The first mission – get to the Western Island.

Boats had been provided for us at the beach. The six of us charged. I bashed Kori aside and claimed the right boat, Troy, Maddie and Isaiah jumping in after me. Troy revved the motor and we rushed to the Western Island. Kori, Tyler, Keir and Stella were close behind us the entire time, though Troy was able to keep us head.

He practically rammed us onto the nearest beach, all four of us almost flying from the boat. We glared at Troy. He offered us an apologetic smile before me, Maddie and Isaiah leapt from the boat. Troy had offered to stay behind and guard the boat. "Just in case," he'd said.

Maddie held the map as we ran into the forest, the sounds of Kori, Tyler and Stella's footsteps chasing us the entire way.

This brought us to the second mission – actually locating the exact position of the flag and getting to it before the Bitch Team got to our flag.

"Okay," Maddie panted as we ran. "Aim for the Generator and go west about another K. That will get us to the general area the map says the flag us. Now, last I heard, Cyrus and Sapphire have no strategy when it comes to defence. If two of us distract them while the third grabs the flag, it should be a clean cut back to the boat and the finish line."

I rolled my eyes. "Plans never work. I agree with the distracting part but that's all."

"Who will distract them?" Isaiah asked.

Maddie cringed and shrugged. "I hadn't decided that."

"See?" I cried. "Plans don't work!"

"Your mum is rubbing off on you." Maddie looked up, at the map, then up again. "Go left!"

We cut left.

"You and Isaiah take the guards," I said. "I'll get the flag."

"And how are you gonna do that?" Maddie snapped.

"Uh, hel-lo? I have wings. What was your plan?"

She turned away, looking a bit ashamed. I huffed but said nothing.

Sapphire and Cyrus were far from the best guards. They sucked at their job. We found the flag within minutes of reaching the general area Maddie told us about. The pair walked—no, paraded—around the flag like it was a centrepiece. I held back a facepalm as we hid in the bushes. These people had no idea what they were doing! Like, seriously! How did they not die in the Attack last year? And I know that's a horrible thing to say but come on.

"Don't lose your shit," Isaiah said.

Maddie and I gave him looks of absolute shock.

"Did you just swear?" Maddie whispered

Isaiah gave a rare smile. "Perhaps."

I returned it. "Have fun. You too, Maddie."

Maddie cracked her knuckles with a grin.

Maddie and Isaiah leapt from the bushed. Sapphire and Cyrus spun at the noise, finding themselves being chased by a Lyriumian and Glacis. Maddie aimed for Cyrus. Isaiah made a B-line for Sapphire.

Cyrus was quick to change into theur wolf form. Maddie let out a yell of "GET THE FUCK BACK HERE!" and started chasing Cyrus away from the flag. Isaiah sent an ice shower toward Sapphire. The Shadow hissed and vanished into thin air. But Isaiah seemed to know where she was headed. He was quick to follow. That left the flag wide open. I let myself smile and charged.

I tore the flag from the ground and turned to head back to the boat—

Only to find myself face to face with my arch nemesis.

Kori grabbed the flag pole and tugged. I raised an eyebrow and pulled back. Before we realised, we were fighting over the flag pole, neither of us willing to let go. I was first to get bored of our game. I sent a kick into Kori's stomach.

She gasped loudly as she stumbled back. "Fucking bitch!"

I laughed nervously, holding the flag against my chest. My wings tore from my back. "Bye!" I shot into the sky, Kori's outraged cries following me the entire way.

I made the mistake of thinking the sky was safe. One second, I was flying over the Western Island, headed back for the boat (because rules prevented me from just flying the flag back. Can you believe that?) when something hard hit me from behind. The next moment, I was laying on the ground, feeling like someone had shot me in the head.

I groaned, pushing to my hands and knees, the urge to barf becoming stronger. I looked up with blurry vision to see Kier, who I'd thought was off to get our flag, standing over me, the flag tight in his hands. He gave me an apologetic smile before vanishing into the forest.

I slumped to the ground with a groan. "Bad day."

Honestly, I'm not sure how long I lay there, but it was long enough that Maddie and Isaiah came looking for me. When I opened my eyes, my two friends were looking down at me. Maddie's arms were crossed with a knowing smile. Isaiah had his hands on my head, using his power to help my head heal faster. The pain eased in minutes.

"Alright?" he asked.

"Yeah." I smiled. "Thanks."

"Good." Isaiah helped me to my feet. "We may need a new plan. The others must have our flag by now?"

Maddie sighed. "Yeah, there's no wildfire so you're probably right. We need a new plan."

"Planning doesn't work," I said, repeating my words from earlier.

"Okay, then we need to have some sort of direction to go in." Maddie tugged at her braid. "Should we go check on the others, stop Bitch Team from getting the flag to the finish line, or reclaim theirs?"

I rested my chin on my fingers. "We may have to divide and conquer for this one." I nodded to myself. "Okay. Here's what we'll do."

*

It was a simple plan, if you could even call it that. Maddie returned to the Bitch Team's flag to see where they were at. Isaiah rushed to our team to check on them. I made my way back to the boat in case Bitch Team were further ahead than we thought. We'd decided to keep in contact via our phones. I'd texted the others to let them know what was happening but no one had responded. I hoped that was a good thing.

It took a good twenty minutes to get back to the beach in my state. Disoriented and unable to use my wings, I got a little lost on the way there but made it eventually. Both boats were still there. Keir and Troy were waiting in their respective vessels, glaring at each other. I rolled my eyes. At least this meant Bitch Team hadn't made it back yet. If Keir was here, then it was unlikely the flag was with him. He may have been part of Bitch Team but he was sensible. He didn't break rules.

I opened the group call line and said, "They're not here yet."

"Good," Sky answered, his voice coming through my earpiece. "We haven't had anyone try yet."

"That's reassuring," Maddie muttered. "These guys have put their flag back in place and are back to being shitty guards."

"Problem," Imogene sung with a strange cheerfulness.

"We now have three people guarding our flag," I murmured more to myself than the others. "Troy's on boat duty so that means it's up to me and Maddie to get the flag back."

"Are you and Kori gonna go at it again?" Maddie asked with a sigh. "I am not gonna bail you out again."

"Yes, you are," I said. "We're teammates."

Maddie groaned in response.

"Hey, where are Kori, Tyler and Stella?"

A loud explosion made me tear my earpiece from my ear. I spun on the spot. Flames flew high in the air and were quickly overtaking the entire island.

"Oh fuck!" I rushed to put my earpiece back in place. "Maddie, get that fucking flag. Troy, get ready to move. I'm going to help the others."

*

Here's the thing about me and my mates. We're not professionals. Yeah, sure, I was trained by Naiu'Idis, the Lyriumian Court and the Old King, but that doesn't mean I'm anywhere near their level. I'm still a student for the sake of the Gods! And the worst part of that is losing control of your power.

Imogene has always had control issues. When you catch her off guard, she will blow shit up. It's a given. Isaiah tries his best to cover it up, so does Sky, but there's only so much that can be done. The latest example on the long list would be this.

By the time I reached our zone, everything was on fire. And I mean everything. The only things not on fire were the people.

Imogene was a raging inferno – literally and metaphorically. Isaiah was running around trying to put out the fires she created before they overtook the entire island. Sky was the only one focused on the targets, Kori and Tyler. And Kori was holding the flag!

I won't lie, that made me see red, and it had nothing to do with the rising smoke. With a battle cry, I charged forward and crash tackled Kori to the ground. She lost her grip on the flag in her surprise and found herself with my fist in her face. Multiple times. To the point that there was a loud snapping noise. I'll let you use your imagination there.

Kori screamed so loud I actually got off her, covering my ringing ears. She clutched her bleeding broken nose, staring at me with fire in her eyes (anger fire, not fire fire). "You absolute bitch!"

I shrugged nonchalantly, acting cool as I picked up the flag and tossed it to Sky who quickly used the pole to whack Tyler—currently in wolf form—away from him. Imogene was starting to calm down. Isaiah had the fires under control. I nodded to myself and began the run back to the other side of the island.

*

I didn't make it very far before I quite literally ran into Maddie. We shrieked as we fell to the ground, both raising our respective weapons—my fists, her flag—before realising who we were in front of and bursting into a fit of relieved laughter.

Maddie held the flag proudly. "Got it!"

"Great!" I exclaimed. "So, why are you coming this way?"

"Where there's smoke, there's Imogene having a tantrum," she answered simply.

"Ain't that the truth. Come on." I gave her shoulder a proud pat. "Let's get back to the boat. The others are handling the wolves."

Maddie glanced behind me. "Uhm, no, I don't think they are."

I followed her gaze. "Oh, boy."

Kori had grabbed the flag. She ran as fast as her wolf form would take her, the flag clenched tightly between her teeth. A second wolf, Tyler, ran after her, closely followed by Sky, Imogene and Isaiah.

Isaiah was the only one to stop and acknowledge our existence. He made an exasperated expression and gestured in the direction the others were going with his hands before spluttering out "come on!" Maddie and I exchanged glances as he ran off before joining the race.

And so the final stage of the game began – the race back to Academy Island.

The seven of us ran neck-a-neck as we made our way through the forest to the beach. Keir and Troy saw us all coming and started up the engines.

Maddie tossed the flag into our boat, Imogene climbing on after it. The rest of us pushed the boat from the beach before jumping on. Troy pushed the engine to its higher gear, the boat kicking up waves and water. Bitch Team was close behind, having taken longer than us to get their boat moving.

In mere minutes we reached the halfway point between the Western Island and Academy Island. Bitch Team was still behind us and showed no signs of catching up. We could win this!

Naturally, that was when things went wrong. Well, wrong for us.

Something hard jolted our boat from underneath. We grabbed onto the sides of the boat, trying to stop ourselves falling into the water.

"The fuck was that?" Imogene demanded, he hair flickering between bright blue and green. Even with the fire charm protecting her from the water, she was still nervous around it.

"They have a Zer on their team," Isaiah reminded us. "I would be safe to assume she is in the water."

The boat jolted again. Troy struggled to keep us upright.

"Fuck this," I muttered. I turned to the others. "I don't care how you do it, make sure Bitch Team doesn't beat you back to the Island." Before anyone could stop me, I jumped into the water.

There are many perks to being dead. Well, undead. For this specific situation, the lack of needing air comes in real handy. I only drown temporarily if I take in the water. So long as I don't breath, I don't drown and I don't need air. And I'm a great swimmer. Just not as good as the Zer.

I spun around in the water, using my arms to keep myself in place as I searched for the rogue member of Bitch Team. I couldn't see Stella anywhere. How hard could it be to find a Brown Zer with a glowing rose-gold tail in the dark blue ocean? Stella didn't get her name for nothing.

A flash of light wooshed past me. I spun again, trying to keep up with it but it moved too fast. Shit! The light went past again. Stella was circling me, getting ready to attack hard and fast. She was swimming around me at a dizzying speed. My mind was beginning to panic—

I slapped myself. What was I freaking out over? There was a simple solution to this!

I closed my eyes and listened to Stella swimming, trying to predict where in the circle she would come next—

There!

As she came toward me, I raised my fist with a speed only immortals had. The water may have muffled the thud, but the spirt of blood made my actions clear. Stella was out cold, floating down to the bottom of the ocean. I raised my hands and flipped off her unconscious form.

I turned toward the still moving boat, getting ready to swim after it and climb back on board, but something stopped me. I looked down at the slowly sinking Stella. Rolling my eyes, I went down, grabbed her by the arms, and dragged her along with me. My swimming became slower. There was no way for me to keep up with the boat and take the Zer.

Someone dove into the water and grabbed one of Stella's arms. Sky! He gave me a thumbs up. With a wave of his hand, the three of us were moving through the water at top speed. We caught up with the boat in no time. Sky used his water powers to push us up onto the boat.

Seeing we were on board, Troy kicked the engine into overdrive. We'd fallen behind Bitch Team. Even with the engine giving everything it could, we wouldn't be able to keep up. It was time to play as clean as they had.

Isaiah and Imogene attacked their boat with a fury of fire and ice. Keir begun weaving this way and that to avoid being hit, their speed slowing considerably. Sky spread his arms wide. The water around our boat came up behind us like a wave, pushing us forward even faster than before. We shot past Bitch Team's boat, Isaiah shooting a large snowball toward them. It landed straight in their boat. I gave Kori a two-fingered salute as she sat freezing and bleeding, unable to do anything but glare as we reached the beach we started at.

Troy didn't bother slowing down too much. We slammed into the beach. I grabbed the flag, leapt from the boat, and charged over the finish line, jamming the flag into its place on the other side. My friends let out triumphant cheers.

We'd won the game.