Happy new year everybody! I don't have much to say, but I'm happy I was finally able to get this chapter out. It was meant to be a more chill episode so it got longer than expected at nearly 19k and I'm proud of how it turned out.
"Previously on Stormbound," Nimbus called out. Differently from other recaps, he was shown sitting on the beach reclining in a lounge chair, with a sun umbrella over him. He was wearing a replacement pair of sunglasses, which had a red star-shaped frame. "Javi finally managed to put a damper on all this rain, but not before we had to deal with some serious flooding!" As he spoke, another bird's-eye view of the island was shown, following the runoff that had made a river. "So it was up to these campers to row, row, row their boats all the way to the finish, all while enacting an immersive story of my own invention, based on the celestial beasts of Eastern mythology!" A shot showed the two boats: the ornate azure dragon, and the gold qilin with its crude gryphon decorations. "Oh, and our intern got in on it too." A clip showed Naila bounding over to the Gryphons to join their team.
"And as if their troubles with rowing weren't enough." There was a quick montage of all the times that both teams had lost their oars, crashed, or capsized during the race. "On their journey, they acquainted themself with the definitely local wildlife." A clip showed Iggy holding a snapping turtle that extended its neck to try and bite him. "And found ways to climb to new heights." Paradise was shown trying to reach the vermillion bird statue at the top of a tree while Tanja belayed her, while in the background Kit was tying a series of weird knots in their own belay rope. "Maggie surprised everyone by beating the strongest Dragon with her mind games." A clip showed an angry Selene tripping and falling into the water. "But despite this, Selene was able to get back up and help her team catch up and win." Another clip showed Selene smashing Javi's robot tiger into the pier. "And even the gossip's last ditch attempt to expose how Paradise snuck onto the show wasn't enough to save her from elimination." Finally, Nimbus and Javi were shown putting Paradise's paperwork through a paper shredder. "How long will it be before we run into actual legal troubles that I'll have to make Javi deal with?" The scene switched back to the beach where Nimbus was lounging and narrating, and Javi came up behind him and looked annoyed, right before the rock star signed off. "This is, Total! Drama! Stormbound!"
Theme Song: "Stormbound" by Nimbus Cloudbreak
The sun was shining brightly over Camp Ventallan in the cloudless blue sky. Below, the sparkling waters were calm and clear. It was quite an unusual sight given the weather of the past days, and nobody knew what to expect.
Paradise was out by the beach sitting on the dock. She had Earl's clipboard in her lap, but she had given up on trying to decipher the chemist's notes, and instead was just watching the waves. None of the other campers were around, and it was silent save for the wind and the water.
As Paradise watched the seagulls circling above the waves, she noticed a suspicious lone raven flying amongst them. What's more, its flight seemed a lot stiffer, almost robotic.
Paradise turned to look straight at the camera that was filming her from Javi's Pájarobotico, and she rolled her eyes.
Confessional: Paradise
"Ugh, is a little privacy too much to ask for? I mean, I'm here, like, talking to a camera in the freaking outhouse!" She sighed. "Of course I knew there could be consequences for what I did with the forms, even if I hadn't expected one of the other campers to straight up snitch on me! But, like, If Nimbus and Javi's past behavior is anything to go off of, they're not nearly organized or well equipped enough to actually do something about it. I still got a valid signature and they can't prove anything!" She tried to sound confident, but seemed a little more desperate. "But if I want to be sure of it, all I have to do is win."
"And on the off chance that one of my parents actually is watching…" She then raised her middle finger up to the camera.
Back at camp, many of the other campers were outside, enjoying the clear weather. Lio was walking around outside the mess hall, as if he was looking for something. Or someone.
"Hey Ollie," Lio called out, after he finally found the acrobat out on the grassy field near camp, walking around on his hands. "Can I talk to you?"
"Haha, hi Lio! I was just practicing, since I was worried I would get out of practice with some of my tricks." As he was talking, Lio struggled to keep track of him as he was performing a few somersaults. "I think this is the longest I've been away from my friends ever, since I joined the circus." He finally did a front handspring and landed back on his feet with ease in front of the diplomat. "What's going on?"
Lio couldn't help but crack a smile at Ollie's antics, but he quickly got back down to business. "I just wanted to know if everything is okay."
"Why's that?" Ollie cocked his head.
"I'm checking on you because you've seemed pretty distracted lately, like during the last challenge," Lio pointed out.
"Who, me, distracted? I would never- whoa, look, it's a butterfly!"
Lio grabbed Ollie's arm before the acrobat could run off. "It's my responsibility to look after our team and do whatever I can to make sure we work well together."
Ollie wrinkled his nose. "I don't do very well with responsibility, so maybe I'm not the person you should talk to about things like this. I just don't like it when everyone else is fighting."
Lio shook his head wearily. "I've been trying my best to stop that."
"Aren't you the reason everybody gets upset?" Ollie scratched his head. "Like Iggy, and Celia, and even Selene?"
"I would never be!" Lio puffed out his chest indignantly, and his tone caused Ollie to flinch. "I was holding us together, just barely. If they are more concerned with their own business than the performance of the team, that's their fault."
"Ooh, a performance? All my friends at the Cirque D'émerveillement work together for our shows, so maybe I can give you some tips!" Lio looked a little doubtful of this but Ollie pretended not to notice. "I'll just try to think of what Ringmaster Warren does to keep us all in check."
"Warren? Are they…" Lio started to ask.
Ollie shook his head. "No, we're not related. I just needed a name to put on the Total Drama application, and she said I could use hers. It's like I'm an apprentice of the great Warren of Wonders! She told us to all have fun, and that was more important than being the best or most organized. Something I learned from my troupe is to always go with the flow, it's way better than people yelling at each other all the time. You guys act, well, more like my old family than like the circus."
It took Lio a moment to discern that this probably wasn't implied to be a good thing, but he nodded. "I understand what it's like to be in an unfriendly home environment," he responded.
Ollie just waved a hand dismissively. "Let's not talk about that, I've got all my friends at the circus now! And you have Selene! Right?"
Confessional: Lio
"This is the longest Selene's ever avoided me for. I hate to say it, but maybe Iggy's right; maybe I've been focusing too much on the team and not enough on Selene. But I can't let them think that I'm not in control, it would be disastrous for me… uh, I mean, for us!"
Meanwhile, right outside the mess hall, Sophie was carrying some baskets of fruit and bread out to one of the picnic tables in the center of camp. Tanja was pacing when she saw her. "Sophie, do you need any help?" she asked.
The chef seemed pretty surprised by the offer, but she smiled warmly and shook her head. "There's no need to worry, dearie." She saw that Tanja still seemed hesitant. "But if you would like, I suppose you could help me set the table. It's such a beautiful day, so I thought that we could all have a nice picnic brunch."
Tanja nodded and wordlessly began to help.
"Is everything alright, Tanja?" Sophie asked her. "Are you sleeping well and eating enough?"
"Oh, it's not that, and I am very grateful for the food, of course," Tanja protested quickly. "I just have a lot on my mind. Well… something happened a few days ago. I had a choice, and I don't know if I did the right thing. It was the fair decision, but maybe not the right one, even though I have always considered those two things to be one and the same."
"Dear, it's never good to get too stuck like that, especially if it's something that happened in the past. There's no way to know if it might have gone differently, but it's certain that there will be other opportunities in the future for you to make decisions you will be satisfied with. Even maybe to fix things."
"Well, I hope it comes soon, it's for certain that we're going to have to work together today."
"I trust that if it's something you care this much about, you'll find a way. I never would have expected to end up here, cooking for other kids instead of my own, but I think it's exactly what I needed," Sophie recounted.
Tanja put a reassuring hand on the chef's shoulder. "Well, we are all very fortunate to have you at camp, Mrs. Cole."
Confessional: Tanja
"I didn't have anything else to do with my time, and I like to help people." She gave a small shrug. "Besides, it gets my mind off of things." She glanced away from the camera. "Especially since I really messed up with Paradise."
Martin saw Tanja helping Sophie set up the picnic, and without a word, he walked up to her and started helping her carry a basket of fruit. The activist shot him a quizzical look. "What are you up to?"
"The same as you. I see no harm in lending a hand," was the fencer's only response.
The two of them set the basket down at the end of the table. "Where's Paradise?" Martin asked.
"As far away from me as possible, presumably," Tanja grumbled.
Martin narrowed his eyes. "You still haven't made amends?"
"Oh, I've been trying, but she just avoids me. I didn't want to hurt her, especially now that I am beginning to understand where she is coming from, but I know I've lost her trust."
"What were you thinking when you found Maggie snooping around in the cabins?" Martin asked. "We barely had a chance to discuss between the challenge and the ceremony."
"Well, of course I was angry. It was extremely disrespectful of her to be looking through others' belongings. I suppose I wanted to deal with it, and to tell her off myself, and I didn't even think about reporting it to Nimbus because of that." Tanja paused for a moment. "But we will have to find a way through this.
Martin nodded in agreement. "Both for the sake of you two, and for the performance of the team. Remember what is at stake here." As he was setting the table, he had noticed that there were now only eight place settings. "It appears that now enough of us are gone that we all fit around one table," he remarked. "Though despite that, I still doubt that we will intermingle."
"Not even with Ollie?" Tanja remarked wryly.
Martin allowed himself a small smile. "He can mingle with anyone he desires." But then he quickly changed the subject. "So of course, building a relationship with some of the others in general is the optimal course of action. We will almost certainly be outnumbered when the teams disband."
"Do you really think the Dragons will keep working together?" Tanja looked skeptical, recalling how dysfunctional the other team seemed with all the big personalities.
"Even though they appear far less composed, they have managed to claim victory over us in the most unexpected ways, so we cannot afford to underestimate their unity," Martin pointed out. "Ignatius and Helios seem to be working together, and Katherine-"
"Wait, who?" Tanja interrupted.
Confessional: Kit
"How does he know my old name? I didn't even put it on the fancy papers they made me sign!"
Confessional: Martin
"Tanja was clearly the optimal choice for an ally on my team, and I believe we have worked well together, especially considering the, ah, subpar performances of many of our teammates," he started. "But now…" he hesitated, almost embarrassed to admit it. "After all us Gryphons have been through, it is only natural that I would consider her a friend."
While most of the others were doing things around camp, there were two more campers that were missing. Iggy and Selene were out running in the woods.
"You're keeping up pretty well," Iggy remarked.
Selene just beamed proudly in response, but right then, she ran into a low tree branch. To Iggy's surprise, the branch just broke and she kept going, completely unharmed.
"Wait!" Iggy called out and put his hand up. Just behind him, Selene skidded to a stop right before she fell down the hill they had just reached the top of. The two of them were overlooking the beach.
"Look, you can see camp from here!" Selene pointed it out, but Iggy seemed reluctant to join her.
"I didn't realize we had made it this far," Iggy admitted, but he kept his distance from the edge. "Guess I usually do this alone."
"I like being out here," Selene remarked. "The woods are pretty, and it's hard to hurt or break nature."
Iggy shrugged. "That was never my thing. Not to say I can't handle it," he quickly protested. "I'm here, aren't I? I just normally prefer to run on a track. Someone's gonna get their ankle broken."
"I did that to someone once," Selene said matter-of-factly. "It was an accident," she added after a moment, before finally falling back into silence as Iggy stared at her, dumbfounded.
Confessional: Iggy
"Honestly, I don't know if I'm more scared of the height or of Selene. Like, she's cool but she's gonna kill someone! But I have to say, it was kind of cool having company. It made the run feel easier." He then crossed his arms and smirked. "Or maybe I'm just getting stronger."
Confessional: Selene
"I've been thinking about too many things lately, and I know I always feel better after running. It's either that or punching a tree, and Lio says I shouldn't do that."
She paused for a moment.
"Lio says I shouldn't do a lot of things. But how does he know the things that I should be doing? This is too confusing."
All of a sudden, Selene walked over to the nearest tree and punched it, causing Iggy to jump. "Gah, what did you do that for?"
Selene just shrugged. "I felt like it. I think that I should be able to do the things that I feel like doing." She continued to admire the view, watching the other campers going about their morning routines. "Do you not want to see?"
"No, I'm not scared, I just don't feel like it," Iggy insisted. "Besides, I have to do my stretches."
Selene narrowed her eyes for a moment, but seemed to buy it. "Well, I think there's a lot going on down there. Everyone is outside at the benches," she narrated, as if she didn't want Iggy to miss it. "And they're bringing out something, fruit I think."
"Wait, are they having some kind of picnic?" Iggy deduced, and Selene nodded. "Let's get back, I'm starving!"
Meanwhile, Nimbus and Javi were in Javi's trailer. Javi was hunched over the weather machine, while Nimbus was sprawled out on the couch. "What do you mean, you need to do some maintenance?" the rock star shouted in exasperation.
"I mean exactly what I said," Javi responded and rolled his eyes. "The weather machine needs some repairs, 'cuz there are some stress fractures in the gearbox and I need to replace the casing. We're lucky I found it before it all fell apart, but it's too dangerous to keep using it until I can get it fixed."
"C'mon, not even a few clouds?" Nimbus pleaded.
Javi spoke in a condescending, overly enunciated tone, as if he was addressing a small child. "You see, machine goes boom, we go boom. And that's not good."
"But what about the challenge?"
"Que sera sera. Figure it out." Javi then went back to working on his machine, refusing to engage Nimbus further. The host headed out of the trailer to make some plans, while grumbling to himself.
Confessional: Nimbus
"I'll show him, I can run a challenge on my own!" He pumped his fist in the air, but then lowered his arm dejectedly. "Who am I kidding? I need Javi. I just do the talking, and he takes care of basically everything else. He's even the one that reviews all of these confessionals." As he realized what he was saying, his eyes widened. "Aw man…"
Back at camp, brunch was ready and some of the campers were starting to gather around the picnic table. As Martin had predicted, they had divided themselves by teams: at one end of the table, Lio was trying to stop Ollie and Kit from flicking grapes at each other, and on the other, Martin and Tanja were having a hushed conversation.
By the time Paradise came in, the others were already settled and eating. She took a seat at the Gryphons' side of the table next to Martin, avoiding Tanja's gaze.
The fencer rubbed his temples. "I thought you two were quite done with your grudges."
"I thought so too," Paradise grumbled. "I trusted her, before she, like, let Maggie go through all my stuff."
"I wanted to at least hear her out," Tanja protested.
Confessional: Paradise
"Yeah, well, I've been to all these stupid fancy dinner parties, and everyone has their own agenda. Nobody is kind just for the sake of it, and it's sooo obvious when people are doing good deeds not for you, but for themselves."
She looked at the ground. "…but I thought Tanja was different."
Confessional: Tanja
"I know it does not excuse my behavior at all, but it would be a lie to say I wasn't curious about why Paradise came here and what her situation is like at home… n-not that I'm paying too much attention to her! I know she has endured more than we can understand, and I wanted to help her. Even if the information was acquired in an immoral manner, it seemed to be a valuable opportunity."
Confessional: Martin
"I know that Maggie was accusing me of spending too much time with the other team, and, ah, one person in particular. But since it seems that Paradise and Tanja's little spat is not as resolved as I had believed…" He looked pretty annoyed at this. "I cannot lose focus today."
"Hey, save some food for us!" Iggy called out, as he and Selene had just made it back to camp.
"I told you guys not to stay out too long," Lio berated them.
"Maybe you should've come along with us then," Iggy shot back. "Or were you afraid you couldn't keep up?"
"You shouldn't be wasting your energy on a challenge day."
Iggy just gave a smug grin. "You're the one who shouldn't be wasting your energy chasing after us."
Lio wrinkled his nose. "At the very least, you two need to take a shower."
Selene glanced from Iggy to Lio, seeming unsure of what to say.
Confessional: Selene
"Iggy was being mean to Lio, even though he was kind of right, and I didn't say anything. What does that mean?"
All the way on the opposite side of the table, the Gryphons had gathered. "Look," Tanja started, but the heiress seemed disinterested. "I apologize for withholding information from you before that last elimination. A bystander is the last thing I want to be."
"I get it, so, like, hounding me about it isn't going to make me want to talk any more," Paradise snapped and went back to poking at her food.
"Are you not going to eat anything?" Tanja asked Paradise.
"I'm not hungry."
"At least take something for later?" Tanja pleaded.
The picnic brunch was cut short by the sound of an airhorn, and Paradise rolled her eyes and then wrapped the bagel in a napkin and shoved it into her pocket. "There, happy?"
"It's challenge time!" Nimbus' voice blared through a hidden speaker mounted somewhere around camp.
"Where's that coming from?" Lio looked around, confused.
"If they can hide cameras, it should be trivial for them to hide speakers as well," Martin reasoned. "Chances are they just forgot to utilize them until now."
"Or maybe we just prefer to yell at you from up close!" Nimbus shouted through the speaker, with the volume cranked up even louder this time, causing Martin to flinch and look distressed. "But we've been thinking, and we're approaching the halfway point of the competition. You guys have been through almost two weeks, and you have four challenges under your belt already!"
"And just as many different weather conditions," Paradise murmured, recalling Earl's notes on the weather at camp.
Meanwhile Kit began to count on their fingers, surprised by this realization.
Confessional: Kit
"We all got here on a Monday, then we had the ice-smashing challenge and the forest-searching challenge that week," they listed out. "On the next Monday we did the thingy with the Refrigerator and the singing… Wednesday was when the rain stopped and we went rowing. And now it's Friday? I didn't really think I'd make it this far hehe, I shoulda brought one of those thingamabobs that counts the days."
Confessional: Ollie
"Halfway? How did it go so fast? Soon enough I'm going to have to leave my new friends… unless I invite them all to come see the circus! Wow, Ringmaster Warren would love that!"
"So we thought we'd celebrate that, along with the weather, with a fun beach day!" Nimbus announced. "So everybody meet by the dock in twenty!"
"You're actually giving us sufficient notice before a challenge?" Martin looked surprised.
"And don't get used to it!" Nimbus retorted, before the loudspeaker crackled as the announcement ended.
"You all go have fun!" Sophie said.
"At least let us help you clean up first," Tanja protested.
"You've been quite a big help already, dearie," Sophie assured her. "I can get Naila to help me."
"Never!" Naila interrupted, as she came out from underneath the table. Tanja and Sophie both watched as she ran off to hide in the bushes.
"I'll figure it out," Sophie said finally.
"Has she been under there this entire time?" Tanja wondered in amazement.
Some campers, like Selene and a begrudging Iggy, had some things to take care of, but a few others, like Martin, opted to just head to the challenge area early. The fencer made his way to the beach, thinking about the upcoming challenge. But when he arrived by the dock, someone was already there.
"Ollie?"
"Oh hi Marty! I was excited about the challenge so I thought I'd get here early!" The acrobat eagerly bounded over to Martin when he saw him.
Confessional: Martin
"I really am struggling to understand how he maintains his energy. Is it something he's eating?" He smiled. "But regardless, it is quite infectious. Perhaps I should be discussing with Paradise and Tanja, as they clearly could use some mediation, but… how can I say no to him?"
"You always look like you're thinking about something," Ollie said. "What are you thinking about?"
"I believe that it can't be much longer before our teams dissolve," Martin responded. "The votes are beginning to grow quite tense, and how will Nimbus and Javier handle it if my team loses another member?"
"Whoa, that means that we might be on the same team soon!" Ollie responded excitedly.
"That's not quite how it works." Martin adjusted his glasses. "There is no point in everyone being on the same team. Wouldn't it be the same as everyone being on their own team?"
"Only if you think about it that way," Ollie argued. "I like to try and make the most of things. If I stopped to be sad, I probably wouldn't have gotten to where I am now. So… we'll be on the same team soon!"
"I suppose."
"Besides, I didn't say everybody, silly. I just said us!" Ollie grinned at Martin, and the fencer couldn't help but smile back.
Confessional: Martin
"Or, this could work in my favor as well. With the Dragons outnumbering us, along with it being established that the teams cannot last much longer, it seems wise to be searching for allies. And what better place to start than the person who has only shown me kindness?"
Selene was walking to the beach with Lio. The former still seemed completely confused and conflicted, and was trying to avoid her brother, but he had other ideas.
Lio grabbed Selene's arm. "Are you angry with me?" he asked. "I've been worried about you."
Selene thought for a moment. "I don't know," she said honestly. "…should I be?"
"You're the only one who can know that," Lio responded.
"Okay! …how do I do that?"
Lio facepalmed, and wasn't sure how to respond to that, but Selene was still thinking.
"I think I should be able to figure it out," she said finally, seeming surprisingly aloof. "But only if you let me."
A little ways back, some of the others were on the path out of camp. Kit was tinkering with a new gadget as they walked. It began to hum and vibrate, before a gear flew off and sailed through the air. It was about to hit Iggy in the back of his head, but Tanja caught it.
The track star turned around and glared at Kit. "Watch it. Just 'cuz you did that thing with the ropes in the tree challenge doesn't mean your machines are a replacement for actual strength."
"You're going to hurt someone," Tanja added, more gently.
Iggy rolled his eyes. "Why do you even care? You're not on our team."
Confessional: Tanja
"Maybe I do get into other people's business too much. If I hadn't tried to see what Maggie had found about Paradise, then maybe we would've finally been on good terms."
Soon all the campers had made it to the beach. They gathered around Nimbus, who had come in carrying a plastic inflatable beach ball under one arm. "Today's challenge is…" The rock star paused dramatically, while Naila did a drumroll on a conveniently placed trash can. "Beach volleyball!" He then turned to Naila. "Where did you come from?" The intern just shrugged.
"That's… it?" Tanja asked skeptically.
"Yeah, like, you've had us fight a snowball robot and row over a waterfall, and now we're just playing volleyball?" Paradise chimed in.
"And not even real volleyball." Lio shook his head. "That ball is ridiculous."
"I'm just waiting for them to unleash the bear," Martin grumbled.
"Another one?" Iggy exclaimed. He and Ollie exchanged glances.
"This is a great challenge!" Nimbus chose to ignore the campers' comments, and pointed at the court, which was a rectangular area around a volleyball net, that had been marked off in the sand. "The first to five points wins. The game will be three on three, meaning the Dragons are allowed to substitute players between points… and every person is also required to play at least one round."
"Their numbers should not be too much of an advantage in a challenge like this," Tanja told her team, still determined despite the clearly uneven matchup. "Perhaps the shuffling players will even distract them, while we can have consistency."
"Yeah, it's probably better than if Maggie had to play," Paradise remarked as she examined her nails. "I'm sure we're all glad she's gone."
"I'm sure she had her own demons she was facing," Tanja counted. "I would probably be more defensive if I had that many medical issues."
"Ugh, of course you would say that."
Confessional: Paradise
"Everything has to be about fairness with her," she ranted. "She just has to treat everyone equally even if they just plain suck. What if I want Tanja to see me differently?" Her eyes then widened when she realized what she had just said. "Wait-"
The confessional abruptly ended.
Martin looked around the beach, making sure there were no traps or other twists, but there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. It looked like an idyllic beach scene out of a teen movie: warm sun, clear blue sky, white sand, and a seagull sitting on Nimbus' lounge chair on the sidelines, which he quickly shooed away.
"Dragons! Go ahead and choose who will play first." Nimbus pointed at the team of five. "Gryphons… just sit tight I guess."
"Oh, this should be no problem. I used to be the captain of the volleyball team," Lio boasted to his team. "Student council took priority, of course, and I had many extracurriculars to manage, but I know my way around the court."
"Wait a second. You played on the men's team?" Iggy asked.
"Yes… what else would I do?" Lio glared at Iggy, but the track star didn't seem to have meant it as an insult, and he mostly just looked impressed.
Confessional: Iggy
"I'll admit that maybe I don't fully understand what he's gone through, and it's kind of cool that he's succeeded despite this, but that just sounds like putting yourself at a disadvantage on purpose. Hey, if I had a loophole so I could race against a bunch of girls, I would take it." He put his hands up. "A win's a win."
"Let's get back on track here. I have to go out there, and I can serve, and-"
"Obviously it has to be me and Selene with you," Iggy cut in.
Lio glared at him. "As I was saying, we should-"
"Ooh, I have a lot of experience with balls!" Ollie called out, causing Kit to snicker. "But not really with volleying…" None of his teammates looked too convinced.
"I don't wanna go anywhere near the murder-net." Kit shook their head vigorously.
"Selene, do you want to play?"
Selene looked at Lio and cocked her head, and as the twins looked at each other there was clearly some tension. Lio had never asked her about these things.
"I… uh…" The follower was starting to sweat, as she knew what Lio wanted, but wasn't sure what she herself wanted.
"I want to play!" Selene said finally. She gave Lio a small smile. "I miss playing with you."
Confessional: Selene
"I always followed Lio to volleyball, and student council, and journalism, and band, and… well, I tried to. I was never good at any of those things, so I just protected him from the people that wouldn't listen. He used to be a lot more quiet."
"Alright, so Selene and I will play. Do you know how to play volleyball?" Lio asked Iggy.
"I'm fast," he responded, ignoring the question.
Selene raised her hand. "I thought you were Iggy?" she blurted out.
"Let's just get playing already!" The track star pounded his fist into his palm.
Meanwhile, the Gryphons had already stepped onto the court. Martin was in the front of their formation, by the net, while Paradise and Tanja stood behind him.
"C'mon Dragons!" Lio clapped his hands and stepped forward confidently. Selene looked determined as she assumed her position in front of the net, and Iggy got into a ready stance that looked suspiciously similar to a runner getting on their mark.
Meanwhile on the sidelines, Kit was rooting around in their pocket. They pulled out a pair of blue pom-poms and held them out to Ollie. The acrobat's eyes sparkled and he grinned excitedly.
"Alright campers, I want a good clean fight- uh, I mean game! Remember, your team gets three touches before you have to hit the ball over, and the same person can't hit twice in a row, or serve for two points in a row." Nimbus held up an oversized wooden coin that had been painted with the two teams' logos. "Let's see who gets to serve first."
With that, Nimbus flicked the coin up into the air. Everyone on the court watched it intently, while Ollie was inexplicably already cheering and waving around his pom-poms.
The coin landed in the sand, with the yellow side glinting in the sun. "Gryphons?"
Iggy seemed pretty annoyed at this, but his expression quickly morphed into a sneer. "They're going to need all the help they can get."
Nimbus tossed the beach ball to the Gryphons, and Tanja caught it. "We can do this." She checked on both of her teammates, Martin looking completely focused and Paradise avoiding eye contact, before getting ready to serve.
Tanja threw the beach ball into the air and then struck it over the net. Lio easily stepped forward and spiked it back over to the Gryphons. Martin was barely able to get under the ball in time, but managed to hit it up and backwards. "I got it!" Paradise tried to strike it back over, but it hit the net and fell into the sand.
Nimbus blew a whistle that he had pulled out of nowhere. "First point goes to the Dragons!" On the sidelines, Ollie cheered while Kit just watched with wide eyes.
"I think that was a home run," the engineer murmured.
Lio frowned at Nimbus. "That's not how volleyball should work. You can only earn points if your team is serving."
Iggy nudged him. "Dude, he gave us the point, just go with it."
Confessional: Lio
"It was messy, but I guess if we're working together, that's the most I can ask for from these guys." He then frowned and shook his head. "No, that's no way to be thinking! This is nothing like Ollie's clowns, or whatever he was going on about earlier, it didn't seem that useful for us. I will turn this team around."
Confessional: Kit
"I dunno how they do it. It might not be as dangerous as the tiger car or the snowball machine, but there's no figuring the Sports Ball out or taking it apart." They were putting together the gears for some small wind-up toy, and they looked away from the camera. "I'm nervous about letting my team down. Lio says it's fine that I 'have other skills' or something, but I dunno if everyone sees."
Iggy ran to grab the ball, and when Lio held his hand out, he reluctantly handed it over.
"This is for the Deluge Dragons," the diplomat declared, to which Iggy rolled his eyes and Selene cheered.
Lio threw the ball and caught it a few times, seeming unsatisfied with how different it felt from a normal volleyball. He finally served the ball, and it sailed right over Martin's head and hit the sand right in the corner of the court, to everyone's astonishment.
Nimbus blew his whistle. "That looks in bounds to me!" he announced. "Point goes to the Dragons!"
"Too easy," Iggy taunted the Gryphons, as if he had served the ace himself.
"Touchdown!" Kit cheered from the sidelines.
Tanja retrieved the beach ball, and threw it back over the net, where Iggy grabbed it and prepared to serve.
Three rounds in, Ollie had already grown bored of his pom-poms on the sidelines. "That looks so fun! I wanna play! Don't you wanna play, Kit?"
As they watched, Paradise hit the ball and it was clearly going to go out, but Iggy jumped up and hit it back over. "Yeah, take that!" he shouted.
"That was out!" Lio yelled at him.
Kit looked at Ollie, and then they just shook their head vigorously.
Confessional: Ollie
"Kit's still my closest friend… on my team at least. Things don't always go great for our team, but I hope we can have fun together still."
The two were interrupted by Nimbus' whistle. "And that's three to nothing for the Dragons!" he declared.
"Slam dunk!" Kit shouted and high-fived Ollie, and Nimbus gave them a funny look.
"Gryphons!" Tanja called the three of them together. "We cannot lose this," she said fiercely. "I cannot say goodbye to either of you."
Paradise rolled her eyes. "We're not winning this on, like, team spirit alone. We need a strategy."
"The only tactic I have is rather rudimentary, but it should suffice for now," Martin offered. "Avoid hitting the ball to Lio," he deadpanned.
"Exactly." Paradise nodded. "In any team competition, it makes sense to target the weakest link."
Martin and Paradise made eye contact for a moment, seeming to be sizing each other up, at least from a mental standpoint.
Confessional: Paradise
"Not that the other team is going to be thinking anything like we are—for a few of them, I kind of doubt that they think at all––but I guess I would be the weakest link of my team. But there's no harm in staying under the radar for now." She gave an aloof shrug, but her tone betrayed her nervousness. "Martin and Tanja wouldn't team up against me… would they?"
"Can I serve?" Selene asked.
Lio hesitated, but Iggy threw Selene the ball, and the diplomat reluctantly nodded.
Selene took the ball and mimicked Lio's form, down to the few practice throws before she finally served. The ball flew at a frightening speed for an inflatable beach ball, but it hit the net and rebounded, landing right in Lio's hands: a fault.
"Strike!" Kit called out. "Or was that a fumble?"
"It's okay Selene!" Ollie waved his pom-poms at her, almost aggressively, then did a cartwheel, almost running into Nimbus. "You'll get it next time!"
Nimbus blew his whistle. "Silence from the peanut gallery! Last time I checked, peanuts don't talk!"
"You get one more try," Lio assured her. "Wait, what are you doing?"
Selene ignored him, concentrating as she seemed to have switched strategies entirely, holding the ball in front of her and swinging one arm to hit the ball underhand. But it worked and the ball flew over the net in a wide arc.
Tanja quickly ran to set the ball, and Paradise spiked it back over. It was clearly headed towards Iggy, but Selene yelled "I got it!" and the two of them ended up colliding.
Nimbus blew his whistle. "Point goes to… the Gryphons?" he declared, surprised. "The Dragons are still in the lead, three to one!"
Confessional: Paradise
"That was, like, mostly luck, but it's clear that the other team is a complete mess. Sports were never my thing, and it's not just because Mother would've never let me play since I might, like, break my face or something. I've never understood what could possibly be that fun about hitting balls around. It's barbaric, really."
As the Gryphons prepared to finally serve, Lio beckoned Kit over. "We all need to play at least one round, and I believe it's best for you to come in now."
"You really think so? I'm not going to last a second out there, they'll flatten me like one of those concrete-rolly-trucks!" Kit retracted their head into their coat, much like the turtles from the previous challenge.
"You're going to have to switch the teams up eventually," the diplomat pointed out. "Would you rather wait until it's a more dire situation?"
"If you give me some time I can think of some thingamajig, right?" Kit poked their head back out and started to rummage around in their pockets.
"I don't believe that's going to help you," Lio said bluntly.
"Hold these, would you?" Ollie asked as he thrust Kit's pom-poms at a fuming Iggy. He then bounded over and put himself between Lio and Kit. "C'mon, we can do it together!" He slung an arm around Kit, though they still didn't seem convinced. "We know we make a great team, right?"
"You can't keep doing this to me!" Kit protested. "This has to be a foul!"
"Are you guys, like, going to play the game or what?" Paradise hollered at them from the opposite side of the court, and the Dragons quickly scrambled into position, Ollie practically dragging Kit onto the field.
The tinkerer was shaking in fear as they watched Martin preparing to serve the ball, and it came flying directly at them. They flailed their arms and somehow managed to hit it… straight at the net. The ball bounced back but Ollie ran up as Kit was cowering and assisted it over the net.
But their victory was short-lived, as Tanja set the ball, and Martin jumped and spiked it back over, aiming for the back corner as Lio was in front of the net. Ollie dove and managed to bump it before it fell to the sand, then did a somersault and landed back on his feet. Selene whooped from the sidelines while Lio hit the ball back over.
"I got it!" Paradise shouted, and she dove for the ball and hit it up before she fell onto the sand. Martin struck it, aiming directly at Kit, who screamed and shielded their face. The ball bounced off of their body harmlessly and hit the ground.
"The Dragons are at three, but that's a second point for the Gryphons!" Nimbus blew his whistle. "It seems like they may be mounting a comeback."
Confessional: Kit
"I'm calling a timeout!" They made a 'T' gesture with their hands. "Martin shoulda gotten a purple card for that!" They looked pretty agitated, not even bothering to fidget as they instead just clutched their screwdriver tightly with both hands. "Ollie might be doing whatever stops people from fighting, but I never agreed to any of this!"
"That was a good hit." Tanja ran over to help Paradise to her feet, and the heiress instinctively grabbed her hand and let the activist help her up before she realized what she was doing.
"Whew, I'm all sandy." The heiress tried to brush some of the sand off of the front of her outfit, turning away from Tanja. "Don't pretend like everything is fine. I still don't trust you," Paradise stated.
"You don't need to. We just need to win," Tanja responded, equally bluntly.
"And that's exactly what I'm going to do."
"Maggie was the one most at fault," Martin cut in. "If you let a rift between us form, you'll be letting her win."
This argument was the first that actually seemed to resonate with Paradise. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm so not going home."
On the Dragons' side, the mood was equally tense for different reasons. Before Lio could decide to switch Kit out, they silently left the court on their own. They took their place back on the sidelines, where they were very agitatedly fiddling with a coil of wire.
"Thanks, Kit," was all Lio said, before turning to the others on the sidelines. "Selene?" he asked.
"Really?" she exclaimed in pure delight and clasped her hands together, before realizing she was supposed to care less about what Lio thought, and just shrugged and trudged over to the field in a very poor attempt at masking her excitement.
"Wait, how about me?" Iggy protested, but Lio ignored him, and Nimbus blew his whistle.
Tanja served at Selene, but the follower easily hit the ball back over, only for Martin to bump it up.
"I hate being short," Iggy grumbled as he watched, even though that was far from the only issue he had.
Kit just shrugged. "I kind of like it. It gives me excuses to climb on things when I can't reach hehe." They sat down on the sand, and Iggy sat next to them.
Confessional: Kit
They were sitting on top of a very precarious stack of books and boxes on top of the closed toilet lid, examining the single bare lightbulb that lit the outhouse. "I wonder what this does?"
All of a sudden, the light in the confessional went off, and they lost their balance as the entire stack crashed to the ground.
They shakily stood back up, and their wide eyes were the only thing visible in the darkness. "I should have known, hehe."
As Iggy and Kit watched, Lio spiked the ball over the net, and Tanja jumped for it, but missed and the ball hit the ground.
Nimbus blew his whistle. "So much for a comeback, that's another point for the Dragons!" He took his sweet time in retrieving the ball and bringing it back to the court. Martin was scrutinizing the other team, and Ollie waved to him, getting only the slightest of nods (and a glare from Lio) in response. "Our score is four to two, in favor of the Dragons, who have been in the lead for this whole entire game," he announced. "So I'm going to do something interesting." The campers all groaned, save for Ollie, who cheered. He paused dramatically, though a few had an idea of what was probably going to happen next.
"We're going into sudden death. This next point will win the entire game."
"A predictable twist, but not unwelcome." Martin looked at his teammates. Tanja gave him a determined nod and Paradise looked relieved.
"Wait, what?" Iggy yelled angrily.
"That's not how the rules work!" Lio added.
"Whatever, we'll still win," Iggy said confidently as he strode onto the court, until Lio held up a hand.
"Ollie, we need your agility for this one. And we need you too, Selene."
Iggy seemed like he was going to protest for a moment, but then he just huffed and stomped his way back to the sidelines like a little kid throwing a tantrum.
Kit was there waiting for him. "Y'know, you don't have to be good at Sports Ball, there are other games too. Ones that I like more." They then handed Iggy a stick, and pointed to where they had drawn a grid in the sand.
Iggy grabbed the stick, his competitive spark returning. "Oh, it's on!"
The track star had barely even noticed that the other three Dragons had gotten in position on the court. Lio served the ball, but this time, Martin was able to anticipate it and immediately return the serve.
While their teammates on the court were locked in a rally with the other team, Iggy and Kit were staring each other down in a game that seemed almost as intense as the challenge itself. Kit was sweating and biting their nails as Iggy marked his 'X' in the sand on the tic tac toe grid.
Kit took the stick from him, and marked an 'O' to block him, with the grid almost being filled.
"It's a tie I guess," Kit declared, and Iggy seemed disappointed.
"That's a lie! Every real game has to have a winner and a loser," Iggy protested, annoyed.
"Wait, look!" Kit nudged him just in time to point out Selene, as Lio set the ball for her and she spiked it fiercely, before any of the Gryphons could react.
Nimbus blew his whistle. "And the Dragons win the game!"
Selene immediately tackled Lio in a hug as the other Dragons all cheered.
"Victory royale!" Kit squealed, while Iggy kicked sand over their failed tic tac toe game.
"And you know what that means," Nimbus continued. He then paused to give the three Gryphons a chance to exchange uneasy glances.
"…they'll get an advantage in the next part of the challenge."
"The next part of the challenge?" Lio repeated, and Martin adjusted his glasses, as if that would somehow affect what he had heard.
"Of course. There's always a twist," the fencer muttered.
Nimbus smirked. "You didn't really think we were gonna try to make a whole episode out of a volleyball game, did you? Follow me."
Nimbus led the contestants down the beach. Ollie jumped on top of the beach ball and started to run around while balancing on top of it. "Hey Kit!" he called out, but the tinkerer didn't seem amused.
"Well, I am definitely grateful for our fortune," Tanja said to her team. "We were beginning to have some synergy by the end, so let's take advantage of this second chance!" She looked at Paradise who was still refusing to make eye contact. "We can't afford to lose."
The reality of this seemed to set in for Paradise, and she nodded grimly. "Hopefully this next part will be less physical… Wait, do you hear that?"
The heiress was the first to notice some strange noises as they walked down the beach. The beeps and clangs sounded almost like a construction site. Soon, Nimbus led the group around the bend.
There was a loud beeping like a truck backing up, and Naila drove over to the group in Javi's ATV, which had been outfitted with an excavator arm in the front. Behind her were two human-scale sand castles, each nearly the size of one of the cabins. They were about a football field's distance apart, and each had a high castle wall, with two gaps for front and rear entrances. The castles were even furnished with a few beach umbrellas and deck chairs inside. On the stretch of sand between the castles, there were some scattered barriers, sand walls that were about Naila's height. The midpoint of the field, which the group was currently in alignment with, was marked with a line in what appeared to be red glitter glue. Even Nimbus looked surprised by the prankster's handiwork.
Confessional: Naila
"This reminds me of the blanket forts I used to make with my brother Kahil! Our big sister Ami would always yell at us, saying it was past our bedtime, or that we were going to break something, or that it was a fire hazard. She thinks she's Mom sometimes, and she's probably kind of right."
She looked down at her feet. "That hasn't happened since… since they took him away."
Naila turned back to the camera, and blinked a few times. "Uhh, I mean, he was doooomed ahahaha!" Her hysteria seemed just the slightest bit more stilted now.
"This next challenge is a simple game of capture the flag," Nimbus explained. "Except you guys will be searching for hidden pirate treasure."
"I would advise you to review the design of your challenges," Martin remarked. "This episode's, ah, flavor is all over the place, and it hardly holds together."
"Hey, The Journey of the Celestial Beasts of Cloudbreak River took a lot out of me," Nimbus protested. "And it's not like we have the budget for, like, an AI in our castle, that sounds like it could be a whole season on its own." He elected not to mention the one other very obvious difference between this challenge and the previous one, that being the absence of Javi. "Aaanyways, there's a treasure chest in each of your two sand castles, and you guys can bury it, hide it anywhere within the boundaries of the battlefield, or just defend it… do whatever you want to keep the other team from taking it. Dragons, since you won the volleyball game, you guys win… a metal detector! Sure to help you find hidden treasures." Nimbus threw a handheld metal detector to Iggy, but Kit's pupils dilated and they immediately darted forward, snatching it out of the air and hugging it to their chest.
"Be careful with that," Lio cautioned.
They gave a determined nod. "I know gizmos. I can do this."
"Speaking of gizmos," Nimbus said, and Kit's head immediately whipped in his direction. "Digging around in the sand all day doesn't make for good TV, so we've got a bunch of siege weapons you can mess around with."
"Siege weapons?" Tanja echoed with concern. "That sounds dangerous."
"Like these other challenges haven't been," Paradise retorted.
In the background, Naila was still driving around in Javi's ATV, but now it had a hook like a tow truck's sticking out of the back, and she was using it to tow around the entire storage shed. It was clearly the same one from the music video challenge, as it was pretty battered and had an imprint of Iggy on the door. She pulled up in front of the campers, and then the walls of the shed fell down, leaving its contents to spill out in a pile right outside the battlefield's boundary. There had been a few seagulls pecking around on the beach, but they all flew away when Naila dove by, and one of them rolled its eyes.
"Some assembly required," Nimbus finished, and the campers groaned.
"You're going to clean that up after the challenge, right?" Tanja asked, to no response.
Confessional: Nimbus
"Sand toys, sports equipment, craft supplies… I think this is the stuff we would've needed if we were trying to run an actual summer camp. Not that great for bringing the ratings up on its own, but we'll find a way to make it work!"
"And don't try anything funny, skirmishes are encouraged but severely injuring another camper will lead to an instant loss for your team and a lot of paperwork for J-, uh, I mean, for us!" Nimbus reminded them, but he looked a little remorseful for a moment, as if he was waiting for a partner that wasn't present to interject. "You have half an hour to set up your defenses and hide your treasure, and then you'll be able to attack!" he announced.
Lio quickly gathered his team. "Alright, how are we feeling about this one?" Lio asked. Iggy gave a firm nod and a confident smirk, and Ollie jumped up and down excitedly. "We need to locate the treasure first, which should be simple with our advantage and our numbers, and then Iggy, you can run in and grab it?"
Iggy nodded. "Yeah, if we find their treasure fast, they won't have time for their plans to work."
"The other team is the planning team," Selene agreed. "We just rush in usually."
Lio shook his head to himself. "We could be the planning team, if only you guys would cooperate."
"Hey, we've been winning, haven't we?" Iggy said and exchanged a high-five with Ollie.
Lio pointed at his sister. "Selene, when the Gryphons come, you can be on guard duty."
Selene was silent.
"Is that okay?"
"Yeah!" Once Lio gave her the choice, she seemed content to agree.
Confessional: Selene
"Protecting things? I know I can do that." She looked a little nervous but determined. "I want to do a good job. For Lio, but mostly for me."
Confessional: Lio
"It took the plot of a brilliant leader like Odysseus to breach the defenses of the mighty Trojans, and to win the war against all odds! But this is no epic tale, and I'm no mythical hero. It seems they would see right through my Trojan horse. Enemies and allies alike." He grimaced. "If things can't go my way, I will at least need to have faith in my teammates."
"Now, what do we want in the way of defenses?" Lio continued. "Kit, what are you thinking?" Lio asked Kit.
The tinkerer was just staring at the metal detector in their hands, actively resisting fidgeting with it for fear of breaking it. "I dunno yet, but I think I can find something."
"And the rest of you, see what you can find in the pile. We'll need both weapons and fortifications. I'm going to hide our treasure."
"I say let's use the same strategy as the music video challenge." Iggy pounded his fist into his palm. "Let's grab as much stuff as we can, and figure out what we're gonna do with it later." Before Lio could protest, the track star had run off, followed by Ollie and Selene.
"I like grabbing stuff!" Selene cheered.
Confessional: Celia
The rebel was lounging in the confessional room onboard the Loser Cruiser, putting her feet up on a crate. She smirked at the camera. "I'm stuff."
At the very top of the junk pile, there was something sticking out that looked like the handle of a shovel. Martin and Iggy both had their sights set on it, and then they locked eyes. At the same moment, they both ran to grab it. While Martin was picking his way through the debris, Iggy just took a running leap over it all and landed on top of the pile, his hands closing on the shovel. But when he pulled it out of the pile, he lost his balance and fell backwards, hitting a rake and a baseball bat on the way down as he tumbled to the ground and landed on the shed door, right on top of the imprint from where he had previously crashed into it, a few challenges prior.
Iggy got up, leaning heavily on his shovel but pretending nothing had happened. "Too slow," he taunted. However, when he looked at Martin, the fencer didn't seem all too upset by the loss.
Iggy finally looked down and realized the shovel was made of flimsy plastic, like a kid's toy. "Is this a joke?" he scoffed.
Nimbus shrugged. "I don't know. Javi's usually the one to come up with the jokes."
"Actually, where is he, anyways?" Iggy narrowed his eyes.
"He's just a little busy with… camp stuff right now." Nimbus waved his hand dismissively.
Meanwhile, Martin was digging in the junk pile for something remotely sword-like, and the other two Gryphons joined him. Tanja looked upset. "This is so wasteful."
"There's probably been nothing living on this beach for some time anyways," Paradise tried to reason. "It's not like dropping this junk here is going to make it any worse."
Tanja shook her head. "It's more about the principle… ah, never mind. We should get to work." She turned to Martin, as the fencer pulled a broom out of the pile and jabbed it in the air like a rapier.
"It would seem that they stored the janitorial supplies alongside the camp materials, but I believe we can make use of this."
"Everything is a sword to you, huh?" Paradise remarked.
"It seemed optimal for me to stick to what I know," he responded. "And it's sure to give us the edge."
Tanja groaned, but Martin's words seemed to have given Paradise an idea. "Sooo, stupid idea." The heiress waved the Gryphons into a huddle a little ways from the pile and lowered her voice. "They have a metal detector." She pointed at the pile. "And I'm sure we can find a bunch of metal in there."
"I believe I understand your intent." Martin nodded. "We bury fake treasure to divert their attention and buy us some time."
"Oh, it's even better than that." Paradise smirked at Martin. "We can lure them somewhere, and set up an ambush."
"That could work." Tanja furrowed her brow. "If only there was a way to apprehend them without harming them too badly. It will be difficult to overpower them even with the element of surprise."
"I have a plan for that too. Can you guys try and get, like, any type of rope and string we can find?"
Martin and Tanja were surprised for a moment, then they both nodded. As the two of them returned their attention to the pile, Paradise grabbed some random tools and cans and headed back to their fort.
Confessional: Martin
"It has become more and more clear that I am not the only one on the team with a mind for tactics. I only worry if Tanja's… interest in Paradise will affect our alliance, but for now, we just need to focus so we all can survive."
Meanwhile, Kit was deep in thought as they looked at the pile. Their metal detector was stashed away in their pocket, so they couldn't tell that the lights on the instrument were already blinking. Near them, Iggy and Selene just seemed to be gathering up as many potentially useful things as they could and bringing them back to the Dragons' castle.
Ollie hopped up on top of the pile. "Hey Kit, look at me!" He held a mop to his head like a wig.
"Not now, I need to get the thingies for the thingy." They got back to digging through the pile, taking care to look for any electronics they could use.
Ollie lowered the mop. "Is something wrong?"
"Maybe, but it doesn't matter right now." Kit was frantically picking items out of the pile and stuffing them in their coat, and Ollie marveled at how their pockets never seemed to get more full.
"What's your brilliant plan?" Iggy asked Lio as he strode into the Dragons' sand castle and dumped a pile of junk onto the ground. "How are we gonna hide the chest?"
Confessional: Lio
"With a binder?"
"Well, the Gryphons are probably expecting us to bury it somewhere inside our castle, and, well… unpredictability has been our greatest asset as a team so far." Lio's eye twitched as he said that. "Now, what if we put it in the castle wall?"
"It probably won't matter what we do, 'cuz we won't even let the other team make it to the castle," Iggy said confidently. "But the wall does seem thick enough. We just can't let them see that we're doing it."
"We can hollow out the wall from the inside then." Lio pointed Iggy towards a section of the back wall of the castle.
The track star tried to dig at the sand with his shovel, but ended up using it more like a chisel. "There's no way this is just sand and water," he complained, until Lio started using his hands to dig without much difficulty. "Or maybe this thing just sucks." He threw the shovel behind him.
Back in their castle, the Gryphons were beginning to set up their trap. Paradise was sitting on the treasure chest that they were meant to be hiding, using a deck chair as a makeshift table as she showed Martin how to weave some ropes together.
"Stick to what you know, right? Sewing was, like, one of the few activities that Mother deemed acceptable for me," she explained with a roll of her eyes. "It was either this or being paraded around at her dinner parties like another one of her new fancy jewels, so I got good at it. And weaving and knitting stuff too."
Martin was surprised to see how spiteful the normally aloof Paradise had gotten, and he seemed unsure of how to respond. "That seems to be far from the optimal experience, but I suppose there are less practical skills to have?"
"This is never what I thought I'd be using them for, but yeah, I guess." Paradise chuckled to herself. "This kind of game was completely out of the question."
"So are you glad to be here?" Martin asked.
"It's been more enjoyable than I expected," Paradise responded. "But mostly it's, like, way better than the alternative. I'll do anything to get away from Mother." She noticed that Martin had gone silent, and she felt a little bad about her tirade.
"My mother, well, she passed when I was very young," Martin finally revealed. "I never knew her."
"Oh. I didn't know." Paradise looked away, not sure how to respond, but Martin's expression didn't change.
"Father and I are quite close, and he's always supported my interest in fencing."
"Bet this is pretty new to you though," Paradise remarked, pointing at the ropes they were working with.
"Really? You would think fencing is quite a similar activity to sewing," Martin responded, and Paradise narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Just with a much longer needle," he finished wryly.
"Haha, very funny, what's been up with you lately? Is it something you ate?"
"There has been something up with me lately?" Now it was Martin's turn to look confused.
"You're, like, all competition all the time, but now you've been talking to me more than you ever have and we've gotten nothing done."
Martin looked down at the rope in his hands, then his eyes widened and he quickly resumed his weaving. "I suppose I'm just trying not to overthink things as much as I tend to do," he protested. "Don't want to throw myself for a loop or get tied up," he added, holding up the rope for emphasis, and Paradise groaned.
"Yeah, sure." Paradise didn't seem completely convinced, but Martin was saved when Tanja came back to the fort. She looked beat-up from digging and fighting with the Dragons by the junk pile, but she triumphantly held up another coil of rope. "This is all I could find." She then saw Martin and Paradise in the middle of a surprisingly animated conversation, and raised an eyebrow. Then she suddenly thought of something. "We need to find a place to put the treasure!"
Martin looked around. "I doubt that we have the time or tools to bury it fully. If their metal detector is not a factor, perhaps we can hide it in plain sight." His gaze fell on the deck chairs and the sun umbrella, and Tanja nodded.
Confessional: Martin
"Being in good standing with my teammates should be part of the optimal strategy, especially since I have already deduced that we won't be a team forever, but I won't deny that I enjoyed that conversation for other reasons."
Confessional: Tanja
She seemed a little bit more optimistic. "It is always good to see those two getting along."
Meanwhile in the Dragons' castle, Ollie was trying to help Kit with their electronics. They had managed to find a motorized leaf blower. As they were working, the machine suddenly roared to life and started blowing sand everywhere, and Ollie had to grab onto it and ride it like a rodeo bull to keep it from blasting a hole in their castle wall.
Lio glared at them. "I don't think that's going to help us. Can you find something useful to do?"
Confessional: Kit
They looked dejected. "I'm tired of people not letting me do my thingy. I already made that rope-y doohickey last challenge, what more do they need?"
Kit tried to protest, but Ollie nodded at Lio and threw the leaf blower away. "Wanna try and find some weapons with me?"
"Not really," Kit murmured.
All of a sudden, they heard a thump, and saw Selene had fallen through the side wall and created a huge hole in it, landing on the ground in front of the rest of her team.
The Dragons all looked at her, horrified.
Lio rubbed his temples and took a deep breath. "We can still fix this." But before he could come up with a plan, Selene got back up and picked up the entire door of the wooden shed, which she had taken from the pile, and arranged it in front of the new entrance as a barricade.
"I made a door."
"Yeah door!" Ollie cheered as he cartwheeled over.
"I guess that works," Lio said after a moment, but Selene didn't seem to be listening, and she had already run off to grab something else.
Soon both teams were finishing up their defenses, when Nimbus blew his whistle, which he was still holding onto even after the volleyball game. The Dragons' castle had much more visible fortification, with some patchwork wooden barriers made by Selene reinforcing the walls and giving them more entrances and exits. The treasure chest had been hidden in a hollow inside one of the walls, which had then been covered over with more sand. The inside of their castle was also a mess, with random junk strewn all over the place. Meanwhile, the Gryphons had a rope hanging over the edge of their wall, with one end buried in the sand and the other being held by Paradise. Their treasure was not well hidden, but Martin had arranged the deck chairs and umbrella to block it from view as much as possible. Their miscellaneous weapons and supplies were in a neat pile, mostly consisting of metal gardening tools and sports equipment.
"It's the moment you've all been waiting for. Have fun storming the castle!" Nimbus shouted. He then blew his whistle again. "Heheh, I could get used to this."
The Gryphons didn't seem inclined to leave their sand castle, but the Dragons were immediately on the offensive. "C'mon Kit!" Iggy grabbed Kit's arm and took off in a sprint, dragging the engineer along with him as they ran across the beach, weaving around the sand walls. Lio tracked their progress by looking through a slit in the door Selene had made.
"Wait!" Kit yelped as Iggy was practically dragging them through the sand. He looked at them in annoyance, but stopped running and listened. "We're getting close. We can't let them know where we are."
Iggy nodded. "Right. I'll distract them and you can sneak off and do your thing with the metal detector."
Soon, Iggy and Kit peeked around the next wall and saw Martin, who was standing guard in front of the castle entrance while holding his broom. Kit gave Iggy a thumbs up, and the sprinter raised his plastic shovel and charged at the entrance. Meanwhile Kit quickly snuck away to search around the side of the castle with their metal detector.
Iggy swung his shovel at Martin, but he easily blocked. The two boys circled each other warily, staring each other down.
"You might as well give up now." Iggy sneered.
"Don't waste your breath. You're clearly outmatched." Martin jabbed at Iggy with his broom and he barely jumped backwards in time. Iggy didn't realize, but Martin seemed to be trying to block him from going in a certain direction.
"None of your fancy fencing training will help you when I do… this!" Iggy dodged another lunge from Martin and then used his shovel to fling sand in his face, but his glasses blocked most of it. The fencer seemed pretty unaffected, and the track star panicked and rushed forward waving his plastic shovel. He managed to knock Martin down by hitting him in the stomach with the handle of his shovel.
Confessional: Iggy
He facepalmed. "How did I not think about the glasses?"
Iggy left Martin on the ground and ran off before the fencer could recover, towards where the rope on the wall was. "Kit! Kit!" he called out impulsively. After a moment, the engineer poked their head out from behind one of the walls, then looked at him with a deadpan expression and held a finger to their lips. They beckoned Iggy over.
The two of them darted to the next wall, staying low and trying not to alert the Gryphons, but as they were following Kit's metal detector, by the front entrance, Martin got up and went back into the castle.
Kit held their metal detector out in front of them as they circled around the side of the Gryphons' sand castle, as Iggy followed with his shovel. The metal detector started to beep faster.
"There!" Kit pointed at the ground, a spot at the edge of the castle wall that caused the metal detector's lights to glow green. "I didn't even know this doohickey had lights, hehe."
Iggy nodded and started to dig to the best of his ability with his flimsy shovel, but eventually he hit something hard. "Hey, that doesn't look like a treasure chest." He reached into the hole he had made, and Kit's metal detector beeped even more loudly when he pulled out an aluminum can.
"Where are the Gryphons, anyways?" Kit wondered.
"Now!" Tanja's voice called out, and just as Kit came over and peered into the hole, the Gryphons all pulled on their ropes from inside the sand castle. A makeshift net that had previously been buried in the sand closed around the two Dragons and lifted them into the air. It had been woven from various different types of rope and cord, including what looked like a section of a garden hose.
"Eek, I can't go like this!" Kit yelped. "I still haven't done the thingamajig with the whatchamacallit!"
Iggy just thrashed around angrily, only succeeding in getting himself and Kit more tangled up. All the while, Kit's metal detector continued to beep, as there seemed to be a steel cable mixed in with the ropes.
He finally saw all three Gryphons come out of their fortress. Martin and Paradise high fived.
"That was a stupid trick!" Iggy yelled at them.
Martin adjusted his glasses, causing the sunlight to gleam off of them, even though they looked notably more sandy than before. "You still fell for it."
"Get the metal detector!" Tanja shouted. Martin approached the hanging net to take the device from Kit. Iggy had managed to stick his leg out of the net and tried to kick Martin, but the fencer easily maneuvered around him and grabbed the metal detector. Kit was still holding its handle, but they were losing their grip.
"If we can't have our treasure-findie-thingy…" Kit popped open a panel on the metal detector, exposing the electronics inside, and quickly removed a few pins. "Then no one can!" They suddenly let go, causing Martin to fall backwards into the sand as the metal detector burst apart, with screws and bits of wire and plastic flying everywhere.
"Ha, in your face!" Iggy added, even as he was still struggling to break free.
Confessional: Kit
"I've done that enough times by accident that it's easy to know what will make something fall apart, hehe."
"Where are they?" Back in the Dragons' castle, Lio was looking through a spyglass he had found using a window Selene had made, but hadn't caught sight of any of the Gryphons. "I've been watching the entrance, and I haven't seen anything since Martin went back in. They can't just be staying in their fortress, are they?"
Selene came back in from where she was standing guard at the front entrance, using her door by simply picking up the wooden board and moving it to the side, before replacing it when she came back in.
"Let us try!" Ollie said.
"Be careful." Lio reluctantly gave him the spyglass.
Selene knelt down so Ollie could climb up onto her shoulders. "I dunno, I can't see- wait! There on the edge of the wall!" From his vantage, the acrobat spotted Iggy and Kit hanging in the net trap, and pointed them out to Lio. "That doesn't look so good…"
Meanwhile, the Gryphons had regrouped in their own castle and they weren't quite sure what the next course of action was. "Well, the other team is down two players and a metal detector… so, basically all we've done so far is even the odds," Paradise concluded.
"Progress is progress." Tanja shrugged. "But I would appreciate any other brilliant ideas that you two might have."
"Where would they choose to hide their treasure?" Martin wondered. In the background, Iggy could be heard yelling insults at the Gryphons, and the fencer reached up and poked him with the handle of his broom. "Perhaps an interrogation is in order?"
"Eek no please don't!" Kit yelped.
Confessional: Kit
Their hands were shaking as they pulled out some blueprints from their coat pocket, which depicted different medieval torture instruments, each more horrifying than the last. Mixed in with them was a charcoal sketch of a prisoner hanging upside down over the maw of a gigantic, monstrous coconut. "I know too much about interrogation," they said with wide eyes.
Back in the Dragons' castle, Ollie looked agitated. "We need to rescue them," he said as he juggled some random junk he had found on the ground.
"Yeah, what if they die?" Selene began to panic. This made Ollie lose his rhythm, and all of the things he had been juggling fell to the ground.
"We can't rush in there without a plan." Lio shook his head. "We seem to have the better defenses, so we can afford to wait and let the Gryphons strike first."
Confessional: Ollie
"My friend Rufus tells me that I stress juggle, haha. At this point, I'm not sure if I'm trying to distract other people or distract myself."
Ollie then realized that one of the things he had just dropped was a pair of pruning shears. "I'm going to go help them!" he declared. Before Lio could protest, the acrobat ran out the door.
"Are you sad?" Selene asked Lio. "I'm trying to do a good job."
"We need to stay here and defend this place."
Ollie had finally located the Gryphons' trap. "Did you find the treasure?" he asked. "And where's the metal… oh." He then noticed the metal detector was in pieces on the ground.
Kit shook their head. "We found metal, but it was the wrong kind of metal I think."
Ollie agilely climbed up the castle wall and grabbed the rope that his teammates were hanging from. "Sorry Marty!" He used his pruning shears to cut Iggy and Kit free, and they screamed and fell to the ground in a tangled heap.
"Marty?" Kit echoed in confusion, and as if summoned, Martin came running out of the castle and pointed the handle of his broom at them. Meanwhile, the tinkerer busied themself with gathering up the remains of the net, and they were deftly untying the knots.
"You want a rematch, huh?" Iggy grabbed the shears from Ollie and was prepared to attack Martin. But before he could, Ollie grabbed him.
"We need to get back!"
"Why? It's three against one!" Iggy protested.
All of a sudden, a long stick attached to a rope, like some kind of makeshift harpoon, came flying at Ollie. He backflipped away and it stuck in the sand.
"Up there!" Kit pointed to Tanja peeking over the top of the castle wall.
"Lio better know what he's doing," Iggy grumbled, but he finally obliged, and the three of them ran away.
Back inside the castle, Paradise was looking for more things to throw, while Tanja was standing on top of a stack of chairs to reach over the wall.
The activist climbed down. "They're leaving."
Martin returned to the castle. "We need to act quickly before they reconvene. You two should follow them."
"You're going to guard the castle on your own?" Paradise asked skeptically.
He gave a determined nod. "I would favor that over trying to steal their treasure on my own."
"Then let's go, we don't have much time." Tanja headed for the entrance, and Paradise followed.
As Paradise and Tanja set out, Ollie had finally made it back with the two captive Dragons.
"I thought you died!" Selene tried to hug all three of them together, but Ollie and Kit both got out of the way in time, leaving Iggy to get crushed by her.
"You actually brought them back," Lio said to Ollie in amazement, before turning to Kit and Iggy. "What even happened to you?" he demanded.
"Well," Kit began. "It started when the treasure finding doohickey led us to the wrong place…"
Confessional: Lio
"The Gryphons set a trap!" Lio facepalmed. "And it seemed to have been spearheaded by Paradise. Well, it was the weaving of Penelope, the wife of the cunning hero Odysseus, that was able to hold suitors at bay for many years, long enough for her king to return," he narrated. "It was a clever ruse, where she pretended to cooperate during the day, but was undoing all of her work at night."
He paused for a moment after recounting the tale, and then translated: "That is to say, I don't trust Paradise. The Gryphons may seem like the more orderly team, but she has a certain defiance about her."
While the other Dragons were discussing, Kit had been digging through the stuff that the other Dragons had collected from the junk pile, without Lio to stop them. They finally spoke up. "I did a thing." They had dismantled the leaf blower for its battery, and they were now wrapping a steel cable scavenged from the Gryphons' net around a thick section of a metal pipe. When they touched the two ends of the cable to the battery, for just a moment, some small nuts and bolts started to fly towards the contraption, until the wire shocked them and they were forced to let go with their hair now standing on end.
"Well, when you coil the wire around the thingy and make the electricity go in circles, it will do the thing with the forces and then metal will stick to the doohickey!" Kit concluded.
"It's an electromagnet," Lio deduced, and Kit nodded. "And it seems like a very powerful one. Now, we just need to get you close enough to the castle with that."
"See, I know how to do the thing." Kit looked annoyed with Lio, but before the diplomat could respond, Selene patted Kit on the back and accidentally knocked them over.
"I can help protect you." The follower declared.
Meanwhile, Tanja and Paradise had made it to the Dragons' castle. "They're coming our way," Paradise hissed, and pulled Tanja behind one of the sand barriers as Selene and Kit came out of the front entrance. Selene picked up the wooden door on the way out and proceeded to carry it as a shield.
"It's just two of them, Martin can handle that, right?" Tanja scrutinized them as they walked by. Kit was holding out their metal pole. They had wrapped some electrical tape around one end for a makeshift handle, and they were holding it like a club, but it seemed like a rather impractical weapon at face value.
"You need to, like, stop worrying about other people and focus on what we have to do," Paradise snapped, though she still kept her voice at a whisper.
Paradise and Tanja continued to circle around the Dragons' castle. "Why do they have so many entrances?" Tanja asked. "How do we even know where to go in?"
Paradise pointed out Ollie, who was keeping a lookout while sitting on top of the castle wall, but currently had his back to them. "That's going to be a problem. We need to find a way to distract him."
Back in their castle, Martin was peeking out the front entrance, trying not to let anyone see him as he kept watch. All of a sudden, a small tremor seemed to go through the sand, and he saw that the pile of metal inside their castle wall was shaking.
Selene and Kit marched towards the Gryphons' castle. Kit was struggling with the weight of their electromagnet, but when they pointed it in front of them, the cans and other metal scraps that the Gryphons had buried near the castle wall all stuck to it. One comically large crowbar came flying out of the sand at them, but Selene blocked it with her shield.
As soon as he realized what was going on, Martin grabbed the treasure chest and carried it to the furthest corner of the castle, but the magnetic field was getting stronger as the Dragons approached.
Confessional: Martin
He was holding his broom while sitting in the confessional for some reason. "If I had a proper rapier, I would have been disarmed in seconds, but this wood and plastic is unaffected." He gestured with the broom, nearly knocking down the bare bulb on the ceiling that had recently been replaced. "…someone once taught me that there is an appeal in making the most of any situation."
In the castle, Lio was standing by the front entrance, while Iggy was running around the outside of the castle patrolling.
Ollie heard a noise from his vantage on top of the castle wall. "I think that's them!" he shouted, and leaped off of the castle wall, jumping on top of the sand barriers.
"Wait, where?" Iggy ran after him, but they didn't find anything.
Paradise watched them run off from their hiding spot, having thrown a rock to get Ollie's attention. She gave a signal, and the two of them quietly approached the castle wall. Paradise let Tanja pick her up and boost her over the wall. "I'll find a way to let you in."
The heiress slid down the other side of the wall and immediately ran for the nearest boarded entrance, but her path was blocked by Lio.
"Hey!" The diplomat grabbed the nearest thing to use as a weapon, which ironically was the remains of Kit's leaf blower. It was without a battery, but he could still use it as a club.
Paradise screamed and switched directions, and it seemed like the many entrances were now working against the Dragons, until Lio threw the leaf blower at her and knocked her over.
Tanja heard the screams, and in desperation, she leaped at the castle wall and tried to climb over it. "Paradise!" She got about halfway up before slipping, but then an entire section of the wall crumbled, burying Lio underneath the sand.
"Wait a second." Ollie hopped back up on top of one of the sand barricades and finally realized what was going on.
"Charge!" Iggy shouted, and he and Ollie both ran at Tanja.
Paradise got up and saw the wall collapse, but then she saw something in the sand. They had found the Dragons' treasure.
Meanwhile, Selene and Kit were slowly advancing on the Gryphons' castle. Inside, the treasure chest was starting to move, and Martin was beginning to struggle to hold on to it. Selene kicked down the door of the barricaded front entrance.
Martin began to throw as much metal as he could at the two Dragons, and all of it stuck to Kit's electromagnet. "Stop it, that's mean!" Selene yelled, as she tried to block what she could, but her shield cracked when a spade hit it, the pointy side sticking in the wood. "You need to turn that off now," she grunted.
"I know, I'm trying to make it do the thing!" Kit was frantically fiddling with the magnet, but there was so much metal stuck to it that they were having trouble disconnecting the coiled wire from its power source. It finally became too heavy to carry and they just dropped it on the ground.
"Uh, now what?" Kit asked.
"No more planning. Now we rush in!" Selene threw her shield to the side, then raised her fist and shouted a battle cry, while Kit just walked after her.
Back on the Dragons' side of the field, Paradise grabbed the treasure chest that had been buried in the wall.
"You go, I'll hold them off," Tanja said.
Paradise shook her head. "No, you can run faster than I can."
"I can't leave you here!" Tanja protested.
"Don't worry." Paradise handed the chest back to Tanja. "I have a plan."
Iggy charged at them and tried to hit Tanja with his shovel. She barely rolled to the side in time, dragging the chest along with her, and the shovel stuck in the sand.
"Hey!" Paradise took out the bagel that she had kept from brunch and threw it at Iggy, where it landed at his feet. "Ha, you missed!" the track star taunted, until an ominous shadow fell over him.
He looked up in fear, only to see it was a single seagull, and he just laughed to himself, not noticing the bloodthirsty look in its eyes.
The bird squawked, and the dark shadow over Iggy began to grow larger and larger, until a massive flock of seagulls was circling overhead like a Biblical plague of locusts. "Um, guys?" he asked, looking around for his teammates.
Confessional: Iggy
"I escaped from a bear last week. Do you really think I'd be scared of a few birds?"
Tanja had started to book it back towards the Gryphons' fortress, and Iggy tried to chase her, but suddenly the birds all descended on him. He screamed as he was surrounded by a cartoonish cloud of sand and feathers as Paradise slipped away.
Confessional: Iggy
He coughed and spit a feather out of his mouth. "On second thought… I'd take the bear."
Confessional: Nimbus
He had inexplicably brought his electric guitar into the confessional, and was strumming it as he sang. "Someday, when you are older, you could get hit by a boulder. While you're lying there, screaming 'come help me, please,' the seagulls… poke your knees."
Confessional: Naila
She crossed her arms and pouted. "You can't tell me those aren't government drones."
Ollie came running towards the front of the castle. He looked at Tanja running away with their treasure, and then looked at Iggy, and then he ran towards the seagulls.
"Ollie, don't!" Lio shouted, having finally dug himself out of the wreckage, but all this did was alert the seagulls to his location. One of them flew directly at his face like a bullet, and he lost his balance and fell backwards onto the sand.
Meanwhile, Ollie ducked and dodged, avoiding all the birds. In the chaos, no one noticed that one of the seagulls had pure black, almost metallic looking feathers.
As Tanja ran, suddenly, she saw Selene emerge from the Gryphons' fortress, leaving behind a beat up looking Martin underneath a pile of deck chairs. She was carrying Kit's electromagnet, which had the Gryphons' treasure stuck to it, and Kit themself was clinging on to the device's handle for dear life as Selene simply dragged them along.
Tanja ran faster as she saw that Selene was going to cross the center line. But as Kit's device was being jostled around, the circuit finally broke, and all the metal bits fell off of it. The treasure chest fell on Selene's foot and she yelled out in pain and fell over, while Kit let go and ended up being left behind in the sand. She quickly got up and scooped the chest back up, but it was too late. Tanja finally made it to the Gryphons' side with the chest and collapsed.
Standing on the center line, Nimbus blew his whistle one last time. "And for only the second time ever, the winners are the Gale Gryphons! Everyone bring it in, and Dragons, we'll be seeing you tonight!"
Martin made his way out of the Gryphons' castle, leaning on his broom as he was still recovering from his skirmish with Selene. "You know, if a seagull flew over the bay…" he remarked.
"Don't you dare finish that," Tanja interrupted, but she was smiling.
Meanwhile, Paradise appeared from behind one of the destroyed sand walls. "We did it!" she squealed, seeming more relieved than anything.
"It was all thanks to you," Tanja said.
"The trap was clever," Martin admitted. "And birds will never cease to amaze me" He regarded the carnage on the Dragons' side with a mixture of intrigue and fear.
Paradise basked in the praise for a moment, but then she grinned at our teammates. "Oh please, you both were great too. Wait, Martin?" she asked, realizing that the fencer was still watching the Dragons, now looking concerned.
"Um, guys? The challenge is over," Nimbus told the boys by the Dragons' castle, who were still struggling with the seagulls. Ollie finally managed to grab the bagel and throw it to the side, and the birds all left and went after it.
"Iggy! Are you okay?" Ollie immediately ran over to the track star, who was still sitting in the sand in a pile of feathers, covered in scrapes, and there were bird droppings everywhere.
"Did I win?" he asked woozily. He then looked up to see the Gryphons had their treasure and were celebrating. "Why didn't you go after Tanja?" he demanded.
"You could've died!"
Iggy seemed to take that as an insult. "You really thought I couldn't handle a few gulls?"
"I dunno, that looked like a lot more than a few," Kit remarked as they came over with an ashamed looking Selene. "At least, like…" They began to count on their fingers. "Uh, a lot."
Confessional: Ollie
"We have lions, tigers, bears, and the one and only DeDennis DeMenace at the circus, but no birds of any kinds! And you bet there's a reason for that!"
"Let's head back. I need to get all this sand off of me!" Paradise declared.
"You two go ahead," Martin said to her and Tanja, as he was studying the Dragons' huddle intently, worried about what could be going on. He saw Lio and Iggy trying to discuss something but they kept getting interrupted by the others. Iggy finally noticed him and glared at him, then Lio quickly ushered the team away. Martin rushed back to camp as something had occurred to him.
A little later, Lio, Kit, and Iggy had reconvened on one of the picnic benches, and the latter had managed to get most of the bird poop out of his hair.
"We're voting for Ollie," Lio declared.
"Oh, really? Why not them?" Iggy pointed at Kit, who was startled and nearly fell off of their seat. "I don't know what you were doing with that weird coil thing, but I think it messed up Selene."
"The magnet-battery-rod was working!" Kit protested. "And I would've had more time to build if Lio didn't tell me not to make it."
Lio turned to Kit angrily, and the tinkerer immediately regretted what they had said. They hid behind Iggy.
"That all seems unrelated," Lio said to both of them. "I just need to know if you two are on board."
"I dunno, I mean, it's Ollie, he's a good guy." Even Iggy looked a little hesitant. "Pretty much everyone is friends with him… oh." He frowned. "I see what you mean."
"That's my point exactly," Lio affirmed. "And he's close with Martin too, so it will be even more difficult to get rid of him if the teams get split up."
Iggy still looked conflicted. "He even saved me today. Twice."
"Do you want to win or not?" Lio asked him.
After a moment, Iggy gave a resolute nod. "Is that even a question? I'm in."
"Kit?" Lio asked, noting that the tinkerer had been silent for most of the exchange.
"Uhhh yeah sure sounds good I gotta go!" they blurted out and then ran off, leaving Lio and Iggy to exchange concerned glances.
Confessional: Kit
"I have to talk to Ollie. I just hope I can find him…"
Meanwhile, Ollie was in the boys' cabin, lying back on Martin's bed as the fencer sat on the edge. Ollie threw one of his juggling balls up in the air and caught it, before sitting up. "Hey Marty, there's something I need to tell you."
"I know," Martin cut in.
Ollie laughed nervously. "Am I that obvious?"
Martin just nodded, and Ollie hid his face in his hands. "This has always been a complicated matter for me, but I do reciprocate your feelings. This is far from the optimal situation for such endeavors, but if the circumstances were any different, maybe-"
"Hey, there's always after the show," Ollie interrupted. "Wait, you could see one of my shows!" He grabbed Martin's hand.
"How are you thinking about these things even now? Aren't you worried about going into elimination?"
Ollie gave a shrug and a forced smile. "There are no hard feelings. We're all friends now… I think."
"As much as I admire your adamantly positive outlook, it is also important to remember that as human beings, encountering conflict and hardship is inevitable," Martin said. He then noticed Ollie almost going cross-eyed trying to understand him. "It is unrealistic to be happy all the time because things happen," he translated.
"Sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me going," Ollie said flatly. "I'm a performer."
"And every show comes to an end."
"So… after this is all over?"
Martin adjusted his glasses. "Perhaps that is what could be called a date." Ollie beamed at him.
Confessional: Ollie
"It's like he uses even weirder words when he's flustered, he's so cute!"
Just outside the cabins, Iggy and Lio found Selene, who was punching a tree, likely just because she felt like it. "Hey Selene," Iggy called out, and beckoned her over.
Selene cocked her head. "Are you just talking to me because you need a vote?" There was no accusation or maliciousness in her voice, just an honest question.
"He might be," Iggy responded and jerked a thumb at an annoyed Lio.
"Regardless, you deserve to know what our plan for tonight is. Us and Kit are voting for Ollie," Lio explained.
"Wait, where's Kit?" Selene asked.
"They're going to make the right decision," Lio declared confidently, but Iggy looked more doubtful. "And I'm sure you will too."
"I'll think about it," was all Selene said, and then she punched the tree again.
Soon, it was time for the elimination ceremony. The five Dragons gathered at the campfire, where Nimbus was already sitting on one of the stumps, that conveniently still had 'DRAGONS RULE' spray painted on it, though the graffiti had begun to fade after all the harsh weather.
"Huh, where's the fire?" Ollie asked, leaning over to peer into the fire pit.
"Javi's the one with the lighter and he apparently had better things to be doing," Nimbus grumbled. "I guess you guys have never had a real campfire for your ceremony," he realized, seeing as how the only other elimination ceremony the Dragons had been called to was the one in the rain. "Anyways, you kind of all screwed up today, in some way or another, but it's time to cast your votes, so we can see who you guys think screwed up the worst."
The contestants went into the confessional booth one by one.
Confessional: Ollie
"I think Kit has a plan, but either way, I finally understand the reason that our team isn't getting along."
Confessional: Iggy
"I really don't like this, but I've got my eyes on the prize, and only the strong survive."
Confessional: Selene
"I don't want to be doing this just because Lio said so. But I guess I've talked to everyone else more."
The voting process took a little longer than usual due to Nimbus being alone, and he seemed to struggle to count even the five votes, shuffling the slips of paper while in deep concentration. Iggy was tapping his foot impatiently, while Kit practically vibrated with anxiety in their seat. Selene was kicking a rock around, and Ollie was just staring off into the distance. Lio seemed to be the only one waiting attentively for the whole time.
But finally, Nimbus was ready. "Naila! The marshmallows!" he called out, and the prankster jumped on top of one of the stumps brandishing a tray of marshmallows.
"Dragons! Tonight, there are five of you and only four marshmallows."
"We know that, we can count, just get on with it!" Iggy called out
Nimbus paused for a moment, and the track star gulped, but he finally threw a marshmallow at Iggy, which he fumbled with for a moment but caught it.
"Yeah, I was expecting that," he declared, and flipped his ponytail, to the amusement of no one.
"Also with no votes," Nimbus continued. "Selene."
Selene gleefully grabbed the marshmallow and crushed it in her excitement.
"And Kit."
Kit was ready and they impaled their marshmallow on a wooden skewer pulled from their coat pocket.
There was now just one marshmallow left on the tray. "Ollie, you chose to go bird-watching and let the other team get away with your treasure." Nimbus turned to the acrobat.
"Sorry guys." Ollie just hung his head.
"And Lio, you've just been pretty overbearing and controlling of your team in general." Nimbus then addressed the diplomat.
"I promise I will do better, for our team!"
Confessional: Lio
"Seems like they'd rather I just let them lose," he retorted.
"The one staying today," Nimbus started as he brandished his platter of one marshmallow in the air, the Dragons seeming completely annoyed and impatient for his antics.
"With only two votes." This news elicited some more dramatic reactions. Kit flinched, Lio looked around suspiciously, and Ollie just looked hurt.
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"Is Lio." Nimbus threw the diplomat the final marshmallow, which he caught without much surprise, but glared at Kit, who immediately looked away.
Nimbus turned to Ollie. "And that means that Ollie, you'll be coming onboard the Loser Cruiser tonight."
The acrobat looked down at the ground for a moment, as if trying to compose himself, as his lip quivered. "Well, I guess my performance today could have been improved," he said, with a small shrug.
"It's just the game," Iggy assured him. "I'm sorry, dude. It… was cool playing with you." He looked a little embarrassed to admit this, but still offered the acrobat a handshake.
"I'm going to miss you!" Ollie grabbed Iggy's hand, but then just leaned in and hugged him, catching the track star off guard.
Meanwhile, Lio confronted Kit. "You didn't vote with us," he accused.
The tinkerer flinched, but they didn't back down. "I trust Ollie. He actually knows how to be a part of a team."
Confessional: Kit
They still seemed shaken by what they had just done. "Lio and Selene wouldn't vote for each other, and Iggy seems pretty close to both of them. There was no way for me to make the votes do the thing, but I had to try. Ollie would've done it for me." They shuddered. "I just wasn't expecting Nimbus to say that Lio got two votes. Now he knows I voted for him, and he's gonna shred me like a weed-whacker now!"
"Bye, we'll miss you!" Selene shouted.
"Good luck in the rest of the game!" Ollie gracefully dodged when the follower tried to pat him on the back.
Ollie then turned to Kit. The two of them looked at each other for a moment.
"We tried," Ollie finally said. "I'm sorry for dragging you around today. It's not your fault that people aren't able to agree. What you do is amazing, like a magician for machines, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise!"
Kit said nothing more, but gave Ollie a small nod and pressed a small wooden box into his hand, which he took, confused.
Nimbus cleared his throat. "Hurry it up guys, it's past my bedtime."
Ollie gave one last wave to his teammates, before Nimbus began to escort him to the beach.
"Wait!" Ollie called out, trying to run off towards the cabins, but he was shocked to see that Martin was already standing outside.
"You knew," he realized. "You were saying goodbye."
"You seemed to have known it too, as much as I did," Martin observed. "But I could not risk any possible chance of missing you."
"This isn't goodbye!" Ollie insisted. I'll see you in two weeks, when you're in the finale!" He managed a smile, but seemed more downcast as Nimbus beckoned him away.
The night was eerily clear and the air was still, and there wasn't a single cloud in sight. The Loser Cruiser glided smoothly up to the dock to meet them, and Ada tipped her hat.
Ollie cheered up a bit when he saw the other eliminated contestants onboard. Celia was sitting on the edge of the railing, right next to the sunglasses-clad Coconu'thulhu figurehead, with her legs dangling over the sea. Earl was holding Ada's sextant up to the starry sky, and Maggie was scolding Drake as he tried to show her a drawing.
"You guys have just been hanging out here all this time?" Ollie asked, in awe of the ship, as the last time he had seen it was when it had been sinking into the ocean.
Celia grinned. "Dude, the competition might be over, but the fun has just begun."
"Wait!" Maggie noticed something. "What's that you got there?" She pointed at the small box that the acrobat was holding.
"Oh right, this!" Ollie finally opened up the gift Kit had given him to reveal that it was a music box with a wind-up key, with a small model of a circus tent. He wound the small model up and watched, transfixed, as the tent began to spin, complete with music and some small flashing lights, and then a tiny blue dragon figurine popped out of the tent. Carved on the inside of the box's lid was a name: Cirque Deluge.
"Put that thing away, I think I'm going to have a seizure!" Maggie shrieked and covered her eyes. Celia pushed past her to take a look.
"I don't believe that seizures work like that," Earl commented, and he put on his safety goggles and a fresh set of gloves before leaning in to investigate as well.
"Kit?" Celia guessed.
Ollie nodded. "Who else?"
Earl frowned at that. "I found them to be quite discourteous and unpredictable, so you ought to take safety precautions when handling it. They still are holding on to my umbrella, I postulate?"
"Yeah, they fixed it for you!" Ollie recounted. "Oh, I should have taken it from them to give to you." He facepalmed. "But it's fine! We're all going to see each other again eventually." He looked pensive for a moment as he watched Camp Ventallan get smaller and smaller on the horizon.
Back at camp, the mood was more somber. On his way back to the cabins, Martin noticed Lio and Iggy still sitting by the campfire, which wasn't even lit.
"What do you want?" Iggy snapped, while Lio gave him a more courteous nod.
Martin didn't seem to react to the track star's attitude. "Only to make conversation, but I must admit I would like to know what happened tonight."
"You of all people should understand. It was a logical decision," Lio stated.
"That doesn't mean we have to be happy about it," Iggy added. "But I'm sure the guy is doing okay on the ship, and it's not like the game is going to stop because your boyfriend went home."
Martin didn't even try to correct the last comment.
Confessional: Martin
"It was a fruitless interaction, I know." He looked at the camera blankly, as he took off his glasses to clean them. "I just had to know… if I would have been able to save him?"
Meanwhile, Paradise and Tanja were sitting on the porch outside the girls' cabin. It was completely dark at this point, and Selene's loud snoring coming from inside the cabin all but confirmed that they were alone.
"How did you know the seagulls would come?" Tanja asked Paradise.
She just shrugged. "I didn't think it was going to work that well. The birds have been acting funny, and they were circling for the entire challenge, but I wasn't expecting there to be, like, that many of them."
"Perhaps the birds are agitated for a reason," Tanja wondered. "I have heard that they know when a storm is coming."
"Oh, really? On this island, all bets about the weather are off."
Confessional: Paradise
"There was definitely something funny going on with the seagulls. I saw that same weird bird from earlier with them, and it's, like, so obvious it's not real. If they can manipulate the flock with that fake bird, who knows what else on the island they're able to control?"
"You know, I had another reason for not stopping Maggie," Tanja commented.
"I thought you might." Paradise twirled one of her dreads around.
"Well, I guess I wanted to know about you, same as she did. Maggie obviously was going to use that knowledge to hurt you, but I… thought I could help."
"If you were curious, you could've, like, asked instead of snooping."
"Would you have told me anything?"
"Then? Nope. Now?" Paradise pretended to think for a moment. "Probably still no." Tanja laughed lightly at that. "I guess I understand. And it was right before elimination too, I don't know if I would have wanted to deal with that then."
"So your parents really don't know you're here?" Tanja asked. "Will they watch the show?"
"I doubt it, they're more concerned with gossip about, like, actual celebrities and not some teenagers' game show in the middle of nowhere."
Confessional: Nimbus
"I'm starting to wish I hadn't shredded her forms." He crossed his arms and pouted like a little kid. "Maybe I should've gotten Javi to put a clause in the contract about not dissing the show."
"What will you do if they do see you?"
"They're the ones that think I need fixing," Paradise said airily, but there was anger in her eyes. "They can't hurt me, it's their reputation that's on the line. But after I go to their silly brainwashing camp, finding a suitable husband will be all that I can think about. I'll be the perfect daughter and the perfect wife, just like a miniature version of my mother."
Tanja clenched her fists. "You have no idea how angry that makes me. How… barbaric to cling to outdated social norms. No one should have to go through that."
"You'll protect me?" Paradise asked. She leaned against Tanja and clung to the activist's arm.
"That's unrealistic, I cannot-" Tanja tensed up for a moment, but then her expression softened and she put an arm around Paradise. "Of course."
Back in Javi's trailer, the mechanic seemed to have finally fixed up the weather machine, and was now putting his tools away.
"I'm tired, I had to run the whole challenge on my own after you abandoned me!" Nimbus whined as he overdramatically flopped down onto the couch. "The least you could do is record the signoff for me!"
"Do you think I've been twiddling my thumbs all this time?" Javi snapped. "The show can't run without the damn machine! Or is your work just so much more important than mine because you get to stand in front of that silly camera all day? I even found the time to help you out with those birds."
As Nimbus and Javi continued to squabble, Naila came in through the window and went right up to the camera. "It's bad luck if you don't sign off the show, ahahaha!" She threw glitter in the air. "Total Drama Stormbound is dooooomed!"
The scene switched to the clear night sky a little later, where the silhouette of the Loser Cruiser was illuminated by moonlight. The eliminated contestants had all gone below decks, leaving Ada and Kiwi alone. A seagull was about to land on the prow of the boat, but Kiwi glared at it and made a gesture of slitting his throat with his wingtip, and it flew away.
"Awk, First Mate Kiwi the Destroyer thinks we have the proper crew for plundering now!" Kiwi squawked.
Ada looked over the railing at the waves below. "And the weather seems to be in our favor for once." She nodded grimly at Kiwi. "Fetch the map for me. We have some things to take care of."
"Awk, fetch? Who do you take First Mate Kiwi the Destroyer for, a dog?"
"I don't have time for this, Kiwi. I promise I'll give you a cracker."
"Do you think Kiwi would really fall for that cliche?"
Ada rolled her eyes. "Two crackers."
Just like that, the parakeet was off like a tiny green rocket, leaving Ada standing at the prow. The shipwright reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a crumpled old picture that looked like it had been ripped from a magazine or a poster. It showed a tanned young man with tired blue eyes and a light brown ponytail who was wearing an old-fashioned aviator jacket and cap, complete with goggles on his head. "It's been long enough, eh?" she murmured as she looked off into the distance.
Votes:
Ollie- Iggy, Lio, Selene (3)
Lio- Kit, Ollie (2)
Remaining Contestants:
Dragons: Iggy, Kit, Lio, Selene (4)
Gryphons: Martin, Paradise, Tanja (3)
Elimination Order:
13. Naila (no team, disqualified/intern)
12. Drake (Gryphons)
11. Earl (Gryphons)
10. Celia (Dragons)
9. Maggie (Gryphons)
8. Ollie (Dragons)
This elimination hurt. I feel like I say that every time, but this one was especially painful. Ollie was actually a finalist in the very first draft of the elimination order, and I hate to cut his plot short like this, but as the story developed, he didn't fit in to the season's main arcs as well, and it felt right for him to go right before the merge. Like Martin mentioned, I adore him for his ability to connect to anyone and everyone, and I loved sending him on side quests with a different teammate every episode, but I hope I was also able to give him an arc of his own.
Ollie was also quite possibly the most heroic character in the entire cast, so it almost feels fitting for him to go right after the most obvious villain, and it cements how this season tries to put an emphasis on morally gray people with less clear motives. But don't think we've seen the last of him, especially considering what Ada and Kiwi have planned.
And I guess this is as good of a time to say it as any, so congratulations to Ollie for winning the Stormbound rankdown on my Discord server. Six extremely cool readers ranked the cast, and they collectively voted him their favorite character. Sorry ;-;
Speaking of which, I just want to thank everyone on my Discord server (hit me up if you'd like an invite) and everyone else who has engaged with the story in any way for their support. Namely, Tempokeep, Space Zodiac, PROJECT - DRAMA (aka - A), thedragonrooster, SinWriter7, GirlPower54, Tech-Star, Clown Princess Phoebe, LittleRedline, GoldEmblem, duddjebsbs, and probably more I'm forgetting but I promise I still love you. I would never have made it this far in my writing without all of you, and it's insane to think I'm nearly halfway through the story. Hopefully there's less of a wait for the next one, especially because it will be a little bit different...
Feline's Forecast: It looks like smooth sailing for the eliminated contestants aboard the Loser Cruiser, but where they could be headed?
