Replies, set up for failure

lordgemini- Really glad you liked this one. This was one of the chapters that I had the most intent on fixing, and today will follow suit. Unfortunately for Hannah, Karon is not her season. She's glow much better in a Submerged re-write (if it were to exist, which it will not). I really am also enjoying using Norm as a catlyst to have Ethan make some worse decisions in this one (like having Jonathan get the final vote the previous episode).

Alright, big chapter today, let's see if it gets better

Episode 7: Acid Rings

The camera eventually found Chris on the top of Mount Karon, where he was relaxing outside the Launch of Shame area. "Last time," he said, "on Total Drama Karon Island, we shook things to its core with a balancing act amidst a huge heat wave." The first scenes were of Kara coming in from the sweltering heat, and the Bouncing Bunnies struggling on their shaking platforms. "Some tried their best, which wasn't enough, and some tried their worst, which was." Clips played of Sarah getting clipped by Juan on his way off, and Alexa yawning before crashing to the ground, Luna still standing strong. "After Luna got her team another win, teams went to cross The Chasm by a harpoon, or by ripping the wires around of my monitor!" Clips played of Helio's harpoon mishap and Madison ripping apart Chris's monitor for the wires.

"Juan spent his day convincing the others to eliminate Hannah at the end of their next loss, which he ensured happened today, in English." Clips played of Juan shocking Ethan and Jonathan by talking to them, and of him throwing the balance challenge to lose the advantage. "Jonathan, by request, got the fifth vote from Madison and repaid her with a kiss, which was not requested." The clip played of Jonathan's assault on the introvert. "But, Jonathan had individual immunity, stopping him from being the target of the Hens' loss."

"In the end, Hannah bit the bullet, just as planned by Juan, who now has a sense of distrust among his team." Clips played of Hannah being voted off and Angie being upset that Juan is not as trustworthy as she thought. "Will Juan pay for his actions? Will Jonathan pay for his actions? Find out today on Total! Drama! Karon Island"

Opening Sequence

[Various cameras and other director equipment come popping out of various points on the island. Firstly, it appears out of a large tree, then out of a hole at the entrance to the mines, and finally, shooting all the way from the top of The Chasm.]

Dear Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine,

[The camera zooms all the way up at the top of Mount Karon. Kara is at the top, observing something as Kayla jumps off of the cliff and starts flying downward, opening up a parachute at the very last second.]

You guys are on my mind,

[The camera moves to the beach, where Gretchen falls off of the rocky cliff and lands face first into the water, still splashing around happily anyway. Nearby, Juan is relaxing in the water as Hannah pops up next to him, evidently annoying him.]

You asked me what I wanted to be, and I think the answer is plain to see,

[Near the beach, the fourth boat is still wrecked and crashed into a rock. Helio lifts the boat out of the water to move it, all while Daniel is still on it, shocked at the boy's strength. Meanwhile, Madison emerges from the boat wreckage as well, and Jonathan offers his hand to help, which she takes begrudgingly.]

I wanna be famous!

[Further into the woods, Paul is narrowly racing against Sarah in a race. The pessimist trips over Sheldon and crashes to the ground, upset over his loss because of it. Flora rushes over to check on the safety of both the boys.]

I wanna live close to the sun,

[At the base of Mount Karon, Randall is decked out in climbing gear, excited to start moving up the mountain. Next to him, Alexa, looks significantly disinterested, sleeping on a log instead of watching.]

Go pack your bags cause I've already won,

[In the forest, Chad is screaming and jumping around to different trees, while Angie stands in the middle of all of it, covering her ears and getting increasingly more agitated.]

Everything to prove, nothing in my way, I'll get there one day,

[As Chad makes more noises, Ethan and Norm watch from a tree in the distance, before both of them exchange an understanding nod. Next to them lies an empty poison bottle.]

Cause I wanna be famous!

[In the dining tent, Chef and Luna are conversing rather calmly, before a strike of lightning crashes down on the tent. Chef runs out, but Luna appears unfazed by it, instead calmly glancing upward.]

Na na, na na na na, na na na na, na na na na na na!

[The camera moves to the dock, where Luna appears out of nowhere, spooking Paul and Kayla. The two glare at her, the former giving up on caring much faster than the latter.]

I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous! I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!

[The camera drops down to the mines, where Kara is lurking, and she presses a button that launches out a ball of fire. The fire reveals some sort of odd structure inside the mine, bursting into a big glow that transitions to the fire.]

I wanna be famous *whistling*

[Everyone is circled up at the fire. In the middle of all of it, Jonathan leans in toward Madison, who jumps backward, accidentally landing in Ethan's lap, where she is even more freaked out. Above them is the sign that reads 'Total Drama Karon Island'.]

Ethan burst out of his cabin, especially furious now that he had a chance to sleep on the events of yesterday. "Can't kill him due to those contracts," he said to himself bitterly. "At least I have one option left up my sleeve." He knocked on the door to the girls' cabin. He waited impatiently for someone to grab the door, tapping his foot rapidly.

Opening the door was Madison. The introvert jumped backward, terrified of the anti-villain's angry look he had on his face. "Sorry!" she yelled out instinctively, trying to keep herself hidden as she ran back to her bunk and threw herself under her blankets. Ethan sighed as he watched the entire thing unfold in front of him.

"You're not the person I'm here for," he told her punctually. "Sarah." The swimmer perked up, surprised to hear her name called over the other two girls left in the cabin. "A word? It's in regard to your vote last night." Sarah glanced over at Angie, who was equally lost on the request, but still interested in who she voted for.

Eventually, Sarah got up. "Fine, fine, I'll come with you." The two left the cabin and went out to the woods, where Ethan checked for any sight of anyone else. "What are you dragging me out here for?" she asked, almost annoyed. "What was up with Madison's reaction to you also? That was more...Madison than I've seen from her."

Ethan sighed. "Your vote, that's why I called you out here," he reminded her. "I check the votes every night to see how people think," he told her, capturing the swimmer's interest. "Your vote, was especially interesting. Even though he was immune, you still voted for Jonathan. What's up with that? Naturally, it wouldn't have changed anything about the result, but you still did it."

Sarah shrugged. "I don't like him. I kinda thought you didn't also." Ethan glared at her. "Right, right, I know you don't. Anyway, I didn't really think anyone else deserved a vote, and so I threw mine out. Especially after Madison came back crying over-" she stopped herself dead in her tracks. "Oh my gosh, you're totally the guy she goes and sees every night!"

"Nothing like that," Ethan defended to her, holding his arms up, but still turning red at that. Sarah smirked. "Well, I sort of thought it was, but yesterday changed how I viewed it. Initially it was a plan where she'd vote with me and I'd keep Jonathan away from her. That's why I teamed up with her in the water course and sat next to her in the truth challenge." He sighed. "Yesterday is messing my brain up."

The swimmer was gushing with excitement. "Oh, you have no idea!" she exclaimed excitedly. "She's so into you!" That statement seemed to calm Ethan down a bit. Sarah took a deep breath. "She's messed up too though. If the whole team works together, we could just throw today and get Jonathan out today. Angie said she'd be open to it, she doesn't like seeing Madison messed up like this."

Ethan shook his head. "I will not throw a challenge," he said defiantly. "We've lost enough, this is too much to lose. I don't want to go into it with you, but I have to win, that's why I'm here. You're going to have to offer something big to convince me to throw a challenge when we're down for the count like this."

"Ethan, I can't offer you anything," Sarah countered, "but throwing gets Jonathan out, which Madison needs before she goes off the deep end. If you actually care for her, you'll do this with us." Ethan hesitated again. "We need you to do this." Eventually, Ethan relented and nodded. "Great. I'll get Angie on board, you get Norm and Juan." She grinned. "Let's lose!"

Sarah: "I could tell that the whole Jonathan incident might have messed Ethan up more than Madison," she mentioned. "I want him gone too, so I'm super excited to have some peace on our team from now on."

Ethan: "I am here to win, no matter what," he said defiantly. "That means that every time I lose a challenge, I risk losing, and I don't know what I'll do if I lose this early." He sighed. "But, she's right. I care about Madison, more than I thought I did...I guess I'm running the risk of losing today...kind of." He laughed. "I mean, Jonathan can't possibly get the votes."

Outside the cabins, all the other Hens except Madison were sitting outside the cabin. "Alright, time for some transparency," Angie said to the team, looking right at Juan. "Your little plot so far worked, and if you asked me, I would have been on board with it. But, you've been keeping a big secret from us. We're supposed to be a team that works together." She then glared at Jonathan. "You too."

Jonathan scoffed. "Listen, I am not the person who you should be talking to this about," he defended. "Ethan is not here right now, he left early this morning, probably looking for an idol no doubt." He smirked. "And, who needs an idol? Someone who is up to something."

Norm sighed. "Angie, with all due respect, three of us are not here." Angie sighed, agreeing. "That's nearly half the team, and we need to be all on the same page." He turned to Jonathan. "You are one to talk. Why don't you tell everyone what you did at the challenge yesterday?" Jonathan's smirk dropped. "And, whether or not you think it's related to Madison's absence today?"

"It's not!" the lover boy shot back at the genius. "You want transparency? Here it is." Angie sat and watched the entire argument. "Angie, yesterday, Juan revealed to us first that his English was perfectly fine, and in a request, asked us to vote off Hannah, but Ethan suggested that we'd need a fifth vote, so they sent me to get Madison's vote and I did!"

Angie blinked a few times. "You know what? I'm sick of all of you." She walked over to a tree, punching it as hard as she can. "Why can't this team just function normally?" She punched the tree a few more times until her hands started hurting. "See you all at the challenge. Maybe we can thin this ugly herd today."

Hearing the conversation, Alexa grinned, heading back over to where the Bunnies were all hanging out. "They're in complete disarray," she reported to Flora. "If someone else...not me, were to stir the pot a bit, we could be cruising for a few challenges at least. They really hate each other over there."

The pacifist shook her head. "No one is stirring any pot," she said in a determined tone. "We can win with the skills that we've shown as a group together. I already disprove of letting the two of you listen in on the other team, but I was outvoted, and I support this team's collective decisions." Eventually, Randall joined the group too.

"We're in good shape from what I gathered too," Randall claimed, hopping down from a tree that led into the woods. "I think the spunky swimmer girl wants to throw the challenge. They keep saying Jonathan did something, but won't tell us what." He turned to Flora. "I think we can relax for today. I don't foresee us losing at all."

"That's awesome," Kara said to the group. "If that's the case," I'm going to do some idol hunting before the challenge. We can probably skip making a clear strategy before the challenge. Sorry we won't use your skills today, Luna." The psychic shrugged, uncaring she didn't have to pitch in. With that, Kara disappeared into the woods, breaking into a sprint.

Paul raised an eyebrow as the curious girl vanished in a very quick time. "Okay, we're just going to let Kara do that and get ahead of us?" No one else seemed to have an issue with it. "Well, as long as we're on the same page. We can relax, but we can't get complacent. Anything could happen, and this could be a giant ploy from the Hens to get us to get our guard down."

Kayla scoffed. "Oh, you little pessimistic fool," Kayla said with a laugh. "Have you seen their anger? That's real. We are in fine shape today. But, I agree with you agreeing with Flora." Paul rolled his eyes as the brat smirked. "We still go all out no matter what." The speakers blared, getting their attention. "Right on cue."

Chris's voice appeared over all of their heads from the speakers. "Attention, campers, we're experiencing an approaching challenge, so please make your way over to the new and improved dining facility!" He chuckled. "That's right, no more dining tent, you'll eat like real people now, but your challenge is in there first, so get to it!"

Paul: "Kayla's being so ridiculous," he said stoically. "The odds that someone as remarkable as Flora even notices me is miniscule. I only helped her out on the paintball challenge because she'd be useless otherwise." He scoffed. "She's stupid. Kayla, I mean, definitely not Flora. Kayla's stupid. Flora's great, well-" He stopped himself. "I'm leaving for the challenge now."

The two teams made it into the dining facility, but things looked a bit understaffed on the two teams. Everyone was impressed with the new place regardless. The walls were a crisp metal now, and things were overall in better shape. "Woah, this is a crazy upgrade," Angie admitted, admiring the new building. "Even I'm impressed with this."

Chris sighed. "It was an unavoidable expense," Chris admitted. "We were fine keeping the dingy old tent, but we got a report of acid rain today, so we're all in here." Murmurs from both teams started crawling out. "Enough! It's time for the challenge. You'll be in here until this challenge is over, unless you don't value your bones."

Jonathan raised his hand. "Hold on," he said desperately, "we still have Madison missing, where is she?" The Hens all looked unsurprised to see Madison gone. "No one else cares about her but me it seems," he concluded, glaring at Ethan the most. He took a deep breath. "I'll go and find her, you all wait here."

"You will wait here," Chris insisted. Jonathan looked like he wanted to argue, but Chris also looked angry. "Good. Chef, go find our missing delinquents. The Bunnies are short a player too." Chef nodded, throwing on his hazmat suit as he left the dining facility. Almost a minute after he left, acid rain began to hit the roof and the ground, the occasional sizzle being heard.

Chris then sat everyone down at a table. Hens were on one side, Bunnies on the other. Chris passed out a piece of paper to each camper, the paper containing two similar looking pictures on it. "Uh, we really weren't planning on having to do a challenge inside," he admitted, "and since we're stuck here until this clears up, this will be for an advantage in the real challenge. These are 'Spot the Difference' pages. Yeah, there's eight differences. No talking about it to others. Get to it."

"You've really lost your mojo," Paul snickered as he began searching through the pictures. His smirk quickly dropped. "Wait a second, this is actually super hard..." The pessimist continued to struggle more and more. "Looks like today is another day our team failed by getting rid of Sheldon first, this thing seems super difficult..."

Kayla appeared to be struggling as well. "I agree with the first half," she said spitefully, "who makes these for children and this hard?" She glanced up as Luna was finding all of her differences with ease. Flora appeared to be in the same boat. Helio looked completely dumbfounded. "Is anyone else doing well?" She asked her team, "Kara would be a huge help, but she got left out there..."

"This hard," Helio agreed, totally stumped on his picture. Things seemed hopeless for them. Randall was also struggling. "Team need girl that look like mean girl." Kayla gasped at Helio's blunt interpretation of her and her sister, but had nothing to fire back with it.

Over at the Hens' table, things were playing out very differently. Jonathan was working very hard on his paper, as were Juan and Norm. Everyone else seemed to be in a very carefree situation. "All done," Ethan said with pride. He put down his picture, which was not circled at all and instead folded into a paper crane. "This was pretty tough." To his right, Norm and Juan were actually done already with their pictures.

Jonathan grunted. "Yeah, that's an awesome attitude," he griped, finding one of the differences and circling it. "Alright, five more to go..." He looked up again at the paper crane. "Thanks for doing that," he said angrily to the anti-villain. "That makes picking who to vote out when we lose super easy."

"Uh, yeah, we're gonna pick the guy who assaulted someone yesterday," Sarah snapped at the lover boy, catching him off guard. "Yeah, we know what you did." Some of the Bunnies were looking over now too. "Hope you can carry us to a win on your own today, because you're toast if you can't." Jonathan glared at her. Juan also looked up and watched.

Jonathan: "What a pathetic reaction," he griped. "Throwing a challenge for something I didn't do? Madison will be even more upset when I leave." He pulled the idol out of his pocket and sinisterly laughed. "Well, luckily that won't happen...not to me at least."

Juan: "It looks like the girls and Ethan are throwing today...there's no way they know about the idol I saw last night." He put a hand to his chin before his eyes lit up. "I think I know the best way to pay those boys back for their service to me yesterday."

Outside the dining facility, Chef began searching around for the missing people. Little did he know that Kara was right outside, hiding under a rock in a bush. "This is so stupid," she said to herself, "I need a hazmat suit like that." She watched as Chef left to the cabin area, and Kara then followed the cook carefully, trying her best to stay hidden from him.

Chef eventually knocked on the girls' cabin for the Hens. "Girlie? You in here?" he asked, almost annoyed. He got to the porch, where the roof was now over him again. Chef took off the helmet for the hazmat suit. "Chris shoulda done the acid rain later," he muttered to himself, "this is tedious." Kara gasped at what Chef uttered, but that got the cook's attention. "Who's there?" he asked vigilantly.

Kara bolted back to the dining facility, hoping to make it back to her original hiding spot. "Chris decides the weather..." Kara said to herself, "I knew it! But, how does he pick it? How does he turn the weather on and off?" She sighed. "I'll have to go deeper down this rabbit hole if I want to find out more about this disaster spawner he has."

Chef gave up on trying to find Kara, and opened the door. Madison had nearly made herself invisible in the cabin, hiding on her bunk, under a set of blankets. "Girl, you gotta get up," he said, holding his hand out to the hopeless introvert. Madison refused to move. Chef sighed. "If it helps you, at all, half your team looks like they're throwing today, likely to get that guy gone."

The introvert glanced up finally, and slowly got out of her bunk. Chef smiled. "There ya go. Now, stay here unless you wanna get disintegrated by that stuff out there." He threw on the hazmat suit helmet again. "Once it stops you should find your team." Chef left the cabin and started heading for the odd cave in the middle of the woods. "Better turn that off for now."

Madison: "That was so embarrassing," she admitted, "but it's nice to hear the team wants Jonathan gone too. Maybe I can help for later in the challenge, help us lose I mean. I just hope Ethan is okay. I should probably talk to him after the challenge. It's time I stand up for myself...I think."

Back at the dining facility, Chris peered outside. "Huh, the rain stopped," he said to himself, almost shocked. "Well, that means time's up." A bunch of people groaned, unable to finish the really basic mind puzzle. "I have completed pictures from Jonathan, Juan, and Norm for the Hens, and Bunnies that finished are Luna, Flora, and Alexa." Then, two more people came in the door. "There's our runaways. Where have you two been?"

Kara scoffed. "I can't speak for her, but I was coming to the dining facility and the acid rain started, so I was forced to run into a cave to keep safe from it." She showed Chris one of her sleeves that was corroded away a bit. "That sufficient for you?" Chris nodded, a bit angry that it happened still, but he believed the curious girl's lie.

"Fine," Chris stated, "just promise me you won't sue me for it and we'll call it even." Kara seemed to agree to that. "Great, now that you two are here, I don't really care what you do. Only the people who completed the first half of today get to compete in round two, making it an even three against three." The two sets of teams looked at each other.

Chris held up a gold ring in his hand. "Now that we can go outside, you need to get me the other one of these gold rings. It's hidden somewhere in the woods, just bring it back to me and you win the challenge." He laughed. "You all seem to be surprised by today, like it's way too easy for you."

Luna sighed. "Quite frankly, with your history, I don't think anyone believes you." Her eyes lit up a bit. "And, from my readings on you today, they're right to not, you obviously have something else coming our way." She squinted. "I can't make it out exactly though...all I'm getting are boxes of raccoons."

A box then was lowered down in front of Chris. "Nicely done, Luna, that's exactly it! The six competing campers gasped. "That's right, to make sure you move quick, here's thirty raccoons that have been trained to hunt rings." Luna groaned. "Don't let one of these critters catch you with the ring on your way back to me, that'd be bad." He laughed. "Well, that should be all the six of you need. Good luck! Go!" He ran an air horn, sending them all into the woods, and the raccoons shortly after.

Juan and Norm quickly split off from Jonathan, losing him in the dense trees. Juan glanced around for a second before turning to Norm. "Norm, there is something dire you need to know before the end of the day," he urged him. "Jonathan has an immunity idol. That means the plot the girls have going on is going to fail."

Norm sighed. "He did look way too pleased with himself even when the whole team was against him," he noted. "Well, that puts us in a tough spot. Even if we can successfully flush out an idol, someone goes home. Six votes to Jonathan, and the final vote his, will likely be on Ethan. And that would be the end of that, we'd be in a pretty nasty spot."

Juan nodded. "Exactly. But, what if the two of us picked someone?" Norm raised an eyebrow, interested in Juan's idea. "Two votes could put someone in the bottom two with him." He sighed. "I would like to pay back all three of you at once for helping me with Hannah," he told him honestly. "That leaves me with one potential candidate." He whispered into Norm's ear. "Thoughts?"

The antisocial genius widened his eyes. "That's...an idea. I mean, it works but..." He gave it some more thought. "Alright, that's the best option, I guess. They're going to be so mad at us." He laughed. "You know, you're craftier than I initially thought," he told Juan. "I might have to keep an eye out for you myself in the future." Juan nervously looked away as the two continued to look for the ring half-heartedly.

Jonathan, on the other hand, was looking very hard for the ring. "I'm so safe," he said with a smirk, "but even then, having the idol for another day isn't going to hurt anyone. I'll be their target for a few more days." He laughed. "Find the ring, earn my team's trust again, take them over and stomp them out, this is getting easier and easier."

The lover boy then spotted a giant rope net sitting in the woods. "This isn't new," he said to himself. Then, he gasped. "This is the rope trap that caught Chad!" The paintball stains were behind him and in front of him, all from the crossfire Chad had that day. "Looks like their skirmish was in this direction, so why..." he then caught sight of one lone shot to his left. "Why would this one...that's Ethan's shot! Evidence!"

Jonathan was about to grab the branch with the paint stain, but then he pulled his hand back. "Hold on...maybe this isn't the smartest thing. Maybe there's a way that I can benefit greatly from this discovery." He laughed again. "Oh...I so have this game." Suddenly, a loud rush was heard behind him. The boy shot back. "Who's there?" he asked a bit more fearfully.

The figure started moving in circles around Jonathan. The lover boy backed into a tree, concerned by the black figure moving so quickly around him. Eventually, a sharpened stick flew right next to his head, embedding itself in the tree. "What the-" Jonathan yelled. "Who are you?" he demanded, even more frightened.

"Who I am is not important," the figure eventually said, still moving too fast for Jonathan to make out a shape. The voice was deep and chilling. "Know that I am worse than fear, because fear can be made out." Another stick landed on the other side of Jonathan's head. "This is just the beginning." The figure then disappeared, leaving a truly stunned Jonathan.

Jonathan: He was still in complete shock from the event. "What was that?" he asked fearfully. "It was so fast...a lot of dangerous aura poured out of that...thing." He sighed. "Well, as long as I'm not impaled, I can move on with my new strategy." He laughed darkly.

The Bunnies were all hunting for the ring as a group. "This is exhausting," Alexa complained as she glanced under a rock, only to find nothing. "If I knew that finishing that picture difference thing was going to draft me into this, I wouldn't have done it." The underachiever looked up a tree. "Nothing up here either. Does Chris know how impossible this is?"

Flora put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "You've done a great deal for us already," the pacifist insisted. "If you need to rest, I'm sure Luna and I could handle it." The psychic nodded in agreement. Alexa looked thankful, climbing into a tree and promptly falling asleep. Flora turned to Luna as they left her to rest. "I cannot believe that with how little opportunity there is to do our hair hers stays perfect."

"She works as a model at home," Luna reminded her, "so obviously that's a job that for her wouldn't require a ton of work, since she specializes in hair care products. By the way, if you're interested, I think she found someone she likes here, since as a reminder, she lied about that a few days ago."

Flora put her arms up defensively. "That information is likely personal to her," the pacifist defended. "I wouldn't like it if you read my secrets, and obviously you had one too. You wouldn't like it much if someone told whoever it is here who you like, right?" Luna shuddered. "You have a rare talent, but sometimes the best talent is empathy."

Luna sighed. "Apologies. I have much to learn still it seems. But, in that respect, you have things people think about you that you do not know." Flora looked even more confused by that. "I would see what Paul's motive for sticking around you is." She then reached into a hole inside a nearby tree. "We've made it." The psychic then pulled out the ring that Chris hid. "You hold off the raccoons. I'll bring this back to him."

The pacifist could already see the raccoons gathering around her as Luna darted off. "Oh dear," Flora said fearfully as she observed the crowd. "Hi, all," she said amicably, hoping to make peace with them. "I do not have the ring you're looking for...maybe there's something I can do to help make another one?" The raccoons all looked around at each other before backing off. "Great, everyone find a twig."

Back by the dining facility, Luna had just arrived to Chris. "Take it!" she cried out, handing the ring to Chris. The two noticed Flora approaching rapidly with the raccoons. "Uh oh, they're here." Chris and Luna were about to bolt, but they noticed that the raccoons looked way less hostile than before. "What...happened to them?"

Flora arrived, each raccoon now with a small twig wrapped in a ring shape around their wrists. "They just wanted a ring," Flora explained to them, "they didn't necessarily want that one." She smiled. "Great work Luna. Your skills today got us another win!" The rest of the team was just as surprised as Luna. Paul especially looked shocked.

"That's right," Chris said, "since Luna brought back the right ring, that means that the Bouncing Bunnies win again!" The Bunnies cheered, as did a few of the Hens. Juan and Norm still looked nervous. "Hens, we will see you tonight for another elimination." He shook his head, disappointed. "You have to be upset at that by now."

Luna: "It wasn't the initial plan to have Flora tame those animals," she admitted, twirling her hair nervously. "But, that's what she said...so I think I'll stick with that story, it's a good one."

Flora: "My first two days as the team leader and we won!" she said excitedly. "But now I'm worried about what Luna said about Paul. I thought we were getting along just fine." She sighed. "I hope I'm not too cheery for him. Maybe that's it...I must find out what is bringing anguish to my teammate."

Just outside the campsite for the Happy Hens, Ethan was still angry, sitting around on a log nearby, lost in thought. He had a few sharpened sticks in his hand. Madison carefully walked up and approached him. "Um...what do you have there?" she asked, trying to break the ice with the anti-villain.

"My family relives stress through sharpening things," he told her naturally. He then paused to think about what that sounded like. "My family is odd, I guess you've figured out that much." He put a stick down. "Okay, we need to talk about what's been going on with you the past day." He looked her in the eyes. "First things first: are you okay?"

"I'm fine...I think," Madison said with a sigh. "I was not expecting what happened yesterday to happen, and it messed me up, probably because I knew it would mess you up too and..." she took a deep breath. "I like you. It was you all this time." Ethan looked happy to hear that from her. "You're the one who's been protecting me from him, and I know because the first time you weren't there, it happened."

Ethan sighed dejectedly. "I'm sorry, I should have gone with you. I tunnel-visioned on making sure Juan got his wish that I forgot to protect you. I hope you can forgive me, and if you don't want to vote with me anymore, I understand, but I'll keep protecting you as much as I can...is that enough?" He had a pleading look on his face.

Madison sat down next to Ethan, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Ethan, I'll still vote with you. I want to go as far as I can in this game with you, not because you're doing this so well, but because you need that support too. I want to help you be everyone else's hero too." She looked him in the eyes. "But, if it comes down to it, you should fight for yourself. I didn't do that and now we have to have this conversation.

The two hugged each other. "It only messed me up so much because of how much I like you too, Madison. You're the reason I kept pushing forward some of these days." He looked her in the eyes back. "Let's do this, let's put Jonathan out of here."

ELIMINATION VI, HAPPY HENS

Numbers continued to dwindle on this team, as only seven of them made it up to the top of Mount Karon this time. Jonathan was by himself, far away from the rest of the team, while everyone else kept their distance from him too, making it clear how much he was ostracized. Norm and Juan looked quite nervous for the day.

Chris approached the team with only six marshmallows left. "This is a fun day," Chris told them. "Lotta failure from a lotta people, but I'm not sure how much that's going to affect how tonight goes. But, just for fun, let's toss a few of these out. "Norm, Angie, you two are safe for the day." The antisocial genius and the hothead looked pleased at that result. Sarah, Juan, you two are safe as well. The swimmer and the Spaniard looked excited to be safe as well.

Chris held up the last two marshmallows. "Ethan, Jonathan, Madison. You three have been at the big cusp of a lot of drama on the team...it's been a close race to..." Chris was slowly getting bored as he was holding up the last two safety symbols. "You know? I'm not really going to drag this out further. You all made it very clear you wanted Jonathan out, and the votes reflected that." He tossed out the last two marshmallows. "Jonathan, you're out."

The lover boy stood up with a giant smirk on his face. "Chris, that would be devastating to leave so early, surely there's been a mistake." Chris shook his head. "Actually, the mistake was on the team today, not me." He pulled out the Chris head statue and threw it down on the ground. "Ethan, you're out of here, not me!" Everyone except for Norm and Juan gasped at the revelation.

Ethan: "How did I not see that coming?" he said with a loud groan. "He was way too content today about losing the challenge. Ugh, maybe I earned this for being so stupid."

Chris walked over and picked up the idol. "Yep, that's one of them." Jonathan laughed, but was cut off. "But, Jonathan, that's not the sole vote idol, so that means it just cancels out all the votes against you." The lover boy looked unfazed by that. "So, now that Jonathan is safe, the person with the second most votes and going home tonight is...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...Madison." Jonathan was tossed an additional marshmallow. Angie and Sarah looked shocked at that result. Ethan and Jonathan were surprised too, the two getting very angry at that. "Yes, yes, always a shock. Madison, you better get to the Launch of Shame."

"What?" both boys asked at the same time, trying to confirm that was actually what was supposed to happen. Jonathan pressed forward. "Chris that has to be a mistake, I voted for Ethan and everyone else voted for me!" He shook his head. "Oh man, what did I just do?" He quickly ran over to Madison. "I'm so sorry...I didn't mean for this to happen. I promise I didn't vote for you. I never would-"

Madison cut him off by stomping on the boy's foot. "Alright, time for some transparency," she said with full confidence, surprising even Ethan and Sarah. "Jonathan, I never liked you. You're creepy, you're deranged, and you assaulted me with those gross lips of yours yesterday!" Jonathan was taken aback by that statement.

Jonathan scoffed. "Gross? You should have pulled away then if you didn't like it!" He faced away from her. "Fine. You're missing a golden opportunity, I would have been perfect. Do you really think Ethan is better than me?"

"Yes!" the introvert shot back. "By a million percent!" Angie gasped at Ethan being name-dropped like that, which caused everyone to glance over to her for a second. Madison pushed Jonathan out of the way and walked over to Ethan. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more help to you," she said quietly. "Show them what you can do. It's not worth it to hide."

Ethan laughed. "You're one to talk, aren't you?" The two laughed before Madison pulled him in for a kiss. The two stood there for a while, to the joy of some like Sarah, but much to Jonathan's dismay. "I'll win for more than just me, I'll win for you too."

Chris yawned. "Alright, alright! Let's wrap this up. I was fine when she was yelling at people, but this is boring." He gestured to the Launch of Shame. "Madison, you have a new date that's neither of these boys, it's a giant spring that will send you into the sky comedically quickly. Madison complied, getting on the Launch of Shame, and Chris quickly fired her out of the game.

As everyone was heading back, Juan stopped the other three boys. "I understand tonight may have been tense," he explained to them, "but before we continue, I wanted to share something with the two of you." He looked to Jonathan and Ethan. "Norm and I were the ones to vote off Madison. Consider this you being paid back."

Jonathan shook his head with a dark laugh. "Woah, woah woah," he said angrily. "We step in to stop someone you don't like and your 'payback' is voting off someone everyone on the team liked? How on Earth is that payback?" He seemed way more aggressive now, even more than a few minutes ago.

Juan put up his hands. "I got you to focus on the game again!" he fired back. "I found out about your idol last night and made this plan. You have your focus on the game again, not on Madison." He turned to Ethan. "Ethan, had we not have voted for Madison, you'd be in the sky right now instead of her. You're here. You're welcome."

Ethan tried to argue, but relented. "That...makes sense. I guess that's more payback than I really could have hoped for." He turned to Norm. "So...why on Earth is Norm okay with this? Where was his payback in all the mix of this? Most of this pretty much doesn't affect him."

Norm sighed. "Correct, until the merge dwindles down. Juan suggested you may pick Madison over me at some point, so this eliminates that risk for me. I liked his reasoning, but this was the result we expected from the two of you." He looked at both boys. "It's over now. Jonathan, you lost, get over it. We need to start winning challenges again now that all of this is over."

Norm and Juan began to also leave and walk back to the cabins. Meanwhile Jonathan pulled something else interesting out in front of Ethan, a camera. "What a play Juan made," he muttered to himself. "I mean, maybe he could have helped you with Chad. You know, when you shot that paintball gun from the woods to sabotage him, or when you sent Norm to convince Luna to switch her vote to Daniel." He smirked. "Or when you set me up to go get Madison as a fifth vote when you had it the whole time!"

Ethan stammered backwards. "Those are all pretty bold accusations," he said confidently, "so unless you're planning on doing something big, can I go? I've had an equally long day as you, so we should really go back to bed and just call it a night." Jonathan instead grabbed Ethan by the chest and threw him against the confessional wall.

"Oh, no, no, no," Jonathan said darkly. "That's not what's going to happen." He held up a camera sinisterly. "I've been documenting the aftermath of your schemes to gather evidence! Here's how this goes. You will continuously get whoever I want eliminated. If you disobey me once, I expose to the team that you've been behind every odd elimination as far back as Gretchen!" He laughed. "And if you tell anyone that I'm doing this, even your little pal Norm, I expose you on the spot. I have my evidence now. Your will belongs to me!"

"Do you not hear yourself?" Ethan countered. "Getting the right elimination every single time is madness. You can't expect that." Jonathan held the camera up in his hand again. Ethan pushed himself off of the confessional wall. "Fine, we'll do it your way...not like I have much of a choice." Jonathan let go, letting the anti-villain breathe again. "But I won't let you put me on the pedestal of a villain. I'll make sure you pay for this...somehow."

Jonathan: "He can't do a thing. Juan was right, I need to focus on the game again, and I will go all out. I'll let Ethan do my dirty work while I work on my own little project: getting Norm out of here."

Ethan: "I hate this!" he shouted angrily. "I hate using my persuasion powers for evil like that..." He sighed. "I guess there's nothing I can do now, that idol really messed up my plans." He paused. "Wait, how was he able to find the idol?"

"Oh, blackmail!" Chris said excitedly, as he was in the weird room again, watching footage with Chef. "Will Ethan get out? Will Jonathan chicken out? And did Kara maybe hear too much while she was out?" He glared at Chef, who seemed apathetic to the scrutiny. "Find out all of this next time, on Total! Drama! Karon Island!"

Vote Confessionals:

Angie: "No mercy on that giant loser this time. Jonathan's gone."

Ethan: "Finally, we're taking care of this. Jonathan goes today."

Jonathan: "I can't believe this is going to work! See you, Ethan."

Juan: "This brings me no joy, but Madison leaving evens my debts."

Madison: "It's time to take a stand. Jonathan goes, finally."

Norm: "Sorry, Madison, I hope this doesn't ruin your trust of Ethan's friends."

Sarah: "Jonathan's not immune anymore, that means that creep goes home today!"

Total: Jonathan (4, VOID), Madison (2), Ethan (1)

Eliminated: Madison

Team Standings:

Bouncing Bunnies: Alexa, Flora, Helio, Kara, Kayla, Luna, Paul, Randall

Happy Hens: Angie, Ethan, Jonathan, Juan, Norm, Sarah

Eliminated: Gretchen, Chad, Sheldon, Daniel, Hannah, Madison

So today is the first major plot episode. We get a TON of new info here, some stuff that I added earlier, and some stuff that's very different. Let's dive into these changes.

- Ethan overall is a different person this chapter. Sarah's talk with him is more drawn out to calm him down and give the swimmer some more importance in her relationship with Madison too. He is not angered to insanity, but instead is still collected enough to function.

- The sharpened sticks are back, but not as chaotic as before. Our mysterious figure uses them, and their truth is properly alluded to my new plan with him (or my old plan, if you're coming from Power Peak). Speaking of retcons, we're again seeing more villain-y Luna, just to show off what she can do.

- Kara is more involved here. I like her finding out about the weather being artificial through an escape rather than just overhearing something. Since I'm treating Jonathan's assault like more of an assault, I also made Chef have to go get her out of bed instead of Madison being gone because she was gathering evidence to stop a rampaging Ethan. I read through the first round and was surprised I actually did that.

- Speaking of evidence, Jonathan's blackmail now has some truth to it! And, I made him slightly more ruthless, as is the plan with him overall this round. We'll start seeing the full force of that next time.

- This is one of the rounds where I was very satisfied with the voting choices. Every single one makes perfect sense. So, that stays exactly the same, but with slightly different interactions toward the end.

That takes care of the big three bad chapters of the opening arc. Following this, the biggest threats coming up are around the merge, I think everything else in the middle needs touch ups still though. My big solutions I'm working on fixing are the final six, final five, and finale challenges. I think you'll like those new changes.

Anyway, let me know what you thought of the Madison arc of Karon Island! Did you consider it better than before? (I sure hope so) Let me know what you thought in the reviews. I will see you all next time!