Dark Zodiac Saga Pt. 4: The Riding Devil and The Lost Princess (2 of 2)

4:15

"Care to tell me who that lady might be?" Davis asked as Gaia formed a protective bubble around them to keep their assailant's blasts from harming them.

"I really have no clue. Though she looks an awful like that Onslaught character," Gaia said praying that Exodus would show up. She had no idea how long her shield would hold against this woman's blasts that happened to be pretty dang powerful.

"Come to me Riding Devil and Lost Princess. You'll be wonderful collections to my puzzle. I promise you," Onset cackled from above the two young mutants.

"Screw you lady. I'm not a puzzle piece," Gaia shouted hoping that taunting might buy her some time.

4:10

"You're quite the interesting lady Ms. Cameron. I've enjoyed…" Exodus stopped mid-sentence as he felt a tremendous power suddenly appear and not too far away.

"I felt it as well Bennet. I get the feeling my son and your student is involved in it. We should…"

"We should do nothing Ms. Cameron. You find Heather and I'll go to Gaia and Davis. Whatever source that power comes from can't be a good thing and you will only get in my way," Exodus said as he flew out of the door heading for wherever the source of power was coming from.

Ms. Cameron sighed as she walked out the door, "I fear for you Exodus. I fear for you."

4:20

"Who might you be woman?" Exodus asked as he flew up behind the Onslaught looking female that was assaulting Gaia and Davis.

"The name's Onset. I've come for the two children. I won't have you interfering," the woman exclaimed as she lobbed four bursts of electrical energy at Exodus. Bennet immediately threw up a telekinetic shield sufficient enough to block the blasts.

"Believe me woman if that is the best you've got I doubt you'll be taking the two children," Exodus said half laughing at this Onslaught look alike. She was far from Onslaught. That was most definitely for sure.

"I prefer the term teenager," Gaia yelled from down below. Exodus looked down and smiled slightly at this pupil. For all her annoyance she had her moments.

"If anyone should be giving up Exodus it should be you. I'll have these children first and then I shall have you!" Onslaught said as she launched out what looked like another electrical blast. The leader of the Exiles once again put up a TK shield, but the blast simply went through the shield and hit him square in the chest. Exodus yelled out in pain, as the blast seemed to be ripping straight through his mind.

Before he even had time to recover Onset was on him with punches and kicks at an incredible speed. For all Exodus was he was still fragile and the 200 mph blows of Onset were beginning to take their toll on him. He could feel bones breaking blood flowed freely from many cuts.

"Enough!" Exodus yelled as he threw out a massive wave of TK energy. It sent Onset flying back so fast that she broke the sound barrier. Bennet seeing that she was gone for the time being relaxed and flew down beside Gaia and Davis.

"You kicked her ass Exodus! Oh man…Davis go get a doctor or something!" Gaia exclaimed as she realized how badly injured her leader was. His uniform was nearly torn to shreds. She didn't even know how he was still alive.

"No Gaia. Get out of here! She's going to return," Exodus said weakly as he passed out.

"No need to run child! I've already returned!" Onset said as she descended from the sky. Gaia and Davis tried to run anyway, but were only snatched up into the air by Onset's telekinesis. Onset waved a finger in front of the two's faces as they hung upside down in front of her. Gaia spit in the woman's face.

"You're nothing but an Onslaught rip-off you stupid bitch!" Gaia yelled in frustration at her situation. She tried to use her powers, but it was like Onset had shut them off.

"Rip-off? No. I consider myself more a divergent of him. See part of me is the being you call Onslaught, but the rest of me are the two Shi'ar, Lilandra and D'Ken. I'll explain more about that later though. We really have places to be kids," Onset laughed as all three of them disappeared in a flash of green light.

7:00

"He was quite literally beaten to a pulp," Mutant Forger said as he stared at the bandaged body of Exodus. The rest of the main Exiles teachers were here with Plazm and Toxicwaste along as student back up. This was just in case if whoever attacked Exodus decided to come back for a second round. Mutant Forger was prepared both mentally and physically for that instance. Besides the smell of hospitals had always bothered him. In his younger days he had seen many of his family in makeshift hospitals. Where he came from mutants were allowed medical treatment so they were forced to establish their own hospitals.

"How long do you think he'll be banged up?" Fontanelle asked with her hand over her mouth. Exodus was one of the strongest people she knew and to see him like this shook her up badly. She could see it was doing the same to Plazm and Toxicwaste.

"Normally I would say for quite some time, but his body is doing something that I've never seen from psionics of his type before," Mutant Forger sighed confused as everyone else in the room.

"What do you mean? We need hard answers and not your Yoda bullshit!" Toxicwaste yelled.

That statement caught the attention of everyone in the room and Proteus was about to proceed to scold Alex when Mutant Forger held up his hand to halt him. Gently he said, "The child is right. No more riddles today. It seems that Exodus's TK is literally acting on it's own and healing Bennet's body. Almost like a telekinetic healing factor. I can't explain it and I'm not sure if I want to try."

"So let's just take it for a miracle and move on. Question though. Who's going to call Crystal?"

"I'll do it Gloria. I'm on guard duty tonight anyway so I'll make the phone call to her. She needs to know what's going on," Proteus said as he vanished in a poof of orange smoke.

"He's getting more confident in his powers I see," Ever said as he kneeled down beside Exodus and grabbed his hand lightly. Seeing someone he considered to be a father of sorts beat up like this shook the Morlock up bad.

"It's a necessity Ever. While most mutants improve on their powers to keep from hurting other people and themselves Osman must control his powers to keep from destroying reality. I'm amazed that Darkstar didn't cause some great harm to the universe when she experimented on Proteus and Gaia during the reign of Apocalypse," Mutant Forger said trying to start some casual conversation. Usually he enjoyed silence, but the silence filling this room was not to his taste.

"Maybe that's why Exodus is healing himself with his powers. It might be some leftovers from his time as War. Apocalypse did do a lot of enhancing to his last batch of Horsemen," Fontanelle suggested.

"I was at a smaller Dawn camp up in Seattle during the whole 'Apocalypse rules the world' thing. All of sudden I just remembered that Exodus stopped at my camp one time to see the progression of the mutants there. He told me something rather peculiar," Toxicwaste said his hands beginning to shake a little.

"What did he tell you child?" Mutant Forger inquired seeing the anxiety suddenly overcoming Alex.

"He told me I would one day die in battle."

The Next Day

"So how goes your stay so far my Riding Devil?" Onset asked as he poked at Davis's topaz colored bubble that was his prison.

"I've had better," Davis remarked sarcastically trying to cover up the fear he was really feeling at the moment. Pure evil was staring him in the face and all he could do to keep himself from peeing in his pants was be a smart ass.

"Luckily your bubble keeps you from smelling her atrocious breath," Bloodscream shot. Everyone who had been captured by Onset up to that point began to laugh hysterically. The necromancer knew he could insult Onset and he would not die for it because the woman needed them. He knew she could inflict pain, but passing up the chance to insult his kidnapper would have been much more painful than anything Onset could throw at him.

"Quite the joker I see. Too bad Roughouse isn't around to here your splendid humor. You know he's running with Wolverine these days? Doesn't that just make your blood boil? You know what? That is the perfect punishment," Onset laughed as she outstretched her hands. All her captives began to roll and scream in pain within their bubble cages. She was literally making their blood boil.