The Trials of Artemis

Terra was laying on a blanket in an office. It was dusk. She realized she had bandages around her body in various places. She tried to sit up. And noticed only a faint pain. Themis walked through the door.

Themis: Oh, you're awake.

Terra: Themis? What happened?

Themis: You landed on my fucking car. Literally fell out of the sky.

Terra: Oh.

Themis: That's all?

Terra: I've had weirder things happen to me.

Themis: Either way, how old are you?

Terra: Uh, almost eighteen. Why?

Themis: Fuck that's not going to look good. Well if anyone comes in, you're eighteen. All I ask is that you don't get comfortable here.

Terra: How did you heal me?

Themis: I dunno. Magic. Who fucking cares?

Terra: I don't think you'll even have to worry about work today.

Themis: And why is that?

There was screaming outside. And people running down the road.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Empyrean was much bigger than usual. And blocks away. He punched a hole into an apartment building. And hucked it down the street.

Jilaya: It's been so long father.

Empyrean: I need a minute to readjust.

Empyrean got to human size and shot a huge energy blast all around the small town. Cutting humans who were running into bits and bringing down buildings with it. He made a sword out of energy and ran in front of humans who were scared for their lives. He ran up and lifted them all in the air with telekinesis and slashed his sword around them rapidly. Literally cutting all the people into chunks.

Empyrean: Daughter. You made it here all by your lonesome.

Jilaya: Well I wouldn't be here without help from my husba-

Empyrean: Nonsense! Now, my limiter has only been 20% unlocked. I hear you have these jails with metas in them.

Jilaya: Yeah. I do actually! Come this way! I'll show you. You're going to love it.

Fifty years earlier.

A younger Jilaya and a smaller Empyrean were sitting on the top of a mountain. Looking down at humans building the twin towers. Empyrean looked at them with disgust,

Empyrean: Look at them. They are disgusting. They're going to tarnish my world!

Jilaya: I don't know if there's much we can do about it. Dad.

Empyrean: There's so much we can do about it. Bend them to our will. Make them submit, Make the world great! After all, I'm not immortal. This world is going to be yours someday. You will own these people.

Jilaya: Really? This will be all mine?

Empyrean: Yes.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Terra: We have to get out of here. Now.

Themis: I think I'm with you for this one.

Themis opened his office door. And looked down the corridor. The front door was blocked by debris.

Themis: Here. Maybe you want this.

Themis gave Terra her spear.

Terra: Ugh. Just follow me.

They went to the end of the hall.

Themis: How do you even expect to get out? Alright. You know what?

Themis took out a small switchblade and it turned into a bronze powerful looking sword.

Terra: Woah. Where did that come from?

Themis: Wait a second. That armor. That's the fucking Artemis armor.

Terra: How do you know?

Themis: Because this sword is Ares' sword. I know the asshole olympians personally.

Terra: Alright. Step back.

Terra kicked the wall down. Busting a huge hole in it. They both slipped through it.

Themis: Why didn't you just do that already? It would've been a lot smoother if I cut the wall down.

Terra: It doesn't matter. But that's fine. You said you know the olympians. Right?

Themis: Ah, the asshole olympians? Yeah I know them.

Terra: Can you like, take me to Artemis or something?

Themis laughed.

Themis: Fuck that. Besides Hera. Artemis is the bitchiest of all the women olympians. All about chasitisity. Must be pretty embarrassing to represent the goddess of chastity. She was basically modern day feminism before modern day feminism.

Terra: Come on! Is she THAT bad?

Themis: Yeah.

Terra: Then tell me where she is. I'll Just go there. And leave you out of it.

Themis: You want them to make you new armor. Don't you?

Terra: Mayyybe...Look is it that hard to get them to make you armor?

Themis: Oh well. As long as you tell Artemis you're a virgin things'll work out.

Terra: What?

Themis: You heard me the first time.

Terra: Wait. So that means your coming with?

Themis: I don't know. Do you want new armor?

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Terra: So how did you get the stuff you have? That is actually Ares' sword. Right?

Themis: Yes it is. And it's none of your fucking business.

Terra: You don't talk to people much about your life. Huh?

Themis: Not this side of my life. How about shit less about me? I don't even know anything about you. What were you doing before you landed on my car?

Terra: That's why I want the armor. I'm not strong enough.

Themis: You want new armor to boost your power? I can already tell your in over your head. Do you think that Artemis will just make you the armor and be done with it? Are you seriously just going to demand armor?

Terra: Uh, yeah.

Themis: Alright, just checking. But as far as I know. You want to destroy Integer? Right?

Terra: I want to kill her.

Themis: How are you gonna do it?

Terra: What do you mean "how am I gonna do it? "

Themis: How are you going to kill her? Gonna Strangle her? Maybe a fatal stab to the chest?

Terra: Wh-What? I haven't thought that far!

Themis: You don't seem like a very experienced killer. How many people have you killed?

Terra: Well actually killed? Two. And both of those people were the same person.

Themis: Alright so one. You killed one guy. When?

Terra: A day ago. Not even.

Themis laughed at Terra.

Themis: Why do you want to kill her?

Terra: I feel like this is where my fate leads me. And I know what she did. I know all about her wrongdoings. She is the reason the city could be in ashes. And my friends could be...I'm a fucking shitty person. Aren't I?

Themis: It's certainly a possibility. You think your fate is to kill a megalomaniac. And you left your city to burn while you get new power. Not really a good thing.

Terra: But think about how many lives I could save if I stop him. It'd be suicide if I went in by myself.

Themis: And you are totally an asshole for leaving your friends behind.

Terra: And I left Millie when she…

Themis: Stop doing that! What happened to your friend Willie?

Terra: Her name is Millie! And she got stabbed in a fight. And she was bleeding. I have healing powers with my artemis armor. But I'm terrible at it.

Themis: Have you ever used the power correctly?

Terra: Now that I think about it. I don't think so.

Themis: It definitely wasn't the right thing to leave them. But you already fucked up enough. Let's work on damage control. But do you have it in you to truly kill Integer?

Terra: I have to.

Themis: No you don't. If I've learned anything. There's always a choice.

Terra: …

Themis: Ah! Here we are. And don't say I didn't warn you.

There was a patch of land beyond the trees. With two little cottages and all gardens and grass. There was a big waterfall in the middle. And women were walking around all over the place. The area was weirdly hot. Despite the various women being bundled up. Terra felt a presence and also a warmness to the place.

Themis: This is going to suck.

Everyone was looking at Terra weirdly. Since she was still wearing her jail outfit. That was ripped up and stained with her own blood. She had bandages on. A faded scar across her face. And to top it all off. There was a man next to her. About 20 women took out bows and aimed them at Terra and Themis. A tall woman walked out in front of the crowd. With a bigger bow. She had a black shirt and pants on under a blue with white highlighted coat over it. With a collar at the top. Climbing up her neck. She had grey armor that looked similar to Terra's A breastplate, gauntlets, and shinguards. With added guards around her biceps. Her hair was slicked to the side. With her right side of her hair cut off and her left side of her hair going down a little past her shoulder. She also had a belt with a holster for her bow and arrow. Her and Terra were staring each other down.

Terra: I want to talk to Artemis.

Woman: I'm Delta. You know you and that thing aren't allowed here. Right?

Terra: Why not. Look.

Terra held up her gauntlet. Delta looked at it for a second and held her gauntlet up to it. The girls behind Delta were murmuring something about the armor,

Delta: You found our old armor. Impressive.

Terra: It wasn't that hard. I just found it in a cave.

Delta: With that damn celestial. Mom has to know about this.

Themis: Mom? I thought Artemis didn't like to get busy.

Everyone looked at Themis and seemed horrified. Delta walked up to Themis and grabbed his wrist angrily.

Themis: What's this supposed to be?

Delta: Eiga.

After a few seconds Themis was turned to stone.

Delta: Adoptive mother to be exact.

Terra: Hey! What the hell?!

Delta: Men aren't allowed on our premises. And you're about to be leaving as well.

Terra: Okay, okay. I'll follow your rules. Will you hear what I have to say?

Delta: Fine.

Terra: Look at my gauntlets.

Delta: Yeah. I see them. Their trash.

Terra: Exactly. I need Artemis to make me new armor.

Delta chuckled at Terra.

Delta: Fine. Come with me.

Terra looked at Themis.

Terra: Alright.

Delta: Is that man your lover?

Terra: What the hell?! He's like thirty!

Delta: There are many women in this world who love older men.

Terra: I'd uh, prefer someone my age.

Delta: Such a simple minded woman.

Terra just shut her mouth. She didn't feel like arguing with someone who was that narrow minded.

Delta led her into a small little cottage.

Delta: Be wary of the traps and tripwires.

They walked through the small house. There were tons of books, A small fireplace and one chair.

Delta: Wait here.

Delta walked away and Terra looked around. There were pictures of all the girls that Terra had seen. A group picture of all the olympian gods as children. And then a picture next to it with Artemis and the woman of the community, Delta came back in.

Delta: She will be out in a minute. You like the pictures?

Terra: How long have you lived here?

Delta: As far as I remember. I've always lived here. This place is beautiful. You just don't see it.

Terra: This feels and looks more like a prison than anything.

Delta: …

A woman just a bit shorter than Delta walked into the room. She had l0ng red hair. And wore a large white tunic that was very baggy. She had some sort of belt around her waist and a quiver of arrows attached to it. Her hair was wet and very recently groomed. She walked over by her door and slipped on some flip flops.

Delta: Hi mom.

Artemis: Who?

Delta: I-I mean Artemis. We have a visitor.

Artemis: You...I've seen you before. Ugh. Terra Lorenz. You're the one who goes around wearing my armor like a nameplate. Why am I just meeting you? Shouldn't you be gone now?

Terra: Look at this.

Terra showed Artemis her gauntlets.

Artemis: My old gauntlets…

Terra: The rest of your armor was destroyed in a fight.

Artemis: At Least you got use out of it. That's the last thing I'd be mad about. What business do you have here, child?

Terra: Isn't it obvious? I need some new armor. The fate of possibly the world and millions of lives is at stake here!

Artemis: And is that supposed to be my problem?

Terra: YES! You are one of the gods of olympus! Wouldn't you care about the world being destroyed?

Artemis: Me and my family have an escape plan. And I could care less about the millions of brainless apes who will die.

Terra: Then you don't care. I need this armor. And I'm not leaving until I get it.

Artemis: Funny. You can't take all of my girls. And I feel it in you. You aren't a killer.

Terra: ...You heard me the first time. This is important.

Artemis: Ugh. Fine. But you have to earn it. I have to go through all the trouble of contacting Hephaestus. So you will show to me that you deserve the armor.

Terra: I won't disappoint.

Artemis: You won't. Because if you do your other visitor will die. If you win. You get your armor and will be allowed to leave.

Terra: Your adding stakes? What is this? A TV show?

Artemis: It makes things interesting for me.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Artemis: Let's start with the course that all of our women take as an initiation.

Terra: Are you trying to recruit me or something?

Artemis: No. Look at yourself.

Terra looked down at her tattered clothes and her scars.

Terra: Don't like scars? Their battle scars.

Artemis scoffed.

Artemis: You have to do this test in one minute. Let's see if you can finish the challenge.

The course started with jumping across a bunch of high up rocks. Terra jumped across smoothly and jumped off the last rock after catching her balance on it. She barely landed at a cliff. She pulled herself up and jumped and grabbed a vine and swung across the waterfall. Artemis's women shot arrows up in the air. Which Terra had to dodge. She dodged smoothly and broke an arrow that would've landed straight in her head. But got hit in the shoulder by one. She pulled it out and threw it away. Her shirt got even more bloody than it already was. She dodged a wrecking ball-like boulder. She had to kick it to make it move fast enough for her to jump on and go across another sinkhole. She landed and scaled down a long hill filled with hard to get around and easy to trip on rocks. She was close to the bottom. It had almost been a minute. She jumped off the hill and landed at the end of the course. She was sweating and bleeding.

Terra: How fast do your other women have to do this?

Artemis: 5 minutes.

Terra: If I had 5 minutes it wouldn't have even been a problem!

Artemis: That's the point. Next challenge.

Terra spent hours having to move boulders, win in footraces against her women, dodging arrows, cleaning up her stupid house. Painting the second cottage, moving more boulders, doing more obstacle courses, scaling trees, pleasing the animals in the forest. And more. The sun was starting to come down. And Terra was hurting.

Artemis: Alright. 30 second break.

Terra ran at breakneck speed and drank the water out of the waterfall and dumped it on herself. Like an animal.

Delta: You're such a slob.

Terra: I'm literally drinking water!

Artemis: Break over! We have a wounded animal that just came in. You are going to heal it.

Terra's heart almost sank. Of all things she was good at. She was a terrible healer.

Terra: You sure you don't have another challenge?

Artemis: You don't pick the challenges.

Terra: Ugh. Bitch…

Artemis: What was that?

Terra: Your a great god!

Artemis: Come with me.

There was a deer with a bullethole in it.

Artemis: If you are good with my armor, you should be able to use it supportively.

Terra took a deep breath and put both of her hands over the deer's wound. She tried focusing her energy on the wound. The deer was trying to move.

Terra: Hey! Stay!

Artemis: You should know how to use the power of the olympians correctly.

Terra: Oh so that's what it's called?

Artemis: Do you seriously need to be guided? You need to let the power flow through, and out of you.

Terra tried to let the power in and then let it out in the same spot.

Delta: Do something that relaxes you.

Terra closed her eyes. And thought about her original home. Where her people would sing songs next to the campfire. She thought about the party with the blue coats. The night she spend with Donny stargazing. Everything, She opened her eyes and she was just holding down a normal deer. She moved her hands away and it jumped up and ran away.

Artemis: Good. Now I will give you one final challenge. You will face Delta in combat.

Terra: Oh. Alright don't worry. I've got this.

Artemis: That's what they all say.

Delta and Terra walked into the middle of the area.

Artemis: Delta is my finest woman. I raised her myself.

Delta: I won't let you down.

Terra: You're about to be disappointed.

Delta: You walk into our domain and demand new armor. Just to walk away from us. And you bring a man here. You're disgusting.

Terra: If you ask me, Artemis has made a hivemind here. Not a civilization where women can be free to express themselves.

Delta: Then we'll see where fate brings us. We'll let power decide the fate of society!

Terra looked down at her only gauntlets. She couldn't just tank hits like she usually did. She needed precision.

Delta grabbed goggles that covered her eyes. Terra watched her adjust her stance. She'd seen a blind man fight. And Delta didn't seem blinded at all. Rather, given better vision and precision.

Delta: Permission to kill?

Artemis smiled.

Artemis: Permission granted.

Delta snapped off her gauntlets and shinguards telekinetically. She thrusted them at Terra. She dodged over and over. Blocking shots from the gauntlets. Terra took off her gauntlets and blocked a strike from Delta's own gauntlets. She slammed her foot down and trapped a shinguard. Terra picked it up and whipped it at Delta. She ducked and re equipped the shin guard. She came up and shot a couple shots from her bow. Terra ducked and moved to the side. She grabbed an arrow out of the air. And burnt her hand. She dropped it and got up close to Delta. She threw a couple punches at Delta's face. She landed one good punch and dented Delta's goggles. She hit Terra with a flying knee and jumped into a superman punch. Terra got hit back far and realized her nose was bleeding. Terra went to stand up but felt an arrow pierce her leg. And then her arm. And then the other arm.

Delta: I want to look into your eyes and watch the life drain from your body. Personally.

Terra: Then take off that stupid mask.

Delta ripped off the mask.

Delta: I want to see you die with my naked eye.

Delta pulled her arrow back and shot it into Terra's chest. Well, she would've if Terra's gauntlet didn't block the arrow. Terra jumped up off the ground and hit Delta in the face with a hook kick. She hit Delta a couple times with both of her gauntlets and then followed up with a stepside kick. She took her spear out and stabbed it forward at Delta. She ducked and threw a kick at Terra. She moved out of the way and punched her a couple times on her ribs. Terra got Delta into a chokehold from the back. Delta started struggling. Terra got hit in the back and then in the face by Delta's flying gauntlets. She fell down and groaned from the pain. Delta took out her bow and pulled back another arrow. Terra sweeped her legs from the ground and swooped to her feet and took away Delta's bow. Terra realized she had no arrows to shoot. She took out her spear. And put it on the big bow like an arrow. She shot it at Delta and hit her clean in the chest. It shattered her chestplate and blew her back. She slid across the ground and grabbed Terra's spear as she slid. She stabbed it into the ground and ran at Terra and stabbed it forward. Terra pushed it to the side and kicked Delta in the stomach. She got up close to Terra and hit her hard with an elbow. Terra hit the ground with a thud. Delta got on top of Terra and punched her a couple times. Terra hadn't felt this much power behind a single punch before. Besides Integer and Empyrean's god punches. Delta held her hand down on Terra's face. She had to think fast or she'd be petrified. She realized Delta's shin guards were still lingering around the battlefield. They both were connected to Artemis through their armor. Maybe, just maybe. Terra called the shinguards to herself and then called her gauntlets to her. She swiped Delta's gauntlets off and put them over her destroyed ones. Along with her bicep guards. All of Delta's armor came off of her and forced itself onto Terra. She pushed Delta off of her. Delta called her armor right back. But this gave Terra just enough time to call destruction. She only had her gauntlets left over. She held onto the power. It almost felt strengthened in this area. Everyone was using the power of the olympians anyway. Delta shot a bunch of arrow shots at Terra. She dodged the shots. Which seemed a way more off. Delta must've realized this too and backed away and ran for her goggles she took off. Terra ran over in the blink of an eye and crushed the goggles. Delta threw a punch at Terra. She tilted her head and threw a punch of her own. Sending Delta flying across the battlefield and into the waterfall. Where rocks fell on her head. Delta started gritting her teeth and ran at Terra out of pure rage and threw tons of faster punches and kicks. Terra simply backed up and threw a front kick. Sending Delta sliding across the ground. Terra blitzed her. As she ran out she saw Delta's face. Angry, she must've been holding back tears. Terra kicked her in the face. Knocking her out. Terra dropped destruction and felt the pain flow in. She limped over to Artemis.

Terra: We had a deal.

Artemis was dumbfounded. She couldn't believe what she just saw.

Terra: Hey. You hear me?

Artemis: Y-Yeah. You will get your armor.

Terra: Awesome!

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Terra walked away from Artemis and found that Themis was back to normal.

Themis: You see! This is why I hate these bitches! They fucking dispise men!

Terra: Well do you want to hear the good news?

Themis: They agreed to let us go with a warning?

Terra: I got the armor you dumbass!

Themis: No you fucking didn't. How long was I out?!

Terra: Like the whole day.

Themis: Ah whatever. Good show kid. Would've liked to see it. I feel a little drained too. Hey! Did you power up through my power?

Terra: I think I used a lot more than your power.

Themis: Well since we both use the same power source. You should be powered up around me.

Terra: Good to know.

Artemis came up with a big package. She placed it down in front of Terra.

Artemis: If anything. You have gained my respect. I need to teach Delta another good lesson.

Terra thought about Delta's angered face when she knocked her out.

Terra: Please. Don't be too hard on her. It wasn't her fault.

Artemis: Why do you protect her? You just dominated her in a fight.

Terra: Why do you blindly assume that all men are terrible people? Oh? No good answer? I don't have one for why I protect Delta either.

Artemis: Just leave before I make you leave.

Terra picked up the box before her. She peeked inside. Armor crafted by the gods themselves. She walked away with Themis. Terra turned around at Artemis.

Terra: Watch out for Empyrean!

Artemis: Empyrean…? Wait. Come back! Empyrean?!

Terra: You told me to leave! That's what I'm doing.

Terra and Themis made it down the trail a little more.

Terra: I'm totally disappointed to have a relic that's directly tied to her.

Themis: Told you.

- - - - - - - - - - - -