The Hand enemy proved tougher than initially expected. Even as we took them down...they came right back up. This was even after Honor hit them... It was the Beast, no doubt, and his power coursing through them. I magically enhanced the three of us to stand a better chance. One thing was certain - this Beast was very much present in his shinobi foot soldiers.
Sabra used a variety of advanced wrist mounted tech/weaponry in addition to her superhuman physicality to give her the edge in the fight. She hit ninja after ninja with plasma bursts. It wounded them fatally...but the Beast's power was sustained through them and they were restored to life with super speed. He easily rivaled Mephisto. Dust extended her sand form and became a full scale storm atop the roof; but she still controlled her power well enough to avoid hitting us. I also had Honor put up shields around both Sabra and myself as the countless sand particles that formed Dust could in fact hurt even me due to their intense piercing capability. Dust hurled herself into the ninjas and ripped them to pieces as the countless sand particles tore into them like a million miniature bullets.
Psylocke, a powerful telekinetic, mentally hit Dust's storm and slowed her assault. It happened rather swiftly. Dust tried to fight against it but Psylocke's mental powers rivaled those of Jean. With magical enhancement by the Beast also being present that sent Psylocke into an entirely different level of being. Psylocke hit Dust with a super burst of mental energy at the core of her storm formation and that of her core body. Psylocke then ripped her hands in opposite directions to focus her energy for the mental blast. Dust cried out and was ripped apart from her storm formation. She fell to the ground in human form again.
Psylocke took to the air formed an energy blade and came down hard for Dust's helpless form... Her blade crashed into the side of my hammer and was shattered. Psylocke lost her focus and tried to reset it upon me, but my super punch caught her in the jaw. I heard her neck bones snap and she dropped dead just like that to the ground.
Sabra was getting her butt kicked, but not for a lack of effort. She'd dispatched a number of them only for them to resurrect or be replaced with new assailants. The Hand could regenerate itself at will. It could make twenty ninjas seem like a hundred. I threw Honor into one that was about to cut her down from behind and the hammer smashed his chest and dropped him. I closed in.
I didn't have my bracelets on and my personal hammer shield wasn't ideal right now; so I could be wounded more readily. Speed and foresight would be my greatest advantages here. I was at them and moving in a blur in order to save Sabra. She caught her second wind at seeing my help and resumed fighting.
I did a fancy jumping spin kick that nailed five of the bastards then/there. I was about to go for two more when something pierced my lower back... I cried out and fell to the ground. Sabra got in a few more hits before she too was beat down. I reached at my back and felt the weapon that was buried in it... I felt the distinctive nature of the weapon and knew it instantly. It was a sai; Elektra's choice weapon.
I called for Honor... it did not come. What the hell...? "So you are the great wonder woman I've heard so much about..." said Elektra from behind. She ripped the sai from my back; I cried out in pain. I felt so weak... Elektra scoffed and turned me over with a foot. "Can't call your hammer? Feeling woozy? That's hardly coincidental. The Lord Beast is powerful too." She then set her boot upon my throat. "My sai weren't magical before I joined the Hand...but then they became that."
Psylocke was resurrected...like nothing had ever happened. She growled at me. "No Psylocke!" said Elektra. "Secure her mutant friends." They picked up the spent Dust/Sabra and restrained them. Elektra bent down toward me and spoke through clenched teeth. "You had a lot of nerve coming here...amazon." She seemed able to defeat my near invulnerability... she choked me. "We should be sisters you and I, for we are both of the Greek culture...aren't we...?" I tried to say something but she kicked me hard in the face and sent me to darkness. And here I was supposed to be so powerful... Elektra had just kicked my ass with little to no trouble.
XXX
I awoke to agony; I screamed. From nearby Dust and Sabra did the same. I didn't know where we were. But we were restrained. There was an evil here... a pure malice. It felt like brother but wasn't. The torture finally stopped. I sagged in my magical restraints.
"Poor princess... You always thought you were right; and better than everyone else. You thought you could join an outsider's rabble like the X men and reach them. But you don't get how life really works. Most people never had it as good as you did. Most never will. You and your punk ass husband defend capitalism...and patriotism..." Elektra scoffed heavily at the word; almost as though she were going to vomit.
She took my face by the chin and lifted it. "There's no doubt you're still the strongest of your little political correctness group here, Themysciran Diana. Now we shall see how strong you are when it's not you that must suffer..." Psylocke went into Dust's mind with her power; Dust screamed. "Stop it!" Sabra demanded but was silenced by a ninja's slap to the face. "You have no authority here Sabra." Elektra nodded and Psylocke stopped torturing Dust.
Elektra faced me. "We own Trask industries now; the makers of the infamous sentinel... We now use Nimrod...the sentinel AI program if you will, to control them. You no doubt pieced it all together my fine vixens..." "But there is still so much you don't know..."
Then, as though on cue, Magneto appeared from the shadows. Arclight and Juggernaut were beside him. "Well well well," he said. "The wonder woman... mm..." He then looked over Dust and Sabra. Sabra drew his interest in particular. "I'd say shalom to you sister...but I don't follow that anymore." "I know. I will keep that in my heart for both of us." He smiled at her. "Indeed. I'm just a mutant now; so in that way I still consider you my sister." "Yet we are at odds..." "Yes; it shouldn't be that way, but for now it must be." He then walked over to me. "If you indeed deduced that I want Wakanda's vibranium for my mutant army you are most correct. The Hand and the brotherhood are allies to that end." "Until you betray each other," I said. "You're useful to each other for now, but that's it." Magneto and Elektra shared a look. Elektra said, "Allies don't have to be friends to work well together." "Well said my dear," said Magneto. "Now, we have work to do."
"Indeed we do." Elektra resumed torturing all three of us again for reasons unknown.
