T.E.R.F War

T.E.R.F War: Chapter 6 – “Demi-Humans”.

Bethany Edelgard19 March 2019

T.E.R.F War

Chapter 6: “Demi-Humans”.

“Light energy?”, I asked Chante.

We were driving along the highway, vehicles passing by every few minutes. Chante and Sasha were trying to help me make sense of Sasha and the Electric Girl’s superpowers. There wasn’t much exciting happening at the moment so I asked Chante about them and she started telling me it’s all possible with channelling something called ‘Light Energy‘.

“Yep”, Chante replied keeping her eyes on the road as she drove, “Think of it as an invisible aura where you can tap into like an energy force. It can be then used to do all sorts of reality-defying stuff, like healing someone who got shot in the stomach with a bolt of electricity.”

That last line gave me a nauseating feeling in the pit of my stomach as I remembered the painful encounter.

Chante continued to explain, saying people who can manipulate light energy around them to do these superhuman and paranormal things are called ‘Demi-Humans‘. Depending on who they are, they can either be really helpful, or really dangerous.

Fortunately, not everyone can be a demi-human though. You must have the latent genetic ability to make using light energy possible. It’s unknown how much demi-humans they actually are, but government research estimates that around four percent of the human race could be demi-human.

I don’t even need a calculator to know that’s still a lot.

What’s even weirder about it is that most demi-humans are female, one male for every one thousand female demi-humans. With the world governments trying to keep demi-human existence unknown, there isn’t much even they know about demi-humans.

“So I guess Sasha is a sort of healer demi-human?”, I asked looking at both of them hoping I guessed it right. In my mind, it was similar enough to magic in movies and videogames, where magicians specialised in certain types of magic and spells.

“Not quite”, Chante replied, “Sasha has more than healing abilities”. Chante chuckled a bit before making a quick glance to Sasha, “Want to tell her?”.

“I can output energy pulses with my hands that can either heal or destroy stuff.”, Sasha looked pleased as ever as she showed off her hands to me. They looked soft and smooth, glowing with a green aura around them that felt calming just from looking at them.

“Might not want to make me mad.”, Sasha playfully winked and smiled at me, “They can hurt just as much as they can heal.”

Note to self: I think I have to watch out for crazy here.

“And you, Chante?”, I asked, “Are you a demi-human as well?”.

“She definitely is!”, Sasha brightly spoke before Chante could reply, “Chante is a special type of demi-human: A Fuser demi-human. Fusers are bound to a certain element or material. It’ll be so much cooler if she showed you though!”. Sasha seemed super enthusiastic about Chante’s powers more so than Chante herself.  It was starting to get me excited to know what it was.

“She’s making it out to be a bigger deal than it actually is.”, Chante said nonchalantly.

“Are you kidding?!”, Sasha rebutted, “When we get to back to HQ, you have to show Emilia how badass your ability is!”.

As Sasha began bickering with Chante, I looked at my hands wondering if I could be demi-human as well. I started thinking of how I could march up to those stupid TERFs and blast them with laser bolts. I started thinking back to that show I watched as a kid where this alien girl joined this team of teenage superheroes. She could shoot green bursts of energy from her hands at her enemies.

With that kind of powers, I could rescue my dad. Be the fighter he always saw in me.

But not sure what he’ll think of his daughter being able to shoot green laser bolts though. He’ll probably want me to see a doctor or something to make sure I didn’t fall into a pit of radioactive sludge.

Speaking of powers, I just remembered something that happened back at the house.

“The electric girl that attacked me”, I interrupted Chante and Sasha’s debate and they put their attention on me, “She called me by my…dead name.”

“They all do that.”, Chante said with a serious disdain in her voice, “They only look at you for what you are at birth and nothing else. They then take those facts to make you as miserable and uncomfortable as possible. Even if you just want to live in peace, they will try to use that to haunt you to the best of their abilities.”

“They’re the epitome of trash!”, Sasha’s face was painted with anger, but then quickly calmed herself down, “But don’t let it get to you, Emi. We’ll kick their butts for you. Okay?”.

Sasha’s smile was innocently reassuring. It made hearing the kind of people these T.U.R.F people were easier to digest in my mind.

“Are both of you…?”, I was confident that they both knew what I was referring to.

“Nope. Chante and I are both cis.”, Sasha answered, “But we definitely do have other trans members back at HQ. You should totally meet our director! Not only is she trans, she’s also a super badass demi-human!”, Sasha’s eyes were pretty much glowing at this point.

There it was, that feeling of excitement again.

“Umm, how much further to G.A.T headquarters?”, I asked another question.

“Well, we just came out of Bristol.”, said Chante, “And G.A.T HQ is near Birmingham. We could get there in a little under two hours if I kick it up a notch.”

I wanted to moan in impatience, but Sasha did it for me. It was actually pretty funny how she did it in the most childish of ways. It made me erupt in a little bit of laughter. The expression on her face was too funny not to smile.

As Chante continued to drive, all three of us noticed something in the road in front of us. As the van got closer the something became a…someone. They were just standing in the middle of the road with their arms folded.

“What are they doing?”, I asked trying to get a better view from my seat.

The figure started running toward the van suddenly in a quick dash.

“Sasha grab Emilia!”, I heard Chante suddenly shout.

Everything happened so fast. The last thing I remembered was Sasha grabbing my hand and racing us toward the back of the van.

Before I knew it, I was on the road and a huge crash sounded as the van smashed into something similar to that of a steel wall.

To Be Continued…