Strength of the Mind
Disclaimer: All familiar characters belong to DC or Marvel. I own Farrah/Persiana, Lance/Diablos, Sister, and Bast.
Chapter 1: A New Foe
Persiana was asleep in her bed onboard the Watchtower. Suddenly, she awoke, a shiver down her spine. She sat up and noticed the emergency lights were on. The lioness stretched like a cat and put on her costume, wondering,
What's going on?
Her feline eyes darted about, glowing green. The feline heroine turned and saw her bed vacant. She shook her head,
I know I went to bed with Lance. Where is he? I would have heard him get up.
She approached the doors, but they did not open. Inserting her fingers, she pried them open.
As she stepped through, she saw the bodies of all her friends and teammates, lying on the ground. The emergency lights then shut off, and power cables were shooting out electricity every so often. Persiana shook her head,
This has to be a dream. This isn't real.
Farrah's ears twitched at that moment, and she sniffed a scent. It was Lance, and he was bleeding. Quickly, she darted in that direction.
It was not long before she had reached the location that she saw Lance, hanging from the ceiling. He had been eviscerated, his entrails leaking out. In the darkness, something was moving, slopping up the blood like a hungry animal. Oddly, Persiana could not see who it was, but she shouted,
"What are you doing?"
The figured stopped and looked up. Farrah was horrified at what she was seeing. It was the symbiote, and it had taken on a human form. It stood up and tilted its head slightly.
Persiana pounced, roaring,
"DIE!"
The symbiote formed a mouth on its head and replied,
"Why? You were the one that killed them. All of them."
Persiana stopped dead in her tracks, and watched as the symbiote changed to look like her, except in a black costume that covered every inch of her body except her head and neck. The lioness watched as her symbiote counter part licked its lips hungrily,
"And now, for my dessert. Killing is such hungry business."
Her mouth widened inhumanly and a long tongue seized Persiana's leg. The lioness tried to fight back and resist, even embedding her sharp claws into the floor. However, what little resistance she provided failed, as she fell into a void of darkness.
Farrah woke up, screaming. Lance, who was sleeping next to her, woke up and held her,
"Farrah, what's wrong?"
At first, the former Avenger resisted, but soon, remembered she was back at the Mansion, in bed with her boyfriend. She looked to her boyfriend, who had concern written in his eyes. He said,
"Baby, what's wrong?"
He began holding her, rubbing her back and neck, trying to get her to calm down. Farrah held tightly, tears running down her cheek.
She shook her head,
"Lance, I can't sleep."
She was lying back down on the bed, on top of her lover. Farrah stared out at the window, her head on his stomach. Lance was petting her, trying to relax her again. He said,
"It's not your fault. That thing tried to take over."
Farrah looked at him, her neck and spine rotating like a cat,
"Lance, I know you're trying to make me feel better. I'm just restless."
She jumped off the bed and began putting her costume on,
"I need to see this thing up in the lab. I have to confront this sometime."
Lance sat up,
"Do you want me to go with you?"
Persiana shook her head,
"No, this I have to do alone. You go back to sleep; I won't be long."
She teleported up to the Watchtower. Lance smiled to himself,
"That's a strong woman."
Aboard the Watchtower…
Farrah was walking to the lab. Even thought many knew about the symbiote, a lot of heroes were keeping their distances. Especially Donna. Wonder Girl was very impressionable, and was a very good friend for Farrah to have. However, she had no idea if Donna was going to forgive her, or if she ever would. However, the attack was months ago, and since then, the two have talked and things seemed to be as they were.
As Persiana entered the lab, she noticed Simon Williams, the hero known as Wonder Man, Flash, and Blue Beetle. The speedster was making faces at the symbiote, while Beetle was rolling his eyes,
"Flash, stop being immature."
Simon shrugged,
"At least he's more mature than Bast. That woman is like a child."
Persiana grinned,
"I see she finally let you out into the world again. Tell me, how does being tied up with the goddess of felines feel like?"
The ionic hero shook his head,
"I don't want to think about it now."
Farrah walked up to Flash, who was teasing the symbiote. The lioness rolled her eyes and looked at some charts on a clip board.
A haunting voice echoed in the lab,
"Farrah."
Farrah looked up,
"Ted, did you say something?"
The insect hero shook his head,
"No. I was busy looking at these readings. This thing is incredible. I have never seen anything like this before."
Farrah shrugged and went back to reading the charts and monitors. The voice said again,
"Faaarrrraaahh."
This time, the feline heroine spun around,
"Cut it out, Flash!"
Flash looked at her, surprised,
"Hey, it's not me."
The voice repeated,
"Faaaarrraaahh."
At this, the four people in the room tensed. Simon asked,
"Is that thing…talking to you, Farrah?"
The disembodied voice laughed,
"Took you long enough to figure it out. And Flash, you are so cute when you make faces."
Wally swallowed nervously,
"Uh, guys. I think the black oozy thing is talking."
Suddenly, the ooze started bubbling. Despite being on the floor, it was rising. Blue Beetle looked at the monitors,
"I don't know what's happening. Simon, has a symbiote behaved like this before?"
The former scientist shook his head,
"I've never heard of anything like this happening before."
From the bubbling ooze, there seemed to be the figure of a woman with a lithe, slender build. The figure had wrinkles in its arms and legs, like it had been smeared and dripping. The bubbling symbiote then took on more defined features, including arms and hands. Legs started to form shapely, perfectly feminine. The stomach was flat and the chest was ample and buxom, perfectly balancing the figure.
Blue Beetle took a wise precaution and sounded the alarm in the lab.
The symbiote's head then began forming. First, it looked like it was forming long hair; then, pointed ears formed on opposite sides of the head. Two large white eyes formed next, and one could almost swear they were cat-like. The head was taking on a more feline shape, yet still had many human features. The mouth formed, revealing large fangs and hissing.
The head of the symbiote then began growing whiter, until the skin was almost the complexion of a Caucasian woman in her late teens or early twenties. She had some distinctive cat-like features, but she could pass herself off as human. The eyes, narrow black slits, opened, and the head spun around one-hundred eighty degrees, glaring right at Persiana. The symbiote tilted her head,
"Hello, Farrah. My name is Sister. Remember me?"
Next Chapter:
Familiar relations