Bands of energy circled him around the chest and legs, but another burst from his staff caught Athena as she flew over. The bonds dissipated as she tumbled down to the ground.

Bagheera leapt from nowhere to strike him in the chest. The man in armor could see his slitted yellow eyes as Bagheera clawed large gouts out of his chest piece. The armored man brought his hand up and clouted Bagheera alongside the head. The cat-man fell away just as the Caribbean woman reached him.

All she did was lay her hands on him, but the surface sensors of the armor went wild. She has some kind of acid touch, he realized. If she keeps this up she could destroy the entire suit. He brought the death-staff down hard on her back. This stunned her momentarily and he pushed her up and off of him. A low-yield blast from the staff knocked her to the ground, unconscious.

One by one the low priority systems in his armor were finally coming back online. His power gauges were all functioning now and the lithium-nucleic battery inside the suit was charging again. He used his boot jets to propel himself skyward just as Flint and Alter pressed their attack. His voice modulator still had just over a minute to come back up. Air Raid smashed in to him from one side.

“Damn you, you bastard! If you hurt Beauty in any way I’ll kill you!”

The man in the armor surmised Beauty must be the Caribbean girl. He wanted to reassure the boy that his love was unharmed, but the voice modulator time table was still at forty-eight seconds.

He hit Air Raid right between his wings with a burst from the end of his death-staff. Air Raid crumpled over unconscious. He grabbed the back of the boy’s trousers, swooped down, and deposited him on the ground beside his girlfriend.

Bagheera struck from behind before his sensors could even detect his presence. He forced the armored man down on to the ground where Flint and Alter awaited him. Alter grabbed the man from behind and locked him in a full nelson hold. The man struggled to bring the death-staff around for a strike.

Flint struck a blow to the right side of the armor’s chest piece. Alarms rang out in his heads-up display. They doubled as Flint landed another blow to the left side of his chest.

The armored man flicked a finger across a hidden switch on the death-staff’s handle. Both ends of the weapon began to glow with energy. He transferred as much of the armor’s power as possible to the force field reinforcing the shell. The staff continued to blaze brighter and brighter. Both ends suddenly exploded with energy. They formed a sphere of burning white energy twelve yards in diameter.

Alarms rang in the helmet as the light faded. The reinforcement field was down to under ten percent power, and the outer shell on his armor had suffered serious structural failures. But Bagheera, Flint, and Alter were all unconscious.

He had beaten all of them. Every member of Epsilon that went against him had fallen.

His voice modulator came back online.

“Oh shit.”

*****

“Come on! Come on!” Wave didn’t yet know the sign for his words, but he hoped the brought swinging motion of his arm towards the door gave Solid the right idea. It apparently worked as she followed a few steps behind as he exited the school and headed on to the back lawn.

The team lay strewn across the campus. Athena off to the far east of the area. Beauty and Air Raid were just a few yards to her south and west. Bagheera, Flint, and Alter lay in a loose circle around the campus’ attacker.

He was dressed from head to toe in dark green armor. The sides of his legs, his shoulders, and the helmet were covered with interlocked platelets of an even darker green. A cobra’s head pattern ordained the battered chest piece.

Wave was little concerned for appearances. Thief and Devil Boy were off in Seaside City for the day, the rest of the main team was down, and the remaining older students all possessed non-offensive powers. It was up to him and Solid to defeat whoever the hell this was.

He turned to look at Solid. He gave a second to make sure he had her attention. “High, low. Let’s take him down.”

Solid nodded. She ran past Wave and straight for the armored man.

A woman after my own heart, Wave thought. No need to worry about anything. When it’s time to kick ass, it’s time to kick ass, no questions asked.

Wave followed Solid in to the backyard. He loosened the viscosity of his watery-form. He splashed up and down in fifteen-foot arcs as he headed straight for the armored man.

“Wait!” The armored man’s voice sounded slightly robotic. “Please wait.”

Solid didn’t stop and neither did Wave. The time for waiting was long past.

Solid smashed in to the armored man’s legs. His legs buckled. She pushed him up and over her. He flipped a full one hundred eighty degrees before landing on his back on the ground.

Wave solidified his form to nearly rock-hard. He smashed down on the chest plate of the armored man. The metal screamed at the brutal impact upon it. Wave loosened his form and sloshed away from his opponent.

Solid pounced on the armored man in his absence. She drove her diamond sharp hands down on the seams between the helmet and the rest of the armor. She tore large rends in the armor as she struck again and again.

Wave took a few steps forward to get himself closer to the armored man and Solid. He morphed his body up and over her. He suspended himself a few feet above her. He solidified his hands and feet to their hardest as he brought them down on top of the armored man’s arms and legs. He would stay pinned until Solid could make it through to the helmet.

“Stop! Stop! I give up!” The armored man struggled as he spoke. “The armor will self destruct if you break the seal without me entering the proper codes. The blast would destroy the school and everything else in a quarter mile radius. I’m not here to do that. I didn’t even come here to fight!”

Wave shifted his form again. Another arm segmented from his current arm and with it he grabbed Solid by the shoulder. She stopped her attack long enough to look at him. He shook his head.

Solid rose to her feet and stepped away from the armored man. Wave continued to hold the armored man down. He elongated his neck and brought himself down face-to-face with the other man.

“Why should I trust you? You attacked our school. Children could have been hurt.”

“I’m not here to hurt anyone. I’m here to warn you all. A dire event lies in Epsilon’s future. I’m here to help you prevent it. It’s a long story as to how I came here.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to tell it when we have you confined.” Wave looked up and across the yard for the source of the voice. Athena stood proudly several yards away. She started towards them.

“I don’t know who the hell you think you are. I don’t care why you say you’re here. I don’t care if you’re on a mission from God. You’re going to jail for this attack, like it or not.”

“Let me up,” the armored man said. “I’ll surrender peaceably.”

Wave looked to Athena. “Let him up,” she said. “But keep your eyes on him and your bonds on his arms, Wave. We’re not taking any more chances with this bastard.”

“Gotcha.” Wave did as he was instructed. He rose up and behind the armored man. His legs released from the armors and touched the ground as he stood to his full height.

“Get him inside,” Athena said. “We need him locked up so we get to work on first aid for the rest of the squad.”

“I’m here to help,” the man in armor said. “I came here to help you stop a deadly threat.”

“Save it for later,” Athena said. “We don’t generally listen to bastards who attack us.”

“Wait! He’s telling the truth.”

*****

Mindset spoke from the other side of the yard, near the stables. Psalm stood to her right. They both were covered with dirt and oil, but otherwise they looked just as they did when they disappeared over a month before.

She couldn’t quite believe they were back. Despite all the damage they watched in the future, despite the death of her future self, she was alive and whole and in her own time. Only minutes had passed in relative time, but already it felt like some kind of bad dream.

Except the dream was becoming very real with the scene before her and Psalm. Most of the team was unconscious across the school grounds. Everyone but Solid, Athena, and two metahumans she knew she shouldn’t be seeing right now.

A younger version of Wave held down another man she recognized from the future: Set.

“I’m not quite sure what’s going on here, but I know that man to be as brave a soul as any of us. His name is Set, and I think it’s important that we listen to him.”

“Bobbi? Psalm? Is that you?”

“It’s us,” Mindset said. “We have quite the story to tell all of you and Set plays an important part of it. If he agrees to stand down, let him go. I believe he is here to help us.”

Athena looked from Bobbi to the armored man. Set, if what she said was true. She growled in frustration. “Are you who she says you are? Are you this Set?”

“Yes, I am. I came here to get your help. I never meant for a fight to ensue. When you attacked my armor was offline except for the emergency defenses. I couldn’t…”

“I don’t want your story right now,” Athena said. “I have my people to see to. If you stand down and deactivate your armor, I will trust you to hold your ground until that’s done.”

Set nodded.

“Wave, let him go.”

Wave released Set. Set accessed the deactivation sequence of the armor. In a few seconds the HUD shut down. The armor separated in to hundreds of small segments. They slithered towards his chest and vanished beneath his shirt.

“I will help if you let me. I have medical training.”

Athena looked to Mindset. Mindset shrugged.

“Let’s get everyone inside,” Athena said. “We will see about your story when I’m sure my people are all right. And if they’re not, you will have hell to pay.”

*****

Deep beneath Greece, is an ancient structure carved by the followers of the ancient god Nephthys. The temple went unseen for thousands of years, a testament to the ancient power that resided deep within.

Ten figures gathered in the temple this night. All wore heavy robes that cloaked their faces in shadow as the torches lit the room. They formed a circle around a massive sarcophagus in the middle of the antechamber. Despite his injuries, Blaine Dresden stood at the altar at the foot of the tomb. Desdemona Faust stood to his left. To his right, where Phere once would have stood, was Goldbug, leader of the degen contingent of the Order.

“The time has come, brothers and sisters. We have longed for this day for a hundred years. Today, she will rise. Our queen will arise!”

From the twelve foot tall form of Balrog to the young metahuman girl known as Pathway, they all spoke as one. “Rise, Nephthys. Rise and guide us to the future!”

The lid of the sarcophagus as someone pushed against the stone from the inside. Everyone watched intently as it slowly slid to one side.

Dresden and Goldbug stepped forward as a vaguely female figure rose from the shadows of the tomb. Her body was bundled in treated rags and from their current vantage point, she looked little different from a decaying mummy. Only alive.

The two leaders helped their mistress from her tomb. Nephthys’ whispered voice seemed to fill the room. “My blessings upon you, my followers. Now leave me to my repair.”

Faust ushered all but Dresden and Goldbug from the room. She knew what would come next, and she doubted most of them would have the stomach for it. She followed them out of the room.

Goldbug walked to the deepest area of the antechamber. A hidden door slid away as he approached. Inside was a local girl, no more than sixteen, completely naked. He had never seen a naked normal except in magazines, but he ignored the lascivious sensations coursing through his body. He grabbed the girl by the arm and yanked her forcibly from the room.

She struggled and tried to break free as Nephthys approached her. “Is she ripe?”

“We made sure of it, my mistress,” Dresden said. “She is pure.”

“Then she will be mine. Bring her to me.”

The girl struggled against Goldbug, but he held her tight. He pulled her closer to his queen.

Dresden reached up to his queen’s face and removed the cloth wrapping the lower part of her face. He quickly exposed the black decaying skin beneath.

The girl screamed as she saw Nephthys’ features. Her mouth was not that of a human. The goddess possessed mandibles like that of a spider, only tipped with jagged teeth. The teeth clicked together as she looked over the girl.

The young virgin pleaded for her life in Greek as Nephthys reached up and stroked her cheek. The girl shivered at the touch.

“Yes, you will do perfectly.”

Nephthys’ head shot forward. The mandibles spread and latched on to the girl’s cheeks. The goddess’ jaw spread inhumanly wide as she began to consume the girl’s face.

Goldbug found himself forced to look away to avoid being sick. Dresden continued to watch, a smile on his face. It would be several hours before the girl would even die, a full day before she was consumed entirely.

He would watch the entire process. He would not fail his mistress again.

*****

“It burns. Please, please, make it stop!”

Air Raid watched Beauty writhe around on the med-lab table. She wore only bra and panties, two of each, but both were decaying rapidly. Her eyes were tightly shut and she mumbled to herself as if in a fevered state. She clawed at her own arms and legs. She tore gouts of blood from her arms and stomach, but it did not serve to ease her pain.

“Help her!”

Flint and Athena paused from their rapid fire movements around the med-table to look at Air Raid. Athena walked around the table to get closer to him.

“We’re trying to help, but we’ve never seen anything like this before. Her powers have gone haywire. Her acid field has grown in power by a factor of a hundred. We can’t even get a needle in her before it melts away.”

“I don’t care what you have to do! Help her!”

Athena grabbed Air Raid roughly by the arm. “We’re doing everything we can! I don’t want to lose her either.”

“Baby, thas’ you?”

Air Raid rushed to the side of the med-table as Beauty opened her eyes to look at him. “I’m here, Nessa. I’m here.”

“I hurt. Can you make it not hurt?”

“We’re trying. I promise we’re trying.”

Beauty gave him a weak smile. “I know you are. But I don’t think it’s gonna work. I think this is it.”

Air Raid reached down and held her hand. The latex gloves on his hands begin to sizzle instantly. “Don’t say that. I can’t lose you. Please!”

“Don’t blame anybody for this. Please, babe. I know it sucks but maybe…”

“Shh. I’m here. Just don’t leave me.”

“I love you, Aaron.” Beauty’s chest heaved upwards. She coughed up viscous green pus and the skin around her mouth began to sizzle. The smell of burning flesh filled the room in seconds.

The acid oozed out of her pores next and Beauty’s flesh melted away before their eyes. Athena rushed forward and pulled Air Raid away before he could suffer any damage to his hand.

“Let me go! I need to be with her!”

Athena held him fast. Acid bubbled up in streams as holes formed throughout Beauty’s body.

Seconds later, nothing visibly human was left. The acid began to react to itself. Acid burned against acid.

Flint rushed to recover a sample, but it decayed almost instantly.

Ninety seconds after her first seizure, Beauty was gone utterly and completely, as if she never was.

“Nessa!”

Air Raid rushed to the table. He raked his burnt hands across the surface, but nothing remained of her. He slumped down on its surface and cried.

Flint walked up behind him and rested a stony hand on Air Raid’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, son.”

“No! No sorry! No!”

Air Raid turned towards Flint and before the big man could react, he hurled an energy bomb in to his chest. Flint flew back against the far wall and crumpled to the ground, momentarily stunned if not unconscious.

Athena cut off Air Raid as he headed towards the exit. “Slow down, please. Violence will solve nothing.”

“He’s got to pay! That bastard is responsible for this and he’s got to pay!” He hurled a pair of smaller energy bombs towards Athena. She deflected them with a shield of golden energy.

She missed the third one he lobbed a second later. It went up and over the shield and exploded inches in front of her face.

Air Raid didn’t bother to even see how much damage the blast caused. He ran past her and out the med lab door. He needed to find Set. I’ll make the bastard pay. He’ll die for what he did today

*****