The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Bastet perked an ear, followed by an eye. Carefully snaking her way out of the tangle of limbs that was the group’s sleeping arrangement, she perched at the edge of the bed, listening intently, and smelling the air. Redeemer stirred, awakening the others.

“Is something wrong?” he asked her. His hand went to his temple and his eyes closed. “I don’t sense any extraneous minds...”

“I smell strangers.” Bastet insisted quietly.

“In that case, you’d better check it out.” he said. “If they’re shielded then...”

“Down!!” she cried, diving for Redeemer and pinning him to the bed as a bony spike whizzed overhead. Its blackened tip seemed to cause a gradual corrosion of the wall as it imbedded itself. The others snapped to action. The spike had revealed the nature and direction of the intruder. The enraged superheroines charged nude through the punctured patio door, barely pausing long enough to open it. Redeemer opened his mind, acting as an instant communicator between the individual team members and allowing them to act as one. He caught a glimpse of something through the eyes of a nearby owl and commanded it to swoop in closer. It complied, its simple mind unable to disobey the commands of his vastly superior brain. He relayed the location of the intruder to the girls. Lady Ra appeared immediately. She was able to vaporize the spikes that were hurled her way almost instantly. Now that he had visual conformation of the intruder, he could feel a sense of metallic interference.

The interference seems to originate from the diadem he wears. Redeemer told the team. I’m sensing similar interference from the terrace, and out by the pool. Bastet’s nose confirms one other intruder I can’t sense, even keyed to the interference of their diadems. Watch out.

Bastet secreted herself in the shadows and stalked the prey which had eluded her Master’s senses. Her nose and ears told her what she needed to know. In a flash of light, she was gone. She reappeared above her quarry—female, petit, Asian, and she was not wearing a diadem, which meant she had another means of hiding herself from a telepathic scan. Her Master came to the same conclusion as Bastet, and quickly erected a psionic barrier around her mind just as the Asian became aware she was being hunted. The sheer force behind the psionic blast rocked both of them, but Bastet recovered quickly and allowed her feral instincts to take over. The woman had taken on other metahumans before, but had apparently never faced a feral. Her mind was difficult to lock onto, and that gave her the advantage over her foe. She pounced, scratching at the flesh of her enemy. The Asian kicked her hard in the stomach, sending the cat-woman flying, but she landed on her feet, naturally, and rebounded. In a brilliant flash of light, she was behind the intruder, and one leg swept the legs of her opponent out from under her. The Asian recovered her footing quickly. She put her hand forward, and Bastet flew backwards. Enraged, she teleported. Her momentum carried her into the woman’s back. The Asian tumbled and rolled, then got to her feet, assuming a stance that showed she was ready for anything Bastet could throw at her. Suddenly her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed, with a goofy grin on her face and copious amounts of drool.

You provided just the distraction I needed, Bastet. the Redeemer said, his mental caresses flooding Bastet’s nude slit with lubrication. Go help the others now. She complied, teleporting to the roof so she could catch a glimpse of the nearest of the remaining intruders. The spike-shooter was down, so that was one less problem to worry about. By the pool, Shiva and Arriva were fighting something that looked like a giant bat (the mammal, not the blunt object) with a bulging, beetle-like backside. Shiva avoided a burst of flame as the creature strained, then fired a substance like napalm from its backside.

“Freaking ass-blaster.” Bastet muttered. “Where’s Contestant #4?”

“Right here.” said a voice from above. Bastet was too surprised to teleport as an armored behemoth smashed into the roof on which she knelt. Luckily, his feet landed on either side of her, so she only had to contend with having the wind knocked out of her by his iron inseam. His boot connected with her ribs and she was in flight again. She struck the wall and felt consciousness abandoning her. Through sheer force of will she was able to lift her head and open her eyes. A man in orange and gold, with a huge weapon mounted on his right arm, stood in the wreck which had once been a bedroom. Redeemer was behind him, armed with a stun gun. He touched it to the armored man’s back and received a back-handed slap as his reward. “You think I wouldn’t be prepared for an electrical attack?” the man demanded, insulted. “With the likes of Gaia on your team, I made sure to install electron-channeling circuitry so that electrical attacks only increase my suit’s power! Now, you will pay for your arrogance!” He pointed the cannon-like device at the Redeemer. Forcing her legs under her, Bastet rose, and pushed herself forward, but her body failed her. She collapsed after only three steps. Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized she couldn’t save him. She imagined that the armored man was smiling under his helmet as he said “Atomic batteries to power...”

“Turbines to speed.” Lady Ra quipped, shimmering into existence on the large man’s shoulders. She put her hands on his helmet and began to channel her power inside. He screamed, trying to shake her off. The Redeemer was forgotten. A smell like microwaved bacon began to permeate the room. Bastet thought she was going to be sick. The armored man began to sizzle and pop within his suit. Bastet gagged and vomited. The last thing she thought as consciousness abandoned her, for real this time, was “Is it supposed to be that color?”

“As the day dawned on Washington, a grim reminder greeted the famed ‘Redeemer’ of just how serious the threat of the Brotherhood of Empowered Terrorists is.” stated the anchorwoman as she sat behind her desk. “A four-member strike-team appeared at his home early this morning to make an attempt on the Redeemer’s life. The attempt failed, resulting in one fatality and three captures. One of the Redeemer’s own agents, codenamed ‘Bastet,’ has been hospitalized and is said to be in serious condition, though her location is classified at this time.”

Please don’t die, Bastet. Redeemer pleaded silently as the cat-woman was wheeled into emergency surgery. It didn’t look good despite his prayers. She had a number of broken bones and there was definitely internal bleeding. He pleaded with every diety whose name he could call to mind not to let her die. He took off his St. Christopher medallion and pressed it into her furry palm before she reached the O.R., beyond which he could not pass. He sighed as the doors swung shut. Please don’t die, Bastet. he pleaded again.

Shiva sat by the phone, trying to keep her mind off of worry for her comerade. Her current project was immersing herself in “Rainbow Avengers #16.” She was just getting to the good part when the red phone rang. Sighing, she picked it up.

“Redeemer’s residence.” she said. She failed to keep her voice from cracking.

“Sorry to intrude during this difficult time, but a situation has arisen in Diblo Canyon.” said a voice which was unmistakably that of the Secretary of Defense.

“The boss is at the hospital at the moment. Would you like his cell phone number? Or should I take your message and call him myself?” she asked. The adrenaline rush of an impending mission helped her shed her melancholy.

“Cell phone please.” the secretary said. Shiva gave him the number, and heard the click at the other end. She hung up the dead receiver and sighed.

Redeemer’s cell phone chirped “Flight of the Bumblebee,” which meant that someone was calling on the emergency line. He answered it.

“Hello.” he croaked.

“Redeemer, there’s a situation in Diablo Canyon if you can muster any of your girls into action.”

“What kind of situation?”

“Four metahumans have taken over the Diablo Canyon II nuclear facility and have set it to meltdown. If it goes, it could take Diablo Canyon I with it, and that means double trouble.”

“On it.” Redeemer said. With a thought, Lady Ra, Ant Girl, Arriva and Gaia were appraised of the situation and on their way. This Diablo Canyon thing could very well be a ruse to leave him unprotected, so Redeemer kept Kismet, Plastique, Snow, Meta and Titana with him. On second thought...Lady Ra, drop Plastique off at the house and take Shiva to Diablo Canyon with you. “Mr. Secretary?”

“Yes?”

“The team’s on its way. One more thing...have you gotten anything from the guys we sent your way this morning?”

“Nope, none of them are talking.”

“The psi isn’t giving you any problems is she?”

“No, those little inhibitors her friends were wearing work both ways, so we put one of them on her.”

“Bring them to me.” Redeemer said. “I promise you I’ll get whatever information they have to offer.”

“You’re sure you’re up to it?”

“Better than sitting here waiting.” Redeemer admitted.

“Right. I’ll pass the info on to the Old Man and one of us will set everything in motion.”

Lady Ra recognized one of the four metahumans immediately, from the volumes of dossiers she’d read during the waking hours between missions. Antonio Sanches, also called The Brown Dwarf possessed powers over density and gravity. His hair was black except for some grey around the temples, and his skin was browned and weathered from a long life outdoors. He stood almost four feet tall, but not quite. His limbs were thick and clumsy. Obviously he relied on his powers to do a lot of things. The next was a four-armed man with muscles that would make Schwarzenegger gawk. A couple of seconds’ worth of thought summoned forth his name from the depths of Lady Ra’s memory: Fourscore, the Four-Fisted Fatality. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. His ability to absorb kinetic energy and rechannel it made him dangerous, despite his rather unenlightened nomenclature. She spent a few moments trying to identify the other two, before coming up blank. All four of them were outside, which meant they were expecting a frontal assault. Lady Ra ‘ported back to the others.

“I recognize Brown Dwarf and Fourscore, the other two don’t ring a bell.” she whispered. “That could be trouble. So, what I’m going to do is ‘port us all inside the plant. I’ll absorb the reactor, you guys sneak up behind them and take down as many as you can before I’m done, and make sure they don’t come in and interrupt me.”

“With Fourscore’s energy-channeling abilities, that could be tricky.” Shiva whispered.

“It could, if he could touch me.” Arriva responded. “Leave him to me. I’ve seen a couple of tapes of him in action, he’s a real slowpoke.”

“How do you intend...”

“Four steps ahead of you.” Arriva replied. “Can we go now?” Lady Ra sighed. The girl had no patience—but considering the nature of her powers, it was understandible, even if that didn’t excuse it.

“Let’s go then.” she whispered back. The team held hands and they teleported together. Arriva—displaying a wisdom that belied her usual self—maintained human speed as she and the others headed to the front door. Lady Ra cast a microwave energy shield around the reactor room to prevent radiation leakage as she began to absorb the reactor.

“Been expectin’ you.” a voice said behind her.

Javelin grumbled. His ability to fire poison-tipped shafts of bone from his arms and hands couldn’t help him, encased as he was in a kind of iron straitjacket. Afterburner sat across from him in what looked like a pair of heat-conducive metal Depends—the wagon smelled of burned fur from the two times he’d tried to blast his way out of them. The iron underwear had merely redistributed the heat across its entire area, burning his legs, hips and groin. He wasn’t about to try a third time. His wings were bound to his side, and he was muzzled to prevent him from biting anyone. Beside the batlike creature sat the woman they’d hired to round out the team (not truly a metahuman, but a practitioner of some kind of combat-meditation). Well, maybe “hired” wasn’t the right word for it. Darkshadow had ransomed her apprentice, and the price was the Redeemer’s head on a silver platter. She was the one Javelin was worried about. If Redeemer offered her even a small measure of hope, she would turn on them.

Then again, with Redeemer’s telepathic powers, he could turn the two metahumans into gay lovers who couldn’t help chatting back and forth about Darkshadow’s plans to one another if he were of a mind to. The doors to the paddy wagon were opened, and twelve riot-equipped S.W.A.T. officers stalked inside. The trio was led unceremoneously (and not very gently either) into a suite on the hospital’s top floor, where they were seated in a semi-circle in front of an ordinary-looking chap whose features Javelin couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“You three,” the guy began, “are all that’s left of the strike team that tried to do me in.” He rose to his feet. “The fourth member of your team, the guy in armor, put one of my team here, in this very hospital. Now you two,” at this he gestured at the males, “are definitely going to pay the price. As for the woman...we’ll just see what comes up.” The man stalked forward, placing one hand on Javelin’s head.

Lady Ra kept half of her attention on absorbing the reactor as she turned her head to look at the intruder. He was dressed in a fiery orange-and-gold costume that reminded her of the experiments that had transformed her into the metahuman she was today—when she had been a kind of spokesperson-slash-hitperson-slash-saboteur for a major oil company.

“You recognize the outfit? Good, I was hoping you would.” the man said. “Considering our powers came from the same company. Now, why don’t you be a good little girl and let that reactor blow up nice and spectacular-like, eh?” Lady Ra had reached the core. She didn’t have time to absorb it, so she teleported it into orbit so she could absorb it later.

“I’d rather eat crayons.” she said—instantly realizing how stupid it sounded.

“Pity.” the man said, ceasing his levitation. “It seems I’ll have to teach you some manners.

Kismet stood up as two groaning bodies were tossed before her. The others joined her in rising as they recognized the ass-blaster from the attack on their house, as well as the spike-shooter. Master was very angry.

“I’m finished with them.” he said. “Their minds can’t access their powers. You can take them to the roof and take out your frustrations on them.” Titana grabbed the ass-blaster, while Snow and Meta took the spike-shooter. Kismet remained where she was. She didn’t feel like getting violent, except to protect her Master. Sensing her thoughts, Redeemer enfolded her in his arms. He was crying. She cried as well, hugging him as tightly as she dared, considering the fact that she could accidentally crush him if she weren’t careful.

“I’m sorry about this.” a female voice said. “I could see no way out but obedience, and because of it, your friend is hurt.” Kismet wiped the tears out of her eyes, glaring at the intruder. It was the third member of that strike-team—the one Redeemer had knocked out with a direct burst to her pleasure-center. “Please understand that I was concerned only with the safety of my apprentice. I truly bear the Redeemer no ill will.”

“Tell it to Bastet.” Kismet sniped.

“I intend to, whether the surgery is successful or not.” the woman said. “For now, however, I can help you enter Darkshadow’s stronghold. My apprentice will most likely be dead since the failure of our mission was broadcast on national television. I would like to help both of us get some revenge.” Kismet sighed and laid her head back on Redeemer’s shoulder. Here was this woman trying to apologize, and all Kismet could do was feel angry that the woman wasn’t on the operating table instead of Bastet.

“We’re going to need all the help we can get.” she sighed.

“I can get you and Meta inside the compound.” the woman said. “With my mind casting an illusion over you, you will look for all the world just like Javelin. Meta can take Afterburner’s form. I will tell Darkshadow that the guards’ minds were weak, that I made them think I had an inhibitor on.”

“What about security cameras?”

“There are seven members of the Brotherhood whose power disrupts electronic devices, only two of which require close proximity.” the woman said. “Their mere presence inside the base precludes the use of cameras. Darkshadow’s security officer is a woman named Leslie Ohm, also called Array, whose scanning powers are quite good, but I can cloud her mind before we enter her range.”

“It’ll be risky, but you and Meta are the ones best able to pull it off.”

“And leave you here with just Snow and Titana for protection?” Kismet asked.

“The others will arrive shortly. I’ll arrange for the press to report of the escape of three metahumans from Department of Defense custody. You and Meta will go with Yamiko tonight—unless you’d rather I send someone else?”

Kismet sighed and shook her head. Master was right. She and Meta were the best ones for the job.

No, not Meta, she thought. Lady Ra would be needed to help them escape if things should go south.

“Good thinking, but I think it would be best if Yamiko was only having to concentrate on disguising one body. I’ll have Lady Ra waiting nearby. We’ll keep in contact so she’ll know if and when you need her.” Kismet nodded, then kissed her Master deeply, lingering as long as she could and savoring the moment. Meta appeared, reminding Kismet that they had a job to do. They stalked sadly off, after Meta shared a hug with Redeemer. You two come back to me, understand? Redeemer said into their minds.

Of course, Master. Kismet thought back. It seemed to take forever to get to the police cruiser they were going to “steal.” By the time they arrived, she felt keenly every foot of distance from the Redeemer.

Lady Ra hit the wall hard, then flopped to the ground in a heap of pain. This wasn’t at all how she had envisioned the fight.

He doesn’t just have a copy of my powers. she thought. He’s got the new, enhanced version. Everything he does is faster, stronger, more efficient.

“Silly girl,” the man guffawed, “now you know what it means to face Apollo.”

At least he’s good and full of himself. Lady Ra thought. But how to turn that to my advantage?

“So sorry that now you have to die.” Apollo boasted.

“You really are full of yourself.” Lady Ra chided.

“You mock me? And yet it is you who lies there defeated.”

“Not by a long shot, sugar.” Lady Ra replied as she transmuted herself into energy, re-solidifying on her feet. “You and I are energy, bub. Energy cannot be created or destroyed.”

“We’ll see.” Apollo extended his fists, and bursts of microwave energy emerged. Lady Ra met the bursts with her own hands.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean this has to end in a stalemate.” she told her foe. That having been said, she locked in on Apollo’s frequency, absorbing the microwave bursts, and began to draw his energy into herself.

“What...what are you doing?!?! I can’t stop firing! Quit! Leggo! You’re absorbing...”

“I’m absorbing YOU.” Lady Ra said. “Now, what is it you’re supposed to say when you assimilate someone? Oh, yes. ‘Resistance is futile.’”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Apollo screamed as he began to become immaterial, no longer possessing enough energy to manifest a physical form. Lady Ra teleported into a low orbit so she could see where the material she had sent here was. Once that was absorbed, she turned her attention earthward again. She hoped her friends didn’t need her help, but just in case, she felt the need to put in an appearance at least.

Arriva had to think of something fast. Luckily, fast was her specialty. Brown Dwarf had her pinned down in a pocket of intense gravity, allowing Fourscore and the other two, an energy-caster and a telekinetic, to concentrate on the rest. The little man was on her chest, laughing and beating savagely on her face. Her head snapped back and forth with the blows, and it was a wonder her neck didn’t break. She had to get out of this quickly, but her strength was limited. Desperately, she began to vibrate her body at intense speed. This set the ground beneath her on fire, frightening the Dwarf long enough to break his concentration. Arriva was glad her costume was flame-retardant, a little innovation designed to keep her from catching fire due to wind-friction. As quickly as she was able, she began to punch at her foe as best her one unswollen eye would allow.

“How do you fucking like it you short shit?!?!” she demanded, accellerating her pace as the Dwarf’s miniature gravity-well abated. In the time it had taken for the Dwarf to recover from his surprise, he was beaten twice as badly as she, and she had regained her feet. She finished the Dwarf off with her patented Journey of a Thousand Steps Kick and turned her attention to her friends. As the energy-caster took aim at Ant Girl, Arriva grabbed a pair of fist-sized rocks and used them to increase the damage her blows dealt as she used her “Supersonic Smackdown” technique against him. She saw the telekinetic out of the corner of her good eye, and was gone before he had a chance to focus his thoughts. She had to be careful with this one. He could effectively nullify her simply by levitating her and keeping his focus on her torso rather than her swiftly-moving appendages. Her endorphine high wore off quickly, allowing her to feel her injuries once again. The Dwarf hadn’t just concentrated on her face. Her ribs and stomach felt like they were on fire. Her breasts were sore from his mocking squeezes, and she was sure her back was out of alignment.

Fire from the sky took out the two remaining combatants. Arriva would have cried out in joy at Lady Ra’s return had her face not hurt so badly. She returned to the relatively victorious group more slowly than she had ever moved in her life.

“Jeez, girl, you look like hell!” Lady Ra said. “Come on, let’s get back to the hospital.” Arriva sighed and allowed herself to be enveloped in her friend’s energy. When she opened her eyes again, the sterile, antiseptic smell of the hospital had returned. It was then she noticed that everyone else shared Arriva’s pathetic condition, except for Lady Ra, who had probably used some of the reactor’s energy to heal herself. That made her feel even worse. If she hadn’t let the Brown Dwarf get the upper hand on her...

“Don’t think like that, any of you.” Redeemer said, striding through the double doors leading into the lobby. “Lady Ra, you’re the only one in condition to help, I need you to take Titana and Snow, follow Kismet and Meta. I’ll guide you. The rest of you, get to Admitting at once.” The girls complied. Arriva was moving even more slowly than before, and she could see the concern on Redeemer’s face. A cramp forced a grunt through her teeth, and she fell to her knees. Hands attached to white sleeves lifted her onto a gurney and wheeled her away.

So far, so good, no one seemed to notice anything wrong with the trio as they made their way to Darkshadow’s command post in the lower levels of an abandoned diamond mine. Kismet figured Lady Ra would have plenty of time to catch up at the rate this trek was going. Meta was giving an Oscar-worthy performance as Afterburner (understandible, given her natural affinity for mimickry). Kismet only hoped her impersonation of Javelin wasn’t as flimsy as she thought it was.

Your thoughts are self-defeating. Yamiko chided. Kismet narrowed her eyes, but schooled her musings. She had a job to do, and even though she couldn’t make herself think like Javelin to improve her performance, she could at least keep herself from inviting another jibe from Yamiko.

After what seemed like an eternity, the trio came to a pair of armed guards standing sentry-duty outside Darkshadow’s chamber. They were allowed inside, and even Kismet’s superhuman vision failed her.

“Welcome to the end.” said a cruel-sounding voice which Kismet remembered from the broadcast previously. “I am Darkshadow.”

“We know.” Kismet said.

“I make it a point to see that I am properly introduced when I meet new people.” Darkshadow replied. “Your so-called disguises never fooled me for a nanosecond. You could have had Yamiko and Redeemer cloud your minds so that even YOU thought you were Javelin and Afterburner, but I see beyond the mind, to the spirit itself.” A pair of glowing eyes appeared at the far end of the darkness. “I have surrounded myself with the darkest of hearts, those with the cruelest spirits possible. Against this backdrop, you three glow like Mag-lites.” Meta sighed and lowered her disguise. Yamiko ceased to hide Kismet’s form, saving her concentration for battle.

“Where is my apprentice?”

“I really shouldn’t give her to you.” Darkshadow said. “After all, you not only failed to complete your assignment, but you turned traitor on me as well. But, if you want her...” A young woman came into view with a hard set to her jaw. Her eyes were...strange. It was as if she had black marbles for eyes.

“What have you done to her?” Yamiko demanded.

“It’s merely a matter of nurturing the darkness and suppressing the light.” Darkshadow said. “She’s quite thoroughly enslaved, I assure you. Oh, I’ve also taken the liberty of enhancing her powers as well.” The young woman put her hand forward, and Kismet was knocked into the back wall.

“You really are a monster, Darkshadow.” Yamiko declared. Her apprentice turned the force of her mind toward her, and Yamiko was pressed against the wall as well. As the young girl turned to Meta, Kismet was released. Apparently even a mind-controlled slave had limits to how much concentration could be applied at a time. The question of how someone with no mind of her own could use psychic powers would have to wait. Kismet struck the base of the girl’s neck with precisely-measured force, just enough to leave her unconscious for a long time.

Darkshadow was on her then, an inky, black shroud wrapping around her body as he tried to bore dark emotions into her. Kismet rejected the darkness and nurtured the light within herself. It was strange how she could see it in those terms as she battled against the living darkness. She had her explanation moments later, as Lady Ra, Titana, Snow and Redeemer appeared in the dark room.

“Ah, the famous Redeemer.” Darkshadow said. “How lovely of you to come here rather than force me to send another team to annihilate you.”

“That’s enough, Darkshadow.” Redeemer said. “Give it up.”

“That’s it, then? Just surrender because the leader of the Good Guys is here? I think not, fool.” An evil chill crept into the room, and there was a sense of darkness-on-darkness. Meta saw what was coming.

“NO!” she cried, leaping in front of the Redeemer as Darkshadow’s attack lashed out, striking her in the chest. She fell. Redeemer’s voice echoed her cry as his hand touched her cooling skin. Her body relaxed and reverted to their natural shape. After that, there was no movement, no pulse at her neck, no rise or fall in her chest. She was gone. Redeemer’s tears pattered on her cheek and ran into her unseeing eyes. Darkshadow flung Kismet against the wall and laughed at Redeemer’s grief.

Redeemer gently closed Meta’s eyes and rose to his feet. When he looked at Darkshadow again, there was a fire there no one had seen before.

“No more, Darkshadow.” he said. “No more people are going to be hurt by you, not now, not ever.” His eyes narrowed, and a staring contest appeared to erupt between them, except that Darkshadow’s darkness withdrew into himself, revealing a chamber just like any other in the mine. Yamiko rushed to her apprentice’s side and touched the younger girl’s temples in an attempt to free her from Darkshadow’s control. Kismet knew better than to simply walk up to the distracted Darkshadow and snap his neck. A move so brutish as that could have dire consequences for her Master as well.

Darkshadow knew precisely what was happening. The Redeemer had taken him to the Astral Plane. Well, he was no slouch here himself. He marshalled his concentration, removing his influence from the room and the slave outside. He tried to suffuse the white room in which he found himself with his darkness, but found himself unable.

“This is my mind, Darkshadow, not yours.” Redeemer said. “I am in control here. Complete control.”

“No you’re not!” Darkshadow exclaimed. He lashed out, striking Redeemer in the chest. His opponent fragmented, his limbs breaking off. Each one reformed into another Redeemer, and the original re-grew what he’d lost.

“THAT should not have happened.” the Redeemer said. “It seems you’re no slouch when it comes to psychic battling, even on my turf. So it’s a contest of will and imagination, then?”

“A contest in which I shall emerge victorious!” Darkshadow said, putting all the force of his will into the act of darkening a portion of the room. He lashed out at the Redeemer and his clones, but they recovered quickly and transformed into robotic lions, pouncing on him with steel claws and teeth. Darkshadow concentrated on the darkness within himself, feeding it his rage, pain and hate, making it grow, which in turn strengthened him. He grew in size until he could easily shake off the assault of any one of the lions. He was rather surprised when the lions assembled into a giant robot, armed with a sword. Darkshadow quickly made a Darksword with which to parry the Redeemer’s thrust. He increased his size tenfold, towering over the Redeemer like a tyrant over a toy. Suddenly his foe was gone. “Where are you hiding, coward?”

*I am not hiding.* declared the Redeemer’s amplified voice. *I have had enough of you. Now I am going to end this. Look above you.* Darkshadow looked up, and for some reason the name of the form the Redeemer had taken previously, and the name of his new form, came to his mind simultaneously. The first had been Voltron. This form was that of Unicron. Redeemer/Unicron was armed with a spiked sledge-hammer, like a meat tenderizer, only this one dwarfed even the titanic metal body whose illusion the Redeemer had crafted. *Until you slew Meta, I was willing to take you in alive. But now, I can no longer afford the luxury of allowing myself to believe that your kind of evil can be “contained” or “neutralized.” I have seen YOUR spirit, Darkshadow, and it borders on the daemonic. Containment is not an option, Darkshadow, which leaves me only one option. The same option you held out for me.* With that, the sledge ascended above the Unicron-head and rapidly cycled down, filling the sky and Darkshadow’s vision, until there was nothing but the hammer.

Volunteer firemen stood by attentively as the pyre snapped and roared, like some enraged, captive dragon. The Redeemed stood in a semicircle around Meta’s casket, as they half-watched Darkshadow’s fiery end. The casket was open, and tilted in such a way that if Meta’s spirit did indeed preside over these proceedings, she could easily watch Darkshadow burn. It took a long time, but the pyre eventually exhausted itself, and the ashes were loaded into a truck to be disposed of. As per their instructions, the crew of the garbage truck carrying Darkshadow’s ashen remains played the Insane Clown Posse’s “Halls of Illusions” loudly over their radio. Once the vehicle was out of sight, Meta’s funeral began. Everyone had words to say over her, including Yamiko and her apprentice, Jun, whose personality had returned after she had awakened on the way out of the mine. Bastet and Arriva seated themselves at the far end of the back row, preferring not to watch as the casket was closed and lowered into the ground, accompanied by a somber rendition of “Planetbound Lovers” from Redeemer’s electric keyboard. Titana, as usual, was content to support and strengthen her comerades, when such support was accepted.

Arriva had been hit hard, possibly because she had also suffered a miscarriage at the same time as Meta had been slain. She was lost in her own little world, trying to bottle up the pain. Redeemer seated himself next to her and touched her ever so softly. Her flimsy dam broke, and she cried on his shoulder.

Don’t try to wall it up within yourself. he told her. You’ll only poison yourself from within. She ceased to struggle and gave herself to the sobbing. That’s better, dear. Let it all out. He supported her out of the cemetary when it was time to leave. He seated her in the front and took the driver’s seat, allowing everyone else to seat themselves in the back. Yamiko’s taxi was already on its way to the airport to catch their flight back to Tibet. He had just started the engine when his cell phone chimed “Flight of the Bumblebee.”

“Yes?” he asked.

“Sorry to rain on your funeral like this, but we’ve got a rash of superhuman crime-sprees, probably taking advantage of the news of Meta’s death.” the Secretary’s voice said. Redeemer relayed this news to the others. Save for Bastet and Arriva, who were still recovering from their injuries, the Redeemed shed their melancholy and put on their game faces.

“Time to go to work, girls.” Kismet said aloud.

“The team’s ready, Mr. Secretary.” Redeemer said into his phone. He smiled, caressing his girls mentally. Moments like this made him proud indeed, and gave him hope for the future.