A/N Hello everyone! So I've decided to upload this new Total Drama story for a couple of reasons. The main one is because I really like the concept of this story but I'm finding it difficult to be motivated to continue it. Therefore, I've decided that uploading it here would be the best way to gain more motivation!
Another important thing to note is that not everything in this chapter will make sense, because a lot of explanations will be seen in later chapters. I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 1: Avian-Canadians
The first thing Gwen saw when she woke up was a rather cheeky grin coming from none other than Cody. With a groan, she pushed herself up into a sitting position, making sure her face showed just how annoyed she was with being woken up on a rare day off of Chris's torture.
"What do you want?" Gwen asked, her voice monotone.
"You're late!" Cody exclaimed, reaching forward and grabbing Gwen's wrist in an attempt to pull her out of bed.
Gwen rolled her eyes. "I'm not late. Also, how did you get in here anyways? This is the girls side, remember?"
"You're the only one still in here, it wasn't that hard," Cody shrugged. "But come on, you promised that we would meet the others at the top of the mountain today!'
Gwen sighed, knowing that he was right. Reluctantly, Gwen stood up and walked over to the dresser that held the Gopher girls' clothes.
"Are you going to stand there and watch me change, or do I get some privacy?" Gwen asked, bite in her voice.
"Oh, sorry," Cody said quickly. "I'll be up with the others on the hill."
Gwen nodded in agreement before quickly changing into her clothes, discarding her pajamas into another drawer. She quickly took a comb through her hair a couple of times, deciding that she didn't entirely care how she looked today.
Getting out of camp unnoticed was easier than usual. Trent, who usually sat with his guitar in by the lake in the mornings, was nowhere to be seen. A few other campers milled about, but took no notice to Gwen as she darted into the woods. After five minutes of running, Gwen decided that she was out far enough to not be seen. She glanced around for cameras, but saw none.
With a fast sprint and a large leap into the air, Gwen's wings sprouted out from her back.
Gwen pushed herself to a fast speed, extending her arms in front of her to break the harsh air hitting her face. In only a matter of seconds, Gwen was at the top of the mountain. She gently landed on the grass, retracting her wings back into her body.
"Gwen!" Bridgette exclaimed with a grin, standing up from her previous spot on the ground next to Cody.
"Nice of you to finally show up," Duncan said with a scowl and an eyeroll. "Only took you an hour."
"Shut up," Gwen said. "Like you didn't just get up five minutes ago, too."
Duncan grinned slightly. "I would deny it, if you didn't know it was true."
"Perks of the Link," Gwen noted, returning a grin.
"Now we're just missing-" Cody started. As if on cue, an object flying at top speed flew overhead, circling them in rapid fashion before finally landing onto the ground next to Duncan.
"Izzy." Cody finished. "How's life off the island?"
"Great, once I finally ditched the RCMP!" The redhead said, extremely chirpy in her voice.
"I still can't believe you managed to get them on your tail," Gwen groaned. "As if it wasn't hard enough to keep our secret."
Izzy chuckled. "Please, like they'd ever actually catch me. Not when I can literally disappear into thin air!" As if to prove a point, Izzy turned herself transparent.
"Oh, I hate when she does that!" Cody said. "Izzy, please make yourself visible again."
"If you insist," Izzy turned herself visible again, though this time she had a little bird sitting on her shoulder. Gwen decided not to ask.
"So, since you all wanted to meet here so bad, are we going to fly or not?" Gwen asked impatiently.
"What, got a hot date?" Cody teased. "With Trent?"
Gwen huffed. "Definitely not."
"Still mad about the ditching you underground thing, eh?" Duncan asked.
Gwen rolled her eyes again. "It was a sucky move, but I'm over it. Just not particularly into guys who can't keep promises."
"You'll forgive him eventually," Bridgette noted. "He likes you, you know. A lot."
"I'm done with this conversation," Gwen said. "I'm going, feel free to join me. Or stick around and talk about my love life, whatever you choose."
With that, Gwen threw herself off of the cliff, sprouting her wings and taking off away from the island.
"Yo princess, wanna slow down for the rest of us? Not everyone can fly as fast as you, you know," Duncan said in her head.
"Don't call me princess," Gwen scolded. She slowed down her pace a bit, and turned her head to see the other four flying after her.
"What, jealous that you aren't the only princess I know anymore?" Duncan retorted, though with a teasing tone.
"Yeah because I totally care that you call Courtney, aka the biggest suck up I've ever met, princess," Gwen responded sarcastically.
"Hey, do you guys want to speak out loud for a bit," Cody interjected, finally catching up with Gwen.
"Sorry," Gwen mumbled.
"It's still not fair that you two got a personal mental link," Cody whined. "Why can't you and I have one, too?"
"I really don't want to know what you think about all day," Gwen responded.
"Fair enough," Cody shrugged. "But still, feel free to talk aloud."
"Sure thing, pipsqueak," Duncan said with a devious smile, flying over Cody and ruffling his hair, much to the younger boy's horror.
"Hey!" He exclaimed, trying to pat his hair back into order. Gwen couldn't help but smile at the small exchange. These boys, and Bridgette and Izzy, are the only family she has.
Their story is a complicated one, and Gwen herself doesn't even know every detail. The first memory she has is being strapped to a surgical table at the age of 5, people in white lab coats with green masks covering their mouths hovering over her, speaking in rushed whispers.
Gwen and the others were all created and raised in a lab facility. Though, raised is a very generous term. Gwen's childhood consisted of locked rooms, hours of testing per day, surgery after surgery, and little to no contact with other children. She'd only met the other four when they were all shoved in cages next to each other, a couple of days before their escape. It was there that Gwen learned Cody was her younger brother.
Gwen still isn't quite sure how it is possible for Cody to be her brother, since all of them were taken as babies. Really, she can't just wrap her head around the fact that someone would give up two babies to a facility that turned them into freaks.
But regardless, Cody is the only family Gwen has. Even if he is really annoying, and despite the fact that his idea of pretending to have a crush on Gwen to throw people off is totally weirding her out half the time.
"Yo Princess, what's got you down?" Duncan called out from a few hundred feet ahead of her. "You're flying slower than little Cody over here with his 12-foot wingspan."
"Hey!" Cody protested. "My wings are just as good as yours."
In typical Duncan fashion, the punk teen smirked and leaned back, flying a backflip over Cody before shooting up and pushing the younger boy into the air before letting him fall. Cody yelped out and took a few seconds to recover, falling a few hundred feet before finally regaining his balance.
"Tell me when you can do that," Duncan shouted down from where he was.
"Boys," Bridgette said from next to Gwen with an eye roll. "How have we managed to stay safe so far?"
"I ask myself that every day," Gwen responded with a slight chuckle. "Honestly, sometimes I think we'd be better off ditching them in Australia and flying far, far away."
"Sounds like a plan," Bridgette said with a wide grin.
Suddenly, Gwen heard Izzy groan from behind them, followed by the sound of wings flailing through the air. She stopped and turned around to see Izzy falling with her eyes closed.
"Duncan!" Gwen shouted through their Link. "Izzy is falling, I don't think she's conscious!"
Gwen took off, shooting down to catch up to Izzy. Luckily, the goth was able to reach her in a matter of seconds. Gwen hooked her arms under Izzy's and attempted to pull her up, but Gwen was only able to slow the freefall both of them were now succumbing to.
Duncan finally caught up to them and grabbed Izzy's knees, pushing up with his wings as hard as he can. Gwen and Duncan together were able to stop Izzy from hitting the ground, though the fact that they were hovering only a hundred feet from the ground was enough to send a chill down Gwen's spine.
"Huh? Wha- What happened?" Izzy asked groggily. She glanced around a few times, gently flapping her wings.
"No, you aren't flying now," Duncan ordered. "We'll land you up on the hill until we know you're okay."
"Aye aye, Captain Duncan," Izzy saluted with a weak smile. Duncan exchanged a look with Gwen before the two flew Izzy back over to land, with Bridgette and Cody trailing behind. Once Izzy was safely seated on the ground, wings pulled back in, Gwen explained what happened.
"You just started falling, and you looked like you were in pain," Gwen told her.
Izzy spaced out for a moment before gasping. "I had a vision!"
"That's never good," Brigette noted. "What was it this time?"
Izzy glanced warily at Cody, hesitation obvious. "It was about Cody… I think something bad is going to happen to him."
"What do you mean?" Cody asked. His voice was panicky, and Gwen put an arm around her brother, pulling him close to her.
"You know I can't see much with my visions, mainly I just get strong feelings that you'll be facing in the future," Izzy said. "This vision brought a lot of pain, which is probably why I passed out. I recall seeing your face right before."
"Aw man, this sucks!" Cody exclaimed. "Of course, I'm going to be injured."
"You're going to be fine, I promise," Gwen assured him. "I won't let anything happen to you."
Gwen knew that was a complete lie, as Izzy's "visions" were never wrong. However, Gwen also knew that Cody would not be able to live the next couple of days without seeming extremely anxious if he didn't have some sort of assurance he would be okay. The last thing Gwen wanted, besides Cody to be hurt, was for him to accidentally blurt out some secret.
"Whatever, I'm going back," Cody announced, extending his wings. "If I'm gonna die, I might as well hit on Lindsay a few more times before I go."
Cody launched himself off of the ground, Gwen rolling her eyes at her brother's antics. Secretly, she was extremely worried about Cody. Duncan must have sensed this, because he was staring at her from a few feet away. Not wanting to deal with his or the others' concerns and consolations, Gwen extended her own wings and pushed herself into the air, taking off towards the clearing in the woods again.
When Gwen reentered the camp, she saw Trent sitting on one of the picnic tables with a notebook in hand and guitar in his lap. He looked up at Gwen and smiled, which Gwen returned.
"Hey, what are you working on?" Gwen asked, taking a seat beside him.
"A new song that I've been writing for a few days," Trent answered. "It's about this show, and how it's changing me."
"Can I hear some?" Gwen asked, hopeful. She loved it when Trent sang, but he rarely ever did.
"Sure, but you have to promise not to laugh," Trent said with a cheeky grin. "The lyrics aren't perfect, and the chords don't match perfectly."
"Like I would even notice," Gwen said. "Now go on!"
"Times are new, I'm here with you
I feel myself slipping away, and
Challenges I, daily face
But all we've overcome
The summer's warm wind, with us now
The fire's dancing, round and round
The struggles that I deal with now
Are worth it when you are around," Trent sang, trailing off at the end. "That's all I have so far."
"It's really good," Gwen replied honestly. "I don't know how you come up with the inspirations for this song."
A slight blush crept up on Trent's cheek. "Well, it's not so hard when the people around you are extraordinary."
Gwen smiled and turned away, trying to hide her own blushing cheeks. They stayed like that for a few moments.
"Gwen!" Bridgette's voice shrilled.
"Way to ruin the moment," Gwen muttered under her breath. She gave Trent an apologetic look, to which he of course smiled and shrugged in response to, before standing up to walk with Bridgette.