Heroine Creation: All My Summons Are Custom Made

After slaughtering the Extractors, Thor flew through the skies of the old industrial quarter of State X, the sun dropping behind the factory towers.

She hung high over rusted roofs and broken chimneys, carrying the Terrible Three inside bands of lightning that wrapped around their chains and kept them from falling.

This district had once held foundries, storage depots and processing plants, but most of the structures had been abandoned. Espel’s directions led her past three collapsed warehouses and into a fenced compound where an old bunker sat beneath a hill of cracked stone.

Thor landed beside the entrance hard enough to shake dust from the rusted door.

Caelem hit the ground first and immediately started shouting.

"Hey! Lancet sent you, didn’t he?" He dragged his Gracebreakers behind him while Thor pulled open the bunker door. She realized that months in prison hadn’t weakened his mouth.

"Lancet!" Caelem shouted. "I know you’re listening! Stop hiding behind your women and come face me yourself!"

Muskard stumbled after him, completely exhausted. "What are you doing?!"

Caelem twisted toward him. "I’m going to have my revenge, Muskard!"

Thor pushed both of them through the doorway before the argument could continue. Linzley came last, hanging between two loops of lightning with her head lolling forward.

Blood had dried from her nose to her mouth and spread down the front of her prison uniform. Every few breaths she muttered something about Sunshine, then forgot what she had been saying halfway through the sentence.

The bunker smelled of old oil and damp concrete. A row of dead machines filled one side while faded yellow lines marked what had once been an equipment bay.

Espel had clearly chosen the place because nobody had used it in years. Even the emergency lights were dead until Thor struck the wall panel with a thread of lightning and forced three ceiling lamps to flicker awake.

She found heavy steel chains stacked beneath an old workbench and used them without ceremony.

Caelem protested through all of it.

"What do you want with us?" he demanded as Thor locked both wrists to a support column. "Where is Lancet? He put you up to this. Of course he did. He’s still scared to face me properly after what happened in our fight."

Muskard turned his head slowly. "He defeated you in that fight."

"He had help."

"But... so did we."

Muskard looked toward Thor. "Can’t you see Lady Thor saved us? You can hate Lancet afterward if you still have enough energy left to be stupid."

Caelem scoffed and pulled against his chain. "Saved us for what? You think she carried us here because she suddenly cares?"

Thor turned toward him. The look on her face shut him up for nearly three seconds.

Then he tried again. "I’m asking a reasonable question."

"You have not asked one reasonable question since I met you," Thor said.

Caelem’s lips tightened.

Thor chained Muskard to another pillar, then lowered Linzley into an old metal chair. She tied the girl’s wrists loosely enough that she would not fall but firmly enough that even a sudden recovery would not let her wander.

Linzley blinked at the floor and whispered something about one of her dolls being hungry and her not being there to feed it.

Thor frowned.

Caelem, apparently having mistaken silence for permission, leaned back against the pillar. "Fine. Then at least get us food."

Thor looked at him.

Caelem continued, "We haven’t eaten since morning. If Lancet wants prisoners, he should feed them."

Lightning suddenly burst across the bunker.

The lights flashed white. Thunder cracked inside the concrete room so violently that Caelem’s shoulders jumped and his entire chain rattled against the pillar.

Thor flashed towards him before the echo died, her hammer appearing in her hand while blue-white electricity crawled around the head.

"You will not demand anything from me."

Caelem’s face lost color.

Thor leaned closer. "You attacked my Master. You tried to force him into an organization of murderers. You stood beside creatures that would have torn him apart if Astensia and I had not stopped you. The only reason you are breathing in this room is because Lancet ordered me not to kill you."

Caelem swallowed.

Thor’s eyes narrowed. "If you test that order for my sake, I will find out exactly how much pain I can cause without breaking my promise."

Caelem’s knees pressed together.

Muskard quickly looked away, fearing his friend was about to wet himself. Thor, suspecting the same thing, dismissed the hammer and returned to the center of the bunker.

Silence lasted longer this time.

Caelem stared at the floor. Muskard rested his head against the column behind him. Linzley muttered under her breath, her words wet around the blood in her mouth.

After a while, Caelem looked toward her.

The anger in his face faded. "Alright, forget the food." He shifted awkwardly against the chains. "Can you at least get medicine for her?"

Thor looked at Linzley.

Caelem continued, quieter now. "Those men hit her badly. She’s been talking nonsense since then, and she keeps losing focus. Her face is burst open. She might have a concussion or internal bleeding or something. I don’t know."

Linzley raised her head. "Sunshine ate the moon," she whispered. "But Mummy said it was too salty."

Caelem’s face tightened. "See?"

Muskard joined in. "Please."

Thor turned toward him.

Muskard rarely begged. Even now his voice remained controlled, but the fear beneath it was obvious.

"She is badly hurt. She has barely understood where she is since the attack. There are wounds on her face and possibly bleeding inside her body, waiting could make it worse."

Thor looked back at Linzley.

Blood had dried across the girl’s chin. One side of her face had been burst open and another swollen badly around the cheek and eye. There was a thin line of drool slipping from the corner of her mouth while she tried to say another sentence that never became one.

It was a pitiful sight.

Thor’s jaw tightened. She did not like these people. She had nearly killed them once and would not have regretted it then.

But this was not a fight anymore. Linzley could barely keep her head upright.

Thor looked toward the bunker door. "Do not move."

Muskard nodded. "Okay. We won’t."

In a sudden second, she disappeared in a burst of lightning. The bunker door slammed open and shut behind the thunder.