==Artemis 2021==

TW: 18+ | Descriptions of Violence | Mature Language

Terra Lorenz, 18 Years Old

Jilaya’s house was a massive estate resting on a massive plot of land in a secluded part of California. For the large family she had staying on her land, she needed all the room she could get. A private party was held in commemoration of the MFI’s landmark taskforce, the Shadow Squadron. The only ones allowed were her family, and her closest soldiers. Her soldiers were the ones who took up the most room. Despite being called soldiers, they were treated like family. There were a maximum of twenty of them at any given time, but only numbers one through Thirteen attended the party.

Jilaya’s family consisted of her husband Ivan, and her two kids, Axel and Erica. Jilaya and Ivan sat peacefully next to the in-the ground pool, where they could watch and examine the party. Axel gleefully stepped out of the pool and sat next to Jilaya. Erica distantly floated in circles, examining her family.

“Mom, what are we going to be building next? We haven’t done anything in the lab in a long time.” Axel prodded.

“I have a machine in mind. But it’s a secret for now.” Jilaya taunted. “It’ll be our biggest achievement yet, so be sure to keep your schedule open.”

Ivan finally sat up from his chair to link eyes with his wife. “Why not get Erica involved? I’m sure her powers would serve you well. We wouldn’t need to use as many resources that way.”

Jilaya could only smile tenderly at her husband’s naivety. “We’ve tried to get her involved, but she doesn’t seem to like it.”

Erica looked on with contempt. She hadn’t been friendly with her mother since the truth was revealed to her. She was experimented on at a young age, that was why she had her powers. Not by any natural causes. Upon this discovery, she ran away. Even though her mother believed her experiment was for the betterment of society, Erica felt violated and used. It was Ivan who was able to reel her back in. She ended up leaving the pool to her family’s dismay. After changing, she sat in her room with her headphones in. She watched her fan slowly creak back and forth with the dead, balmy air. She felt a hand gently tap her knee.

“Hey, we aren’t done yet, sis.” Axel’s voice buzzed in Erica’s ear. “Everything alright?”

“Can you come here?” She beckoned. Axel subsided, sitting at the end of her bed. She sat up to meet him. “Aren’t you tired of this? Fighting tirelessly against those people?”

“The Blue Coats have made it clear they are a true threat. That’s why Ivan killed the leader’s brother. They’ve fallen apart. They are just waiting to strike back. Dad seems interested in that Artemis girl. We have to fight until we defeat them.”

“I wish I was normal. That’s all.” Erica admitted.

“We are gifted. That’s the truth, and Mom wants to see you.”

Erica let her feelings subside, and followed Axel back into the party, where dinner was being served. Erica sat next to Ivan, and Axel next to Jilaya. The table was eloquently set by some of Jilaya’s guards. Not a single piece of silverware was misplaced. Fresh fish, ambrosia, and dinner rolls were carted out in an assembly line fashion, there was enough that everybody was able to load their plates. The smoke searing from the food created a coating of smoke that pooled in the ceiling to create clouds. Before anybody could dig in, everyone’s eyes followed Jilaya as she stood. A projection screen lowered down behind her, images of Terra and her comrades appeared.

“I’d like to thank all of you for coming. I love and appreciate all of you. This party is in remembrance of three soldiers who fought valiantly against the terrorist organization known as the Blue Coats. While they have largely been silenced, five of them remain. Terra Lorenz, Amelia Ashi, Millie Koruba, Leon Los, and Amala Acosta. Please schedule a meeting with me if new information is collected. I’d like to be known posthaste.”

She sat, and everyone ate. Erica picked at her dinner rolls. She didn’t like fish, anyway, but she tried to keep herself busy so as to not seem ungrateful. She watched and listened as everyone around her conversed, even if she was to talk, it would be about war, or terror attacks, or worries surrounding free metahumans.

“Erica.” Jilaya called her attention. “Thank you for coming back out. I know parties like this are tiring for you. You didn’t have to listen to Axel when he tried to drag you out.”

“Oh.” She was stunned. “Thanks Mom.”

“Do you have any ideas about this situation?”

“I don’t know…How bad is this really? Sure, a few metahumans were let out. How does inciting panic about terrorists help?” Erica suggested.

“It is about maintaining order. What happens the next time they try to destroy one of my camps? It will only cause further panic. Better to snuff out the flames before they grow too large.”

“What about…Setting them free? We have that power. Don’t we?”

Jilaya stifled a laugh. “No being can live in peace without another being experiencing equal suffering. Here’s an important lesson, do we let out unpredictable metahumans with abilities nobody can predict, or do humans continue to live in peace? Humans keep peace, and I am able to control and monitor the suffering of these individuals, everything is in it’s right place, child.”

That word. It was always that word that made Erica grind her teeth. Child was the word that cemented the separation between her mother and her. The children obey, so they can sleep soundly in their beds that night.

________________________________________________________________________

Terra’s armor sat messily on a nearby armor stand. Clothes were strewn throughout the ground, and her eaten ramen bowls were beginning to stack up. She always kept a night-light next to the outlet where she slept. Terra shot up out of her bed. She felt a presence lurking close by. She let one gauntlet slip onto her dominant hand.

A figure wrapped in black stood outside of her window. Her fist reacted faster than her eyes, firing through the glass in one quick motion. Her arm was caught in what felt like a spider’s web. The dawn, along with the nightlight by Terra’s bed revealed the familiar face. It was Erica. She was holding her hands open-palmed. Strong strings came from each of her fingers, as if she was able to puppet Terra for the time being, at the least, she could keep her standing still.

“I’m not here to fight. I want to talk about my Mom. I understand people like you are quick to use their fists, but please hear me out.”

A muffled voice came from the other side of Terra’s apartment door. “Everything okay, Terra?” Erica released Terra’s hand as a means for calling for peace, she responded “Yeah! Just dropped something!” Once the coast was clear, she put her gauntlet on her bed and allowed Erica to step into her room.

Erica stumbled over her words as she walked in on the mess. She let the thought rest in her head, her attendants would never let it get this dirty. But Terra didn’t have attendants. In fact, she had no formal knowledge of what the real world was like, she felt envy bubble in the very pit of her stomach.

“What do you want to talk about?” Terra asked with an accusatory undertone. Erica sat a comfortable distance away from her on her bed. They sat on the couch looking through the broken window.

She answered calmly. “I want this to stop, too. I don’t like that metahumans are locked up throughout the state. I was once a normal human, until my mother did this to me. I buried my memories of the experiments out of my mind’s eye. They see powers as a danger to humankind, so they do everything they can to keep them silenced. I can get through to my Mom eventually, and I can stop this.”

“You really think you can stop the slave camps?” Terra replied.

“Slave camps? That’s a bit on the nose, but yes. If I am to stop them, I need you and your group to step down. My Mom is out to get you, and if you continue, she won’t stop!”

Terra sat in silence. Thinking through Erica’s words. Nobody was around to answer for her. It was all her, in fact. Everything was her. Everything was her since she freed the first slave camp and defeated Beck. A nobody from nowhere defied the Woman who had reach across the entire United States. She felt the animosity for her kind slip through Erica’s teeth as she reasoned with her.

“Sorry. I can’t step down. This is too important. Plus, I don’t know if you’ll really be able to do what you say. I’ll fight for what’s right. No matter what happens to me.”

Erica stood up. She hung between the broken window and Terra’s room. “I can respect that. But know this, if you keep going the way you go, we won’t be able to hold back. This’ll follow you for the rest of your life. Are you prepared to carry that weight?”

________________________________________________________________________

Terra took a deep breath. She was slowly ignited with a red glow. She swung her arm at the woman standing in front of her. She connected with a clang rather than the cracking of numerous tendons. Like she had slammed her hand into the metal shell of a robot. Her breath rose and fell like that of a delicate flame, causing the red glow to disappear.

The woman in front of her lectured her. “The Power of Olympus isn’t just a tool. It’s the essence of your very life. Treat it like so. You wouldn’t want to stop breathing, so you control your breath. Same for your power.”

“Wow…That’s oddly wise of you, Amala.” Terra joked.

Amala was the friend Terra had known for the longest. She met her in the White Mountains, and she was there for when she freed metahumans from their prisons. She was a tall, strong woman with long blue hair. Her immortality forced her to replace many of her body parts with robotics.

“I feel like I can control my powers better when I’m wearing my armor, but I don’t like to use it as much anymore. I don’t know how much strength I have. Sometimes it scares me.”

“We gotta do what we have to do, even if it means silencing our opponents forever.”

“Not me. I made a promise to only use violence as a last resort.”

“Whatever ya say. Things are going to get serious when we get to Jilaya’s.”

Amala turned away as Terra continued to train. She felt her hair begin to blow with the wind. Those sensory feelings were like muffled static to her, a tired old lady who tried her damndest to stay young through machines. She turned to sit on a rock, her joints bursting and cracking with every movement. She and Terra had stepped away from the RV to train her “destruction” form. It was a modest name only somebody like Terra could come up with. Amala watched Terra glow red, fade, and glow red again.

Terra and Amala rejoined Millie, Amelia and Leon inside of the RV. Amala took her designated spot as the driver. This time, Terra decided to take the passenger seat. Millie and Leon chatted while Amelia sat towards the back.

She obsessively shook her leg up and down, vibrating her whole body. Halfway to California. Halfway there. Since the moment Ivan killed her brother, her mind ping-ponged between Jilaya and her friends. She could use her speed to run straight to Jilaya’s mansion in less than a day. This RV ride has taken days now. She grew erratic and impatient. The current road was long and empty. They hadn’t seen cars for hours now. Amelia felt it in the wind before it came.

Erica and Axel stepped into the middle of the road. She took a deep breath to focus her powers. She created a nearly invisible string across the ground, bound to two guardrails across the road. They each slunk back into the darkness. In the night, it was nearly impossible to read the road in the slimy RV they had bought for cheap.

Crack!

The tires of the vehicle clashed with the rock solid string, ripping the guardrails from the ground as the RV began to flip over to it’s roof. Time slowed to a crawl. Amelia finally stopped shaking and stood. The lightning flickered in her eyes as the stress turned into pure power. In a flash, she moved all of her friends out of the RV before it fell into a full barrel roll. One second, Terra was in the RV staring into the road, the next, she was staring at the RV bursting into flames from the road. Her body had been turned inside out by the movement, and she and the others took a moment to recover.

Amelia, however, was fully conscious. Upon the sight of Axel’s face, was flung into a rage. He looked just like Ivan, the man who killed her brother. He’d stabbed him through the back, only to leave him to die in her arms. She was powerless at that moment, lightning lost.

In a blink, she moved. Leaving milliseconds for Erica to react. She shot a string straight at Amelia, looking to take control of her and quickly shut her down. Instead, Amelia’s body vibrated to an extreme that she became untouchable like the air.

Everyone regained consciousness, including Terra. Amelia and Erica’s engagement had already ended. Amelia stood with her hand punched through Erica’s heart as if she had slung her fist through paper.

Erica’s words echoed through her head.