Of Thorns and Lightning

by Fiona Price

  She saw her Glock slip way far out of her reach, and she heard the metal break through the top layer of an icy creek below her. Once she regained her sense of direction after she stopped falling, she saw that the motorcycle was balanced precariously on the ledge and the wolves were coming down to eat her alive. Meaghan scrambled to find another weapon in her belt but could only find magazine clips and a puny knife, neither of which could help her. Without the Glock, she was sure to be ripped to shreds. If she has her gun she stood a chance of defending herself against the wolves, even if she shot it straight up into the air it would spook them off. The wolves began to pounce as she scrambled back on her elbows, but they stopped in their place when Ariel had shot them with an arrow at the same time Angelina shot them with her Smith & Wesson. The wolves collapsed on top of her, but she knew that wasn't the end, they were part robot, they were The Order of the Black Rose mutant lab experiments and they wouldn't be so easily taken out.

  Trying to ignore the thick warm blood that had smeared and pooled on her body, she pushed the wolves off of her and she turned over to try and get a good foothold to start climbing up. The rocks were unsteady, and the foliage wouldn't hold her weight. The tundra made the conditions even worse and it seemed as if Meaghan was stuck in place, until Talia came flying down and grabbed her, taking her out of a bad situation and bringing her up to sturdy ground. Meaghan grabbed the motorcycle the Smith & Wesson Angelina was offering to her since she had no weapon- and by that point, she had caught Dike's attention.

  "William! You're going to want to come see this-!" Dike yelled over to William as he was looking out the broken window at the kids fighting outside.

  "Those are our kids! Holy shit." William exclaimed. Dike nervously watched Meaghan as he observed her crawling from the rocky enclave and fighting hand to hand with an agent.

  Meaghan used the butt of the gun Angelina gave her to knock out and break the nose of an Order of the Black Rose agent who got too close. That was the last person she had to take down before she stormed into the building. The Gods didn't want to ask why the kids were there because they already knew why, but they would deal with the kids for following them to a fight that they didn't have to go into later.

  Meaghan ran up the stairs and arrived at the main scene. She had wolves' blood smeared all over her body and face like warpaint, and she had murder in her eyes. She was breathing heavy, she came up to the battle guns blazing, and Dike was impressed. He didn't recognize her at first, but he knew that she stepped up to the challenge in a way he didn't think was possible. She emptied her clip into the legs or hands of The Order of the Black Rose agents so they couldn't walk or shoot her, she took their weapons from their hands and kicked their bodies down the stairs, letting the empty magazine drop to the floor as she pushed and snapped in a new one so she could do it all over again.

  Meaghan was facing an agent that attacked her from behind, and Dike used the shield as a frisbee and tossed it over to her. She sliced the arm of her attacker with the razor-sharp edge and then knocked him out with the front of the shield, but at the exact same time he put his gun to her exposed stomach and gave her a shot she'd always remember. Her blood splattered on the inside of the shield.

  William and Dike came running. She had barely registered that she had been shot, she didn't even feel anything. She'd be healed soon anyway, she thought.

  "It's just a flesh wound, don't worry. Bullets in the abdomen bleed out really slowly anyway, I'm ok." She said to William and Dike who came to her first.

  "No. Don't move. Stay out. Hold pressure. God, I'm so sorry-" William instructed. "I don't know how to get you out safe right now so stay put."

  "Maybe, next time, don't give me a crop top." Meaghan suggested to William, who had a large hand in designing her suit. Her suit was bulletproof nearly everywhere and she was protected except for the parts of her body that didn't have the suit covering it at all. Genius plan.

  The battle wasn't over, but Dike still had to fight. He stood in front of Meaghan who was knelt down on the floor holding pressure to her abdomen, shielding Meaghan with his body and defending against whatever came their way. They were doing this together. Meaghan defied orders and stood up, standing back to back with Dike and shooting with one hand and holding pressure with the other. Dike knew there was nothing he could do to stop her, anyway.

  Suddenly, Maize had four Order of the Black Rose agents storm her from all sides that she couldn't all get at once, and she would be ambushed by the others if she tried going at them one by one. In a panic, with nobody seeming to notice what was happening because they were fighting their own battle, Maize had an out of body experience. Her powers seemed to take over and she didn't have to think, it was as if she transcended into a completely different state where she wasn't in control, her body was devoting all of its powers to one resource: her skin became electrified and her body shot out hot white lighting from her hands and arms, coursing through her veins.

  Before she knew it, the Order of the Black Rose agents were taken out. They dropped dead to the ground with a thud.

  There was a moments' pause after the last lightning bolt fizzled away and the next round of The Order of the Black Rose agents came out to play. They knew the battle wasn't over yet. All the Gods breathed heavily, looking at each other in a stunned awe. Maize was knelt down, sitting back on her knees recovering because that took a lot out of her. Her hair was a bit frazzled from the static electricity, and everyone's hair in the room was standing on end. It was truly something incredible.

  "That was fucking terrifying!" Diana exclaimed, still feeling the electricity buzz in the air, similar to just after a thunderstorm. "And none of you seem to think that's crazy?!"

  "We've seen her do it before." Dike shrugged. "Not as big as that, but like, she's done it."

  "You guys are something else." He said in disbelief.

  "Maize!" They called to her. She looked up, and they noticed her eyes were still glowing and blue, what was left of her major lightning attack. She gave them a thumbs up and got to her feet, knowing she had to continue to fight.

  Before she could fully regain her composure, a grenade went flying over her head that was obviously aimed at her, but she dodged the projectile and it broke through the window behind her. It fell down through the roof of the empty warehouse and exploded there, and Maize could feel the shaking of the ground when it went off. It triggered a fire to start that everyone was hoping didn't spread, because then they'd really be in trouble.

  Maize reacted quickly to the follow-up attack against her and did a backflip to avoid an attack at her feet meant to sweep her off and get her down on the ground, but when she landed she didn't avoid anything. She was face to face with a The Order of the Black Rose agent who shoved her as hard as he could, pushing her through the window behind her and she took a free fall through the air off the top of the building, crashing through the roof of the burning warehouse. A piece of the metal scaffolding punctured her skin on her way down, but it pushed through her body when she landed on the ground. She got caught in the one place her armor was weakest, right at her waist.

  Every kind of pain she had felt over the course of her entire lifetime didn't nearly add up to what she was feeling in those excruciating moments she spent curled up on the cold and cracked cement.

  Her long blonde hair was grouped in clumps of dried blood from a wound she couldn't feel and felt everything of at the same time.

  Every breath felt like knives piercing her lungs, her rib cage felt like it was caving in and crushing her and exploding outward with an immense amount of force when she breathed in and out.

  Her whole body was weak and cold and shaking. If this is what it felt like to die, she could only hope it would be over quickly.

  Each minuscule movement that altered the ground around her was like it was a heavy impact, radiating through the ground and making her want to scream in pain, but she couldn't. She had nothing left in her for her to defend herself. She let th
e pain consume her and kept her eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to make it go away faster or hurt any less, to no avail.

  They all saw her fall out the window, but nobody knew what to do. Jason had told William inside the suit that they had taken care of everyone in the building and all the Gods were eager to leave. Artemis found a file room and took every important book and document she could, broke whatever machines she could see to make sure that whoever was left wouldn't be able to do anything. She wanted to multiply their losses not by manpower, but in valuable intelligence. Anything she could do to hinder them, she would do.

  "We have got to get out of here, now!" She called.

  "I don't want to stick around either, but the kids-" Diana began.

  "They came here on their own and they can leave on their own! We can't wait any longer to go. The Order of the Black Rose knows we're here and won't hesitate to tear us apart if we wait here like bait!"

  "But Maize!"

  "If she's still alive, that's a BIG IF, she won't make it home. We have to go!" She emphasized.

  Dike supported Meaghan on the way downstairs since she had a through and through gunshot wound, and Dike grabbed the motorcycle.

  "Dike we have to go get Maize!" She said breathlessly as she limped away from her in her direction.

  "No. You have a chance. She doesn't. We have to go." Dike said, grabbing her arm.

  "I'm going to get her with or without you." She said, exasperated, tugging on Dike’s grip.

  "I'm never going to command you like this again, but the answer is no. You are going to get on the back of that motorcycle, and you are going to leave with me, without her. I did it with Arawn."

  "But you got him back! I'm not that lucky, Dike!"

  She clenched his jaw at the mention of the situation with Arawn.

  "Fine! Go ahead into the burning building to save the friend you don't even know if they're dead or alive. Go ahead, risk your life against an ambush or booby traps laced on the ground or in the building. Do you think you can drag her out? Do you think you can help her?! I'm not losing the both of you in there. I'm not risking you. You're bleeding out, you're in no condition to save someone else when you're not even in a position to save yourself." Dike said, letting go of her arm, and Meaghan noticed all the splashes of red on the snow that had fallen just in that time period. She was starting to feel the pain and the blood was becoming thicker, seeping through her hands.

  "Getting her is the right thing to do!"

  "But sacrificing yourself isn't."

  She knew he was right. She looked back at the warehouse and back at Dike, who had gotten on the motorcycle and started the engine. Reluctantly, she got on the back and wrapped her arms around Dike’s waist, and they went speeding off.

  Both Jets were getting ready for takeoff. They were loaded up all except for two, but they were ready to take that chance. If they didn't leave soon they just put themselves at a greater risk of another attack. They tried getting in contact with William, but he wasn't answering.

  "William! William, where are you?! We're leaving in two minutes and that's final! Talk to us!" Artemis spoke. She got nothing.

  "William, I don't want to leave without you, but I will." She warned, trying to coax him out to the Jet. They had to assume the worst if he didn't respond at all, and eventually it came to that.

  "He was right behind me, I swear." Diana said, mentioning William's last location to Artemis who was looking out into the snowy woods for a figure that never came.

  "Let's go." She said, and her say was final.

  A god had fallen.

  Glossary of Gods and Goddesses

  Peter Lannigan: Arachne, Greek goddess of weaving, spiders

  Maize Grace Leto: Thor, Norse god of thunder

  Meaghan Vitale: Dike, Greek goddess of justice, moral order, judgement

  Talia Townsend: Toth, Egyptian God of writing and science

  Angelina Foster: Artemis, independent, fierce, athletic

  Jordie Jones: Menoetius, Greek god of violent anger and rash action

  Ariel DiMarco: Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt

  Hecate: Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft

  Arawn: Celtic god of the dead, revenge, war and terror

  Mesperyian: Greek goddess of torture and punishment