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Author's Note: Okay, so I know I should probably be working on my main fic series 'Not So Scary', especially since I just came out of a 15 month hiatus between chapters eleven and twelve. But hear me out with this one…
A couple months ago I was invited to a discord server by CaioCoia, the creator of Reality Collides: The Ezekiel Chronicles, and after some… anxiety related growing pains (which I'm still getting used to xD), I got to talking with a couple of peeps in there.
Alongside some much needed motivation and feedback that helped me to finish off the latest chapter of 'Not So Normal', we got to talking about a new idea to go alongside my main fic series that could potentially be what sparks me back into writing.
With the end of 'Not So Normal' potentially in sight I want to see how I fare writing a compfic before I begin pushing forward with a potential reboot s3 fic, so that's how we came up with the idea for this fic.
A Total Drama World Tour fic but with a new twist! If there's two casts I love, it's the originals and the reboot cast, and World Tour has always been one of my favourite seasons, although it has its flaws like every season.
I hope you guys all enjoy this new fic, whether you're new to my fics or have read the 'Not So Scary' series before!
Chapter One - Prologue
*December 2022*
The summer of 2022 had seen a drastic change for the world of Reality TV, when the long awaited return of 'Total Drama Island' had finally aired after a twelve year absence following the cancellation of the series back in 2010.
The popular reality show had seen a sharp decline in ratings in the show's last two seasons, particularly in its final season 'Pahkitew Island', and combined with the rise of Dominic 'Don' McGurrin's 'The Ridonculous Race' that same year, it had sparked the end of Chris McLean's reign for years.
But the rebooted reality show had aired to massive success, with ratings not seen since the initial three seasons of the show had aired almost back-to-back-to-back back in 2007 and 2008.
Over the span of mere days the lives of sixteen teenagers had drastically transformed, some would find newfound fame like the loveable soda addict Hezekias 'Zee' Rodriguez, or the two stars of Edmonton's now famous hockey team The Snow Owls, Wayne Hopkins and Rajesh 'Raj' Singh, the latter finding huge support from the LGBTQ community following his coming out story and subsequent relationship with fellow competitor Bowie Jackson, younger brother of famous athlete Rudolph 'Lightning' Jackon.
Some would find their already influential status heightened by their appearance on Total Drama, Julia O'Halloran, niece of former Celebrity Manhunt hostess Mildred 'Blaineley' O'Halloran, who herself had been a one time competitor on Total Drama World Tour. Julia may have seen her original fanbase completely disappear following the reveal of her true colours during the season, but her follower count only ended up eclipsing her pre-season count as people learned to love the 'true' Julia. Emma Richardson was another influencer whose popularity exploded following Total Drama, particularly after her permanent breakup with fellow contestant Chase Chen.
Speaking of Chase, he was one of a couple of contestants whose popularity had taken a decline from the season. His lack of care regarding his ex-girlfriends car accident amongst other controversies surrounding his YouTube channel had led to an exodus in his subscriber count. Although it almost paled in comparison to the cancellation of actress Nichelle Ladonna, who had been cast out of Hollywood following her humiliation on Total Drama and hadn't been seen in the spotlight since.
For one school in Calgary however, they got the pleasure of having two of the more well liked contestants walking amongst them. Damien Morrison had gone into the show completely unaware and unprepared for what Total Drama Island would throw at him, but despite his somewhat early elimination and constant screaming and threats of quitting, Damien was praised by his peers for overcoming his fear, in particular for saving his teammates from the raptors in his elimination. He didn't get let off completely though, particularly when it came to his friends teasing him about the 'goth chick he picked up', a thought that still haunted him even months later.
The other, Mary-Kate Nguyen, better known as 'MK', was praised for her strategic plays and snarky humour, particularly for her usage of the confessional's camera to spy on the others in the competition. Although she had also been eliminated early into the competition, her reputation had seen a large increase, even if she'd have preferred to stick to herself in the months following her first season.
It had taken them some time to adjust to their new status following the first season, particularly with their second season only a few months away. However for both Damien and MK it mattered little, since they still had their own school work to do…
It was a cold winter afternoon in Calgary, Canada. Snow had already long since covered much of the ground, and most students across the city would have already been preparing to head home for the holiday season. For MK and Damien however, they were currently inside one of the science labs at their local high school.
Damien had managed to get permission from their chemistry teacher, one Maximillian 'Max' McCord, to use the lab for a science experiment for his extra credit. In reality he was also wanting to show his friends what he was cooking up, but Mr McCord had graciously allowed access to the lab for him on the condition that MK joined him since she was currently flunking her chemistry grade, citing that he would 'gladly support the next generation in creating more 'evil' experiments'...
Frankly both Damien and MK thought that their science teacher was a little eccentric, but it allowed them both to be able to work in relative peace. Well, for Damien to work at least…
"Jeez, what a buzzkill this is turning out to be…" MK grumbled as she leaned against her desk, a look of complete boredom on her face as she watched Damien at work carefully measuring different chemicals as he slowly poured them into test tubes. "Are you almost done Damien… I could be out there earning some cash right about now…"
As she spoke her eyes darted across the lab towards some of the shelves, where various types of supplies for all types of science experiments lay within the drawers. MK's hands twitched slightly as she grumbled to herself once more, whilst she had agreed to work with Damien on this 'extra credit', the truth was MK had only joined Damien for a chance to sneak around the lab whilst it was quiet. There was plenty of equipment in the room that she knew would sell for even a small amount, and the thief could already feel the money lining her pockets.
"Nearly MK, just a few more calculations then I should have it…" Damien called out, not taking his eyes off the test tube full of the chemical mixture. His hand reached out towards another set of chemicals, however he wasn't quite able to reach. "Hey, could one of you pass me the sodium hydroxide? It's the tube with the light blue liquid."
MK rolled her eyes, however she just watched as the third member of their group reached over and passed the chemical ingredient over to Damien.
"Here you go Damien." Priyanka Basu, also known as Priya, the defending champion of Total Drama smiled gently as Damien nodded gratefully at her, taking the mixture from her hands.
"Thanks Priya, honestly I'm glad you managed to make it out here today, doubt we could do this without your help." Damien looked up for a moment, gratitude on his face before going back to his work.
"Well I mean I don't have school like the rest of you do, and my parents thought it was best to improve my social game more for next season and hey! It meant I got a couple days off from training at least…" Priya rambled nervously, rubbing her arm in slight embarrassment as she clutched a small piece of paper in her other hand. "And hey! I managed to get a signed autograph from your teacher, I still can't believe you guys have a former contestant teaching you science, much less the cousin of the original winner."
MK rolled her eyes as she snuck a beaker into her jacket, she couldn't for the life of her understand why Priya had such an obsession with the show, but at least it provided her with more entertainment then whatever the heck Damien was doing, and as she approached the table where Priya and Damien were performing the experiment she decided she'd have a little fun messing with the 'defending champion'.
"Seriously? It's not like it matters much, that season sucked and you know it." MK snorted, smirking over at the black haired girl, her eyes quickly narrowing as she turned to glare back at MK. "Besides, you literally won last season, what could you possibly need more training for?"
"Well unlike someone I actually have a crown to defend!" Priya shot back, looking slightly offended by the other girl's snarky comments. "Besides, it paid off didn't it?"
"Hardly?" MK scoffed, glancing at the mixture in Damien's hands almost dismissively. "If anyone on the show had any sense they'd have voted you off sooner for being a threat."
"Girls, please!" Damien cut in, raising his voice slightly as he checked for anything off with his mixture. "Can we save this for later, like after we're not holding onto potentially dangerous chemicals!"
As the two girls dissolved into bickering against each other with Damien as the unfortunate mediator, across the room inside the storage closet, a fourth figure watched through the small gap through the door with a large creepy smile on her face.
Lauren Strašivić, better known as 'Scary Girl', had been in the middle of her own research when she had overheard about Damien and MK's extra credit science experiment. She had only recently gotten to Calgary and had been following them for around a week, and had been able to take some interesting notes for her plans for next season.
Lauren had been called a lot of things after her first season on Total Drama, the message boards had made that much clear to her that she had to be different if she wanted to win next time. So she'd been stalking her fellow contestants for around two months now, researching their daily routines and habits in an attempt to learn how to be more normal…
In a way she struck gold with her current living situation since it helped her get away with her research a lot easier. Once news about her living as a part of the travelling circus had reached her cousin's ears, Dawn Boudreau, another former contestant of Total Drama had reached out and had allowed Lauren to stay with her for a while. When Dawn had travelled to Africa on an environmentalist trip to help save some of the wildlife, Lauren had jumped at the opportunity to press on with her 'normal' research without the prying eyes of her cousin.
It was what had led her to her current situation, peeking through a small gap in the door out into the main lab, watching as Priya, Damien and MK all bickered and attempted to work on their own experiment, all whilst Lauren mentally took note of what she saw so she could fine tune her own experiment in time for the next season in the summer.
But Lauren found herself unable to resist the opportunity that she was beginning to see as she kept watching them, all three were thoroughly distracted, and Lauren was never one to resist such an easy target.
She moved herself away from the gap in the door, looking around the small storage closet for something she could use to spook them with. The small room was filled with old mechanical junk that she couldn't recognise, clearly old experiments from the school's science teacher who in Lauren's opinion must have been a mad scientist himself.
But as Lauren kept looking around she found the perfect device, it was a small black rectangular device with what looked like shock prongs on the smaller side of it, Lauren grinned maliciously as she turned on the device and seeing small sparks of electricity, believing that it was a simple taser that she could use to shock Damien with.
As she slowly crept out of the closet, she began to hear the voices of the others more clearly, Damien still had his mixture in hand, however it looked slightly more unstable. He hadn't noticed yet that he'd added a little too much into it, his mind too preoccupied with stopping the argument between MK and Priya.
"You didn't even do that well considering you supposedly trained for the show…" MK scoffed, butting heads with the Indian girl. "You just got lucky that Emma hated Chase too much and that Bowie and Julia were too interested in one upping each other to target you."
"At least I wasn't voted off for watching people take craps in the outhouse!" Priya snapped back, her temper officially set off. "Maybe if you put the same effort into being a nice person, people might have actually believed you!"
"Priya, come on! You know MK's just trying to get a reaction from you." Damien tried to reason with her, using his free hand to place a hand on Priya's shoulder.
To his credit, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, beginning to perform a calming exercise as she took his reasoning to heart. Damien gave MK the side eye, the thief just shrugging and smirked once more, now thoroughly entertained by the whole ordeal.
In his moment of distraction however he didn't see the purple haired girl sneak up behind him, and by the time MK or Priya noticed Lauren she was already preparing to use the 'taser' on him.
"What the…?" MK began to speak up as Damien turned around, ready to place his experimental mixture back down into the test tube rack where it would've been momentarily safe, only to scream as he noticed the grinning goth girl right behind him, jumping slightly and accidentally loosening his grip on the mixture.
"Surprise~" Lauren giggled, ready to jab her favourite victim with the device in her hand, only for her smile to falter as she noticed his grip slip on the tube in his hand, the contents spilling out of it and towards her outstretched hand, directly onto the rectangular device…
MK and Priya shared a look of disbelief and concern as the now chemical soaked device began to spark and malfunction, Lauren winced as she had to drop the device, the sound of it hitting the floor overshadowed by the acidic mixture melting into the electronics.
"What the… what did you do?!" Damien panicked, too frightened in the heat of the moment to even ask the question of what Scary Girl was doing at his school. "S-Someone get an extingui-"
His voice was suddenly cut out when the device exploded into a flash of light, the three girls only had enough time to let out screams of their own before their own voices were silenced, the four teenagers bodies were quickly engulfed as the explosion filled the room.
Once the flash of light eventually dissipated after several long moments, the room fell silent, the now broken device lay on the smooth surface of the science lab still covered in the chemical mixture.
With no trace of any of the four teenagers to be seen, it was like they hadn't been in the room to begin with, the broken device and scattered test tubes on the table the only thing that even indicated that someone had been in the lab that afternoon…
End Chapter
Author's Note: Yeah this chapter is a lot shorter than the ones I usually put out, but I hope this is still good enough for a prologue. Let me know what you guys think and I'll try to get the next one out ASAP.
Next up: The four reboot contestants wake up and find themselves out of place and time.