Castaways

 

Part 6. Battling the Undertaker

 

By Skytower

 

            The vast plain beyond the open door sent a chill down Wanda’s back.  Instinctively she reached out and took Tania’s hand.  The plain was an infinite red desert with broken grey stones sticking out of the sand.  The sky was tinted red and dark crimson clouds moved slowly and painfully through it.  A yellowish sun had just risen but there was no feel of warmth from its rays.  As Wanda looked more closely at the stones she saw that some of them had faces.  Those faces were frozen in pain and horror.  She recognized some of them.  Fellow Avengers, X-men and even a Wonder Woman.  In anguish Wanda realized that win or loose they were beyond her help. 

            They stepped onto the sand and Wanda could feel the heat through her boots.  The air smelled of sulfur and was hot as the wind pushed it against her body.  Wanda felt her cape flare away from her body and felt as if she were standing nude before the world.  Wanda felt the dread of a thousand graveyards in the air.  The despair and fear was almost a physical part of the world.

            Suddenly her feelings of dread scattered as music started to play and Wanda almost laughed when she recognized the song.

            “Don’t fear the reaper?” Tania asked.

            “Blue Oyster Cult,” Wanda said.

            “Our master’s little joke,” Lex Luthor said appearing in front of them.  “I advise you not to take the song seriously.  Fear him.”

            Wanda held down her anger.  This wasn’t the Lex she and Tania had come to hate.  He wore a pirate costume and a black patch was over his left eye.  A scar ran under the patch from above the eye to in back of his ear.

            "Why do so many Lex Luthors’ survive?"  Tania wondered.

            “Because we are survivors,” Lex replied smiling.

            “What world did you come from Lex?” Wanda demanded.

            “A world of bright blue seas and saucy wenches,” Luthor said bowing and smiling.  “Where I was King of the Isle of Lex and Admiral of the most feared pirate fleet ever to plunder a town.  I am here to tell you the rules and-my master being kind-bed each of you after he tires of your bodies.”

            “Dream on.”

            “Always,” Lex said bowing to Tania and leering at her breasts.  “Personally I do hope you loose because if you loose I become the property of Circe.”

            “Why does she want you?” Tania demanded.

            “She wants to make love to more than one Lex Luthor at a time.”

            Tania grimaced in disgust at the look of hope on his face.

            “What are the rules?” Wanda demanded pushing down her own revulsion.

            “You will fight using what ever powers and skills you have until you have either killed my master or he has beaten you senseless.”
            “Not too complex,” Tania said.

            “My master has no patience for games.” Lex said smiling.  “And he welcomes a challenge.  The seven hours have passed UltraWoman, you have your strength again.  Good luck.”

He made no gesture but suddenly the sand rose around them as if stirred by a giant hand.  When it subsided Lex was gone and standing ten feet away from them was the Undertaker.

            We’re supposed to loose, Wanda thought.  That won’t be too hard from the looks of him. 

She studied the man closely and Wanda knew that Tania was doing the same thing.  The Undertaker stood over six feet tall with broad shoulders and a powerful chest.  He was massive and wore black pants, boots and a skin tight black shirt with short sleeves and shoulder pads.  His semi-long hair was black and his neck and arms were covered with tattoos.  The deep set eyes caught Wanda’s for a moment and she felt a stab of fear.  They were the soulless eyes of a shark.  His face was round and had a gristle-like beard on his chin.

            “Lost souls,” He said in a voice that reminded Wanda of Batman.  “What do you feel at the end of it all?  What do you feel when you have failed?”

            Tania moved to her left and Wanda to her right.  There was no need for neither words between them nor was there any need to reply to his taunts.  The Undertaker watched them move but made no move himself.  They circled him and waited for his response.  There was none.  The Undertaker stood as still as stone, only watching them with his eyes.  His dead eyes that betrayed nothing and probably never had or would.  Wanda wondered if her first impression had been correct; did he have a soul?

            Tania clenched her hands into fists and Wanda attacked.  Her hex sphere was not directed at the Undertaker, but the sand beneath his feet.  It hit and turned the sand to mud.  At the same time Tania attacked flying through the air and landing a blow to his mid-section that doubled him over.  Tania followed up that blow by getting behind him and slamming both fists hammer-like into his spine.  The Undertaker grunted and fell forward onto his knees.  Tania moved in for another blow but he reached behind him and grabbed her ankle.  Pulling her off balance the Undertaker pushed her into the mud and then with his other hand took a hand full of the mud and threw it at Wanda.

            Wanda dodged and this gave him the chance to spin around and slam the soul of his boot into Tania’s face.  She fell back stunned and Wanda sent a mystical bolt of energy at him.  He evaded the bolt by diving into the mud and slammed his elbow into Tania’s face. 

            Wanda launched a hex sphere that exploded in a sun burst that blinded the Undertaker and she ran in and drop kicked him in the neck.  He fell away but Wanda’s leg felt like she’d kicked a stone wall.  She helped Tania up and they backed away.  The Undertaker seemed to smile as he got to his feet.

 

 

            “Let’s not try that move again,” Tania whispered.

            “Right,” Wanda agreed.  “He doesn’t like light.”

            “Work with that,” Tania said as they moved away from the mud.

            Her nose wasn’t broken but it felt just as bad and Tania didn’t need the taste of blood in her mouth to tell her that it was bleeding.  Her front teeth were loose.  He was just as strong as she was and almost as fast.  The man had reacted to her blows but she wasn’t sure if he was feeling any pain.

            They separated again and Wanda began to form a hex sphere.  But before she could launch it the Undertaker charged into Tania ramming his shoulder into her stomach.  Tania felt the air forced from her lungs but her own skills did not desert her.  She planted her feet, grabbed his waist and flipped them both over.  He landed hard but before Tania could gain a hold on him the Undertaker was up and moving.  Tania rolled over in time to realize what he had done.  His charge into her and her flip of him had put him close enough to Wanda to attack her.  With amazing speed the Undertaker dove low and grabbed Wanda’s crotch with one hand.  Wanda gasped in pain as he squeezed her, pressing his thumb into her sex.  She was too stunned to do anything as the Undertaker lifted her up by that grip and threw her at Tania.

            Tania braced herself and caught Wanda but wasn’t ready for the Undertaker’s speed as he charged into them both.  They all fell down and Tania found herself pinned under Wanda’s stunned body.  She could do nothing to defend herself as the Undertaker slammed his fist into her face.  He managed to land five blows before Wanda gathered herself and cast a spell that blew him high into the air.

            “Loosing is not going to be a problem,” Tania whispered as Wanda helped her up.  The blows had loosened some more of her teeth and she tasted more blood in her mouth.  Her jaw was already sore.   

            “We’ve got to change tactics,” Wanda said as the Undertaker came toward them again.

            Tania nodded.  Originally the idea was for Tania to go in and Wanda to stay back casting spells.  He’d guessed that and countered it.  Now they had to try something more dangerous.

            They both charged toward him at full speed.  Tania flew while Wanda ran and formed and hex sphere.  At the last minute Tania changed direction and flew up just out of the Undertaker’s reach.  Just as she did so Wanda threw the hex sphere.  It grew and enveloped the Undertaker, turning the air around him into sulfurous gas.  He fell to his knees and Wanda let her sphere dissolve allowing Tania to land on the Undertaker’s shoulders with all of her might.

            He fell face first into the sand and Tania dropped back as Wanda’s next hex sphere hit him.  This one caused the air around the Undertaker to vanish entirely and he gasped in the sudden vacuum.  Again Tania was able to move in and this time her round house kick caught him in the throat. 

            He fell onto his back and Wanda threw another hex sphere.  Lightning cascaded all over his body and the Undertaker writhed in pain.  For a moment after the sphere faded he lay in the sand. 

            Then he sat up.

            Tania was half way to attacking him as the Undertaker sat up and this time he met her kick with one of his own.  Tania’s kick missed but the Undertaker’s kick caught her between the legs with enough force to launch her into the air.  Tania rolled to the ground in pain as her mind focused on the throbbing ache of her groin.  She watched as the Undertaker charged at Wanda before her friend could do anything.  Grabbing her by the throat the Undertaker lifted Wanda over his head and slammed her into the sand.

            Desperately Tania staggered to her feet as she watched the Undertaker grab one of Wanda’s legs and twist it, pulling it fully upright from her prone body.  With her crotch vulnerable the Undertaker drove the point of his boot into it four times.  Then he twisted Wanda’s leg and knelt down bringing it across his own.  Tania was just getting to her feet as he slammed Wanda’s leg across his knee.  She could hear the bone break and the leg was left hanging at an un-natural angle.  Wanda’s scream echoed across the sands.  The Undertaker grabbed the front of Wanda’s costume and pulled her up and then slammed his fist into her nose.  Blood spurted from it and Wanda sagged in his grip.  Then he hit her stomach and as Wanda fell into him the Undertaker lifted her by the front of her costume again.  It tore and Wanda started to fall but he grabbed both of her breasts and then used them to pulled her close enough for her jaw to hit off of his head. 

Off balance and still in pain herself Tania charged into the Undertaker and forced him away from Wanda with a series of blows that were driven with pure desperate rage.  Wanda did not have superstrength and at the rate he was going the Undertaker would kill her.

            He took the blows, falling back and back until he suddenly grabbed her in a bear hug and leapt into the air.  They whirled in mid-air and when they came down the Undertaker’s weight landed on Tania’s stomach.  Air was forced from her lungs and Tania was too stunned to fight back as he grabbed the front of her costume and hauled the amazon to her feet.  Tania staggered as he pulled the costume down and brought his knee up into her stomach at the same time.  She gasped and the costume top came way and the air was driven from her body. 

            Lying on her stomach Tania was too stunned to move as the Undertaker took hold of both of her arms and pulled them behind her back.  At the same time he planted a foot in the small of her back and pulled.  Tania couldn’t keep her cry of pain from escaping as her back was bent and her arms twisted painfully in their sockets.  He pulled slowly and twisted her arms as he pulled.  Tania felt her muscles tear and another cry of pain escape her.  She twisted and pulled but there was no way out of the hold and in another few seconds Tania knew her arms would break.

            Suddenly he released her and after a few minutes Tania managed to roll over.  The Undertaker was wrapped up in Wanda’s cape.  Wanda lay on the ground, her face pale from the pain of her broken leg and bloody from her wounds but her arms were up and manipulating the cape. 

            Have to move…

            Tania got to her knees but there wasn’t much strength in her arms.  But there was enough in her legs and she rolled toward the Undertaker and kicked as she came out of the roll.  Tania’s foot drove into the Undertaker’s crotch.  He staggered back but managed to tear his way out of the cape.  Tania tried to land another kick but he dodged it and charged into her.  Tania’s arms were still too weak to stop him and the Undertaker wrapped what was left of Wanda’s cape around her head and tied it in a knot.

            He let her fall to the ground and Tania tried to free herself.  There was only one reason he’d let her do that and Tania knew that Wanda was now his main target.

 

 

            That didn’t work, Wanda thought as the Undertaker walked toward her.  But it had bought Tania a few minutes.  Now Wanda knew that she was about to pay for those few minutes.

            Earth aid me, Wanda pleaded as she dug her hands into the sand and cast a spell.  She felt an electric shock run up and down her body as her powers mixed in with the natural energy of the Earth.  Wanda wanted to scream but she wouldn’t let herself loose concentration.  Doing this type of magic was like drinking vodka after drinking a beer.  Her stomach boiled and her nervous system crackled painfully as her mutant powers reached into a place they weren’t used too. 

            The Undertaker was only a few feet away from her when the stone fist erupted from the sand and connected with enough force to send him flying.  He came to rest about fifty feet away.  The last thing Wanda saw was the Undertaker hitting the ground.  Then she passed out.

 

 

            Tania pulled her head free from Wanda’s cape just in time to see the Undertaker fall.  She glanced back and saw Wanda lying prone in the sand.  A part of her wanted to go to her friend but the warrior in Tania knew better.  Getting to her feet the amazon ran as hard as she could toward the fallen foe.  Each step brought more pain to her body but Tania pressed on.  If Wanda was dead then Tania would avenge her, if she was alive then the best thing to do was to make sure that the Undertaker couldn’t hurt her anymore.

            The Undertaker sat up as Tania came close.  Not slowing down she leapt into the air and slammed her elbow into his chest.  Tania felt the impact in her damaged shoulder but ignored the pain.  He fell back and Tania grabbed his right leg and used it to roll him over onto his stomach.  Then she took hold of his ankle and bent it with all of her might.

            The Undertaker grunted in pain and Tania pulled harder despite the pain in her own arms.  She had to slow him down somehow.  Suddenly he pulled his foot in and then shoved it forward.  Tania lost her grip for a moment but grabbed his foot again.  His other foot came up and hit her in the ribs but Tania held on.  She cradled the foot against her side and fell forward over him.  Again he grunted in pain but shifted his weight as she fell and Tania found her body trapped between his legs.  Not waiting for him to lock the scissor hold in she twisted around to face him and punched him in the throat.  His hold loosened and Tania scrambled up his body and tried to lock the Undertaker into a headlock.  She barely missed his punch and grabbed his arm.  Tania twisted her body and tried to drag his arm along with her but he pulled free. 

            Tania scrambled off of the man and whirled to face him.  He was getting to his feet and Tania charged into his legs knocking him back down.  She had to keep him down somehow.  Tania grabbed his ankle again and bent it to one side.  The big man reached up and grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her head back. 

            They lay there for a few minutes in a virtual stalemate.  Tania lay on her back against one leg while holding onto the ankle of the other leg.  The Undertaker’s right hand had hold of her hair.  Both of them pulled but neither of them could generate enough pain to get to other to loosen their grip.  Close up he smelled of leather and sweat and blood.

            Suddenly Tania saw the Undertaker’s other arm come up.  She expected a blow to her neck or chest but instead his palm flatted against her face and that palm was full of sand.  He ran it up and down her face, savagely grinding it into the skin.  Tania felt like someone was holding a burning iron to her face but she didn’t let go.  Again he rubbed the sand into her face but she wouldn’t let go.  Her amazon skin was tough but the sands gritty sharp particles started to cut into her.  Blood ran down her face.  Then he rubbed it over her neck and chest.  Tania gritted her teeth and kept pulling on his ankle.  The damn thing had to break sooner or later.

            Break damn you, she begged!  Break!

            The Undertaker ground the sand into her left breast, digging in with his fingernails and Tania wondered if her breast would come away from her body.  She squeezed her eyes shut and pulled harder.  So did he.

            The Undertaker gave a savage jerk on her hair and Tania gasped in pain.  The moment it opened he poured sand into her mouth and then clamped it shut with his palm.  Tania chocked and gagged as the sand fell into the back of her throat.  It stuck there and she couldn’t breath.  For a few more moments she held out but then her strength gave out and she lost her grip on his ankle.

            The Undertaker let her go and Tania knelt in the sand spitting and coughing.  Suddenly she felt herself lifted into the air and put on the Undertaker’s shoulders.  He spun her around so that she was facing him, his face buried in her pussy.  Tania was confused at the move; surely he wasn’t interested in sex now?

            The Undertaker lifted Tania over his head and then taking hold of her legs slammed her into the sand.  As she was suspended for a moment in mid-air Tania realized what he was about to do but there was no way to counter the move.  She blacked out for a moment but then her back hit the sand and Tania knew that only the fact that she was landing in sand saved her spine from being snapped. 

            The impact left her defeated and helpless.  Tania’s head was spinning and her arms and legs felt numb.  She was barely able to turn her head in time to see Wanda.  Somehow Wanda had crawled over to the Undertaker and she grabbed his ankle and bit it. 

            Whether this move amused or angered the Undertaker Tania couldn’t tell.  She watched as the man lifted Wanda up into the air, turned her upside-down and then took a few steps until Wanda was right above her.  Then he slammed Wanda head first between Tania’s breasts.  The impact was too painful for Tania to scream.  The only sound she heard was her breastbone cracking and Wadna’s hiss of near absolute pain.  She lay on the sand and marveled that her heart was still beating.  Wanda lay in a crumpled heap beside her.  Looking up Tania saw the first human expression on the Undertaker’s face since the fight had started.

            He smiled.

            “Looks like you lost,” A Lex Luthor in a black robe said appearing beside her.

            Tania wanted to insult him but blacked out before she could form the words.

 

 

            Wanda passed in and out of painful consciousness as she and Tania were carried across the desert.  Lex floated beside them as Tania and Wanda were carried on the backs of giant scarabs.  With each step the scarabs took fresh pain bit into Wanda’s mind as her limp body was jostled.

            We could have won, Wanda thought.  She had spotted the weakness and she was sure that Tania had as well.  The Undertaker hesitated sometimes.  Just before and just after his blows he paused as if playing to an audience.  They could have struck him…

            Wanda gasped as her broken leg slid down the scarab’s body and hit one of its legs.  Lex-a Lex anyway, this one was wearing black robes-floated over and pushed the leg back up.  Staying with her Lex let his had move up her leg and pressed into her sex.  Wanda gritted her teeth.  Even though the molestation sent fresh waves of pain through her Wanda was determined not to cry out.  Lex smiled and moved on up her body to caress her left breast.

            “I’ll have these after he tires of you,” He said.          Wanda glared at him and was struck again at how unfair life really was.  Of all the creatures to keep surviving…

            Abruptly the sun was cut off as they passed under a stone archway.  Wanda strained her neck and saw that they were entering a black domed building.  The scarabs marched through an entranceway cut into the dome.  From there they moved through darkness that Wanda couldn’t penetrate. 

            What now, Wanda thought forced back into her own dazed mind by the darkness.  They’d gotten through the maze, collected the items and lost to the Undertaker.  So what now?  Another universe to live in and find love in and watch it die again?

With an effort Wanda pushed the despair away.  But it was hard.  Tania knew that Julia had survived and Wanda was glad for that.  But nothing survived for her and Wanda hated that bit of herself that envied Tania.  Through the weariness and the pain visions floated across Wanda’s eyes.  Springtime walks in Central Park.  An impromptu snowball fight with the other Avengers instead of battle training in the danger room.  Her first apartment when she left the team for a time.  Wanda loved that place.  It had been a quaint old brownstone full of eccentrics.  Her own place bought and paid for with her own money.  It was so refreshing to have new friends who didn’t depend on her powers for their lives.  That first night Wanda had lain in bed and dreamed of the life that she wanted.  A husband (Steve!) and a family.  It had never come to pass and now it never would.  Now it was all gone and Wanda couldn’t find it in her to work up much enthusiasm for this new world. 

            What if the red skies come to this world too, Wanda thought again.  If I let myself love it and it dies…

            The scarabs carried them into a wide torch lit chamber and a strangely familiar smell reached through Wanda’s thoughts.  She knew the smell, a mixture of oil, sulfur and wood smoke.  Turning her head Wanda saw a black pool of oil in the center of the chamber.

            A Lazarus pit!

            Fear gripped Wanda as the scarabs marched toward the pool.  Lazarus pits were ancient places of chaotic magic that could cure any illness but the power was savage and brutally merciless.  People had emerged from the pits physically whole but mentally insane.

            Wanda tried to move but her body was useless.  She could do nothing as the scarabs walked straight into the pool.  She felt the warm stuff flow over her body.  Cool and smooth it reminded Wanda of the time the Evil Chef had shrunk her and covered her with chocolate as part of his plan to make a heroine flavored banana split for his master the Ogre.  Her costume dissolved and Wanda felt the fabric melt away from her skin.  At first it was a relief as the costume was torn and full of harsh sand.  But then the stuff flowed into her open wounds and into her body.  Her blood started to boil.  Wanda had finally worked up enough energy to scream but her body was already submerged.  The stuff flowed into her mouth and down her throat, through her nose and into her lungs, through her ears and into her mind and through her mind and into her soul.

            The energy of the pit burned through Wanda’s thoughts and into the emotions behind them.  She felt the pain and the loss of the past few weeks and the savage joy of combat and the longing for sex.  She had wanted to feel alive, why hadn’t she embraced Tania?  Her friends’ touch… her kiss…  Wanda felt her intellect stripped away and she knew that if Tania stood before her she would embrace the amazon.  More than embrace her, Wanda would take her, bind her… enslave her until Tania bowed to her every whim!

            The lust burned away and Wanda felt guilty for a moment before it to was scorched from her soul along with every other emotion she’d ever experienced.  She stood at the center of the universe.  Wanda gazed at infinity and realized that she was looking at a mirror.  She saw herself and knew what had driven others mad.

            Wanda smiled, as she stood naked in the presence of the primal truth of herself.

 

 

            Tania opened her eyes as she felt her body at last.  It was a strange feeling because she couldn’t remember feeling it before.  She blinked and her eyes started to work again.  Her mind worked a few seconds after that and Tania realized that she did have a body.  She’d always had a body. 

            Her eyes focused on a strange pattern of gray colors on darker gray lines.  Tania realized that she was lying down.  Above her was a ceiling made from hundreds of gray stones set against each other without mortar.  The place smelled clean and felt cold.  Tania was lying on a cold metal slab.  Still stupefied she tried to move and realized that her ankles and wrists were chained to the slab.  A humming collar was fixed around her neck.  Tania knew the feel of such a collar: a power canceller.  Her strength was gone.  She was also nude.

            Nude and in chains again, Tania thought.  Perhaps Wanda is right; maybe we are in a clothing opti… Wanda!

            Tania looked to her right and saw Wanda on a similar metal table.  She too was chained and collared.  She hadn’t woken up yet and her nude body looked healthy.  But what about her mind?  Lazarus pits were supposed to do dangerous things to a persons mind.

            Though if that is the case maybe I should be worried about my own sanity, Tania thought.  But I feel fine. 

Tania had only a vague memory of the pit; a feeling of being stretched across an open flame and beaten with a hammer but not being able scream.

            A door set against the far wall opened and Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy walked through it.  Tania tensed with anger.

            “Not you two again!” She hissed.

            “Why not?” Harley asked.  “Then again why?  We’ve never met.”

            “I’ve met enough of you two,” Tania said.

            “Well get used to us,” Ivy said as they walked over to her.  “We’re the handmaidens, our job is to get you and the Scarlet Witch ready for your night with the master.”
            “Gotta warn ya,” Harley said with a smile, “he likes it rough.  Hope you liked the pit, you’re going to be seeing a lot more of it.”

            “I don’t think so.” Wanda said.  She looked at the two of them and smiled.  “What we’re going to do is break out of these chains, beat you up and then escape.”

            “Now that’s fun…” Harley’s words were cut short as Wanda’s hands glowed and the chains holding her turned to smoke as did the collar around her neck.

            “Impossible!” Ivy said.  “You’re collar…”

            Wanda laughed and sat up.  She jumped off of the table and stretched her arms toward the ceiling.  Then she gestured with one hand and a stone fist erupted from the floor and slammed into Harley’s crotch.

            “You take Ivy,” Wanda said casually to Tania.

            Tania gave her arm a tug and was amazed to see the chain snap.  She sat up and snapped the other one and then took the collar off.  It hadn’t worked!

            She heard a muffled cry and looked up in time to see Raven and Julia step out of a shadow on the wall.  Julia grabbed Ivy from behind and clamped a cloth over her face.  Ivy struggled briefly and then fell to the floor.  Tania took an instant to enjoy the sight of her daughter chloroforming the villainess.

            “I did tell them what we were going to do,” Wanda said as Raven used a pad on Harley.  Tania turned to her and Wanda grabbed her in a hug and kissed Tania hard on the mouth.  It was a sensuous kiss that took Tania completely by surprise.

            “Mother?” Julia asked with an amazed tone in her voice.

            “Julia!” Wanda cried and released Tania to give the same sort of kiss to her.  Julia squirmed in surprise and Wanda released her.  The she stepped back and clapped her hands.  “Let’s get some clothes on!”

            Wanda cast her spell and Tania felt her costume reform around her body.  Complete with her lasso. 

            “Wanda are you alright?” Tania demanded.

            “Of course!” Wanda exclaimed.  She clapped her hands again.  “Why wouldn’t I be?  I’m healed, I’m whole, I’m not guilty!  My world died, my friends died and it wasn’t my fault!”  She had shouted the last words almost with hysteria.  Wanda looked down at her body and laughed.  “Plus I got great boobs!  I really do!”

            “Wanda!” Tania snapped taking hold of her shoulders.

            “They really are great!” Wanda shrugged of Tania’s grip and hugged her again.  “Better than yours!”  She glanced at Julia.  “Really better than hers!”

            “Insane or not we have to get out of here!” Raven said.  “Once you are discovered missing…”

            “I can handle that and give us some time,” Wanda said.  She formed a hex sphere in each hand and tossed them at Harley and Ivy.  Their bodies glowed and floated over to the tables.  When the glow faded they looked like Wanda and Tania.  Nude, chained and gagged.

            “Hope you like it rough,” Wanda taunted the unconscious pair.

            “We must go now,” Raven said taking Wanda’s hand and pulling her into the shadows.

            “Always in such a rush,” Wanda laughed.

            “Come on,” Julia said pulling Tania into the same shadow.

            “Please let her madness only be temporary,” Tania whispered as she let her daughter pull them both into the shadow. 

 

 

            They emerged into a white space.  A vast void that showed no darkness or matter or anything at all.  In the center of that space-if such a place could be said to have a center-was a large complex looking machine.  Standing by the machine were Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire.

            “You did it!” Beast Boy said.

            “Of course they did,” Mr Mind said from his perch on the machine.  “My plans are flawless.”

            “Oh be quiet tiny,” Wanda said.  She swept up to them and pulled Beast Boy into a heated embrace, kissing him hard on the mouth.  The young man squealed in surprise but made no move to pull free.

            “What’s with her?” Cyborg demanded.

            “The Lazarus Pit,” Julia said.  “It’s made her horny!”

            There was an outrage in her voice that almost sounded comical and Tania wondered if her daughter had developed feelings for Beast Boy.

            “Wanda,” Tania said pulling her away from Beast Boy.  She looked into Wanda’s brown eyes.  “Wanda calm down.”

            “I am calm,” Wanda said staring back at her.  “Don’t you get it Tania?  None of it was our fault!”

            “Of course it wasn’t.”

            “But I thought it was,” Wanda said in a tone of voice that almost plead for Tania to understand.  “So every little bit of pleasure I’ve had, every happy thought I’ve had since then has been tearing me apart!  I hated that Julia survived and Steve didn’t I hated myself for hating that!  I thought I was selfish for wanting to be happy!”

            Wanda hugged her again and Tania let her friend lean into her.

            “Wanda what you felt…”

            “It doesn’t matter,” Wanda said.  “Tania we can be happy again!  There was nothing we could have done.  That’s what the pit showed me.  It showed me myself.  All my life I’ve felt guilty just for being me!  I could never control my powers and everyone around me seemed to suffer!  But it wasn’t my fault!  I can finally accept that!”

            She pulled away from Tania and raised her hand.  A hex sphere grew and then she tossed it into the air and it vanished.

            “My powers aren’t a curse,” Wanda said almost to herself.

            “You thought they were?” Tania asked.

            “Often,” Wanda said hugging her again.  “I don’t know how you’ve put up with me lately.”

            “Enough of this emotional poppycock!” Mr. Mind snapped.  “My counterpart in the other world is ready.”

            The machine started to hum and a distortion field started to appear in the air next to it.

            “We’ll talk later,” Tania said letting Wanda pull back from her.  Tania had known that Wanda was troubled but she had never dreamed how deeply it had gone.

            The field stabilized into a black hole seven feet in diameter and then an image appeared in it.  The image was of a laboratory with a mirror image of the machine at the far end.  On the machine was another Mr. Mind.

            “We must hurry,” Raven said.

            Before any of them could say another word beams of red energy lashed out of the portal and hit everyone but Tania and Wanda.  Blue beams hit the two of them and Tania felt her body go numb.  She was paralyzed even as she saw Julia fall to the ground.

            “Now my counterpart!” Mr. Mind shouted.

            Tania felt herself lifted up and could do nothing as she, Wanda and Mr. Mind were drawn though the portal.  Going through it was like going through a warm shower.  The beams held her and Wanda, drawing them across the room and into two glass tubes.

            Tania struggled with everything she had but her body would not respond.  The betrayal infuriated her!  She was pulled into the tube and the cover started to close.

            Why!? Tania demanded of no power or fate, but of herself.  Why must we constantly loose!  Why did I not see this coming! 

            Tania’s fury consumed her as metal tentacles from the machine reached out and tore at her new costume.  The stripping only added to her fury.

            What do they want us for? Tania screamed silently as she felt a cold metal band being pressed against her forehead.  In the glass she could see the distorted reflection of what was happening.  As the metal band melted into her flesh Tania blacked out.

 

           

Wanda came to feeling sick and very, very strange.  The world looked different.  The colors were off.  Everything was so big!  Had she been shrunk?

            “We have done it!” Tania called out.

            “Tania?” Wanda said and her voice felt strange to her ears.  Tinny, almost like it came out of an old radio.  Wanda tried to move and fell, but slowly.  She came to rest in a pile of giant leaves and looked up.  Beyond a glass wall Wanda could see Tania standing in front of a large mirror.  She was nude except for her bracelets and a wide metal band on her forehead.

            “Tania what are you doing?” Wanda demanded.  Tania was striking poses as if she had never seen her body before.

            “Wanda?”

            Wanda turned at the voice and saw Mr. Mind lying on the ground a few feet away.  A dread feeling came over Wanda as she realized what had happened.  What had been done to the two of them.  She wasn’t surprised when she saw herself walk over to stand beside Tania.  Only it wasn’t her.  It was just her nude body.  Nude except for a metal band on her forehead.

            “At last,” Wanda heard her body speak “we have bodies to match our incredible brains!”  Wanda saw her hands glow with power.  Her power.  “And power too!”

            “Let the Marvel’s and the Sivana’s tremble!” Tania shouted.  “Let the world tremble once they behold the new Mr. Mind!”

            “They burst out laughing and Wanda looked over to Mr. Mind.  Mr. Mind’s body that held Tania’s mind just as her mind had been placed into this Mr. Mind’s body.  And now the two wicked worms had the bodies and powers of Ultra Woman and the Scarlet Witch!

 

… To be continued.

---

PREVIOUS CHAPTER SCARLET'S SANCTUM MAIN PAGE   SKYTOWER'S MAIN PAGE