Happy new year everyone! I'm super excited to get another episode out, this one was almost 17k words and I had a lot of fun with it. Thank you for all your support so far, and I hope you enjoy!

"Previously on Total Drama Stormbound, our twelve contestants woke up to find that a freak snowstorm hit Camp Ventallan in the middle of the night!" Nimbus' voice sounded over a shot of the campground covered in snow. "But it all worked out, because breaking the ice was the order of the day! And boy did these teams need an icebreaker." A clip played of Selene pounding the table while all the Dragons were arguing at the mess hall. "They competed in three extreme challenges to test their teamwork skills." A shot panned all the way up the snowy hill to reveal an excited Ollie and a sleeping Drake sitting blindfolded on their sleds. "While Ollie proved he was born to put on a show, Drake wiped out epically on his toboggan." A clip showed the Dragons catching Ollie on their mattress and him taking a bow, followed by the sleeping Drake falling into a snowbank. "Next, the teams got real cozy in a game of two truths and a lie on a semi-frozen lake, with icebreaking courtesy of our brand new intern." A clip played of Naila waving around her sledgehammer. "Paradise proved she knew more than she was letting on to, and Iggy couldn't swallow his pride and keep his mouth shut, but it was finally Selene who lost the round for the Dragons." The next clip showed Selene cracking the Dragons' ice floe and them all falling into the water.

"With the Dragons and Gryphons tied, it was down to a three-legged race slash snowball fight back to camp." A clip showed Iggy carrying Celia as she threw snowballs at Martin and Tanja. "Drake spurred Maggie on with some fear tactics." Another clip showed Maggie panicking and dragging Drake through the snow as he talked about bees. "But Lio and Selene got their acts together just in time, allowing the Dragons to score the win over the Gryphons." A clip showed Selene dragging Lio along and beating Maggie and Drake to the finish line. "In the end, it was Drake who was voted out and sent on a ride with our very own Captain Magellan." A final clip showed Ada and Kiwi escorting Drake aboard the Loser Cruiser. "Hope the kid gets some rest, but man, his drawings freaked me out big-time." The recap faded back to Nimbus, leaning against Javi's duct tape-covered trailer. "We're down to eleven campers. What kind of crazy weather will this island throw at us next? This is… Total! Drama! Stormbound!" Cartoon lightning flashed across the screen and the theme song began to play.

Theme Song: "Stormbound" by Nimbus Cloudbreak

It was a brisk and overcast, but otherwise completely calm and snow-free morning in Camp Ventallan. Iggy was out running laps around camp, while Martin was practicing some forms with his fencing rapier.

But suddenly, they were both interrupted by a shrill beeping noise coming from the girls' cabin, and some mechanical parts were launched out the open window. A spring flew at Martin but he effortlessly deflected it, causing it to hit Iggy in the back of his head as he was running.

"Hey!" Iggy skidded to a stop and glared at Martin. "What was that for?"

"Do you really consider me petty enough to provoke you like that?" Martin responded. "I could not have anticipated the trajectory of that spring, I was hardly expecting scrap metal to be launched at me in the first place."

Iggy blinked. "I don't care enough to figure out all those words… but I'm going to assume I wouldn't like them."

Martin gave a small shake of his head. "I should not have expected a more stimulating conversation from you."

Lio had been sitting on the porch outside the boys' cabin, seeming deep in thought, but when he heard Martin and Iggy he ran over to them. "Please, we're not in a challenge. You guys don't need to argue!"

Confessional: Lio

"I just cannot tolerate when people are fighting, it's frustrating how much of a waste of time it is. I've always had a sense for finding sources of conflict, and it's my duty to keep my team unified."

Iggy huffed and tossed his head. "I can wait until the challenge to take you down."

Martin just regarded Lio suspiciously, but the boys were interrupted by a small explosion that seemed to rock the entire girls' cabin.

"Don't you dare, I'm allergic to motor oil!" Maggie shrieked from inside the cabin.

"Please, you're going to take someone's eye out," Tanja added.

As Lio walked over to the girls' cabin to investigate, he was greeted by Kit, who came out the door hanging their head while the girls were still yelling at them. They had their arms full with a bunch of metal parts that looked like they were once part of an alarm clock. "Your sister is still sleeping," they said as soon as they saw Lio.

"I know, Selene can sleep through anything. But that's not why I'm here."

"Then why are you here? This is the, uhh, the…" They hesitated and looked down at themself. "The not-men cabin."

"Well, it sounded like it was getting pretty noisy in there," Lio said sheepishly.

"I was working on something but I don't think they liked it," Kit recounted, rather vaguely. Then an idea seemed to come to them, and they shuffled their feet shyly. "Well, I, uh, could I have your help with something?" they blurted out.

"Of course!" Lio immediately perked up.

"I need to fix the spinny umbrella." Kit held up a single metal scoop attached to an axle, and Lio quickly realized that it was a piece of the anemometer on Earl's umbrella, which Kit had disassembled during the last challenge. "I mostly just break things."

"So that you can return it to Earl, correct? I'm happy to help."

Kit nodded jerkily. "I wanted to see how it spun, and I learned that it can throw snow as well as measure wind… but sometimes when I'm answering my own questions I can't stop." They looked a little bit guilty. "I sometimes feel like I can build things in any way except for how they're supposed to be."

"Well, as… creative as you are, following instructions can be just as important. I've learned that anything is possible with the right goal in mind. We can still fix this," Lio said with a confident nod. "And I hate to endorse breaking other people's things, but it did help us win that last challenge."

Kit walked over to the boys' cabin and sat down on the porch, gesturing for Lio to sit next to them. The diplomat hesitated for a moment before coming over to help them.

Kit dumped a pile of tools and parts in front of them. "Okay, so this thingy goes here…"

Meanwhile in the girls' cabin, many of those that had been disturbed or woken up by Kit's tinkering had left, and only Paradise and Tanja remained. Paradise was filing her nails, while Tanja was reading a book about climate science.

Tanja cleared her throat. "You know, I've been meaning to talk to you."

Paradise narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

"Look, this competition isn't going to get any easier, you know that, right?" Tanja remarked. "You need to fix your attitude."

"I mean, we got rid of our weakest link," Paradise responded with a casual shrug.

"Drake did not deserve any of this."

"He signed up for this show. He can do what he wants."

"And he did his best to help us while you just sat around and let us do all the work!" Tanja accused.

"And so? It's not a challenge I would be good at, I'm sure you know there are things I'm great at."

Tanja sputtered angrily for a moment as Paradise went back to filing her nails. "Just… try to be part of the team, okay?"

Paradise just ignored her.

While most of the Gryphons were avoiding the campfire, for obvious reasons, some of the Dragons were hanging out there, sitting on stumps around the fire, which currently wasn't lit. Selene was going cross-eyed as she watched Ollie skillfully juggling some colorful rubber balls, while Celia was spray painting something obscene onto a nearby tree.

"Hey guys~" Maggie sang as she went right up to the group and sat down near Ollie and Selene. "Sooo… what did you think of the last challenge?"

Ollie quickly collected his balls and stashed them away… somewhere on his outfit, and he and Selene looked at each other, confused.

"It was fun going on the sled!" Ollie responded.

"I thought I was going to make us lose the race," Selene added.

Maggie pouted. "That's not what I'm talking about!"

Selene scratched her head. "How are we supposed to know what you're talking about?"

"Ugh, well, if you're going to be like that…" Maggie started.

"Sorry!" Selene blurted out loudly.

"I mean," Maggie continued, annoyed. "What are your thoughts on everyone's secrets? I thought it was fun that we could learn more about each other."

At this, Selene clenched her fists. "That challenge was mean."

"Hehe, it was alright?" Ollie said nervously. "I don't know what to say…"

Just then, Celia came by the campfire, whistling to herself, causing Ollie to breathe a sigh of relief. The rebel started to spray paint 'Dragons Rule' across the side of one of the stumps.

"Do mine next!" Ollie cheered. He giggled and lifted his legs so Celia could work, seemingly not caring about the risk of getting paint on himself. But when Celia got close, Maggie gagged and pulled a face. "Not the aerosols," she whined. "Let me see what chemicals in your paint, I'm dreadfully allergic to-"

Celia snatched the can away before Maggie could grab it. "Geez, chill! This is a public space, so of course people are gonna fuck it up. That's what they do."

Maggie put a hand over her mouth, appalled, before she finally stormed off.

Confessional: Maggie

"Those three are too friendly, it's disgusting. But they were fighting so much during the last challenge, I'll have to find out more!"

"She'll be back here for the elimination ceremony after we kick those Gryphons' asses!" Celia declared, loud enough for the gossip to hear as she was walking away. She then winked at Ollie and Selene. "Thought you needed some backup."

"Do you want to sit?" Selene started to ask. She patted the spot on the stump next to her with enough force to create a dent in the wood, causing Ollie to flinch.

Celia just shrugged. "Nah, I'm bored." Before either of them could say anything else, Celia was already headed off to find another tree to paint. Ollie exchanged confused glances with Selene.

Confessional: Celia

"Was I supposed to stay and hang out with them? They were just sitting around. It probably would've been, like, really awkward." She sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "I wish we could just skip right to the challenge, y'know? I'm not really good at this get-to-know-you stuff."

As the teens continued to go about their morning activities, one camper remained unaccounted for. But finally, Earl emerged from the woods with a freshly collected sample. He was carrying what appeared to be some water from Lake Naila in a test tube, and his signature clipboard was tucked under his arm.

Earl ignored whatever shenanigans were going on around him, even failing to notice Lio and Kit fixing his umbrella, and headed to the cafeteria. He went behind the counter and politely knocked on the door connecting the mess hall to the kitchen in the back.

He was quickly greeted by Sophie opening the door. "Earl dearie, lunch isn't for another few hours." She was in the middle of assembling some sandwiches.

"Oh no, I'm sorry to bother you, Missus Sophie, and I do not mean to create any rush. I was simply wondering if I could use the stovetop for a small investigation."

"An investigation?" Sophie repeated, confused.

"It's just a simple distillation," Earl explained. "I need to isolate any solutes from my sample of the lake water by boiling it."

This didn't seem to clarify anything for Sophie, and she thought for a moment before she finally smiled and nodded at him. "I normally wouldn't let a camper into the kitchen, but since I'm here and not using the stovetop, you're welcome to use it while I supervise you."

True to her word, Sophie watched Earl like a hawk as he began to set up his experiment. The scientist turned on the burner. "Be careful, dear. You don't want to burn yourself."

"Oh don't worry, I always follow the most thorough practices in lab safety and sterile technique," Earl reassured her with a smile. "In my chemistry laboratory, contamination is simply not an option."

"You remind me of my son," Sophie said suddenly.

Earl poured his sample into a beaker and began to boil it. "Really?"

"He was always asking about what. He would always tell me that cooking was just another science."

Earl nodded reverently. "That couldn't be more true. The entire world is science, after all."

"And other worlds as well. He was always more interested in studying outer space," Sophie recounted.

"Ah, astrophysics has always escaped me, but it is a fascinating field in its own right. He must have gone on to do fantastic things."

As soon as she heard Earl's question, Sophie went silent. Earl realized what was wrong just a moment before the chef began to speak. "He's no longer here. He and my husband both… it was a plane crash."

Earl lowered his eyes, looking horrified. "I'm so sorry," he choked out.

Sophie smiled, but there was sadness in her eyes. "Oh, don't be, it was years ago. There is nothing we can do except move on."

Confessional: Sophie

"Sometimes I wonder why I'm here." She removed her chef's hat to wipe the sweat from her brow. "But it's really just about keeping busy, and now I have Nimbus and Javi to look after… that practically makes these campers my grandkids! But I still don't know what this whole GILF thing is that I've heard about…"

Confessional: Earl

He looked a little remorseful. "Perhaps I have had some strife with my family, but I am grateful to have them. And I hope that my experiments can make them proud. There's something unusual about this island for sure! But I cannot draw any conclusions from intuition alone. I need more data!"

However, as Earl continued on with his experiment, some of the other campers were getting impatient. "Nimbus! When's the challenge?" Iggy demanded, pointing at the rock star, who looked like he had just gotten out of the shower.

"Uhhh…" Nimbus' eyes darted around. "Maybe you would like an… air guitar performance to get hyped?"

"That sounds like a waste of time," Iggy scoffed.

"Well, you see, this may be the greatest summer camp slash reality show of all time, and also the first one of course, but we want you all to have fun like at any other summer camp too!" Nimbus was pretty obviously stalling for time at this point.

Iggy looked unamused at his rambling, and to Nimbus' dismay, the other campers were starting to gather around the campfire.

"Wait a second?" Paradise looked around at the group. "We're missing Earl."

As if on cue, the scientist ran over towards them. He looked even more frazzled than before. His safety glasses were crooked on his forehead and he was clutching his clipboard. "Oh, I do apologize for my tardiness," he said hastily.

"Well, you're still not the latest one on the island," Nimbus said, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes in annoyance.

Paradise looked doubtful, and Tanja did a quick head count of the campers. "That's all eleven of us," the activist reported. "Unless…"

Tanja trailed off, and that was when Javi finally appeared. His outfit was covered with splotches of engine grease, and the strands of hair that were poking out of his baseball cap were standing on edge, like from static electricity. "Oi Nimbus, why aren't you doin' the challenge? The cameras are rolling already and I told you not to wait for me!"

Nimbus cocked his head, confused. "I thought you told me to-"

"No. I didn't," Javi said pointedly, glaring at Nimbus.

Nimbus looked confused for a moment longer before something finally seemed to dawn on him. "Oh, riiight, yeah, yeah! I was just giving the campers a rockin' pep talk, and we were right about ready to get started with the challenge when you just happened to come back from your personal business," he finished with a goofy grin.

Confessional: Javi

He facepalmed. "Uy, do I have to do everything around here?"

"Ah, it's the part of the summer when everything is new and so many possibilities lie ahead!" Nimbus grinned and spread his arms wide.

Ollie clasped his hands together, eyes sparkling, while Celia rolled her eyes.

"Last time, we prepared some activities to help you guys get to know each other," the rock star continued. "And it turned out great, if I do say so myself."

Javi looked at Nimbus and snickered.

"Do we get to share any more secrets?" Maggie asked.

"No!" Selene yelled immediately.

"Nah, it gets boring doing the same thing over and over again. That's why I quit the pop industry a long time ago." Nimbus shook his head. "Now we're going to get you acquainted with the venue. You guys are going on a nature scavenger hunt!"

"I like nature!" Selene shouted excitedly, seemingly instantly forgetting about her earlier anger.

"Everyone should appreciate the natural world. Humans are the intruders in every ecosystem, after all," Tanja commented. "But there are many risks to going in the woods unsupervised."

"Not if you stay outta the marked areas," Javi put in. "We don't want any of you gettin' hurt, and there are all sorts of beasties out there, but I took it upon myself to scout out the woods cuz I just care that much about you."

"And because I beat you in rock paper scissors," Nimbus added with a smirk.

"That too," Javi conceded, before sheepishly turning back to the campers (and the camera). "So, yeah, as long as you stay close enough to camp there should be no problems."

The scene cut to a tree deep in the woods. There was an orange ribbon tied around one of the low branches, and it had a bunch of deep gashes in the bark that looked like claw marks.

"We have a list of three clues," Nimbus explained. "The first team to find items in nature that match all three clues and bring them back here wins."

"Three items… you seem to enjoy splitting us up into pairs," Martin commented.

"Well, I wouldn't go alone if I were you." Javi smirked.

"I'm sure you'll find the island of Ventallan has a lot to offer!" Nimbus dramatically pointed to the woods. In the time since the group had gathered for the challenge, a thick fog was beginning to enshroud the island. Suddenly, a pair of glowing yellow eyes appeared in the mist.

Maggie gasped. "I'm allergic to glowing yellow eyes!"

"That is rather unfortunate," Martin said flatly.

Confessional: Martin

"There are certainly teammates that I believe would be far more threatening come the merge. I will leave it at that."

The glowing eyes came closer, causing Maggie to shriek. Paradise covered her ears and glared at her. Then Naila appeared from the trees. She was wearing an orange vest like a park ranger, which clashed horribly with her purple jacket and hair, as well as a headlamp with a pair of flashlights that looked suspiciously like glowing yellow eyes.

Confessional: Kit

They stared at the camera in amazement. "Two flashlights? There are so many possibilities!"

Earl shuffled through his lab notes and peered curiously at the fog. "Doesn't fog form most commonly in a coastal environment? I've checked the weather and given the current conditions, it seems entirely infeasible that there would be this much condensation in the air, especially inland."

"Besides, the fog wasn't this thick in the morning. It only formed shortly before Javier returned," Martin added.

Javi just chuckled at Earl and ignored Martin, shaking his head. "Check yer numbers again, chico. Did you miss a unit conversion somewhere?"

"With all due respect, mister, I would never!" Earl protested, tapping his pen against his clipboard. "My dimensional analysis is spot on!"

"Yeah, we don't know what that means and we don't care." Nimbus held out a stack of index cards. "Here are your clues." Tanja took them for the Gryphons, and Iggy pushed past Lio to grab the Dragons' clues. "Just like before, we're giving you ten minutes to strategize."

"That's hardly sufficient time." Martin frowned.

"Can't we get started with the challenge already?" Iggy huffed.

"Let's just take what we have been given," Tanja said as she looked at the cards.

"And the clues are the same for both teams, so you might be competing for the same items, nudge nudge wink wink."

Several of the campers cringed at this, while Nimbus' mouth fell wide open and he pointed an accusing finger at Javi. "Did… did you just say 'nudge nudge wink wink?'"

"Aw, shut up."

"And you tell me I'm not hip with the kids," Nimbus laughed, and Javi grumbled to himself.

Meanwhile, Lio was already talking to the Dragons, much to Iggy's annoyance. "Alright, Dragons, we should pair up for this. I'm going with Selene, obviously," Lio declared.

"Yeah, 'cause that went so well last time," Celia scoffed.

"Well, we still won!" Selene yelled. Celia was beginning to realize that this was her default mode of communication and didn't necessarily mean that she was angry about something.

Lio was about to respond to Celia when he felt someone tap him on the arm. He turned to see Kit next to him. They looked at him sheepishly and quickly shoved their hands into their pockets. "Do you… want to work together?"

"Well…" Lio hesitated, shooting a worried glance at Selene.

But to Lio's surprise, Selene just smiled. "Yeah, you two should be partners!" she yelled, patting both of them on the back. Lio was used to how rough Selene normally was, but Kit stumbled, causing a bunch of screws to fly out of their pockets.

Lio finally nodded and gave Kit a warm smile, causing them to relax slightly and take their hands out of their pockets, revealing that one of their hands had been twisting a wire into an intricate flower shape.

Confessional: Selene

She looked nervous and a little bit guilty. "Lio and I do everything together, and he always helps me when I mess up. But I thought coming here would help me learn to be away from him. I know I can do it!"

Confessional: Lio

"I was worried to leave Selene for sure. She can be so reckless sometimes and it is my responsibility to look after her. If I don't do that, what kind of person would I be? But I should also be looking after the rest of my team, it's what a good leader would do. And it can't hurt to have more allies, even if Selene is always going to be my loudest supporter."

A look of annoyance flashed across Lio's face, but it was gone after just a moment as he refocused on the task at hand. "Okay, at the very least, we're definitely splitting up you two." Lio pointed to Iggy and Celia.

Celia bristled at being told what to do. "No way am I gonna listen to-" She trailed off as she realized what Lio was saying, and when she looked at Iggy, her expression turned into a sneer. "Yeah, sure, whatever, have fun failing without me."

Iggy flipped his ponytail. "Please, you just slowed me down. I could do without having to carry you again."

"I don't need anyone to carry me! There's no way you would've made it past Martin and Tanja without me!" Celia shot back indignantly.

There was a moment of tense silence as Celia and Iggy glared at each other while Lio watched disapprovingly.

Ollie, who had been silent the entire time, looked between Iggy and Celia nervously. He suddenly grabbed Iggy's arm and smiled at the track star. "Hey, let's work together!"

Confessional: Ollie

"Iggy seems really nice! I wanna be his friend!" He bounced up and down for a bit, before he stopped and looked a little more pensive. "Okay, that's definitely true, but it's not the only reason. I know he was kind of making a lot of people mad so I wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings! The second act of the Cirque Deluge will be just as marvelous as the first!" He flung his arms out, hitting his hand on the confessional wall again. "I should really stop doing that hehe."

Confessional: Iggy

"First Celia the dead weight, and now I have to work with a clown? He's making a funny joke for sure. But if it's between him and Selene, I don't care to get flattened by a mattress again, it ruins my hair."

Iggy looked Ollie over, seeming unimpressed. But he finally gave a shrug. "Sure, let's do it."

Ollie cheered and jumped up and down. "I can't wait to work with you, partner! We're sure to steal the show!"

"Guess you're with me then." Celia turned to Selene with a smirk. The klutz looked a bit wary, probably because the rebel had just been talking back to her brother.

Lio didn't look completely satisfied, but he gave Selene a thumbs up, causing her to relax slightly. "I won't let the Dragons down!" she yelled, pounding her fist into her palm. Kit jumped about a foot into the air and hid behind Lio.

Confessional: Celia

"Okay, Selene looks scary but she couldn't hurt a fly, I know it."

Confessional: Selene

There was a fly buzzing around Selene's head as she sat inside the confessional, and she was trying her best to swat at it. She ended up punching a hole in the confessional wall instead. "Stop that!" she yelled at the fly, and the sheer volume of her voice caused it to fly straight into the confessional wall and fall down.

Meanwhile, the Gryphons had come to a similar conclusion about splitting up. Martin and Tanja exchanged glances. "Same groups as last time?" Tanja suggested, turning to the other Gryphons.

"What a perfect way to continue to improve our chemistry!" Earl clapped his hands together in delight. "But what about…"

Earl was interrupted by Maggie gasping at the rest of the team in shock. "You wouldn't leave me alone!"

Paradise rolled her eyes, and even Martin looked a little annoyed.

"Same groups as last time," Tanja repeated.

Confessional: Maggie

"Ooh, they wouldn't dare! They're going to regret that! …Wait, when did that hole get there?" Maggie watched as a pair of flies in nurse outfits buzzed in through the hole that Selene had punched in the wooden confessional booth. They were carrying a tiny stretcher between them to rescue their friend that Selene had killed. "Ew, get away from me!"

Confessional: Lio

He was doing his best to patch up the hole in the confessional using a hammer, nails, and a piece of plywood. "Selene. Of course." He clucked his tongue. In the background a bunch of flies were wearing black robes and gathering around a tiny coffin.

Lio looked through the stack of clues and read them. "Something purple. What kind of purple things are there in nature?" he thought aloud.

"I like purple!" Selene interrupted, causing Lio to glare at her.

"I could guess," Celia chuckled, looking at Selene's purple hoodie.

Lio was about to start speaking again when Ollie butt in next. "Oh, oh! Does that mean picking flowers?"

Celia made a face. "That's lame, you and Kit can do that one," she said to Lio, but Selene looked a little disappointed at this. "What else is there?"

"Something larger than your head," Lio read, furrowing his brow.

On the Gryphons, Martin was also puzzling over the clue. "That is quite a vague and arbitrary scale," he commented. "How can we know what items fit your criteria without more specifics?"

"It's gotta be a solid object, no bushes," Javi clarified, loud enough for both teams to hear. "And if you're planning on playing around with the edge cases, the tiebreaker will always be how good of a mood I'm in," he retorted, rolling his eyes at Martin. "But fine, if you really want the 'specs,' it's gotta be bigger than Nimbus' head. And Nimbus has a pretty big head!" He jerked a thumb at the rock star, who was currently grooming his hair.

"Huh, did you say my name?" Nimbus turned around to face Javi.

"Nope, ya must've heard wrong," Javi responded wryly.

But this seemed to satisfy Martin, and he turned back to his team. "Well, I presume you're allergic to feathers?" he asked Maggie, but surprisingly, she instantly shook her head.

"Oh, no, that's a silly thing to be allergic to. I can do the feather one, I'm sure my asthma will act up if I lift heavy things anyways."

Martin adjusted his glasses, looking a little skeptical, and Paradise just rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure you two can handle a little heavy lifting." Paradise looked over Martin and Tanja.

"And we can expect you to find something purple?" Tanja asked Earl, ignoring Paradise.

"Of course!" Earl nodded firmly. "That is a sample that we surely can collect." He put extra emphasis on the 'we' and Paradise shot him a grateful look.

"Let's not make this a repeat of last time, Gryphons!" Tanja clapped her hands.

"I'm ready for another easy win!" Iggy smirked confidently and crossed his arms.

"As long as we communicate and work together, there shouldn't be any problems," Lio added, though he was watching Celia closely as she stuck close to Selene.

"Ten minutes are up," Nimbus announced. "The scavenger hunt starts… now!"

"Everybody stay safe and stick together!" Lio called out, only to find that Iggy had already dashed off with Ollie close behind.

"C'mon!" Celia quickly gestured for Selene to come with her, but she stole one last hesitant glance at her brother before following the rebel.

"I'm clearly the only one who can keep us organized, I wish they would recognize that." Lio frowned to himself. But when he saw that Kit looked nervous, his expression softened. "We'll just have to do the best we can, so we can help them after."

With the Gryphons, it was pretty clear that Earl and Paradise were grouped up, as well as Martin and Tanja. Maggie looked between them, before huffing. "You guys are the worst!" she yelled and stomped off. Tanja and Earl both looked a little conflicted, but neither of them made any effort to change partners or otherwise offer any help.

"There's no way the other team will find anything just by wandering." Martin began pacing around the outskirts of the woods, searching for the best path to take, and Tanja followed him, despite seeming doubtful about his technique.

"Exactly, we know to search for the areas with the best climate and the most vegetation," Earl chimed in. "Then we will certainly find the right blooms!"

Paradise looked less enthusiastic, and she scrunched up her nose at the wilderness around them, but seemed more determined than before. "If there are flowers, it can't be that gross, right?"

As she and Earl headed off, Martin finally led Tanja in a different direction.

"Alright, we're alone. We finally have time to-" Tanja started to say, before Martin held up his hand telling her to stop, and pointed towards a nearby bush.

"Hey guys." Maggie suddenly popped up next to them. "Whatcha talking about?"

"Only completing our current challenge," Tanja deadpanned, glaring at her. "I would rather we not send anyone else home."

Maggie just huffed. "Well, I just have no idea where to start," she said dramatically. "I'm so afraid we're going to lose if I can't find a feather."

"Birds lose their feathers frequently, but probabilistically, wandering until you stumble upon one appears to be a suboptimal strategy," Martin offered.

"And that means…" Maggie prompted, and Tanja also looked confused.

"You need a plan," Martin explained. "Just walking along with us isn't going to do you any good."

"We will help you once we complete this clue," Tanja added quickly, causing Martin to raise a brow, but Maggie grumbled to herself and stalked away.

Confessional: Tanja

"Maggie is at least more agreeable than Paradise, but she… gives me the wrong vibe. I would not want to align myself with someone who finds such glee in uncovering the personal affairs of others. But at the same time, I would not want to leave her behind!"

Confessional: Martin

"Tanja's passion for protecting and standing up for others is admirable, but she cares too much about fairness. She has the right determination and drive, but if she cannot control her emotions then it might be difficult for us to collaborate in the optimum manner."

"A feather, huh." The scene switched to Iggy looking at his clue as he and Ollie walked through the woods.

Ollie was bouncing excitedly after him. "So we need to find a bird? How are we going to catch a bird?"

Just then, a crow flew above them. "After that bird!" Iggy shouted, and took off running before Ollie could react.

"Wait up!" The acrobat ran after him as the camera followed the flight of the bird.

Martin was the first one to see the bird flying overhead, and he stopped to admire it with a small smile… until someone came running right into his path, nearly colliding with him.

"Ignatius?"

"That sure is my name," Iggy snarked. "…regrettably."

"I assume you're looking for the feather?" Tanja asked.

Iggy just ignored her. "Of course it's you," he sneered at Martin. "You're lucky there's no snow around this time."

"Was Celia not the one who deserves credit for throwing the snowballs?" Tanja pointed out. "Where's she?"

"There you are Iggy!" Ollie called out, as if on cue. "Did you catch the bird?" Despite being nearly out of breath, he kept up his normal exuberance as he crashed through the underbrush, trying his best to catch up. "Whew, you're fast!" He barreled towards the group and nearly collapsed on top of Martin, but the fencer reflexively reached out with a hand and caught Ollie by the front of his vest, allowing him to steady himself.

Martin looked unamused as Ollie wrung his hands. "Oh my gosh, not again, I'm so so sorry-"

Martin adjusted his glasses, the light catching them for a moment. "I understand, you cannot chase a bird without a bit of fowl play." He paused for a second, as if he was waiting for a reaction, and then his face fell when he saw Ollie was just staring at him in shock.

"Did you just… was that a pun?" Ollie stammered, not believing that the stoic Martin would be trying to joke around.

"I would consider myself quite talon-ted in the art of wordplay," was Martin's response, only confirming the acrobat's suspicions despite his neutral tone. "But nothing that you should be raven about."

"Hehe, we were just winging it." Ollie fluttered his arms in a… pretty poor imitation of a bird.

In the background, Iggy and Tanja made eye contact and simultaneously facepalmed.

Confessional: Ollie

"I thought Martin was going to be, like, super serious and scary. But he's actually really funny. Talon-ted, I get it." He shook his head and chuckled to himself.

Confessional: Martin

He straightened his collar, blushing slightly with embarrassment. "Wordplay is simply one more exercise in sharpening my mind," he protested. "But I should not let myself get distracted any more."

Iggy interrupted Ollie by pulling him back. "C'mon, we're wasting time." As he craned his neck to look for birds, Ollie reluctantly gave a parting wave to Martin and Tanja.

"There!" Iggy pointed, and the same crow from before was circling back around them. He took off again, and Ollie sheepishly waved at Martin and Tanja before following him.

"Hey, that bird looks a little weird," Ollie noticed.

"Well, I think it's weird that we haven't caught it by now," Iggy huffed.

As they chased the crow, the camera began to zoom in on it. As it grew larger on the screen, it became clear that there was definitely something off about it. Its feathers were too shiny and stiff, and its eyes were glassy and pupilless, and looked almost like camera lenses.

The scene transitioned to Javi sitting in front of a monitor inside his trailer, watching Iggy and Ollie through the eyes of the remote-controlled bird drone that he was flying.

"Whatcha doing?"

Javi jumped as Naila popped up inside his trailer, causing him to mash a few buttons in surprise and make the bird do a couple of loops. "Mija, don't do that!"

"Ahahaha I knew it!" Naila exclaimed, triumphantly pointing at the monitor. "Birds aren't real!"

Javi just ignored her comment. "Aren't you supposed to be in the woods making sure nobody goes too far?"

"That's booooring," Naila whined. "Why can't I do what you do?"

Javi narrowed his eyes. "Do you even know what I do?"

"I'm sure it's better than border patrol!"

Javi gave a heavy sigh. "Alright, if I explain how the bird works, will you do your job after?"

Naila thought for a moment. "Fine…" she said reluctantly.

"So, this is my Pajarobótico." (pájaro robótico/robot bird) Javi gestured with his controller. "We've rigged up as many cameras as we could, but I whipped this up so we could film the competition from all the best angles, 'cuz I don't trust anything Nimbus does."

"Does it bring bad luck, like a real raven?" Naila asked, suddenly excited again.

"Heh, I'm sure it could."

As Javi let Naila fiddle with his robot, both of them failed to notice that on one of the cameras on the monitor, Iggy and Ollie were running past some trees with orange tape on them.

Meanwhile, Martin and Tanja were searching through the eerie woods, but neither of them seemed to be bothered by the fog.

"By the way, I know we hadn't made our arrangement until after the ceremony, so who did you vote for last night?" Martin asked.

"Paradise needed to go," Tanja said without any hesitation.

Martin looked skeptical, but not surprised. "You really prioritized her over Maggie and Drake despite their poor performance in the challenge?"

Tanja grit her teeth. "It doesn't feel right. Maggie and Drake were making an honest effort despite their shortcomings, while Paradise has her skills but refuses to lift a finger."

"I see…" Martin nodded slightly, making a 'go on' gesture, though his expression was unreadable.

"But to be honest, I just don't like her, and the way she treats people. It reminds me of… ugh, never mind."

"You're relying too much on your emotions. If we are to make it through this competition, then we cannot form any biases."

"I suppose you're right," Tanja said, though she didn't seem completely sure.

Confessional: Tanja

"It feels a little strange having Martin as an ally, and perhaps it will help me get further in the competition, but I refuse to sacrifice my morals for this game, I always have."

Meanwhile, Lio and Kit were wandering deeper into the woods. "I don't like the woods." Lio grimaced. "That was always more of Selene's thing than mine."

"Nature makes me nervous," Kit agreed, but it was unclear if they were shivering out of nerves or cold. "Plants and animals can't be taken apart like machines can."

"This fog is pretty thick too. Stay close to me."

But then Kit had an idea. "Give me a sec, I think I can hook up my lights."

Lio nodded and stopped to wait for them, though he continued to look around the area as Kit worked.

The tinkerer pulled various parts out of their pocket and stuck their tongue out in concentration. Their hands turned into a blur as they quickly connected the lights that had originally been attached to their now-disassembled umbrella to some wires and a magnifying lens. After a moment, they triumphantly held out a lantern that glowed pink.

But as Kit was putting their tools away, they reached into their other pocket and pulled out… a regular flashlight. "Oh, I guess I have this doohickey too," they said, embarrassed, and handed the light to Lio.

"H-how much stuff can you fit in your pockets?" Lio asked, amazed.

Kit giggled. "Yes."

Confessional: Lio

"Okay, maybe I was a little too doubtful of this team. But can you blame me?" He shook his head. "But beyond their, um, eccentricities, they all bring unique skills that I can appreciate. And that makes it all the more important that I'm here," he said proudly. "No team is perfect, but I've been in student council and the captain of my volleyball team, and I've definitely led worse."

Confessional: Kit

"Maybe building new gizmos is better than playing with the ones I find, but taking things apart is more interesting to me so that's what I do. I just want to learn how things work." They were still fidgeting with their screwdriver. "But I think I like feeling useful."

Lio pointed at a stream up ahead. "Plants grow near water, right? If we follow the river, maybe we'll find some flowers." With the flashlight and the lantern, Kit and Lio continued on through the woods.

"Question. Do you not feel like you belong in your cabin?" Kit blurted out suddenly. Lio's expression turned angry and they quickly shrunk away from him. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to say that-" They nearly dropped their lantern and ended up disconnecting the lights and getting electrocuted.

Lio sighed and then nodded. "Maybe? I know the two truths and a lie challenge shouldn't have changed anything, but this camp has been… more of a stressful experience than I thought."

"Doesn't matter much, hehe. There's all the squishy bits in your body and there's how you feel about who you are, and they're real different things, y'know. I haven't been able to figure that out… but if I could reverse engineer the human brain, I would." As they rambled, they made a sawing motion with their screwdriver-less hand, as if they were cutting open someone's head, causing Lio's eyes to widen, but Kit just giggled.

"That sounds… very interesting," Lio choked out. It was clear he appreciated Kit's intentions, but he still looked a little disturbed.

The scene changed to Earl and Paradise, while Maggie was following them and pestering them, but they were both just ignoring the gossip. "This climate is fascinating," Earl said as he looked around through the dense fog in the deep woods that they were wandering through. It was dark and damp, but the scientist didn't seem very bothered, and he was instead marveling at the environment and the many different species of plants. "I'm sure the variation in weather has led to the evolution of many unique organisms. Look out, Darwin's finches! The next breakthrough in biodiversity could be here in Ventallan, I just feel it!"

Paradise, on the other hand, looked very uncomfortable at being in the woods. She tried to make herself as small as possible and cringed at the grasses and shrubs that brushed against her legs. "If we're looking for flowers, shouldn't we be somewhere with, like, more sun?"

"Normally, yes. But I am inclined to believe that the lighting conditions shift frequently from the weather that we have experienced so far. If I can understand more about the overall environment of this island, it should be easy to find a place where the right flowers grow."

"Mhm, sure, how long will that take?"

"You can't rush science."

Maggie was about to interject, but Earl didn't notice, as he was writing some things on his clipboard. "I still think that makes no sense for there to be fog this deep in the woods, but I find it hard to believe that I've overlooked some variable after all of my research."

"You must really believe you were right if you got that angry at Javi," Paradise remarked casually.

Earl tapped his chin. "I didn't even realize it at the time, but perhaps I was. You propose quite sound hypotheses."

Paradise shrugged. "It seemed obvious to me, really."

As they talked, Maggie started to look more and more annoyed. She looked around, but then she suddenly gasped and fell over. "I'm allergic to lichen! Go on without me!"

Earl and Paradise exchanged glances. Neither were really sure what to do.

"We probably shouldn't leave her like that." Earl knit his brow in concern.

"Ugh, I just want to be rid of her," Paradise whined. "If she says one more thing about her allergies, I'm like, literally going to barf."

"Most allergies aren't severe…" Earl said hesitantly. "We must come back for her after the challenge though."

However, no sooner than Earl and Paradise were out of sight, Maggie got up, completely unharmed, and began to creep after them and listen in on their conversation.

Confessional: Maggie

"Can I let you in on a secret? I don't even know what lichen is." She giggled.

The scene switched to a deeper part of the woods. "Geez, what got this place so messed up?" Celia wondered aloud as she looked around at the bleak landscape that she and Selene were trekking through.

"Wow, it looks like there was a forest fire," Selene remarked. The underbrush had disappeared, and the few remaining trees were dead and blackened.

"Or a lightning storm," Celia added.

The two exchanged uneasy glances.

"Well, lightning never strikes in the same place twice, right?" Celia forced a confident laugh as they continued traveling through the eerie looking environment.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." Selene put a hand on Celia's shoulder, nearly knocking the rebel over and causing her to stagger.

"Please," Celia snorted. "I don't need protecting. Besides, what are you gonna do, punch a wildfire?"

Selene looked down at the ground, speaking in an uncharacteristically soft tone. "That's the only thing I'm really good at."

Celia cringed and looked a little sympathetic, but said nothing in response.

Confessional: Selene

"Lio used to be a lot more shy. There were people that didn't understand that he was a 'him.' And that made me angry. So I explained to them so I could protect my brother," she said, making a fist, but her tone was cheerful. "I like to help people by protecting them."

Elsewhere in the woods, Iggy finally stopped to catch his breath, having lost sight of Javi's Pajarobótico, which he still thought was a real bird. He leaned against the side of a rocky cliff and waited for Ollie, who was trying his best just to keep up. The acrobat looked pretty beat up, with some twigs in his hair, as he stumbled after the track star.

"Stupid bird. Stupid feather. This is a stupid challenge," Iggy muttered.

"At least the trees are thinner here," Ollie said optimistically. "We can finally see how big this place is!" He gestured around them. Indeed, the vegetation was more sparse and most of the fog was below them, and it looked like they were on the edge of a mountainous area.

"Wait a second…" Iggy pushed some clinging ivy to the side, revealing that the cliff he had been leaning against was actually the entrance to a cave.

Ollie immediately regained his energy, eyes sparkling with excitement as he bounded over. But as the two boys investigated, they could hear some deep snoring sounds coming from inside and they exchanged fearful glances.

"I… don't think that's a bird," Ollie said nervously.

"We should still check it out. Maybe it eats birds."

Ollie still looked hesitant.

"C'mon man, do you want to win this challenge or not?"

Ollie nodded slowly, and Iggy was clearly scared too but he still brazenly strode into the cave. Sure enough, there was a corpse of some kind of bird strewn on the cave floor, with a few shredded feathers still on it. The only problem was that it was between the front paws of a huge, sleeping grizzly bear.

Iggy and Ollie creeped closer still, and Iggy reached out, his hand shaking slightly as he tried to reach out and grab a feather.

Suddenly, one of the bear's eyes cracked open and it gave a low growl that seemed to cause the entire cavern to shake.

"Run!" Iggy shouted and he booked it away from the cave, fully prepared to leave Ollie behind.

Ollie ran after Iggy, but he quickly realized that there was no way that the track star, much less himself, would be able to get away from the bear that was now lumbering after them.

Ollie acted quickly, jumping and grabbing the branch of a nearby tree and flipping himself up onto it. "Over here!" he shouted.

Iggy looked at Ollie and then looked at the bear, and then he skidded to a stop and grabbed Ollie's hand. The acrobat pulled him into the tree and the two of them started to scramble to higher branches as the bear roared angrily at them.

Confessional: Iggy

"You probably wanna know what was going through my head, and it was this: if I could outrun a bear, I would be able to reclaim my championship title for sure. And I'll still stand by that, I was definitely faster! I just, uh, didn't feel like racing."

And then Iggy made the mistake of looking down at the ground. His vision started to blur and his heart somehow started to beat even faster. He screwed his eyes shut tight, hugged the tree trunk like a koala, and screamed.

As if things couldn't get any worse, the bear put its paws on the tree, causing the trunk to bend under its weight and Ollie to start to scream as well.

The boys' screams were cut off as the scene abruptly switched back to Javi's trailer, where he was still piloting the bird drone with Naila watching him. The drone was at the cave where Iggy, Ollie, and the bear had just been. Suddenly, the feed started to turn fuzzy, before it cut out completely.

"Oh no," the mechanic murmured, and even Naila looked worried.

"I'll go out there and look for them," the prankster decided.

"Wait, be careful with the-" Javi started to call out, but she had already run off.

The scene switched to Earl and Paradise after they had left Maggie.

"What do you think about the rest of our team?" Earl asked.

Paradise rolled her eyes. "Are you joking? They're awful. Maggie is just annoying, Martin acts all high-and-mighty, and Tanja looks at me as if I, like, killed her little old grandma. You're, like, the only one here that I can stand."

Earl seemed a little bit intimidated by Paradise's ranting, but he gave a weak "...indeed" in agreement.

"I've always been the odd one out. I don't know why I thought being here would make things any different." Paradise gave an aloof shrug.

"Well, people that are different are sometimes the ones that get along the best," Earl tried to reason. "Opposites attract, it's a principle even on the molecular level! That's what I tell myself about my parents…" he added more softly.

Paradise actually seemed slightly more engaged at that. "Yours are bad too, huh? My parents tell me opposites attract all the time."

Earl looked confused. "Is that a bad thing?"

"In other words, they totally freaked once they figured out I liked girls," Paradise explained bluntly.

"I'm sorry…" Earl trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"What. Ever. I'm, like, here now, and that's all that I wanted, really. Say, are you also…" Paradise started to ask.

Earl hesitated, but then shook his head.

"Ugh, well, you have it easy…" Paradise then noticed Earl's expression. "Wait, you seem unsure."

"Well, it's not exactly what you're expecting…" Earl was surprised for a second that Paradise had picked up on his hesitation. "I don't really have those feelings. At all."

"You mean that there's nobody you've ever liked? Like, romantically?"

Earl shook his head. "I've tried, but I've never felt that kind of chemistry with anyone. Though I have always been just as fascinated by the chemistry between people as I am with compounds."

"Oh?" Paradise arched an eyebrow. "You mean you can tell who can get along? And who would be, like, interested in each other?"

Earl smiled to himself at having finally gotten Paradise's full attention. "It's not as much of a science as, well, chemistry, of course, but perhaps I have some conclusions to draw about the types of reactions that the others here can create…"

"Like who?" Paradise demanded, but Earl didn't seem bothered by her rude tone.

" From my extensive studies, I have determined that the most compatible romantic pairing on the island is…"

The camera suddenly turned to static.

The scene flashed back to Iggy and Ollie, right where they left off: screaming their heads off while hiding in a tree. Iggy refused to climb any higher, even as a massive grizzly bear was trying to climb after them.

But the bear kept hesitating every time it tried to put its weight on the tree, and eventually it stopped leaning on the trunk. It put its paws over its ears and glared at the camera in annoyance, then lumbered off.

"It's too heavy. We're safe," Ollie breathed finally. He prodded Iggy, who finally realized he could stop screaming. "Good thing that wasn't the tightrope walking bear from the circus, he would've caught us for sure."

Iggy said nothing, as he was still clinging to the tree trunk and shaking.

Ollie was somehow already smiling again, but he still seemed shaken. From his high vantage point, he could see the bear walking back towards its den. "While we're here, let's look around!"

"Uh, have fun dude, I think I'll just s-s-stay here." Iggy continued to hug the tree trunk.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ollie hung by his knees on a branch above Iggy and leaned back, looking at the track star from upside down.

"Okay, fine!" Iggy shouted suddenly, causing Ollie to flinch. "I might just have a tiny little bit of a fear of heights, are you happy?"

Ollie cocked his head, not seeming to understand why the track star was suddenly so angry. "I'm happy we didn't get hurt?"

"And the bear definitely didn't help," Iggy mumbled. He couldn't even bring himself to look at Ollie.

"Do you want help-"

"No," Iggy snapped instantly.

"Alright," Ollie said meekly. "I'll just look around here then and you can… do whatever you want to do hehe."

Iggy was edging down the trunk with all the speed and grace of a dolphin in a tree, and when he finally reached the ground, he fell backwards and landed splayed on his back. He grabbed handfuls of a nearby shrub, as if to try and steady himself.

Meanwhile, Ollie was swinging from branch to branch, looking more like a monkey… or a trapeze artist. He finally landed lightly at the very top, where there was a bird's nest in the crook of a branch. "Iggy! Look at this!" he called out excitedly.

Confessional: Iggy

"Ugh, even watching him up there makes me dizzy! Why am I like this!" He angrily slammed his palm against his forehead. " …ouch."

Ollie grabbed a feather from inside the nest and made his way down the tree just as easily, before landing beside Iggy, who was still lying on the ground. The track star slowly rose to his feet, his legs still shaking. "That was… actually really impressive," he mumbled.

"Look what I got!" Ollie excitedly showed Iggy the feather.

Before Ollie could react, Iggy snatched it from him.

Ollie offered Iggy a high five, but he just huffed and turned away. "We should get going, you're wasting time."

Meanwhile, Martin and Tanja were by the river. "That was rather straightforward," Martin commented, as the two of them had found a medium sized rotting stump that looked like they could carry it. "Javier and Nimbus really do not put enough thought into their challenges."

Martin was about to pick it up when Tanja pushed past him. "Don't you try to get all chivalrous on me. I got it." She scooped up the stump with some effort, staggering under the weight but carrying it without complaint.

Martin just looked confused. "I suppose you can carry it if you'd like?"

"You thought I couldn't carry it just because I'm a girl?" Tanja challenged.

Martin cocked his head. "I did not say that at all."

Tanja glared at him. "I can pull my weight, and I refuse to do less than my fair share."

"You're being stubborn."

"I care about equality, that's all," she shot back. But as Tanja tried to carry the stump, it slipped out of her hands… and started rolling away.

Martin and Tanja looked at each other for a moment in shock, before they started to run after it.

The scene switched to Celia and Selene, who were still wandering around the burnt forest. They didn't seem all too focused, and were more just trying to look around. Selene's eyes were glowing with childish wonder, while Celia seemed more interested in finding clues about the burns.

All of a sudden, Selene tripped over something. "Stupid rock," she growled, and prepared to punch the rock, when she suddenly realized what she had found. "Look at this!"

It was a huge chunk of rock, larger than any human's head by a fair margin, that was partially buried in the ground. Selene knelt in the dirt to examine it and started to dig it out of the ground, with Celia sitting down next to her. It was light gray and its surface was rough with what appeared to be bubbles.

The two of them dug enough of the dirt away for Selene to be able to grab the rock and pull it out of the ground. "Wow, it's really light?" Selene easily lifted the chunk of rock in one hand.

"Lemme see it, have you even looked at your biceps, light for you doesn't mean… whoa, you're right, that's sick!" Celia grabbed the rock from Selene, and realized that it actually was easy to lift. "It must be some kind of volcano rock." She tossed it back and forth between her hands. "I heard about it once but I don't remember what it's called, cuz I'm not a nerd," she added quickly.

Confessional: Earl

"Pumice is a type of igneous rock created in volcanic eruptions, and it is one of the least dense rocks due to the bubbles of gas trapped inside. It even floats in water!"

Selene hugged the rock to her chest. "Lio will be so proud of me!"

"We should go back and see if the others are there," Selene said.

"Nah, this didn't take that long." Celia waved her hand dismissively. "I bet we have the time to look around for a bit… maybe even see what's beyond the safe zone." She smirked.

Selene looked horrified at this suggestion, and shook her head so furiously that she started to get dizzy. "Javi doesn't want us to go in there, there has to be a reason!"

"Dude, rules are meant to be broken. You're never going to get anywhere if you only do what you're told."

"But what if we're the last ones back and our team's mad at us? Or what if we get lost? I get lost easily!" Selene was starting to panic. "One time, I got lost in a department store and Lio had to call me on the intercom. We had gone to get lunch!"

"Geez, okay." Celia took a step back, not quite sure what to do. "Okay, maybe we can come back after we win the challenge?"

"Is that a compromise? I like compromises. Lio's always talking about them."

"So, you're really close to your brother, huh?" Celia remarked as she hopped over a fallen tree.

"We used to be closer." Selene tried to follow her, but tripped and fell on her face. "But I always mess up."

Celia offered her a hand, but it was mostly out of courtesy, as Selene was so much larger and taller than she was. "Dude, why don't you just, like, ditch him."

Selene stood up and brushed herself off, hitting her head on a branch in the process. "What?" she yelled in shock, throwing the rock to the ground.

"I've seen the way he talks to you! He thinks he knows what's best for all of us, but especially you. Do you really want him to control your life like that?"

Selene clenched her fists in anger. "I think I need it."

"Is that because he told you you need it?" Celia remarked. "He's a real dick, ya know."

"Don't say that about my brother!" Selene yelled. She aimed a punch at Celia and she dodged out of the way just in time.

"Seriously, what the fuck!"

Selene threw another punch at Celia. The rebel ducked, but this time, Selene's fist hit one of the dead trees and caused it to shake.

Selene realized what was about to happen first. She gasped and grabbed Celia, pulling her out of the way, just before the entire tree toppled over.

Confessional: Celia

"Okay, I'm not usually one to play the damsel in distress, I'm more of a dragon than a princess, remember?" She crossed her arms. "But… that was pretty cool of her. Minus the whole 'nearly killing me' thing of course."

"Fuck," Celia groaned. She had her face buried in Selene's chest, which Selene quickly realized and abruptly dropped her onto the ground.

"I know, I need someone controlling me." Selene hung her head, too scared of hurting Celia to even try and help her back up. "Why did I even try to get away from my brother?"

Meanwhile, Kit and Lio were continuing to search the forest when they heard some shouting from up ahead.

"Who's there?" Lio called out, and he pushed through the trees with Kit close behind him.

The two of them saw Naila hanging upside-down from a tree, suspended with a rope around her ankle. She had lost her headlamp somewhere in the woods. "Help!" The prankster continued to struggle.

"What happened?" Kit gawked. They couldn't help but giggle at the absurd sight, and Lio looked at them disapprovingly while Naila violently flailed her arms. Whether she was trying to punch Kit or free herself or both was unclear.

"Just get me out of here! You wouldn't want the death of an intern at your hands to weigh on your pitiful consciences!" Naila yelled at them, shaking her fists.

"Don't worry, we'll help you!" Lio reassured her. "We would never abandon you!"

Meanwhile, Kit was studying the mechanism behind the rope. "Looks like a loop branch spring thingy… a snare trap!" they quickly concluded.

"Who would feel the need to put a booby trap this deep in the woods?" Lio wondered.

"Hehe you said booby," Kit snickered as they started to dig around in their pockets for something to help free Naila.

"I don't want boobies," Lio deadpanned.

"I don't either."

"I'm still here!" Naila was growing impatient, and she started to swing back and forth on her rope.

"Right, let's get back on track. What do you know about snares?" Lio asked Kit.

"I think I could get her free without hurting her." Kit craned their neck to look up at the branch. "But I can't reach."

Lio looked at the branch that Kit was examining. Naila was much closer to eye level for him. In just a moment, he knew what to do. "Get on my shoulders," he commanded, and bent down. Kit nodded and nimbly scrambled onto his back. Together, they were able to reach the base of the branch where Naila was hanging. Naila managed to punch Lio in the shoulder while she was flailing, causing him to cringe, but he stayed steady for Kit. "Naila-ow! Stop struggling so Kit can work."

The prankster stuck her tongue out at Lio, but she seemed to have gotten the message, and stayed still while Kit carefully cut through the ropes that would release her.

Suddenly, a bird called out in the distance, startling Kit and causing them to saw through the rope completely. Naila screamed and fell from the branch, knocking over Lio and Kit and causing all three of them to fall to the ground in a heap with Lio on the bottom.

"My back," Lio groaned. "What do you even have in your pockets?"

"Oops, I must've poked you with my hammer." Kit quickly got off of him.

Naila followed suit and tried to stand up, but her ankle buckled and she immediately fell onto her butt. "Augh, I've been cursed with a terrible plague in my joints!"

"Ooh, what kind?" Kit asked.

Lio rolled his eyes. "She sprained something, more likely. We should take her back to camp," he decided. "This is more important than the challenge."

Kit nodded resolutely and held up their lantern. "Let's go!"

Confessional: Kit

"I get to help save someone? Maybe fix something instead of breaking it? This is so so so exciting." They clapped their hands gleefully, and for once, they had ceased their anxious fidgeting. "I like working with Lio."

In another part of the woods, a bunch of birds called out and flew off, possibly including the one that had startled Kit. They had been disrupted by Paradise's shrill voice. "The ship you see is Javi and Nimbus?" the heiress yelled in shock.

"You can trust me, I know chemistry," Earl responded simply.

Paradise was about to question him further, when the two of them heard a twig snap behind them.

"Well, that was disappointing," Maggie said as she came out of a bush near Earl and Paradise. "Just when I thought you guys would have some actually interesting gossip."

Both the chemist and the heiress just stared at her in shock.

"Ahem, I mean…" Maggie paused and took a breath, before she dramatically put a hand to her forehead. "Oh, I'm so glad I found you! I was so worried I would be lost in the woods forever, and the bugs would eat me alive!" Her demeanor had changed entirely, almost as if her antics were rehearsed.

"I'm just relieved you're safe," Earl said, looking guilty, but Paradise didn't seem at all amused. "Besides, very few bugs would consume a live human, and even if they tried, it would take a population of several orders of magnitude higher than we are likely to find on this island to be able to fully decompose your flesh," Earl tried to reassure Maggie, but that just made her more upset.

"Let's not talk about bugs, okay?" Maggie frowned at him.

Confessional: Earl

"That was obviously a … what do you call it? A white lie. There are more than enough bugs here to eat Maggie in a matter of minutes if they were all consolidated in one area, perhaps due to some kind of synthesized pheromone signal." He tapped his chin. "That frankly sounds quite horrifying; I am beginning to understand where the whole 'mad scientist' trope in the media comes from."

While the Gryphons were reconvening, Iggy and Ollie were headed back to camp at a brisk jog. Ollie was looking around, getting distracted by just about every flower or bird along the way, while Iggy was laser focused on completing the challenge while still holding the feather that Ollie had found. They were quiet but weren't as tense as before. That was until Ollie spoke up.

"Hey, you shouldn't be embarrassed. Everyone's afraid of something."

Iggy suddenly grabbed Ollie's arm and pulled him aside, pinning him against a tree. "Don't you dare tell anyone about any of this," he threatened with a fierce glare.

Ollie tried for a smile, but his lip was quivering. He nodded. "D-d-don't worry, I won't say a word. I promise!"

Iggy let go of Ollie and his arms dropped to his side as he glared at the ground. He took a deep breath, almost looking a bit guilty, and he seemed like he was about to say something.

He then roughly shoved the feather at Ollie. "You found this. You should be the one to hand it in," he said gruffly. Before Ollie could respond, Iggy had started running again, and the acrobat quickly bounded after him.

Confessional: Ollie

He looked a little bit unsettled as he stared at the feather in his hands. "Well, that could've ended a lot worse!" He maintained his strained optimistic attitude. "I just don't know what he's so angry about."

However, as soon as Iggy made it out of the trees, the first thing he heard was Tanja shouting "Look out!" She and Martin were chasing after their tree stump, which was rolling towards camp on its own.

"Not the hair!" Nimbus screamed and jumped out of the way, covering his head with his hands.

Javi effortlessly stopped the tree stump with his foot. "Nice work, you two are the first to arrive."

Tanja offered Martin a high-five, which he returned, but he seemed annoyed. "Of course the others aren't here. We'll need to go back to find them."

Ollie bounced up to Nimbus. "Aha, for my next trick, I will present you with…" He then held out his feather to the rock star with a flourish. The host nodded in approval as Ollie bowed, while Iggy was standing behind him with his arms crossed.

Meanwhile, Celia and Selene were still in the burnt section of the forest, with Celia now carrying the piece of volcanic rock that they had found. Selene seemed to have calmed down a little bit, but the two of them were walking in awkward silence.

Celia finally cleared her throat. "Hey, uh, sorry about dissing your brother like that. Sometimes when I get mad I say what comes to my mind. I'm sure you get that, right?"

"No, no, I was the one who almost killed you," Selene insisted.

"Hah, that's cute," Celia scoffed.

Selene looked at the rebel, confused.

"It's going to take a whole lot more than that to kill me," Celia retorted.

"That's good!" Selene patted her on the back, a little less forcefully than usual.

"I just hate seeing anyone being bossed around, ya know?"

Selene seemed happy enough with this, and the two of them continued to head back to camp. "Dude, I don't understand how you get lost," Celia commented. "It's… pretty obvious where you've been." She pointed at the flattened plants and broken branches from all of the things Selene had bumped into and times she had tripped.

Selene paused to think. "I guess I don't notice it. Or maybe it's just that Lio is always fixing the things I break."

"Dude, that's lame, breaking shit is something to be proud of!" Celia declared, but Selene didn't seem all too convinced.

"Look, there's a clearing up ahead!" Earl pointed. He and Paradise were still searching the woods, with Maggie tagging along.

"Oh, I'll just stay back here, my pollen allergy is awful this time of year." Predictably, Maggie didn't want anything to do with the flowers, and took a couple of steps back, but Earl put on a fresh set of blue rubber gloves, adjusted his safety glasses, and forged on.

Paradise followed Earl into the clearing more hesitantly, trying her best to keep dirt from getting on her dress, but as soon as she looked around for the first time, she couldn't help but marvel at the scene around her. "Oh wow," the heiress breathed. "This is incredible."

The clearing was bordered by an almost perfectly round ring of trees, and the ground was covered with a carpet of soft grass and dotted with tiny purple flowers. It looked almost magical, and the air was noticeably warmer and more humid than the surrounding area.

Earl chuckled. "Such pristine glades are a rare sight indeed."

"I… don't go out in nature much," she admitted. "This is, like, so much nicer than Mother's rose garden. Though that might just be because it doesn't have Mother in it…"

As Paradise admired the landscape, Earl pulled a pair of tweezers from his pocket and wasted no time in plucking a few of the flowers and putting them onto a petri dish. He took some notes on his clipboard. "This is another one of the microclimates I've been talking about. The vegetation here is clearly very different from the surrounding areas. It's like its own ecosystem!"

However, Paradise didn't seem all too interested in his scientific prattle, and as Earl took more notes, she was starting to grow impatient. "Alright, we got what we needed, let's head back now."

"Wait!" Earl suddenly pointed at a tree on the far side of the clearing that had some orange tape on it. "That must be the boundary that Mr. Garcia was talking about!"

"Ugh, exactly, so let's get out of here before we get eaten by a bear or whatever awful things are out here," Paradise snapped. She grabbed Earl's arm but he tugged it back. The scientist looked like he was in a trance as he peered curiously through the fog.

"Hello, Earth to Earl."

Confessional: Paradise

"I, like, needed him so he could show me the way back. It's not like I actually care about anyone here or anything."

Earl looked at Paradise for just a moment, and he seemed conflicted. "This is huge," he said remorsefully. "There's something going on with this island, all the signs point to extraneous factors that I have been unable to identify. I have to find the truth."

"So what? Does your playing at being a weather boy affect the game? Or, more importantly, me?"

"Please come with me," Earl pleaded, though he looked a little hurt by Paradise's rude tone. "This could be far more important than any competition, there could be people put in danger from this weather."

"Ugh, this isn't the time for your weird science stuff!" Paradise yelled, as she was starting to get hysterical. "I just want to get out of here!"

"You don't understand!" Earl raised his voice, for the first time. His face was turning red as he clutched his beaker so tightly that crack started to form on the glass. He suddenly threw the beaker onto the ground, where it shattered on a rock and spilled tea everywhere. "You can accompany me. Or you can return our trinket." He shoved the petri dish with the flowers into a shocked Paradise's hands and stormed off, past the areas marked with tape and into the forbidden section of the island.

Confessional: Paradise

"Okay, at that point, I knew it was him or me, and I wasn't going to let it be me. And that meant finding my way back to camp without him." She shuddered.

Back at the campgrounds, more people were starting to arrive. "Where did you find this?" Javi demanded as he looked at the chunk of volcanic rock that Selene and Celia had just presented him with.

"On the ground," Selene said, beaming with pride.

Javi rolled his eyes. "Ay, of course I know that much."

Selene scratched her head and thought for a moment. "Celia said a volcano made it?"

"What, noooo, there are no volcanoes here," Nimbus cut in as he rushed over to them. "That we know of," he added in a whisper, but he mostly just looked really goofy.

"Islands are made through volcanic activity anyways," Javi explained, suddenly seeming more serious. "Most of 'em have a volcano at their center, and very few of them are active. You have nothing to worry about."

"Y-yeah, that's totally what I meant," Nimbus added.

"I like volcanoes!" Selene cheered.

"That's sick," Celia agreed.

When Paradise finally emerged from the clearing, holding Earl's petri dish with the purple flowers, Maggie was there waiting for her, leaning against a tree playing with a feather that she had found.

"Ooh, where's Earl?" Maggie asked immediately. "Did you guys get into a fight? What happened?" She leaned in closer to Paradise, but the heiress just pushed the gossip away.

"We need to hurry to get back to camp," was all Paradise said.

But Maggie was done being ignored. "I know your secret," she blurted out, and the heiress' eyes widened.

"You wouldn't dare," Paradise gasped, appalled.

"You like girls," Maggie said triumphantly, pointing an accusatory finger at her.

Paradise stared at Maggie for a moment, before bursting out into a fit of giggles. "That's not a secret."

"Yeah, fear me… oh." Maggie's face fell. "Really?"

"You can, like, tell the whole camp if you want." She raised her voice without fear. "I, Paradise, am a lesbian!"

Maggie giggled. "Oh, you're one of them, everyone is going to come after you now. Aren't you afraid?"

"The only people that care don't even know I'm here."

Maggie narrowed her eyes at this, and thought for a moment. "You're hiding something. I can feel it!" She pointed at Paradise again, holding the exact same pose as she had just done.

Paradise scoffed. "Yeah, sure, whatever. I think I might be the one who's allergic to you." She then started to walk faster, leaving Maggie looking furious.

But right before Paradise could tune out Maggie completely, the gossipmonger yelled one final thing. "I heard Martin and Tanja talking earlier, and they're in an alliance!"

To Maggie's delight, that caused Paradise to stop and turn back around. "I mean, it was kind of obvious those two were close, but I wasn't sure if it was for strategy or just—ugh—friendship."

"Exactly, they're super close, so you and Earl definitely need me. But I won't help her if you're rude!"

"Fine, like, whatever. Let's just get this stupid flower back to camp."

Confessional: Paradise

"Who needs Earl, I can have, like, a new ally now! Maggie is good for… well, I'm sure there's something she's good for." She then sighed and looked away. "I know I just needed him to help with doing the challenge and navigating the woods, but… why does it feel bad that I left him behind? I only wanted him to continue with his research like he wanted!"

Back at camp, the next one to arrive was Kit, and Tanja and Martin both groaned, until they realized that the tinkerer was completely empty-handed.

"Did you seriously not find anything?" Iggy demanded, causing Kit to shrink away and shove their hands in their pockets.

"Eek, no nonono we can explain, you see, there-" Kit continued to stammer and fidget as Iggy advanced on them angrily.

Then Lio came out of the woods. He was carrying Naila in his arms, and the prankster still looked like she was in pain. "Give it a break," he said sternly to Iggy. "We had something more important to take care of."

Tanja gasped. "What happened to her?"

"Gremlin!" Javi shouted. "Mija, you had me worried!"

Naila wriggled out of Lio's arms and fell over on the ground at Javi's feet. "Death is inevitable," she said weakly.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, you guys are heroes and it's good that Naila is safe, but what are we going to do?" Iggy asked, still looking annoyed. "We needed to find something purple."

"It's still two to one," Ollie tried to reassure him. "We can go back and try-"

He was cut off as Paradise and Maggie finally emerged from the woods. Paradise had the purple flower in Earl's petri dish, and Maggie was holding a feather.

"They… did it." Tanja looked surprised as the other girls handed their items to Javi for inspection.

Martin adjusted his glasses, causing light to gleam off of them. "And that means we completed the challenge."

"Actually…" Nimbus looked between the two teams. "This one goes to the Dragons."

"What?" Tanja burst out in shock.

"Well, I see a feather, a rock that clearly matches the size of a certain rock star's ego, and… they've got something purple right here." Javi pointed at Naila, who was still on the ground.

"Did I win?" Naila asked weakly.

"Ay, mija, let's get you some rest." Javi cleared his throat. "Wouldn't want to lose our labor, the contract says you're working for us for the whole summer."

Martin and Tanja exchanged exasperated glances. "You make a big fuss about loopholes, yet you're allowing… this?" The fencer gestured at Naila.

"It's not worth it." Tanja nudged him, and he frowned but said nothing further.

"Works for me, a win's a win," Iggy said with a shrug and his trademark confident smirk.

Lio beamed proudly at his team, and Kit jumped up and down until Ollie grabbed their hands and danced around with them. A cloud of glitter started leaking out of the tinkerer's pockets.

"I didn't think I put glitter in my pocket?" they muttered, confused.

Confessional: Naila

"Ahahaha I'm spreading the glitter plague!" She threw a giant cloud of glitter at the camera that obscured her silhouette entirely, but before long she started coughing. "My windpipe is sparkling…" she gasped.

"You ran off before I could tell you about the snare traps," Javi scolded, prodding at Naila with his toe.

Martin narrowed his eyes at the mechanic. "Why are you setting snare traps?"

Javi clucked his tongue. "To keep you chicos from the boundary, obviously. Would you rather dangle from a tree by your ankles or get eaten by a bear?"

"Um, neither!" Paradise protested. "I've had enough nature for one day." She then began to fully process what Javi had said. "Wait. There were traps on the edge of the woods?" She suddenly began to look guilty.

That was when Earl finally made it out of the woods, carrying his clipboard as well as an entire rack of about fifteen test tubes.

"Where were you?" Tanja asked.

"Why didn't you help with the challenge?" Martin added.

"Did you have all of those test tubes in your pocket?" Maggie wondered.

"Well…" Earl thought for a moment about how to explain himself.

"He, like, helped me with the challenge. That was his petri dish my flower was in, see?" Paradise put in. She looked to Maggie for further support, but the gossip said nothing. "…I'm just glad you're okay," she said very quietly.

Confessional: Earl

He hung his head. "I let my thirst for knowledge overwhelm my thirst for competition. Both of my families will be disappointed in me. I guess… some things just don't go together."

Meanwhile, the Dragons were headed back to the cabins all together, reveling in their second victory in a row.

"We had the hardest clue for sure, but it was no problem," Iggy boasted.

"Please, what's a bird going to do to you? You should've seen Selene picking that giant rock up like it was nothing," Celia shot back. The rock was, of course, very light, but the other Dragons didn't know that.

"I didn't break it!" Selene clapped her hands together, beaming with pride.

Celia playfully punched Selene in the arm, but wisely ducked out of the way before the brawler could return the favor.

"I'm just happy we did the right thing," Lio put in, and Kit nodded. "And of course, getting recognition for it is nice."

"Well, the birds didn't give us a problem, but the bear made it a little difficult for us…" Iggy said.

"You saw a bear?" Lio gasped. "And you went into its den?"

"Hehe, yeah, Iggy was really brave!" Ollie said with a nervous laugh, while Iggy just looked pensive.

Confessional: Iggy

"Let's just not talk about today, okay? I'm not a coward and I'm not weak." He glared at the camera. "The moment I show weakness, I know it's going to be used against me, since I would definitely do the same. Which is why I'm keeping an eye on Ollie from now on."

As Tanja was sitting on a picnic bench in the campgrounds, Paradise came up to her. "How's that for being part of the team?" she said smugly.

"You left Earl in the woods, didn't you?" Tanja realized. "Are you trying to take credit for his hard work? That's not fair."

Paradise flinched slightly, but quickly recovered. "Why do you keep accusing me of these things? He was the one who insisted on collecting all of those samples!"

"You really make it difficult to get along with you."

"You know, I have Earl and Maggie on my side," Paradise bluffed. "We can vote you off if we want to."

As Tanja continued to glare, Paradise stared at the activist for a long moment, just studying her, until the heiress finally spoke again. "Is it really me you're angry with, or is it something else?"

"I believe everyone deserves to have their voice heard, and I suppose you should be no exception," Tanja admitted. "I just know that people won't want you around if you don't do your part."

Paradise looked at Tanja for a moment longer. "I… haven't been on many teams before," was all she said, before she rolled her eyes and walked away.

Tanja watched her leave, before realizing that she had another task, and she set off to find Martin. The fencer was in a clearing just outside of camp, practicing with his rapier, when Tanja approached him. "I have a proposal," she called out.

Martin sheathed his sword and looked at Tanja, his expression as unreadable as ever behind his glasses.

Tanja took a deep breath. "I believe we should get rid of Earl."

Martin narrowed his eyes. "Do elaborate."

"He and Paradise are getting too close, and Maggie cannot be trusted for anything."

"Maggie is dead weight but she also has no allies, and I do agree that Paradise and Earl should be separated. But is Earl not a more skilled teammate than Paradise?"

Confessional: Tanja

"I can't explain it, but I think… I would like to keep Paradise around."

"Well, the challenge today didn't exactly show it," Tanja argued.

"I do worry about what happened to Earl today," Martin admitted. "I admire his intellect but if the pursuit of knowledge is going to distract him from the game, then he cannot be trusted."

"That's, uh…" Tanja hesitated. "What I was thinking of exactly!" she finished, unconvincingly.

Martin looked a little skeptical still, but he finally nodded.

"You want to get rid of Earl, huh?" Maggie suddenly popped up behind Martin, causing the fencer to reflexively draw his sword. "I'm allergic to blades!" she shrieked, but neither Martin or Tanja seemed to be buying it.

"What do you want?" Martin asked.

"You should not be listening to others' conversations," Tanja said disapprovingly with an intimidating glare.

"Well, I might be able to help you," Maggie offered.

Confessional: Maggie

"Paradise has Earl and Martin has Tanja, but this is a pretty juicy situation!" She giggled and rubbed her hands together. "They're going to regret ever leaving me behind! Now I just need to decide who to side with…"

Meanwhile, Paradise found Earl in the mess hall, in front of a massive chemistry setup that took up almost an entire table. He was categorizing his new soil samples and writing down some notes.

Paradise sat down across from Earl and cleared her throat, finally causing Earl to look up from his data collection. The two of them looked at each other awkwardly.

"I was worried about you," Paradise said finally, lowering her eyes as the events of the challenge started to come back to her. "I only thought you might, like, get eliminated; I didn't really think I would have put you in actual danger!"

"You are… honest for sure," Earl deadpanned, but when he saw how guilty Paradise looked, he gave her a reassuring smile. "There are no hard feelings, I always take the necessary safety precautions but I am aware that all science comes with its risks. I chose my research over Stormbound, and I am willing to accept the consequences."

"Well, it's not over yet. I did manage to get Maggie on our side…" Paradise smirked. "Tanja's gone."

Finally, Nimbus' voice blared across the campgrounds. "It's time, Gryphons! Get your butts to the campfire pit!" The five remaining Gryphons gathered around the campfire.

Martin adjusted his glasses and examined the campfire pit more closely. "What is… all that?" He saw that someone had spray painted 'Dragons Rule' on the side of the campfire pit and some variations of 'loser,' 'get rekt,' and other more vulgar messages on each of the wooden stumps surrounding the pit.

Confessional: Celia

"Hey, trash talk is a legitimate strategy! …okay, I did it because I was bored and I thought it would be funny, but it still applies."

"We have no way to argue with that, do we?" Tanja shook her head ruefully. "The Dragons truly are ruling us."

"I'll have to find who did that later, that's not cool. But it… adds some personality?" Nimbus said, frowning slightly as he tried to make the best of the situation.

"Are you kidding?" Javi snorted. "It's hilarious!" He laughed heartily and patted Nimbus on the back.

"Aaanyways, let's get to voting!" Nimbus called each Gryphon into the confessional to vote.

Confessional: Paradise

"I don't know what Tanja's deal is, but she's, like, super rude and annoying. And it would be nice to break her up from Martin. I just hope this works…"

Confessional: Tanja

"Earl is perhaps the most pure and genuine of all of us, yet he abandoned us for his research. But I must approach this logically…"

After everyone had voted, the Gryphons sat in tense silence as Nimbus and Javi tallied the votes. Notably, Earl and Paradise were sitting together, as were Martin and Tanja, and Maggie was a little ways from both of them.

But finally, the rock star held out his tray of four marshmallows. "You guys know the drill, if you don't receive an immunity marshmallow, you'll be awarded with a trip on our state-of-the-art Loser Cruiser! And the first marshmallow of the day goes to… Paradise." Nimbus threw a marshmallow at the heiress, but she seemed so distracted that she barely noticed.

"Also safe… Martin."

Martin pulled a skewer out of nowhere and impaled his marshmallow on the end of it as it was flying through the air.

"That was extremely unnecessary, but I can vibe with it." Nimbus gave Martin an impressed thumbs up, before returning to the task at hand. "And somehow… Maggie."

Once again, Maggie dodged her marshmallow, but this time Tanja was too nervous to catch it.

"Earl and Tanja, it's the end of camp for one of you." Nimbus held up the final marshmallow, but all eyes were on Maggie, who was the only one who seemed to be reveling in the tense atmosphere.

"But the last marshmallow goes to…"

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"Tanja. Earl, your experiment has come to a conclusion."

Tanja caught her marshmallow, stunned.

"You… you must have voted for Earl!" Paradise glared at Maggie.

Confessional: Maggie

Drakey told me to 'ask Earl for the tea,' but all he said was 'green or black?' Doesn't he know, I'm allergic to matcha!" She fumed as she wrote down Earl's name on her ballot. "All the others seem much more fun to keep around, I can't wait to see what they're hiding!"

"He was less interesting," Maggie said with a shrug.

"I guess I knew it," Earl said graciously. "I neglected my team for the sake of science." But then his expression turned more serious and he handed Paradise his clipboard. "There is not enough time. I plead that you continue my research and find out more about the weather on this island."

Paradise grabbed the clipboard and clutched it to her chest.

Earl smiled and gave Paradise and the rest of his team an elaborate bow. "It was truly a pleasure to have been one element in such a delightful compound." Most of the others looked confused, but Tanja and Paradise both smiled at the sentiment.

"C'mon kid, you wouldn't want to keep the captain waiting." Javi escorted Earl to the dock, just as he had with Drake previously, and just like before, the Loser Cruiser was waiting for them. It looked like a few new patches in its hull had just been added.

"Landlubber!" Kiwi squawked as he flew away from the ship and towards the dock. "Welcome aboard the Loser Cruiser, yadda yadda yadda!"

The parrot continued to ramble at Earl but he paid him no attention. Instead, he snapped out of his melancholy state as he saw Ada at the prow of the ship, peering at the sun through a strange instrument. "Is that a real sextant?" he asked, completely transfixed.

Confessional: Kiwi

Kiwi was using the confessional aboard the Loser Cruiser, the same storage room that the campers had used when they were sailing to Ventallan. He was perched on one of the crates, and he put a wing up to his beak and stage whispered to the camera. "He said sex~"

Ada grinned at him. "Of course it is. A lot of the GPS signals are unreliable here, and we're still not completely sure what causes the interference, but I don't mind because I prefer doing things the old-fashioned way."

"Old traditions should never be lost," Earl said reverently. "There is so much to be learned from even deprecated techniques. Could I… perhaps investigate with you?" he asked.

Ada nodded. "The Loser Cruiser could always use an extra hand."

But their moment was interrupted by Kiwi swooping down and landing on Ada's tricorn hat. "First Mate Kiwi the Destroyer heard someone calling, awk!" he squawked.

Earl and Ada both went silent and strained to listen, and they heard a faint voice in the wind, but dismissed it as nothing. Neither of them noticed the figure that was standing at the edge of the dock, waving frantically at the boat.

"Earl! Wait!" Kit shouted as they watched the Loser Cruiser sailing away with Earl aboard. They had Earl's umbrella in their hand, and they were waving it around desperately to try and get the attention of anyone on the ship. They finally sighed and let their arms slump to their sides, realizing that the boat had gone well out of earshot.

However, all the waving the umbrella around had caused something to get dislodged from it, and Kit quickly grabbed the small, folded paper before it could blow away. They unfolded and smoothed it out, trying their best to read the nearly illegible handwriting. It was a torn page of Earl's notes.

Confessional: Kit

"I know it's not right to look at other people's stuff, but I was too curious not to check it out, hehe. I just hope he didn't need that umbrella for anything." As they spoke, they were unconsciously folding the page of Earl's notes into a tiny paper crane. "Earl says the weather on this island is weird? No wonder he brought so much stuff for his experiments."

Kit looked a little bit conflicted. They looked at the new piece of origami in their hands, before shoving it into their pocket. "I could tell Lio, he's our leader after all. But I also want to prove I can figure this out on my own. It will be like reverse engineering the biggest machine of them all!"

Meanwhile, Paradise slipped into the girls' cabin, which was currently empty while others were hanging around camp. She quickly double checked to make sure nobody was coming, then she started looking through the notes on Earl's clipboard. They were in a practically illegible scrawl, and she was struggling to read them. It didn't help that some of the pages had water stains, and one of the first pages had been torn in half. She groaned to herself and flopped down on her bed.

"Tell me about it," Tanja said sarcastically.

Paradise turned in the direction of the voice, to see Tanja had just come into the cabin, looking equally dejected. She quickly sat up on her bed and shoved Earl's clipboard behind her. "What are you doing here?"

"This is my space as much as it is yours," the activist remarked. She sat down on her own bed, across from Paradise.

Confessional: Paradise

"Ugh, I hate her so much, she's ugly and fat and rude, like, I just lost the only person here that actually respected me—maybe even my first friend?—and she has the nerve to come and bother me like this? I don't deserve any of this!" She stopped her tirade for just a moment.

"Why does she even care?"

Confessional: Tanja

"I am already regretting this decision," she grumbled.

"Why do I even care?"

The sun was now setting and the other Dragons were still celebrating. Ollie was doing cartwheels in the grass, while Selene was doing her best to mimic him but only ending up repeatedly falling on her face, though the two were laughing and shouting all the while. Nearby, Kit and Celia were setting off some sort of bottle rockets. Iggy just watched them with his arms folded. Lio came over to him. "What are you upset about?" he asked.

Iggy flipped his ponytail. "I'm not upset. What would I be upset about? We won, like I knew we would."

Lio looked unconvinced. "I'm the leader. You need to tell me if something is wrong, so we can keep winning."

Iggy took his tone as condescending and rolled his eyes. "Suuure, you're the leader. Where I'm from, people don't give things to you just because you want them. You have to prove yourself."

The scene switched to night time inside the girls' cabin. Maggie was murmuring something about tea, and Kit was hugging a cordless drill as they slept. Tanja was snoring until Paradise threw a pillow at her, but this only caused the activist to grumble and roll over before she started to snore even more loudly.

Paradise sighed softly to herself. The heiress had a small reading light on and was still puzzling over Earl's lab notes late into the night, but she made no progress deciphering the scientist's handwriting, much less understanding the actual content of his report. She finally fell asleep face-first in the notes.

But as soon as Paradise finally fell asleep, there was a rustling from the other side of the room. Celia sat up and jumped out of her bed. She shook Selene, who was in the bunk below her, awake.

"C'mon!" Celia whispered and gestured for Selene to come with her. Selene tiptoed out of the cabin, and with Celia guiding her she miraculously managed not to bump into anything.

"Where are we going?" Selene whispered. Though for her, a whisper was about as loud as Celia's normal tone of voice.

"Wherever the hell we want." Celia smirked at Selene. Her eyes fell on the mess hall across camp. "I think I could use a midnight snack, I bet Sophie has a stash of actually good food somewhere…"

Suddenly, the two of them ran into Lio, who was on his way back from the outhouse and looked half asleep. But as soon as he saw the girls, his eyes widened. "What are you two up to?" he demanded.

"We were just having some fun? Why do you care?" Celia snapped.

"She's my sister, she's my responsibility."

"She's nobody's responsibility, c'mon dude, we weren't hurting anybody."

Lio rubbed his temples. "Don't do anything you'll regret. I just need my sleep."

Celia glared at him. "C'mon, let's just go." She grabbed Selene's arm. But that was when the follower gave a big yawn.

"Maybe in the morning," she murmured.

Confessional: Celia

"Um, lame. I'll get her breaking the rules in no time! After getting bossed around by Lio for so long, we have a lot to catch up on!"

The scene changed one final time with a flash of cartoon lightning, revealing Nimbus sitting by the campfire. Javi was next to him wrapping Naila's twisted ankle with some gauze, and further in the background, there was a flaming bottle rocket wedged in a tree, in the center of a spray-painted ring target. The fog had finally burned off, revealing a clear, starry night. "Today's nature scavenger hunt was full of adventure and drama, but we're not out of the woods just yet!" the rock star narrated. "How much of a bad influence can Celia be on Selene? Will the Gryphons ever stop sucking? And what kind of weird science stuff did Earl leave behind? Find out next time on Total! Drama! Stormbound!"

Votes:

Earl- Maggie, Martin, Tanja (3)

Tanja- Earl, Paradise (2)

Remaining Contestants:

Dragons: Celia, Iggy, Kit, Lio, Ollie, Selene (6)

Gryphons: Maggie, Martin, Paradise, Tanja (4)

Elimination Order:

13. Naila (no team, disqualified/intern)

12. Drake (Gryphons)

11. Earl (Gryphons)

Earl is admittedly a character that grew on me immensely throughout these past few episodes. He was one of the less developed characters when I started writing, but I enjoyed his science shenanigans more than I thought I would and it was a lot of fun fleshing out his backstory. He has also been getting a lot more love from others than expected. This all makes his elimination hurt a lot, but he was always meant to be more of a supporting character and never intended to make it far. I'm glad I was able to integrate him into the overarching plot about the weather on Ventallan and he and Paradise just have such a fun dynamic. And "metabolize sodium chloride, you uncontrolled variables" was one of my favorite lines in the whole fic lol

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed all the new plotlines that are developing. And if you have any constructive criticism to give me, please don't be shy! I'm learning a lot from writing this story.

Feline's Forecast: Felines are in the forecast indeed, or at least it's raining cats and dogs. But sometimes being stuck indoors can work wonders for bonding and creativity.