The Adventures of Teen Island

Obstacle Course

Emma's POV
"Why do we have to do this?" I asked looking at the course in front of me. "Its basic training. Its also gonna be your final test so Id practice if I were you" Carter said. "What's it do? It looks simple" Clay said. "Its anything but. Tony?" Carter looked to him. Tony sighed, grabbed his gun, and went to the beginning of the course. "Tony will demonstrate for you. And yes, it will look hard. Don't worry though, Tony and I will walk you through it as much as you need" Carter said. "And may I just add, I haven't done this in a while so I might fuck up" Tony said. "Yeah because that's why you'll fuck up" Stephanie said sarcastically. Carter looked back at her. "I like you already" she smiled. Stephanie smiled back and Carter turned to Tony. "So, whenever Tony does something wrong, a red X will appear on this screen. This is also timed. You have to complete this course in a certain amount of time with as few screw ups as possible" Carter held up a tablet for us to see. "How long do we have?" Oliver asked. "I average out all your best times and then you have to beat that time. So I don't know yet" Carter shrugged. "Can we start now?" Tony asked. Carter held up a stop watch. "Ok Tony. Go!" She started the time. Tony started jumping, sliding, and flipping over and under stuff. I looked at the tablet. The first phase of this is all physical. I guess that's the jumping. The second phase just says 'surprise.' What's that mean? I looked back up at Tony. He jumped over a wall and then immediately hid behind it. A green check mark showed on phase one. When Tony hid a target shot up and shot something at him. He didn't get hit, but he spun around and shot the target. Oh, now I understand the 'surprise' part. He got shot at again but didn't get hit. This time I can see what it is. Its a paintball. He has no padding. Oh god, this is gonna hurt like hell when I mess up. Tony shot a bunch of targets. This is starting to get boring. Phase three on the tablet doesn't have a name. Tony yelled and I looked up. "Ahhh!" He yelled running away from a blast of water. The water stopped and he ran right back, now running from fire. "I forgot about this part!" He yelled. We laughed. We watched as Tony struggled to shoot down the targets that were attacking him with magic. After he finally shot the last one, he had to go back through the physical stage, in which he tripped a few times, but he did manage to cross the finish line before he passed out. Carter stopped the timer. "You did worse than before. Looks like I have to train you again too" Carter said. Tony didn't respond. He just took deep breaths and laid back on the grass. "Kill me now" he groaned. "Meh. You can wait till later. Its their turn now" Carter turned to us. We all took a step back. This will not go well.

We're only doing the physical portion for now. Thank God. I don't wanna get hit with a paintball. I went to get some water. Siren is watching the others practice. She hasn't drank her water yet. "Siren? You have to drink it" I said. She snapped out of her trance and looked at me. "Oh. Yeah I know. I just, zoned out" she said. I squinted at her. She looks nervous. "Are you ok?" I asked. "Yeah why?" She asked. "You're nervous" I asked. "Well yeah. Do you see that course? I'm not exactly the most fit for it" she said. "I don't think that's what's bothering you" I said, shaking my head. She stared at me for a moment and then looked back at course. "Carter said that the supers had to do an extra thing for our powers. Its small, but I still don't think I can do it" she said. "Why?" I asked. "Because I cant control my powers" she said, looking at me. "Oh" I said. "Hey! Enough chatter! Lets go" Tony yelled. We looked at him. "I can try to help you if you want" I said looking back at Siren. "How? You're human. I've been to a thousand different doctors and power specialists. Why do you think I came to this Island? I have a rare power. So rare that no one has been able to help me control it. So rare that my parents were embarrassed by it. Thank you for volunteering, but you cant help me" she walked away.

"Carter?" I knocked on her door. "Yeah" she called. I came in. "One of the supers has a problem" I said. "Every kid on this island has a problem" she said. She's folding laundry. I always seem to catch her doing chores. "Siren cant control her powers" I said. She kept on with her business. "Hello? Did you hear me? She needs help" I said. "I'm aware of Sirens problem Emma. She will be fine" she said. "How do you know that?" I asked. "She's not the first songbird to come through here" she said. "A what?" I asked. "Songbird. Its what people with song power are called" she explicit. "But its a rare ability. You've met another one?" I asked. "Oh God no, but I heard about him. He used to be one of the kings guards. He brought so much joy to the island. Apparently Christmases with him were a blast" she said with a laugh. "What happened to him?" I asked. "He left. Like we all will eventually. The older kids still talk about him. They miss his song. I heard that he had issues starting out too. If you can find an older kid, they can probably tell you more than I can" she said. "How much older is older?" I asked. "Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen" she said. "Thanks Carter" I said. I went to leave. "Emma" she stopped me. She really likes stopping me when I try to leave. "Yeah?" I asked turning to her. "Was training too hard?" She asked. I shook my head. "No. Just enough actually." I said. She smiled. "Ok. You can go" she said. I smiled and left.

"Clay" I opened his door. He shrieked and fell out of his bed. "I need your help" I said. "Didn't anyone teach you how to knock?" He asked. "You don't get that privilege. Come on. We're going on a quest" I said, helping him up. "What?" He asked. "We're gonna go figure out how to help Siren. Lets go" I said. "Why do I have to go?" He whined. "Because I said so" I dragged him with me.

"So, you wanna find someone with information about this songbird guy in hopes that they might have something for Siren?" He asked. We're walking around the marketplace. "Yes" I said. "What if they don't have any information?" He asked. "They will" I said. "I seriously doubt that." he said. "Carter said he was a guard. Maybe another guard will know something" I said. "Why didn't we ask Stephanie then?" He asked. "Because she isn't seventeen" I said. We walked to the docs. There's a boat arriving and a bunch of guards are there. I walked up to a really tall one, assuming he was older. I tapped on his shoulder. He turned to us and was taken back. "Hi bandits. Did I do something?" He asked, confused. "No. We were wondering if you knew a songbird guy that used to be on the guard?" I asked. "Oh, Rafael. Yeah, he was cool" he said. "We heard he struggled with his powers when he came here. Do you know how he got better?" I asked. "Why do you wanna know?" He asked confused. Clay stepped up. "We have a friend whos a songbird and cant control her magic" Clay said. "Oh! Well Rafael didn't really do anything to make it work. I was actually on duty with him when it happened. We were over there on the dock and he didn't see that there was a mermaid behind him. She wasnt trying to scare him but he got spooked and ended up holding her in the air with his scream. It was weird because usually when he got scared, everything would get blasted back. This time though, he was able to control it easily. It was weird" he said. Clay looked at me. "Thanks" I said. Clay and I looked away. "So what do we do with that?" He asked. "There's nothing we can do. I guess we just have to let her figure it out herself" I said. "But she's tried that" he said. "I know. That's why I'm worried" I sighed.