Cain and Mark struggled in Anissa's grip around their necks. Her hands were like iron, unrelenting and unbreakable they could tell she wasn't even trying.
Cain threw a punch straight into her jaw, the impact cracking the air like a whip. Mark drove his knee into her ribs with a loud thud that echoed across the island.
But nothing.
Anissa didn't flinch or even blink and the two's struggling attack. Her eyes remained cold and unbothered, her expression barely shifting. With a subtle movement, she lifted both boys higher and then...
BOOM.
She slammed them into the ground so hard the entire island trembled. The earth split beneath the impact, palm trees falling as sand erupted upward like a shockwave.
Before she continued, a red beam tore through the air, hitting her square in the side of the head. The blast made her head jerk slightly, just barely, but it was enough to catch her attention.
When they all turned, Galatea wobbled. She was standing a few feet from the crater she landed in. Her eyes glowed a dim, flickering red, the black-green veins still crawling faintly along her face.
"Hey BITCH...," she growled, panting through the pain. "I'm not dead yet, and you never answered my question. What the hell did you do to me?"
Anissa dropped me and mark and appeared in front of her instantly, closing the distance in a blink. Hovering above Galatea, she extended her hand, a surge of radiant green energy swirling around it. The energy pulsed and crackled, and Galatea dropped to her knee's, gritting her teeth, groaning in agony.
"You feel that, abomination?" Anissa said coldly, her tone steady, detached. "It's the radiation my people call Kryptonite poisoning. Because of my unique biology, I can manipulate radiation however I like."
Then the green light shifted, turning into a bright yellow-orange glow. Galatea gasped as the pain lessened. Then it shifted again, turning violet, and the pain vanished completely. The green veins receded, her breathing steadied.
Galatea looked up, confusion and anger mixing in her glare. "Are you… taking pity on me?" she spat, forcing herself to her feet, pulling back for a punch.
Anissa's answer was a simple, brutal fist to the jaw.
CRACK.
Galatea flew back, hitting the sand, skidding through the dirt as a cloud of dust burst up around her.
"No! I just don't want you to break yet," Anissa said. "Considering I'm here for diplomatic reasons, and you could be a good breeding tool for the empire later. So I can't have you dying just yet. Now wait there while I finish educating the youths. "
Before she could turn, Cain shot forward in a blur, his body wrapped in Telekinetic energy, slamming into her with full force. The impact drove both of them skyward, the air exploding in shockwaves. Anissa stopped herself midair, flipping backward, her eyes narrowing at Cain.
"Good, you came to me instead." she said calmly.
Guardian's earpiece crackled to life. Cecil's voice came through first, sharp and commanding: "Hold position. Backup is on route."
Before they could respond, a bright red blast struck Anissa from behind. This one made her grunt in pain, the first real sign of it since the fight began. She twisted around in surprise...
...and Cain recognized the glowing silhouette instantly.
Captain Atom.
His Silver (metallic) body radiated crimson energy, the air around him bending and distorting from the quantum energy he wielded.
Without hesitation, he fired another blast. Anissa caught it with one hand, using red energy to, but her back throbbed slightly from the earlier hit.
"Impressive, so you can manipulate energy as well. I rarely come across beings who can." she hissed.
"Lady I can do a lot more then that you'll find out once I have you contained. If you survive that is." Captain Atom said.
He surged forward, and the sky erupted in a cascade of colors. Red and green, blue, yellow and violet energy beams collided, painting the clouds in violent rainbow. Each clash sent waves of power rippling across the ocean, lifting entire sections of water into the air before they crashed back down.
"This is Superior to Titans can you read me... I repeat this is Superior to Titans Tower, does anyone read me?"
Cain tried to reach the Titans through his suit's comms, static buzzing in his ear until he finally caught a signal.
"Superboy here," Conner's voice came through. " Eve told us what happened, and your suit pinged it's location a minute ago before it stop working. I'm on my way, Atom Eve, Supergirl, Miss Martian, and Wonder Girl are with me. ETA fifteen minutes. Supergirl could make it in ten."
"Be careful," Cain said quickly, still watching the two powerhouses battle overhead. "Anissa's not like anything you've fought before. She can produce different kinds of radiation. Including red sun and green kryptonite. Heads up Mark is here, and some clone of Supergirl."
Static crackled again, then silence.
Before he could say more, a blur appeared before him. Anissa grabbed Cain by the neck, lifting him effortlessly off the ground, her grip tightening.
"Don't think I forgot about you," she said with a faint smile, her voice low and dangerous. "We still have your lesson to finish."
The red glow in her eyes intensified
My eyes widened... Oh shit this is gonna hurt
And the world around him erupted in light.
The Bioship cut through the clouds in a crimson blur, its hull glowing against the setting sky. Inside, tension filled the air.
Superboy sat forward, jaw clenched, eyes locked on the coordinates flashing across the screen. "We lost Superior's transmission 2 minutes ago, last thing he said was that The Viltrumite Anissa can manipulate radiation, between solar and Kryptonite at least. That means she won't even need to touch me and supergirl to beat us. Eve are you able to make us protection against the radiation?"
Eve shook her head. "Not for individuals, I can do a barrier at most but that's all."
Supergirl's hands tightened into fists, the glow in her eyes building to a dangerous red. "They cloned me…" she said, her voice trembling with rage. "They fucking cloned me."
"Supergirl..." Superboy began.
"No!" she snapped, glaring at him. "I don't care who she is or what she's made of, when I find the people responsible, I'll burn them to ash. I'm tired of this damn cloning business."
Superboy stood, his voice calm but firm. "Kara focus! It was probably Cadmus. They made her like they made me. But right now, Cain needs us. We deal with the Viltrumite first, then we will go after Cadmus next."
Miss Martian turned from the ship's console, her eyes flickering green. "Nightwing just confirmed the League's response. Batman, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman are en route, ETA fifteen minutes. Superman, Green lanterns, and Icon are coming from a off world meeting. Their ETA is 25 to 30 minutes"
Wonder Girl crossed her arms, tension in her shoulders. "That's too long. Cain let alone all of us might not last that long."
"There's more," Miss Martian said softly. "Nightwing also said… Blackfire's missing. They can't find her in the tower, and her tracking device was destroyed."
Superboy's expression hardened. "That can't be a coincidence."
The team exchanged grim looks. Eve looked at the setting sun.
"Cain... Please be okay."
Back on the island, chaos reigned.
Cain, Mark, and Captain Atom fought with everything they had. The ocean crashed against the island's edges as the battle shook the air around them.
Cain blitzed forward, his suit's integrity was hitting a breaking point. He and Mark moved in tandem, throwing fists, elbows, kicks from opposite sides, but Anissa flowed through their attacks effortlessly. She blocked Cain's strikes with a flick of her wrist, and caught Marks kick mid-swing. She then spun him into the air before slamming him down hard in to the water below.
Captain Atom swooped in behind her, releasing a blast of red solar energy that detonated across her back, but it wasn't affective like it was the first time. Anissa barely faltered.
It wasn't much, but it was something.
Then the three of us regrouped. Mark was battered. I was panting, but we kept holding the line.
Galatea on the other hand laid unconscious in a crater nearby, her black body suit in tatters. Smoke rose from the ground around her. Then a shadow stood over her unconscious body.
Cain launched another attack, focusing his TT energy into his fists. He struck Anissa square in the stomach, the impact shaking the air, but she didn't even flinch. Her eyes glowed faintly green.
"Well, gentlemen," Anissa said calmly, brushing off a fleck of dust. "This has been… informative. But I must end our time together. My fleet awaits, and I have used up my allotted time for this mission. I have more important things to do."
My eyes darted toward the far end of the island, and froze.
Blackfire stood there, now dressed in a tight body suit of black and green with the Viltrume symbol in the middle of her large chest. Her expression unreadable. Draped over her shoulder was Galatea's limp body.
"GALATEA!" Mark roared, panic flooding his voice. He shot through the air, rocketing toward them.
Anissa blurred. She appeared Infront of him just as he levitated over the island. Before Mark could even reach them, her fist glowing with white and violet energy. She through a downward punch at Mark that hit and released a loud...
BOOM!
Her punch hit him like a meteor. The sky cracked with light. Mark's body shot downward, smashing through the island's crust, disappearing into a gaping crater that glowed from the molten rock below.
"Mark!" I shouted, but before I could move, Captain Atom rose behind Anissa, his body blazing with nuclear light.
"Get away from them!" he yelled, unleashing a surge of red sunlight radiation that filled the sky. The beam hit Anissa dead-on... but instead she raised her hand that was surrounded in the same red energy.
She had absorbed the energy blast completely.
Atom's eyes widened. "What the hell...how?"
Anissa turned her gaze toward him, calm and cold. "I guess I can educate you as well...," she said, her voice steady. "I can manipulate and absorb all forms of radiation. A gift of my Tamaranean lineage."
She floated closer, her tone sharpening. "The only reason your earlier attack worked was because your energy is… higher quality. I rarely fight opponents with similar abilities to radiation. Plus I was testing you to see if you were useful to the Empire or me as a breeding stud. But unfortunately I can see that you don't even have a actual body. And your powers are impressive but nothing I haven't dealt with before. So since you don't have a cock and balls you are useless."
"You bitch..." Atom began.
But he didn't finish.
Anissa in a instant appeared Infront of him. Her hand had cut through the air like a blade, slicing cleanly through the edge of his containment suit at the neck.
The radiation beneath his suit flared violently. "No...!"
Anissa's hand grabbed his neck, and she threw him and sent hurtling into the upper atmosphere. A second later, the setting sky exploded in a blinding flash of energy.
The shockwave rolled across the ocean, flattening trees, kicking up tidal waves.
I shielded my face from the blast, my teeth gritted. When the light finally faded, Anissa hovered beside me, her hands behind her back, like that didn't even bother her.
She then turned to look at me, her eyes scanning and studying me. Then her brow furrowed, her voice laced with something between intrigue and disdain.
"So that's why you're weak."
I coughed, still trying to catch my breath. "What… do you mean?" he asked, trying to stall her, praying the League would arrive before the titans.
Anissa had paused before she spoke. "...I've been analyzing and scanning your body since we met and throughout your education, and I see now why you're so weak compared to other Type Two hybrids."
Cain's stomach dropped. " You keep saying weak? I may not have thousands of years of fighting experience or radiation powers, but I'm not weak by any means. I literally awakened my viltrumite powers a few weeks ago."
"And that supports my conclusion even more."
Anissa then leaned close, her voice dropping to a whisper that cut through the air like ice.
"You're not a Type Two hybrid…"
There was no smile on her face only disappointment.
"You're a Type Four."