Chapter 1: Wonder Woman (a.k.a Diana of Themsyscira)

It had only been a kiss for undercover purposes, it had only been to mislead the Thanagarians so that we wouldn't be caught...so why did I have such a difficult time trying to block it from my mind? There were more important things to worry about at the moment than sharing a kiss with a handsome male.

Bruce and I all but flew through the back streets of Gotham City, he clearly knew this city well...very, very well. He was fast and had I not known I would've said that he had super speed to be able to move as he did. All the while I heard screaming and shouting as we passed through darkened alley after alley, stepping over trash and in some cases, rotting animals and drunken people.

I had a strong feeling that now we were in Gotham itself he wanted to stop me from using my abilities to help another, and thus draw attention to us. He took his identiy seriously and I respected that, but I still believed that there we're people that we could be helping rather than hiding like cowards.

Why Bruce fought so hard for this place was a mystery to me. It was already lost to chaos, it was shrouded in darkness and despair. And yet it had given birth to a hero who was good and selfless and courageous. It was nothing short of a miracle granted by the gods themselves. While the differences between Batman and other heroes was clear he was still a hero, what made him even more extraordinary was the fact that he was human with no powers whatsoever. He acted more courageously than people with powers because had didn't have them to fall back on.

It took courage indeed to stand face to face with people like Superman, and me as equals when one had no powers. But Bruce was the most intelligent of us, from my time here already I had learned that much and I was ready to admit it. He had an analytical and strategic mind combined with a fighting skill that rivalled Achilles or Odysseus. The gods of my pantheon would be proud to call such a man as Bruce a Greek champion.

I had always believed that women were wronged by men, that every man was cowardly and weak, but that was not so. If fact I'd learned that they could be brave...and that sometimes my sisters...the women of the world could be cowardly and weak, and traitorous. Like Shayera. Her betrayal ran deep and I doubted that...even if we won his fight...that I could ever trust her again. She could never fight by our side again because to fight together required trust and she had lost that trust.

She was The Betrayer and we were The Betrayed.

I sighed into the darkness and Bruce turned to me, maybe mistaking my sigh fror annoyance of some kind. "We're almost there," he said to me quietly and I nodded.

Within minutes the dark alleyways were gone, along with the blaring noises of the city and the bright lights of the buildings, replaced by quiet woodland and even small streams. It was a sharp contrast.

We ran silently through the groves until I could see towers and spires high above us, they were reaching into the clouds, to the gods themselves. In my research into the history of Man's world I had seen images of old buildings such as this; examples of grandeur and splendour unparalleled, designed to intimidate and display the owners immense wealth. It was as imposing and as proud as a Greek temple itself and yet it had a homely sort of atmosphere and I saw Batman...Bruce become less tense as we approached.

But instead of going through the front door as I had expected he lead me around the house, away from the front entrance and down a narrow path lined with rocks. We passed underneath a waterfall and Bruce spent a second typing on a code on a small lock hidden on the wall of the rock face. Soon I found myself in an even larger cave, a cavern of darkness with hundreds if not thousands of bats lurking above our heads, of course it had to be bats. This place was something that perhaps would have suited Hades very well.

But when I walked deeper into the cave and saw the elaborate set up of computers, science equipment, and arsenal of weapons hidden i took a Moët to look again. It was so very...Bruce. It was isolated and dark, it was bleak and empty and yet I felt that it was a haven of sorts. A safe harbour in the unrelenting world above where everything had a purpose, everything was meant and designed to help him with his mission. Bruce was everything that I had been taught it be as a child - he was a warrior, something very rare in Man's world.

Bruce walked over to a chair placed in front of the large computers and began typing on its keyboard and I was left standing behind him.

I never through it would've come to something like this; hiding like the criminals we sought to defeat, hiding like the cowards that I despised. We had been betrayed by Hawkgirl...Shayera had betrayed us, my sister in arms, our trusted comrade in the fight for justice had betrayed us all. I had always liked her, she was brash and upfront, she was strong and at times she was so very Amazon-like. But betrayal was a sin to the Amazons, indeed it was a sin in Man's world too.

I had never felt more humiliated than when she and her 'friend' had paraded infront of us as we - her friends - had been chained like animals, chained by our weaknesses that she had exploited! And now she was the enemy, it was a harsh reality, and I didn't like it one bit, but that was how things were now. The more I thought about it the angrier it made me.

"She made her choice, Princess, now we have to make ours," Bruce said to me and I wondered how he knew what I'd been thinking. But then...he was the Batman.

"I know that, but I can't understand how she could betray us like this," I sighed.

"She's helping her people, wouldn't you do the same if it was your Amazon sisters?" he asked me, still staring at his computers.

"My Amazon sisters wouldn't invade Man's world like this," I countered. I often valued the verbal, in some cases physical spars I had with Batman but it wasn't the time for the now. He turned to look at me and surprisingly I couldn't see any anger in his face, and I had seen anger in his face many times before. Anger didn't suit his handsome features...but now was not the time for such thoughts.

"I do wish just for once you could use the front door just to give an old man a surprise, master Bruce," a male voice said and I turned round quickly to see an ageing man in a suit standing atop a metal staircase.

"Alfred, we'll be expecting company, show them down here when they get here," Bruce said to the man apparently called Alfred.

"Yes, sir, company that uses the front door, I hope," the man said and I couldn't help but smile when he looked across at me. "Master Bruce, one of the many skills I don't yet possess is telepathy, and I did at least attempt to raise you as a gentleman. Who is this beautiful young lady?" he asked.

"Alfred, Diana, Diana, Alfred," Bruce said quickly and I smiled again. I'd never seen batman have a...dynamic...with anyone like this before.

"I'm wonder Woman," I added since Bruce had omitted that fact out and turned back to his computers.

"Alfred Pennyworth, at your service my lady," he said to me and I nodded back. But before I could say anything more we heard a ringing sound if a bell throughout the cave and it echoed off the walls.

"I believe those will be your guests, sir," Alfred stated and left the cave.

"You can hear the doorbell from down here?" I asked.

"Automated system, if someone approaches the doors I hear the bell, if someone poses a security threat to the house it's an alarm," Bruce said.

"Impressive," I said quietly and watched as the screens showed Superman and J'onn standing at the doors then being shown into the house by Alfred. After a minute of silence they were walking into the cave via the stairs that Alfee had used and both Superman and J'onn were craning their necks to view the cave.

"Nice setup," Superman said with a wry smile as he walked towards us, "Nice company," he said looking up at the bats.

"They're great survivors," Bruce told him as they joined us by the computers. We fell into a nervous silence once again until Superman spoke again.

"John and Wally not here yet?"

"Clearly," was Bruce's answer and I rolled my eyes at the familiar form of interaction. We continued to wait nervously for Flash and John, I prayed to Hera that they would arrive safely. So when Alfred came in again announcing that the 'guests had arrived' I breathed a sigh of relief as they walked to us.