Chapter 26: Verti-Go Nuts

"Last time on Total Drama Island…" Chris began the recap before taking a drink from a glass of water. "Our campers got down and dirty as they made their way through a maze of mud, losing their eyesight in the process. Heather showed us her best Cody impression by getting the crap beaten out of her by a bear, Owen became an all you can eat fire ant buffet, and Leshawna thought it was a good idea to ambush an eel. Have I said how much I love this show before? Because I do. Although the big winner of the challenge was my man Lincoln who grabbed, not just four, but six medallions if ya know what I mean. Meanwhile, the big loser of the round was the big guy DJ, who made absolutely no progress in the maze and was air lifted outta here. Who will win this week? Will Lincoln explore Dawn's body to the point of censorship? And can my hair possibly get anymore flawless? The answer to all these questions and more on this week's episode of Total…Drama…Island!"

The sun shone down on the island and, for once, the campers were allowed to wake up on their own accords. A much welcomed surprise as the campers were usually left all grumpy and tired at the start of the day. This was shown with Leshawna who, wearing her pink bath robe and had a few hair products under her arm, walked towards the showers intent on waking up with a nice and warm shower. Plus she still had some mud to wash off from the last challenge.

Approaching the bathrooms, the girl with a tude opened up the door and sighed with relief at seeing no one hear. "Nice and private, just the way mama likes it." Leshawna told herself as she entered the bathroom. Putting her products on the sink area, Leshawna walked into a shower stall and turned on the water to her usual temperature. Now all there was left to do was to wait for the water to get warm enough, so with the water turned on Leshawna went to go get her products and put them in the shower with her…but was met with a rather unwelcome surprise.

Leshawna heard the door open and saw her absolute least favorite person on the island come in. "Great, so much for private time…" Leshawna angrily grumbled as she saw the queen of nasty herself, Heather, come into the communal bathroom. It had to be Heather, anyone else she could have dealt with despite wanting private time. Gwen actually would have been nice, Dawn was quiet and wouldn't have caused any problems…plus she could give relationship advice. Even the boys would have been preferred. But nope, had to be Heather.

When Heather came in, she quickly saw Leshawna, glared and shook her head. "No. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope!" Heather immediately started saying as she stomped up to Leshawna and pointed at the door. "You need to go. Now! I'm taking a shower first!"

"Uh, A. I was here first! If anyone's leavin it's you!" Leshawna quickly yelled back at her archenemy. Leave it to Heather to ruin a perfectly good Chris free morning. "And B. There's more than one shower in here! As much as I hate the thought, just use one of them while I use another one. Or does that pea sized brain you got not know how to do math?"

Heather growled in response to the insult and was using every bit of will power she had not to slap Leshawna across the face. "Well unlike you who doesn't mind having those airbags wave every which way for everyone to see, I prefer my privacy and decency. And don't you have your own trailer to wash in?"

"I did do my washing in there but I ran out of water yesterday and a certain host man never told me how to refill it." Leshawna crossed her arms and grumbled a bit at Chris not really telling Leshawna how to deal with the stuff in her trailer like the water supply and other trailer stuff like that. "And if you want your oh so precious privacy so much then just wait till I'm done. Like I said, I was here first so you and your saw blade sized toe nails can just make their way outta here!"

Now Heather was really feeling her blood boil as she gestured to Leshawna's body, specifically her assets. "Are you kidding me?! With how much you have to wash I'll be waiting till 2025 to take my shower!" Heather snapped as she resorted to her usual insults she made to Leshawna. Mocking the girl's chest and butt size. "So why don't you take your two ton butt and-" Heather was cut off by Leshawna, who's face was red with anger, tackling her to the ground.

Not long after that, the sounds of the two girls brawling could be heard from outside.

CONFESSIONAL – DUNCAN

"And now you see why I do my business in the woods." Duncan rolled his eyes as he couldn't hope to count how many arguments and fights were started by the girls in the bathroom.

In the boys' cabin, things were thankfully a lot calmer and quieter. All the guys were still in bed, awake or not, only…one of the people in the room wasn't a guy. In Lincoln's bed there was an extra occupant seen under the sheets. Edward was in his usual place at the foot of the bed and Lincoln was asleep with his arms wrapped tightly around the one he was sharing his bed with. Dawn.

The aura reader had a smile on her face as she slept and leaned into her boyfriend. After they went to go have their…fun after the challenge the two ended up walking to the boy's cabin together. Due to being pretty tuckered out, they might have forgotten the detail of each gender being assigned a cabin and ended up falling asleep together in the cabin meant for the dudes.

A detail the Loud boy would soon figure out as a beam of sunlight hit his face and stirred him awake. Blinking his eyes a few times, Lincoln yawned as he slowly sat up from bed. Removing his arms from Dawn and causing the nature lover to frown a bit in her sleep. Rubbing his eyes, Lincoln did his best to wake up and looked around the cabin a bit as per usual. "Huh, slept in a little late today." Lincoln couldn't help but chuckle…and soon blushed as he remembered what happened last night. "Wow…who knew she had that kinda side to her…"

For those wondering, no. They haven't done any of 'that' yet.

Lincoln then looked to the foot of the bed and saw Edward there as usual whenever he slept in his cabin. But when Lincoln looked at Edward, his eyes widened a bit as he saw a pair of legs under the sheets…legs that weren't his own.

Looking next to him, Lincoln gasped quietly as he saw Dawn sleeping next to him. Although due to him removing his arms from around her the aura reader was rolling around a bit uncomfortably with a frown on her face. But Lincoln wasn't focusing on that, he was focusing that he and Dawn slept together. In the boys' cabin. Despite the clear rule that boys and girls were not to share the same cabin. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!" Lincoln quickly started to panic as she started to shake Dawn awake. "Dawn wake up! Come on you gotta wake up this is bad!"

Dawn groaned a bit in complaint at Lincoln shaking her, but did manage to wake up with her eyes quickly making their way towards her boyfriend who she was quick to give a sweet but tired smile to. "Good morning Lincoln…" Dawn yawned out, pink covering her cheeks as she remembered yesterday. But her expression soon turned to one that matched Lincoln's as she realized the situation as well. "Oh my gosh…which cabin are we-"

"Boys. We're in the boys' cabin." Lincoln quickly answered causing Dawn to gulp a bit. While they were both still in their usual cloths, they still slept together in the same cabin in the same bed. Things could end up getting complicated if everyone found out. "Come on get up quick we gotta get out of here before Owen and Duncan wake up."

"Oh we're already up."

"You guys looked really cute together."

Both Lincoln and Dawn's eyes widened at the two voices and looked to see both Duncan and Owen sitting in their respective beds and giving the two sly smirks. "…I swear we didn't do anything!" Lincoln quickly told his fellow dudes with Dawn's face exploding into red as she rapidly nodded her head.

Duncan rolled his eyes and chuckled a bit, finding Lincoln's panicking amusing. "Relax Mr. Orange, we know." The delinquent told Lincoln making both him and Dawn breathe a sigh of relief. "When me and the big guy came back to the cabin, we saw you two passed out together and decided to leave ya be."

"Uh-huh." Owen nodded, confirming Duncan's story as Lincoln and Dawn started to relax. "You looked so peaceful sleeping in each other's arms so I told Duncan we should just leave you crazy kids alone."

"Well, thanks a lot guys I really appreciate it." Lincoln said as he and Dawn hopped off the bed. This action caused Edward to wake up and grumble a bit. But it was a welcomed gesture when Dawn picked up the egg-laying mammal and held him in her arms. "Better head to the girls' cabin Dawn, don't want any of the girls or Chris learning about this."

"Good idea." Dawn said before planting a kiss on Lincoln's cheek. "Bye Lincoln. Love you~" With those words and gesture, Dawn and Edward quickly made their way out of the cabin before anyone else could find out about this little incident.

Lincoln's face was red and topped off with a dopey smile as he looked at Dawn as she left the cabin. "Love you too." He said with a lovestruck tone that just showed everyone that cupid had left its mark ten-fold. Lincoln was broken out of this feeling though when he felt two pairs of eyes on him and looked to see Owen and Duncan once again grinning at him. "…Stop looking at me like that."

"Nope!" Both boys said in unison making Lincoln sigh and slump down a bit.

LATER THAT MORNING

"Good morning campers!" The host greeted the seven remaining contestants on Total Drama Island. Chris has gathered up the teens to the beach of the camp where seven canoes were set up on the shore. Looking out in the distance, the campers saw seven tall poles set up in the water. "Congratulations for being the lucky seven last contestants left on the island. You've really gone above and beyond what most people are willing to let themselves go through on Reality Television for fame and fortune. You should all be very proud of yourselves!"

"More like humiliated and disgusted!" Heather yelled while glaring at Chris with a few nodding in agreement with the Queen Bee. Chris has really put them through the ringer with each and every challenge so far.

"That works too!" Chris simply laughed, getting a lot of glares and deadpanned looks from the contestants. "And after tonight's dramatic bonfire ceremony. Only six of you will remain. We only got seven episodes left counting this one, the end near people!"

"The end is near?!" Owen panicked as he held his head and fell to his knees. "But I had so much I wanted to do in life!"

"Not that kind of end Owen." Chris gave Owen a blank look as the big guy awkwardly looked around before standing back up and dusting the sand off his cloths. Owen looked around a bit and blushed in embarrassment as he saw everyone giving him deadpanned looked. Clearing his throat to get everyone's attention again, Chris spoke up. "Anyway, let's get on with it already. Today's challenge is called…Vertigo!"

"Vertigo?" Lincoln questioned as he thought about what that word meant. Once he figured it out, he gained a worried look. "Doesn't that mean dizziness caused from high places? That makes me nervous…"

"Hehehe, it should." Chris laughed even more, growing more excited over the challenge he was going to present the contestants with. Crossing his arms behind his back, Chris began his explanation for today's challenge. "So like I said, this challenge is called Vertigo and here's how things'll go. Using these canoes each of you will paddle over to those color-coded poles. Orange for Lincoln, blue for Gwen, Green for Duncan, grey for Heather, brown for Leshawna, white for Owen, and purple for Dawn."

"Um, I have a question." Duncan said with crossed arms, one of his thumbs pointing to the side. "Who gave Chef crazy there a sniper rifle?" Everyones eyes widen as they looked to where Duncan was pointing and indeed saw that Chef was grinning like a mad man while wielding a rifle.

"I'll get to that don't worry." Chris continued on with his explanation for the challenge. "Anyway, canoeing over to your poles you'll climb up them and have to balance yourselves to stay at the top." Owen gulped a bit when he heard balance and looked at the poles. They all had ladder-like handles that led to the very top. "Once you're at the top you'll find a bucket there that you will have to lower all the way to the lake to collect water, pull it up, and then dump the water into the pole in order to bring up the wooden key stuck inside the poles. First one to get their key back to me on the beach wins. To make balancing at the top even harder, Chef here will be sniping you all with paint balls. Fun right?"

"More like incredibly painful…" Dawn deadpanned, expecting nothing less from someone like Chris.

"Like I said, fun!" Chris grinned eagerly as he walked right next to Chef. "Alright campers, I'll give you five minutes to prep yourselves before sending ya out."

CONFESSIONAL – LINCOLN

"Ok, quick question." Lincoln said with a bit of a horrified look. "How the heck was Chef able to get a sniper rifle?! I mean I know it's only filled with paint balls but still!"

CONFESSIONAL – DUNCAN

"I wonder if I can get Chef to tell me who his rifle guy is…" The delinquent thought out loud with a smirk as he rubbed his chin.

"Ya know, I think I've been through so much torture, the thought of being sniped doesn't even surprise me that much." Gwen let out sarcastically as she clipped on her life jacket and sat down in one of the canoes. "Let me guess? The water's also filled with hungry rapid sharks, electric eels, or some sort of eel shark?"

"Eel shark…make a note of that Chef." Chris told his right-hand man who nodded and took out a note pad. "But to the rest of that no actually, this is only the first part of the challenge didn't want to put all our eggs in one basket for it. Speaking of, first one back with their key wins an advantage in the next challenge. Also, after the first person brings their key back everyone else has 30 minutes to get theirs. Don't get your key and you're disqualified. Those who win will get immunity from the vote and a guaranteed spot in the final six, as well as THIS!"

Chris then pointed both of his pointer fingers to the other side of the beach making a few of the contestants gasp. With the front half of it parked in the water and the other half on the sand was a vehicle that looked like a combination of an ATV and a Jet-Ski. "Your own DATV, otherwise known as Duck All-Terrain Vehicle!" Chris revealed the prize for winning the challenge to everyone. "Win and it's all yours to cruise around the camp in style, lake or land, and it's free to take home at the end of camp,"

"O-O-Oh, hell yeah!" Duncan cheered in an excited tone, his eyes never leaving the sweet water and land ride. Punching his fist into an open palm, Duncan cracked his neck a few more times before giving everyone a challenging grin. "Alright, definitely bringing my A-Game with this one. You're all going down!" With that, Duncan put on his own life vest and sat down in the canoe and grabbed the paddle.

"Hmph, guess we'll see." Lincoln grinned a bit, kinda wanting that DATV for himself, as he got ready in his canoe. "Might be surprised by whose driving that thing by the end of the day."

"Don't know if it's worth getting shot over." Leshawna angrily grumbled as Chef chuckled a bit and loaded his sniper rifle with paint balls. Testing it out, he saw a glass bottle floating in the water and easily shot it from the beach and breaking into pieces, making all the campers flinch. "Definitely not worth it…"

"Alright campers the more time we spend talking the less time you spend humiliating yourselves." Chris said rather impatiently making the campers groan a bit as the rest of them finished putting on their life jackets and got in their canoes. Once they were all ready, Chris pulled out an airhorn and aimed it at the sky. "Ready…set…."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Plugging one of his ears, Chris pressed the button of the horn to set it off. The campers and Chef winced a bit at the loud noise with some birds in the woods getting startled and flying away. After getting over the ringing in their ears, the campers quickly paddled off towards their colored poles. Meanwhile back on land, Chris looked to see Chef glaring at him, the buff cook slapped the back of Chris' head. "Ow! Come on!" Chris yelled as he rubbed the back of his head. "I told you to wear ear muffs before we started!"

"I would've if you didn't take em!" Chef yelled back before rolling his eyes and setting his sights on the campers getting farther and farther away. "Now shut up and go stand over there, I need to focus." Rolling his eyes, Chris walked away from Chef so the cook could focus on paint sniping those kids.

On the lake, the campers were busy at work paddling as fast as they could to the colored poles so they could complete the challenge. At this point in the competition, no one was safe from elimination no matter how good they were or what they did in the past. Seven contestants and seven episodes left, the cash prize was so close and it was all about surviving and moving forward and just voting out whoever was convenient to get rid of at the time. At least that was how a majority of the contestants were feeling. Others…

"Ok so we're definitely voting Heather out next right." Lincoln whispered to Dawn as he paddled next to her. Thankfully Chris didn't call them out for sleeping together last night so they didn't get in any sort of trouble for that. So once they were in the clear, they were free to stick together once more. Although their poles they were supposed to climb were located a bit away from each other but considering the task there wasn't much they could do in terms of teaming up for this challenge anyway so it was best for the both of them to just complete things as fast as they could. But while they made their way to the poles, they could at least discuss things a little bit in preparation for later. "We can't let her go on in this competition any further. Frankly it's just a miracle that she's somehow made it this far."

"I agree, mother nature is certainly taking her time on punishing her…" Dawn growled a bit before taking a few breaths to calm herself down and get her aura back to its normal state and color. There was just something about Heather that really brought out the worst in the normally calm Dawn. The nature lover has never seen such a dark and selfish looking aura before, even from the bullies at her school. Heather was certainly a special case to put it nicely and unfortunately that negativity just spread to her as well as the others, especially Gwen and Leshawna who always seem to be at odds with the queen bee like with that shower incident this morning. "And if she's not gonna give her what she deserves, then we're gonna have to take it into our own hands."

Lincoln smirked, quite liking the feisty side of his normally peace-loving hippie girlfriend. "Amen to that, so should we form a plan or just try to kick her butt as fast as we can?" Lincoln suggested as they closed in on the poles. They only had a few more seconds to talk as they were forced to paddle away from each other so they could reach their colored poles. "Can't exactly do much to her on this challenge…"

"It's better if we just beat her fair and square." Dawn told Lincoln with a firm tone as they paddled away from each other more, having to speak up a bit so they could hear each other. "We won't allow ourselves to fall from grace and stoop down to her level. Alright Lincoln?"

Lincoln chuckled a bit and nodded his head, getting closer to his pole. "Yeah ok, you got it boss." Lincoln said in a joking tone making Dawn chuckle and roll her eyes a bit. The two then decided it was time to stop talking so they could focus on the challenge at hands, their main goal constantly lurking in their minds. "Good luck Dawn, love you!"

"Same to you Linky~" Blowing Lincoln a kiss, Dawn completely focused on paddling over to her pole so she could hurry up with the challenge. Between her and Lincoln one of them should be able to take the win yet again and get Heather off this island once and for all! "Mother nature will have her sweet vengeance…"

Over the next few minutes, the seven remaining contestants made their way to their respective poles with Duncan making it to his first with full intent on winning this challenge. He didn't even care about immunity; he just wanted that ride. Meanwhile the last to get to his pole, as shocking as it sounds, was Owen who was already out of breath by the time he paddled his way to the white pole. But when the big guy looked up and saw how far he would have to climb, he looked about ready to pass out. "Dear lord and heaven please have mercy on me…" Owen panted/begged as he just decided to get on with it, grabbing two of the rungs on the pole Owen grunted and panted even more as he started climbing up.

"Hahaha! Better luck next time Owen!" Duncan laughed with a grin on his face as he easily made it up the pole. Duncan was already an expert climber, lots of practice from climbing the walls surrounding juvie, and now he had rungs to help him up. "This challenge is in the bag!" However, Duncan soon found all of that confidence he had jinxing him. "Ow!" Duncan felt a sharp pain on his chest and briefly let go the rungs and was about to fall into the water, but the delinquent was quick and wrapped his legs around the pole to save himself from falling.

Meanwhile on the beach, Chef was laughing like some super villain as he saw the shot he made right on Duncan's chest. "Hahah! How do ya like that bad boy?!" Chef quickly got to work aiming so he can snipe more of these poor young suckers with the buff cook's eyes making their way to Leshawna. "Ready…aim…EAT PAINT!"

Meanwhile Leshawna glared at the top of the pole and made her way up as fast as she could. The rungs of the pole was a little slippery but she could manage this no problem. At least until she felt like her butt just received 1000 shots. "AH WHAT THE (BLEEP)!" Leshawna swore as she looked at her behind and saw a splatter of paint on it. "Going for a sister's booty?! That is low dude!"

"I doubt he could help it." As if Leshawna wasn't mad enough from Chef sniping her butt, Heather had to speak up as she climbed up with a grin. "With a butt that big it's an easy target. Maybe you should paint a target on it and make it even more of a ga-OW!" Karma thankfully acted fast with this particular one as Heather was shot in the shoulder making the queen bee lose her grip and fall down screaming.

"Heh, that's what you get." Leshawna grinned as she started climbing up with a smile on her face. Something about Heather falling from 20 feet into the water just brightened up the girl with a tude's, tude.

"Woah! Ah! Son of a…!" For whatever reason Chef had his sights on Gwen and was constantly firing shots at the goth. But Gwen proved to have surprisingly great reflexes as she was able to dodge the next three shots he sent her way. Gwen couldn't help but grin after that and started climbing up even faster than before. "Gonna have to do better than that Chef!"

Chef growled a little bit as Chris gave his number two man an unimpressed look. "She's right ya know." The host told Chef as he crossed his arms and glared at the cook a bit. "Step it up man no one's gonna wanna watch a sniper constantly missing!"

"They would if I was wearing blue!" Chef yelled irritably at Chris, with the host only raising a brow in confusion, as he took aim at Gwen again. "Just shut up and let me focus…I'll get her this time." Tightening his grip on the rifle and steadying himself, Chef aimed right at Gwen's head. "One shot…one splat…" Once Chef was sure of his aim, he pressed the trigger and sent the paint ball at Gwen.

Gwen smirked as she made her way to the top of the pole, nearly making it there…until a paint ball hit her right on the forehead. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" With that, Gwen lost her grip on the rungs and fell right down into the water from nearly the top of the pole.

Chris pumped a fist at seeing Gwen take a tumble as Chef grinned and cackled. "BOOM! Headshot!" The buff cook cheered for himself as he took aim, this time choosing the easiest target out of all of them; Owen. "Rapid fire activated!" With his aim set on Owen's belly, Chef kept firing shot after shot at the big guy.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Owen let out every time he was shot with soon eight paint stains spread across his shirt. But thankfully they didn't do much to get him to fall as his fat prevented any momentum from affecting him and he was actually able to keep his grip on the rungs. "You already got me! Why?!"

Chef snickered a bit as he looked around, trying to decide on his next target. Eventually his eyes came across Lincoln as the Loud boy was already more than halfway up the pole. "Well let's fix that shall we, hehehe." Chef snickered…as he got an absolutely awful idea. Aiming a bit down, Chef fired.

"Almost there, almost there, almost-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHH!" Lincoln froze and tightened his grip on the rungs, managing to keep him from falling, as he was hit by one of Chef's paint balls…right on his crotch. "AAAAAAHHHH! A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AHHHHHHH!" Lincolns screams were high pitch and ran throughout the entire island.

"Ooooooooooooo!" Duncan and Owen winced as they felt phantom pains in their own crotches.

"Dang that must hurt." Leshawna commented, feeling a bit bad for Lincoln. Though not bad enough to stop climbing and ask if he was ok.

Meanwhile Dawn gasped at what she saw and gave a sympathetic look to her boyfriend before turning in the direction of the beach and glaring at where she knew Chef was. "Hey! Leave that alone!" Dawn yelled fiercely with her eyes having a fire to them. "I need that one day!"

…

Now that got everyone to stop what they were doing and stare. All the contestants, and even Lincoln who briefly forgot about the pain to his crotch and stared at Dawn with a bright red face, Chris and Chef all stopped what they were doing to stare at Dawn after she said that. Meanwhile Dawn had just realized what she said and soon found her face going red as well as she awkwardly looked around. "Uh…I mean…" Dawn failed to find the right words to get her out of this situation, especially considering it was just broadcasted on national television, and just started climbing up as fast as she could. "…I'm gonna get there first!"

And with that, everyone just decided to forget about the awkward moment and started climbing again.

CONFESSIONAL – LINCOLN

"Well…" Lincoln awkwardly scratched the back of his head, his face a beet red. "At least I know she's…um…excited."

"Oh man, look at them out there!" Chris laughed as he observed the challenge from the comforts of his beach chair with a pair of binoculars so he could watch all of the campers' suffering and embarrassment. Setting down the binoculars Chris looked at the camera with his signature shining smile. "The competition sure is heating up folks! So far Duncan, Gwen, Dawn, and Heather had managed to make it to the top of the poles and are already collecting their water, meanwhile Leshawna, Lincoln, and Owen might wanna hurry up if they wanna make it to the second part of the challenge."

"Almost there Lincoln…work through the pain…through the pain…" Lincoln grunted as he made his way up the pole, nearly at the top. Though his crotch still stung like the dickens from the shot Chef took at it, Lincoln was able to push through the pain and make his way up. Besides, not like this is the first time someone has taken a shot at his groin before. Far from it really.

Thankfully the Loud boy was able to smile as he made his way to the very top. Like the name of the challenge hinted, Lincoln and everyone else that had made it there before him had to balance on the rungs of the very top. Once he managed to find his balance, Lincoln saw the bucket attached to a very long rope and quickly got to lowering it down in the water to collect some. Looking at the contestants that had already made it up, it seemed they haven't made it too far ahead of him as they were only beginning to fill up the poles with water.

"Grrrr…" Heather growled a bit as her legs shook violently as she began to drag her bucket up. The queen bee had wished Chris had given them some real prep time for this challenge so she could change out of the heels she was wearing. Needless to say, these shoes were not at all meant for balancing on thin rungs. It only got worse when a paintball grazed her head. "Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah!" Heather panicked as she started to lose her balance, but the queen bee was thankfully able to save herself and breathed a sigh of relief before glaring and yelling towards the beach. "HEY! I ALREADY MADE IT TO THE TOP! STOP SHOOTING ME!"

"Um, if anything that's gonna make him shoot at us more genius." Gwen rolled her eyes sarcastically as she emptied her collected water into the pole. Looking inside, Gwen was able to see that she was making some pretty good progress on her water and could see the wooden key lodged inside coming closer and closer to the top. "Unless you're Owen that is…"

"Ow! Why?! O-O-Ow!" Looking to Owen, the big guy at this point was pretty much completely coated in pain as Chef was practically making every other shot at Owen's body. "How much ammo does he even have?!"

"A whole lot fat boy! Hahahaha!" Chef cackled as he aimed at Dawn and managed to shoot the nature lover in the shoulder, making a high-pitched scream ring out through the area.

"You know you could also shoot the buckets to make the water spill out of them." Chris informed Chef as he took a sip from a bottle of pop he had. "Make it harder for them to fill up the poles."

"Nah, not as fun." Chef said as he took a shot at Duncan, managing to hit the delinquent in the knee and earning himself another scream of pain. "Plus not as much screams, heheh."

"Fair enough, hehe." Chris laughed and just let Chef do whatever he wants.

Half an hour had passed and now everyone was balancing at the top of their poles and filling up with water. Some were lagging behind and struggling to keep their balance, especially when Chef took shots at them, as well as fill up their poles with water. Currently in the lead was Gwen, Duncan, and Lincoln, the Loud boy managing to catch up surprisingly quickly.

With Duncan, the delinquent's eyes widened a little bit as he looked in the pole and saw the key was still a bit from the top…but maybe it didn't need to reach the top. Looking to everyone else, he saw them continue to do nothing but focus on balancing, filling the poles with water, and dodge Chef's shots. None of them were thinking of new angles like he was. Grinning, Duncan rolled up his sleeve and lowered himself into a crouching position, as much as he could while keeping his balance, and proceeded to squeeze his arm inside the pipe. It was a bit of a tight fit but he's squeezed his arm in tighter spaces for stuff before so this posed little challenge to him. "Come on…come on…" After a few more seconds, Duncan smirked as he managed to grab the end of the key with his finger. After squeezing his arm out with the key in hand, Duncan whistled to get everyone's attention with all the campers gasping after seeing the key wrapped around his finger. "See ya later losers! Cannonball!"

Jumping off his pole in the cannonball formation, Duncan splashed down into the water and swam to his canoe, quickly paddling over to the beach. "How'd he do that so fast?!" Leshawna yelled out as she looked to Duncan's pole and saw the water wasn't even at the top. "His pole isn't even filled up yet!"

"Maybe because it doesn't have to be…" Lincoln, entering his 'man with the plan' mindset, quickly thought about how Duncan could have done that and came to the obvious solution. Stick your hand into the pole. Deciding to copy the delinquent, Lincoln stuck his hand into the pole and managed to also get his key. "Alright! Thank you Duncan!"

Also diving into the water, Lincoln started paddling back to shore as Duncan reached the beach and walked over to Chris and Chef with a grin on his face. "Duncan wins the first part of the challenge!" Chris announced through a megaphone as he saw Lincoln approaching on his canoe. "The rest of ya, you got 15 minute to get back here with your keys or else you are out!"

"Wait, 15 minutes?!" Heather yelled while glaring at Chris in the distance. Earlier, she knew Chris said a half an hour to get back. "You said we would get thirty minutes!"

"I did, but you kids took your sweet time getting there and filling up those poles, that me and Chef are kinda getting a little bored of waiting! You can only shoot teenagers for so long until it gets boring!" As if on cue, Chef took yet another shot at Owen. "Plus, I'm the host! I can shorten the time if I want to! So you better hurry it up!"

With a few of the campers growling, and Lincoln making it to shore, they sped up their efforts with now only 15 minutes to get their keys back to shore. Thankfully for some, it wouldn't matter so much. With Gwen and Dawn, they filled the pole enough to where they could pull off Duncan's trick and reach their hands inside to grab the key and make their way back to shore on their canoes.

After more than five minutes, Duncan, Lincoln, Gwen, and Dawn, in that order had made it back to shore with their keys, guaranteeing them a spot in the second half of the challenge. That only left Owen, Heather, and Leshawna struggling to get their keys and for Chef to shoot at. Heather and Leshawna were fairing well enough, while Owen was really struggling. Combined with his size and weight and Chef's constant shots made it difficult for Owen to balance while collecting water at the same time.

Soon enough Heather managed to get her key once the ten-minute mark was reached and made her way to shore. That only left Owen and Leshawna struggling to fill up their poles with water with less than five minutes on the clock. Didn't help that Chef's attention was completely focused on those two.

CONFESSIONAL – LESHAWNA

"I've made it too far to let something like this bring me down!" Leshawna yelled fiercely with a determined look on her face. She hasn't dealt with gross food, embarrassing and messy challenges, and Heather for six weeks just to lose now. "There's only six people I gotta pull ahead before that cash money is all mine, give me everything you got!"

"Owen, Leshawna, I'd light a fire under those buns of yours and step it up!" Chris told the two from the beach as the campers who made it simply watched the two from the distance. "T-Minus one minute to get your key and get over here before you're disqualified."

"Grrrrr, alright then Chris! Let's do this!" With a fire burning in her, Leshawna started to do everything even faster. She wouldn't be able to fit her hand in the pole like everyone else did so she had to get her key the actual way Chris instructed. Filling it up with water till you can just easily grab it. Everyone watched in surprise as Leshawna lowered and raised the bucket so she could fill her pole with water until she was finally able to grab the key. "I GOT IT!"

With the clock against her, Leshawna dived down into the water and made her way into the canoe. If everyone wasn't shocked before they certainly were now as Leshawna paddled so hard she approached the shore at the same speed as a motor boat. "LOOK OUT!" Chris yelled as everyone screamed and ran away from the spot they were at as Leshawna crashed the canoe right into the beach, creating a large cloud of sand.

"Woohoo! That's how a sista gets it done!" Emerging from the sand cloud was Leshawna. The girl had her hands in the air with the wooden key gripped in her right one. "Just made it! Yeah baby!"

"Congratulations Leshawna, on both for making it just in the time and for the sheer awesomeness you just displayed." Chris complimented the girl with a tude while dusting himself off. Everyone else proceeded to get up as well, with Gwen giving Leshawna a high five, as Chris turned to the camera. "There ya have it folks, Duncan, Gwen, Lincoln, Heather, Dawn, and Leshawna will be competing for a guaranteed spot in the final six." Chris then took out his megaphone again and turned to the poles where Owen still was. "Sorry Owen, you're out big guy!"

"Oh come on!" Owen yelled out in frustration as he was shot with another paint ball. "Ow!"

"Sorry, just wanted to get one more in!" Chef chuckled a bit as he patted his sniper rifle before turning around and walking away.

Chris also chuckled a bit at the sight before turning to the six campers that would be moving on. "As for you six, meet up at the same place you all had that obstacle course during the boot camp challenge." Chris instructed everyone as their eyes widened in response. "We've made a few…upgrades there for the sake of today's challenge, hehehehe."

As Chris walked away, everyone felt a sense of dread.

CONFESSIONAL – DAWN

"You don't need to read auras to read Chris." The nature lover dead panned before letting out a long sigh. "Ya know what, it doesn't matter. Me and Lincoln have managed to come this far together and we're certainly not backing down now! We plan on making it to the finale together and we're going to make it to the finale together. I swear on my vow to mother nature!"

After the time Chris had given, the campers made their way to where Chef had made them do the obstacle course all the way back during the military boot camp episode. Only there were certainly some…renovations that have been done to the course since then. All the mud on the ground was replaced by a long pool of water. The first part of it consisted of foam lily pad-like structures floating on the surface, after that were some monkey bars, after the monkey bars was some balance beams with some blunt fans slowly spinning around above the beams, after the beams was a big rock wall divided into six parts with those parts all leading to a different platform that all matched 6 of the pole's colors from the previous part.

"Alright campers, welcome to the second part of Vertigo." Chris announced to everyone with all the contestants still having their keys on them. "As you could probably guess the second part involves making your way through the obstacle course here. But there's a bit of a catch. Chef!" Snapping his fingers, Chris gestured his right-hand-cook to do what he had to do.

Nodding, Chef proceeded to grab a wheel-burrow full of wooden chests with back pack straps attached to them. Pushing them up to the campers, Chef forcibly strapped them on to all the campers except for Duncan. "Hey what's with these things?!" Heather complained as she tried to stand up despite the weight now on her back. "They weigh a ton!"

"Better not lose them, you'll need em for the challenge." Chris snickered a bit as he watched the campers now wearing the chest-packs struggle to not fall from their weight. "Relax it's simple, you simply need to make it from the beginning of the obstacle course, then climb up to the platform of your color at the end. If you fall in the water, you have to start all over from the beginning. Oh, the water's filled with jellyfish." Everyone gasped as they looked inside the pool and saw a bunch of jellyfish floating around in the pool, their tentacles prime for stinging. "Yeah we kinda did the whole eel and killer shark thing a bunch of times, but we've only done jellyfish once so we still think it's nice and fresh."

"Getting horribly electrocuted aside…" Lincoln gulped nervously as he turned to Chris. "What if we have trouble swimming with these chests on our backs?"

"Don't worry, in the event that one of you starts drowning we have a life guard on standby." Gesturing his hand to the other side of the obstacle course, everyone saw Edward sitting on top of a life guard's chair with sunglasses, a whistle around his neck, and some sun screen on his bill. "He's semi-aquatic qualified!"

"Yeah, I'm just filled with confidence over this." Leshawna let out sarcastically, Dawn lightly elbowing her for the diss at Edward.

"Can we just get the rest of the rules please?" Gwen asked with crossed arms and an irritated look on her face. "The sooner I get this thing off my back, the better."

"Sheesh, grouchy." Chris let out making Gwen further glare at him. "So as I was saying, taking those chests and keys to the platform of your color is when you can take em off. Using the keys from the first part of the challenge to unlock them, you'll see 30 blocks that make up a puzzle. Duncan since you won last round you don't have to carry around the chest, it's waiting for you already at your platform." Duncan grinned a bit as he looked up at the green platform and saw his chest already there just like Chris had said. "First camper to get to the end and complete their puzzle wins immunity and of course the sweet DATV!"

CONFESSIONAL – GWEN

"Ya know, at this point I'd say I don't know how much more of this I can take." Gwen sighed out as she rested her head in her hand while looking at the camera. "But at this point it'd be stupid not to win right? Might as well just tough through it and go all out."

After a few minutes, the campers were all lined up at the start of the obstacle course waiting for Chris to give them the go ahead to start. All of their eyes faced forward looking at the end, focused on getting to that guaranteed position at the final six. "Campers ready…get set…" Chris raised a flag in the air before swiping it down, signaling everyone to start. "GO!"

No one wasted anytime in starting and going forward. First up was the pathway of lily pads they would have to hop across. With the exception of Duncan, jumping proved harder to everyone with the heavy chest strapped to their backs. Immediately Heather and Leshawna botched their first jump and fell into the water with the jellies. "AAAAAHHH!" Both girls screamed in pain of getting horribly shocked.

CONFESSIONAL – HEATHER

"Not…a single…word…" Heather growled, a jellyfish on her head similar to her first experience with these creatures.

Meanwhile everyone else managed to make it to the first lily pad. Granted everyone stumbled and tried to balance themselves, proved harder by the constantly waving and slippery pads. Even without having a pack, Duncan struggled a bit to stay on both of his feet. "Woah! Woah! Woah!" Lincoln let out as he tried to balance his weight so he wouldn't fall into the jellyfish infested water. Breathing a sigh of relief, Lincoln looked at the pad in front of him and steadied his feet and breathing. "Slow and steady Linc…"

As Lincoln hopped across the pads, along with some of the others, Heather and Leshawna managed to pull themselves out of the water. "I…hate…this…show!" Heather growled as she slammed her fist into the ground.

"Well…that's something we can certainly agree on." Leshawna grumbled.

"Heh, this is too easy." Duncan confidently let out as, once he got the hang of it, start to easily jump from pad to pad. "Enjoy the extra weight you guys! If you think I'm fast now just wait till I'm speeding around the island on that sick ride!"

"Don't count your chickens till they hatch Duncan!" Gwen grunted as she lept to the next pad, briefly losing her balance but managing to pull herself together before she could fell into the water. "We're still in this ya know!"

"Keep telling yourself that back pack." Duncan laughed as he lept off the last pad and grabbed onto the monkey bars that made up the second part of the course. "This'll be a piece of cake!"

"You sure about that Duncan?" Suddenly, surprising Duncan, was Dawn who jumped and grabbed onto the bars on the other side of the monkey bars. "I'm still in this too ya know!"

Duncan growled a bit, wondering how the nature girl could make it across the pads so fast with that chest on her back. Deciding it was better to question it later and just get on with the challenge, Duncan made his way through the monkey bars as fast as he could. "Well let's see if you're as quick on these bars as you are on those pads!" The delinquent yelled as Dawn also started to make her way across as well. "Eat my dust ya hippie!"

Narrowing her eyes, Dawn tried her best to surpass Duncan. Although she was far from weak, she wasn't quite the athlete that Duncan was. Her hands started to give out quick, and the extra weight she had certainly didn't help, and eventually she ended up slipping and letting go of the bars. Gasping, Dawn quickly acted on instinct and grabbed what she could. Duncan's leg. "H-Hey!" Duncan grunted a bit as the combined weight of Dawn and her chest made it difficult to keep going. "Let go!"

"I'm sorry for this Duncan but I don't intend to lose this, not at this point!" Dawn said as she tried to climb up the delinquent and get back to the bars. While Dawn didn't like playing dirty at all, she can safely say it was far from the worst thing others have done on the island. Duncan growled a bit and, despite the girl clinging onto him, tried to make his way forward. But it proved a bit too much for him as he lost his grip as well leaving both Duncan and Dawn falling into the water.

"Dawn!" Lincoln called out to in a concerned tone as he, as well as Gwen, jumped onto the monkey bars. "Are you ok?!"

Quickly emerging from the water, miraculously avoiding the jelly fish, Dawn spat out some water that got into her mouth and gave Lincoln a reassuring smile. "Don't worry Lincoln I'm fine!" She told her boyfriend while gesturing a hand forward. "Go on! Don't worry about me!"

"Oh you should worry alright!" Duncan said as he emerged from the water, glaring harshly at Dawn. "It's on sister! No more mister nice guy!"

"Hehehehe…" Dawn chuckled nervously.

While Lincoln was still worried about Dawn, especially with Duncan now probably tailing her, but followed Dawn's advice and kept going. "Don't worry Lincoln," Gwen reassured him as they both moved forward through the monkey bars. "You of all people should know she can perfectly take care of herself."

"Yeah…Yeah you're right." Lincoln smiled a bit as he kept pushing forward. "May the best one win Gwen."

"I intend to." Gwen remarked with a smirk, making Lincoln smile more and roll his eyes a bit.

The Loud boy and goth girl managed to make it through the bars without much problems. The next part was far more challenging though, a balance beam with some blunt fans spinning around that they would have to jump over to avoid getting tripped by them. Gwen was the first one to make it onto the beam, the goth quickly spreading her arms out to help keep her balance as she made it forward while jumping when she had to.

Lincoln mimicked Gwen's motion and slowly made his way forward, feeling pretty confident about his ability to do this. While Gwen was in front of him, he would have the opportunity to pull ahead during the rock climbing and he was a pretty good climber he had to say. However, he ended up tripping under his own feet which lead to him getting tripped by the fan as well and falling into the water. "AAAAAHHH! OH MY GOSH!" Lincoln let out as he fell into the jellyfish water, not fairing as well as his girlfriend did.

"Oooooooo!" Gwen winced as she watched the whole scene. First the paint ball to the groin and now falling into jellyfish water. "Sorry Linc, today is not your lucky day."

"It's fine just…gotta walk it off…" Lincoln groaned as he pulled himself out of the water and made his way back to the beginning.

With Lincoln now behind her, Gwen continued to make her way forward and managed to get past the balance beam. "Wow, Gwen is on fire out there!" Chris had to admit as he and Chef watched from a couple of lawn chairs, relaxing as they watched the campers making their way through the course and enjoying the sight of the occasional contestant falling into the jellyfish infested water. "As for the rest of them well, let them be a testament to how hilarious this show can be ladies and gents!"

"Alright…here we go!" Gwen then got started on the final part of the obstacle course. The rock wall. While not as tall as the poles, the dip she could end up taking if she fell would certainly be more painful than before while on the poles. At least Chef wasn't packing heat this time, or rather paint. Also a good thing, Gwen did have some experience in climbing walls from the trust challenge and this time she didn't have to worry about her panties being exposed for the whole world to see…she hoped. "Give it your worst…"

As Gwen climbed up, a few of the other campers managed to slowly but surely catch up. Dawn, Heather, and Duncan were almost done with the monkey bars and Lincoln and Leshawna were hopping across the lily pads again. Grinning a bit, Gwen managed to pull herself up to her platform. "Alright! Finally get this thing off of me!" Gwen then gladly removed her chest pack and placed it on the ground, taking her key out of her pocket the goth girl opened up the chest and saw all the blocks in it. "Now how do these go together…"

As Gwen worked on her puzzle, the other campers caught up more and more. Soon enough Dawn, Heather, and Duncan made it up the rock wall and opened up their chest as well so they could start working on the puzzle while Lincoln and Leshawna were almost done with the balance beam.

Tension rose as the campers progressed more and more, blocks being put together and forming into a picture until finally…

"DONE!" Thanks to getting there before all the rest, Gwen was able to finish her puzzle first. The puzzle being the TDI logo. "Final six here I come!"

"Gwen wins the challenge!" Chris announced as everyone groaned in response. "Gwen, welcome to the final six! While Gwen gives her amphibious chariot a test drive, you all better get to voting and decide who you're kicking out!"

As Chris left, everyone was left with the decision of who to vote off the island.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Gwen couldn't help but cheer as she did donuts with her DATV in front of her cabin with Leshawna watching. "THIS THING IS SO COOL!"

"Girl you look fine." Leshawna complimented as Gwen stopped and parked right in front of the cabin, her hair blown back a little bit. "Alright as much fun as this is, we got some thinking to do. Who we voting off? I'm thinking Heather, her time on this island ends here and now!"

"While normally I'd agree with you, at this point in the competition I think we should be thinking a little smarter about who we vote for." Gwen explained to Leshawna with the goth's best friend raising a brow and listening. "Look, you saw Heather today. She wasn't exactly fairing that well at all in the challenge."

"Heh, got that right." Leshawna chuckled at remembering all the struggling Heather had to do in the challenge. "Alright where you going with this Gwen?"

"Think of it, Heather's only gotten this far because she either had people doing her dirty work or sheer dumb luck." Gwen further explained with a small smirk on her face. "But she's out of allies and it's clear her luck is running out as well. She's honestly not much of a threat. Annoying? Yes absolutely. But a threat? Not so much."

"I'm listening…" Leshawna leaned forward a bit.

"So I'm thinking we get rid of Duncan first, and then Heather." Gwen proposed to her best friend on the island. "Duncan is a much bigger threat, he's fast and strong and has quite a bit of skills under his belt. Meanwhile Heather's only skill is her pit of never-ending meanness. We get rid of Duncan before he can become a threat, and then we dump Heather. After that, we let everything fall where it may."

"…Yeah alright, I can get behind that." Leshawna smirked and nodded as she and Gwen shook hands. "As much as I wanna get rid of Heather, I wanna get that prize money even more."

As they agreed, they were completely unaware of someone hiding in the bushes…

"Get rid of me huh?" Duncan smirked a bit as he overheard the two girls' entire conversation. "Well we'll see about that."

Looking to the showers, Duncan knew Heather was in there washing off like she did after every challenge. Sneaking over there so Gwen and Leshawna didn't notice him, the delinquent headed over the facility and leaned on the wall next to the door. After a few minutes of waiting, Heather stepped out with a bath towel wrapped around her body and head, not noticing Duncan until he spoke up. "Hey there."

"AH!" Heather jumped a bit in fright at the delinquent, quickly glaring at him once she recovered. "Were you waiting for me out here?! What are you a pervert?!"

"With you, I should be the one complaining." Duncan joked back at her making Heather growl.

"I'm…leaving…" Not giving the delinquent more of her time, Heather stomped off.

"But don't you wanna get rid of Leshawna?" Duncan knew this would get to Heather, and it did as she stopped in her tracks once he said that.

"…I'm listening." Heather's interest was piqued, she was willing to hear this out.

"I just picked up some interesting intel from Gwen and Leshawna, turns out they shifted their votes from you to me." Duncan explained as Heather turned back to him. "And I overheard Lincoln and Dawn plan on voting for you still, so that's two votes for me and two for you, leaving three left."

"I'm listening more." Heather smirked a bit, liking where this was going.

"I've got Owen wrapped around my finger pretty good, I'll be able to get his vote." Duncan crossed is arms as he looked over Heather's body. "Combined with your vote…that's three votes and a ticket off the island for Leshawna, and I'm sure you'll be more than happy to see her get off this island."

"…Ya know the funny thing is…I know you're playing me…but you're right." Heather extended her hand out for a shake. "You got yourself a deal." The two then shook on it, making it official.

CONFESSIONAL – HEATHER

"I'm sure he's got some alternative motive behind this, but whatever," Heather simply shrugged, not too worried about whatever Duncan may be planning. "I'll be able to deal with it when it surfaces."

THAT NIGHT

It was time for the dramatic bonfire ceremony, where seven campers would become six. The tension was thick, other than Gwen anyone here could have all the hard work they put into this game be for nothing and be sent home when they were this close to the finale. With Gwen smirking, already having a marshmallow, and everyone else sitting on their stumps with the occasional nervous twitch and deep breath, they all watched as Chris held up a plate of five marshmallows in front of him. "You've cast your votes and made your decision. When I call your name, come up, and claim your marshmallow." Everyone couldn't help but sigh at Chris explaining everything yet again. "The camper who does not receive a marshmallow tonight must immediately return to the Dock of Shame to catch the Boat of Losers and leave the competition…for good."

Chris then grabbed two marshmallows and held them up. "Dawn, Lincoln, congrats you two you're still in it." Dawn and Lincoln smiled as they walked up to Chris and collected their marshmallow goodness before sitting back down. "Owen, welcome to the final six buddy."

Owen gasped as he cheered and went to go get his marshmallow. "Woohoo!" Not bothering putting the marshmallow in his hand, Chris just tossed the fluffy treat into his mouth with the big guy happily chewing on it.

"Heather, don't know how, but you're safe." Heather smirked as she collected his marshmallow.

That left one marshmallow…and two campers. "Duncan, Leshawna, one of you has spent their last night on Total Drama island. Whoever I give this to is making it to the finale six, and the other one is heading off the island…forever." Duncan and Leshawna narrowed their eyes at the last marshmallow, the last symbol of safety Chris had with him. "The last marshmallow goes to…"

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"Duncan." With Gwen, Dawn, Lincoln, and Leshawna herself gasping, Duncan smirked confidently as he went up to collect his marshmallow. Owen looking down in shame and Heather putting on an evil smile. "Seriously dude, how do you keep pulling this off?"

"Eh, it's a gift." Duncan shrugged as he enjoyed his sweet, sweet marshmallow. After a satisfying swallow, Duncan turned to Leshawna while dusting off his hands. "That's what you get for trying to off me sweet heart."

Leshawna and Gwen gasped and quickly glared at Duncan, quickly realizing that he caught onto their plan and set this up. "You little weasel!" Leshawna yelled as she resisted the urge to clobber Duncan.

"Eh, been called worse." Duncan shrugged, making Leshawna growl more. "Your ride's waiting."

Sighing, Leshawna realized there was nothing she could do about this. "Guess that's it then." Slumping down, the girl with a tude waved to everyone. "By ya'll, Gwen, Dawn, Lincoln, Owen, good luck to you guys."

"Bye Leshawna!" They all said in unison to see their friend off, Gwen even sharing a hug with her. They all watched as Leshawna grabbed her things and saw herself to the Boat of Loser, which quickly took Leshawna, leaving the island forever.

And with that comes the end of another episode of Total…Drama…Island.