==Artemis 2021==

TW: 18+ | Descriptions of Violence | Mature Language

Terra Lorenz, 18 Years Old

A woman lumbered across a shipyard in the dead of night. Flickering light posts were strung across the yard in a pattern-like fashion, they were so dim, no work could be done at night. The young woman stood out like a sore thumb among the shipyard. She wore a bright pink sweater that was soaked by the nearby water, the breeze only made her shiver more. She had a tight grip on a raw fish. It flopped absentmindedly as she held it up to her eye-level. Taunting it before holding it above her head.

Her jaw unlatched, her cheeks forcefully ripped open with little force. Blood leaked from the sides as tendons ripped and vessels popped. The girl did not seem to care, her eyes were only fixated on the snack in front of her, which flopped with a newfound purpose upon seeing her razor-sharp teeth. She swallowed the fish in one bite, taking its bones with it. When she closed her mouth, her skin quickly re-sealed itself.

She walked like a zombie, her body twitching and curling as she digested her previous meal. By the water sat an inconspicuous ship. On it’s side, it read “Notorious Nautical”. The woman took a big leap from the ground and onto the ship’s dock. On the ship, there were two men who had been tied up. She was silenced with a tight knot around her mouth.

“Only one snack tonight?” She blubbered. One of the men spoke back with fear bubbling in his throat. “Sorry Ms. Saber! She was the only one we could find!”

Before Saber could even say anything, a faint red light emerged from inside of the boat. It transformed into a raging glow as both men went flying off of the boat and into the water.

Terra had fully attached her armor. The abnormal power known as the “Power of Olympus” pumped through her blood. She untied the girl.

“A metahuman? We’ve had enough of vigilantes poisoning the streets of New York! I’m going to enjoy tearing you apart.” Saber gloated. Terra sighed as Saber jumped towards her like a wild animal, twirling through the air. Terra stood her ground, with a concentrated snap, the gauntlets of her armor around her wrists flew off and stabbed into Saber’s skin. She was pinned to the ground, Terra simply walked towards her, with an almost statue-like demeanor.

Saber’s skin quickly healed itself, spitting Terra’s armor pieces out. She realized the fight would go on forever if she wasn’t to do something. She kept Saber pinned down when she kneeled on top of her.

“Leave the people of this city alone.” She scolded stoically as she sunk her fist into her face. Blood spilled out of her body, as if she was made fully of liquid, as Saber lost control, she let out an inhuman bellow. Terra ignored, breaking through another layer of skin. When Saber wasn’t able to move, she stood up, leaving her broken body on the floor. Terra helped the woman they had captured off the boat. Saber began to speak through her broken teeth.

“If you want me to stop…Why not just kill me?” She choked.

“You aren’t a monster, someone made you like this. People like that deserve a second chance.”

________________________________________________________________________

Terra laid on her bed staring at the fan slowly teetering back and forth. Her MP3 player sat on her chest playing music through her headphones. Her eighteenth birthday was approaching faster than she could handle, the mountains felt like a far-off, fleeting memory now. Now, whenever things felt hard, they only got worse. Inside of her dueling perspectives, she reflected on her friends. Amelia had gone through the worst, she lost Krilla, someone she had known since she was a child. Not only this, but her brother died in front of her.

Terra only had a crush on Donny for a few weeks. The night she spent with him was likely dwarfed by the many nights Amelia and him spent looking up at the stars. As the thoughts floated in her mind, a particularly nasty one came into sight. Terra had never loved someone the way Donny had. Maybe her grandparents. Not that way, though. The feeling of one’s heart fluttering whenever thoughts of someone special crossed her mind. Visions of Carl and Ellie embracing one another left her with a good thought. eighteen

“Terra…! Come here…!” A muffled voice sounded through her apartment door. She finally sat up to view her apartment window. For once, the streets of Hell’s Kitchen slept at night. Everyone had come together to celebrate the new year. Her new life was only built in the matter of a year. At seventeen she owned an apartment in a shady owner’s complex. She stepped out of her apartment door across the way into her friend’s room.

“Terra! She’s awake! Go and get some glasses and a beer! The big apple isn’t gonna wait for you.” her friend, Millie chirped.

Millie was the owner of the apartment across from her. She sat on her bed with two familiars watching the New Years celebration on TV. She had wrapped her arm around her little brother, Kris. She was his sole protector growing up.

“Big apple? Is she always like this on New Years?” Terra asked Kris.

“She’s like this on all the holidays.” He replied wearily. Kris was actually closer in age to Terra, but she never got time to grow close to him. From her understanding, she felt like she was a true adult even before turning eighteen. Thus, she was a lot closer to Amelia and Millie due to fighting together against the MFI.

Millie and Kris were crowded together on one bed, Millie watched the TV with no further thoughts in the world. She held a beer, and wore glasses that read “2021”. Her blonde hair smelled of a faint lavender that flooded the room. Amelia sat against the head of the bed next to them, holding a beer. She watched the TV from afar. Terra finally took a seat on the foot of Amelia’s bed. After her brother Donny’s death, she was homeridden for a month. For the last month, she had been wandering around like a ghost.

Amelia was the one who dragged Terra into the conflict between the Blue Coats and the MFI in the first place. Word dripped down from Terra’s activity in the White Mountains. She freed a “slave camp” filled with metahumans, the MFI placed camps that held metas all over the United States, Terra was the first one to free them, unbeknownst to herself. Amelia got Terra to join her rebellion, a gang called the Blue Coats. It was more like an organized crime group, working to undermine the MFI at every turn. Donny was her second-in-command. Since he died, the Blue Coats had dispersed.

“How are you doing, Amelia?” Terra asked, not knowing what else to say.

“What do ya think? I’m celebrating the New Year! Let’s take this night to celebrate everyone we lost.” Amelia commanded while handing Terra a beer. “It’s non-alcoholic, just don’t take anything Millie gives you.” Millie responded by sticking her tongue out at Amelia, who turned away with a blush.

“Happy New Year!” All three shouted, followed by Terra. Not long after, Millie was passed out on her bed. Amelia ended up sacrificing the bed she sat on to Kris so he could go to sleep for the night. He didn’t have a lot of energy for social events, the young man seemed like he was ready to fall asleep hours ago.

Terra and Amelia crossed the hall through her room and into her balcony overlooking New York City. They felt the hysteria in the air from the chaos caused by New Years celebrations. In Hell’s Kitchen, it was quiet. Finally, some quiet.

“Do you ever wish you never got involved with Integer?” Amelia blurted out. While her mental state more or less went back to normal since Donny’s death, she seemed to be taking the New Year to think over everything that happened.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I wanted revenge on Beck. He was the one who ran the camp in the White Mountains. He destroyed my village, killed my family. I was mad at him, but more than anything else, I wanted him to be stopped. I didn’t want him to rip anybody else’s lives apart.” She explained.

“I bet. He wasn’t the real asshole, though. It’s Jilaya and her damn family. If I could go back, I would stop them. I’d do what I didn’t have the guts to do. We have to do what we have to do to take her down.”

Terra, brushing aside some of Amelia’s claim, reassured her. “You and Millie took me in and accepted me. I’m willing to do what I can to help you. If it means following you to the other side of the world, I’ll do it.”

“We aren’t going to the other side of the world, but start packing. We’re heading to California soon.”

“Where’s that?” Terra asked. Amelia smiled and laughed at her ignorance. “You haven’t even seen a damn map right? It’s across the United States. We’re going on a road trip.” Terra smiled and nodded, doubt festering in the back of her head.