Replies, fired up:

lordgemini- Madison's run took a ton of inspiration from her appearance in Sephiria Ark's All Around Again. The original Madison was talky and had weird random quips every once in a while, which I found jarring, so I adapted the much better version of her where she barely talks unless she knows it's okay. Quips are left to Norm and Angie who handle them way better. This version helps out a ton since I have a way better grasp on this cast now than I did five years ago.

Let's start the next part of this! We're nearing the middle of this now!

Episode 8: The Elements of VR I: Fight!

Chris and Chef were inside the weird room again, Chef actively typing a large amount of code into something. "How's that going?" Chef gave a thumbs up. "Ready by today?" Another confirmation. "Perfect, here we go then." He turned to the camera. "Last time, on Total Drama Karon Island, we gave the kids a break with some dentist office-level challenges, which somehow was still way too hard for them." The opening clips were of Helio getting completely lost on the picture challenge and Kayla and Paul agreeing on the difficulty. "The Hens made their stance clear today as the team actively tried to lose this challenge." The next clips were of Jonathan telling them to hurry up as the girls and Ethan did nothing.

"Afterwards, we sent the smartest contestants out to find a ring from the woods that was guarded by some raccoons, where Jonathan encountered something awesome for him, and then something awesome for us." The next clips were of Jonathan seeing the odd figure and him finding the paint stains. "Meanwhile, Luna tried to abandon Flora to the hostile wildlife, but Flora turned it into a huge success for the team, earning the Bunnies another challenge win." The next clips were of Luna running off, while Flora tamed the angry horde.

"Seeing his idol from last episode, Juan led the charge with Norm to save all three boys from certain doom. They successfully flushed out the idol, and it came at the cost of Madison, Jonathan's foot, and Ethan's freedoms." The final clips were of Madison stomping down on Jonathan's foot, Jonathan blackmailing Ethan, and Madison being launched into the sky. "That puts us at fourteen to go. Who's going to go today? How will yesterday affect what will go down this time around? Find out right here, right now, 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'.]

Considering the night before, things were surprisingly lively in the boys' side of the Hen cabins. "I'm just so shocked she took the fall for it," Ethan said to Norm, laying down on the bed next to his while Norm listened pretty passively. "I mean, yours and Juan's reasoning makes sense. It's a great play on both your ends, but it doesn't mean I'm not upset she's not here anymore."

"I'm more concerned we lost a vote we could count on," Norm confessed to him. "Today is a great day to put yourself back in the game, to keep trying to get a win, and hopefully succeeding. She'll be around after the finale, but if one of us loses, that million dollars goes away. That's all I'm concerned about."

Jonathan laughed to them as he jumped down from his bunk. "Listen, I don't have time for your silly games," he told them, approaching Juan. He shook the Spaniard's hand. "Thank you for freeing me from my own clutches. Now I'm ready to take this game by storm!" In a fir of excitement, Jonathan ran out of the cabin, excited to take on the day.

Juan glanced at Jonathan's exit before looking over at Ethan who was saying nothing about it. "I'm surprised you had nothing to say," Juan admitted. "You would have for sure yesterday, but it looks like you two can function in the same room now." He narrowed his eyes. "You two did patch things up, right?"

Ethan looked surprised to hear that question from Juan. "Huh? Yeah, everything's cool now. No need to worry." He glanced at the others, who seemed to believe that for the time being. "We should be worried about winning today. We're down two players again and I do not want that to become a pattern. We need to start winning for sure today."

Juan smiled. "That's excellent, I was concerned that you two wouldn't be able to get over that silly feud. I'm ready to help as well then. Let's do this." Juan got up and walked out of the cabin with Norm, and once they both left, Ethan let out a groan to himself, very upset with how everything in the morning had gone so far.

In the girls' side, things were much quieter. "Looks like it's just down to us two," Angie said to Sarah, who was returning from a morning run. "Looks like the votes for Madison last night were from Juan and Norm. I didn't expect either of them to make a play like that. Things are getting weird on this team for sure." She let out a loud sigh, annoyed with that result of last night.

"Madison was such a nice friend to have," Sarah admitted. "I'm gonna be in a tough spot without her. We should really try and win today, but even if we are back at the elimination ceremony, I think we're okay. Some of the guy swimmers on my team have held grudges for weeks before. I can't imagine Jonathan and Ethan are back on good terms."

Angie smirked. "Well, in that case, we have nothing to fear. But, I'll keep an eye out for them today. I really do not want to have to put this team back together from the ground up. You've been great to have here," she told Sarah. "But, that means you need to stick around for me, okay?" Sarah nodded, hoping she could stay too.

Angie: "The team's been in complete disarray ever since Chad's been voted off," she noted. "Something is seriously up with the boys. Even Juan's started acting super suspicious. Part of me is hoping they're going to go after each other before they take down me or Sarah, but specifically me."

The Bunnies were all hanging out outside their cabins. Alexa was sleeping in a nearby tree. She was woken up by the sound of someone rustling the leaves in the area. She opened her eyes to see Randall right by her. The underachiever shook herself awake. "What on Earth are you doing up here?" she asked the mountain man.

Randall was equally surprised. "I could be asking you the same thing. Tree climbing requires insane effort and precision and you seem to be doing it all the time." He laughed. "I actually don't care that much. I didn't know you slept in trees. That's awesome, they're the perfect napping spot. Are you a climber too?"

Alexa laughed. "Oh, god no. My climbing extent is a tree, so I can find a good branch to sleep in." She shook her head. "I'm not you, I'm not some super prepared champion of camping, my job is indoors in air conditioning and conditioner." Randall took note that despite the treacherous climb, Alexa's hair was perfectly straight still.

The mountain man laughed. The two could hear yelling coming from down below. "Well, I think Flora's about to call a meeting, because Paul and Kayla are at it again. Good luck to you!" Randall broke off from the tree branch he was hanging on, flying all the way down to the ground with a thud. "Ugh, that hurt more than I thought it would."

As Randall had claimed, Paul and Kayla were bickering as much as they could. Flora eventually got to them and stepped in the middle. "You two seriously need to stop it," the pacifist insisted desperately. "If we can, I think you two ought to be separated for the challenge. Kara, would you be able to watch your sister for the day?" Kara gave Flora a thumbs up, much to Kayla's annoyance.

Paul sighed. "You're right, we're doing this way too much." Flora was surprised to hear Paul agree so quickly, while Kayla merely snickered. Flora turned back to Luna to see what she was thinking. "Since I have no siblings here, I might as well stick with you." Kayla snickered again. Flora looked to Luna again, who smiled and nodded her head. "Is...that okay? Flora?"

Flora's face reddened a bit. "Huh? Yes, I'm sure that's okay. Anything to keep this team as one big group of friends instead of enemies. If we play our cards right, I'm sure all of us could make the merge, or even better!" Everyone seemed to be inspired by the pacifist's inspirational speech. Even Kayla looked willing to cooperate.

But, the Bunnies' excitement for a challenge did not last long. Chris's blare of the speakers got everyone's attention. "Attention, everyone! Come to the dining facility for today's challenge. Lucky for you, you're not going to get hurt in this one!" He paused as he let everyone skeptically disagree with that statement. "I'm not kidding, we'll explain once you get here. Let's move!"

Both teams arrived to the dining facility, which had been reworked since their breakfast earlier that day. The benches had been removed, and instead, there were fourteen futuristic chairs and headsets sitting out in front of them, six on one side and eight on the other. "This is going to be fun," Chris said with a laugh. "So, today's challenge is going to involve a lot of fighting, and also maybe killing each other."

This was very contrary to what they had been told earlier, so the murmurs began to grow louder. Chris cut them off. "Hold on a second, you'll see what I mean." Chef grabbed Randall and put him in a chair, throwing the headset on him. Chef then walked over to a computer and hit a button. Randall seemed really shocked at whatever was going on in the headset. "Welcome to Total Drama Virtual Reality! Everyone get strapped in, and I'll see you in there."

Everyone looked around at each other hesitantly, but eventually decided to follow Randall into the weird virtual reality as well. Everyone got into a seat and strapped themselves in, and Chef got behind a computer in the room, typing away to properly start this challenge. "I don't get paid enough to program this much," he muttered to himself.

Inside the odd reality world, people began to start waking up. The teams were still together. Everyone began to look around at their new surroundings. Randall watched as everyone fumbled around. "Yeah, it's pretty bad when you get in here first," he told them, "but I think I got the hang of it." Randall tried walking before tripping over a tiny pebble. "Okay...not yet."

While everyone was situating themselves. Chris appeared as a hologram above all of them. "Welcome to our first of two virtual reality challenges this season!" Chris announced. "You'll have to work extra hard to get to the next one. Anyway, thanks to these machines, we can have you all fight to the death while also avoiding all the tedious lawsuits that normally come attached with that!"

Flora's face dropped as she heard that they would be fighting again. Chris continued. "Here's how today is gonna work. Each of you are going to get a power. Some will be cool, and some will suck. They're being distributed randomly, so good luck. Last person alive wins it for their team. I'll be teleporting you all to random areas in the world. See you soon." With that, everyone got shot out into various sections of the virtual world.

The Bouncing Bunnies began to congregate with each other following the giant split. Kayla cleared her throat to grab everyone's attention. "Alright, we better figure out what everyone's got." She fired a multi-colored laser out of her hand. "That's kind of stupid. I got some dumb laser." She turned to everyone else. "Mountain Boy, what do ya got?"

Randall was having a much better time with his power. "Woah, I can move rocks!" Randall held out his hand and made a giant crack in the ground. "Oh, that's gonna be so helpful!" Upon this, one of his rocks accidentally hit him in the head. "Agh..." But, Flora ran over, and managed to heal the mountain man. "Oh, sick, Flora can heal."

Paul looked at his fire power he had just discovered for himself. "I'm...immune to fire. That's super helpful, except that I can't deal any damage! Does anyone have a damaging power here?" Alexa tried hers, only to discover it was sleep powder. "Looks like a 'no' from Alexa," Paul muttered. Kara seemed to also get a laser beam. "Alright, that's like, two and a half."

Helio picked up one of Randall's rocks, crushing it. "It appears Helio's unnatural strength has increased," Luna analyzed. She meditated for a brief second. "Oh, how comical," she said deadpanned. "I don't think I got a power, which makes sense, since I already have one outside this thing." She looked to the others. "Protect Kayla, Kara, and Randall the most. That's our plan."

Alexa: "Is this some kind of sick joke?" she asked, slightly agitated. "I got sleep powder. I can't use it on myself, but I got sleep powder."

The Happy Hens were finding their powers at the same time. "C'mon, water, c'mon, water," Sarah pleaded silently and desperately to herself. She pushed out her hand, and water flew out of it. "Yes! I got water!" Juan did the same thing, finding out that he got an ice power. "Look, you kinda got water too!" the swimmer said cheerfully.

Jonathan laughed to himself as he discovered his fire ability. Ethan seemed to have lightning instead. Norm sighed. "That's like, all the good ones. Maybe I'll get like razor wind or something. He opened up his arms, and wings popped out. "I can...fly. That's like, no damage at all." He looked up. Hey, maybe I can pull someone up really high or something."

"Do you need a weapon?" Angie asked the genius. "I've got a million." She made a mace appear out of nothing. The hothead tried to toss Norm the weapon, but it stuck to her hand, refusing to become dethatched. "Huh. Okay, sorry about that." She transformed the mace into a dagger. "Well, I'm off to hunt some Bunnies. Good luck to you all." With that, Angie darted off from the team.

"I'll go with her," Sarah quickly said, "you four should pair up and go split like this too." Sarah tried to catch up to Angie, who was almost all gone at this point. "Angie! Wait up!" Sarah tried running, and eventually turned the ground in front of her into water, swimming faster than she could run. The four boys seemed shocked at that reveal.

"I guess she really is that good of a swimmer," Juan pointed out. "We should keep that in mind for an inevitable water challenge." The Spaniard looked at Norm. "Why don't you come with me? I'll shoot people you pick up out of the sky and we can take them out like that." Norm seemed impressed at the strategy Juan had come up with.

Jonathan smiled coyly, turning to Ethan. "That seems like an excellent idea, Juan," Jonathan said condescendingly. "I'll keep Ethan by my side. Two damaging powers like ours should be a big threat to anything the Bunnies have cooking up." Ethan looked like he wanted to resist, but Jonathan grabbed him forcefully and dragged the anti-villain away from Norm.

Once they left, Juan and Norm were ambushed by Kayla and Kara. "Time to test this stupid power out," Norm complained. He ran at the two girls the laser beams they shot being blocked by Juan's ice. "They get lasers?" Norm complained, "that's so unfair." He eventually got up to them, and before he had a chance to decide, grabbed Kara and started taking her up.

Juan dodged a laser from Kayla and shot a bunch of ice shards up at Norm and Kara. Norm positioned himself perfectly for Kara to be hit, sending her flying to the ground. With nothing they could do, the curious girl slammed into the ground, dissolving into a white dust on the ground. "I suppose that is what dying looks like here," Juan mused. Kayla, seeing no win condition, retreated back to the main area of the Bunnies.

Kayla: "Protect Kara, that was my literal only job," she griped, "and I blew it. Paul's gonna have an easy day if we lose. I need to find someone else to pin this blame on in case Paul does great today."

Meanwhile, Paul and Flora had gone together, Helio in tow. "We create an opening, Helio goes in, that gets us a win," Paul said to the others. "Flora, you'll be protecting us while that happens." He gave her a warm smile that put the pacifist in an odd position. "You've done good with that so far, I'm counting on you to keep it up."

Flora stammered to regain her focus after that. "Um, right, of course." Her attention was quickly deviated when a giant tidal wave came flying at the three of them. "Hens inbound!" Helio prepped himself for combat while Paul simply groaned, upset that his power would be useless for this particular fight. Flora created a shield to protect them. "I've got you all!"

Angie flew out of the tidal wave, shooting rockets and other sharp objects from herself as she launched ahead of it. All of the projectiles hit Flora's shield, barely even penetrating it. "Sarah, they've got a protector," Angie yelled back. "I can't get in as long as they're there!"

Sarah guessed an answer. "Okay, I think I have a plan then...here goes nothing!" Sarah redirected all of the water into the ground, making all of it disappear. A silence filled the air as Sarah landed with a confident smirk. All of the sudden, geysers of water started shooting out of the ground. Flora put up her forcefield, but the water got inside it, crushing everyone who was in it. Helio managed to get away.

The swimmer smiled to herself as she saw the damage. "That's two down for us! Way to go, Angie!" Sarah didn't get a response from the hothead. "Angie? Where'd you go?" Sarah noticed the piles of dust near Flora's shield, but also one more where she was. "Oh...those geysers might have been too big." She sheepishly smiled to nobody, since they were all gone now. "Sorry, Angie."

Sarah wandered on her own for a bit before she ran into Jonathan and Ethan. "Thank goodness, I found you two!" she cried out happily. "We just had a run-in with the Bunnies. We got Paul and Flora out. Helio ran off, and we lost Angie. Still a two-for-one trade, right?" She seemed excited just to see someone else. "How are you all doing?"

Ethan shrugged. "Well, nicely done so far, I guess. Having that extra number gain puts us in a good spot, since Juan and Norm got Kara. I think that means were at five each now." He sighed. "We haven't seen anyone yet, so we can't really say how things are going here." Suddenly, a giant rock flew right past all of them, barely missing Sarah. "That's our cue to fight I guess."

Randall stood on a mountain of his own making. Sarah shot some balls of water at the swimmer, who dodged most of them. One of them got past her and knocked her down. She wasn't dust yet, but she was unconscious. "Alright, let's do this," Jonathan said grimly. He shot multiple balls of fire at the mountain man, who blocked them with rocks. "We have to flank him." He looked at Ethan. "That's your job. Go do it."

The anti-villain groaned. "Yeah, yeah, I got it." Jonathan continued to lock Randall in combat while Ethan snuck around. Once he had a clear shot, he shot out lightning, stunning Randall. The mountain man got one last stone out, but it went right by Jonathan's head, hitting Sarah instead, and turning her into dust. Jonathan sent a final shot at Randall, turning him to dust in exhange. "Still tied, it seems," Ethan muttered as the score dropped to four on each team.

Ethan: "This is so annoying," he said angrily. "I hate being his little 'yes-man'. I wish I could put him in his place, but doing that now puts my own game at a giant risk, and I am not going home this early." He sighed. "But, now that I have to run the Bunny eliminations too, I need a friend on the other team that isn't Luna. We'll see how today goes."

Helio ended up finding someone on his retreat too. It was the other fleeing Bunny, Kayla. "It you!" Helio said excitedly. "I can help out. Me throw people to death with big strength." He picked up a huge boulder and ripped it in half, much to the amazement of Kayla. "See? Me good."

"Cool, can you stay that quiet too?" the brat shot back. She pointed down below her. "Check that out." She pointed to Juan and Norm, who hadn't noticed them yet. "Line up the shot..." She shot a beam straight ahead, hitting Juan and vaporizing him instantly. "Perfect. I heard the dork got feathers, so we should be in good shape."

Norm was quick to notice Juan getting taken out, seeing the two once he traced the beam's origin point. "Finally, you're back," Norm said arrogantly as he rushed forward again to the duo. Norm took to the skies to dodge Helio, who was jumping up to try and catch him. Once Helio missed a few more times, Norm turned to his left and started to got for Kayla.

Kayla shot a few more beams and tried to hit Norm, but the antisocial genius was able to block them with his wings. Norm then latched onto Kayla and flew her up in the air too, just like he did with Kara. "You won't take me down that easily!" the brat shouted at him. "Helio! Do something!" Helio looked around to try and grab something to throw. "Hurry!"

Without thinking any more, Helio threw a rock at Norm as hard as he could. With immense momentum, Norm was vaporized the instant that it hit him. Kayla watched as Norm went down, but then realized her own predicament. "Aww, shoot," Kayla said in defeat as she plummeted toward the ground, vaporizing herself too. That just left Helio, who was quickly joined by Alexa and Luna.

"An unfortunate end for her," Luna admitted. "Do not fret. We still have the power to win this. By losing Norm, they also lose the numbers advantage. We're up three to two. That means we find Ethan and Jonathan, and then we take them out. It should be that simple." The three found their way to the middle of the world, hoping they would find the other two Bunnies there.

Once they arrived, Ethan and Jonathan were in fact waiting for them. "I'll analyze their moves, you all engage." Luna protected herself with an odd pink forcefield. Alexa made the first move, trying to fling sleep powder at the boys. Ethan used his lightning to block any of the powder that got close, then shot a bolt at Helio, who tanked it cleanly. "Ethan's playing defensively...what about Jonathan?"

Jonathan rushed forward, being protected by Ethan's lightning on either side. "This one!" Jonathan said to Ethan, turning back with narrowed eyes. Ethan got the message. "Eat this!" Jonathan blasted multiple fireballs at Alexa, while the lightning closed in around her. With nowhere left to run, she got hit and was taken down in one blow.

"Fascinating," Luna muttered. "Jonathan seems to be taking the lead. I can't believe they settled their feud so easily. "Jonathan is taking an unpredictably hostile approach to this challenge, he appears to have found a new fire." In that time, Ethan and Jonathan had teamed up to take down Helio as well. "I guess that's my cue to enter," the psychic decided.

Ethan created a circle of lightning, closing in the three remaining people. "Give up, Luna," the anti-villain ordered. "We have you surrounded. You can't teleport your way out of this one." Jonathan aimed a fireball right at the psychic. "You spent too long analyzing, now your muscle is gone. What else is there for you to do?"

Luna paused for a second, taking inventory of her situation one final time. "You're right," the psychic said in a defeated tone. "It appears that I have made a grave misplay at some point in this challenge." she lowered the pink forcefield protecting herself. "You may fire when ready. I'll gladly accept this defeat for my team."

Jonathan scoffed. "Yeah, right. We've seen these tricks before, witch. You are obviously bluffing right now." Luna causally glanced in Jonathan's direction, unnerving him a slight amount. "Ugh, I'm not taking the fall for this..." He looked at Ethan. "Take the shot. I refuse to be at fault for our loss if this goes south." Ethan loaded up a ball of lightning in his hands. "Take the shot. Now."

Ethan glanced at Luna, who did not break her eye contact. "I guess I'll be taking the coin flip on this one. Sorry about this, Luna." Luna nodded silently to herself as Ethan released the ball of lightning. The ball made contact with Luna, but the psychic interestingly did not resist, and it dissolved her. "She...took the hit," Ethan mused to himself.

Luna: "A calculated risk," she explained. "The other team cannot possibly see what happened in here. However, had Jonathan taken the shot, I may have fought him off more." She flipped her hair in a forceful way.

Everyone was back in the dining facility at the end of the challenge. "That puts an end to the Happy Hens' second winning drought, they've got themselves another win!" Chris announced. The Bouncing Bunnies all looked pretty disappointed at the fact they they lost the challenge. The Happy Hens looked way happier.

Angie went up to the two final boys. "Well, you certainly proved me wrong today," Angie admitted. "I thought you two would keep arguing all day. Sarah did too. But, you two actually managed to work together. Color me impressed." Jonathan smiled at the hothead as she congratulated the two on their challenge win.

"It was a team effort, but we were lucky to be the ones to come out on top," Ethan said nonchalantly. "Who knows what Luna's capable of?" Angie seemed content with that and walked off. "Are you sure that you want that person gone tonight?" Ethan asked Jonathan. "I have, like, three better choices that would directly benefit-"

Jonathan cut the anti-villain off. "It's the right choice, I assure you," he defended. "But, if it's too hard, maybe you're not fit to be here anymore?" Jonathan waved the camera in the air at him. Ethan tried to swat it down, but Jonathan held it up above his head. "Too slow! Well, hopefully you find success, or you're on that launchpad tomorrow." Jonathan walked off with a smirk, much to Ethan's discontent.

After some time, the dining facility had returned to its normal arrangement, and everyone was eating dinner. The Bouncing Bunnies were overall pretty tense from their loss today. "It's so hard to think about the day," Randall admitted. "When I shot out of that chair my head was spinning. Plus, we couldn't see what happened after we got out." He sighed. "But, someone has to go today."

Kayla smirked. "Well, we should obviously look at who's done the poorest today," she said in a harsh tone. "Paul, did you even get anyone out with your power, you know, the one that couldn't hurt anyone?" She had a condescending smirk on her face, much to Paul's annoyance.

Paul put his hands up defensively at the brat. "If what Luna said is true, then you got taken out by Norm with wings," Paul shot back. Kayla gasped at the response she got from the pessimist. "Yeah, and Angie went down in our combat, so don't come complaining that we didn't do anything, we took someone out." He turned to Luna. "How did the day end? How did you lose?"

"I was simply cornered like you two," Luna admitted. "I had no ability to fight back with, so going against two offensive abilities made it inevitable for me to lose." She sighed. "My apologies. I really wish that I could have done better for all of us today." The psychic shook her head. "We shouldn't be wasting time arguing like this," she implored, "I would rather we just vote."

Kara nodded. "Agreed, that's the best way to ensure there's not really any surprises." The curious girl got up to leave, as did everyone else. Eventually, Paul was left alone in the dining facility, with no one else there. The pessimist stood up to leave, but someone was waiting for him at the exit that he wasn't expecting to see at all.

"Hiya," Ethan said with a light wave. "Word on the street is that you've been idol hunting." Paul looked shocked to hear Ethan say that right off the bat. "I know we're on different teams, but maybe our shared information can lead us to, well, the second one, since Jonathan played the first one last night." He shook his head. "No idea how he found it..."

Paul carefully accepted the invitation to speak. "Actually, I'm interested in that," the pessimist told him. "See, I won't share where it is, but I found a set of clues to lead to each idol, and I can rule out some locations if I know where he got that first one. Actually...he probably..." Paul walked to outside the dining facility, and dug up a small hole near the outside. "I knew it. He's got the sheet."

Ethan grimaced at that information. "That's not good," the anti-villain said in a tense tone. "That means he can find that next one easily." He looked at Paul. "I don't want to form an alliance with you," he told him bluntly. "You're a physical threat. But, I can tell you that Kayla will probably eliminate you if you don't try and take down one of her supporters." He smirked. "You all chose to just vote, right? So four votes should handle it."

The pessimist carefully analyzed Ethan's strategy. "You're...interesting. I thought you were hanging in the background, but you're really not. I'll keep your idea in mind..." He shot Ethan one final look before leaving. "Careful around Jonathan, he seems like a giant weirdo." Paul walked out of the dining facility, leaving Ethan content with how that interaction went.

Paul: "Ethan is definitely a larger threat than I thought," he said carefully. "But, he seems to be on my side for now. If I can use him against Kayla, I might have a shot of taking her down." He sighed. "I guess I need to take a risk or two to get her."

Ethan: "Paul wasn't my first choice," Ethan admitted, "but I heard from some people that he was big on the idols. Now I know Jonathan's got a clue to the sole-vote idol. I need that thing to take him down."

ELIMINATION VII, BOUNCING BUNNIES

The eight remaining Bunnies made the trek all the way up Mount Karon. It had been two whole days since they were last up here. They sat around the fire as Chris and Chef were waiting for them. The back row had Paul, Flora, Luna, and Helio, while the front was Randall, Kara, Kayla, and Alexa. Chris stepped forward with seven marshmallows.

"Campers," Chris told them. "As a reminder, if you don't get this marshmallow tonight, you're out of the game, taking the Launch of Shame all the way off the island." He closed in on them. "But, we had a pretty interesting challenge, and a lot of you couldn't handle it. Anyone care to explain what happened?"

Luna raised her hand. "Everyone made a calculated play or two, but a lot of us seemed to have dropped the ball. I am included in that as well. In the end, we concluded on simply voting safely I hope that our team has taken that to heart, and that we can come on top next time." She still looked nervous about what might happen.

"Very true," Chris said to them. "Well, it certainly won't be Helio going home, he pretty much carried you as far as he could today." Chris tossed Helio the first marshmallow, the strongman crushing it in his hand before eating it. Also safe tonight is Randall." The mountain man looked happy to be able to be in the game too.

"Flora, you're safe." The pacifist graciously accepted her marshmallow, also happy to be in the game still. "Kara, you're in the game still too." The fourth marshmallow got sent to the curious girl. "Halfway gone...but next person safe is Kayla." Kayla smirked at Paul as she caught her marshmallow, very pleased with herself.

Chris held up the penultimate marshmallow. "Three of you left. Paul, Alexa, Luna, all of you stank pretty bad in the challenge today. One of you stank the least. The team has decided to forgive...Luna." Luna caught her marshmallow, letting out a sigh of relief. "That leaves two." Neither person looked particularly nervous. "The final marshmallow does not go to...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...Alexa." Chris tossed the final marshmallow to Paul, who looked unsurprised as he grabbed it and stuffed it in his mouth in front of Kayla. The brat looked immensely upset at the result. "Alexa, the Launch of Shame is that way." Chris pointed to his left to the launch pad at the edge of the top of the mountain.

"Well, that was certainly surprising," Alexa said, sitting up from her nap position on the log. "Didn't really see that coming. But, I guess that means I get to chill at a resort now, so better now then later." She walked over to Launch of Shame. "Alright, get me out of here so I can go take a proper nap." Chris hit the button, sending Alexa into the sky and out of the game.

Everyone left to go back to the cabins, but Luna veered off and went to the confessional, where only Norm was there that night. "I'm shocked that you outdid Kayla's vote," she told Norm. "I thought Paul would lose tonight for sure. I think my vote was the one that put it over, but why would Paul vote for Alexa over Kayla?"

"Paul had a separate source," Norm explained. "I mean, this is a boost to your team. Alexa never really tried that hard, so you shouldn't feel bad about voting for her." He paused. "Not that I care about your feelings. I do care that you vote without your feelings though." The antisocial genius turned his face away from her when he did that.

Luna giggled. "Of course, and I guess this puts you in a good spot too. I don't know how, but if this puts you in a safer spot, then I'll help you." She yawned. "Today's challenge was exhausting." The psychic looked at Norm. "I might go to bed now. Hopefully I get to talk to you again soon. It sucks we only talk when my team loses."

Norm nodded. "I agree, we should take some time to hang out otherwise." Luna looked happy at that idea. "But, not tonight, I'm pretty beat myself. I'll see you around, I guess." Norm got up and began to leave the area. "Goodnight." Luna quietly echoed him as the genius left, a huge smile appearing on her face.

Luna: "It turns out Norm is a lot nicer than he likes to let on." She smiled again. "I can't predict the winner of this game just yet, but I think I know what I can do to feel like one." Her face reddened at the end of that.

Chris watched all of the two's interactions from the weird underground room. "Oooh, Luna's down bad for someone equally as weird!" Chris said with a laugh to himself. "Will the creepy psychic fess up? Will Paul get that next idol? Who will Jonathan gun for next? Find out next time, on Total! Drama! Karon Island!"

Vote Confessionals:

Alexa: "I'm worried about Kayla tonight. I'm taking out Paul while I have the chance."

Flora: "Once again, I refuse to vote. It isn't worth the enemies."

Helio: "Paul strong. Lazy lady go."

Kara: "I don't know who to vote for...Luna's my friend, so I'll keep her around. I don't know...Paul?"

Kayla: "See you, Paul, good riddance. The girls should be able to pull this off."

Luna: "I'll eliminate Alexa. She may drag our team down in the future."

Paul: "I'm gunning for Alexa thanks to a good idea I've had. Kayla needs less votes."

Randall: "I like Paul and the guys, so I guess I'll vote Alexa. Shame, I kinda thought we'd be able to be good friends."

Total: Alexa (4), Paul (3), no vote (1)

Eliminated: Alexa

Team Standings:

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

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

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

And there goes our lazy underachiever. I really like Alexa, especially what her character became by the end of the Karon series. Submerged and Power Peak did miracles for her, and I think she ends up being one of the most balanced and well-rounded characters. But, her success has to stem from her failure here.

Way back in 2018, Alexa was going to get fourth place, but I changed this in favor of someone else who plays a much better role on this season. Now, let's talk about some of the new stuff this chapter, because I made some new plots here that weren't there in the past:

- Helio became the tank that I needed him to be this episode, constantly surviving hits and taking out people in one hit. This also keeps him out of the bottom two, and I make it a little more ambiguous on when Jonathan denotes that Alexa's his target.

-Pairings are altered slightly, just to keep the scrambling a bit better and it let everyone have some sort of moment in the fights. I also changed a few abilities like Juan's to avoid doubling.

-Ethan and Paul: Jonathan taking the paper with the idol clues on it is going to be more important, and these two will be doing an uneasy alliance thing now. It also makes some other things down the road a bit more divisive and not as predictable to first time readers.

I think that's everything. I put some some seeds for the Alexa/Randall thing going on in the future, but most things stayed very much the same this episode. Let me know what you thought about this episode in the reviews. I'll see you next time!