Strength of the Mind
Disclaimer: All familiar characters belong to DC or Marvel. I own Farrah/Persiana, Hecate, and Bast.
Chapter 11: Hostile Takeover Part 3
At the Kasnian border…
Three guards, loyal to the general, who was loyal to Hecate, were lazily watching their post. Guard 1 was smoking a cigarette, staring out at the mountains,
"Why does that woman have us stand guard here? No one would be stupid enough to go through the mountains. The enemy would go take the highway."
Guard 2 rolled his eyes,
"Idiot, you just want to go to the highway to check out the women."
Guard 3 shook his head,
"All right, you two. Just keep to your dut-."
Unfortunately, he did not get a chance to finish his sentence as someone had ripped his head off. The two other guards, but the mysterious figure snapped their spines in two. This figure wore all black and had a yellow lightning bolt down his chest. He growled to himself,
"Hecate."
Using super speed, he flew off.
In the Kasnian palace…
Hecate had configured a world map into a dart board, and she was trying to accurately aim her dart at a country. She said to herself,
"Let's see. Do I want to hit Paris, Rome, Athens, or Berlin? Do I even want to hit Europe? Asia isn't any better, and forget about Africa and South America. North America has some interesting targets. How about Los Angeles, Washington DC, Seattle, Boston…"
She said out loud,
"Boston? Seriously, who would want to blow up that place? I mean, there's nothing there."
Just then, she heard the sounds of gunfire, and several of her troops being attacked. She put her darts down and rolled her eyes,
"Problems with the neighbors again. I swear, if it isn't the stereo that's too loud, it's the gun fighting."
She opened the door and ordered,
"Keep it down! I'm tryin' to unite the world over-."
She then saw Dr. Fate, Zatanna, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Persiana had cleaned house with the guards. The Amazon princess noticed Hecate and bolted for her. The red-eyed teen had barely enough time to dodge as she was brought to the throne room of her palace. The gun wielder slipped out and drew her weapons,
"Hey, Wonder Woman. You're back for more."
She then noticed the other heroes had blocked her way out. Hecate smirked and holstered her weapons, tutting,
"You know, this does constitute an act of war. You are violating the sovereignty of my country."
Diana snarled,
"You murdered the rightful ruler of Kasnia! You will answer for what you have done!"
Persiana's ears perked at that moment. She said,
"Uh, guys. I think we might have a problem. Someone's coming."
The castle wall came down, showering the room with dust and debris. The same figure that had rushed across the border, killing three guards, stood with his arms folded, hovering in the air. He glowered down at Hecate,
"Witch, you will pay for destroying my country!"
Zatanna swallowed nervously,
"Oh, crap. It's Black Adam."
Persiana shook her head,
"Refresh my memory."
Dr. Fate explained,
"Black Adam has the same powers as Captain Marvel, given to him by the wizard Shazam. However, where as Marvel has used his powers for good, Adam has discovered some…less honorable…uses for his abilities."
The Black Marvel looked at the artifact using magician,
"I will deal with you in a moment. Right now, my business is with this murderess."
Diana said,
"After me. She murdered a friend of mine."
Black Adam scowled,
"You will wait your turn, female. It is your place to."
Farrah winced,
"That was not the smartest thing to say."
Wonder Woman clenched her fists in rage. She did not know who to hit first; Hecate for murdering her friend or Black Adam for being a chauvinistic pig. She decided to go with the latter. Barreling in, she slammed a hard right cross into Black Adam's face. The magically powered power house wiped some blood off his mouth and snarled,
"You will pay for this, Amazon. I would not have had quarrel with you, but you have just signed your death warrant."
The two powerhouses started duking it out.
Hecate smirked,
"Now would be a good time to run."
She bolted for a secret passage out of the room.
Batman noticed what was going on and said,
"Stop those two from killing each other. I'm going after Hecate."
He disappeared through the same secret passage. Persiana said,
"I'll go help Batman. You two go break them up!"
She grabbed a grenade and threw it at the wall. When it blew up, she bolted for the passage.
The top hat magic user looked to the artifact wearer,
"Got any bright ideas?"
Dr. Fate nodded,
"Yes, one. We incapacitate him for the time being."
He began chanting a spell, his eyes glowing in his helmet and his hands glowing with some mysterious light. He then shouted,
"STOP, IN THE NAME OF FATE!"
Instantly, Black Adam and Wonder Woman were frozen solid, paralyzed. Zatanna then said,
"ANAID, EVOM!" (1)
In a moment, Diana was able to move again. She smirked,
"Thanks, that makes this easier."
She then unloaded punches and kicks in speeds that would make Flash jealous. Zatanna asked,
"Weren't we supposed to break them up?"
Dr. Fate shrugged,
"Hey, I did my job. It's not our fault Wonder Woman wants to use Adam as a punching bag."
The spell mistress nodded,
"Right. Popcorn?"
She conjured up a bag and the two began eating, watching the raven-haired warrior do things to Black Adam that bordered on cruel and unusual.
Meanwhile…
Inside the dark passage, Hecate was bolting for her life. She looked back and could see the Dark Knight was not that far behind her. The red-eyed villainess shook her head, thinking,
No, I won't let them catch me.
She emerged in a large cavernous room with numerous computer equipment. The grotto itself looked to have been naturally carved from millions of years of the planet's existence.
Hecate overturned a table and waited, pointing her two fire arms at the entrance.
What she failed to realize was that Persiana was with Batman, and the two took cover as Hecate opened fire. Both of them were behind a desk. The lioness said,
"Those guns are real, Batman. I can smell the gunpowder."
The detective nodded,
"I'll distract her. You sneak around and try and get her by surprise."
Two bullets ricocheted by. Persiana smirked,
"No prob, Bats."
She somersaulted to another mainframe, effortlessly dodging each shot. Batman almost smirked to himself as he noted how easy she made it look. He pulled out a Batarang and launched it.
Hecate destroyed it before it even reached her, but that was all that was needed. Farrah silently took cover and, when she was behind the gun slinger, tackled her and slammed her to the cave floor.
However, neither expected to see what was next.
Hecate was a robot…
Next Chapter:
What is going on here?
(1) This means "Move, Diana!"
