Present Moment
The Titans broke through the violet mist just as Wu Mei's reinforced fist collided with Zou Kang's lightning blade.
The impact rang out like a bell struck by a sledgehammer. The sharp metallic sound was violent enough to shred the surrounding mist into spiraling sheets. Cobblestones split beneath their feet, and even from twenty meters away the shockwave punched through the air, forcing the Titans to brace to keep from sliding back.
Zou Kang screamed, but the sound came out warped and muffled, as if it had clawed its way up from the bottom of the sea.
Lightning crawled along his blade in unstable veins, violet mist twisting through the arcs. Purple tears streamed from his eyes as he brought the weapon down again, frantic and wild, driven by something far beyond reason.
Wu Mei didn't yield an inch.
Encased in layered terracotta armor, she caught the arc during the swing, stopping the blade inches from her shoulder. Strain spiderwebbed through her clay shell in hairline fractures. She pivoted, absorbed the next strike, and drove her other fist into Zou Kang's ribs.
The blow sent him skidding backward, carving a deep trench through dirt and shattered stone as mist exploded outward in his wake.
For half a heartbeat, it looked like the hit had ended it. Then Zou Kang snapped back into motion and lunged again.
Behind Wu Mei, a terracotta dome shielded two figures. Fang Zhifu lay unconscious inside, his command armor cracked and blood darkened. Hu Li Jing stood over him with blades drawn, her hands trembling as she fought to keep the mist's nightmare at bay.
The Titans froze at the clearing's edge, taking it all in.
Jaime's visor swept the terracotta constructs; the readout spiked as it caught the energy coming off them. "That signature..." he murmured. "It has a divine element."
"Something's wrong with him," Priya cut in, eyes locked on Zou Kang's violet stained face. "The mist... It's in his bloodstream."
M'gann's eyes glowed faintly as her telepathy brushed Zou Kang's mind. She recoiled almost immediately.
"His mind's splintered," she said quietly. "There's no coherent thought... just panic, violence, and scrambled perception. The mist is making him see an enemy that isn't there."
Kiran's light flared instinctively. "So... he's basically trapped in some kind of nightmare?"
"Very likely," M'gann said, turning to look through the dome behind Wu Mei. "And looks like... Ghost Fox is fighting the same effect."
Kiran stepped forward. "Then we have to help them."
"Hold your positions," Barbara ordered.
Kiran stopped, frustration flashing across her face. "Batgirl, she needs us."
"Solstice, calm yourself and think," Barbara snapped. "We don't have the full picture yet. Two Great Ten members who are compromised, one's out cold, and one's barely hanging on. We don't know what the mist does, and we've got infected wildlife in the area. If we charge in blind, we may make this worse."
As if on cue, low shapes moved fast and silently behind the violet haze, circling the fighters.
Gar's face tightened. "Uh… yeah. About those animals…"
Barbara's jaw set as her visor tracked the motion in the haze. "I see them. They're lining up for a strike."
Then they saw Wu Mei falter.
Her terracotta shell fractured again, cracks racing over her left arm and shoulder as thin ribbons of violet vapor seeped through. She raised both arms as Zou Kang charged, but she was a half beat slower now. The armor's weight, the mist, and the cancer flaring inside her were finally catching up.
Wu Mei set her feet to meet him but this time, her stance slipped.
Kiran's eyes widened. "She won't hold."
Priya's flames kindled around her hands. "Batgirl."
"Very well. Solstice and Agni, support Wu Mei," Barbara ordered. "Disarm and restrain Thundermind. Remember, we need him alive if we're going to learn what this mist is doing." Her gaze snapped to Arjun, Jaime, and Gar. "Kala Dhara, Beetle, Beast Boy, take the perimeter. If anything gets through toward the dome, stop it."
She drew an energy sidearm from her terminal storage space and tossed it to Gar.
Gar caught it, grimacing. "Ugh. I hate guns."
"It's temporary," Barbara said. "Until we confirm the mist won't corrupt your shifting forms, stay within your suit's shielding and keep your distance."
Gar's jaw tightened, but he nodded. "Yeah. I know."
Barbara turned to M'gann. "Protect Ghost Fox and Number Most Sacred. Try to reach her mind, but keep it shallow. Do not let the mist pull you into whatever they are seeing."
"Understood," M'gann replied.
"Titans, move!"
Kiran moved first, low and fast cutting straight into the clash.
Golden light snapped from her hands and flared into a crescent shield between Wu Mei and Zou Kang just as Thundermind's blade came down.
The impact hit like a thunderclap.
Lightning spidered across the barrier in jagged veins, writhing over it like living serpents. Kiran's jaw tightened. Yesterday, a blow like that would've thrown her back but now, after her evolution, she held.
Her eyes blazed as the golden light brightened, and something deeper surfaced inside it, a quiet, absolute edge of a primordial law. The corrupted lightning unraveled on contact.
The blade cracked and then shattered.
Zou Kang reeled, broken hilt still clenched in his hand.
"Agni!" Kiran shouted.
Priya swept in from the flank, flames coiling tight around her forearms. She drove both palms forward and released a compressed burst of superheated air.
It hit Zou Kang hard, sending him flying backward while steam tore off the mist around him.
Wu Mei staggered as the terracotta plating over her armor shifted and locked again. Her gaze snapped from Kiran's golden shield to Priya's fire, disbelief cutting through her exhaustion. "The Indian champions..."
Just then Barbara's voice cut through the comms, keyed to the Great Ten's private frequency.
"Mother of… Champions, do you… read me?"
Wu Mei's head snapped toward the sound. "Who is this?"
For the first time since they'd entered the haze, the line held thin and distorted, but usable.
"Good. The signal is holding. I'm Batgirl with the Titans. We're here to back you up and figure out what this corruption is before it spreads. What's your status?"
Wu Mei dragged in a rough breath, eyes locked on Zou Kang as Kiran and Priya forced him back. "So it's true... the three from India joined you."
A beat later, gratitude broke through her exhausted voice. "Thank you. But you shouldn't be here. You don't understand how bad the mist is."
She jerked her gauntlet toward the dome behind her.
"Take them. Please... take Ghost Fox and Number Most Sacred and get out. Don't risk the champions from India. They might be the only countermeasure we have left."
"I hear you," Barbara said. "But they are Titans now, and we don't leave people behind when we can still help. Besides, they're not alone."
She switched back to the Titans' mental channel without breaking stride.
"Kala Dhara, reinforce Solstice. Agni, secure the dome and keep the mist off Wu Mei."
"Copy," Kiran and Priya replied in unison.
Arjun pressed one palm toward the ground. "Ready."
Kiran's light reshaped into three angled panels, sliding into place around Zou Kang like moving walls. The opening gave Arjun the timing he needed. His shadow shot across the ground, splitting into dark chains that snapped around Zou Kang's limbs and dragged him down to one knee.
Priya shifted outward at the same time, setting a tight ring of controlled heat around the dome and Wu Mei. The violet haze hissed and recoiled every time it tried to creep back in.
Zou Kang knelt trapped between golden light, shadow, and fire, the broken hilt still clenched in his hand. Violet tears streaked down his face as his head jerked from one phantom enemy to another.
M'gann reached out carefully, keeping her touch shallow.
"Zou Kang. You're not under attack. You're seeing illusions. Listen to me."
Thundermind froze at the words. For one heartbeat, something like recognition flickered behind the violet glare.
Then the mist pulsed, and the clearing dimmed.
Zou Kang screamed as lightning erupted in a wild corona. One of Kiran's light panels shattered. Arjun's shadow chains snapped apart under the surge, and Priya's heat ring buckled as violet haze flooded back toward Wu Mei.
"Damn it! He's fighting me!" M'gann warned, then went still, sensing the shift. "No... the mist is actively reinforcing the hallucination!"
"Then we take him down," Barbara ordered. "Now."
Kiran drew a sharp breath and lifted both hands.
Golden bands lashed out from her palms and snapped around Zou Kang's wrists before he could raise the broken hilt again. They tightened, forcing his arms apart and locking him in place.
For a heartbeat, surprise crossed Kiran's face. The technique she'd improvised held far better than she'd expected.
Priya caught the look even as she pushed heat back against the mist. "New move?"
"You can say that," Kiran said through clenched teeth.
"Seriously? Now?" Arjun said, taking position. "This is not the time to be testing a new move, ladies."
He grunted and slammed his palm into the ground. "Fall already."
Soil surged up around Zou Kang's legs, hardening into dark stone shackles veined with shadow. They cinched tight around his ankles, forcing his stance wide, while Kiran's bindings locked down his wrists.
Thundermind's momentum died on the spot.
Gar exhaled. "Okay. Good. Looks like they've got him."
Jaime kept his cannons trained on the haze. "Don't jinx it."
The violet wall beyond the clearing rippled, and then the infected animals burst through the mist, slamming into Priya's heat perimeter. Their bodies began to steam as they tore through the superheated air.
Even with the heat biting into them, the pack didn't slow. Wolves, boars, deer, things no longer fully recognizable, charged on with purple salt crusting their hides. Violet fluid streamed from their eyes. Calcified ridges split skin and muscle, yet they ran as if pain meant nothing.
They were aiming for the dome, trying to reach whatever was inside.
Gar narrowed his eyes, tracked the lead runners, and stepped into position. The energy handgun kicked in his grip as he fired tight bursts through the haze. Three wolves dropped before they could reach the terracotta shell.
"Damn it! I hate this!" Gar yelled.
"Then don't miss," Barbara shot back.
Jaime lifted both arms. "Scarab, bring them down. Headshots only."
"Acknowledged."
Blue white bolts snapped from his cannons with surgical precision, cutting down the mutated beasts alongside Gar.
When the last one dropped, the clearing went briefly still. Bodies slumped, then began dissolving into briny sludge, hissing as it seeped into the stone.
The mist crept back in immediately, curling over the remains as if nothing had happened.
Jaime swept the perimeter. "All clear. I'm not picking up any other signatures."
"Don't relax," Barbara said. "We still don't know how many mutated animals are out there in the mist."
Kiran kept Zou Kang pinned, jaw set with effort. "I can't hold him like this much longer without seriously hurting him."
Priya took a step back, heat tightening around her hands. "Give me a minute. I'm going in for a controlled burn."
"Careful," Barbara warned.
"I know." Priya lifted both palms. A thin mantle of orange and gold heat slid over Zou Kang, applying more pressure, tightening around the violet film clinging to his skin and sinking into his system.
The contamination hissed as it burned.
Zou Kang convulsed. His scream broke into a strangled gasp as the shattered hilt slipped from his fingers, clanged against the ground and the last of the lightning finally died.
M'gann eased closer, maintaining only the lightest contact with his mind.
"Zou Kang, listen to my voice. Focus on it. You're safe. You're not drowning. You're not fighting a demon. You're at Mount Tai, with allies."
Then the violet glare dimmed and his knees gave out.
Kiran caught him in a golden sling before he hit the ground. "Got him."
"Good," Barbara said. "Miss Martian, check him. Shallow scan only."
M'gann knelt beside him. "His consciousness is still unstable, but the panic loop is broken. Still, unless we purge the mist from his system, we don't know how long we have before it surges again."
Wu Mei stared at the Titans, half supported by her armor as the terracotta plating sloughed off in pieces. For a moment she looked too exhausted to speak. Then she bowed her head.
"You have my gratitude," she said, her voice rough. "Another minute, and I don't think I could've held him." She looked at each of them in turn. "Thank you for coming to our aid."
Priya let out a dry, tired laugh. "Well, we're Titans now. Kind of had to show up. But, I've gotta say... the scenery could be a lot better."
From inside the crumbling dome, Hu Li Jing managed a faint, strained smile. "You picked terrible timing for a visit."
"Well," Priya shot back, "wasn't exactly our call."
The small exchange loosened the tension for a breath until Wu Mei let out a wet, violent cough.
She doubled over inside her armor, one hand braced against her chest. Violet stained blood speckled the inside of her cracked helmet.
M'gann called out. "She's hurt."
Barbara snapped into command. "Agni, I need a medical assessment. Now."
"On it." Priya pivoted toward Wu Mei, her flames softening into a warm, precise aura as she closed the distance. "Hold still."
"There's no time for this—"
"Yeah, yeah," Priya cut in. "I know, we're in a dangerous situation. Imminent disaster, etcetera. Tell me something I don't know." Her voice sharpened. "Hold still." She glanced over her shoulder. "Beetle, give me a full scan."
Jaime dropped to one knee as the scarab's sensors swept over Wu Mei. "I'm seeing microscopic crystal buildup in her respiratory tract," he reported. "It's a near match for the abyssal salt from the Great Tide. It's embedded deep in the lining."
Priya's expression tightened. "That explains the blood. But something's off with her energy flow."
"It's a mess," Jaime said, his voice taut. "She has advanced cancer, and those particles are binding directly to her energy pathways. It's choking off her meridian flow."
Priya went completely still. Then she met Wu Mei's eyes, the pieces instantly falling into place. "You shouldn't even be standing with tumors that advanced. Don't tell me you've been using your divine power just to keep them suppressed."
Wu Mei hesitated, then admitted quietly, "Yes."
"Then the mist isn't just damaging your lungs," Priya said, brow furrowing. "It's disrupting your energy circulation. If you need a constant flow of divine power to keep a terminal illness suppressed, exposure turns this mist into a fast-acting poison." Her eyes narrowed. "How long have you been relying on your blessing to stay alive?"
Wu Mei's voice came out dry. "Long enough."
"Typical," Priya muttered. "Alright. We need to stabilize you first."
A faint, pained smile tugged at Wu Mei's mouth beneath the cracked visor. "Doctors... always so confident."
"Patients," Priya shot back, already working, "always so stubborn."
"Looks like sustained exposure corrodes ordinary filters," Jaime added from the side, his visor analyzing the degraded materials. "Wu Mei's suit bought her time, but it couldn't hold forever."
M'gann's expression turned grim. "The mist behaves like the broader corruption, it hunts for existing damage. Around the cancerous cells, I can feel the residue actively trying to force its way into vulnerable tissue."
Priya turned to Hu Li Jing. "Ghost Fox. What are your symptoms?"
Hu Li Jing swallowed hard, her hands still trembling slightly around her blades. "Hallucinations. Severe ones. First, it showed me something wearing Zhifu's face. Then it dragged up people from my past… people I know are dead." She drew a shaky breath. "It's hard to tell what's real once it starts. But Sister Mei's voice helped, and yours does too. I need an anchor to hold onto when reality slips."
"That matches Zou Kang condition," M'gann said. "It isolates your senses, traps you in a fear loop, and makes your allies look like enemies."
"Yes," Hu Li Jing murmured, lowering her gaze. "The hallucinations don't just look real. They feel real. The phantoms carry a presence you can't dismiss, complete with aura and intent."
Jaime crouched beside a mutated beast's skull fragment that hadn't fully dissolved and ran a sweep. "It's devouring wireless telemetry. Radio, digital, satellite, it doesn't matter. It scatters signals, knocks drones out of stabilization, and turns camera feeds to static the moment they cross the perimeter. This isn't just a neurotoxin."
He shifted his scanner to another corpse. "And the wildlife is still a major variable. The animals are hyper aggressive, but their movement is coordinated."
Arjun's expression darkened. "The presence below is directing them."
Barbara absorbed the readouts, her eyes turning cold. "So it's airborne, biological, neurological, and spiritual. It isolates defenders, turns allies against each other, and uses infected fauna as a battering ram."
Her gaze cut toward the mountain's silhouette. "This isn't random. It's dismantling our defenses piece by piece, clearing a path through the caverns and aquifers toward the mountain's veins."
"The ley lines," Kiran said quietly.
Arjun nodded. "It's looking for a way to break the cage. We have to reach the subterranean nodes."
M'gann looked into the fog. "Not blindly. If we push underground without recovering the team at Node Three, we leave allies behind and walk into another ambush."
"The Great Ten aren't helpless," Barbara said, glancing at Zou Kang's unconscious form. "Thundermind should have been able to hold Node Three long enough to thin the stampede out before the hallucinations took hold. That rush of infected wildlife feels like it was meant to keep the defenders pinned at Node Three while the mist spread from Node Two. Either way, Node Three is our best chance to figure out what's happening on the ground."
Jaime's armor shifted. "I can patch the seals on their suits. It won't be permanent, but it'll stabilize their filtration."
"Do it," Barbara said.
Jaime knelt beside Wu Mei as blue Scarab filaments flowed over the cracked seams, hardening into flexible one way exhaust seals. Then he moved to Hu Li Jing, sealing hairline fractures and flushing contaminated residue from her intake valves.
Priya lowered themself between the injured members of the Great Ten. "I want to try something."
Barbara's eyes narrowed. "Explain."
"My fire disrupted the Tide's corruption, and we just saw it suppress the mist in Zou Kang," Priya said. "Solstice's light stabilizes living tissue and energy flow. If we combine them, we can flush the residue out of their bodies before it takes hold."
Wu Mei's gaze sharpened. "What's the risk?"
"It isn't an exact science," Priya admitted, "but I'd call it moderate. Leaving that salt in your lungs is a guaranteed death sentence."
M'gann stepped in, touching two fingers to Wu Mei's temple. "I'll monitor their minds. If panic spikes, I'll alert you."
Kiran moved to Priya's side. "And I'll stabilize their meridians while you burn the residue out."
Barbara held their eyes for a beat, then nodded. "Start low. Keep it controlled. And Solstice, be careful. Your power evolved recently. The second I give the word, you stop."
Kiran nodded. "Understood."
Priya turned to Kiran. "I'll burn off the calcified residue. You stabilize tissue and meridian flow. If your healing responds, guide it gently. Don't force it."
"Got it," Kiran said.
Priya's flames softened into a steady gold red mantle of living heat and settled over Wu Mei, threading through the armor seams. Kiran placed both hands against Wu Mei's back and poured warm golden radiance into their system, supporting organs and meridians.
Wu Mei tensed, fingers digging into the dirt. A heartbeat later, Wu Mei exhaled sharply as dark violet vapor vented through the armor's exhaust seals and incinerated in Priya's flame.
Kiran whispered over their private link, "Priya… I can feel the cancerous mass. I think I can destroy it with my light."
"Not now," Priya shut the idea down immediately. "We don't know how your light interacts with Wu Mei's Nüwa blessing yet. If you destroy healthy tissue or destabilize the suppression field out here, it could kill them." Priya's tone softened slightly. "Stabilize first. We can talk about a cure once we're off this mountain."
Kiran hesitated, then nodded. "Okay."
Priya moved to Hu Li Jing next. Ghost Fox shuddered as a thin stream of violet vapor bled from their breath and dissolved into embers.
"The panic loop is broken," M'gann reported.
Finally, Priya turned to Fang Zhifu. His command armor was badly fractured, letting the mist seep deep. Kiran wrapped a gentle band of golden light around his chest while Priya sent a low wave of heat through the breach points, purging residual salt until his breathing smoothed out.
Jaime checked their HUD. "Respiration steady. Meridian flow partially restored. He's stable."
Priya leaned back and wiped sweat from their forehead. "That's the best I can do in the field."
Wu Mei flexed a gauntlet and drew a clean, unlabored breath. "You purged it."
"Don't celebrate yet," Priya said flatly. "We're still in an active hazard zone."
Hu Li Jing managed a faint, dry laugh. "Practical. I like you."
"Don't move," Priya replied without looking up. "You nearly decapitated your commander ten minutes ago."
Hu Li Jing's smile faded as their eyes dropped in shame. Wu Mei rested a hand on their shoulder, offering silent reassurance.
Barbara stepped in and took back the tempo. "Focus. We need to make a call. Wu Mei, what's the status of the grid?"
"Outer containment holds," Wu Mei said, "but without Zhifu recalibrating the geometry, it will decay within hours. My reinforced sentinels bought time, nothing more."
"And the missing?" Barbara asked.
"Xu Tao and Zou Kang held Node Three when the stampede struck. Yao Fei and Shaolin Robot deployed to reinforce them," Wu Mei answered. "Zhifu and Jing'er entered Node Two to locate the source of the mist, but conditions deteriorated fast. I recovered Zhifu and Jing'er. Zou made it here on his own. Xu Tao, Yao Fei, and Shaolin Robot are still unaccounted for at Node Three."
Barbara looked into the fog. "Then that's our target."
M'gann glanced toward the southern ravines. "Why not neutralize the mist at Node Two first?"
"Because the mist is a symptom," Barbara said. "Node Two is a deep ravine with zero visibility, maximum hallucination density, and a high risk of losing our footing. If we get pinned down there, the entity reaches the ley lines. We secure the missing assets at Node Three, gather intelligence, and push for the subterranean core."
Hu Li Jing shook their head. "Zhifu cannot go deeper. He won't survive another exposure."
"He isn't going deeper," Barbara said. "You're taking him back to the perimeter. Miss Martian will establish a mental anchor for you to follow, and you can use the acoustic sutras as an orientation beacon. Kala Dhara will seal Zou Kang in a reinforced stone bunker here until a recovery team retrieves him."
Wu Mei stepped forward. "I'm coming with you to Node Three."
Priya objected instantly. "You were coughing blood five minutes ago."
"I know the node layouts, the access codes, and how the perimeter responds," Wu Mei insisted. "You need a guide."
"And if you collapse halfway," Priya shot back, "you're deadweight."
Barbara evaluated Wu Mei's vitals against the mission clock. "She comes."
Priya frowned. "Batgirl…"
"I know. I don't like it either," Barbara said, cutting them off. "But Wu Mei is right. We need local knowledge to navigate Node Three, and your purge cleared enough contamination for them to move." Barbara locked eyes with Wu Mei. "You follow my operational orders. If I call an extraction, you fall back. No suicide runs."
Wu Mei held the stare. "Agreed."
Barbara nodded to M'gann. "Set the anchors and give Ghost Fox a clean path."
M'gann established a shallow telepathic link with Hu Li Jing and laid a psychic loop over Zou Kang's mind to keep their consciousness pacified. Kiran reinforced Zhifu with a steadying veil of gold while Priya burned away the last traces of mist clinging to Ghost Fox's gear.
Hu Li Jing sheathed their dual blades and lifted Zhifu onto their shoulders with care. "Understood."
Hu Li Jing and Wu Mei exchanged a single wordless look. A moment later, the thinning mist swallowed Hu Li Jing as they retreated toward the perimeter, while Arjun drove both palms into the earth and sealed Zou Kang inside a secure shell of shadowed stone.
Barbara watched them vanish into the haze, then turned back. "Let's move. Stay tight."
The farther they went, the more the mist fought them. Visibility shrank to a few meters. Sound thinned until even their footsteps felt remote, and their comms broke into jagged fragments. Barbara and Jaime alternated short sonic bursts, carving a workable path through the interference.
Barbara fired first. Tight ripples rolled from her gauntlet, sketching the terrain in a pale wireframe before the fog swallowed it.
"We've got a problem," Jaime warned. "It's adapting faster."
"Then keep changing the pattern," Barbara said.
The pulses offered only fragmented glimpses of what lay ahead. On their HUDs, the route blinked in and out, briefly outlining a steep slope, a broken wall, a collapsed checkpoint, and a narrow corridor winding through corrupted trees.
Kiran kept her light thin, bright enough to guide them, restrained enough not to provoke the field. Priya held a low sheath of heat around the group, searing the vapor back whenever it pressed in. Arjun walked with one hand hovering near the ground, refusing a full connection to the tainted earth unless he had no other choice.
Wu Mei lagged, breathing rough through her patched filter, but she refused to fall behind. Twice she stumbled. Twice Kiran caught her without breaking stride. The second time, Wu Mei did not pull away.
"Node Three is close," Barbara said. "Beetle."
Jaime lifted both arms. "I can clear ten meters. Maybe fifteen if the others back me up."
Barbara dipped her chin. "You'll have it." She looked to the others, and they answered with a single nod. "On my mark."
"Mark."
Arjun moved first. Stone plates rose with a deep grind, locking into a stable platform as they shoved the corrupted soil outward. Kiran's gold flared into a lens that tightened their momentum into a clean forward arc. Priya drove a controlled wave of divine fire through that channel, and Jaime struck the center with a modulated sonic burst.
The mist tore open.
Node Three was a battlefield.
Mutated bodies lay piled everywhere, wolves, boars, deer, and things too twisted to name. Some skulls were crushed by stone. Others had been split by solar arrows or blown apart by thunder. The ground was cratered and shredded, scored by trenches and impact scars. Blackened lines still crackled with leftover lightning.
Gar swallowed. "They fought like hell."
Wu Mei stared through her visor, face drained. "Tao… Yao Fei..."
"No time," Barbara said. "Go for the Outpost entrance. Move."
They crossed the ruins. Every step told the story. Tao's arrows had cut clean lanes through the stampede. Zou's lightning had shattered whole waves. Broken drones lay half melted near the access path. The outer gate of Node Three was bent inward, its reinforced frame torn open.
"Something got inside," Arjun said.
Barbara reached the door first. "Stack up."
The corridor was worse. Blood streaked the walls. Violet brine pooled across the floor. Emergency lights strobed in a dead red rhythm, painting everything in pulses of shadow. Behind them, the mist pressed toward the open entrance like it wanted in.
Arjun drove both hands down. Earth surged through the cracked foundation and sealed the passage in a thick barrier before the haze could spill inside.
"Move," Barbara ordered.
The control station door hung half open. Barbara pushed through and stopped.
The room was a slaughterhouse.
Broken equipment littered the floor. Medical tools lay scattered among torn cables and shattered glass. Monitors flickered with corrupted static. A defensive drone sparked weakly in the corner. The air stank of copper, burnt circuitry, and violet salt.
At the center of the room lay Yao Fei, the Accomplished Perfect Physician, unconscious and bloodied.
One arm was gone below the shoulder, the stump sealed with medical foam, sutra etched bandages, and crude cauterization. His face was deathly pale, but his chest still rose and fell in shallow, stubborn breaths.
Xu Tao lay strapped down, pale, sweating, and unconscious. One leg was missing below the knee, the wound bound and sealed with the same desperate emergency work. But dark violet lines threaded beneath Tao's skin, and calcified growths crawled up his veins from the stump like frozen lightning.
Jaime's visor flashed with diagnostic readouts. "Yao Fei is stable," he reported. "Severe blood loss and extreme bioenergy exhaustion, but the corruption didn't fully take. He has traces of calcification, but his cells are actively rejecting the mutation."
Barbara's eyes fixed on the makeshift surgical table. "That tracks with his file. His Shennong derived power can force his own cells, and the cells of anyone he touches, to hold their baseline form. He must have carried Tao inside while holding the corruption at bay with his own life force."
Jaime's voice tightened as his sensors swept Xu Tao. "The real concern is this guy. The corruption in his system is active and rapidly approaching an advanced stage. It's aggressively rewriting his cellular structure."
Priya approached the makeshift surgical table, shedding her outer jacket as her face hardened into focus. "Everyone back up unless you're helping. Beetle, you're my eyes. Give me a full meridian readout."
Priya studied the infected archer while Jaime projected a dense holographic scan above the table. Meridian blockage had already passed sixty eight percent and continued climbing.
Barbara stepped closer, analyzing the restraints, tools, blood, and scorch marks. "Xu Tao was bitten recently. Based on the Great Ten's prior records, a standard bite takes days to claim a victim. Direct exposure to the mist rapidly accelerated the spread. Yao Fei amputated the limb and restrained him to slow the corruption down, but his own injuries and exhaustion took him before he could finish the purge."
Kiran's hands gathered golden light. "Can we save him?"
Priya looked from the violet lines beneath Tao's skin to the mist grinding against Arjun's barrier. Her jaw tightened. "We're going to try."
Arjun stepped forward, frowning. "Priya, I understand why you want to save him. But we're on a ticking clock. Every minute we spend operating here gives the corruption more time to evolve below. If this takes too long, we may lose the underground nodes entirely."
Priya's voice went dangerously cold. "Kala Dhara, I hear you. But there's no guarantee we cleanse the ground fast enough, either. An infected patient gives us a living sample, live data, and a chance to develop a treatment before this spreads beyond Mount Tai."
She stepped closer, her eyes locking onto his. "And more importantly, I am a physician. If a patient is salvageable, I save them. So either help me hold this room, or stand guard at that door."
Arjun met her gaze for a silent second. Then he turned toward the entrance. "Fine. Just do it quickly."
Priya drew a breath and turned to the others. "Miss Martian, keep him under neurological suppression. Beetle, lock the biofeed and record everything. Kiran, take the opposite side. I need a stabilization field across his entire body."
Kiran moved at once, extending her arms across the table. Golden light poured from her hands, forming a shimmering veil over Xu Tao. The healing aspect of her power infused his tissue, keeping his organs from failing while microscopic light sieves spread through his meridians, slowing the pathogen's advance.
"Agni," Kiran said, sweat already beading at her brow. "I'm holding the field, but I can't stop the corruption for long."
"That's enough, Solstice. Leave the rest to me."
Priya's breathing settled into steady, measured cycles as ember orange heat coiled tightly around her wrists. Her eyes stayed fixed on the live hologram projecting Xu Tao's vascular and meridian networks.
"Beetle, highlight the calcification fronts."
The hologram shifted, tracing the advancing infection in violent purple.
Priya's expression sharpened. "The pathogen is fusing with his nervous system and calcifying the arteries as it climbs toward the heart. Once it reaches the heart valves, he's dead."
She leaned in. "Wait. Look at the bone marrow."
Jaime's visor flashed. "Scarab confirms anomalous cellular mutation inside the marrow. It's replicating from the inside out."
"Standard surgery won't cut it. Scalpels can remove calcified masses, but they won't stop a genetic rewrite. Going one vein at a time is a losing battle." She looked up at Kiran. "We need to purge the circulatory system all at once."
"My flames can burn the calcified salt out of his vessels," Priya said, her voice controlled but urgent. "But your light carries something stronger against this corruption. If we drive it straight through his heart and into the bloodstream, it will hunt the infection through every capillary in his body."
Kiran stared at her glowing hands. "Agni... I'm still learning how to control that aspect. If I make one mistake, I could destroy healthy tissue and kill him."
Priya's expression softened slightly. "Kiran," she said, using her name instead of her codename. "Whatever force blessed you with that power saw something extraordinary in you. If something beyond our reality believed you were worthy to hold that light, then believe you can guide it." She held Kiran's eyes steady. "I believe in you. Trust me, and try."
Kiran's jaw set. She closed her eyes for one long breath, feeling the deep, ancient resonance of her power answer her call. When her eyes opened, they blazed gold. "I'm ready."
"Miss Martian?" Priya called.
"I've got him," M'gann replied, her telepathic aura wrapping firmly around Xu Tao's mind. "Pain receptors suppressed. Psyche anchored. Go."
Kiran recalled the external stabilization field. The instant it vanished, the violet lines beneath Xu Tao's skin surged violently. His body jolted against the restraints.
"Now, Solstice!" Priya shouted.
Kiran pressed both hands to Xu Tao's chest and drove her power downward. Golden light flooded his torso, entered his heart, and surged through his circulatory system like liquid sunshine.
The quiet, absolute law of destruction within her power woke. The moment that radiance touched the creeping violet veins, the parasitic code did not merely stop.
It atomized. Dark purple lines withered beneath Tao's skin, turned gray, and vanished.
"Keep going!" Priya shouted, driving a localized wave of divine heat over the stump to force the remaining abyssal salt crystals up into Kiran's golden threshold. "Flush it out!"
M'gann's brow furrowed. "His neural activity is spiking! The corruption is trying to trigger a fear loop!"
"Can you hold it?" Barbara asked.
"I can," M'gann said through clenched teeth.
For two agonizing minutes, the room echoed with the hiss of burning salt and the hum of divine light.
Then, with a final sharp crackle, the last violet line vanished near Xu Tao's hip. The dark pressure suffocating his marrow and meridians snapped like a cut rope.
Jaime let out a long breath. "Pathogen eliminated from the nervous system. Meridian flow restored to ninety one percent. Calcification is gone."
Priya cut her flames and staggered back a step. Arjun caught her shoulder instantly, steadying her.
"Good work, Doctor," he said quietly.
Priya wiped her forehead, exhaling hard. "No thanks to you. And don't call me doctor in the field." A beat passed. She looked at Xu Tao's steady breathing. "But... yeah. We saved him."
On the table, Xu Tao's chest rose and fell in deep, natural breaths. The sickly pallor receded, replaced by a faint, healthy color.
Yao Fei shifted, his bloodied face twisting as consciousness returned. He pushed himself upright with his remaining hand, blinking through pain and confusion until his eyes landed on Xu Tao, breathing steadily on the table.
He froze. "Tao..." His voice cracked. "The infection. I couldn't stop the cellular rewrite."
"He is safe, Yao Fei," Wu Mei said softly, kneeling beside him. "The Titans purged the corruption from his bloodstream."
Yao Fei looked at Priya, Kiran, and Arjun in stunned silence. Then he bowed his head low to the floor, his remaining hand pressed over his heart.
"Thank you... all of you. The Middle Kingdom owes you a debt that cannot be measured."
"Save the gratitude for when we're off this mountain," Barbara said, stepping forward. "Doctor Fei, we need operational intelligence. What happened to Shaolin Robot?"
Yao Fei forced himself into a sitting position, his expression turning grave. "When the stampede hit, Robot and I deployed to support Tao and Zou Kang. But when the mist arrived, it changed the battlefield entirely. It scrambled communications, induced violent hallucinations, and accelerated the mutations. After Xu Tao was bitten, we retreated inside."
"Shaolin Robot realized something was distorting the acoustic Sutra loops. He left us to secure the surface and descended into the deep shafts toward Node Five, the Sterilization Core, and Node Six, the Aquifer Nexus. Zou Kang went back out to buy us time while I treated Tao."
His jaw tightened. "Minutes after Robot entered the shafts, his telemetry suffered a total blackout."
Arjun's eyes flared with dark certainty. "Those nodes are the core of the sound grid holding the entity back."
Barbara pulled up the subterranean lattice map on her visor. "That confirms our theory. The surface mist is an adaptive smoke screen, meant to isolate the Great Ten, break coordination, and take out the node monitors while the corruption below attacks the core engines."
Arjun stepped forward, his voice dropping into a low, resonant register. "We're out of time. That presence isn't just mutating wildlife. It's hunting the ancient ley lines beneath the mountain's roots. It wants the pure, primordial energy of the earth to rebuild itself."
"A presence...?" Wu Mei whispered. "You're saying the corruption is conscious?"
Barbara gave them the shortest possible version of Arjun's earlier contact with the thing beneath the soil, the yellow eyes, the vast maw, the crushing pressure against his awareness.
"We have to stop it," Yao Fei gritted out, struggling to stand. "I'm coming with you."
"No," Wu Mei said firmly after realizing her earlier speculation turned out to be true. "You lost an arm. You need to evacuate Xu Tao and coordinate with Immortal Chen, Red Eye, and Seven Brothers in One. They should have arrived from New Delhi by now." Her voice brooked no argument. "I will go with them."
"Neither of you is going down there," Jaime cut in, scanning both of their suits. "The mist has likely reached the subterranean caverns. If that's true, it'll be denser than anything we've seen on the surface. Your patched filtration seals will dissolve in minutes."
Wu Mei shook her head. "You need my access codes for the deep node terminals. I am going with you—"
Before she could finish, Barbara stepped behind her and struck a precise nerve point at the base of her neck.
Wu Mei's eyes rolled back, and she collapsed silently into Barbara's arms.
Yao Fei stared at Barbara. "What did you do?"
Barbara gave him a cold, unyielding look that silenced him instantly. "She barely made it here. If she follows us deeper, she dies before the first junction, and we lose the one person who can rebuild the outer barrier. From this point on, we fight smart."
Then she turned to Gar. "Beast Boy, change of plans. You're escorting Yao Fei, Wu Mei, and Xu Tao out through the emergency evacuation tunnel."
Gar's face fell. "Wait. Batgirl, why are you benching me? I can fight!"
"Dr. Fei has only one arm," Barbara said, her tone sharp and precise. "Xu Tao is an amputee who just survived unprecedented surgery and needs rest. Wu Mei is out cold and medically unstable. How do you expect Dr. Fei to carry both of them out by himself?"
Barbara's voice softened by a fraction. "And your animal transformations carry a high mutation risk inside dense mist. I'm not sidelining you because you're useless, Gar. I'm assigning you the mission only you can complete right now."
"Get them to the perimeter," Barbara continued. "Secure the intel. Brief the Justice League and the rest of the Great Ten when they arrive. If we don't come back fast enough, make sure nobody charges into the mountain blind."
Jaime placed a hand on Gar's shoulder. "Beast Boy, she's right. Get them out. We've got this."
Gar swallowed his frustration, then nodded solemnly. "Got it." He looked at the others. "Be careful down there."
Arjun and Jaime cleared the barricade at the rear escape hatch. Gar lifted Wu Mei while Yao Fei helped secure Xu Tao onto an emergency carrier. Together, they moved into the cleaner air of the secondary exit channel. The heavy door sealed behind them with a final echo.
For a moment, the room felt much emptier.
Barbara faced the remaining Titans, M'gann, Jaime, Priya, Kiran, and Arjun.
"I pulled the facility blueprints," she said, her visor throwing a holographic map of the vertical shafts into the air. "Beetle, you're on point."
She passed him a handful of sleek, faintly glowing spheres. "I've got ten of these specialized sonic pellets left. They're tuned for short range relay mapping, which should help with the thickening mist. Drop them at even intervals as we move. If they hold, my terminal will stitch together a composite map through the interference."
Jaime accepted them as the Scarab analyzed the payload. "Target?"
"Node Five, the Sterilization Core," Barbara said. "It's the heart of the sound barrier. Once we reach it, splice your Scarab array into the grid and feed it everything you can. Texts, chants, mantras, sutras, hymns, invocations, whatever you can pull from any tradition with a strong protective or purificatory core, and prioritize pieces with tight, repeatable structure. We'll see if a layered chorus of faith can break the presence's grip on the acoustic lattice."
Priya steadied her breathing, still pale from the purge. "And after Node Five?"
Barbara turned toward the dark passage leading into the mountain's roots. "Then we push to Node Six, the Aquifer Nexus," she said. "That's where the water table connects to the deeper ley line channels."
Arjun's shadow crawled over his hands like living ink. "That's where it's trying to feed."
Barbara looked at her team. "And that's where we cut it off."
"Titans, move."
Three Hours Later, Perimeter Command Center
"They went in?" Yao Dan demanded. "Tell me I misheard that."
Red Eye had arrived eleven minutes earlier with Immortal Chen and Seven Brothers in One, fresh from New Delhi. Chen's authority had carried them through three military corridors and sealed airspace without pause. They had been briefed in the air, but the briefing had been kinder than the reality waiting on the ground. The weight of the situation settled in the moment they read Wu Mei's message on the way in.
The command center was controlled chaos. Soldiers moved in disciplined lines as they drew equipment. Engineers argued over monitors that refused to hold a signal. Orderlies jogged stretchers toward triage tents. Every screen tied to a node showed static, and every map of the isolation zone displayed the same violet stain spreading outward like ink soaking through cloth.
Beast Boy stood at the central console in his off world uniform, his usual grin gone. Beside him, Wu Mei issued orders to perimeter officers in short, flat sentences. Her patched armor still bore the ravine's damage, and every breath sounded like it cost her something. Yao Fei sat at a workstation with one sleeve pinned flat, his remaining hand moving across controls as he reviewed the data the Titans had transmitted from inside the zone.
Gar had been on a secure channel for the last half hour, coordinating with the Justice League, checking the Atlantic front, confirming who could be spared and how soon they could arrive. He ended the transmission and turned.
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" he asked, voice flat.
Yao Dan's cybernetic eye narrowed. "You let them go deeper."
"They chose to go deeper. Batgirl made the call," Gar said.
"Damn it," Yang Kei Ying snapped. "Your team should have held at the perimeter until we arrived. That is the entire purpose of a joint operation."
"Seriously?" Gar's voice rose, exhaustion finally breaking through. "We came here to help. We pulled four of your people out of that mist. We stabilized them. We saved the one who was hours from turning. We sent you everything we learned in there. So start with 'thank you.' Save the complaints for later."
"Beast Boy is right," Chen said quietly.
"Your team has our gratitude, and that is not in question." His gaze stayed sharp under his calm. "But Red Eye and Seven are not wrong either. By your own report, that mist was designed to sever communication, blind telemetry, and turn defenders on each other. Under those conditions, staying inside is an extraordinary risk."
Chen studied him. "Then why not withdraw and wait for us, or for the League?"
Gar's jaw tightened. "Because we're running out of time." He pointed at the nearest map. "Whatever is under Mount Tai is not just the Tide's corruption. Something is in there, alive, feeding, adapting, pushing toward the ley lines. Every hour we give it makes it harder to kill."
He tapped the violet stain on the monitor. "And look at how the mist arrived. It did not drift at random. It went straight for your blind spots, cut your node teams off from each other, scrambled your systems, and maneuvered your two strongest fighters into the same clearing so they would swing at each other. That is not an accident. That is a plan."
Yang stepped forward. "But you also said there's no guarantee your team can stop it, even with the three champions from India. If the outcome is uncertain, isn't it smarter to fall back and prepare for a full outbreak?"
"What do you think everyone in this room is doing?" Gar shot back. "That's why I'm up here coordinating surface operations with Mother of Champions instead of down there with my team. Evacuation routes. Perimeter reinforcement. Military staging. Triage. Quarantine expansion. It's all already in motion."
His voice hardened. "But if that thing reaches the ley lines, this stops being a provincial problem. It goes continental. Pulling everyone back and waiting is not the safe choice. It means we fight it later, when it is stronger, and after a lot more people are dead. Right now we still have a chance to study it, slow it, and hold the line until the heavy hitters land."
"He is right," Yao Fei said from the console.
Yao Dan turned on him. "You should be lying down."
"I probably should," Yao Fei admitted, leaning back. His eyes were tired, but steady. "But if I do, Wu Mei is left to manage all of this alone. Look at her and tell me that's the better plan."
"They recovered data we could not," Yao Fei continued. "They stabilized Wu Mei. They burned the mist residue out of Ghost Fox and out of Number Most Sacred. They purged a full cellular rewrite out of Xu Tao when I had already failed to stop it with my own hands." His gaze shifted to Yang. "If they had turned around when they found us, Tao would be dead. Possibly worse than dead."
"What's the latest on the recovered?" Chen asked.
Yao Fei pulled up the list. "Number Most Sacred is in surgery in the second tent. He will live. I cannot promise when he will be able to hold a probability line again. Ghost Fox Killer is refusing sedation two tents over because she wants to be awake if the perimeter fails, and I have not found an argument that moves her. Xu Tao is under and stable, and his blood ran clean on the last three draws. Thundermind is still inside the zone, sealed in a shell of Kala Dhara's stone with a Martian loop holding him unconscious. He is the one I want retrieved the moment the mist thins."
Wu Mei stepped away from the officers she had been directing.
"The barrier is failing," she said. "The terracotta perimeter can hold the outer ring for a while. Without the deep nodes stabilized, it will not hold. Zhifu's lattice was never built to run blind. The corruption understands that, and it is taking the layers apart one at a time."
"How much time do we have?" Chen asked.
Wu Mei looked toward the main display. "Less than we hoped."
"That is not an answer," Yao Dan said.
"No," Wu Mei replied. "But it is the most honest answer I can give. The mist was already an unknown, and it has changed again in the last hour."
She kept her voice flat. Then she added, without looking at Gar, "And your Batgirl owes me an explaination."
"She reads the situation and makes the best call she can," Gar said, defensive now. "If it means acting first, she will. Ask her afterward and she will tell you why. For what it's worth, she was right. You would not have made it to the first junction."
Gar turned back to the map. "Batgirl's team pushed for Node Five, the Sterilization Core. That is the heart of the sound barrier. The plan was to splice Beetle's Scarab into the acoustic grid and see whether a layered sacred structure can break the corruption's hold on the lattice."
Yang frowned. "A layered sacred structure?"
Yao Fei answered before Gar could. "The grid runs Diamond Sutra variations braided with Shennong medical passages. It slowed the spread for weeks until the corruption learned the pattern. The Titans want to widen it, integrating purification frameworks from many traditions, all threaded through the same lattice, so there is no single shape left to learn." His mouth tightened. "The hope is that it cannot adapt fast enough to a living chorus."
Chen clasped his hands behind his back, gaze still on the map. "And after Node Five?"
"Node Six," Gar said. "The Aquifer Nexus. That's where the water table ties into the deeper channels Kala Dhara flagged."
The words shifted the atmosphere in the room. Even the soldiers heard them, and everyone understood what it meant. If the corruption reached the ley lines, it would feed, and Mount Tai itself would become the battery for whatever was hiding in the taint.
Yang swore under his breath. "Then, going by when you came out, they should have reached Node Five almost an hour ago. I have been watching that barrier since we landed, and I have not seen it change."
"You are watching the wrong instrument," Yao Fei said. He turned his screen so Yang could see it. "This is the emitter log for the northern pass array. Forty one minutes ago, the cadence broadened. It stopped being just sutra and medicine and became nine braided structures this system has never broadcast before." He tapped the trace. "Node Five is not quiet. Node Five is singing in different languages. They made it there, and it worked."
Wu Mei laid her palm flat on the console. "My sentinel network agrees. The sentinels at the outer ring have been reporting erosion for two days. In the last half hour, the erosion slowed. That has not happened once since the mist appeared."
Yang looked between them. "Then where have we heard nothing?"
"Node Six," Yao Fei said. "Nothing out of the aquifer since Shaolin Robot went dark. That is the gap."
"Then that is the one to watch," Chen said. "Expect the next shift soon. Either they are causing it or the corruption is answering it. Both mean movement."
He looked around the room. "Our priorities remain unchanged. Hold the perimeter and prepare for a breach. Be ready to support a coordinated push into Nodes Five and Six as soon as the League arrives. And if that still is not enough…"
Yao Dan turned to the officers. "Expand the outer evacuation radius. Double the drone line and keep every unit outside the mist threshold. If a drone loses stability, mark the breach vector and cut the link before the interference feeds back into our network."
"I will put my brothers along the secondary perimeter," Yang said, already moving. "If anything living crosses the line, we take it before it reaches our people."
"Careful," Gar warned. "Anything infected is both biological and spiritual contamination. Do not let any infected touch you directly unless you are shielded."
Yang gave him a sharp look. "I know how to fight beasts."
"Not these beasts, you don't," Gar snapped. "Even the infected bite has mutated."
"Beast Boy," Chen said smoothly, "could you explain?"
Gar didn't hesitate. "I suggest sticking to four rules. Rule one. Inside the mist, do not trust what you see. It does not just throw illusions at you. It makes them feel real, with believable aura, presence, memory, fear, all of it pulled out of your own mind and given weight. If you see a friend or an enemy, verify before you strike, or you will kill someone on your own side."
"It rewrites spiritual perception," Yao Dan said.
"Exactly. Rule two. If comms fail, do not split up. It isolates people, then walks them into a panic loop. Stay in pairs at minimum. Three if you can.
"Rule three. If someone is exposed, do not assume they are fine just because they are still on their feet. It gets into the lungs, the blood, the meridians, and the nervous system. It goes for whatever is already vulnerable first, whether that's an old injury, an illness, old trauma, or unstable power. Anything it can get its hooks into."
Gar drew a breath, then finished. "And rule four. Work with us. When the time comes and we push into the isolation zone, you follow our lead. If anyone goes off on their own, you are on your own. If Batgirl or the League calls an extraction, you extract. We cannot afford private plans, pride, or last stands."
Chen studied him with something new in his expression. "You have learned a great deal in a short time."
"Yeah," Gar said, troubled. "It was a hard lesson."
The command center lurched violently. Officers grabbed chairs and support beams to keep their footing. Half the monitors died at once. An overhead light burst, scattering sparks across the floor. For three seconds, the main screen showed nothing but aggressive interference.
Then a roar rose out of the churning mist, vast, furious, and terrifyingly close.
"What the hell was that?" Gar shouted, looking toward the isolation zone.
While everyone was distracted, the static cleared for a single second on the monitors.
A massive dark shape flickered into view, and within it, a pair of large yellow eyes.
Then every feed went dead.