looked up as he went past and gasped indignantly. "Noah, what are you doing? We've almost got her uncovered, you can't let the Maggots get the lead now!"

"I know," Noah replied frantically as he started turning over rocks and looking in bushes, "that's why I gotta find...yes!" With breathless excitement he held up another key ring identical to the one the Maggots had found, and rushed back over to his teammates. "We need the key to open the chest," he explained as he hopped back into the hole and started digging again.

The screen split into two to show each team as they dug, the Rats on the left and the Maggots on the right – including six-armed Izzy and Jasmine using the metal detector as a shovel. Both teams stopped suddenly, with three members leaving the holes while Noah and Jasmine bent down with keys in hand.

The lids of each chest swung open at the same time, with Sierra and Topher sitting up and taking in a deep breath of fresh air.

"I'm free!" Sierra declared. "And before him, too," she added with a dirty look to her left.
"I'm free!" Topher declared. "And before her, too," he added with a dirty look to his right.

The two gasped in shock and outrage as the shot pulled out to show the Rats and Maggots nervously looking in each other's direction.

"Umm, hellooo, I was totally the first one freed," Sierra said, closing her eyes brattily.

"Uhh, no," Topher countered, "I think it's obvious that I was the first one to be rescued."

"Actually," Chris called down to them all, the split screen fading as he arrived in the helicopter, "as far as I can tell you were freed at the exact same time," he announced in annoyance. "Because of this, nobody wins the challenge," he added to the shock of the campers.

"Told ya you shoulda put those two in the same chest," Chef told the host.

"I know," Chris said, giving him a withering look before turning a dark grin back downward. "Because of this, and because we're up a person anyway thanks to Izzy," the shot briefly cut to the two-armed wild child who grinned and waved as her name was spoken in a bitter tone, "I've decided that both teams will be voting someone off tonight."

Everyone gasped, including Sierra and Topher.

"And to make it even more interesting," Chris continued, his dark grin growing even darker, "let's have the Rats vote off one of the Maggots, and the Maggots vote off one of the Rats."

Everyone gasped again, but Topher quickly grinned. "Hey hey, great idea Chris! That's sure to lead to some premium drama."

"Stop trying to suck up to him, it's never gonna work," Sierra shot at her arch-enemy. "And besides, this twist is completely unprecedented, and completely unfair. Trust a jerk like Chris to not give people a chance to save themselves," she said, putting her hands on her hips and scowling up at the former object of her obsession.

"Thanks, both of you," the host grinned, "I really appreciate it. Maggots! Rats!" he looked down at the two teams, each show watching nervously in turn. "I'll be seeing all of you, tonight." He laughed as the helicopter flew off, and the camera panned down to the downtrodden campers.

Noah in particular groaned and pounded the ground in frustration. "Don't take it too hard, Noah," Gwen said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Had it not been for you, we'd have lost entirely. Now at least they'll lose someone too."

The camera panned over to Jasmine as she raised a thoughtful eyebrow.

xxx

"Hmm...," she thought in the outhouse confessional, "I wonder..."

xxx

An owl hooted in the distance as the static cut away to a shot of the moon, the camera panning down onto the four members of the Toxic Rats walking back towards their cabins.

"Okay, just so we're clear," Trent said as a slow, plodding, but mysterious tune began to play, "we're all voting for Izzy, right?"

"Oh yeah, definitely," Gwen answered bluntly.

"Who'd want to keep that girl around?" Noah added.

"Well, looks like we're all agreed," Courtney finished with a slightly awkward smile.

"Yup, looks like it," Trent said as the ex-CIT stopped in place and he, Gwen, and Noah headed up the steps of their cabin.

"You coming inside, Courtney?" Gwen asked.

"In a bit," Courtney answered with a slightly hint of nervousness. "I'm just...gonna use the bathroom real quick." Gwen shrugged and headed inside, and Courtney let out a breath before walking away.

/

The scene flashed not to the bathroom, but to the side of the mess hall where Courtney was carefully sidling against the wall. The shot zoomed in as she reached the corner and looked behind it, then pumped her fist and whispered "Knew it." The camera continued following her as she went behind the building, and tiptoed over to Izzy who was sticking half out of an open trash can.

"Izzy, I need to talk to you," Courtney said, pulling the wild child out of the garbage and cringing as she saw her gnawing on a slightly-moldy chicken leg.

Izzy spit it out and laughed. "Sorry. Old habits die hard, y'know?"

"...right," Courtney said dully, giving a quick and wary look around before pulling her former teammate closer to the building. "Look, I just want you to know that right now, Gwen and Trent are easily the strongest duo in the game. We all like them – me and Noah probably like Gwen better, while your team prefers Trent, but it still means it's gonna be hard for someone else to win the competition. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Izzy rubbed her chin in thought for a second, then nodded. "Oh yeah, I gotcha."

Courtney hesitantly smiled. "Well...good. I just wanted to make sure you knew that, so...I'll just be going now." As she spoke she cautiously backed away from the other girl, then turned around and hustled away once she reached the corner of the building.

Izzy shrugged, then dived back into the trash can she'd been foraging in.

xxx

"Okay," Courtney confessed, "so maybe it's not the best way of going about it, but it's probably the only one open to me. And since we're gonna vote out Izzy anyway, I might as well get some use out of her, right?" She looked at the camera pleadingly, but her expression soon fell into a scowl. "Don't judge me, alright? I want to win, even if I have to get the crush of the closest thing I have to a friend out here eliminated."

xxx

The static cut away to the girls' side of the Maggots' cabin, where all four members of the team were gathered – Zoey and Izzy on their beds on one side; Jasmine leaning against a bunk opposite them with her arms crossed, and Harold nervously yet curiously looking around a bit to the side.

"Alright, we need to decide which Rat we're voting off," Jasmine opened. "Preferably their biggest threat."

"Ooh, what about Gwen and Trent?" Izzy suggested. "They're, like, a couple, right? Might have to get 'em now while they're fresh."

Zoey cringed. "I don't think I can do that to Trent," she said. "I mean, they're barely even together."

"Good point," Jasmine said. "We'll probably have to deal with them eventually, but for now it might be better to let them enjoy each other. Plus," she straightened up a little and dropped her arms, giving the side window a brief look, "we need to be careful about that invincibility statue." Immediately, the other three Maggots perked up in attention. "Now I'm gonna level with you," Jasmine continued, "I tried to find it a couple times but came up short. You know I'd tell you two if I'd found it," she said to Zoey and Harold who each nodded.

"Same here," the dweeb admitted. "Wherever it is, it isn't with me."

"I...kinda forgot about it a little," Zoey said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck as the camera moved to her.

She looked over at Izzy, who shrugged. "When you're living off the wild," Izzy said in a calm, almost matter-of-fact tone, "you don't really need invincibility statues."

"Right," Jasmine said. "That means one of the Rats must have it."

Zoey gasped. "Who do you think it could be?"

"Harold, you spent the most time with 'em," the survivalist said, turning her head to the boy on her right, "care to share your thoughts?"

"Of course, my trusted and attractive teammate," Harold answered with a bow. "To be honest, I don't think Gwen would've looked for it. She's a little too laid back."

"In that case," Zoey said thoughtfully, "I guess we can rule out Trent, too."

"Exactly," Harold nodded. "If you ask me, it's gotta be Courtney. She's so bossy and controlling there's no way she wouldn't wanna get her hands on it." Izzy nodded in agreement.

"Hmm...," Jasmine said, rubbing her chin in thought. "What about Noah, then? I've seen him around in the woods a couple times."

"Noah? He's been going jogging to try and get in better shape," Harold said.

Jasmine shook her head. "Sorry, but unless 'jogging' means something different in Canada I don't think checking under rocks and bushes counts." Harold's brow shot up in surprise. "And considering how he figured out they'd need a key today, I'd say he's pretty smart, probably enough to find the statue."

"So...who do we vote for, him or Courtney?" Zoey asked.

"Well, we should try and flush the statue out now and get it out of the way," Jasmine reasoned. "My gut says to go with Noah, but a vote for either one of them is good. Just go with who you think is best, I guess."

A silence fell over the Maggots, punctuated by a few dramatic notes as they looked at one another.

/

The scene flashed to a long-distance shot of the island, the dramatic notes transitioning into the slow and tense elimination theme. Another flash, and the camera cut to the campfire pit where the two teams were waiting nervously – Rats on the left, Maggots on the right. Chris walked up to his oil drum podium bearing not a tray of marshmallows, but a thick stack of small, yellowed paper. Chef Hatchet was by his side, and though he still had his massive tongs he was without his hazmat suit or the strongbox containing the Toxic Marshmallow of Loserdom.

"Okay players," Chris opened, "the votes for both teams have been tallied. The first loser is..."

"Wait," Harold interrupted, "what about the marshmallows for those of us who aren't going home?"

"No can do," the host shook his head rather jovially. "Someone raided the stash and ate all of them," he said, giving a pointed look at Izzy who grinned and laughed.

"Hahaha, sorry, I was just hungry, y'know?" she said before, to her shock, Chef's tongs clamped down around her arms. "Hey, I said I was sorry!" she said, sprouting another pair of arms to try – and fail – to pry herself free.

"Yeahhhh," Chris told, "but the Rats voted you off, and I just didn't want you escaping like last time."

"Awww...," Izzy said, drooping sadly while her teammates let out breaths of relief and Gwen and Noah high-fived.

"And speaking of the Rats," Chris continued, turning his attention to the four on the left as they suddenly became tense again. "With three votes against them, the other person going home tonight is..."

The music reached its tensest trill as Trent and Gwen shared a nervous look then reached out and held hands; then Gwen turned her nervous gaze to Courtney, who crossed her fingers and bit her lip; then Courtney looked over at Noah, eyes wide and fingers digging in to his legs.

"Noah," the host finally said.

All four Rats gasped in shock, with Noah naturally recoiling the most. He quickly settled into a resigned scowl, however, and stood up. "Okay, for the record," a deep note was struck, "I didn't wanna have to do this...but I'm not going home tonight." He took the Chris Head Statue out of his pocket, and held it up for all to see as another deep note was struck.

Everyone gasped.

"Whoa," Gwen said in awe, a trio of softer notes preceding yet another deep one.

"The invincibility statue!" Chris said in amazement as yet another a deep note was struck. "Nice! That means, Noah is safe." Another deep note. "Whoever has the next most votes is taking a ride on the Hurl of Shame!'" A light trill, followed by another set of deep notes. "And thanks to Izzy, that's gonna be Gwen!"

"WHAT?!" all the campers except Izzy exclaimed as the series' sombre farewell theme immediately began to play.

"Izzy, why didn't you vote for Noah or Courtney like we planned?" Zoey asked, the camera briefly cutting to the ex-CIT's quick scowl before moving to the wild child.

"Hey, you guys said to go with who I thought was best, so I did," Izzy shrugged.

"And why was that me?!" the goth asked in desperate and anguished disbelief.

"I don't know. Courtney said you would be a threat, and it made a lot of sense to me," Izzy said calmly.

"Courtney?!" Gwen repeated in shock, quickly whirling around to her now ex-teammate who seemed to shrink into herself under the accusing glares she was getting from Gwen, Trent, and Noah. "Courtney, how could you? I thought we were friends!"

"I...I never thought she'd vote for you," Courtney stammered out an explanation. "I was expecting her to vote for Trent!" She motioned to the musician, not looking at the harsh glare he was giving her.

"Yeah, because that makes it so much better," Gwen said scathingly, standing up and looming angrily over Courtney. "You know, even though you were a major-" her next word was bleeped out and caused her ex-roommate to flinch, "at the beginning of the season, I really thought you'd changed. But I guess I was wrong. You had your chance, you blew it, and now we're done."

She spun on her heel and walked away, leaving Courtney to fold her hands and look down sadly.

/

The sombre tune continued as the scene cut to the docks, where Izzy – now wearing one of the penalty belts and two pairs of handcuffs on her extra arms – was already loaded into the Hurl of Shame, and Gwen started climbing in as Chris and Chef watched on.

"Wait," Trent said, causing the goth to pause and look back as he ran up to her. "I need to tell you something before you go."

Gwen dropped down to the dock and looked at Trent with a nervous but expectant expression. She said nothing, and the musician took a breath and then her hands. "I know we haven't known each other for very long," he began, looking downward. "But I really feel a connection to you. And I think...I think it's love," he said raising his head and meeting Gwen's gaze. They both smiled. "Will you...go out with me?" he asked.

"Yes!" Gwen answered immediately and elatedly, darting forward into a deep embrace.

"Uhh, can you two hurry this along?" Chris asked them impatiently.

"Oh, shove off McLean," Gwen turned and told him, shoving him into the lake to the laughter of all who were present.

She then looked back at Trent, and the music rapidly rolled into something more touching as she pulled him into a kiss.

"Awww," Izzy cooed from the catapult bucket while Chef Hatchet wiped away a few tears of his own.

The two lovers broke their kiss, and Gwen smiled. "You better win this, okay?" she told her boyfriend. "And give Courtney what's coming to her."

"Got it," Trent laughed.

The sombre farewell song resumed as Gwen reluctantly walked back and climbed up into the bucket of the Hurl of Shame next to Izzy. "Goodbye," she said sadly, waving down at Trent then moving her gaze over to the shore where Noah, Harold, Zoey, and Jasmine were watching. She waved at them too, and they returned the gesture with sad smiles of their own. The shot panned over to Courtney, also waving sadly, but Gwen just closed her eyes and looked away.

And then, without warning, she and Izzy were sent flying into the night with a scream and a cackle.

The camera panned down to Chris, dripping wet and holding the catapult's lever with a rather angry expression. He took a deep breath, stood up straight, then turned to face the camera with his usual smiling demeanor as the usual cymbal beats opened the series' capstone theme. "And that's two for the price of one. Come back for even more painful awesomeness, next time, on Total! Drama! Revenge, of the Island!"

(Fade to Credits)


Author's Note - Post Script

And there you have it, folks, the final eliminations of the second third of the season - and for both teams. Izzy's was obvious, but Gwen's was...less so. Well, I did know I wanted to eliminate her here since it would keep the genders balanced going in to the merge and would force Trent to be on his own. But the exact method took some considerable figuring out, and ended up sculpting both the entire second half of the challenge into what you all just read, and the ending of the previous chapter.

See, I didn't decide which team to put Izzy on until rather late in the process of writing episode 7 since I knew it would have to set up her and Gwen's elimination. I first considered putting Izzy on the Rats, as it was her original team, forcing a double elimination, and trying to split the votes up so that a possible idol play from Noah would cause Gwen to be voted off. But...that would require two votes for Izzy, two for Noah, and one for Gwen, and that just wasn't plausible as nobody on the Rats would have any reason to vote for and even less for Gwen. So then I decided to put Izzy on the Maggots, force a tie in the challenge, and go from there. Izzy getting booted by Jasmine, Harold, and Zoey was still obvious, but again - nobody was gonna vote for Gwen on the Rats. In that situation, Noah would have absolutely decided to throw Courtney under the bus even after trying to get her and Trent to make up. I mean, he really wouldn't have a choice - if he votes off Gwen or Trent, then the other would almost certainly turn against him going forward and put a target on his back.

So I couldn't have a single-team double elimination...and I couldn't have a normal two-team double elimination...so I came upon the idea of having the teams vote out one of their rivals. Izzy was still and easy bet, and this would open up the possibility of a Gwen blindside by way of making Noah out to be enough of a threat that episode for most of the Maggots to target him, prompting him to play his idol and force out the lone dissenting vote, which obviously should come from Izzy as she's not as likely to go along with the others. And I knew I wanted Courtney to have a hand in Gwen's elimination, so it was fairly easy to see the way forward: have Courtney try to influence Izzy against Gwen and Trent, and thus hopefully pass it along to the other Maggots. But while Courtney would have preferred Trent going home, she could easily make her wording vague enough that Izzy would go for Gwen instead, and unintentionally ruin Courtney in the process.

Anyway, once I knew the tie was gonna be a thing, I knew i had to change the challenge a bit. With no obvious choices for one of this season's campers to show up again, I figured it would be a good idea to have two chests and cameos instead of one. And that meant Topher and Sierra, since they're an obvious duo that wouldn't enjoy being stuck with only being able to talk to one another. I will say that, at one point in my process of writing this season, I had considered eliminating Gwen over Cameron last week, allowing me to stick her and Sam in the chest again.

Oh, and one last thing just to clarify: Izzy's arms aren't always present. She can basically grow as many as she likes, though has only done up to the extra four so far. She can probably also lose her original arms as well, but that never really came up in story.

So...yeah. That's the story of this episode, pretty much. I hope you enjoyed everything!

Next week is the merge, so get excited folks.

- Fangren


Appendix: TSROTI Eliminated Contestants

Cody - (13th Place)

Izzy - (RETURNED | Formerly AWOL)

Leonard - (12th Place)

Justin - (11th Place)

Lindsay - (10th Place)

Cameron - (9th Place)

Izzy - (Tied for 7th Place | Mutated, but captured)

Gwen (Tied for 7th Place)