The Girl with Lightning Eyes

She wore a rubber blindfold, melded and sewn into her face. The illegitimate child of the Norse god had eyes reminiscent of her father’s power. Though unlike him, she had never seen the cold and bitter beauty of the North. In fact, she had not seen anything since she was a young child. She had been scooped up by strange men in black garb and tormented daily by evil dressed in white for the past twenty years. She knew not who she was, where she was from, or even her name. The closest thing she knew to the embrace of a family were the cold hugs of rubber walls and the prickly kisses of needles.

“Day seven-thousand two-hundred and forty-three with subject zero-zero-lima-tango-golf-one.” The familiar voice that always accompanied her pain echoed around the chamber where 00LTG1 lay silently, vertically strapped to a table with her arms out to the sides. “Initiating extraction.”

A mechanical whirring fired up and 00LTG1 couldn’t stifle her screams as the specialized saw ripped and seared into the flesh of her lower leg. They were extracting samples of her bones. Though this was a near-daily occurrence, they never gave her the luxury of anesthesia, and so she could never grow accustomed to the pain. The sound of the saw stopped for a moment and she felt a sharp smack to the side of her face from a wet gloved hand. The smell of her crimson smeared upon the side of her face wafted into her nostrils.

“Shut up!” The voice snarled. There was the click of a button. “Subject still shows distress upon breaching of the epidermis and underlying tissues.”

Click.

The button popped again and the whirring resumed. 00LTG1 bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood as she struggled to comply with the command. The warmth of tears soaked her eyelids beneath the rubber blindfold. She sniveled and failed to stop a whimper from escaping her lips. The machine ceased once again.

“What did I just tell you!?” The hand gripped her throat tightly. She choked as the pressure built in her head and she struggled to breathe. There was another click. “Subject continues to exhibit signs of non-compliance.”

Click.

She felt another smack across her cheek. White flashed across her vision and there was a loud booming in her mind.

Click.

“Electro-optical phenomenon still observed when subject is exposed to extreme levels of stress.”

Click.

00LTG1 breathed a sigh of relief as the pain in her leg subsided.

“God dammit!” The voice shouted.

Click.

“Regeneration speed of the subject seems to be increasing over our past several sessions. It has been approximately thirty seconds since infliction ceased. Epidermal tissue has already fully repaired itself- note that this is a significant improvement over just the past couple weeks. Request permission for another extensive round of blood work and marrow sampling.”

Click.

She felt the warmth of the man’s breath as he leaned in and whispered into her ear.

“Now we get to start all over. You have only yourself to blame for this.” He chuckled. “We’re gonna solve your mystery sooner or later. We’re gonna find out what you are, and you’re going to provide us with the means to augment our own genetics for the next step in human evolution.”

00LTG1 screamed hysterically as her tormentor laid into her flesh again with a new ferocity. Though the pain was unbearable, a part of her had always enjoyed the sensation of her own blood drenching her skin. Though it quickly grew cold, it was the only warmth she ever felt in this frigid laboratory. Her vision flashed over and over, each one accompanied by a beating against her brain as if it were a drum.

With her daily extractions complete, she was released from the table, and blindly led to a tile-lined room. This is where she was always cleaned after her torture. Her clothes were ripped from her body and the biting of a thousand frozen needles barreled into her exposed flesh all at once as the man switched on the hose and pummeled her with its icy waters. She backed herself into the corner of the room, with her arms above her head, as she always did in an attempt to shy away from the assault.

The white strobes burned into her eyes as they always did, but something different happened this day. The pounding accompanying each flash within her mind grew louder. The sounds of the rushing water and the man’s maniacal laughter faded away with each thump, rendered inaudible as she felt the very world shaking around her. Suddenly, the icy barrage ceased its attack on her body as the man switched off the hose. He looked around in worried confusion. The lights hanging overhead swayed violently with each flash that lit up beneath her blindfold.

Click.

“Something is happening. Something we haven’t seen before. The entire room is shaking. An earthquake, maybe? I- I don’t kno—”

There was a sudden explosion as an object came crashing through the ceiling into the tile and cement of the floor, scattering debris across the room and rupturing the pipes running throughout the structure. 00LTG1’s tormentor was knocked to the ground in the blast. His tape recorder skittered across the tiles away from him. He groaned, pushing himself up to a sit and looked through the gaping hole left in the ceiling to the rumbling mass of dark grey clouds beyond.

“Wha—”

Two lightning bolts, quick in succession, tore through the remnants of the roof. The first barreled down into the top of 00LTG1’s head, and she disappeared for but an instant. She reappeared standing over her former torturer with the strike of the second bolt. There was a wet slap on the tiles behind her- her blindfold. She blinked wildly as her vision quickly adapted to being able to see once more. The man at her feet cowered, and she looked up through the roof. Standing at the edge was the great hulking silhouette of a mighty bearded man. Between her feet sat a mighty hammer, beautifully engraved. The silhouette nodded at her, and raised his arm. Two more successive lightning bolts tore through the air, striking the hammer and delivering it into his grasp.

“Thyra.” Thor spoke her true name. “You are found. The rest is up to you, my daughter. Fight well.”

There was the flash of another bolt, and the God of Thunder was gone. Thyra’s gaze wandered to the man on the ground, his jaw agape. A look of scorn melded itself upon her face and electricity swam furiously within the frosty glaciers of her eyes.

“Now hold o—” He started.

The bolts of electricity shot from Thyra’s eyes and burrowed into those of her tormentor. He screamed for only a moment as the lightning coursed through his wet body, sending him convulsing and slapping across the soaked tiles. Years of harbored hatred flared through every fiber of his being until his eye sockets were charred black.

With the execution complete, Thyra dropped to her knees. She sobbed hysterically as her rage subsided and gave way to joyous despair. It was finally over. The grey clouds that blanketed the sky had disappeared with her father, leaving the heavens clearly visible. She dropped her head and caught glimpse of her reflection in the pooling water atop the tiles. She cocked her head to the side, examining her face and poking at her breasts curiously. She didn’t recognize this woman. She had, after all, been unable to see since she was a young child. This would take some getting used to, but now the world was hers to walk.

Thyra ceased her sniveling and stood up. She could not stand to dwell in this place of anguish a single moment longer. She now knew who her father was, though she had much to learn yet. Gazing to the heavens once more, she willed herself away. The daughter of Thor disappeared in a bolt of lightning, free at last.