Total Drama Stormbound Chapter 7: Cruising for a Losing, a total drama series fanfic

It's been way too long, but it's finally time. Welcome back to Total Drama Stormbound! Today's episode is the longest yet, weighing in at 23.7k words and I tried a lot of different things, so I hope you enjoy it.

"Previously on Stormbound!" Nimbus narrated, as a clip was shown of the contestants aboard the cargo ship on the very first day of camp while Javi was handing out umbrellas. "We welcomed our thirteen contestants to Camp Ventallan, and man, these past two weeks have been packed! Before they even made it to shore, we had to disqualify Naila, who's now with us as an intern." A clip showed Naila crashing into Javi's trailer with her fireworks. "And then we jumped into our challenges, and the next one voted off was Drake." The artist was shown on the porch of the cabin, asleep with his face in his sketchbook. "Then Earl." The chemist was shown running into the woods with his chemistry equipment. "Celia." There was a blurry clip of the confessional camera getting spray painted over. "Maggie." The gossip was shown in the girls' cabin looking through Paradise's bag. "And Ollie." The acrobat was shown saying goodbye to Martin by the dock. "These guys all lost their chance at the million dollars and were sent away at the hands of their peers." A clip showed the Loser Cruiser sailing up to the dock. "But where did they go? I think it's time to find out." The camera zoomed in to Ada and Kiwi at the prow of the Loser Cruiser, as they looked over a map together. "This is… Total! Drama! Stormbound!"

Theme Song: "Stormbound" by Nimbus Cloudbreak

Aboard the Loser Cruiser, there was an opening shot of the ocean that panned across the deck, only for a handwritten sign to suddenly be put in front of the camera as a wacky jingle played. It read "After the Storm" in loopy cursive and was decorated with a few stylized clouds and wind swirls.

When the sign was removed, it revealed Maggie sitting front and center on a wooden crate, with a second crate next to her. The jingle had come from the music box Kit had gifted Ollie, which Maggie had attempted to hide behind her seat, but the head of the dragon was poking out.

"Welcome to After the Storm, aboard the Loser Cruiser!" she said, easily adopting the persona of some kind of talk show host, as if she was still performing onstage. "I'm your host, Maggie, and this is my co-host, Kiwi."

"Awk! Fall in line, landlubber!" Kiwi squawked.

"Huh, what's going on?" Drake mumbled as the parakeet aggressively nudged him into the frame and escorted him to the other crate next to Maggie, where he sat down across from the gossipmonger.

"This is my show! I interview all the eliminated contestants, so I can know exactly what drama went down," Maggie explained.

"Are they still recording here?" Drake asked.

"Oh please, I know an opportunity for drama when I see it, and there's no way they would pass up the chance to keep filming us." She stood up and did a little twirl before returning to her seat on the crate.

"They're always watching. Just like the centeyepede, yeah. It has eyes embedded in all fifty segments of its body."

"If I had that many eyes, I would probably get pinkeye, purple eye, chartreuse eye, black pea eye, and infrared eye all at once." Maggie shuddered. "But that's not what we're here for. We want to hear about your time on Total Drama Stormbound."

"Alright." Drake blinked. "What do you want to know?"

"First of all…" Maggie pulled out a makeshift prop microphone that looked like it was made from random scraps around the ship. "You were the very first contestant to be voted off. What was going through your head when you got eliminated?"

Drake just shrugged.

Maggie cleared her throat, annoyed. "Why do you think that people voted for you?"

"It was obvious, I guess. I wasn't that interesting. I didn't do very well in the challenges. I didn't see any monsters."

"Does that not make you angry? Or sad, or anything?" Maggie asked, starting to get impatient.

"Not really. I don't like to get angry. It just makes me sleepy."

Maggie thought for a moment. She was beginning to get frustrated, but tried to jog her memory for the best way to get a reaction. "Could you tell me more about your family?" she finally asked. "I remember Nimbus said in the icebreaker challenge that you're the youngest of four?" she recalled.

"You really want to know?" Drake cocked his head. "They're all really into horror, I was watching gory movies basically right out of the womb. Maybe even still in the womb, yeah," he explained, still with no emotion in his voice.

Maggie just motioned for him to go on.

"My siblings and parents moved from Mumbai to Chicago before I was born, and I think they've been trying to be into American stuff since then."

Maggie nodded sympathetically. "Sticking to the status quo, huh? Seems like they know the best way to get by."

"I guess they do, but I don't really care. I just sort of exist at home, yeah. Though I think they might be worried about me. That's why they forced me to come here, but I guess I'm grateful for that."

"Well, thanks for sharing anyways, I guess?" Maggie held out the microphone one last time. "Lastly, who are you rooting for to win?"

"I didn't really get to know many of them." Drake thought for a moment. "Tanja, I guess. She fished me out of the lake, out of the jaws of the tunacorn, yeah. But… it would have been you."

"Me?" Maggie was completely caught off guard by that.

"I mean, you actually talk to me. And you look at my stuff." He opened his sketchbook, and Maggie grimaced when she saw, as had been described, a centipede that had all manner of creepy glowing eyes in the chinks of its exoskeleton.

Kiwi flew behind Drake to look over his shoulder. "Awk, kill it with fire!" he squawked and fell right out of the air in shock. He dramatically flopped on the deck and lay motionless for a second, before he hopped off and cowered behind the ship's mast with his wings covering his face.

"At least it's just a… little bug." Maggie shuddered.

"Right, you reminded me." Drake took out his pencil and drew a tiny stick figure in the corner of the page, barely as tall as the length of one of the "centeyepede's" legs. "That's for scale," he explained.

Maggie covered her mouth in sheer horror and said nothing.

"See, everyone usually just runs away," Drake pointed out.

"I can't do that because I'm running a show! This is live television," Maggie huffed, trying to defend herself for some reason. "…I think." She squinted in the general direction of the hidden camera, but seemed to be a few feet off from its actual location.

"So it's okay when I show you my drawings?"

"That's not what I said!" Maggie protested, receiving only the usual blank stare from Drake. "You'd really root for me?" she murmured in astonishment, still trying to process this. "I didn't even have to blackmail you into anything."

"Do you have any more questions?" Drake asked. "No?" He didn't even give Maggie a chance to respond. "I need a nap."

"Awk, not here!" Kiwi flew over and tried to shove him off his seat before he fell asleep, and he instead crumpled onto the ship's deck.

"Well, I guess that's it today for After the Storm!" Maggie struck a pose in front of the camera, before Kiwi flew up and covered it with his wing.

Confessional: Maggie

"He would root for me? I… can't believe it! Is this what having friends feels like?" She pulled a face. "Blech, gross."

Confessional: Drake

"That was a lot of talking, yeah. Talking makes me sleepy. But…" He paused for a moment, and seemed like he was going to doze off again, but he didn't, and even gave a small smile. "Maybe less sleepy than most other things. Especially when Maggie is doing most of it."

Confessional: Ada

While the eliminated campers were all out on the deck, unbeknownst to them, Ada was watching them from a small porthole window in the ship's cabin. There was a map spread out behind her that took up the entirety of her desk, with a few colored push pins stuck into the wood to mark places of interest. "I think the kids have been going a little stir crazy being aboard the ship for so long," she said with a slight chuckle. "Even though it's only been two weeks at most. But who am I to stop them from playing pretend? It's not like this is going to make it on the air or anything."

Back on the island of Ventallan, Javi was outside near his trailer, working on his ATV. Hanging on hooks on the side of the trailer were snowmobile treads and a tiger head, and the mechanic was removing the excavator arm that had been attached while Naila was setting up the previous day's challenge.

"Now that the weather machine is up and running, we finally have a chance to tune up some of the other equipment. Get me the spanner, would ya, Gremlin?"

Naila was currently playing with Javi's wrench, making noises as if she was shooting a laser gun. Javi cleared his throat impatiently, until Naila finally tossed the wrench to him, and he expertly caught it.

"We've been doing this for foreverrrr, I'm boooored!"

"You know who else is going to be bored? Everyone watching this on the air, if I don't do my job," Javi retorted. "And if the show flops we ain't getting paid for nothing, and that means you too. Pliers?"

Naila threw the pliers at Javi. "I didn't think I would be working all summer."

"You know, Gremlin, you did a pretty good job with the big castle yesterday," Javi said, as he hung up the excavator arm next to the other parts.

"Hah, of course I did!" Naila declared triumphantly. "I used to make all kinds of forts with my brother!"

Confessional: Naila

She was childishly kicking her feet as she sat in the confessional. "I've been working for Javi for almost two weeks now, and this is the longest I've ever been away from home." She crossed her arms and pouted, but when she spoke again, her tone was serious. "I thought I was going to have the competition to distract me, but now I'm just stuck with him to boss me around."

While Javi and Naila were preparing for future challenges, in the mess hall, the seven remaining campers were finishing up their breakfast. The teams were sticking together as per usual, but it was clear that the vibes had changed. At their table, the three Gryphons were just relaxing and chatting.

"This… is actually kind of growing on me," Paradise remarked as she took a bite of her porridge. "It's nothing like what I ate before coming here, but maybe that's why I like it."

"I can imagine that you had far more extravagant food there?"

"I mean, obviously, Mother has a personal chef and everything. We're from Virginia so it's a lot of crab and oysters, but she gets whatever she wants, really. I just happen to benefit from it, I guess."

"Coming here must have really been such an adjustment," Tanja commented.

"Ya think?" Paradise scoffed.

"You must be at least a bit more used to all the… nature-y bits," Paradise recalled. "So, what's your deal, being here and all?"

At this point, Tanja knew not to be bothered by Paradise's rude tone. "You could definitely say that. Besides generally being outdoors, I do a lot of work in the community garden, so I like to cook with fresh vegetables," she recounted.

In the silence that followed, Tanja looked across the table. "How about you, Martin?"

"Huh?" For once, he seemed off guard, like he hadn't been paying attention.

"We're talking about food," Paradise offered, gesturing at Martin's untouched bowl, which the fencer had been staring at forlornly. "And you're sure acting like yours wronged you or something."

"It is the weekend. I know you're not one for chatter, but I believe we should have a chance to rest."

"Oh, I was listening," Martin responded.

"Well, you can't blame us for looking for, like, a sign of life," Paradise said, and Tanja gave her a warning look.

Martin sheathed his spoon in his porridge. "Dining has never been a topic of much concern to me. Father and I tend to keep meals simple, as neither of us have much free time."

"I will have to cook for you both, after this is all over," Tanja offered. "I would love for you to come and visit."

Martin finally smiled a bit at this, while Paradise gave an appreciative nod. "I think I would like that." She then glanced over at the Dragons. "This is, like, the first time we've been the louder group in here," she remarked with a chuckle.

"Now that you mention it, I think you're right," Tanja responded. "They're always either goofing off or arguing, usually both, but this is new."

"We're all shocked that the Dragons got rid of Ollie," Paradise said, flippantly voicing the source for the tension that had been hanging in the air.

"I would have predicted it. It's clear they made the wrong decision last night," Martin declared disdainfully.

"When have the Dragons ever made the right decisions?" Paradise retorted.

Martin glared at her. "Since when have you concerned yourself with such things?"

Confessional: Tanja

"And those two seemed so friendly yesterday? What could have changed- …oh. I need to check in with him after this. He must have taken the elimination worse than I thought."

Confessional: Martin

The light gleamed off of his glasses, making his expression unreadable, but when he spoke, it was clear he was downcast. "I suppose I am still processing the events of the previous day. I made a mistake. I knew Ollie could have been in danger, yet I did nothing. But more than that… I just miss talking to him."

As Paradise had noted, the mood at the Dragons' table was tense despite their numbers advantage. Iggy and Lio were both pretty stoic, and Kit looked like they were trying to hide from them by ducking behind Selene, which the brawler seemed pretty oblivious to.

"So, I know we had a difficult challenge yesterday…" Lio began, but the others seemed even more disengaged to his motivating spiels than usual, if that was even possible.

"I could do without the reminder," Iggy grumbled. "Can we just eat our damn breakfast for once?"

On the other side of the table, Selene was happily eating her porridge. Lio noticed that she had managed to get it all over her face, and he seemed like he wanted to say something to her, but he decided not to. "I still think that we did a lot of things right." The diplomat instead tried to appeal to Iggy. "Some parts of our coordination still went well, like our defense of our castle. I'm sure that we can keep winning if we stick to the plan, instead of changing our course of action in the moment again."

The track star didn't seem too interested. "That reflective stuff never worked for me. What happened happened, now let's just get to the next race and start anew."

"I know we all miss Ollie, but you're right, we just have to move on," the diplomat said finally. "We're only at the halfway point of the competition, after all, and I need us to all be on the same page, but I believe that we can come back from this."

"Maybe because you were the only one who wanted Ollie gone," Kit blurted out, peeking out from behind Selene and finally making themself noticeable.

Iggy and Lio both turned towards them, and the tinkerer gulped.

"Dude… can I call you dude?" Iggy suddenly stopped to ask, dropping his confrontational attitude for a moment. Kit shrugged, and Iggy nodded, then he immediately resumed his threat. "Do you want to be our enemy? Because we can take you out easily… dude," he added, trying to sound menacing, but next to him, Lio facepalmed.

"Look, all we want is an explanation, to assure it won't happen again," the diplomat added. "For this team to be successful, proper communication is key."

Kit averted their gaze from the two boys' glares.

"How are we supposed to work with you if we don't know your intentions?" Lio continued. "Do you just not trust us?"

"I-" The tinkerer turned to Selene for support.

"I think Ollie wouldn't want us to be like this," the brawler said, trying to evade picking a side. "We're still a team and we'll always be a team."

Confessional: Kit

"Well, my closest friend is gone, and my other friends… I don't think they're my friends anymore. But there's one thing I know, and though I might not always have the names for them, I know a lot of things." They tapped their temple, not realizing they had been the screwdriver they had been fidgeting with still in their hand, and cringed when they poked themself. "Lio is making even less sense than Javi's tiger car doohickey. All he does is tell everybody what they wants to hear."

Kit was finally saved when Nimbus threw open the door to the mess hall. The rock star was completely oblivious to the drama that had been going on, seeming cheerful as can be. "I have an announcement to make!" he sang out. Kit looked at him pleadingly, but none of the others paid him any heed. Nimbus frowned and rummaged around in his jeans pockets. He turned them inside out, but was unable to find what he was looking for.

Confessional: Naila

"Ahahaha it's mine now!" She triumphantly held Nimbus' air horn up, and then she blasted it inside the confessional, causing the entire wooden stall to vibrate and cracks to form on the camera screen.

"Gremlin, get out of there!" Javi's voice could be heard outside the confessional. "We still have work to do!"

"I said, I have an announcement to make!" Nimbus repeated, louder this time. While he still wasn't able to get everyone's attention, he was finally noticed by Selene.

"HEY GUYS!" The follower pounded the table with her fist. Kit promptly dove underneath the table and covered their head with their hands, as if they were following an earthquake protocol, but it was possible that they were just looking for any excuse to hide. Even over at the Gryphons' table, Martin flinched at the noise, and all the campers eventually noticed Nimbus.

"Hi." The rock star waved sheepishly, to no one's amusement. "I know you're all probably wondering what I'm doing here with you guys on a Saturday."

"Eh, not really." Iggy shrugged. "It's not like you have anywhere to go."

"I thought we weren't going to have challenges on the weekends though," Paradise said.

"Who said it was gonna be a challenge?" Nimbus snapped his fingers, causing Paradise to quirk an eyebrow. "I thought I'd just give you guys a little preview of what's happening in these next two weeks, 'cause things are gonna change with how we do these challenges. You guys seem like you've been getting the hang of things: working together, making some friends, eliminating your friends, all that good stuff."

Paradise grinned at Tanja, while Lio looked dubious.

Confessional: Lio

"I still believe that we can recover from this. I… did what I had to, and with Celia and now Ollie out of the picture, my team will surely stabilize. It has to!"

He glanced away for a moment. "I feel like I really let Kit down, if they're choosing to defect like this, and Iggy has made it very clear that he has his doubts in me too. I need to find a way to earn their trust back." He seemed to be avoiding mentioning Selene at all. "If I can't lead my team to success in an orderly manner, then who am I?"

Confessional: Selene

"Lio's been doing some things that other people aren't very happy about. I like doing my own thing and I've been trying to not worry about Lio, but it feels weird."

She sighed. "If I'm not defending people and following what they tell me to do, then who am I?"

"Uh, so what's actually going on?" Kit called out from underneath the table.

"Well, because you guys have been so friendly," Nimbus started. He looked at the Gryphons' table, and Tanja frowned while Paradise narrowed her eyes. "We wanted to shake things up. As of right now…" He paused dramatically for a moment and the campers watched nervously. "The Deluge Dragons and the Gale Gryphons are no more!" he shouted. "From here on out, it's gonna be everyone for themself. You will compete in challenges individually, and everyone gets a say in the votes."

Martin and Tanja exchanged confident looks, while Kit looked around anxiously at their former teammates, or at least what they could see of them, mostly their legs. Lio turned to Iggy, but the track star seemed too excited to notice him.

Confessional: Iggy

"The halfway point is never a time to slow down! I'm not good with all this team stuff, having to do things like, well… like voting out Ollie." He glanced away for a moment. "But this is more my speed!" he cheered, before he smirked and flipped his ponytail. "What am I saying? Nothing can reach my speed."

Confessional: Paradise

"It felt like everyone noticed it at the same time: they still outnumber us four to three. There was just one very important question going through everyone's head. Can the Dragons get their act together?"

Confessional: Lio

"Can I get my act together?"

Confessional: Nimbus

"The kids are going to learn to be independent now, and maybe that's like me too! I led a challenge on my own, and it went just fine! Take that, Javi!" He shook his fist at the camera.

"The first solo challenge is on Monday, and I can't wait!" With that, Nimbus turned on his heel and pranced away, just as cheerily as before. The door slammed shut behind him.

After the initial shock, the uneasiness began to set in all around the mess hall, and the Dragons and Gryphons stared each other down from their respective tables, save for Kit who was still hiding under the Dragons' table.

"I believe it goes without saying that we're still working together?" Tanja asked, turning to her former teammates. "Final three?"

Paradise nodded. "Duh."

Martin looked more hesitant. "I don't recall Paradise being part of this arrangement," he retorted.

Confessional: Martin

"We all were able to rally together for the challenge yesterday, and now it appears that those two are closer than ever. Perhaps I should have spent time with my team instead of trying to talk to…" Martin didn't even say his name. But then he shook his head. "He will always be worth it, but without him, and now that the teams are merged, it seems I do not have much time to move on. I suppose I am just annoyed that Tanja would let Paradise into our group so easily. It has been the two of us since the beginning, and though she's not proven herself to be the most reliable ally, I trust her far more than I do Paradise."

"Whatever, you guys can be the final two and I'll be number three, who cares? Would you really want to try to work with one of those guys over me?" Paradise looked disdainfully at the Dragons' table, which was complete chaos as Selene was going under the table to try and chase after Kit. The brawler knocked over a few chairs as she was crawling, and one of them fell on Iggy's foot. "Oh right, you'd even need two of them to have the majority," the heiress pointed out, and looked right at Martin. "Not only that, but it's you that the Dragons want gone, isn't it? Iggy doesn't like you and you've clearly done the best in challenges out of all of us."

"Are you threatening me?" Martin asked. "I could ask the same of you. Would you really defect to the Dragons if we don't give you the answers you want?" Neither seemed willing to yield, so both he and Paradise looked at Tanja at the same moment.

"There's no need to be rude about it," the activist protested to Paradise, though it seemed halfhearted. "But you're right," she admitted. "We have strength in numbers, and I see no reason to forfeit that in our current positions."

Paradise examined her nails, seeming almost bored with Martin. "All you've ever done is talk about making the best decisions and anticipating the next part of the competition. Are you really going to throw your entire game away just because of one elimination you didn't see coming?"

"Your insistence on berating me is just as detrimental to us as my own supposed flaws are," Martin shot back. "I cannot understand why you waste so much of your energy attacking me, will that really aid you?"

"We're getting off track here. Ollie's elimination was yesterday, and the teams' merging is now. You and Tanja are making plans and I don't see any good reason for you to be butthurt about me joining in."

Tanja finally raised her voice. "Stop, both of you!"

Martin and Paradise glared at each other, but they both obliged.

"If you are not going to be empathetic, then this conversation will go nowhere. Let's end this for now."

With that, Martin just got up and strode away. "I need a moment."

Tanja was about to follow him out the mess hall, but she thought better of it and sat back down. She glared at Paradise. "Why are you being like this?"

The heiress didn't seem to be bothered. "I'm, like, trying to help him. He's not going to get anywhere by sulking, and we need a big bad tactician more than anything now."

"You could still try to be kind. He is not just a teammate. He is a friend."

"But you'll still choose me over him, right?" Paradise asked. She waited expectantly, but Tanja frowned and said nothing.

Confessional: Tanja

She sighed. "I suppose it is my responsibility to sort this out. I need both of them and I shouldn't have to choose. Yet, at least, but we will take this one step at a time."

The scene switched over to the Dragons' table, and while it was very different from the tension with the Gryphons, it was to the same effect. They all seemed to all be in states of mild panic, though they were all showing it in different ways. Iggy was eating his porridge very aggressively, while Kit was slowly inching away from the group underneath the table.

"What are they doing?" Lio asked Iggy, and the track star just shrugged.

But while Lio was thinking of how to handle Kit, Selene got to them first. "Kit, wait!" she called out as she ducked under the table and crawled after them. "Remember, we drew puppies together!"

"I can't trust you!" Kit shouted back at her as they continued to hide under the table. "I don't know what to do!"

All the while, Lio was just watching in horror, finally having given up on getting them under control. Iggy turned to him with a smirk. "So what's the plan now, leader?" he asked tauntingly.

"Where are we going?" Earl wondered aloud. He leaned over the railing of the Loser Cruiser's upper deck and squinted at the horizon. He had just realized that the boat had started moving again.

"Um, hello?" Maggie cleared her throat. "I'm sure it can't be important. More important than this, at least, aren't you going to do After the Storm with me?"

Earl stole one last glance over the waves, before sitting down next to Maggie, tea beaker in hand. Even he seemed a little uneasy to be interacting with the gossip given her reputation, but he remained courteous. "My apologies, miss Maggie, I have been developing some novel hypotheses about our voyage, but ignoring this…project of yours was far from proper behavior." That was all Maggie needed to hear, and the gossipmonger immediately thrust her prop microphone at him, which he grabbed with his free hand and examined suspiciously. "Is this implement composed of construction paper and a toilet paper tube?"

"Hey, it's hard to find materials here," Maggie protested. "This ship doesn't exactly have a prop closet."

"Awk, First Mate Kiwi the Destroyer says that sounds like a skill issue!" Kiwi chimed in as he swooped down out of nowhere.

"Nobody asked you," Maggie snapped at the parakeet. "I wish I wasn't allergic to crackers," she added to Earl. "I heard that's the only way to shut him up."

Earl just grinned and pulled out a saltine cracker in a petri dish out of his pocket. Kiwi immediately snatched the entire dish in his beak and flew away with his prize.

"Do you really use crackers for your experiments?" Maggie asked.

Earl shook his head. "Captain Ada always keeps some on hand for Kiwi, so I thought I could help her out," he explained. "I can infer the method's similarity to obedience training for dogs."

Maggie looked at Kiwi, knowing he wouldn't like the comparison, but the parakeet was completely distracted by devouring his cracker. He even took a small bite out of the petri dish, which caused Maggie and Earl to exchange concerned glances, but they quickly returned to the task at hand.

"It seems like you've been spending a lot of time working with Ada," Maggie remarked. Something occurred to her and she excitedly leaned forward in her seat. "Ooh, could it be because you're trying to avoid your peers? Did something happen with the others?"

"Well, Captain Ada has been teaching me all manner of new things about navigation and sailing," Earl recounted. "Though I do regret not being able to spend more time with you and the others, I am dedicated to my studies first."

"Well, let's get down to business. Your dedication to your studies was the very reason you got eliminated, right?"

"I suppose it was. And I was able to at least collect most of the data I needed, but there was no time for me to conduct my analysis."

"Well, that's unfortunate, guess it doesn't matter then." Maggie waved her hand dismissively. "Do you have any tea—I mean drama—to share with us?" She quickly corrected herself when she saw Earl pull a tea bag out of his pocket using a pair of lab tongs.

The chemist disappointedly put the tea away. "Well, I would say my time has gone by rather smoothly, both during the competition and after. It has been a pleasure to meet every single person on the island."

Maggie gave a dramatic sigh. "You can't possibly like everybody!"

"I didn't realize there was a problem with that." Earl frowned and knit his brow. "Well, I suppose there is-"

"Tell me everything," Maggie suddenly interrupted.

The chemist frowned. "That wasn't very courteous of you."

Maggie rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'm sorry I wasn't minding my manners." She paused for just a moment. "Now can we get on with the show?"

The gossip waited impatiently as Earl took a long sip from his tea beaker, but the chemist seemed satisfied with her response. "Well, another person that seems to never mind their manners is Kit."

"Of course!" Maggie snapped her fingers. "You mentioned that yesterday. Tell me more."

"Well, I never truly had a conversation with them, but I was quite irked that they took my umbrella. I was happy to use everything we had on hand to get myself and Paradise through that challenge, but not only did they breach my personal space, but I was using the anemometer for some important investigations."

"Investigations?" Maggie repeated. "I do investigations."

"About the abnormal weather at camp," Earl explained. "I was beginning to form a hypothesis that there is a locus for the inconsistencies in weather patterns. I measured the wind speed and direction and I found that the phenomena were centralized around a-"

The chemist trailed off. Maggie hadn't interrupted him this time, but with the glare she was giving, she might as well have.

"Do… do you have an objection to my hypothesis?" Earl asked finally, looking a little concerned.

Confessional: Earl

"Why does no one take science seriously?"

Confessional: Maggie

"Why does no one take drama seriously?"

"It's nothing," Maggie lied, though she still looked visibly upset. "I'm only trying my best to give everyone the drama. If there are any secrets I can find, everyone deserves to know them!"

Earl smiled and raised his beaker as if he was offering her a toast. "I can infer that this… show is quite important to you," he remarked.

"Of course it is," Maggie insisted. "I'm not just going to sit here being miserable just because I was voted out. That would be like letting the Gryphons win! They wronged me, but I will not be broken!" She stood up on top of her chair and shook her fist dramatically as Earl watched in confusion, until she sat back down and clutched her head. "Whew, that was too much of a change in altitude."

Earl looked at the crate, which was less than two feet off the ground, then looked back at Maggie.

"Okay, we should be getting to our last question," the gossip declared. "Who are you rooting for to win?"

"I wish only the best for Paradise," Earl said with no hesitation. "She's quite the unique individual, and we seemed to have good chemistry."

Maggie rolled her eyes at that. "Unique is one way to put it, she's just insufferable."

"I don't believe I understand…"

Maggie just ignored him and continued to rant. "She thinks she's so much better than all of us, even though she shouldn't even be here! She lied her way onto the show!"

That finally caught Earl's attention. "Paradise… what?"

Maggie rubbed her hands together nefariously. "Oh, right, you don't even know!" she said, pretending to be surprised. "The night I was voted off, you wouldn't believe what I found." She stopped rubbing her hands together and inspected her palms with a grimace, even though they looked no different. "I need to stop doing that, I can feel the chafing," she whined.

Confessional: Maggie

"When you're, well, like me…" She gestured to herself. "You don't get to pick and choose the opportunities you have. You take what you can get, you run with it, and if anyone tries to take it from you… you do everything in your power to ruin their pathetic little life! It feels good to be running my own show."

Confessional: Earl

"I recall that Paradise's family situation was not ideal, but this is a variable I had not accounted for. She really tricked her parents in order to sign up for this show? Did I really make the right decision, in putting my faith in her, not only for the competition, but for my research?" He took a sip of his tea. "I just know that those on Ventallan ought to tread carefully. There is something strange about that island; it doesn't comply with any of my meteorology knowledge and I was honestly beginning to grow afraid. What other forces could be at work?"

Just as Earl voiced his concerns, the weather machine, hidden under a tarp in Javi's trailer, was shown briefly under sinister dim lighting. Then, the camera zoomed out the window to show Javi was nearby working on his vehicle. It looked like a surprisingly mundane task now that most of the modular accessories had been removed, but there was still a pile of mechanical tiger paws next to him. He had removed a dented panel from its body, probably leftover from the fight with Selene, and was replacing it with a new one. "Hammer?" he asked.

Naila was making airplane noises while playing with the hammer. She chucked it at Javi, and then sighed. "I've been your gofer all day," she groaned.

Javi caught the hammer without even looking up. He rolled his eyes. "Kid, not even half the day has passed. Your job is easy. When I was your age-"

"Yeah, but this isn't your age and I'm not you," Naila interrupted. "Can't I have sand castles to build, or ice floes to smash, or turtles to play with?"

"This isn't the most glamorous job, I know, but it's just that, a job. I did similar things when I was just out of school. You owe us money," Javi reminded her.

"Yeah, well, I know that, I just don't like it," Naila snapped. "You're just like my sister," she said darkly, and Javi was surprised for a moment by her tone.

"Look, mija-"

"I'm not a baby!" Naila interrupted and stomped her foot. "Why does no one take me seriously?"

"Gremlin!" Javi snapped. "You're not making this any easier!"

"I wish Kahil was here! I want to go hoooome!" With that, Naila kicked Javi's ATV (to no effect) and stormed away, not helping her case at all. She took off running full tilt towards the woods, as Javi just watched, unsure of what to do. After a moment, he sighed and ran after her.

Confessional: Javi

He rubbed his temples. "I have a Master's degree in mechanical engineering. Being dragged onto this silly reality show was humiliating enough, but babysitting a gremlin was the last thing I was expecting to do."

He looked down at the ground. "Guess I'm trying to pull through for my old buddy. But even then, Nimbus has seemed a lot more distant to all of us lately."

While Javi was chasing Naila further away from camp and into the woods, the others were completely unaware of the commotion. The former Dragons, minus Kit, were sitting together at a picnic bench outside the cabins. Selene was a little ways from Iggy and Lio, and while the two boys talked, she had busied herself with prodding a little beetle that was marching atop the table. "Do you really think we made the right decision?" Iggy asked, for probably the fifth time that day.

"I know we made the right decision," Lio insisted.

"Things are just… so much less lively without him."

"Hey, that doesn't have to be a bad thing, right?" Lio protested. "We really need to stay focused now."

Iggy rolled his eyes. "Obviously."

"Lio?" Selene interrupted suddenly. Her beetle had finally gotten fed up and fled into a crack in the wooden tabletop. "Have you ever thought that we shouldn't be a team anymore?"

The diplomat was caught off guard for a moment, but recovered quickly. "C'mon, just because Nimbus said that the teams are gone doesn't mean that we have to stop."

Selene shook her head. "That isn't why I'm saying that."

"I don't think I understand. Was Kit talking to you, then? You know they're just on edge right now, and not thinking rationally. You should give them some space."

"No, it wasn't Kit either. I just thought about it," Selene replied. "And I think that I don't want to work with you anymore," she stated, completely calm.

"W-why do you think that?" Lio demanded.

"I haven't been doing well when you tell me what to do."

"Oh, come on, are you still mad about the tiger thing? I let you play in the volleyball game, and you did great work making fortifications."

"I still want to at least try- …no, I definitely want to do this."

Lio seemed pretty concerned. "Look, are you sure you thought this through?"

Selene was getting impatient at this point. "Do you think I wouldn't do that?"

"Yes," Lio said instantly, but Iggy stopped him by elbowing him. The track star had just been listening.

"You don't want to vote with us? Then what will you do?" Iggy asked skeptically.

"I don't know." Selene hesitated for a moment, but then her expression turned more wistful. "But I'll get to choose."

Confessional: Selene

"Maybe I shouldn't be doing this." Despite her earlier conviction, she was near-panicked in the confessional. "I'm still friends with Iggy and I still think we could do well in challenges and I don't want to get eliminated… no, I need to do this. It's important, and not just for the game. Maybe Kit will come with me?"

Confessional: Iggy

"It should be more simple without all this team stuff, but it's not. It sucks that Kit bailed on us, I was starting to think they were kind of cool." He actually seemed a bit remorseful for a moment. "But that's not how I should be thinking. I'm here to win first of all, who cares if it's a lot more complicated than just being the first to cross the finish line? I want to go back home to Cas," he lamented. "What if we could get a winner right now, straight from the final seven, heh, imagine that. But just know that nothing can slow me down! And if that means sticking with Lio for now, then so be it."

"I guess we can do without Kit," Iggy mused. "They were always the weakest member of the team." He seemed less convinced of this than he had been previously, but still declared it confidently. "But Selene is… sort of more concerning."

"Why do you think they've already left us?" Lio challenged. "You're really accepting defeat?"

"Dude, this team thing hasn't been working," Iggy shot back. "Kit's pretty pissed, and Selene is just… doing her own thing now I guess."

Confessional: Selene

She was humming to herself as she spray painted some flowers onto the confessional wall.

Lio finally deflated at that. "I lost two allies in a day. What will happen if we lose? And more importantly, why couldn't I lead them?"

"Then we just won't lose, easy." Iggy shrugged. "I've always learned to work with what I'm given."

"I'll give her some space now, but I really need to talk to Selene," Lio said. "She's done something reckless, and I just know things won't work out for both parties. I can't control her, but I want to at least mend things with her." For once he seemed less confident, and Iggy nodded absently as he continued to think aloud, rambling more than his usual concrete plans. "We have some new action items. We should establish relationships with the Gryphons, try and gauge what the state of their team is, or if it even exists anymore. And we don't even know what the new challenges will be like, but perhaps we can construct a scenario to show them they need us."

"Yeah, yeah, you can come up with your new plan. But before any of that, I'm going for a run." Iggy stood up.

"Right now?" Lio looked exasperated.

The track star nodded and was about to sprint off without fanfare, when he hesitated. "Actually…"

"Is something wrong?" Lio asked.

"Fuck it, do you want to come with me?" Iggy blurted out.

Lio looked confused. "You mean running? That's not really my thing."

"You know, Selene actually was keeping up pretty well when we ran yesterday," Iggy taunted. "Just cuz you're trying to be our leader doesn't make you exempt from doing the work. You're the one who's gonna get left behind."

Lio just rolled his eyes.

"I run when I'm stressed," Iggy explained, trying a different avenue. "Or when I'm angry, or happy, or bored, but you get the idea. You should try it. Or are you admitting I would be the stronger captain?"

"That's definitely not how that works."

"You coming with me or what? Look, I'm trying to be nice here," Iggy snapped.

"Wouldn't have guessed it," was Lio's dry response, but after a moment he nodded. "I can give it a try."

Iggy actually perked up at this. "C'mon, I have a route. I've been going pretty much every day."

Lio then remembered something. "Just let me take off my binder."

"Wait, why would you be carrying papers around?"

Lio started laughing for a moment, but then he looked at Iggy and realized the track star had an expression of genuine confusion. "…never mind, I'll be back in a minute."

Lio ran off, and Iggy shrugged to himself before starting to do his usual warm-up stretches. However, his attention was caught by a rustling in the bushes, and he went closer to investigate.

"Hey!" Iggy called out, and Kit poked their head out of the bushes. "What are you doing in there?"

"Uhhhh…" Kit looked very much like a deer in the headlights, and they rooted around in their pockets as if that would give them an excuse. "Um, stuff?"

"You heard everything, didn't you?"

"You weren't trying to hide it," Kit shot back.

"What are you even doing?" Iggy asked. "I mean, like, in general. You can't just hide from us, that just wastes everyone's time."

"I'm not going to follow Lio anymore, even if he forgives me," Kit insisted. "And especially not if you think I'm weak!" Kit pointed their screwdriver at Iggy in as threatening of a way as they could manage.

Confessional: Kit

"I guess I went and broke something that can't be fixed." They shook their head ruefully. "They're going to try to get rid of me for sure, I have to do something."

Confessional: Iggy

"Okay, I'll admit it. At the very least, maybe I shouldn't be trash talking people in public…"

Meanwhile, Martin was walking towards the dock, carrying his rapier as he looked around for a spot to practice.

As he made his way along the beach, he came across Selene. The follower was visible from afar due to her signature purple hoodie, and she was sitting in the sand on her own, hunched over something. She had a plastic bucket and mini shovel next to her that had probably been left on the beach after the previous day's challenge. As Martin got closer, he realized that she was building a sand castle, this one at a much more reasonable scale than the one from the previous day.

"What are you up to out here?" Martin asked.

"I'm building," Selene replied, as she turned around to face Martin. She accidentally knocked over part of the castle with her elbow, but this didn't seem to bother her. "Because I felt like doing it, and I should be able to do the things I feel like," she added, as if this required a justification.

"That seems to be sound logic," Martin said, though he still seemed confused.

"How about you? Are you also coming here because you felt like it?"

Martin sat down on the beach next to Selene, watching as she scooped wet sand into the bucket. "I needed some space," he admitted.

"Then why did you come here to see me?" Selene asked.

"I…" Martin hesitated for a moment. "I don't know," he admitted.

Confessional: Martin

"I suppose you could say that I am unused to being this, well, aimless. It was a spontaneous decision to go to the beach. I had no agenda, but I believe I was enjoying myself."

"Do you miss Ollie?" Selene asked. "I thought you were friends with him."

"I was surprised you noticed," Martin admitted.

Selene shrugged. "Oh, it's just because Ollie was talking about you all the time."

"Really?" Martin perked up slightly at this.

"Yeah, he's always talking about your jokes and your sword tricks. Also I saw him looking at your butt," Selene recalled proudly, as if she was excited to be sharing useful information, but Martin just hid his face in his hands.

"It has been less than twenty-four hours… but of course I miss him," he admitted.

"I miss Celia too," Selene murmured, and Martin nodded, as if he finally understood.

"Ollie was quite upset when Celia was eliminated as well. And it was my understanding that there was a common denominator in their departures."

Selene was silent for a moment. "Uh, what do those words mean?"

Martin sighed in annoyance, but when he spoke again, he seemed to at least be making an effort to speak more simply. "It was to my understanding that your brother was not fond of Celia or Ollie. Though how someone can not be fond of Ollie escapes me."

"Lio was the one who said we should vote for Ollie, and he didn't want Celia on the team either. You know all this about us?" Selene asked in awe.

"Most of your team disputes have been quite loud, but I also heard some information about your team from Maggie, as unreputable as she may have been," Martin admitted. "She seemed to enjoy keeping track of those things."

"Lio's a lot smarter than me," Selene said a bit dejectedly. "I don't think he should do everything for everybody, like he wants to, but he knows what he's doing. For some of the things," she tried to explain.

"I suppose I would have made a similar decision about who to target, had I been in his place," Martin reasoned.

Selene stood up. "You like to fight, right?" she asked suddenly. "Can I fight you?"

Martin wasn't sure exactly how to react to that. "How so?"

Selene ran off, and she quickly came back with a piece of driftwood that was roughly the size of Martin's rapier. "Like this."

"Are we practicing foil, saber, or epee? We should establish who begins with the right of way, and-" Martin trailed off. Selene was listening attentively to him, but she was going cross-eyed in confusion. He decided to instead just draw his sword. "Perhaps we can establish the rules as we play," he conceded.

Selene waved her stick around a bit too gleefully. She was swinging it around much more like a club than a rapier, which did make sense as it more resembled a bludgeoning weapon, and Martin was confused.

Confessional: Martin

"It almost reminded me of how Naila fended off the snapping turtles during the boat challenge. I never would have expected to face someone with such atrocious form as Selene had… so I found myself unprepared. Fencing requires a high amount of skill and precision, but as a result, it only 'works' when both parties play by the rules."

Martin was having trouble keeping his footing, between the sheer power and the erratic nature of Selene's swings. He was laser focused, while she looked like she was having the time of her life.

Selene was slowly pushing Martin backwards, and the fencer knew he needed to go on the offensive. It took him a few tries due to how large and bulky Selene's stick was, but Martin finally managed to catch one of her swings and flick his own rapier to disarm the brawler. The piece of driftwood fell at his feet. "Your stance is too open," he advised.

However, while he was talking, Selene ran straight at Martin and aimed a punch at him. In the process she tripped over the driftwood and instead fell into Martin, knocking him right over and pinning him to the ground. "Did I win?" she asked.

The fencer lay on the sand and didn't respond.

"Um, Martin?"

Confessional: Selene

"Not again! Why do I always do this?"

Back on the Loser Cruiser, a shot was shown of a brand new "After the Storm" mural on the side of the ship's cabin. It was surprisingly detailed, with bold colors and jagged letters like lightning, overall creating a drastically different style from Maggie's initial sign. Celia sprayed the finishing touch on it, which was 'FUCK THE ELITES" as her signature in the corner. She then wiped some sweat from her brow and strutted over to the interview area.

"Welcome, Celia!" Maggie greeted. "After the Storm thanks you for your branding consultation."

"Of course, unsolicited beautification is my specialty, but I can stand for, ah, solicited beautification every once and a while. As long as you give me artistic freedom!"

Confessional: Celia

In the Loser Cruiser confessional room, she was proudly showing off a black t-shirt with a graphic of a potato overlaid with a design of a skull that was on fire. "This one goes out to the Flaming Death Potatoes back home! You guys killed that sophomore year talent show!"

Kiwi was about to escort Celia to her seat, but a glare from the rebel sent him reeling back in the air, where he hovered above Maggie's head.

"Alright, hit me. You're lucky I've been bored around here, 'cuz I wish I had something better to do than talk to you, but I've got nothing." Celia sat across from Maggie and made a gesture for her to get on with it.

"Welcome to After The Storm, Celia." Maggie held out her prop microphone. "We're so happy to have you, since you certainly seemed like a big source of drama on your team."

"Yeah, I do what I want." She shrugged.

"Well, you did enough to be the first person voted out on your team. How do you feel about your elimination?"

"Heh, you're starting with the big question." Celia gave a small nod of respect. "But it was complete bullshit. Lio's just been ruining everyone's fun, but everyone just keeps going with what he says, even the real ones like Selene and Kit. He just bosses everyone around, and yeah, maybe he hit a sore spot in that challenge," she admitted.

"What do you mean by that?" Maggie asked.

"The reason I got eliminated… it just wasn't my challenge. Musical theater is like, the dumbest shit ever."

"Ooh, how dare you!" Maggie pointed an accusatory finger at Celia. "You're just upset that you don't have the talent for it!"

"Even if I did, then so what? It would just be a bunch of people jabbering at me telling me where to stand and what faces to make, and even more people watching and expecting me to be a certain way."

Maggie still was offended, but grew more pleased when she realized she had hit a nerve. "So you have to tell us, what happened during that performance?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Not even for the sake of drama?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it, fuck off!"

Confessional: Celia

"I was Tree Number Two, and I did nothing wrong!" she declared confidently, even though her face was flushed in embarrassment. "I could've talked about it if I wanted to. I just didn't wanna give Maggie the satisfaction."

They were both silent for a moment, as Celia glared at Maggie but the gossip refused to back down.

"Well…" Maggie thought for a moment. "It seemed like Lio wasn't your only enemy on the team. What happened between you and Iggy?"

"What is there to say?" Celia gave a shrug. "He's a bonehead and I wouldn't stand for it. Thinks that he's better than everyone too. He was annoying even before he started siding with Lio."

"Wait, he and Lio are working together?" Maggie asked.

"Sure seemed like it. But whatever, there's no way he's making it to the end with that attitude," Celia scoffed. "And Lio's full of shit too, I'm sure the others will catch on."

"If that's the case, then who are you rooting for to win?" Maggie asked.

"Hah, is that even a question? Selene better win the whole fuckin' thing, or I'll have her ass!" Celia then gave a smirk. "Or maybe I'll have that either way."

Before Maggie could react, Earl suddenly materialized out of nowhere and prodded Celia with a glass stirring rod. "You cannot say vulgar things such as that!"

Celia turned to the chemist and scrutinized him for a moment. She cleared her throat. "Ass."

Maggie gasped. "I'm allergic to ass!"

Right as Earl pulled a frightening looking chemistry instrument out of his pocket and pointed it at Celia and Maggie, Kiwi flew in front of the camera and covered it with his wings. "Awk, that's it for now on After the Ass, I mean, Storm!"

Confessional: Earl

He was seen putting on a fresh pair of rubber gloves and then cracking his knuckles.

Confessional: Celia

She was pretty beat up, barely supporting herself as she was sitting on the crate in the Loser Cruiser confessional room, and a section of her hair was smoking with some kind of chemical fumes. "That was so fucking worth it," she declared. All of a sudden, she heard Earl banging on the door and her eyes widened.

Back on Ventallan, Kit was wandering around camp anxiously with their hands shoved in their pockets. They were constantly looking over their shoulder, even though they had just witnessed Iggy and Lio leaving camp already. The campgrounds seemed quiet, almost deserted.

Confessional: Kit

"I really don't wanna work with Lio, and Iggy's gone back to being scary… but I don't have another option." They paused for a moment to pull an origami paper boat out of their pocket to fidget with, and then suddenly an idea came to them. "Or do I? I know I can't always rebuild my thingamabobbers in the same way, but maybe I can build something better."

With newfound purpose, Kit ran back to the 'not-men' cabin. However, they had second thoughts when they found Paradise and Tanja cuddled up sitting on Paradise's bed. The tinkerer immediately lowered their eyes awkwardly and tried to slink back out the door, but Paradise spotted them. "Wait!" she called out.

"Did you need something?" Tanja asked. "This is your room as much as it is ours."

"Well, I…" Kit was clutching their favorite pink screwdriver to their chest like a security blanket. "I have something to ask you!" they finally blurted out.

Paradise narrowed her eyes. "Well, go on."

"So, about the thingy with the tangled-rope-bag…" They put away their screwdriver and tapped their pointer fingers together.

Paradise and Tanja exchanged confused glances.

"Y'know, the doohickey from the challenge yesterday? That you set up for me and Iggy?"

"The net trap?" Paradise asked, finally decoding their words.

Kit snapped their fingers. "Yep, that one! Which one of you made that?"

"Oh, that was all Paradise's idea," Tanja answered proudly, but the heiress just rolled her eyes.

"It was, like, nothing."

Kit gaped at Paradise. "How did you do it?"

"Really, you want to see the weaving? Well, we would just need…" Paradise trailed off as Kit pulled two large balls of yarn out of their pocket, as if reading her mind. "Yeah, that. Sure, I can show you, I guess," she offered, but she didn't seem too thrilled about it. She got up from the bed and sat on the floor next to Kit.

"What color do you want?" the tinkerer asked.

Paradise looked appalled as she compared the bright neon green yarn to the equally garish hot pink yarn, both looking like they were nearly glowing in Kit's hands, and bit back a snide remark. "Uhh, I'll take pink, I guess."

Confessional: Paradise

She made a face. "How are they not blinded by those colors?"

Paradise sat down on the floor and Kit sat next to them. She started to demonstrate the weaving, albeit unenthusiastically, but Kit was completely fascinated. "So you do the thing where you put the end under the other bit," they murmured as they fiddled with their own yarn. Tanja came down from Paradise's bed to sit with the others. Paradise immediately dropped her weaving and grabbed Tanja's hand, paying Kit no heed.

Kit had stopped copying Paradise and was now just doing their own thing. "While you guys are both here, I have one more question," they suddenly blurted out.

"I figured." Paradise didn't even look up. "Get on with it."

"So, y'know, there are four of us Dragons, and three of you guys. But the teams are gone." Kit started. "So I wanna work with you!"

Tanja nodded, but Paradise was less easily convinced. "What's making you want to switch sides all of a sudden? Last I saw, you seemed pretty close to all of the other Dragons."

Kit laughed nervously. "Well, I don't think that's the case any more. A lot happened last night."

"Then tell us!" Paradise demanded, causing Kit to flinch, and Tanja looked at the heiress disapprovingly. "I mean, like, do what you want," she added, examining her nails in seeming boredom, trying to hide how she looked a little guilty.

However, after a moment, Kit nodded slowly. "It's honestly… I think it's mostly Lio. He was the one who wanted to get rid of Ollie, but Ollie's a good friend of mine, y'know. He shouldn't have left like that."

"Well, if you're leaving because of the commotion, our team seems to be doing a lot better than you guys," Paradise scoffed. "Can we trust you?"

Confessional: Paradise

"I wasn't expecting a defector, but I don't think Kit is bluffing. They seemed, like, pretty desperate," she observed.

"We appreciate the information, and it couldn't hurt to have another ally," Tanja said. "So you believe we should go after Lio?"

Kit nodded. "Iggy and Selene will just listen to him, I think."

"Those two are also, like, the two most dangerous people in challenges though," Paradise pointed out. "We'll have to think this through."

"But more importantly… we have to finish this doohickey." Kit pointed to their yarn, which looked more like a mess of knots than anything. Paradise seemed unamused.

"While you two do that, Martin seemed pretty down because of Ollie's elimination," Tanja remarked. "I should go check on him."

"Will you stay here with me a little longer?" Paradise pleaded, and Tanja seemed tempted, but she shook her head.

Confessional: Tanja

"I wanted to tell Martin about what Kit said. It's only fair since we're working together."

Confessional: Paradise

"I… never really thought I would be doing this relationship thing. I've heard so much about Lady Fifi's affairs—she's, like, Mother's personal hairdresser, and I swear, she has a new partner every week—but it's not the same. I really should've paid more attention to Earl's romance talk, because now I'm worried. What if Tanja doesn't want to spend time with me?"

"I'm not being clingy!" she insisted all of a sudden.

Confessional: Kit

They shuffled into the confessional booth, completely tangled up in neon green yarn. "I… I think it worked!" They quickly located one end of the yarn and started to untangle themself, wrapping it back up in a ball at lightning speed. "And I'm not just talking about the net thing. The Dragons scare me, but I think I can stay in the game if I get far away from them."

The scene switched to a bird as it flitted through the woods. It circled around a tree that had orange tape tied to one of the branches, before hovering in midair with a mechanical whir.

"Gremlin! Gremliiin!" Javi called out as he trekked through the woods. He was carrying a remote controller with a small screen that showed a video feed from Pájarobotico as the drone flew ahead. "Ay, I should have put a radio collar on her," he muttered as he maneuvered the bird drone up higher, trying to get a better vantage.

Confessional: Javi

"I really don't know what to do. Nimbus throws temper tantrums sometimes, but I can always just snap him out of it. I don't even know what Gremlin is trying to do."

"Next!" Maggie called out. She was still sitting by her makeshift interview area on the deck of the Loser Cruiser, and Kiwi was sprawled out on the extra chair, but he quickly fluttered away when the next interviewee came in.

Ollie bounded over and hopped into the seat. "Alright! I've never been interviewed like this before!" He leaned over towards Maggie eagerly, but the gossip wasn't sure how to react to his excitement.

"Well, Ollie, I'm sure that your elimination is still fresh in your mind."

"Yeah, sure!" Ollie just shrugged. "But it's not just my elimination that I remember, of course, 'cause there was so much that happened before it! I got picked up on that ship that looked a lot like this one, Nimbus gave me my umbrella, I watched Kit take apart theirs, the ship got hit by lightning," he started to list. "We went on the dinghies, I looked for sharks, we got put into teams, we put our stuff in the cabins, we ate lunch, we-"

"That's okay," Maggie interrupted forcefully. "You don't have to tell me everything."

"Hehe, sorry about that. I just thought all of it seemed so exciting!"

"Okay, next question, um, well…" Maggie stumbled for a moment as she looked at Ollie. "What was your favorite part of being at camp?" As soon as the words left her mouth, she grimaced, while the acrobat broke out into a grin.

Confessional: Maggie

"Ugh, that wasn't what I meant to ask at all! This is disgusting!" she ranted. "Why can I only say wholesome things around Ollie?"

Ollie pulled three colorful rubber balls out of nowhere and started juggling them. "Wow, there are so many fun moments to choose from! I liked doing the three-legged race with Kit and seeing their inventions, that time Iggy and I found the bear, and getting to climb that really tall tree! But probably… talking to Marty!"

"A forbidden romance blooming across teams! There was so much missed potential for drama!" Maggie lamented. "Does it bother you that Martin was competing against you?"

Ollie didn't miss a beat, continuing to juggle his balls. "Not really. There were a few times where he wanted to be with his team, and I understood, but outside of challenges I sometimes even forgot we were on different teams."

"How about your teammates?" Maggie asked. "What did they think of you and Martin?"

"Well, I think Iggy was the only one who said anything about it. He didn't like me spending time with the enemy. He and Martin are enemies, I think, but I don't want to be his enemy."

Maggie pouted at that. "Isn't being enemies with people fun? I make enemies all the time."

"You mean… like how Mr. Toffee the circus lion pretends to be really fierce during shows, so our lion tamer can amaze the audience, even though the two of them are actually best friends? Yeah, they have so much fun!"

"Sure." Maggie sighed, not feeling like arguing more. "Okay, last question."

"Why are you so sad?" Ollie asked.

"Why are you so happy?" Maggie shot back. "It's creepy how nice you're being to me."

"O-oh, I can be meaner if you want? Like this, grrr." He made claws with his hands and gnashed his teeth, but he couldn't keep it up for very long until he burst into giggles. Maggie just looked unamused.

Confessional: Maggie

"I can't be going soft," she lamented. "He should be the most fun to mess with. He's so naive, he won't last a second outside of the fairytale clown land he lives in, once someone takes advantage of him. But nothing I've tried is working, I just can't get a reaction… oh, I guess the world really is out to get me, how wretched." She put a hand to her forehead dramatically.

"I just don't like it when people get sad or angry," Ollie explained. "We should all be here to have fun."

"Well, that's probably why you're not in the competition anymore," Maggie retorted.

Ollie just shrugged. "I like being here too. More than everyone who's still there probably would at least."

"Oh, but there can only be one in the end!" Maggie triumphantly pointed at Ollie. "So who are you rooting for to win?"

"Well, Marty, of course!" Ollie said immediately, but then he thought about it for a moment. "Or Kit, they could totally win because they can build, like, anything, and it would be really cool since they were my first friend on the island! Well, not on the island, we met on the boat, but still. I don't know, there are a lot of people that would deserve it." Maggie rolled her eyes as Ollie started to ramble. "Selene's pretty fun to be around, and she did really good in that last challenge… Tanja's always looking out for people, and she's friends with Marty too… I don't really know Paradise, but she seems super smart… And I don't know if Iggy likes me that much, but I still like him, and he's working harder than anyone to win."

"Are you really going to list everybody?" Maggie groaned.

Ollie smiled innocently. "Nope! I'm done!"

It took Maggie a few seconds to process this, counting the remaining campers in her head, before her expression turned into a smirk. "Oh, I see."

Confessional: Maggie

"I'm impressed," she admitted. "I didn't think he had it in him."

The gossip then pouted and crossed her arms. "I thought my team had the most interesting drama, while the Dragons were just competing to see who could yell the loudest—it was just dreadful for my eardrums, by the way. But it sounds like they had some things going on too, if there's someone on the team that even Ollie disliked. I can't believe I had to leave before I could get any information on one of the biggest drama starters on the island, it's soooo unfair. I have to ask him and Celia more about it later, but we're on a schedule here, people! Or at least, I think we are." She squinted at the confessional camera.

Confessional: Ollie

He was juggling his balls in the confessional. "Well, it was fun talking to Maggie, almost as much as the competition. I hope those guys are having fun too… but there's one person that's always keeping us from having fun, and that's never the way to succeed. I'm grateful that Maggie helped me notice that, she's so nice!"

Back in the cabins, Kit and Paradise were now sitting together on the floor. Paradise had abandoned the weaving project and was now reading, while Kit had finally managed to get untangled and now had a semi-functional net made of yarn. They were now working on connecting it to some sticks to support it, making it a miniature replica of the trap the Gryphons had set for them and Iggy the previous day.

"Paradise, hey. What do I do with the-" Kit turned to the heiress, but they were immediately distracted. "What's that?" They impulsively tried to grab what she was reading, but she glared at them and quickly snatched it out of the way.

"None of your business," Paradise snapped.

But it was too late, and Kit had gotten a glimpse of the papers. "I know that writing," they murmured.

Confessional: Kit

"That must be where the rest of the words on my hat are!" they exclaimed, as they pointed to their origami boat, which they were now wearing on their head. Now, it was clear that the folded paper had been the ripped page of Earl's notes they had found inside his umbrella. Their expression turned determined. "I need to see those notes."

Kit continued with their weaving, but their demeanor had changed, as their eyes furtively darted all over the place, and Paradise noticed immediately.

"What are you thinking about?" Paradise asked.

"N-nothing," they squeaked out, not helping their case. "I just wanna make a new thingamabobber is all."

"That doesn't sound like it's nothing to me," Paradise responded, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, it's nothing to me!" Kit protested, even though they weren't making much sense. "I make new thingamabobbers all the time!"

Once Kit returned their attention to their mini net, Paradise quickly stashed Earl's clipboard in her bag.

Confessional: Paradise

"Kit is… difficult to read. I thought it would be easier, but they're literally nervous all the time, so how am I supposed to tell if this is any different?"

Meanwhile on the shore of Ventallan, Martin slowly regained consciousness and opened his eyes. He was still lying prone in the sand, with Selene standing over him. "What do I do, what do I do?" She looked around in a panic, but saw that she was alone.

"Wait! Martin! Speak to me!" Selene shouted right in the fencer's face.

Martin flinched and rolled away from her. "Please refrain from raising your voice right in my ear." He sat up and winced.

"You're alive!" Selene cheered, but then she suddenly burst into tears. "I thought I hurt you!"

"Well, I will not deny that," Martin responded, which only caused Selene to start crying more. The fencer just looked uncomfortable, and awkwardly patted her shoulder. "But I suppose that is just one of the hazards of fencing… or wrestling… or whatever sort of maneuver you were attempting, I am unclear how to categorize it."

Confessional: Martin

"It was strange. I found that I was asking myself, 'what would Ollie do in this situation?' Even I don't possess the skill in running away from one's emotions that he does… and that is a useful skill to have, I presume?"

"Hey, um, would you perhaps tell me about your sand construction?" Martin finally asked. "Or at least, what remains of it?"

This seemed to sufficiently distract Selene, and they both turned to look at her sand castle with one of the towers broken.

"Are you going to rebuild it?" Martin prompted.

Selene pondered this for a moment, then she suddenly lunged forward and punched the castle, breaking the rest of it and startling Martin. "I'm not good at fixing things. I only break them."

"Were you not the one who constructed the castle in the first place?" Martin asked.

Selene just shrugged, unsure of herself.

"Besides, you didn't break me," Martin joked, but Selene didn't seem to get that he was joking.

"Oh, good," she said, relieved, examining the fencer for any signs of injury.

Martin stood back up, albeit a bit gingerly, and sheathed his rapier. "Your fighting style is quite unique," he remarked. "I must improve my ability to adapt."

"…thank you?" Selene responded, not expecting that. "I like fighting."

Martin offered his hand to Selene, in a surprisingly mundane gesture given the outcome of the bout. She shook it, taking care not to hurt him.

"I will leave you to your repairs then, or whatever else you choose to do. I look forward to facing you again." With that, Martin finally left Selene and continued on his walk down the beach. The follower contemplated for a moment, before sitting down and picking up her shovel and pail again.

Confessional: Selene

"I kind of thought Martin would be like Lio, but he's not really at all. He's not picking up after me, or telling me to control myself, we just talked." She paused for a moment. "Am I just searching for a new Lio?"

While Martin and Selene were on the beach, Iggy was out running with Lio. Iggy chose his route confidently, and after warming up, he increased their pace as they headed towards the shore.

Lio was confused when Iggy abruptly turned before reaching the beach.

"I don't like sand," the track star explained as he led Lio away from the beach.

The diplomat just raised an eyebrow. "It gets everywhere?"

"No, it's just annoying to run on."

The two ran parallel to the shore. Iggy was in the zone, while Lio was barely keeping up.

"C'mon, what happened to our fearless leader?" Iggy taunted as Lio wheezed, though the track star did decide to slow down for the diplomat's sake.

"That has nothing to do with anything."

"Why are you like this?" Lio asked. "Do you really think physical capability is the only thing that matters?"

"Um, yeah," Iggy responded, as if it was obvious.

"If you really think I'm weak, why are you still here with me?" Lio challenged.

Iggy didn't have an answer to that at first. "Well, I'd say it was because you could keep everyone on our team in check, but that's not really the case," he said bluntly. "Guess I don't really know, then. I could easily team up with Selene instead. With her strength and my speed we'd be undefeatable. Not that I couldn't win on my own, of course, but…" He seemed to be considering this as a possibility for the first time, to Lio's dismay.

"You don't trust me?" Lio asked, but it was more of a statement than a question. They were fully stopped at this point, somewhere at the edge of the woods.

"Only sort of, but does it matter? See, here's a little tip. And I don't give out advice easily. You rely on people too much. At the end of the day, it's survival of the fittest, and only one of us can win."

"I've been thinking about it, and maybe it's true. I rely on Selene just as much as she's relied on me," Lio murmured.

"Okay, no more game talk," Iggy snapped. "It's just a few more miles." With that, he ran off again, and Lio groaned before following him.

Confessional: Iggy

"Yesterday, I was starting to think that Lio might be better competition than I thought. He did pretty well in the volleyball challenge, so I thought I would test him by running with him. See what I'm going up against. And…" He held up his hand and made a fifty-fifty gesture. "Selene's still the one I'm watching out for."

Confessional: Lio

"He's coarse, rough, irritating… but surprisingly dependable," he admitted, seeming a bit surprised yet appreciative. "But I guess he's all that I have now."

In the woods outside camp, Javi was continuing to trek with his drone, searching high and low. All of a sudden, Pájarobotico's controller beeped, and the camera feed he was monitoring blinked and changed to Nimbus' face.

"Maybe it's this button?" the rock star murmured, as he was poking around in Javi's trailer, fiddling with random switches and levers. "Javi! Javi, can you hear me?"

Javi recalled Pájarobotico, having the robot hover and turn its camera directly at him. "Oi Nimbus, what the hell are you doing with my gear?"

"Oh, there you are!" Nimbus looked relieved. "We were looking for you! You just ran off and you weren't picking up my calls."

Javi was confused. "I've disappeared for entire days before and you've never questioned me."

"It's… well, I'm allowed to be worried about you!"

"Get on with it, what do you need help with?" Javi asked impatiently.

Confessional: Javi

"It's always 'Javi do this' and 'Javi fix that' and 'Javi come save me and clean up my mess.' I want this show to succeed too, but he just called at the worst time!"

"Hey, no, it's not like that," Nimbus protested. "I just wanted to know how you were doing."

Javi waved a hand dismissively. "Just more of the usual." But his expression suddenly turned more grim as he remembered the task at hand. "Where's Naila?"

"Last I saw, she was behind the cabins, but it looked like she was in a hurry."

Javi looked visibly relieved. "So she made it back to camp. I'll be there right away."

Before Nimbus could respond, Javi pressed another button on Pájarobotico and the drone powered off. He caught it as it fell out of the air, shoved the controller in his fanny pack, and ran back towards Camp Ventallan, leaving the rock star staring at a blank screen in Javi's trailer.

Confessional: Nimbus

"Geez, I guess I really do only talk to Javi when I need something." He rubbed the back of his head. "I've just been so focused on hosting lately."

On the Loser Cruiser, Ada was finally leaving her cabin, satisfied with the route she had planned out. As she stepped out, she was immediately greeted by Kiwi, who perched on top of her hat. "Hey kids!" she called out, but none of them noticed her, as Celia and Drake were making a joint mural on the deck of the ship with Celia's spray paints, Ollie had climbed all the way up to the top of the ship's mast, and Earl was pouring tea for Maggie.

"This tea is too spicy," Maggie whined.

"You're allergic to every single one of the herbs I brought. That is just hot water," Earl said, baffled.

"We really need an intercom like Nimbus has," Ada complained to Kiwi.

"Leave it to First Mate Kiwi the Destroyer, awk!" Kiwi inhaled and threw back his head, shuffling around on top of Ada's hat to find secure footing, and then… "AAAAWWWK!"

"What the fuck?" Celia shouted.

Maggie covered her ears. "I think my ears are bleeding!"

"Do not worry," Earl tried to assure her. "With all due respect, that seems like quite an improbable outcome."

Drake blinked and turned around, Celia's spray can in hand. He had decorated the deck of the ship with all sorts of creepy veins and a single hyperrealistic, bloodshot eye. "Guess the banshees finally found me."

Ada saw her opportunity and stepped forwards. "Alright, you scallywags, I have an announcement to make!"

"Wait for me!" Ollie jumped down from the rigging and walked over to the group on his hands.

Celia looked up at the top of the mast, having finally registered what Ollie had been doing. "Dude, I still don't know how you made it all the way up there," she murmured.

Ollie just grinned and shrugged. "This is nothing compared to the trapeze!"

The campers all began to talk amongst themselves again, until Ada cleared her throat. "Kiwi, would you do the honors?"

"AAAAA-" He was cut off when Celia threw her spray can at him. He jumped off Ada's hat and took off just in time, and the can clipped the top of the feather in Ada's hat. He stuck his tongue out at the rebel, something that his anatomy should have probably prevented.

"As some of you may have noticed," Ada began, ignoring Kiwi as she quickly launched into business. "The ship's been moving again. Today is a great day for sailing, so I've prepared an activity for us. And it just so happens that I've got a little job to take care of, but I'm going to need a crew, so everybody wins."

"Nimbus and Javi never mentioned anything about this," Maggie said and narrowed her eyes.

Ada gave the gossipmonger an exaggerated wink. "Nimbus and Javi aren't here."

"Ooh, there's staff drama!" Maggie squealed. "I need to get this for After the Storm." She pulled out her prop microphone and thrust it at Ada, but recoiled when Kiwi landed on it instead.

Celia pumped her fist in the air. "Going behind the hosts' back? Oh hell yeah- ow! What's your deal?" She flinched when Earl prodded her with his stirring rod again.

The chemist shook his head disapprovingly. "There is no need for crude language."

"Is it me or does this ship have more sails than it did yesterday?" Ollie scratched his head. "I felt like I could climb much higher today."

"It didn't even have sails when I first got here," Drake told him. "But now the ship just looks like one massive roost for the dragon wolves, yeah."

"Well, obviously, I've been making some modifications. I'm a shipwright, it's my specialty," Ada explained. "I salvaged some extra canvas before the show started, but we haven't needed the wind until now. The conditions seem quite in our favor today."

Earl gave Ada a nod. "I took some wind measurements this morning, and they only verified your hypothesis."

Confessional: Ada

"This vessel is sponsored by the craftsmanship of Theseus. The Bermuda Triangle has plenty of wrecks to uncover, so I have no shortage of replacement parts to keep the Loser Cruiser sailing… or can I even call it the Loser Cruiser anymore?"

"Bruh, so what are we even doing?" Celia asked impatiently.

"It's quite simple," Ada said, and Kiwi nodded from his perch on her hat. "I just figured out a new lead on something that I've been searching for, for a long time."

"Ooh, ooh, is it pirate treasure?" Ollie clapped his hands together.

"A brand new isotope?" Earl guessed.

"The underwater lair of a slumbering leviathan?" Drake murmured.

"We'll see soon enough, but until then, I'm going to need all hands on deck. So are ya ready, kids?"

"Aye aye, captain!" Ollie gave Ada a salute and put on his best serious face, but he was practically vibrating with excitement.

Ada began to bark out orders.

"Alright, Earl knows how to get us on our way, but we need some muscle. Ollie, you can help him unfurl the sails."

Ollie bounded over to Earl and grabbed his arm, and the chemist seemed a bit overwhelmed by his energy.

"Celia, I need you to keep us on course while I finalize our route," Ada continued. "Just… try not to crash anything, okay?"

"You want me steering?" She cracked her knuckles. "Heh, I've got more experience than I probably should have, but this is in its own… weight class."

Confessional: Celia

"Dude, I was totally born for this! Joyrides are my specialty," she said excitedly, but after a moment, she cringed at a memory. "…yeah, sorry about your truck, Dad."

"Drake, you've got a good memory, right? I need someone to help with route planning."

"I guess," was the artist's only response as Ada beckoned him towards the ship's cabin.

Lastly, the shipwright turned to Maggie. She scrutinized the gossipmonger, trying and failing to think of something that she could be useful for. "You can… just sit tight, I guess."

Kiwi jeered at Maggie from his perch on Ada's hat, but the gossip just smirked. "Fine by me."

Ada headed into the ship's cabin after Drake, while Celia excitedly took her position at the helm.

"Well, goodbye for now, Ventallan." Ollie waved at the horizon as he watched the silhouette of the island fade away.

Back at camp, Martin was sitting on the dock looking out at the water, where the Loser Cruiser was sailing away in the distance, right before it disappeared over the horizon.

"There you are!" a voice called out. Tanja had been walking down the beach, and she finally made it to the dock. Martin said nothing.

"What happened to you?" Tanja asked, noticing how sandy and beaten up he looked.

Martin winced in pain as he scooted over to let Tanja take a seat next to him. "It is quite a long and unlikely story, but it ended surprisingly well."

The activist raised an eyebrow at that. "Well, how do you feel?"

"Does it matter?" Martin shot back, and the activist was surprised by the harshness of his tone.

"Of course your feelings matter. You would be nothing without them."

"I just needed a moment to collect myself," Martin conceded finally. "But my withdrawal was calculated, and I was not without a plan." It was as if he was defending his actions. "And now I am preparing to return and refocus."

"What would help you? If you want to be practical, shall we make a new plan?" Tanja tried to reason with Martin, though it was clear this wasn't her usual method of problem-solving.

"Now that the teams are gone?" Martin shrugged. "This was not a challenge I anticipated, even if I should've, but I will need to overcome it just the same."

"You mean, we will," Tanja corrected. "You and me and Paradise, we're still-"

"Leave Paradise out of this," Martin snapped.

"I don't understand. I thought the Gryphons were finally becoming closer."

"Just as you said, there are no Gryphons anymore, and it was my understanding that our prior arrangement would endure beyond the team. And nothing else."

"And of course it will," Tanja affirmed. "But there are still only two of us, and I cannot think of a downside to including her as well."

"How do I know you won't choose her over me?" Martin asked suddenly, dead serious as he looked Tanja in the eye.

Confessional: Tanja

"Well, maybe this isn't the best time to tell him about Kit…"

Tanja took a deep breath. "Because we are the ones in an alliance, and I keep my word," she said finally, with a determined nod. This seemed to satisfy Martin. "But also because you are a friend and I care about you." She looked a little guilty as she said that, but if Martin picked up on it, he didn't say anything.

"Us Gryphons certainly have quite the task ahead of us," Martin commented.

"You know, there's someone I know who always sees the best in any situation."

"He believes in me," Martin murmured. "I had a lot to learn from him."

Tanja cleared her throat. "Perhaps… 'Ollie's' well that ends well."

As soon as the words left her mouth, the activist covered her face and blushed in embarrassment, but the effect was as intended. Martin was completely stunned, but after a moment, he began to laugh.

Confessional: Tanja

She just stared at the camera for a moment, then shook her head. "Am I really stooping this low?"

Confessional: Martin

"That was… quite unexpected." He chuckled to himself. "I suppose, regardless of what is to come, we can develop a plan of action together. Paradise is still someone I do not trust, but Tanja wouldn't keep secrets from me."

The scene switched to the kitchen, where Sophie was stirring a huge pot of beans, vegetables, and tomato sauce. "Hey Sophie?" Nimbus called out as he suddenly burst in.

"Is everything alright, dearie?" the chef asked, looking up from the pot. "Do you need something?"

Confessional: Nimbus

"Why does everyone think that I want something whenever I talk to them? I'm allowed to care about people, aren't I? I do that all the time, don't I?"

Nimbus shook his head. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Well, I'm just making chili, so all the prep work is done, and it just needs to cook down," Sophie explained. "And as sad as it is, I have been adjusting to making smaller and smaller portions."

"Huh, I didn't think about that," Nimbus admitted. "But yeah, cooking for seven is different from cooking for thirteen."

"I hope that Ada is feeding the poor dears aboard the ship well," Sophie lamented. "Or I could go down there next time and make sure she is taking proper care of them."

"Hey, I'm sure Ada is doing fine, I… don't think you'll need to do that," Nimbus protested when he saw Sophie's stern expression.

"I suppose you're right. Though there might be leftovers more often, if you're hungry."

Nimbus nodded eagerly, but something quickly caught his eye. "Wait a second." He looked out the window and narrowed his eyes as he saw a purple blur darting around. He pointed it out to Sophie. "Is that…"

Meanwhile, the Loser Cruiser was sailing at full speed, with Ada confidently at the helm, though Celia seemed annoyed to have been displaced from her very brief stint as captain. The shipwright occasionally looked down at the map she had in front of her, even though it looked very incomplete, with only the most coarse details about the waters surrounding Ventallan.

"I see land to stardom!" Ollie shouted from his perch in the crow's nest.

"Don't you mean starboard?" Earl asked, but the acrobat just shook his head.

"I'm pretty sure he meant starsub," Celia commented as she pulled on a rope. But before Earl could berate her, the boat suddenly lurched, causing everyone on deck to stumble, while Ollie just whooped as he clung to the mast.

"That's the one on my map!" Ada called out as she took out her map and quickly sketched an island in.

Sure enough, they had come across an island, and despite the clear weather all around, it seemed to be shrouded in mist.

"That appears… promising," Earl said hesitantly.

Drake stared at the horizon in amazement. "It looks just like my nightmares," he commented as he walked up behind Ada, causing the shipwright to jump in surprise.

"Geez, I forgot you were here." She put a hand over her heart.

"Are we really going to be able to dock there?" Maggie gripped the edge of the railing tightly, looking nauseous as she surveyed the rocky shore that Ada seemed to be aiming for.

"We came this way once while Camp Ventallan was being set up, before you kids all got here." Ada recounted. "But the waves were nasty. There was no way to get on the island, and I couldn't exactly abandon ship without a crew."

"And you're just telling us this now?" Maggie asked, exasperated.

"Have you seen Nimbus and Javi?" Ada scoffed, choosing to ignore Maggie. "There's no way those two could last a day on the high seas, and it's a miracle they even got you kids here in one piece. So I'm only just getting the chance to launch a proper expedition now."

"So you're just using us to take care of your own personal business?" Maggie accused.

"No, I'm giving you the opportunity to learn how to sail," Ada responded briskly. "So the plan is simple." She clapped her hands. "You all hold our course steady and wait for me, while Kiwi and I deploy the lifeboat and check the place out."

"Yeah!" Ollie cheered. He then thought about this a little more. "…wait a second, that doesn't sound very fun."

"Bruh, seriously? You can't take us all this way and expect us to wait here! What are you, our mom running an errand?" Celia protested.

"I can't risk anything happening to you guys. We'll be in and out in a jiffy, really," Ada protested. She then met Earl's eyes, and the chemist looked betrayed.

Confessional: Earl

"The Captain and I were partners. I thought we were going to investigate this island together. Maybe even co-author a paper on our findings. Why could it be that she insists on doing this alone?"

Confessional: Maggie

"Ooh, she's so lying to us, I just know it!"

"Hey, wait a second. I know how to drive, uh, I mean, steer the boat now, so what if we just abandon you here, huh?" Celia threatened.

"It would be a mutiny!" Maggie clapped gleefully.

"I dunno, I don't really want to leave the boat anyways," Drake mumbled, before Maggie nudged him and shook her head.

"Perhaps there is no need to split up!" Earl shouted, from his lookout at the prow of the ship. "I can conclude from the currents that there must be a cove if we navigate around to the far side of the island. If we wait for high tide, we should have a perfect place to dock."

"The most dangerous caves and lairs can be hidden when the sea rises, yeah," Drake chimed in. "…just don't go in the water."

Ada didn't seem all too thrilled with this, but she nodded slowly. "We can check it out, at least."

"Thank you so much, Captain Ada!" Ollie cheered. "Don't worry about us, I'm sure things will be okay."

For once, everything went exactly according to plan. They began to navigate around the perimeter of the island, and as Earl had noted, there was a cove, and the rising tide covered the worst of the sharp rocks. Celia dropped the anchor, while Earl and Ollie furled the sails. Soon, the boat had been properly docked, and they found themselves facing a strange beach with speckled black sand.

Earl helped Ada deploy the gangplank so they all could get off. "Remember, we have to be quick, before the tide goes out again," Ada reminded the campers. "Let me go first, so I can check-" The shipwright was interrupted by a loud whoop as Ollie jumped straight off the boat, landing in the sand and absorbing the impact with a front roll, before bouncing back onto his feet and striking a pose. The others clapped for him.

Celia pushed past Ada onto the gangplank and followed suit, as she stepped onto the beach as well. "Bruh, no way! I didn't think beaches came in this color!"

Ada shook her head to herself. "Well, I suppose there's no time to waste." She led the remaining campers down the gangplank.

Earl had already busied himself scooping up some of the sand into a vial. "I have heard of beaches like this. This color of sand means it is likely to be eroded igneous rock."

Ollie glanced around. "Wait… does that mean Iggy was here?"

"Actually, it means rock from a volcano," Earl corrected.

"Dude, that's like what Selene and I found during the scavenger hunt," Celia chimed in. "There was this big rock that was super light and full of holes, and Javi said that it came from cooled lava. But I guess most islands are like that."

Earl tapped his chin. "Then it appears that we are on some sort of inferno island."

While the others started to explore the beach, Maggie was still hanging around Ada, interrogating the shipwright as she waved around her prop microphone almost threateningly.

"So you really visited this island before?" she asked. "How did you even find it in the first place?"

"Ship's radar," Ada said simply. "It's a shame we can't rely on that anymore."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Maggie was a little nervous about that.

"Earl theorized that there was a solar flare, or some other anomaly in the Earth's magnetic field," Ada recounted. "But for some reason, the ship's navigation system blew out before I could pinpoint the exact location with the radar, but I'm sure what I'm looking for is on this island."

"You're really still not going to tell us what it is?" Maggie looked appalled.

"Awk, you landlubber didn't even help us sail," Kiwi pointed out, but Maggie ignored him.

"Think of it this way: I took you to a brand new vacation spot. You kids can go play on the beach or something." She gave a dismissive wave.

"Stay out of trouble, awk!" Kiwi added. "You should be more like him." He tilted his head towards Drake, who had already found a spot in the shade and was lying asleep on the sand with his sketchbook covering his face.

Earl glanced at Ada one last time, still trying to figure out what she was doing, before he turned and squinted at the mountains and forest in the distance, trying to decide the best place to conduct an experiment. "I suppose the extra time to collect data could benefit me."

But before the scientist could wander off with his chemistry equipment, Celia grabbed his arm. "Wait! You know something."

"What do you mean?" he asked, snatching his arm away.

"You're the closest to Ada out of all of us, and you're always helping her with things around the ship. There has to be something she's told you about this."

Earl looked conflicted, but before he could defend himself, Celia started to drag him off away from the beach, in the direction Ada and Kiwi had gone. "If she's going to use us as her crew, the least she could do is give us an explanation!" the rebel ranted.

Earl just sighed. "I wish I knew something. Captain Ada taught me so much about navigation, and I had assumed that she would desire my assistance for this expedition as well, but…" He looked at the woods where Ada and Kiwi had disappeared.

"Hey, it's not on you that Ada's being weird," Celia assured him. "You don't have to keep kissing her ass now, she can't hear us."

Earl frowned at the swear but decided not to protest. "There must be a reason she is being like this."

"You know, I bet there's some sort of treasure. And she's trying to take it all for herself," Celia guessed.

"Well…" Earl hesitated, and then he pointed in the direction of some cliffs, in the opposite direction that Ada had seemed to have gone. "I have reason to believe that the final destination Captain Ada and First Mate Kiwi would be that way."

Celia narrowed her eyes. "For real?"

"Come take some measurements with me," Earl offered. "I need to get to higher ground, and the vantage might have the answers you seek as well."

Celia hesitated, but finally gave a shrug. "Why the hell not- ow! Okay! I won't say he-"

The two turned around and set off further inland, with Earl prodding Celia with his stirring rod all the while.

Confessional: Earl

"I suppose that was… a white lie as well. As much as I want to know what Captain Ada is up to, I trust that she has a purpose for her expedition and I will respect that. I just doubt that Celia shares the same sentiments, so getting her out of Ada's way seemed like the correct procedure."

Confessional: Celia

"Earl is probably the best shot I have at finding Ada's treasure, but am I really going to have to deal with him? I bet he shoves that rod up his a-"

Unbeknownst to them, Maggie had a similar idea, and as soon as Ada and Kiwi were out of sight, she peered into the woods. "Hey everybody!" she called out. "Wait, where did Celia and Earl go?"

"I dunno, I didn't notice them leave," Ollie said, looking around, but all he found was Drake lying on the sand. "Ooh, that looks like fun!" He lay down in the sand near the artist and swept his arms and legs around like he was making a snow angel. Drake noticed him and copied him, albeit at a much slower pace.

"I wasn't done talking," Maggie said, looking expectantly at Ollie and Drake.

Drake just shrugged, still lying on the ground.

All of a sudden, Maggie started coughing and hacking. She fanned at the air. "What is that smell?" she demanded, and angrily looked up at the sky. "That must be what she's going after." There was smoke rising in the distance.

Sophie was currently in the kitchen in the back of the mess hall, looking around frantically. A quick glance around showed some pots and pans out of place, but no one in sight. "Naila, is that you, dear? Did you come in through the back?" she called out, as she opened the door to the pantry and turned the light on.

The pantry was in a similar state of disarray, but she saw no signs of Naila, until she heard some shuffling. She spotted the prankster curled into a ball behind a bag of flour.

"Dear, you can't stay in here. Would you like something to eat?" Sophie tried to coax Naila out.

She peeked out at Sophie, but then she just shook her head furiously.

Sophie tried to get closer, and knelt down next to the intern, but Naila whipped out Nimbus' stolen air horn and blasted it right at her, causing the chef's hat to fall off. She didn't take delight in it like she usually did, and instead had a more wild and intense look in her eyes. She glared at the stunned chef, appearing much like a cornered animal.

"That's it," Sophie snapped. "You're not going anywhere, Javi has been looking for you all day." She grabbed Naila by the back of her jacket and started to haul her out of the kitchen, but just as she reached the door, she almost collided with Javi as he burst into the mess hall, still carrying Pájarobotico in his arms.

"Let her go, I can take care of this," Javi said wearily. Sophie looked pretty frazzled, but she nodded, as Naila was thrashing around in her grasp. As soon as she let go of Naila's jacket, the prankster bolted off to sulk in a corner of the mess hall.

"The poor dear ran into the kitchen, and I found her there, just hiding," she explained to Javi. "I tried to talk to her but she kept throwing things at me, it looked like… glitter?"

"Ay, mija." Javi shook his head. "Thank you for taking care of her, I'll have to go… inspect the damages." Though his tone was as sarcastic as usual, his expression showed his concern.

Sophie reluctantly returned to the kitchen to tidy things up, while Javi approached Naila. "Alright, Gremlin," he said calmly. His voice was gruff, as if he was trying to be reassuring but he didn't quite know how. "This ain't working. We need to talk."

"Why should I, if you're just going to scold me like you're my mom? Or worse, my sister! It's not fair, everyone is just going to treat me like a kid forever."

"Look, bein' a kid isn't such a bad thing. This is a summer camp after all, and maybe I should've been letting you have some fun."

"I thought that we had fun sometimes," Naila said. "But it's not fun as soon as you start calling it fun."

"Ay, that makes no sense." Javi rubbed his temples.

"I thought you would be different, but now you're just making me do dumb boring things! Nobody can be like him!"

"Who?" Javi asked, and then he recalled what she had said earlier. "Your brother?"

"It wasn't his fault!" Naila suddenly wailed. "He was just unlucky, he always has been, but they took him away!"

"He's no longer around?" Javi asked bluntly.

"Yes, I mean, no, I mean, not like that. He's still here, I just… can't see him."

"How about I walk you back to the trailer, and you can tell me about your brother," Javi offered. The desperation in his voice was clear, and he was basically begging Naila at this point, but it seemed to have paid off. The prankster said nothing more, just sniffling and letting Javi guide her away.

Before the two left the mess hall, Sophie reappeared from the kitchen and discreetly slipped Javi a little container of freshly baked cookies. "If the heart-to-heart isn't enough," she explained, and the mechanic took it gratefully.

Back on the other island, Ada was trekking through the forest alongside Kiwi. "Ah, it's been a long time since we've done this, I really needed to get a break from babysitting those kids," Ada remarked. "Kiwi, do you think there's any wildlife on this island?"

The parakeet dove down to be eye level with Ada and gestured at himself and his captain. "Awk, there's two wildlifes right here!"

"Very funny. Are you reconnecting to your roots? Do you want to go hunting, or foraging, or something?"

"Awk, First Mate Kiwi the Destroyer is no barbarian!" Kiwi turned up his beak. "He is much more civilized than his ancestors."

Ada rolled her eyes. "Sure, because you have a hammock for a bed and only eat crackers."

"The first mate needs to eat and sleep well to prepare for the plundering, awk!"

Ada ignored him, and was already forging on ahead. She scrambled up onto a fallen log to cross a river.

"What's all the rush?" Kiwi asked. "Is the captain worrying about something?"

Ada's attention still seemed to be elsewhere. "Give me one second." She put her hand up, but Kiwi just pecked at it in annoyance. "You can come out now," the shipwright called out.

"Aw, how did you know?" Ollie groaned as he climbed down from the tree he was in, as he had been following Ada and Kiwi through the trees.

"You're pretty hard to miss up there," Ada deadpanned. "There'd be no animals of your size up in the trees."

"Not even monkeys? The ones at the circus taught me a thing or two about acrobatics."

"You're also wearing bright red," Ada pointed out, to which Ollie just pouted.

"Are we there yet?" a whiny voice interrupted. "Wait… Ollie, why did you let her see you?"

Maggie was approaching with Drake behind her, the pair having finally managed to catch up to Ollie.

Ada facepalmed. "Was this really necessary?"

"Of course it was! You were being all mysterious and everything, you were basically asking for us to snoop around."

Ada shook her head. "Well, if you must, then at least try to keep up."

"Wait, you're not mad we followed you?" Maggie asked. Ada looked unamused at the three campers.

"Right now, the most important thing is to keep moving. We need to get back to the ship before it's low tide again."

"Being stuck here for the day doesn't seem like the worst thing in the world," Ollie responded, but Maggie instantly shook her head.

Confessional: Ada

"I was already asking a lot of these kids. And… asking for help isn't something I really like to do," she admitted. "This is my business first, and anyways, who would ever want to join me on something silly like this?"

Confessional: Ollie

He had leaves stuck in his hair and a few scrapes on his face and arms from stray twigs, but he was grinning like a maniac. "Best. Day. Ever!"

"Are you going to tell us what you're looking for now?" Maggie asked. Ada was silent. "Fine, be like that then," she huffed, and was about to give up when Drake tugged at Ada's sleeve.

"You're following the smoke?" the artist guessed.

Ada nodded. "It looks too controlled to be a wildfire," she revealed.

"If there's a fire burning, either something is trying to get our attention… or they're trying to scare us off," Drake concluded.

"You hear that? Ollie! Look for the smoke!" Maggie called out.

Meanwhile, the acrobat had found another tree to climb. "Got it!" he shouted back, and once he reached the top of the canopy, he headed off ahead of the others, literally swinging through the forest.

"Kiwi, follow him," Ada told the parakeet, and he flew off.

As Ada's group trekked through the wreckage, in the direction of the smoke, the climate grew more humid and the scrubby landscape turned into a more dense tropical forest. Kiwi was flying alongside Ollie, but he was starting to have trouble avoiding low-hanging branches and leaves. Ada ran after them on the ground, and behind her, Maggie was struggling to keep up, while Drake wasn't even trying.

As the shipwright stopped to wait for the two stragglers, she pulled out a machete and used it to hack through some of the overgrowth.

"Keep that away from me, I'm allergic to machetes!" Maggie shrieked.

"Do you think that the trees feel pain when you cut them?" Drake murmured. "I think that maybe they'd be angry, yeah."

Ada ignored both of them. "Let's just keep moving… wait, where did Ollie go?"

"Over here!" the acrobat suddenly called out. "I think the smoke is coming from this way!" He dropped down from his tree and beckoned the rest of the group over.

Ada expertly swiped with her machete, sending a few branches falling to the ground to reveal the clearing that Ollie had spotted from the treetops. Upon further inspection, it didn't seem like a natural clearing, judging by the fallen trees and rubble strewn all around. Though there were already new plants starting to grow over the wreckage, the group could see the unmistakable glint of something large and metal.

They had come across a plane crash.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the island, Celia and Earl were still up in the hills. Earl was leading the way while holding a rack of test tubes, and he had been collecting soil samples on their walk. He stopped abruptly when he saw something, causing Celia to almost crash into him. The rebel cleared her throat impatiently. "Do you mind?"

"Oops, my apologies." Earl quickly sidestepped to get off of the main path and out of Celia's way. "You have to see this though!"

Earl squatted down to examine something on the ground, and Celia rolled her eyes but reluctantly followed suit. Earl grabbed a small pebble with a pair of tweezers and held it up to the light.

"Wow," Celia said sarcastically. "It's a rock."

"Don't you see the layers of sediment?" Earl waved the rock at her. "And it is quite smooth, so it is likely that there used to be a river here."

"Maybe I'll just leave you to play in the dirt so I can find Ada's treasure on my own, how about that?" Celia challenged.

Earl easily called her bluff. "You don't know the way, do you?"

"I'm a city girl, I don't spend a lot of time in places like this," she admitted with a shrug. "But I can adapt."

Earl frowned at this. "Then you ought to pay more attention, since I am sharing many things about the environment that could aid us."

"Bruh, I'd rather take my chances in the wilderness than listen to you yammering about the soil."

They glared at each other as they continued to walk, but all of a sudden, Earl stopped in his tracks and pulled Celia back behind a tree. Celia started to protest, but Earl quickly shushed her. He then pointed out a rustling in the bushes up ahead.

Celia and Earl exchanged nervous glances. Celia quickly looked around for a weapon, and grabbed a broken branch off of the ground.

"On three?" Celia whispered, and Earl nodded as he rummaged around in his coat pocket.

Celia held up one finger, then two, then three.

"Stay away!" she shouted and charged through the trees with her stick, as Earl followed, holding up a beaker of some unidentified liquid that bubbled threateningly.

"Wait!" a voice suddenly called out, and Celia and Earl both froze as something stepped out from the bushes.

Confessional: Earl

"The world of academia can be cutthroat, and many scientists compete to take credit for their discoveries. But it appeared I lost sight of the value of discovery in its purest sense, by leading Celia away from Ada's research. And right then, I thought that I was about to pay for my selfishness." He shuddered.

Confessional: Celia

"Pffft, I wasn't scared at all," she lied, with a shaky voice. "Just… very, very startled."

Back with Ada's group, Ollie had busied himself clambering up onto the plane's only intact wing.

"Don't do that, you could fall," Ada scolded.

"I know how to fall, I do it all the time," the acrobat assured her.

But before Ada could respond, Maggie and Drake finally caught up to her. "Well, you've found your plane, are you going to tell us now, maybe?" she demanded.

"Is this a new wreck?" Drake asked, as he continued to follow the smoke. However, it turned out that the plane itself wasn't smoking, but there was a fire on the far side of the clearing. There were logs piled high and surrounded by a ring of stones. "The clearing isn't big enough for dragon wolves…"

"It's not that different from the fire pit back at camp," Ollie commented. "It looks like someone set that up on purpose."

"It's like they're marking their territory, yeah," Drake added.

"It's a signal fire," Ada explained.

"Signaling what? And from who?" Maggie asked.

However, Ada had already moved on from the fire, and was headed back to examine the plane itself. The shipwright brushed aside some vines that were growing over the plane. "That's him alright," she murmured as she put her hand on the faded numbers painted on the side of the plane's body.

"Who's he?" Maggie demanded.

Further inland from Ada's group, what suddenly emerged from the trees to confront Earl and Celia was a young man with his hands raised in the air. They had a gaunt and haggard look, with dull blue eyes and dark blond hair reaching almost to their waist. It looked like there had been a failed attempt to tie it back with some grasses. He was wearing a tattered brown aviator jacket, along with black cargo pants and hiking boots that were in a similar state of disrepair.

"Geez, no need to get all bristly. You're the ones coming onto my island, after all. At least a 'hello' would be nice." The stranger seemed completely unfazed, giving off an air of nonchalance despite his ragged condition.

Earl put a hand over his heart. "We apologize for barging in, good sir. Like you said, this is your island. We are just visitors and we could not know what to expect."

Celia, on the other hand, seemed much less pleased with the stranger's attitude. "Yeah, whatever. Who says you get to own an island, anyways? You got a deed to this place?" she said sarcastically.

"Paperwork wouldn't help you out here. It's my island because I can make you leave if I want." The castaway's expression and tone didn't change even as they made the threat.

Celia glared at him, and neither refused to get out of the other's way, as Earl stood back warily and took a sip of his tea.

Finally, the stranger clicked their tongue and beckoned for the two teens to follow them. "You're the first humans I've seen in a while, so I think we at least owe each other an explanation, m'kay?" With that, he took off walking at a graceful yet brisk pace, expertly navigating the rough terrain, and the two teens had to scramble to not lose sight of him. "I'll start simple. The name's Kestrel."

"Like the bird?" Earl asked.

"Sure, you could say that. I picked out the name myself, y'know." They snapped their fingers lazily. "They're small raptors, but fast and fearless. Kinda like the planes I like to fly."

"Is that how you ended up here then? You flew?" Celia realized.

Kestrel gave a derisive snort and flapped their arms like a bird, causing Celia to glare. "Yeah, something like that. Now, what's you two's deal?"

"Well, we really should get back to the beach first," Earl cut in. Celia was clearly much more reluctant to disclose any information to Kestrel, but she allowed Earl to explain. "We sailed here on an expedition," the chemist explained.

"Oh, what kind of expedition? Treasure? Fame? Knowledge? I've heard it all."

"I guess you could say we were trying to win a treasure, but that didn't exactly work out," Celia said with a shrug.

"I myself am motivated by exploration and research, but I would not call that the focus of the entire crew," Earl offered. "As for the actual reason our ship sought to land on this specific island…"

"Hell if we know, she never even told us!" Celia finished.

"Who's she?" Kestrel asked.

In Javi's trailer back on Ventallan, the mechanic was sitting down at the table. Naila was sitting across from him while shoveling cookies into her mouth.

"Alright, mija," the mechanic prompted. "So you have this brilliant brother that taught you how to make giant sand castles…"

Naila shoved another cookie in her mouth and nodded.

"And he's in juvie now?"

Naila nodded again.

"And you think he shouldn't be there?"

"He's innocent!" Naila insisted. "He's done nothing bad! Okay, nothing that bad."

"And yet, you instead decided to come here?" Javi finished. "To join a dumpy summer camp in the middle of the ocean, and compete in this silly game? Why would you… oh."

Naila nodded. "I thought that with the money, maybe I could find a way. I just miss home I think. I've never wanted to leave, but it didn't really feel like home anymore," she recounted, as Javi listened patiently. "Ami—that's our older sister—she's really strict, and our parents are always working. And I've always just been the youngest one to them, but not to Kahil. He and I would do all sorts of things together, like when we stole the neighbors' ride-on lawnmower…"

Javi chuckled at that. "You were a bit like me. Our neighbors had one too. I would always imagine taking it and just driving off."

"Why didn't you?"

This actually stumped Javi for a moment. "I… must've had other things to do. Like working, I guess."

Naila thought about it for a moment. "Now you have your tiger car thingy and you can ride it wherever you want. Isn't that like the same thing?"

"I never thought about it that way…" Javi suddenly got an idea. "You know what would be more helpful than just fetching my tools? How about I show you how some of this all works." He gestured at the weather machine in the corner, which was covered by a tarp.

Naila just grinned and nodded eagerly.

The scene switched back to the other island, where Kestrel was still leading Earl and Celia through the hills.

"You really crashed here?" the chemist asked.

"Crashed is a strong word," Kestrel responded. "It was more of an… uncontrolled landing."

Celia snorted at that. "The Bermuda Triangle is supposed to have all this freaky shit, right?" she asked, and Kestrel nodded. "Why did you fly through here in the first place?"

"I could ask the same of you two," the pilot responded.

"Those are just folktales. Everything has a scientific explanation," Earl insisted. "And I am going to find it."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Kestrel scoffed. "All of my navigation equipment got busted as soon as I entered the area. Besides, I've been more concerned with, y'know, having food to eat and a place to sleep."

"How long have you been marooned on this island?" Earl asked, looking concerned.

"Must've been a couple of months, but I got bored of counting. It's been enough time to get comfortable." Kestrel hurried ahead to part some branches. "So, this is my place."

The two campers followed him. "Dude, this is a wreck." Celia kicked at some rubble.

"Why did you construct such a large fire?" Earl asked.

However, after Kestrel led the rebel and chemist into the next clearing, his jaw immediately dropped at the sight in front of him. From this angle, it could be seen that his shelter had been constructed from the shell of a wrecked plane, which was at least intact enough to provide some protection from the elements. But currently inside it, rummaging around through all of his stuff, was Ollie.

The first to notice the new arrivals was actually Drake. The artist unblinkingly stared at Kestrel, and didn't even make any efforts to alert his peers, until Celia cleared her throat.

"What are you all doing here?" the rebel demanded, as Earl gave a sheepish wave.

Kestrel was about to go and kick Ollie out of his shelter, but then he was shocked a second time over by the sudden approach of a young woman in a sailor's coat and tricorn hat.

"Ada, look! They followed you too!" Maggie tattled, as she was dragging the shipwright over to Earl and Celia.

However, Ada stopped in her tracks when she locked eyes with Kestrel, and pushed Maggie away. The two were staring each other down, and the eliminated campers on the expedition weren't sure what to do. Earl and Celia were standing beside Kestrel, while Maggie and Drake were with Ada, who had dragged Ollie back out with her. Kiwi ruffled his feathers nervously from his perch on Maggie's shoulder.

Kestrel finally forced a short bark of laughter. "What's gotten you so surprised?"

"You were the one who disappeared with little more than a note!" Ada snapped.

"And you were the one who knew exactly where to find me." Kestrel put up a hand to stop Ada from protesting further. "Now, aren't you going to introduce me to all these people?" he asked. "What, are you running a kiddie camp now?"

"Pretty much, yes," Ada deadpanned. "Alright, kids!" She called out each of the campers' names. Celia looked annoyed but the others all gave him a friendly smile or wave. "This is Kestrel. Yes, like the bird." The castaway rolled his eyes at that. "Intrepid explorer, stunt pilot extraordinaire, and… my cousin."

Maggie was the first to speak, while clutching her prop microphone to her chest. "So the reason you came here… was to rescue your cousin?"

Kestrel crossed his arms. "Rescue is a strong word."

Confessional: Celia

"Seriously? No treasure or anything? Bruh, were we really running off through the hills for nothing?" she complained.

After a moment, she sighed. "Man, as sick as some of the nature stuff is—besides Earl's dirt, which I don't give a shit about—I kind of miss the city."

"Ada, it's been years," Kestrel said softly, dropping his standoffish front. "We haven't talked since Dad, well… Why are you interested all of a sudden?"

Ada didn't really know what to say to that. "Are you coming with us or what?" she snapped.

"I dunno." Kestrel tapped their chin. "I've gotten pretty comfortable here."

Ada looked at him in exasperation until she saw the pilot's smirk.

"Don't worry, it's not like I have much of a choice," Kestrel again attempted to joke. "You haven't even told me where you guys are headed."

"We'll explain everything on the way," Ada promised, looking relieved.

Back on Ventallan, things were finally starting to calm down for the staff. Naila was sitting on the couch in Javi's trailer as she was doodling something on the back of what looked like one of the mechanic's old blueprints.

"Ay mija, I told you no pentagrams!" Javi started to scold Naila, but then he looked more closely at the drawing instead of just dismissing it. "Is that… a floor plan?"

"Soooo, this is the building where the juvenile detention center is," Naila started to explain. "Here's where the shrubbery is the most thick, there's where they keep the really mean dog that chased us that one time…"

"What?" Javi sputtered. He watched Naila circle some spots around the perimeter of her diagram.

"See, I marked all the security cameras, and that's the side gate that I think we should be able to get into."

"We?" Javi echoed.

Naila looked up at him. "You'll help me, right?"

The mechanic hesitated. "Gremlin, do you realize what you're asking me to do?"

Naila crossed her arms. "Duh, how else would I be able to draw this picture?"

"And what are you going to do if it doesn't work out? If we get caught?" Javi asked, unamused.

"We won't get caught," Naila insisted. "Screw your courage to the sticking-place, ahahaha!" She shook her fist in the air, but before Javi could give the sarcastic retort that was certainly coming, her expression turned more sincere. "I thought I needed a million dollars to do it, but you're amazing and you've shown me so many things! You're the best chance I have."

"I try my best," Javi said with a simple shrug. "It's not like anyone else around here is gonna do the work. Though it has been real nice having someone to help me out, but also just company," he admitted.

"So will you do this?" Naila tried to shove her drawing at him again. "Pleeeeeeeee-"

"I'll tell ya what, Gremlin." Javi gently took Naila's arm with her drawing and lowered it, looking annoyed, but then he turned more serious. He took a deep breath. "If you can work off all the damages you caused…" He then reached towards the camera and covered it. "We'll talk about this again. Anything can happen after the storm," he whispered as he turned the camera off.

The Loser Cruiser was finally on its way back towards Ventallan, with its sails billowing. Maggie sat on the ship's deck, staring absentmindedly at Celia's After the Storm graffiti. However, she was interrupted when Drake tapped her on the arm.

"You forgot something," the artist mumbled.

"I did?"

"There's someone else to interview, yeah."

Maggie looked around, and her eyes fell on Kestrel, who was lying on the deck by the bow of the ship with their hands behind their head. She then looked back at Drake.

The artist shook his head. He sat down next to Maggie and grabbed the fake microphone that had been forgotten lying on the ground and had started to fall apart, looking as if someone had stepped on it at some point. He then held it out to Maggie.

She stared at the mic, and then she finally got it, and gasped. "How could I forget? I have so much to share." Maggie took the prop microphone gleefully. However, as soon as she took it from Drake, the shoddy prop finally fell apart. She frowned and gave a dramatic sigh. "I feel like everyone else has talked about it all already. Haven't I already done my part?"

"Are you sure there's nothing else?" Drake cocked his head. "How do you feel? How was camp for you?"

Maggie looked skeptical. "…does that matter?"

"No one else can tell you how you feel, yeah. Unless they're a monster that can sense your pheromones. Then they can literally smell your fear."

"I wish I could do that," Maggie sighed. "Life would be so much easier if I was one of your monsters. I wouldn't have to care about gossip if I could tear apart my enemies with my extra rows of serrated teeth, or my chitin spikes, or my eldritch tentacles, or something."

Confessional: Drake

"She remembered my monsters?" He cocked his head. "I didn't really think she was listening when I talked about those things."

Drake stifled a yawn. "Why do you like all this drama stuff anyways? It seems like a… tiring way to be."

Maggie turned her nose up. "Hmph, I didn't have a choice! The people around me have always been so dreadful to me, so I needed to find a way to get back at them." Drake seemed surprised as the gossip fell into a sudden bout of anger, but just as quickly, it was gone. "The drama is my thing, my eldritch tentacles. It's not like I'm good at protecting myself any other way," she added more quietly.

"Protecting yourself? From the monsters?"

Maggie shook her head. "No, nothing silly… I mean scary, like that. I mean from other people. People back home like Helena Tero and Delilah Renard, just the most dreadful people that will do anything to make you miserable, especially if you're so weak and wretched like I am." She seemed to take delight in calling her enemies out by name. "And I can't even help it, it's so unfair what they do to me, so I just had to return the favor!" she explained, looking very proud of herself.

Drake wasn't quite sure what to make of this. "I don't really do that. I just let people do what they want to me, and they usually get bored or tired and go away." He gave a shrug. "It didn't work for you though."

"Exactly, people just can't get rid of me," Maggie bragged. "But we're wasting time, do you have any more questions for me?" she asked impatiently.

"Wasting time for what? We're not going anywhere." Drake's eyelids were drooping, and he yawned. "I guess there's just the question you've been asking every time, yeah? Who do you want to win?"

Now it was Maggie's turn to be surprised that Drake had actually paid attention to her. "Well, again, it would've been you… even though I diiid vote for you during that first ceremony," Maggie admitted, but Drake didn't look bothered by this at all. "I want Paradise to be out next, obviously. But out of the people left, after interviewing everyone here, there's only one that I think should win." She paused dramatically. "And that's Lio."

Drake cocked his head. "Doesn't everyone want him out?"

"Exactly, think of all the drama!" Maggie squealed. "He's like my new hero!" Drake just blinked sleepily.

As Drake and Maggie talked on the ship's deck, Celia was overlooking them as she sat up in the crow's nest with Ollie. "Dude, this is actually incredible," the rebel remarked. "I've been up on the school roof a lot, and there was even one time that my friends and I hijacked a cherry picker so we could, ah, donate an unsolicited mural under a bridge. But none of that compares to this. I see why you like going on the trapeze."

Ollie nodded, enjoying the feeling of the wind in his hair. "It makes me feel free," he said sincerely, and Celia nodded in agreement.

"Soooo… I heard you and Martin hooked up?" the rebel asked casually.

"Of course not, silly! When would we have ever had the time to go fishing?"

"That's not what I- ah, never mind." Celia chuckled and shook her head as Ollie just gave her a goofy grin.

The two of them returned their attention to the deck far below them. Drake had fallen asleep and both Maggie and Kiwi were unable to rouse him.

"Do you know what would make this place better?" Celia remarked suddenly. "A flag."

Ollie gasped. "Like an actual pirate flag! Or maybe like the ones on the big top?"

"I'm sure Ada has some spare canvas somewhere. Let's go make a flag!" She began to climb down the rigging, only for Ollie to quickly overtake her as he jumped right out of the crow's nest and swung himself down.

Earl watched the two climbing from his position at the prow of the ship with Ada. "Those two have a unique chemistry," he remarked. "It is like they share an orbital: at the same energy level, but spinning in opposite directions."

"I suppose that's one way to put it," Ada replied, though it was clear she didn't quite understand.

Earl then pointed across the deck to Maggie and Drake. "Meanwhile, in an ionic bond, an atom with extra electrons lends them to an atom that is missing them. Maggie does most of the talking, and Drake listens, yet it stabilizes both of them. What type of relationship led you to sail these seas to find Kestrel?" The other campers had seemed pretty fine with the rescue mission, and were happy to go back to normal after, but the chemist was clearly still thinking about it.

Ada seemed unbothered by Earl's weird lead-up to the question, and sighed. "It's a long story, but I suppose we have the time. We were never that close, because we always thought we were too different. I liked to build and work with my hands, but he was always telling these grand tales and dreaming about places to visit all over the world. I wanted a steady life, while he was always seeking thrills."

"There is nothing wrong with seeking stability, Captain," Earl assured her.

Ada just grinned and shook her head. "Stability is far from what I have now." She gestured around her at the patchwork ship that she had built and repaired many times over. "I finished building my dream ship, and I was bored for a while. I asked myself, 'what next?' Obviously I had to sail. But at that point, Kestrel and I had already gone our separate ways."

As Ada spoke, Earl listened attentively while sipping tea from his beaker. "And then you somehow got in contact with him again?"

"His dad, so my uncle… he was a retired pilot, and he passed a few years ago. I guess Kestrel was following him. He left me a cryptic note, and I wasn't really sure what to make of it. I thought he was saying goodbye, going off to finish what Uncle started. And then the stars aligned when an old business partner called in a favor and gave me this job. But that's a story for another day."

"Captain, have you ever regretted an expedition?" Earl asked. "You said that you used to prefer to stay in the harbor. Do you now think that you have missed out on events on land, due to always being sailing?"

Ada just shrugged. "I try not to dwell on it too much. When the wind blows, sometimes you can't fight it, and it will only endanger your crew if you waste time looking back."

Earl chuckled lightly. "Since when did we get all philosophical? The nautical and chemical are quite different languages, but underneath the surface we can both appreciate these metaphorical ways of understanding things."

"Well, I'm here out at sea now, and I have a crew, old and new. So we might as well take advantage of it."

Ada noticed her cousin relaxing by the ship's cabin, as if he had been sailing with them the entire voyage. Earl looked around for his peers who were scattered around the deck, and saw that they were going about their days as if the expedition had never happened.

"Are you sure there are no more adjustments we need to make?" Earl asked one last time, as he looked to Ada for approval.

"Don't worry about it, you've been a great help already," the shipwright assured him with a grin. "Besides, we have someone new on our crew." With that, Ada strode off to go to talk to Kestrel. She had clearly been avoiding this conversation, and seemed a bit uneasy but determined.

Earl watched her leave, then looked back at Celia and Ollie. They were talking excitedly while fiddling with a scrap of sailcloth, and Kiwi swooped down next to them carrying a paintbrush in his talons. Earl approached them almost shyly, a stark contrast to his normal attitude, but then they both grinned at him and beckoned him over.

Confessional: Earl

"Life aboard the Loser Cruiser has… fallen far out of my confidence interval. But maybe not everything has to be an experiment. We had fun," he said simply.

It was now nighttime, and after all the campers were back in their cabins, Nimbus and Javi were sitting together eating a late dinner in the mess hall.

"Ay, at last we've made it halfway," Javi said, rubbing his temples. "It's been a long two weeks."

"Show business isn't really what I expected it to be," Nimbus admitted. "There's so much prep, man. I don't want to do paperwork or write scripts, I just want to go. Be onstage."

"Nimbus, I do all the paperwork," Javi snapped.

The rock star thought about that for a moment. "I guess you do."

The pair were silent for a moment, until Nimbus spoke up again. "I've just been thinking of the good ol' days, when we would play out of your garage."

"Here we go again," Javi grumbled, but then Nimbus continued.

"And I realized, I've always been that kind of dreamer. While you've always been the doer."

This observation actually caught Javi by surprise. "That's exactly how it feels."

"So… thank you," was all Nimbus said.

Javi rubbed the back of his head. "It's nothing. Just doing my job."

"No, really. My dream would be nothing without you."

"Well, I'll keep things running, 'cause no one else can. But Maybe I have a lesson to learn from Gremlin, because it's not just a job," Javi corrected himself. "I've had fun trying out some new machines, especially when it's on Total Drama's tab, heheh." The mechanic's grin turned sinister for a moment, but then it quickly faded. "But the campers haven't seen nothing yet. Especially now that I have Gremlin working with me, I have some ideas. "

Nimbus' eyes lit up. "You have more plans? Let me know how I can help! I've done enough dreaming, and it's time to make this a reality!" He pumped his fist in the air, but midway through the gesture, he froze. "Wait, I feel like we're forgetting to do something."

Javi shrugged. "It will probably be alright."

Later that night aboard the Loser Cruiser, Ada was still at the helm, while Kestrel was standing beside her and using a spyglass to look up at the stars. Ada had set up a camcorder at the prow of the ship, different from the hidden cameras scattered across the deck, and was speaking to it. "Well, it's been a big day for our five 'official' losers—and Naila… probably—but we're still going to be accepting several more crew members aboard the Loser Cruiser very soon," she began to narrate, before frowning to herself. "Nimbus and Javi owe me big time," she muttered.

"Are you talking to yourself?" Kestrel asked.

"I'm signing off the- well, I guess I never even told you." Ada snapped her fingers. "But there was another reason I came out here. Have you heard of Total Drama?"

Kestrel shook their head. "Celia said something about a competition, I think?"

Ada nodded. "There were thirteen of them, but now only seven remain. These past two weeks, they've been competing in challenges, and those that are eliminated are kicked out," she explained, though she seemed to focus more on the recording camera than on Kestrel. "And that means they end up here."

"So your crew is made of all the worst competitors?" Kestrel scoffed.

"You could say that, but it just keeps growing. Besides… even if they were more skilled, I probably still wouldn't let myself rely on them," Ada admitted, finally stopping the recap and turning to look at him.

Kestrel shrugged. "You came to find me, at least."

"That's true, and it's fortunate I did. And here's to more smooth sailing, because we've got plenty of adventures ahead." Ada then looked back at the camera. "I suppose that this has been… Total! Drama! Stormbound!"

Kestrel narrowed his eyes, and then the camera zoomed out to show the Loser Cruiser sailing. It then zoomed out even further to show the bow of the ship was pointed straight on Ventallan, which had reappeared on the horizon.

Remaining Contestants:

Mergers: Iggy, Kit, Lio, Martin, Paradise, Selene, Tanja (7)

Elimination Order:

13. Naila Jaziri, The Ominous Prankster (no team, disqualified/intern)

12. Drake Thakur, The Nightmare Artist (Gryphons)

11. Earl Ng-Meyer, The Scientific Matchmaker (Gryphons)

10. Celia Ruiz, The Moody Rebel (Dragons)

9. Maggie Reid, The Fragile Gossipmonger (Gryphons)

8. Ollie Warren, The Runaway Acrobat (Dragons)

As I was first outlining the season, I found the story had been split into two clear arcs. This episode was meant to give everyone (myself included) a chance to breathe and to tie up some loose ends before launching into the second half of the story, as well as give the spotlight to the staff characters and let the eliminated campers go on a little adventure. However, the episode ended up being a rollercoaster and a half with a lot going on. The Aftermath-esque segments were more of a spur-of-the-moment decision compared to the other plots, but they ended up being some of my favorite scenes. Overall, I'm not completely satisfied with the episode's organization and I hope it being non-elimination isn't too unsatisfying, but I had fun and I got to try something new.

In addition, with this episode we are officially over halfway through the season, which is just so crazy me. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me thus far, this entire community is really my muse. I never thought I would not only make it this far in my silly little OC story, but have people enjoying and talking about it. As usual, concrit is very much appreciated, and I would also love to know your finalist predictions now that we've officially reached the merge!

Feline's Forecast: The weather machine is finally back in operation, and things are getting cold again, so you better watch your heads!