I had guns trained on me even before the car’s engine had properly gone to idle, along with a whole lot of yelling. They were both fairly young looking guys, one around 25 while the other didn’t look above 20. I guess that made them old compared to me, but for cops they were pretty young.

What worried me was the way their eyes were wild, like they were already chugging adrenaline just from jumping out of the car. God, I really hoped they didn’t make this into a whole thing.

“Hands up!” one cop screamed at the same time as the other shouted, “Get down on the ground!”

“Ummmm, no?” I asked with a frown, throwing a look of derision in for good measure. “Ya’ll can clean up the mess, I’m out of here.”

Reaching up to pull myself into the air, I hesitated as the older cop made a big show of flicking the safety off on his gun. “I said, get down on the ground, furry.”

“Oh, you really shouldn’t have said that,” I said with a long slow shake of my head. “That was a very stupid thing to say.”

I could see the fear flicker into place behind their eyes as I followed their lead, cycling the mechanisms on my gauntlets. The action didn’t do anything right now, but it sure looked cool, and that was kinda the point right now. Intimidation rather than actual function.

I didn’t need them to shoot me this time, I had magic rushing through my veins like a wildfire of eager potential. I was so much more powerful now, and they… well, they were just two mundane cops who thought they were in control. Time to teach them how wrong they were.

Lifting my right hand, I made a series of rapid signs and gestures, then pointed at their car and gestured upwards. Without any more warning than that, a foot wide spike of concrete and stone smashed up through the center of their cruiser, lifting it into the air like an impaled bug. Glass flew in all directions, shattered into little squares by the force of the blow, and it rained down across the street like hail.

“Don’t be stupid,” I warned them in the silence that followed. “I am so much more than you, but I also don’t want to hurt you without need.”

The cops stood there staring at me, then their car, then me again. I could see the gears grinding away as they attempted to make a decision, ill maintained hardware trying its best to function.

With a sigh of relief, I watched the moment tip over, the younger cop lowering his weapon with a look of resignation.

“Alright… Uh… huh. What is that thing?” the younger cop asked with surprisingly little animosity, pointing to the dead creature on the ground with his chin. The question earned him a sharp look from his buddy, but the dude ignored it.

“Nasnas,” I replied uncertainly. “At least, I think. Middle eastern creature from myth.”

“Right,” the younger cop said, taking out his notebook and scribbling in it. Was the dude actually just doing his job? What the hell? I’d just spiked his car! “What happened here?”

“Kolson! What the fuck are you doing?” the older cop finally snapped, taking a step towards his partner.

“The chick could clearly take us in a fight,” Kolson shrugged, following it up with a wave of his notebook. “May as well get some info for the paperwork.”

“I mean, the dudes behind me got it all on video,” I supplied. Man, if these cops had just come in with guns holstered and their notebooks out, we could have avoided this whole destruction of police property thing.

“Good to know,” he said, giving me a tentative smile.

Well know this was awkward. The older cop was standing there staring at us as we had a civilised conversation like he’d just been cock-blocked from whatever violent fantasy had been in his head. Poor old man didn’t know what to do with himself.

I was extremely distrustful of cops, and not just because of the recent protests and the brutality they had displayed. There had been two incidents in my life where cops had been involved before now, and both times they had been yelling orders with guns drawn in a situation that very much did not warrant that.

The first was when I was six years old and my grandfather had been showing me how he used a big machine to do stuff in his hobbyist’s smithy. I think it was a big pneumatic hammer or something. Anyway, the locals knew what the noise was, but someone out for a run apparently thought it was gunshots and called the cops. They rocked up pretty much the same way these guys here did, guns drawn and words harsh.

My experience was apparently not all that uncommon, especially among minorities, so yeah… I wasn't about to hold hands with the bastards and sing kumbaya, but I did appreciate the younger dude deescalating things.

“Good luck with the ride home,” I said finally, and without any more warning than that, I leapt up into the air and pulled myself into the night.

What an odd encounter. At least I had some more combat experience under my belt. Really could have done with some sort of immobilisation spell though, maybe encase them in ice so I could more easily explode them with something powerful. I’d need to think and experiment.

The night was almost warm as I coasted, taking pleasure in the simple act of both flying and improving my flight skills. A listless breeze tugged at my tail and ruffled my short, messy hair as I coasted, wondering what it would be like to have feathers too.

I liked Concord city. Sure, the cops were pretty corrupt, politicians from both parties alongside them, but the people were fairly good. Then there was the weather, windy all year round, snow in the winter and a pleasant warmth in the summer.

The waterfront was one of my favourite places, it was such a wild hodge podge of different shops and restaurants that you never ran out of interesting experiences. Not that I’d gotten to actually indulge in it much, I was only sixteen, but I really enjoyed the waterside fairs and carnivals that they put on sometimes. It had also been a hotspot for pokemon go players, back when that had been a thing. Eva and I had set up shop at one of the gyms down there during one summer, it had been so much fun— 

A light caught my eye as I reminisced, a glisten of silver on a rooftop nearby. Slowing out of mild curiosity, I strained to see what had caught the light of the moon through all the dark clouds above me.

The light flashed again, twice in purposeful succession. Interesting, was someone trying to get my attention? I dropped closer to the flashing silver light, only to pull up short when I realised who was standing on that rooftop.

Cautious as I approached, I kept my magical and mundane senses strained for anything unusual. Why was she even here anyway?

“Artemis,” I greeted her, tone carefully neutral. I still wasn’t sure if she’d lied to me or not, and I wasn’t particularly happy about how little information the twins had given me in general.

Her smile was warm and open as she leaned against the rooftop access, eyes twinkling with mirth. “Quite the display down there,” she remarked. “You’ve got quite some fire in you.”

“Okay,” I said, still keeping carefully neutral and on my toes for underhanded greek god bullshit.

“Goodness, prickly tonight aren’t we?” she laughed, casually tucking some of her midnight hair behind her gently pointed ear.

“You and Apollo fucked me over, you lied to me about what that orb of your magic was going to do,” I accused her, perhaps a little stupidly. She might be weaker than she was in the days of myth and legend, but she was still a goddess.

She gave me a long, slow look, her fingers playing delicately over her golden bow. “Did we now? You look to be remarkably well off for someone fucked over by a pair of gods.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but she was right. I had come out of that whole event pretty damned well off. “I probably would have agreed to do it anyway, you didn’t have to lie to me,” I grumbled, sitting down on the edge of the building.

“To be fair,” she said, tone a little more gentle than before. “I was not aware of the extent of the damage that my contribution would do to the seals on the leyline network. Apollo apparently knew something I didn’t, that specific leyline had been weakened by the death of a mage once before.”

“So he tricked you as well then?” I asked, carefully concealing the fact that I didn’t entirely believe her.

“I wouldn’t say that,” she sniffed, waving off my question. “He merely… went for a bigger return on our power investment than I had thought. I’d have done it anyway, as you yourself also admitted.”

Oh, that was genuinely amusing. Artemis was embarrassed that her brother had gotten one over her. I could even see a little dusting of pink on her cheeks.

“Alright, well… I’d appreciate it if I knew the full story next time,” I said, trying to contain my mirth. “You know, when we blow up all the leylines for a second time.”

“Cute,” she chuckled in return, shifting to look down at me from her formidable height. “Knew you were one of mine.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked, frowning up at her.

“No need to pout,” she said, chuckle turning to a full on laugh. “You have a quick wit, a warrior’s heart and a love of women, despite being one, that is all. I like to think of that particular combination of personality traits as part of my godly domain.”

My brain sort of stalled and hiccuped when she called me a woman, but then my thoughts caught up with the present. Right, I was a girl, and apparently my soul was female too. Seemed a bit odd considering I was born as a dude, but whatever.

“Right, makes sense I guess,” I mused, humour drained from my voice by my confusion. “Did you flag me down for any reason or just…?”

“To chat,” she shrugged. “Well, and to let you know that I may have use of you in the future, and that it will be worth your time to consider my words when that time comes.”

I nodded, perhaps a little reluctantly. I wasn’t all that keen to get dragged back into godly shenanigans. “Cool… uh, can I go now? I should be getting to bed, I am still a kid by modern society’s standards.”

“You may leave,” she sighed, rolling her eyes at me. “You mortals really have forgotten us, haven’t you? Time was, you’d be begging on your knees for my favour.”

“Sorry,” I said, because I had no idea how else to respond to that. “I uh… I am going to go though…”

“Fine, fine.”

QuietValerie

Phwaaaarrr. What a fucking week. Surgery talk ahead.

Everything around my wound is bruised and fucked up and in pain and holy shit. On the plus side, my chronic pain seems to have gone, and my goodness is it making a difference to my mental health. Actually, there's been such an improvement to my mental health that it's hurting my physical health. Sounds crazy, I know, but it's because I suddenly have the motivation to do so many things and I've been rushing all over the place getting those things done, which is obviously not the best idea when I've just had a pretty major surgery. Anyway uh... enjoy the chapter and thank you very much to everyone who has supported me despite the drop in content recently. Love you all, take care of yourselves.