Disclaimer: Justice League Unlimited is owned by DC/Warner Bros.

NOTE: This story takes place after my first story, "Days of Thunder." Though there will be references made to the events of that story, you don't necessarily have to read that one in order to understand this one unless you want to. But if you do, please review it for me.

Sisterhood part 1

"Aftermath"

She sat on her throne, her long black hair concealed by a gold and blue Egyptian cobra headdress. Her green eyes seeming to glow and her gold skin shining with the gold armor across her chest and the scepter clutched in her right hand. Her ruby lips parted as she gazed into the camera. Her voice was like smoke blown over ice. She is less than a goddess, but more than a woman.

"No man cares what happens on Miracle Island. No man cares what happens in the world, unless it hurts him directly. A tsunami affects eleven nations and kills over a hundred thousand people, and man does so little. Wars rage in African and Asian nations and starvation is killing our children and man shows his indifference. Pointless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for oil and religious jealousy, and man can only fight harder and kill quicker. No my sisters, no man cares what happens here on Miracle Island. But he will care soon."

"What are you watching?" Supergirl says as she approaches Green Lantern in one of the living rooms. Steel, Green Arrow, Hawk, Dove, and Elongated Man are seated at one of the tables playing cards.

"They call her Cleopatra," he replies, sounding very tired but very focused on the big screen, "Leader of a new band of amazons living off the coast of Madagascar. Miracle Island."

"What's she talking about?" Supergirl says

"Just the usual anti-male gibberish," he replies, "We didn't know about their existence until a week after Shay—Hawkgirl came back… anyway, they've taken over much of the island."

"Why didn't we know about them before? I mean, Wonder Woman is an amazon; why didn't she say something?" Supergirl asks, "I've never even heard of Miracle Island."

"We've all been dealing with so much. Every day, every hour there's a crisis. And ever since we found out that there are more portals out there, things have just been popping up everywhere," he says

"Yeah," she replies, "but this Cleopatra thing seems minor, anyway. So what if a bunch of fake amazons wanna run an island, we've got bigger fish to fry."

"War is never minor," Lantern said sharply, "It's a real battle of the sexes down there. The island was under the rule of some dictator, Dantes, but the amazons took him out of power with ease. Cleopatra's faction ran his forces out of the capital city in less than a day."

"What happened to the dictator?" she says

"No one knows," he replies, looking passed her as Shayera enters the room and sits on the other side, only acknowledging Lantern with a glance as she comes through the door. Supergirl turns and notices just as she notices the sorrow in Lantern's face when she turns back to him. "Are you alright?" she says

"I'll be," he replies and then leaves. Shayera watches him go with no show of emotion then turns back to looking at the screen. Supergirl approaches her.

"You can see he's hurting," she says, "You don't have to be so…"

"It's over," Shayera says, "It's over."

"First of all, don't cut me off when I'm talking. All I was trying to…" Shayera gets up and leaves Kara in mid-sentence. Shayera stops right before walking through the door, "I didn't come back for conflict. Mind your own business and let things be. Please."

Supergirl is stunned by the loudness in Shayera's voice as the others turn and watch her leave, "Then why the hell DID you come back?" Kara yells as the door closes behind Shayera. Steel restrains Supergirl as she angrily starts after Shayera.

"Kara no," he says, "After everything that happened with you and Wonder Woman in Greece (see "Days of Thunder") you don't need to get into any more fights with teammates. It's not worth it."

Supergirl decides reluctantly to let it go and join the guys for a few games of poker. Dove turns to her, "You know, gambling is an immoral practice."

"Geez," Green Arrow says, "does this kid ever shut up?"

"It might be strategy," Steel says, "He's won eight hands in a row."

Back on Miracle Island…

"What are we doing again?" the short blonde teenage boy says. Tony looks at him and makes a "come on" gesture as the two stalk through the dust and debris and remains of abandoned buildings.

"We're looking for the entrance to Dalton's bunker; he has the Mage down there. Mage is gonna give us the explosives."

"And then what?" the boy says growing more nervous by the second

"Then we're gonna knock out the downtown power supply. If Ms. Cleo doesn't have electricity, then her amazon witches can't communicate with each other and won't be slaughtering any more of our men," Tony says

"The war is over," the boy says, "They won. All this fighting is just gonna get more of us killed."

"Bobby," Tony says pulling off his helmet and running his hand through his dirty brown hair, "None of us asked for this war, dude. The amoes had a right to get rid of Dantes; he would've been taken out by us anyway. But they took over and just starting killing men, regardless of who's side we were on. We were the rebellion; we wanted democracy, and now these chicks are the enemy after we helped them. We don't have much of a choice Bobby. We've gotta fight 'em. Now keep up; the bunker shouldn't be that much further ahead. And keep your eye on the skies."

"Tony?" a whisper from the dark. A redheaded young man with tired out brown eyes steps out into the smoky light

"Dalton," Tony says, "Where's the bunker and the Mage with our stuff? Where's the others?" Dalton grabs Tony and Billy and pulls them into the shadows. "Amos're close by, Tony. You and the boy stay close."

Tony looks behind Dalton and jumps. There standing behind him is a female with short red hair, white pupiless eyes and wearing a blood red skin-tight uniform with black trim. She's holding some sort of hybrid gun that's a sniper gage on top and an automatic machine gun on the bottom. "That's Fatale," Dalton says, "She's amazon, but she's on our side, at least for now; she's an assassin. She doesn't talk, but she's the one who gave us the Mage."

Tony leans in and takes a look at Fatale. "I don't trust an amazon; especially not an amazon assassin. What are your motives, woman? Dalton, how the hell could you trust her? She's a freakin' amazon, she's not like the chicks in the rebellion, are you…"

"Look Tony," Dalton says pointing his finger, "at this stage in the game, we've got little choice. She got us the Mage, so I say she's…"

"Look out! They were wearing cloakers; they've been here the whole time!" Billy shouts as amazons fire their spear blasters

Meanwhile in the training room…

"OOOF!" moans Wonder Woman as Batman's heel strikes her stomach

"I'm sure it didn't hurt nearly as much as you're making it out to," he says flipping out of the way of her punches

"Why don't you try again," she says smiling, "I'm really getting soft there. I guess I have Supergirl to thank for it."

She grabs him by his cape, but he twists and the two fall down with him on top and Diana on her back.

"Uhh!" she cries out as her head bumps the floor and her arms fling upward, then rest above her head, "It appears you have me at a disadvantage, Mr. Wayne. What are you going to do now?"

Batman rises and pulls Diana up, much to her dislike. "I didn't know you were an actress," he says

"You had me," she says

"No, I did not," he says, "You asked for this session and you turned it into a game. This room is for professionalism and as a founding member, you should…"

"Bruce, I LIKE YOU!" she says, "I've developed feelings for you! Must you be so thickheaded and anal! And how dare you try to chew me out, as many stuns as you've… oh, what is the use? I wanted to have fun with you, but when that mask in on, you are one of the most…"

"Don't say that," he cuts her off and leaves before she can finish the sentence

"Maybe I should have been serious so I could've knocked some sense into him," she thinks. Ever since their battles with Thor and Ares in Greece, Diana has assumed an attitude of forcefulness when it comes to her feelings for Batman. She figures that he'll find a way to get out of any situation she puts him in, so why not be direct; her feelings for him haven't gone away.

Since the "Days of Thunder," things have taken strange turns. Flash just got back from a leave of absence; Shayera Hol rejoined the league, which has had both a joyous and sorrowing effect on Green Lantern, and a not so joyous effect on his new girlfriend, Vixen. Things between Diana and Supergirl haven't improved either, despite Superman's attempts to get the two to discuss their differences, as Supergirl put it, "There's nothing to discuss." The situation on Miracle Island hasn't even been on Diana's mind that much because the League has been so busy. Even Superman is realizing that the League can't be everywhere at once. Many of them have been helping with the tsunami relief efforts and many of them are still learning the ropes. The situation does concern her, though. She has thought of going there herself to speak to Cleopatra, but a crisis kept coming up. She's never seen these "amazons," but she's very curious.

And speaking of amazons…

"C'mon men," Dalton shouts as seven uniformed troops come out from under some debris and begin shooting, "Back the witches off! Don't let them find the bunker!"

"They're using cloaking devices," one trooper says, "We can't see 'em…" a ray beam hits him in his chest and he drops

"Erickson!" Tony says. Two more go down before Dalton says, "Move out, men! Run Tony! Get your brother and run!"

"Where's the bunker?" Tony shouts

"We can't let them get to the bunker," Dalton screams, "We have to lead them away! Now move it, people!"

Billy trips over some debris, Tony turns to lift him but a grenade explodes separating Tony and Billy. Dalton keeps running but as he takes his eyes off where he's going to look behind him for Tony, he runs smack into what he would think was a brick wall. As he looks up, he sees a female wearing a white uniform with blue trim and a white cape. She reaches down and lifts him up with her white-gloved hand. "My name is Serenity. You know that. I want the bunker and I want the Mage."

Dalton looks down at Serenity. She is far more intimidating and beautiful in person (she looks like Serena Williams). Brown skin, perfect figure, both strong and serene. He pulls his gun; she doesn't even look at it. "If you do that; you're going to annoy me. You don't want to annoy me," she says. He pulls the trigger and the bullets shatter against Serenity's face. She crushes the gun and tosses Dalton to the amazons. "Take him."

Billy watches from under some debris. The other two soldiers have disappeared and Billy feels very scared. "Dalton!" screams Tony running and tossing a grenade at Serenity. As the amazons turn to fire on Tony, Tony leaps wielding two pistols shooting off rounds at them and doing his best Matrix/ Lara Croft impersonation. Dalton fries himself and kicks an amazon in the stomach while backfisting another across the jaw. The grenade explodes but Serenity is already facing Tony as Dalton is hit with two blasts to his chest and goes down dead. "You murdering…" Tony swings at Serenity's face, but she avoids it. He hits her in the stomach with all his might and she just grins. "That tickles," she says, "take this back to your rebellion." She grabs both his wrists and yanks downward, breaking both his arms. Tony screams and falls to his knees as Billy winces from the shadows.

"Let's go," Serenity says, "I think we've kicked their butts enough for one day."

"But what about the bunker, the mage," one of the sisters says,

"We know what they're planning, so let them come if they want to be stupid," she replies brimming with confidence, "After all, there's a party tonight. Don't you girls want to be there?"

"Witch…" Tony says as he manages to lift a gun and aim it at Serenity, "Screw you"

"Sister!" an amazon reacts and instantly blasts Tony in the chest dropping him on his back. Billy cries silently in disbelief as Serenity tells her amazon sister that it was unnecessary because she is bulletproof. A hovercraft lands and the amazons board it as Serenity flies away and the hovercraft soon follows. Billy crawls over to his brother who is still breathing, but is obviously dying.

"Tony?" he says, "Tony? Please answer… c'mon Tony. Everyone else is gone. I don't know where the bunker is. C'mon Tony you've gotta get up! Tony…"

All Billy gets as an answer are Tony's loud breathing and a blank stare into the sky. Billy's cries are silenced by the shadow of Fatale. The silent female in the blood red uniform is holding a handgun, and silences the sound of Tony's breathing with a single shot. Billy is enraged, and jumps up to challenge the mute assassin, but Fatale looks at him and hands him the gun. As he points it at her, she walks away into the shadows. He can't pull the trigger; she knows that. And even if he did, she'd be ready; he knows that.

Back at the Watchtower…

Diana is nearly finished packing her bags as Batman enters her room. "Going somewhere?" he says already knowing the answer to his question

"Miracle Island," she replies, "I need to get away for a while; so I decided to go and investigate that situation."

"Why don't you just call Cleopatra and get an invitation," he asks, "You are the most well known amazon, in the world. They'd welcome you."

"I'm going there to investigate," she replies, "Cleopatra would only show me her side of the conflict. I'm taking my invisible jet. I'll be meeting with her first, but I will be assessing the situation on my own."

"Very good," he says with a grin, "I'm going with you."

"No," she says tensing up and becoming a bit angry, "I don't want you to."

"Then I'll go on my own," he replies. Diana looks at him with an expression that has defeat and helplessness written all over it. "Please Bruce," she says, "Let me go alone."

"No," he says

"Are you packed?" she asks, giving in to the wishes of the world's greatest detective

"Do you have to ask?" he replies

Meanwhile, inside a rebellion bunker not too far from where Tony was killed…

"And that's the story," a soldier named Clarence says, "We thought they were on our side, but once they took over the castle, they turned on us. Say, what did you say your name was again?"

"Green Lantern," Green Lantern says, "and this is Green Arrow, that's Powergirl, and this is Vixen. We're with the Justice League."

He looks them over in their uniforms and says, "Well, you guys better change if you're gonna be workin' with us. We got fatigues in the back. But then again, go head an' get some sleep. We'll roll on 'em in the mornin'!"

The sun sets on Miracle Island as the echoes of war go silent. The amazons will drink and be merry tonight in the palace while elsewhere, they will strike locations of the rebellion and take out more soldiers. Billy has buried his brother and lies under debris refusing to sleep, with only the gun of the silent redheaded assassin and a thirst for revenge. He has gone from a shy thirteen year old boy to a hateful man in a tragic moment. Yes, the echoes of war are silent tonight. But what will the morning bring?

To be continued…