Episode Terra: Chapter 1: Resolute

Chapter 1 of Terra's Adventure

Stone

Stands Firm

Stays Still

Remains Quiet

Despite Watching 

The World

Transpire

 

 

 

 

Terra Violetta: Age 10

The Wastelands of Vacuo

 

 

 

            The stars of the night sky lit up the sky of the Vacuo desert.  Silence filled the air.  Nothing but the wind.  Terra did not hear anything as she stared at the body of the man.  His sick smile still on his face, the stink of alcohol still lingering in the air.  Terra did not feel any remorse.  She only felt numb.  She then began walking.  The stars gave way to the sun.  Unrelenting and unforgiving.  She felt the burning rays pierce her body.  She called upon rocks to protect herself.  But when she found herself in the shade, she heard his laugh again.  His grin bearing down on her as he attempted to harm her.

 

 

 

 

Terra Violetta

Age 16

The Kingdom of Mistral

 

 

 

            Terra woke up, her body covered in a cold sweat.  But she did not lurch forward out of bed in horror of the nightmare she had just experienced.  She simply sighed, wiped the sweat off her brow, and got up and ready for the day.  The small little shack she had constructed of rocks amongst the slums of the lowest part of the city wasn’t much, but it was much stronger than the shacks made of wood that were falling apart at the seams around where she lived.  It did have its drawbacks given the fact that it did stand out amongst the rest, meaning anybody who knew about her knew exactly where to find her.  And this was made especially apparent as she lowered the rock slab that was her front door revealing a man standing right outside pointing a gun right at her forehead.

            “Nice to see you too Nebula” Arri said with a confident grin.  Nebula was around the same age as Terra, but had grown up in Mistral her entire life.  She wore a black suit adorned with light trails of gray patterns across her arms and shoulders.

            “You keep blowing off requests from Lil’ Miss like this, the next time you open that door I’m putting one between your eyes” Nebula said as she kept the gun trained on Terra’s face.

            “So what’s stopping you right now?” Terra said as she brushed the gun aside.  “Clearly, you just want to get this over with and Lil’ Miss is just so enthralled with me that she keeps giving me chances.”

            “Nonsense child” the voice of Lil’ Miss Malachite cut in with an evil laugh accompanying.  Terra rolled her eyes as the large crime boss brushed Nebula aside and towered in front of Terra and blew smoke in her face from her cigarette.  “You only live because I don’t want to risk my spiders losing their lives when you could just kill who I want you to kill, and if you die while doing so it’s not silk out of my webs!”

            “You aren’t getting on my good side by bothering me here” Terra scoffed as she tried to fan the smoke out of her face.  “I told you, I’m not a full-timer, I’m a freelancer.  And if you’re upset because a rival gang hired me to take down one of your territories, well then you just didn’t pay me enough to keep that tidbit in mind.”

            “Well then if that’s a confession of guilt I hear….”

            “It’s a confession that my skills deserve better pay than what you’ve been dishing out over the years.”

            “I heard you the first time child” Lil’ Miss said with a sigh as she took another puff from her cigarette.  “But that’s the problem with freelancers like yourself.  You start demanding too much, then either myself or my rivals look for somebody else who can do what you do cheaper.”

            “Nobody can do what I do” Terra said with a clenched fist.

            “And nobody can do what the Schnees can, nor can anyone do what I can.”  As she said this, she snapped her fingers and Nebula hit Terra in the head with the butt of her gun.  Terra rolled with the hit and quickly got back up taking some of the rocks around her and forming a shield in one arm and a gauntlet in the other.

            “If you want me to consider working for you again you’re doing a pretty lousy job trying to convince me” Terra said with a growl.

            “Oh, you aren’t considering anything darling” Lil’ Miss said with a sick smile.  “You’re doing this, or my connections to the Mistral police will be swinging by this shack to ask you a few questions.”

            “Gee, thanks for the tip.  I’ll make sure to skip town.”

            “Oh child, you know my spiders would never allow you to escape my web that easily.  So either do as I say, or face the wrath of the law and my venom.”  Terra glared at Lil’ Miss, then relented and lowered her rock weapons.  Lil’ Miss smiled and waved at Nebula who lowered her own gun following the command.

            “What am I doing for you this time?” Terra asked folding her arms.

            “Oh, nothing much.  Just stealing a small little briefcase from a rival gang.”

            “Anything about this particular gang I should keep in mind before I go in and tick everybody there off?”

            “Nothing that changes your job” Lil’ Miss said with a smile.

            “Fine.  I’ll steal what you want me to, lay low for a few days, then deliver it right to you.”

            “Make sure you do so.”

 

 

 

 

            Terra took a deep breath as she looked over the storage depot that sat just outside the mountain range of the Kingdom of Mistral.  It was positioned in a valley flanked by two small mountains.  Most researchers surmised it used to be a river of some kind.  A few random guards seemed to patrol the outside with little to no guards on top of the building itself.  Terra took a deep breath and picked up a small rock next to her feet, and then threw it across the entire compound until it landed on the cliffside opposite of the one she was on.  And as soon as it did so, the energy that Terra had stored into the rock caused a small landslide.  This caused the guards to panic and start setting up hard-light Dust shields on the side where the rocks were coming at them, giving Terra the chance to loosen the earth beneath her feet and slide down on the now unguarded side of the compound.  She summoned a few more rocks around her hands and tore through the sheet metal wall.  As she entered the facility, she saw a handful of surprised guards notice her tear through the walls.  She cracked her neck and charged forward, blocking the incoming hail of bullets with her stone gauntlets.  The guards weren’t much of a match for her, and she dispatched of them quickly and easily.  From there however, she quickly focused to discerning where the briefcase she was after in this facility would have been located.  The facility was structured strangely for a storage depot more like an office building.  Several rooms and large areas comprised of cubicles.  But then she noticed a door that was being guarded by two people who hadn’t noticed she had broken in, so she quickly charged forward.  She knocked both of them out in one hit as they were not expecting her, and she barged into the room that was being guarded, and saw the briefcase simply sitting in a glass case with nothing more than a few cameras surrounding it.  She didn’t step in any closer to avoid getting caught on said cameras and smiled.  At this point she got down on one knee, felt the vibrations of the earth, and then smiled.  Just then, the compound began to shake, her landslide had finally hit the hard-light Dust shields outside the compound, causing the entire area to shudder as if it were an earthquake.  She then quickly smashed the cameras and the glass surrounding the briefcase.  As soon as she did so, an alarm started going off.  Terra grabbed the briefcase and hoped that the alarm would be attributed to the landslide causing the sensors to go off as opposed to someone trying to steal the briefcase.  With that, she took the briefcase, put it on her back, and created a strap made of rocks that wrapped around her holding it in place.  Terra then made a beeline for her entry point to escape the same way she entered, but then saw a woman with short hair and an outfit that while similar to the other Branwen tribe bandits, seemed to hint at perhaps being a higher rank compared to the normal thieves.  The woman then pulled out two ring shaped blades that looked like pincers.  The woman then opened fire, but Terra blocked the shots with the rock gauntlets once again, but as she lowered her defense, she did not notice in time that one of the weapons was right in her face having been thrown by her opponent.  It his Terra square in the face, and then ricocheted around until it returned to the hand of her opponent.  She then seemingly pressed a button that infused her weapon with Fire Dust and from across the room, swung the weapon as if it were a sword trying to strike an opponent inches from her face.  Terra believed this was more than likely a wide ranged attack, so she charged forward anticipating having to jump over an incoming wall of fire.  But then, the energy took on a more blade-like form, and took shape as a powerful strike not on the ground, but a mid-air slice that Terra had to quickly adjust for, but it still cut through her rock gauntlets and did even more damage to her already lowering Aura.  But Terra saw an opportunity.  She kept running, summoned all the remaining rocks she had on her person to her right hand, and wound up and landed a powerful punch on her opponents face.  The woman was not prepared for this attack, so the punch sent her flying into the wall not far from Terra’s entry point.  Terra smiled and figured she’d go in for the kill, just make sure nothing was left unchecked.  But then she sensed that her landslide was starting to come to an end, which meant that the bandits she had distracted initially would soon be making a return and outnumbering her.  She was about to lose what little surprise she had left.  So instead of continuing the battle, she took her remaining rocks and used them to bind her opponent to the wall as she ran out of the compound and back into the mountains, the briefcase still attached to her back but barely as she used some of the rocks in her back strap to land the punch then bind her enemy.  But as soon as she crossed the ridge of the mountain she began on, she did not hear any heavy machinery or vehicles chasing after her, so she continued for a few more miles to let her Aura regenerate before finding a sheer mountain face, carving out a small hole, and hiding inside while covering up the entrance to her temporary hideaway.  She took a deep breath, and waited for what felt like an eternity.  She kept taking deep breaths as the darkness caused her emotions to recall the terrible night all those years ago.  She refused to let herself sleep, just waiting to make sure it was safe.  And after a few hours, she lowered the cover to her hiding place, saw no one was nearby, and made her way back to Mistral.

 

 

 

            Nebula was waiting on the outskirts of the slums as she saw Terra approaching from the distance.  Terra glared at Nebula and threw the briefcase at her, which she caught with just one hand.

            “You should consider joining Lil’ Miss full time” Nebula said with a smile.  “You keep doing this freelance nonsense you’ll end up on somebody’s hit list without any protection.  At least working full time would get you a warm bed in a real house.”

            “Never really been one for real beds” Terra said as she bumped Nebula in the shoulder as she walked back towards her rock hut.  Nebula chuckled and made her way into the depths of the slums.  Terra simply just entered her own little hut, closed the door, and collapsed on her bed, exhausted from her mission that day.

 

 

 

            The stars shone bright in the sky, the cold of the desert still lingered there as Terra looked over the body of the man who tried to harm her.

Author's Note

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