Sorry for not updating this story for a really long time. I've been so busy that I kind of fell off the internet for a bit, then had to re-read the story a few times to remind myself all what had happened so far in this universe. Especially after watching Total Drama All Stars, because everything that happened gave me a new perspective on the universe I have created here. Hopefully I will have more time this semester to work on this story and keeping it updated.
I dedicate this chapter to Munchlax Jr, who suggested this challenge to me a really long time ago. Thank you so much, darling!
I don't own Total Drama. If I did, things would be very different and All Stars would have been way better.
Still in the Game:
Screaming Gophers: Dawn, Alejandro, Dakota, Anne Maria, Noah, Cody, Trent, Zoey, Jo
Killer Bass: Duncan, LeShawna, Geoff, Gwen, Heather, Harold, Beth, Tyler, DJ
Thrashing Bears: Sadie, Cameron, Courtney, Scott, Lightning, Izzy, Bridgette, Mike
"Last time on Total Drama Island, things got intense out on the water!" Chris announced. "The teams had a rather shocking realization when they found that there are both sharks and eels in Lake Wawanakwa! LeShawna's bossy attitude clashed with the Bass and nearly earned her a one-way ticket out of the competition! Mike hit on Anne Maria and a broken-hearted Zoey decided to move on to greener pastures. And Courtney was actually civil to Duncan for once. In the end, the three teams were forced to participate in an instant death tiebreaker round, in which LeShawna secured immunity for the Bass when she defeated Bears' member Sadie in the biggest catfight we've ever seen on the show! Will the drama get even hotter on the island? Stay tuned to find out!"
Cue theme song.
The sun cast a warm, golden glow over the grounds at Camp Wawanakwa as it rose over the lake. The waves lapped at the sandy shores of the island, and combined with the songs of the island birds, it created a gentle melody. Some campers added to the melody by snoring while others contributed by simply breathing deeply in their sleep. The scene was serene, and seemed as though it ought to be on a postcard, with the soundtrack fit for use at a relaxing resort.
And then the tranquillity shattered.
"IZZY! COME BACK HERE! THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" Courtney's shrill tones hailed from the female side of Bears', but it reached all three cabins.
Seconds later, the Bears' cabin door flew open, and Izzy charged out on all fours, a sandal gripped firmly between her teeth. Courtney followed the redhead out, sprinting after her with one foot bare. And then sleepy teens spilled out onto the porches of all the cabins to watch the debacle between the brunette and the ginger.
Courtney feigned left, then dove right, but Izzy could move surprisingly – or unsurprisingly, considering the individual – fast on all fours, and was easily able to evade Courtney's attempt to apprehend her.
"GIVE ME MY SHOE! DROP IT!" Courtney commanded. Izzy paused to bare her teeth at Courtney, but the brunette was not easily dissuaded. A determined look set on her face, she dove at Izzy, tackling her. The two rolled on the ground for a moment, before Courtney managed to get the other girl in a headlock. "I SAID DROP IT!"
"And here, I thought you were into me, Princess!" Duncan called to the brunette with a smirk on his face, seconds before Courtney's shoe – the one covered in Izzy's spit – was wrenched from the redhead's jaws and whipped across the campground to hit Duncan in the head.
Courtney smirked before getting to her feet. Her hands planted firmly on her hips, she rounded on the redhead. "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!"
Izzy just laughed. "That was fun. We should do that again tomorrow."
Courtney's only reply was an eye twitch.
The redhead stood up, and glanced around, realizing that all eyes were on the two of them. "Oh, hey guys!"
Confessional
"Why are all the girls on my team so scary?!" Cameron asked, looking very distressed. "Eva, Sadie, Izzy, Courtney – they all scare me!" He paused and his eyes went wide with horror. "Don't tell any of them that I said that!"
Courtney made a sound that seemed to be a combination of a strangled cry of rage and a scoff, before storming back up the stairs of the Bears' cabin and slamming the door after she vanished inside.
The teens shrugged and some began to head back inside their cabins while others opted to head to the Mess Hall in their pyjamas. Unfortunately, Cameron made the wrong decision by following Mike down the steps towards the Mess Hall.
When Izzy caught sight of him, her green eyes lit up at the prospect of a new game, and she grinned. Getting down on all fours again, Izzy charged towards Cameron, who turned to glance her way, then screamed at the top of his lungs and ran in the other direction, pursued by Izzy.
"Good morning DJ!" Zoey said.
"Heya Zoey, how are you doing today?" DJ responded, flashing the girl a smile as she tucked a stray lock of cherry-red hair behind her ear.
"Where's Bunny?" she asked as she clasped her hands together behind her back.
"Beth's looking after him." the gentle giant replied, gesturing to the stout brunette with the furry grey creature cradled in her arms.
"That's cool." Zoey nodded eagerly in response.
"Yeah, she's been really great, looking after Bunny when I'm busy. It's nice to have the extra hands."
Zoey's brow furrowed for half a moment. "If you ever need me to, I'm totally up for watching Bunny. Seriously, any time."
"Thanks Zoey, that's really great of you."
"No problem! I'm happy to help!"
Just then, the sound of breathing from behind Zoey caught the duo's attention, and they turned to find Harold standing there, his hand raised as though he was about to tap Zoey on the shoulder.
"Hi Harold." the two teens greeted the geek in unison.
"I just wanted to remind DJ that his team actually needs him." Harold said, forcing a smile.
Zoey's eyes widened in surprise at Harold's comment, and she failed to notice DJ shoot her an apologetic look before he followed Harold back to meet up with their teammates.
Confessional
"Ouch." Zoey said.
Static.
"That was not cool, man! What has Zoey ever done to you?" DJ asked the confessional camera.
Static.
"I didn't want to say that to Zoey." Harold told to the confessional. "Heather made me. She told me that she would tell everyone that I am helping the other team with challenges and that they'd vote me out. I would never do something that mean by choice. GOSH! Heather is like a magnet near my moral compass. I want to do the honourable thing but I am under the control of a power greater than I."
"Welcome to today's challenge!" Chris greeted the teens as he walked into the clearing, grinning his usual Chris smile and speaking with more than just his usual Chris enthusiasm. The teens couldn't help the sinking feeling that seeing Chris so chipper meant that the challenge that day would be positively brutal.
"Yippee." Noah said in his signature deadpan tone. "I can hardly contain my excitement."
"Today's challenge is a doozy!" Chris said with a gleeful look at the apprehensive teens around him. "Each team gets a crate of supplies. You guys have one hour to put together whatever is in your crate. You have to finish building before you move on to part two of today's challenge. Ready! Set! Go!"
The horde of teens divided into three groups at Chris's last word, and made their ways to the flagpole that had their team's mascot on it, which were each positioned next to a large wooden crate.
"Come on comrades! We must be victorious!" Alejandro said, turning to Anne Maria and Dakota offering a hand to each of them. "It would be a shame to have to send some of the most beautiful contestants home."
"Don't you know it, Al baby." Anne Maria practically purred, fluttering her thick black lashes at the Latino male.
Zoey only glanced at Alejandro and sighed.
Confessional
"They trust so easily." Alejandro told the camera with a smirk on his handsome, chiseled face. "So malleable and manipulable; they're like putty in my hands."
Static.
"Is that all I am to my team?" Zoey asked, frowning. "Just a pretty face?" She paused for a second, before looking even more upset. "What if they don't even think I'm that?"
Twenty minutes into the challenge, the teens were still standing around, although now it was around a collection of parts rather than a crate. They had supplies, but no idea what it was that they had to build with said supplies.
Courtney was making an inventory list of all the individual parts that had been in the Bears' crate and intended to look over the completed inventory and figure out from there what it was they needed to make. Meanwhile, most of the other contestants were studying the parts with bored expressions.
Gwen was holding two pieces of her team's supplies and was studying them with a thoughtful expression. Meanwhile, Bears' member Cameron picked up one of his team's pieces and regarded with a furrowed brow, pondering it.
"Cameron, I said I wanted to make an inventory of all our supplies first!" Courtney hissed, her hands planted on her hips as the bubble boy grabbed a second piece of wood.
Cameron froze. "But. . ."
"Yes?" Courtney asked, raising an eyebrow and tapping her pencil against her notepad impatiently as she waited for Cameron's response.
"I think I figured it out." He said in a small voice.
Courtney gave the bubble boy a look of mild irritation. "Well why didn't you just say so?"
Confessional
"I did." Cameron said, looking completely dumbfounded.
Suddenly, Gwen's thoughtful frown vanished as the metaphorical lightbulb above her head lit up. She turned to her teammates and gave them a triumphant smile. "I got it!"
"What do you got, pasty?" Duncan asked, pausing a moment from carving something out of a chunk of wood to raise an eyebrow at the goth girl.
LeShawna shot Duncan a look that seemed to say she was annoyed by just the sound of his voice, then turned to Gwen. "What is it, homegirl?"
"I know what we have to build!" Gwen announced to her teammates, beckoning them closer into a team huddle. And then sounding uncharacteristically enthusiastic, she grinned. "We are so going to win this thing!"
"Oh come on!" Jo complained, looking at her teammates with a look of contempt. Focusing on a single individual, she stormed up to Noah and jabbed a finger into his chest. "You. You're smart. Why haven't you figured this out yet?"
Noah looked at her with an unamused expression and spoke in his signature deadpan tone. "I may have an IQ of 158 but I'm neither an architect nor an artist, nor do I have any desire to be either one."
Jo glared at the bookworm before she glimpsed movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning her attention to the movement, she found the Killer Bass breaking up from a team huddle and getting to work, and the jockette groaned with ire. "We're in last place right now! The other teams have already got things figure out! Get with the program, Noah - you need to figure it out, right now."
Noah rolled his eyes but didn't flinch from Jo's growing anger. "Perhaps you ought to ask Doctor Dolittle to consult the stars and figure out our puzzle with her so-called psychic powers." He jabbed a thumb in Dawn's direction, and Jo found the moonchild sitting on the ground nearby in a world of her own, a squirrel on her shoulder and a gopher curled up in her lap. "Or maybe she could just ask the gopher for its opinion."
"Urgh." If Jo's increasing irritation with her teammates wasn't apparent before, it was certainly apparent now. "Just remember that you are expendable so figure it out!"
Noah rolled his eyes again as Jo turned on her heel and stormed away from him, heading straight for Zoey, who was sitting on a log and sulking, while a bewildered Trent tried to hold a conversation with the cherry-top chick.
Confessional
"Did I do something wrong?" Trent asked, running his hand through his raven hair in a confused and frustrated manner. "Zoey hasn't said two words to me since the challenge started! She was fine at breakfast and now not so much. Was it something I said?"
"Hey lovebirds!" Jo snapped, her hands planted firmly on her hips as she shot a dirty look at Trent and Zoey.
"Who? Us?" Trent asked, looking even more puzzled by being called a lovebird by Jo than he was by Zoey's sudden sulky mood.
"Who does it look like I'm talking to?" Jo asked, tapping her foot impatiently. "Of course you two. Someone needs to figure out what we have to build with this stuff. Noah is being a pain because he can't figure it out – you two got any ideas?"
Zoey's face took on a determined expression and she stood up. "Don't worry. We'll figure this out."
Jo nodded her approval of the girl's enthusiasm to follow her command. "Well good. We need more people like you on this team." Her tone suggested it was less a compliment to Zoey than it was a jab at the rest of the team.
"You mean it?" Zoey asked, not catching the hidden message in Jo's words. She gave the blonde jockette a smile. "I won't let you down!"
Confessional
"Once we figured out what the other two teams were building, building our part was a piece of cake!" Jo told the confessional camera.
"Congratulations Bass on winning the advantage to part two of the challenge!" Chris said to the campers as he began to lead the Killer Bass and Thrashing Bears out of the clearing. He paused a moment and shot a dirty look back at the Screaming Gophers. "Are you guys still not finished?"
"You guys go ahead!" Zoey told her teammates. "I'll stay here and finish up!"
"I'll stay with Zoey and help." Trent said with a nod.
"You sure you want to do that?" Chris asked, a smirk on his face. "It could seriously affect how you do in the second part of the challenge."
Jo glanced around at her teammates with an unimpressed look.
Confessional
"Zoey, at least, is one of our most competent team members besides me. And Trent isn't completely terrible either." Jo said with a frown. "We need them if the next part of the challenge, but we also need to finish this part."
"No, we really need you in this part of the challenge." Jo said, shaking her head. "Cody and Noah, you guys stay behind and finish this part of the challenge."
"Oh goody." Noah quipped sarcastically.
"You sure?" Zoey asked Jo, searching the blonde's face.
"Yeah. We need your athletic skills and Noah doesn't have any whatsoever, so we need you with us."
Zoey nodded in agreement, and Chris lead the three teams, minus Cody and Noah, to part two of the day's challenge.
"Welcome to part two of today's challenge!" Chris greeted the teens enthusiastically as the crowd of teens reached the sandy expanse of beach by the Dock of Shame. "This is going to be a fun one!"
"Oh goody." Gwen said in her usual monotone voice, rolling her eyes.
"Glad to see you're excited!" Chris said with a grin. "As you can see, there are three buoys in the lake, one in each team's colour. For this part of the challenge, you must swim out to those buoys. On the bottom of the lake under those buoys are crates filled with supplies that will help you in the next part of the challenge. The more supplies you can gather for your team, the better off your team will be in part three of today's challenge!"
Confessional
"Oh great, another water challenge." Scott said unenthusiastically.
"You have fifteen minutes to get as many crates of supplies as you can. Only one member of each team can go at a time." Chris said. "So, who's up first?"
"Sha-Lightning!" the athlete cried out, standing up and striking a football-throwing pose.
"I can go first!" Zoey volunteered to her teammates, looking to Jo for approval, who nodded.
"To the EXTREME!" Tyler shouted, making as though to leap forward to tripping over his own feet and falling flat on his face.
"Hey Tyler, maybe you should sit this one out." Heather said, putting on a thinly veiled false smile.
The clumsy jock frowned in disappointment, but nodded. "Okay."
"Geoff, you should go first." Heather said, turning to the party boy.
"Alright, brah." Geoff said with a nod.
"Everybody ready?" Chris asked, looking at the three teens, who each nodded in agreement. With a grin, Chris turned to face the Dock of Shame, where Chef stood in a blue polka dotted string bikini with a checkered flag. "See that white line by the dock? That's the starting line. Go stand there and wait until we give the signal that the timer has begun."
Zoey, Lightning and Geoff went to stand at the thick white line that had been painted on the sand by the first boards of the Dock, and got into position like they were about to run a race.
"Ready! Set! Go!" Chris announced as Chef began waving the checkered flag. The three teens sprinted to the water's edge, and right out of the gate, Lightning was in first place.
"Sha-Lightning!" The athlete exclaimed as he reached the edge of the dock and dove into the water with a tremendous splash. Within a second, both Zoey and Geoff followed him, swimming to the marked buoys as fast as they could.
Lightning, being the most athletic of the three and having half a second lead, reached his team's buoy first, and dove to the bottom of the lake.
"If we lose today, we all know who we're voting for, right?" Bridgette asked her alliance members, looking at each of their faces for confirmation.
"Sadie?" Mike ventured, looking a bit hesitant.
"You got it." Bridgette said with a nod as she wrapped her arms around Scott's torso. "She's not a team player – you all saw what she did to my poor Scotty." Bridgette said, running her fingers through Scott's ginger hair. "Besides, she's just deadweight around here anyway."
Confessional
"Did they not realize that I could totally hear them or something? Because that was super mean of them and Scott totally had that coming to him!" Sadie ranted to the confessional, looking rather ticked off. Then, her face softened and she began to look rather sad. "But I don't want to get voted off this early. I have to win! For Katie and Eva and B! I have to fix this somehow."
Lightning was the first one to reach a crate, and lifted it easily from the lake bottom. But the water-logged crate was far heavier than he expected, and he found himself struggling with it almost immediately. The other two contestants weren't faring particularly well either, and all three had to surface for air again before they were able to pull their crates up onto the docks.
"Took you long enough!" Jo snapped as Zoey dragged her crate across the finish line and practically collapsing as she tagged Jo as the next runner in the relay.
As she sprinted to the end of the dock to catch up with LeShawna and Mike, the Bass' and the Bears' next competitors, respectively, Trent came to Zoey's side.
"You okay, Zo?"
"Yeah, fine." Zoey said with a nod as she wrung out her ponytails, then stood up. With a deep breath, Zoey pulled her crate to a spot out of the way and sat on it. "I wonder what's in these things that makes them so heavy."
"Next!" Jo called out as she passed the white line, and Trent flashed Zoey a smile before he sprinted to the end of the dock.
Everyone's attention was drawn to the waters when a hysterical scream pierced the air. "SHARK!"
"Oh good, it's about time they arrived." Chris said with a satisfied smirk as he watched the events from a nearby lifeguard tower.
The brickhouse DJ and the nice girl's friend Sadie were huddled together in the water, while a lone grey dorsal fin protruded from the water's surface.
"Where's Trent?" Zoey asked, on her feet again and sprinting to the shoreline in seconds.
"If you jump into the water, your team will be disqualified." Chef warned the girl.
"DJ! Sadie! Where's Trent?" Zoey called to the frightened duo from the shore, pacing up and down the water's edge and trying to spot her dark-haired friend.
"How tragic!" Dakota said dramatically, doing a series of shocked and damsel-in-distress poses as the recently-arrived paparazzi snapped pictures of her in her bikini.
Confessional
"I was so freaked out! Trent is like my best friend here at camp!" Zoey said to the confessional camera, looking stressed and upset. "I don't know what I would do without him!"
Just then, Trent's head broke the surface of the lake.
"Thank goodness, he's alright!" Zoey exclaimed, breathing a sigh of relief.
Trent moved to swim towards the shore when the grey dorsal fin passed between him and his two rivals. His green eyes went really wide, and he halted immediately.
"Umm. . . guys, is that what I think it is?" Trent asked.
"SHAAAAAAARK!" DJ screamed in terror, fleeing the water and sprinting up onto the shore. Sadie shore a panicked glance at the shore, and made to follow DJ's lead, but then halted.
Confessional
"You know what? I'm not done with this game yet." Sadie said with a determined grin.
Shooting a huge smile at her team, Sadie turned on her heel and dove deeper into the lake, intent on getting one of the crates for her team.
"What is she doing?!" Bridgette asked, concerned, as all the members of the Thrashing Bears team stared at the part of the lake where their teammate had vanished. "Is she crazy?!"
"Well I guess it saves us from having to vote her off later." Scott said with a shrug.
Confessional
"The way I see it, it's better for the team if the sharks do eat her." Scott said. "Then they'll be full by the time I have to go swimming and then they'll leave me alone."
Static.
"Okay, I may not like Sadie but that doesn't mean I want her to get eaten by a shark!" Bridgette said, her green eyes wide with distress.
Trent, figuring that the sudden absence of Sadie and the grey dorsal fins meant that the sharks were chasing the chubby girl, hurried to the shore with his crate.
Reaching the shore closest to Dakota, Trent tagged her as next in the relay. But Dakota was too busy posing for the paparazzi in the golf cart to notice she'd been tagged.
On Chris's command, Chef walked up to the golf cart, unnoticed by the paparazzi and Dakota, and stuck a bomb to the side of it. Getting clear of the explosive's range, Chris used a remote control to blow Dakota's photographers sky high, just as Dakota began giving the cameramen looks of surprise and relief that her teammate Trent had returned safely.
Covering her head with her hands lest there be falling shrapnel, Dakota cried out. "Take it easy!"
"Blondie! Hurry up!" Jo snapped when she realized that Dakota had not yet moved from where she'd been posing for pictures.
"What?" Dakota asked, her brows furrowing at the command.
"It's your turn!" Jo barked, putting her hands on her hips. "So get a move on!"
Confessional
"Ah, Jo, my sweet. You certainly would not make a good diplomat with your bullheadedness and your temper." Alejandro said, looking almost amused. "You'll win more allies with honey than you will vinegar." Sitting back, Alejandro began to look almost smug. "You know, I could just sit back and let her get herself eliminated. I don't have to do anything, really."
"I'm not going in there!" Dakota replied, planting her own hands on her hips. "Hello! There are sharks in there!"
"Sharks or not, we need to win this challenge!" Jo retorted. "And you got tagged, so get going!"
And with a dark look, she gave Dakota a hard shove across the white line. "Hey, take it easy!" Dakota cried out as she stumbled towards the end of the dock in her pink bikini.
Then, Jo rounded on the dark haired musician. "You just HAD to tag her, didn't you?"
Sadie swam as fast as she could to the bottom of the lake, a determined look on her face. She'd prove her worth to her team. She'd do this if it killed her – which it just might. If she didn't do something drastic, she'd be eliminated for sure. As it was, she wasn't even sure that this would do it, but it was worth a shot.
Besides, sharks didn't scare her that much. They were only giant, crazy man-eating fish, right? Nothing to be truly terrified of.
Or so she kept telling herself as she swam for her life to the nearest crate.
Grabbing hold of the handle, she turned and found herself face-to-face with a shark. Sadie opened her mouth to scream, but shut it quickly and clamped her free hand over it within a second. But in that half second, she'd lost too much air. Or at least, more air than she should have lost.
Grabbing hold of the crate with both hands, she pushed off from the lake bottom and swam towards the surface as fast as she could.
The crate was heavy and she had to fight to lift it from the silt. Her lungs starting to burn with the lack of oxygen, Sadie struggled, finally getting the crate free from the sand and accidentally hitting the shark in the face with it.
Unfortunately, she lost her grip on it when it came in contact with the shark, and as Sadie burst through the water's surface, her chest heaving as she desperately drew in the breath she'd been deprived of while she'd been underwater, the crate sunk back down to settle on the lakebottom once more.
"Go on Dakota! Get the crate!" Jo's voice commanded the blonde clinging to the end of the dock, while Sadie gasped for breath.
Sadie considered diving down again to fetch the crate, but when something slimy brushed by her leg and sent an electric shock through her body, she changed her mind in a hurry. Momentarily paralysed by the eel's shock, Sadie didn't even have time to catch her breath before she began to sink under the water.
As soon as the eel broke contact, Sadie desperately swam towards the shore.
Dakota, viewing Sadie's abandoned attempt as a free pass, clambered up onto the dock and sprinted across the finish line.
Confessional
"Ooooh, Jo is so lucky I didn't get my hair wet!" Dakota said.
A lone grey dorsal fin piercing the water's surface only a few feet behind the girl, several teens began screaming at her to hurry up, but her lungs were starting to burn from the exertion.
Finally reaching the dock, Sadie scrambled up onto the dock on all fours, before flopping onto her side not a moment too soon. The part of the dock where she'd been not half a second before was consumed by a huge pair of shark jaws.
Still gasping for breath, Sadie's eyes grew wide and she got to her feet and sprinted past the finish line in a hurry.
"Are you crazy?!" Bridgette exclaimed in shock as her teammate came within earshot and came to a stop.
"That was like . . . awesome." Harold commented, regarding Sadie with wide eyes, just as the rest of the campers were.
"And that's fifteen minutes!" Chris called to the teens, evoking a unified sigh of relief from the teens. But Chris looked rather disappointed that they were ending that part of the challenge so soon. "Things were just starting to get interesting too!"
"Can't you guys carry these things any faster?!" Jo barked, clearly growing anxious with their slow pace.
"Hey, look at it this way – we're slower because our team has one more crate than the other teams!" Zoey said optimistically, but Jo only rolled her eyes in irritation and muttered something inaudible about everyone's lack of competitive spirit.
As they reached the clearing, they found that Cody and Noah had been able to finish building their team's fort. In the very least, it gave Jo one less reason to be irritated by her team.
Chris walked to the middle of the clearing and waited for the teens to give him all their attention. Once he had it, he grinned. "For the next part of the challenge, you will find a slingshot and a variety of projectiles in each of the crates you were able to rescue. The first team whose fort gets destroyed will be sending another one of their own home tonight!"
An intern hurried to each team with a crowbar and opened their crates for them as Chris made his way out of the war zone.
Turning back to the three teams with a smug grin, he called out to them. "You may begin!"
The teens scrambled to their crates and within a few seconds, the slingshots were being set up.
Cody leaned over one of the crates and reached in to retrieve some of the projectiles, and his blue eyes grew wide with longing. His jaw agape, he stared in wonder at the contents of the crate. "Whoaaaaaa."
"MARSHMALLOWS?!" Jo cried out angrily as she produced a bag of the fluffy white treats from the crate. "WHAT KIND OF PROJECTILES ARE MARSHMALLOWS?!"
"Not very dynamic ones, if you ask me." Noah quipped in his signature deadpan tone, earning a dirty look from Jo.
"It's glorious." Cody said in a half-whisper, pulling out a very large bar of chocolate from the crate.
"Look here, we have some graham crackers too." Zoey said, holding up a box of the aforementioned crackers. "Do you think we're supposed to make s'mores?"
"My dear Zoey, I think that's exactly what we have to do." Alejandro said, taking the redhead's free hand and gently kissing the back of it. "How very clever of you to have figured that out."
Confessional
Zoey's cheeks were so flushed they were nearly as red as her hair. "Alejandro's just so . . . so . . ." She pauses to think of a word. Then, with a longing sigh, she finally chooses the right one. "Dreamy."
Heather's eyes narrowed at the sight of something undesirable – Alejandro kissing the hand of his cherry-top teammate. Casting a dark look at the male she most definitely did not like, nor would she ever like, turned away from glaring at Alejandro to look at teammate Duncan.
Walking her index and middle finger up his arm in the most seductive manner, Heather leaned closer to Duncan. Her voice practically a purr, she spoke. "Oh Duncan, you're so strong and muscular. I'm glad we have you on our team to protect us."
Gwen cast a dirty look at the duo, before tearing open the bag of marshmallows.
Confessional
"As if I'd ever actually go for juvie trash like Duncan." Heather said, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "But boys are so easy to manipulate, it's almost not fun. Almost."
"ROAAAAAAAR!" Izzy bellowed, suddenly jumping out from behind one of the Bears' crates.
Cameron shrieked in terror, and stumbled backwards, tripping over a rock and falling onto his back. His chest heaving for the breath that had been knocked out of him when his body had hit the ground, Cameron placed a hand over his racing heart.
"Izzy, please don't do that!" Cameron pleaded, his dark eyes wide behind his thick glasses.
"But it's so cute when you scream for your mommy!" Izzy said with a grin, before walking away with an extra bounce in her step.
Cameron flopped backwards and closed his eyes. "Someone please kill me now."
"Cameron, what are you doing?!" Courtney demanded, her hands on her hips as she glared at the bubble boy. "We need everyone's help!"
Nodding sheepishly, Cameron scrambled to his feet. "What do you want me to do?"
"We've got matches too!" Zoey said with a grin, victoriously holding up a sandwich bag with a box of matches inside it. "Now we can build a fire to make real graham crackers!"
"Well what are you waiting for?" Jo snapped, casting a dark look at her cherry-haired teammate. The indie chick gave the blonde a sheepish grin and ducked her head in embarrassment as she started working on starting a fire.
Soon, three trails of smoke wound their way up to the sky, one from each of the forts.
And then, within about a minute later, the first shot was fired. The Killer Bass, who had not only a whole book of matches, but Duncan's lighter as well, had been able to start a larger fire faster and were the first to fire a shot.
"Incoming!" Dawn cried out, half a second before there was a loud SPLAT! as the first s'more hit the side of their fort, followed only a moment later by the distant splat of the s'more that had been fired at the Thrashing Bears.
"Return fire!" Jo commanded, peeking over the top of the fort for a mere moment, ducking just time as a s'more sailed over the top of the fort where Jo had just been, and hit a tree behind the team with another splat!
Within a matter of moments, the air was filled with the scent of burnt marshmallows and melted chocolate. Sticky brown and white goo was clumped on trees, all three forts as well as a handful of the contestants, with broken cracker pieces and crumbs scattered across the clearing floor and protruding from the marshmallow-and-chocolate clumps.
"Hey! Take it easy!" Dakota shrieked as she had a very close call with a rogue s'more.
"Flaming s'mores!" Cameron cried out in panic as a small brown-and-white ball of sugar and fire soared through the air towards their team's fort.
"Woohoooo!" Izzy cried in excitement, climbing up onto one of the fort's supports to see the incoming fireball.
"That's not fair!" Courtney cried out, narrowing her eyes as the fireball splatted against some of the other s'mores that were clumped on the fort and ignited them.
"Quick! Start setting ours on fire too!" Sadie cried out, about to run towards the fire to create another s'more, but a hand clamped around her arm. Whirling around to face the person who had caught her arm, Sadie found herself face-to-face with the guy she'd beaten up only a few challenges prior. Narrowing her eyes, Sadie spoke. "What do you want?"
"To make a deal." Was Scott's reply.
Without a word, Sadie let Scott lead her to the back of the war effort, her eyes still narrowed in suspicion.
"You're being voted off next. You know that, right?" Scott said almost smugly, turning his back to the raven-haired girl and looking at one of the fort's supports.
"Are you trying to rub it in?" Sadie asked, planting her hands on her hips and giving Scott an irritated look.
"I can save you from being eliminated."
Confessional
"Change of plans. Sharkbait might actually be useful to me." Scott said as he whittled.
Sadie regarded him with a suspicious look, before crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't have a choice, do I?"
Scott turned back to face her and smirked. "No, not really."
"What do you want me to do?" Sadie asked, rolling her eyes.
"You have to do everything I tell you." Scott said, focusing on the girl. "Everything."
"How do I know you won't betray me?"
"I'll convince Bridgette to let you into the alliance, then you'll know who we're voting for." Scott said. "Then you'll be safe. But if you ever disobey me – Bridgette will have you eliminated. Do we have a deal?"
Scott held out his hand for a handshake. Sadie gave him a dark look, but nodded.
"Deal."
Reaching into the crate to retrieve another bag of marshmallows for the s'mores projectiles, Jo found the crate in an infuriating state.
Empty.
"How?!" Jo snapped, glaring into the crate. "We can not be out already!"
Confessional
"So . . ." Cody began, looking sheepish. "I may have a slight sweet tooth."
Whirling to face her teammates, Jo found her target, the one with chocolate smeared on his fingers and around his mouth – Cody. Grabbing him by the front of the shirt, the jock-ette picked up the geek.
"YOU ATE ALL OUR AMMO?!"
Cody only covered his face with his hands in fear, afraid that Jo was about to change the current arrangement of his face.
"Hey! Take it easy!" Dakota told Jo, posing with a hand on her hip as her paparazzi snapped pictures. Then she glanced at the photographers, lowering her designer sunglasses to regard them all. "Is that enough attitude?"
Before Jo could act upon her anger, there was a loud crack that split the air, and within a few seconds, a tree fell and crushed both Dakota's paparazzi and the Screaming Gopher's fort.
Seconds later, Chef walked away from the crime scene with a chainsaw.
"And the Screaming Gophers have been eliminated!" Chris announced to the three teams, evoking victorious cheers from the Killer Bass and the Thrashing Bears.
Jo rounded on the blonde princess. Her teammates looked almost as irritated as the blonde jockette was as she pointed the finger at Dakota. "This is all your fault, Princess Poser! You and your stupid photographers!"
"One down, one to go!" Courtney said, a determined look on her freckled face. "Focus all efforts on the Bass fort! Let's bring it down!"
"Hey guys! Watch this!" Izzy said with a cackle before she sprinted out from behind the Bears' fort with a light brown ball in her hands.
"Izzy, what are you doing?!" Courtney called, alarmed by her teammate's actions.
"Bye-bye fishies!" Izzy called, and with a wide grin, she tossed the brown ball at one of the flaming clumps of s'mores on the Killer Bass's fort.
BOOM!
The force of the explosion completely obliterated the Bass's fort, knocking all the Killer Bass members, as well as Izzy, to the ground. Soot covered the front of Izzy's body, while the Killer Bass seemed to have escaped that much, although their fort was destroyed.
"And in an explosive turn of events, the Bass have been eliminated!" Chris narrated, chuckling at the shocked expressions of the Killer Bass members. "Gophers, I'll see you at the campfire ceremony tonight!"
"What?!" Bridgette asked, appalled. "But she – she -"
"She has agreed to do everything we tell her." Scott said.
"How do we even know she was telling the truth?" Bridgette asked, narrowing her eyes.
"She's willing to do whatever it takes to stay in the game." Scott said.
"But she hit you!"
"Well, think of this as an opportunity to get revenge on her for that."
Confessional
Bridgette looked very reluctant. "I don't want revenge! I just wanted her eliminated because of what she did, but that's not really revenge – right?" Bridgette looked doubtful for a moment before taking a deep breath, and offering a smile. "But, I suppose if Scott can find it in his heart to forgive her for punching him, so can I."
"Hey DJ!" Zoey said with a smile, self-consciously touching the flower in her hair to make sure it was still in the right place.
"Heya Zoey." DJ said with a smile, holding Bunny in his arms. "Great job today. It was a close one."
"Yeah, you too." The redhead responded with a smile.
"Oh, hey, you've got a bit of marshmallow on your cheek." DJ said, reaching over to get it with his free hand. Pausing, he glanced at the girl's face. "Mind if I-?"
"Oh no, go ahead!" Zoey said, her cheeks flushing slightly as the brickhouse's thumb gently removed the marshmallow piece. "Thanks."
"No problem Zoey." DJ said, returning her smile as the redhead reached over to pet the grey furry bundle in DJ's arms.
After a long pause in their conversation, Zoey frowned. "I should probably get to the elimination ceremony."
"Sucks that your team lost." DJ commented. "I hope you don't get eliminated."
"Me too!" Zoey said with a smile. "I think I should be safe – tonight, at least."
"Well, good luck anyway!" DJ said before the two went their separate ways.
Confessional
"Zoey's a sweet girl." DJ said with a nod. "Says a lot about a person when they volunteer to look after someone else's bunny."
"But. . . I thought . . ." Mike said softly to himself as he witnessed the exchange between Zoey and DJ.
"What's up, buddy?" Scott asked, coming to stand beside the brunette male.
"Oh hey Scott." Mike said, running his hand through his hair as though lost in thought. Then, turning to his ginger-haired teammate, she spoke. "Do Zoey and DJ look kind of flirty to you?"
Scott glanced at the duo before shrugging. "Yeah, I s'pose."
"But I thought Zoey was was with Trent." Mike said, more to himself than to his teammate.
"Who told you that?" Scott asked, before quickly adding. "Just curious."
"Bridgette." Mike said. "Maybe she got her facts mixed up."
"Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what happened." Scott said, agreeing too quickly.
Mike regarded him suspiciously. "What do you know that I don't?"
"Well even if Bridgette did know the truth, I'm sure she did what she did with noble intentions." Scott said in a low voice.
"What?" Mike asked, frowning. "What do you mean?"
"Well, she was probably just trying to protect the alliance. If she did know the truth, that is." Scott said with a shrug. "But I don't know if she knew or not though."
Confessional
Mike looked distressed. "Did Bridgette lie to me on purpose?"
Static.
"Too easy." Scott said with a smirk.
"You've all cast your votes." Chris began, looking at the teens assembled before him. Picking up the first marshmallow off the plate in front of him, he regarded it as though it was something very important. "Tonight, marshmallows go to. . ."
"Dawn, Alejandro, Noah and Trent." Chris tossed a marshmallow to each of the named contestants.
"Score!" Trent said softly, giving Zoey a high-five as he passed her.
"Jo." Chris said, tossing one of the marshmallows to the jockette. Then to two other female Gophers. "Anne Maria and Zoey."
"What?" Dakota asked, realizing that she and Cody were the bottom two.
"This is the final marshmallow of the night." Chris said in an overly dramatic tone. "Who will receive the final token of safety? And who will be sent home on the Boat of Losers? Will it be you, Cody, who ate most of your team's ammo? Or will it be you, Dakota, who spent most of the time posing for pictures instead of actually helping your team?"
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"Cody." Chris said, finally ending the tension and tossing the last marshmallow to the geek. "Dakota, you are out of the contest."
Dakota stood up, her nostrils flaring angrily. "What? No! I can't be out already! I haven't even got my own spin-off series yet!"
Cody sighed sadly. "I guess this is goodbye then, Dakota."
"You're still, like, my knight in shiny armour for fixing my phone." Dakota said, quickly kissing Cody on the cheek before Chef grabbed her by the arm and began to drag her towards the dock of shame. "Hey! Take it easy!"
Cody remained sitting seated on his stump, his hand on his cheek where Dakota had kissed him, as the rest of the team made their way back to their cabins.
Chris just grinned at all the drama. "Who will get the boot next time, on Total Drama Island?"
The Votes:
"Stupid Princess Poser and her stupid paparazzi." Jo said, glaring at the confessional camera. "I vote for Dakota."
Static.
"Okay, it is kind of Dakota's fault we lost." Zoey said. "So I vote for her."
Static.
"Sorry Dakota, but it's your fault we're here again tonight." Trent said, running a hand through his dark hair.
Static.
"Jo is so totally going to get it!" Dakota declared. "She's just lucky I didn't get my hair wet when she tried to throw me into shark-infested waters!"
Static.
"If only I hadn't eaten all our ammo . . ." Cody began. "It was totally worth it, but I vote for myself anyway."
Static.
"I'd like Alejandro to be eliminated already, but tonight I'm going to have to vote for Dakota." Noah said.
Static.
"It's probably for the best that we vote Dakota off now. I sense a terrible fate will befall her if she remains on the island." Dawn said.
Static.
"Jo did a lovely job getting on everyone's nerves today, but alas, Dakota managed to out-do her and lose us the challenge, so surely everyone will be voting for her tonight." Alejandro said.
Static.
"The attention-seeking princess has gotta go." Anne Maria said, spraying more hairspray onto her pouf. "It's all her fault we lost today!"
Eliminated so far:
37th: Katie
36th: Staci
35th: Sierra
34th: Sam
33rd: Eva
32nd: Owen
31st: B
30th/29th: Lindsay & Ezekiel
28th: Justin
27th: Brick
26th: Dakota
Still in the Game:
Screaming Gophers: Dawn, Alejandro, Anne Maria, Noah, Cody, Trent, Zoey, Jo
Killer Bass: Duncan, LeShawna, Geoff, Gwen, Heather, Harold, Beth, Tyler, DJ
Thrashing Bears: Sadie, Cameron, Courtney, Scott, Lightning, Izzy, Bridgette, Mike
Review Replies (this is a huge section):
Slicer37 – I'm really glad you liked it! It was one of my favourites to write, that's for sure!
Knifez – I want Noah (or Dawn) to win every season too. xD It's been pretty much a tug of war writing this story between keeping which characters I like and want to do well, and which characters that I have good, interesting plots for.
Sarcastic Devotee – I'm glad that you're enjoying my story! It means a lot to me that you pointed out my characterization as something I'm doing well, because it's one of the things I really work hard to achieve in all my stories. Thank you so much!
Munchlax Jr – I'm still deciding on who is going to end up with who as well. I think I've got things figured out, and then I write a new chapter and it changes my perspective on a ship I previously didn't really care for. And Total Drama All Stars hit me with so many new ships that it just destroyed all five+ versions of my "possible finals" lists. XD
Shiny – I never actually decided what Dawn was saying under her breath – it's completely up to reader interpretation! XD
Titans vs Gods – Did this chapter answer your question about Izzy and Cameron? XD
TheQueenofBooks1000 – I do agree that I am writing Bridgette a bit out of character, which I was hoping would not happen but alas it has, but I do have a plan for her that will hopefully fix that.
Justaturtle – I have no intention of leaving this story unfinished. I got caught up with schoolwork and a flaky muse for four months, but I've left stories without updates for far longer before and I almost always come back to them. Especially ones that I put as much planning into as I have this story. (Seriously, I have a binder full of lists and plot ideas and so much stuff for this story.) The only way I'll stop writing this story is if I get hired to actually write for the Total Drama series. XD
ManaTheWeirdOne – I'm glad that you like my characterization of Zoey! I tried to keep her canon but also expand her personality into something both relatable and likeable. And the same with Sadie – I was hoping to make it so that her entire life doesn't revolve around Katie. I'm glad you think I've been successful with both of those!
AmmyChey3X – I'm glad you enjoyed those parts! And I have a plan for the Zoey/Mike/Gwen/Trent love square that hopefully everyone will like!
FoxfaceFan1 – I'm glad you like the story! And about the eliminated so far column, I'm not sure. I did it how it made sense to me and also agreed with my OCD-ness, but I edited it anyway.
Neyson14 – Thank you! I'm glad you think so! And I hope you'll enjoy the plots that I have in store for all of those characters!
Anon – I'm flattered! Thank you so much, you're so sweet! I have plans for everyone that have barely even begun yet. Hopefully you'll enjoy everything I've got in store!
Heather – Altered the elimination list. Is that how you meant?
ForeverDarkKnight1313 – Awww, I'm thrilled that you like my story! Thank you so much! :)
Guest – I'm really, really sorry Guest. I have plans for all of the characters, and I promise that things will be sorted out eventually, but the plot I have in store for everyone is going to take time – if I speed it up, it'll turn my story into Total Drama All Stars, and that's the last thing I want. I don't want the plots in my fanfic to end up as rushed as Total Drama All Stars felt, so I'm letting them play out naturally. I promise they'll eventually figure out the mix up and things will be sorted out, but I don't know how many more chapters it will take. Is a promise that things WILL get fixed enough to get you through?
Constructive criticism always appreciated! Please review!