==Artemis 2022==

TW: 18+ | Descriptions of Violence | Mature Language

Terra Lorenz, 19 Years Old

Boom!

The door to the warehouse Phobos had dragged Terra to was blown apart by a military-level explosive. Three people walked through the door. A man in all black combat armor, strapped with bombs from head-to-toe, a girl with more rudimentary armor and bright blue hair, led by Tempest. With a lazy sigh, he took a vial from his side and shot it into his neck. From his view, time moved to a slow. Phobos didn’t even move from his spot, he simply stood over the battered Terra staring at the three. Tempest walked forward, drawing a sword from his side. He slashed Phobos’ arm off at the shoulder, and slashed him at the gut. Separating his torso from his legs.

When time resumed, Phobos had fallen on the ground, he simply disappeared, turning into pure lava that melted through the ground.

The girl examined the lava as it melted away. “That’s an Olympian, what are they doing all the way out here?” She asked curiously.

“Is it important to the mission?” Tempest asked as the silent man in armor helped him lift a now unconscious Terra.

“Yeah, dummy. It means he’s not dead. If he’s got any tether to Olympus, he’ll just reform.” She informed, following behind the two men. She plucked a postcard out of Terra’s pocket. It read “You’ve been invited to the annual Tournament of the Gods! Winners have the chance of being selected as the next Olympian! You should be honored.”

“Such a shame.” The girl following Tempest started. “I doubt she’ll want to go after this happened.”

________________________________________________________________________

Terra’s entire torso had been covered with bandages in order to help the brand heal. Her eyes cracked open on the hospital bed. She saw her friend Millie looking over her. Millie looked tired and concerned all at once. Usually she was as radiant as ever. She’d developed bags under her eyes, and wore pajamas while she waited by Terra’s side.

“We’re in T.H.O.R.N headquarters. They are a subsidiary of B.L.A.D.E. Remember them?

“The ones who let the metas out?”

Millie nodded. They were in a small room with a TV in the center. There was another bed situated next to Terra. Amelia stepped into the room, she was holding trays of food for her and Millie to share. She nearly dropped them when she realized Terra had awoken.

“How are you feeling?” Millie asked, clasping Terra’s hand.

With a laugh, she responded, “like I need a break.”

A voice erupted into the room. It was Tempest. “Sorry, that won’t be happening. You’ve been invited to this, and I wouldn’t like to know what would happen if you didn’t go.”

Tempest handed Terra the letter from Olympus that she’d received, an invitation to the tournament of the gods. She looked up in confusion at Tempest after reading.

“It is an invitation from Olympus that we found on your person after recovering you from Phobos. When we examined it further, we found this.”

Tempest handed Terra a necklace with a pendant of a phoenix hanging. It seemed to have an ethereal glow of some sort.

“Ha…I get attacked by them, and now they want me to go up there to participate in their little party? No thanks.” She insisted.

Tempest shuffled past Amelia and Millie to stand at Terra’s bedside. He looked down at her with seemingly lifeless gray eyes. “This is a demand from my employer. We have too much on our plate to deal with Olympians coming to Earth because you decided to stand them up.”

“You have no right to talk to Terra like that-” Amelia started.

“It’s okay. I’ll go. He’s right after all. Especially if I know who exactly sent this letter.”

Millie shoved herself in front of Tempest, nudging him out of the way. She looked his way, giving a quiet scowl, while he remained emotionless. “Shouldn’t one of us go with you? None of us have any idea how Olympus is.”

Once again, Tempest butted in. “I think it would be necessary for me to go with her. I’m the most skilled out of all of you, plus, I’ve been trained in assassination tactics if anything were to get out of hand.”

Terra sat up, finally realizing that her joints felt stiff, she felt limited in the hospital gown she’d been dressed in. She pulled the curtain in the corner and changed into her normal clothes, which had been folded up next to her bed. She spoke as she changed. “To be honest, I’d rather go at this alone. I dealt with Delta on my own before, I can do it again.”

“Wait. Is this the same girl who was with us when we fought Empyrean? The one who called Artemis mother?” Amelia asked.

Tempest nodded for Terra. “You have no idea what is waiting for you in Olympus. It would be wise for someone to go with you so you can save your strength for the fight against Delta.”

She slid the curtain open, now fully dressed. “I’m not going to be able to convince you otherwise, am I?”

________________________________________________________________________

Terra Lorenz, 19 Years Old

After some confusion, and trial and error, Terra was able to find out how to use the phoenix pendant to transport herself from Earth into Olympus. By this point, the frustration was beginning to flood her mind. Delta, vengeful for something that wasn’t her fault. Tempest, following her move at every moment.

She was sure that Tempest was just a mouthpiece for the president of the United States, but there was something she found charming about his nature. This was the first time she felt truly protected, even in unfamiliar territory. He stayed close to her side, with his hand resting over the sword on his belt.

Olympus made her heart skip a beat when she realized how high up in the air she was. Despite it being called “mount” Olympus, she couldn’t imagine how any mountain on Earth could reach this high. They overlooked the entire Earth, like gods peering over the world like it one of those toy globes. She didn’t care about the idea of “becoming an Olympian god” as the letter had stated. They were let into the tournament venue as honored guests, even Tempest. There was a large billboard that commemorated lost Olympians.

“Seems some of the big twelve were killed. Perhaps it is the death of Artemis that made them decide they’ve lost too many.”

Terra, along with the other combatants were told to enter the floor of the tournament. They stood on hard-packed sand. Terra’s eye caught the pictures of the four lost Olympians on the billboard. Aphrodite, Hermes, Hestia, and the most recent addition; Artemis.

Aphrodite was the one who hit Terra the most. How could someone kill the personification of love? How’d she die? She shuddered at the idea that someone could kill a god that was so beautiful. She had large angel wings that sprouted from her back, and a face of a loving mother. She radiated kindness.

Thunder crashed in the distance with every step. Even the clouds seemed to follow the presence of Zeus as he stood in the announcer’s chair, like a throne that looked down on all the would-be gods and goddesses. His voice crackled, even over the sound of thunder.

“I am remorseful to announce that I have lost a dear daughter, Artemis. This tournament is being held both in her honor and in honor of the others we have lost. If the winner is strong enough, he or she will be formally welcomed into the Olympian family!”

Terra geared up with her armor, waiting for her fight to begin. She ignored most of the Olympians who spoke around her. Some heckled her, but she had no interest. Defeat Delta, get out. That was the only goal. Tempest approached her with some hot tea.

“I got you this. Hopefully it will wake you up before your big fight. It’s green tea, the type you like.”

“How’d you know green tea was the only type of tea I drank?” Terra asked, her voice fluttering more than she liked to admit.

“It’s important to know as much about your target as you need. Whether they are the enemy or not.” Tempest responded. His voice was a higher tone than usual, lacking the cold edge that usually came out when he spoke. Terra nodded with a sincere smile and a chuckle.

“I can’t believe this girl is coming after me now. I wish I could just talk to her and we could avoid all this needless fighting.”

“I agree, it is pointless to pursue someone who had nothing to do with her mother’s death. I’m willing to bet that she is jealous of your power. Hell, even Phobos had to catch you off guard in order to capture you. I am unsure what would’ve happened if you had to face one another one-on-one.”

“Uh-huh. You’re just trying to butter me up so I feel confident for this fight.”

Terra entered the arena, and she saw a similar face approach her. Delta’s appearance had changed drastically since she’d last faced her. She’d cut her hair almost fully, and she wore new clothes. She had a leather jacket that sat over a form-fitting, gray suit of armor.

Terra immediately tried to talk her down. “Delta. We don’t need to have this fight. I am sorry for what happened to your mother. I know we can work this out a way that doesn’t mean violence!”

“I don’t think someone like you would understand. I can’t have someone like you succeed my mother. It’s always been my place, and your actions are taking that away from me! Whether or not I fight you doesn’t matter to me. Killing you and claiming my title is what matters.”

Terra rolled her eyes, and braced for the impact that came as Delta drew a gigantic axe from her side. She raced towards Terra, who stayed firm. She had confidence that her armor had the fortitude to parry Delta’s weighty axe strikes.

They sent shockwaves through the stadium as Terra stayed on the defensive. Finally, Delta overswung, allowing Terra to take the chance to deliver a kick to her head, which was unguarded. Delta stood from the blow, only seeming frustrated. Her towering presence like that of an enraged bear. She tore her leather jacket off, the armor that so perfectly fit her body split off with ease.

Terra had no idea where she got such perfect armor. Perhaps Hephaestus? Like looking into a mirror, she watched as she controlled her armor telekinetically. It came with less cost to Delta, because this armor seemed like it could be bent and manipulated however she wished it to.

The armor searched through the air like a mosquito yearning for blood, when it reached its target; Terra’s arm. It coiled around Terra’s arm and squeezed until…

Crack!

Terra let out a yelp of pain as Delta squeezed with a sadistic look on her face. Terra felt blood burst like a bubble inside of the armor that just refused to stop squeezing. She remembered that she’d dealt with worse, and remembered Tempest’s words about her.

“This is me. I fight through the pain. I win the fights, even when things get hard.”

Delta’s armor was like Terra’s armor perfected. It wrapped around her entire body, cutting off at the upper leg. Somehow, it was malleable, allowing her to move around with ease. Terra’s armor consisted of a chest-guard, shin-guards, and fore-arm guards. There were some select pieces of armor that protected the rest of her body, but it was not nearly as effective as Delta’s passive defense. She called her armor back to her person, leaving Terra with just one arm to use.

Delta got up close, allowing them to match each other with close-quarters. Even with one bad arm, Delta’d made a bad decision to fight close against someone who was as skilled as Terra was. She let a square punch ring out across Delta’s cheek.

Like a raging beast, Delta created distance once again, and lifted a piece of armor from her person. Terra decided that the wisest thing she could do was the exact same. Like extensions of their own persons, they traded blows, leading to a stalemate.

Terra dodged Delta’s continual attempts to wrap a piece of armor around her and crush her. Her already-crushed arm was the most difficult to keep out of harm’s way, when she remembered Delta’s habit.

“Wrap the armor, crush, retreat back to herself...”

She tried to make it not look to convincing, when she allowed Delta to wrap a piece of her armor around her injured arm, attempting to finish her off. Once again, her arm was snapped into pieces. This time, the more fragile bones in her forearm seemed to cross and shatter together, the sensation hurt even more than last time, and it seemed to cause Terra to lose control over nearly half of her armor. Like last time, Delta called all of her armor back to herself, feeling victory nearer and nearer.

Shink!

Delta’s armor wrapped around her body, but the sadistic smile of hers faded into horror, and blood began to come out in heaps from under her armor, trailing down her leg. Her armor fell from her body, only to reveal that Terra had snuck one of her armor pieces under her armor just as it closed in on itself. Due to the pure size of Terra’s armor, the slash across her stomach spanned nearly half of her stomach horizontally.

By the time Terra’d realized her plan had worked, Delta’s skin was as pale as a ghost, and she fell over. Terra stood above her as she looked up at Terra, her eyes half-closed. The crowd turned into an army of united shouts.

“Fi-ni-sh her! Fi-ni-sh her!”

Delta nodded to Terra, “please, I’d rather die by a warrior’s hand than bleed out on the floor like this.”

“You wouldn’t believe how many people have said that to me. Lick your wounds. Maybe next time we can settle this over some tea.” Terra insisted as she lifted Delta up to her side. She helped her to some first-aid workers, who drug her body away.

The battle was over. Terra sat against the wall, watching the next match begin. She searched through the audience for Tempest, when she felt an all-too familiar scalding hand meet her shoulder. This time, she was quick to swat his hand away and face him at attention.

“You really want to do this here, Phobos?” She shouted, drawing eyes to herself and Phobos, who just had his cover blown.

“Cease your yelling. I’m here as a friend, this time.”

“I don’t care who you are here as! Get away from me!” She shouted as Phobos pushed her against a wall, silencing her.

“This is a warning. Certain gods are attuned to things like this. If you’d not have fainted during your branding, you would’ve known this sooner. War gods like myself are attuned to things like war. Do you know this?”

Terra pushed Phobos off of her, and stood neutrally with a weary eye. “News to me.”

“I am telling you this because war is coming to you. Well, perhaps not you, personally. You are the fuse that sparked this conflict. It is the challenge that the Phoenix must face.”