Chapter 50 - Interlude 8

                                    

                                          
Above the night skies of Bialya, the Bioship flew undetected, invisible to both visual and electronic surveillance as it floated a few kilometers from the location where the Watchtower had picked up a huge energy spike.
Below them there were several military buildings protected by a tall, metal fence, watchtowers every five hundred meters and a wide, empty desert area for kilometers in any direction.
Miss Martian sat in the captain's seat; her hands touching the Bioship as she kept it beneath the radar while also connecting their minds together. At her side, Superboy sat in a meditating position. He had gotten into the habit of doing so whenever possible to control his anger.
Aqualad had a map stretched in front of him, studying what they knew of the Bialyan troop deployment one last time before the mission truly started.
"Alright, we're above where our equipment tracked the exotic energy source," Aqualad warned telepathically, rolling the map back and making sure they were all aware of what to do.
"Should I land?" Miss Martian asked, briefly glancing at him.
"No, with Kara's equipment, we're more than capable of scanning for non terrestrial emissions from the air. Just lower our altitude to hover above the location, there's no need to risk detection from the military," the team leader said through the link. His eyes found the Martian girl's and they traded a meaningful glance. "Can the Bioship sense anyone close by?"
"I'm detecting non-terrestrial energy sources," Miss Martian answered, then gasped. "Wait, I can feel a lot of pain and desperation, as if something is struggling for its life!"
Letting herself do what came naturally, Miss Martian reached for the mind she sensed, trying to offer it some amount of comfort while they prepared for a rescue, her hands squeezed into fists on top of the Bioship's control panel.
Suddenly, she felt a spike of pain as something struck their mental link, a malevolent entity taking control of her mind and locking her in place. Gathering her power, she attempted to struggle free, using her greater power to fight off the mental attack.
Unfortunately, while she was much stronger, the intruding mind was more skilled... and more insidious, slipping through her defenses with a mocking laugh, spreading his influence through the mental link.
"Oh my, what do we have here?" the male voice reverberated through her mind, as if it came from everywhere. "Child, did no one teach you to not leave yourself so open? Maybe I should teach you a lesson."
Slowly, the image of Psimon materialized into her mind, his power stretching like a virus as it reached for the mind link she was still maintaining, an unconcerned smile on his face while he drew closer to Miss Martian's own mental image.
The Martian used her power to form shields, trying to cut him off and eject him from her mind, but he really was more skilled than her. It was like fighting her uncle, with every one of her actions countered before she could even start. Gritting her teeth, she grunted and retreated.
"Tsk-tsk, how useless. You really are too raw, too untrained... distracted," Psimon laughed again, his face growing, filling her vision as it seemed to tower over her. "This is almost too easy."
"It really is!" Superboy yelled, punching the mental projection with everything he had.
Superboy's physical strength couldn't really be used in a mental battle, but Torquasm-Vo was a discipline specifically created for such battles and he had been training with Superman every day.
While he couldn't claim mastery of the art, he was actually much better at it than Kara, having taken to meditation far better than his cousin not only because it helped with his anger, but because it was necessary to increase his power.