Previously in Sediment Terri #8 'Thunderstruck'...

Islea grabbed at Terri and applied freezing temperatures directly to her arm.

“Now!” Islea shouted.

The rain and wind died down immediately but what followed was the major problem for Terri.

Gloriya summoned another near fatal bolt of lightning and this time, she did not miss. Before Terri could react, she was struck.

By this point, Terri’s rock structure had taken a battering from rain, the cold and the wind, and the lightning strike was the last straw, heating up the moisture and caused an explosion of steam to erupt from within Terri’s arm.

Terri flew back into soggy, drenched mud, screaming in agony and clutching her arm. Her quartz throbbed in response to the pain. She tried to sit up but all the pain was centred to her upper body.

Being stuck in the boggy mud didn’t help either, but after a moment, the rain started to ease to a complete stop. It fell quiet as the clouds lifted and the Argentinian sunshine began to creep back through.

In the distance, she thought she could hear a helicopter. Terri couldn’t do anything to stop it. She was in too much pain. They’d won this one. She waited for the chopper to go, whilst maintaining a tight hold onto her upper arm with her free hand. She dared to remove it, to assess the damage, however she very quickly regretted it.

She screamed in horror. In agony. Tears streamed from her eyes as she tried to keep it together.

This had never happened before.

She slowly lifted her hand off her arm, and a chunk of it came off like a broken piece of rock.

---

“Ok, so the whole terrorist-attack-at-the-end-of-your-honeymoon aside, you had an amazing time?” Kimona asked.

“Oh it was just the most amazing time, definitely. Paris is beautiful. Such a romantic city,” Terri gushed.

“I think we need to go, Kim!” Mindy said.

The three girls had gathered for a long awaited girly post-honeymoon debrief at Mindy’s Vegas house. On hearing their sister’s plans for the day, Holt and Blane made their excuses and left them to it.

“Yes, I want to go to this bakery you keep going on about,” Kimona admired, focusing on the photo of the shop front on the oldy-worldy street it was on.

“Maybe Isaac could take you?” Mindy teased, looking at Kimona in a suggestive way.

“Ummm... No way, not at all!” she refuted. “Nuh-uh. He’s just a friend, who did a nice thing for me.”

“I know, we’re teasing!” Mindy said.

“Leave me out of this!” Terri laughed.

“It’s just that you came back a bit weird for a bit. I wondered if there had been some physics between you two?” Mindy explained.

“Chemistry,” Terri corrected.

“Well, there might have been some physics,” Mindy muttered mischievously.

“Ewww, Mindy, no way! Ok so it was just that when I told him I was coming back-” Kimona started, but Terri’s phone cut her off.

“Hold that thought,” she said reaching for it on the table in front of her. “Ma’am… Ok, well I can be there later…. No…. I’ll be… No I will be… Ma’am… No I’m with Mindy and Kimona... Ok, I’ll ask them… Right… I’ll let you know.” Terri hung up and growled out of frustration and looking harassed.

“What did she want?” Kimona asked.

“It’s the Weather Girls. They think they have found their location.”

“Those are the bitches who hurt you aren’t they?” Mindy asked.

“Yeah, she wanted to know if I’d be ok getting them in.”

“Not on your own, surely?” Kimona said.

“No. She wanted me to take some back up and I said you were here.”

“Hell yeah, we’ll go!” Mindy decided. “You’ve got your suit with you Kimona?”

“Sure, I’m in the middle of the desert, but I still take it wherever I go.”

“And Terri, you have yours?”

“Never go without it. Except on my honeymoon… Didn’t think I’d need it then.”

“Well let’s go then. Girls trip!” enthused Mindy.

“This won’t be fun. They’re dangerous when they’re all together,” Terri warned. “And there’s every chance they would still be together.”

“Fine, but we’re together too and we’re a force to be reckoned with,” Mindy countered tying her pink hair into a pony tail.

***

Flying over the Labrador Sea on their approach to Iceland, Terri updated the other two on what she knew so far.

“So the US Air Force have had a plane up after Iceland reported unusual and extreme weather changes over the last few days. They’re now thinking this has to be The Weather Girls.”

“Why do they think they’ve gone there?” Mindy asked looking at a screen with Iceland's weather stats displayed.

“Not sure. It’s isolated, the vast expanse of countryside? Since their father was killed a few months ago, they’ve been on the run since and the authorities have not been able to catch up with them.”

“They killed their dad? I couldn’t imagine wanting to do that to my own father,” Mindy grumbled.

“Well he wouldn’t be winning Father of The Year I’m afraid. In the eighties he was CEO of OrganiTech Greener Renewable Energy Solutions which employed his daughters to enact meteorological terrorism to encourage clients to invest in their products. Islea was the only one arrested and jailed after one such incident and she was released earlier this year.”

“Wow. That’s messed up,” Mindy said.

“So what’s the plan? We have a plan right?” Kimona asked.

“There’s some sort of plan. We roll up with The GRAB Team lying in wait and we try to encourage them to come with us,” Terri explained, not sounding fully convinced by it herself.

“By force!” Mindy announced clenching her fists.

“More than likely,” Terri agreed under her breath.

***

The trio disembarked from the jet a couple of miles and from the reported epicentre of the bizarre weather fronts originated from.

“Rockstar to GRAB Team, we touched down at the LZ. Standby,” Terri announced through her communicator.

“This is Iceland? They should have named it Hotland instead,” Mindy observed as they headed off to find The Weather Girls.

“This is far warmer than Iceland is used to,” Terri said.

“But this torrential rain makes it feel like we’re in a warm shower,” Agwé said.

They walked for a couple of miles through the warmth, extreme in places wind, rain and occasional burst of hail.

“Are you going to be able to fly in this?” yelled Agwé over the battering they were taking from the weather.

“Yeah, I can fly in any wind,” Mindy shouted back.

“Please though,” shouted Terri. “Don’t use your moon beam unless you have to! I want them alive!”

“Fiiiiine!” she agreed.

They came to where the USAF had directed them to and found themselves stood on the top of a hillside over looking the beautifully dramatic Westfjord landscapes.

“There, they’re down there,” yelled Terri over the howling winds.

“We’ve got your back Terri. We do this together,” Mindy promised, squeezing her shoulder supportively.

“Let’s do this then,” Terri said after a pause. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous about this confrontation. The last time she came across these women, she was brutally injured and could not fight against the weather fronts. Not alone.

This time though she wasn’t alone.

Mindy took off, Terri surfed down on an extending platform of earth that erupted from the hill side and Agwé manipulated the falling rainfall into a thin sheet which she stood on and used to get her down. As they got closer, it was clear to Terri that the sisters were arguing about something.

“So this is where you have been hiding out! Although to be honest, it being eighty Fahrenheit round here was a big give away,” announced Terri as they took all five by surprise.

The rain and the wind eased off suddenly and Mindy sighed in relief. “Finally! It was really hard to hear anything we were saying to each other. I’m not sure I heard the plan correctly Terri. You did or didn’t want me to pound these bitches into oblivion?”

“No, we’ll give the all the chance to comply and come in peacefully,” Terri said.

“Oooh, nice skit. Did you improv it or were there lines to remember?” Gloriya, the sister with the gift of storm generation and manipulation, snarled. “We’re not going anywhere with you,” she responded predictably.

“Meh, they had their chance, Mindy. Let’s pound away,” Terri commanded.

The three Collective women began charging towards them.

“No wait!” Islea shouted, stretching her hands out defensively.

“Don’t you dare do this Islea!” drought and heat inducing Haelee challenged.

“No! I spent thirty five years imprisoned and this wasn’t the plan for my freedom.”

“We did what we had to,” Gloriya explained. “How many times do we need to tell you?”

“You had to kill your father?” Terri cut in.

“Stay out of this you nosey cow!” Wylo, the wind creator, snapped back.

“It was him or us, Islea!”

“I don’t care, Gloriya!”

“It was him or us!” Gloriya repeated. “Our own father put bounties on us, for Christ’s sake. Don’t be so naïve, we’d be dead by now.”

“I’m done with running. I’m done hiding and I’m done fighting with you all on this.” Islea turned to Terri. “If you want to take me in, then fine. Do what you need to. This is not my idea of freedom. I didn’t fantasize about this.” Islea stepped towards a bewildered looking Terri, Agwé and Mindy.

“Islea, we can’t let you do that,” threatened Marina, the rain maker and so far, quietest of the sisters.

“She’s right sis. You leave with us, or…” and Gloriya trailed off. Islea stepped towards Terri and then turned to face her sisters.

“...Or you will have to go through us,” Islea said. A crash of lighting lit up the sky, Gloriya projecting her anger through the storm.

To her left, Terri noticed Agwé flinch, but she held her nerve.

Thunder rolled in as the skies went dark and purple. And then the rain fell.

Hard.

Agwé managed to part the rainfall so that it didn’t fall on herself, Mindy, Terri and now Islea, who appeared to be prepared to fight against her sisters.

“Can we trust you?” Terri asked Islea.

“I just want some peace.” A flash of lightning shot at the ground in front of Terri and co, causing them to starburst away from the earth that was thrown up.

The fight was on.

Mindy took off and bee-lined straight for Gloriya, who on noticing the pink haired tunman heading towards her, attempted to knock her off course with murderous bolts of lightning, crashing into the ground rapidly. Mindy’s superior reactions were just a big quicker and she dodged each one perfectly, without slowing or hesitation.

Gloriya yelled out and braced for impact, not wanting to bring the lightning down too close to herself. She could create it, but wasn’t immune to a lightning strike. Mindy spun herself round so that she went into Gloriya feet first, kicking her along into the ground.

“You need to be more careful with those lightning bolts!”

“You were lucky, I don’t often miss!”

Mindy punched Gloriya across the face from her position on top of her, but got one back in retaliation. They furiously tussled on the ground, each girl managing at some point to get the upper hand on the other. Gloriya managed to roll Mindy off the ground and push her off with a two-footed kick, sending her flying backwards.

Mindy wiped the blood from her eyebrow and got back up more determined than ever. The skies rumbled again.

“Try dodging these then, bitch.”

Across the valley, Terri was trying to get closer to Wylo but found the gale force winds that she was being battered with were making it hard to make progress. Terri moved from earthly barrier to earthly barrier and when she could, used columns of protruding earth and rock to knock Wylo off balance, all with little effect.

Wylo was able to ascend with the wind, allowing her to be at one with the force she was controlling.

“Is that all you have for me?” Terri bluffed, yelling over the noise of the howling wind.

“Oh, I can give you more!” Wylo descended back to the ground and almost immediately, Terri could feel the wind picking up. She looked beyond where Wylo was stood and tried to hide the look of horror on her face as she saw five tornados swirl into existence, all at the weather girl’s control. They swirled and danced in tight circles menacingly, as if they were puppies, excitedly anticipating being let free from their leash at their favourite dog park.

Terri gulped and readied herself.

Agwé meanwhile was efficiently manipulating the rain water in Marina’s torrential downpour back against her, redirecting the rain drops back at the Weather Girl like bullets. Marina manipulated the strength of the rain, but the ninety degree rain drops were starting to piss her off.

Agwé used the advantage she was gaining to advance towards Marina. Closing the gap, the rain projectiles continuing to batter back at Marina, Agwé shifted the water’s behaviour into a bridge she was able to surf on straight towards her foe. Marina could do only one thing to slow The Collective member down.

Stop the rain.

In doing so, Agwé’s aqua bridge disappeared, causing her to tumble onto the dirt ground. Fine, she can have that one, Agwé thought to herself, having the brief moment to take stock of what was going on around her.

She saw that Terri was somewhere in the middle of tornados, Mindy was dodging bolts of lightning which echoed for miles as they crackled through the air. She could also see Haelee and Islea fighting it out in a classic hand to hand brawl, their ability to induce extreme temperature changes completely balanced out, and instead just relying on physical brawn.

Agwé could see that Islea was really fighting for her freedom.

“I’m out of water! I lost the upperhand!” Agwé said through her communicator.

“Give me… a second!” Terri shouted in response, finding it difficult to hear herself over the enormous winds she was dealing with.

Terri cocooned herself in an earth tomb no bigger than a phone box to give herself a moment to gather herself. “Ladies, hold on. Agwé, here’s your water!”

From where Agwé was, all the way to where Mindy was about a mile away, the ground started shaking. Gently at first, then becoming more and more violent.

Mindy and Wylo ascended off the shaky ground, whilst Agwé crouched, lowering her centre of gravity. She watched Marina lose her balance and tumble, but watched with surprise and relief when, from the shifting ground, tall towering giesers of water shot up one by one. Warm water rained down and Agwé didn’t hang around before she manipulated the water into long snaking vines that whipped and slashed at Marina before taking a hold of her and taking her up into the sky.

Once the seismic activity Terri caused ceased, she broke out of her sanctuary, and immediately forced colossal rock formed hands punching up through the ground into the centre of the tornadoes.

Another earthly fist shot up underneath where Wylo was hovering quicker than she could react to. It enclosed her in a prison of hard rock and she tried squirming the best she could, but it was no use. As the fist pulled her back to the ground, she screamed in fear and for mercy, but Terri wasn’t in the giving mood and instead tightened the earth around Wylo in a show of dominance.

Terri brought the fist closer to her. “Remember when you showed me no mercy? Why would I do that for you?” Terri yelled, as she walked to meet Wylo in the fist. “You left me for dead after you all grouped up on me. Did that make you feel important? Did you feel strong after that?”

“We… did whaaarrrght we… had to!” she countered through gritted teeth and very obvious discomfort.

“You keep saying that. ‘You did what you had to.’ You’re wrong. You didn’t have to make those choices you did.”

“I don’t haaaavta listen to… your lecturrrres!”

“I don’t see you going anywhere,” Terri mocked. “I could just beat you into the ground or squeeze your organs out through your head and you’d be unable to do anything about it.”

“If that’s wharghhhtt… you thinkll make you feel… better… then lemme go… Make it a… fair fiiigrght!”

“What was fair about five against one?”

“Geeeeeht over…. It! Jussdo… it!”

The earthquake tremors that Terri caused did little to slow Mindy and Gloriya from their fight. This frustrated Mindy further- all she was doing was effortlessly dodging bolts of lightning and delivering well placed punches but Mindy was desperate for the upper hand. She came here to Iceland to fight and to win, and these constraints put on her by the American Government, and Terri, were frustrating.

Her moon beam wasn’t lethal if she didn’t want it to be, and she didn’t like to be told how and when to use her strengths.

“I expected more from you, Moon Girl,” snarled Gloriya. “You’re holding back.”

“Believe me, I’d rather not be. But you ought to be relieved. My full force is not something you can handle- I nearly got chucked out of a batting cage!”

“Oh please, I can manipulate static electricity up to three hundred million volts. Bring on whatever child’s play you have to offer,” the stormy weather sister dared.

“I’m just so glad you said that…!” A knowing, menacing grin spread across Mindy’s face and from within an energy built up within her bursting to be expelled through her eyes.

The release was satisfying, not only in the feel of the raw energy leaving her, but also relief that she was finally getting the upper hand over the woman she was fighting. The beam lasered right into Gloriya’s chest continuously for half a minute, pummelling her with a brutal power that not even she could withstand. The pain was so unbearable, that the hold it had on her put her in a state of shock, freezing her momentarily from processing what was happening.

It wasn’t until Mindy ceased the moon beam blasting, that Gloriya was released from the shock and her body was able to react to what she had gone through. Out of this pain, out of rage, or through a loss of complete control, scores of lighting bolts simultaneously rained down, each one impacting with the ground, scarring it with deadly black scorch marks as a memory of it’s presence.

All of the women, from both sides of the fight, ducked to the floor, curling up in a ball with hands covering their head.

Gloriya screamed out at Mindy who was already back up, ready for the fight to continue.

“Agwé, Mindy? Are you ok?” Terri asked in the brief pause of battle.

“It’s going to take more than that to keep me down,” replied Mindy.

“How’s Islea?” Terri checked.

Agwé, who was nearest to where Islea was fighting with her sister Haelee, looked over and sucked in breath through her mouth sharply. Haelee was stood crying over a lifeless Islea laid out on the ground.

“...Agwé?”

“I think she’s dead,” she muttered, leaving her fight with Marina and running over.

“She-she’s not getting up,” Haelee mumbled. Agwé put an affectionate hand on Haelee’s arm and looked down at the fallen Weather Girl. She was severely burnt and charred from a lightning bolt strike that entered through her neck and left through her left foot into the ground. Her hair had burnt off completely and the skin from her face to her lower torso was raw and had fused with her clothing. There was nothing anyone could do for her now.

Her sisters, along with Terri and Mindy, had gathered around her but the three heroes of The Collective stepped back to allow the sisters to kneel by Islea.

After ten minutes, Gloriya got up and walked over to Terri. Her face was puffy from crying. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“Well how else was it going to end?” Mindy blurted out. “We were fighting against you. She wanted to turn herself in and you didn’t want that. And now she can’t do anything.”

Terri braced herself for a fit of rage from Gloriya in response to Mindy’s brutal honesty, but it didn’t come.

Instead, Gloriya hung her head for a moment, before looking back up. “She wasn’t meant to die. She was our sister.”

Terri wasn’t sure how to respond in this situation. “Gloriya, we came here to…”

“I know. We don’t have the fight in us anymore. We’ve all decided to hand ourselves in. Promise us though, that Islea will be treated with dignity?”

“Of course. You’ll be fully a part of the arrangements made for her,” Terri assured.

“If we call in The GRAB Team, you’ll fully comply?” Agwé asked.

“We will, yes,” Gloriya sighed in resignation. Terri nodded at Agwé who in turn, spoke through her communicator to get the team rolling.

Almost instantly, eight military looking helicopters ascended from behind the cliffs and hills, moving in formation and landing in a synchronised fashion.

***

The three heroes flew back towards Vegas in a sombre mood.

“That sucked,” Terri said. “Even if we got what we went for.”

“Agreed,” Kimona said. “But Islea knew what she was getting in for. She was still a part of her father’s murder. We can’t get too sentimental about it. Especially what they did to you.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right,” Terri said. “Are you ok Mindy?”

“I used my moon beam on Gloriya. It hurt her so much that she did all those lightning bolts. I wasn’t even using it to my fullest,” she said, staring at the floor in front of her. “Did I kill Islea?”

“No, no you didn’t,” Terri said instantly. “Just remember what Kimona said. It’s not your fault.”

“Ok, sure. Thank you.... Can we get drunk when we get back to mine?” Mindy said, looking up.

“I thought that was obvious, right?” Kimona chuckled.