A/N: All right, now the ball's getting rolling! Thanks to Jazbez, doglover500, leathman, Jess Marilyn, JDP95, and Dextra2 for reviewing, and to LadyDragonfly123 and JDP95 for subscribing. Special thanks to Jess Marilyn and JDP95, who kindly took the time to review on every chapter despite only finding the story yesterday. It means a lot to me!

Timeline: September 2000 to November 2000

Chapter Three: Alien in the Desert

"I don't know, Bruce – are you sure there was really an alien ship that crashed here?" Superman inquired as he flew over the barren landscape of the Arizona desert.

"Positive," Batman replied from the cockpit of his Batplane. "Readings from satellites in orbit reported a foreign object entering the atmosphere just above Arizona. My sensors indicate that it's a pod of some sort."

"Well, I hope you know – wait! There it is!" Superman dove to the ground, landing just in front of a small, smoking spaceship. Seconds later, Batman landed his plane and stepped out, running a portable scanner over the pod.

"Is there anything in it?" Superman wondered.

"I'm not picking up any signs of life," Batman replied, "but oddly enough, the signals I'm getting are remarkably similar to the readings I've received from your Kryptonian biology."

"You're saying there's a dead Kryptonian in there?"

"Why don't you have a look?" Batman suggested.

Superman obliged, using his X-ray vision to scan the pod before blinking in surprise.

"There's a girl in there," he reported.

"Kryptonian?" Batman questioned.

"I don't know," Superman admitted.

"One way to find out." Batman nodded at Superman; Superman shrugged and cut off the top layer of the pod with his heat vision.

All of a sudden there was a surge of energy from the pod, as a red sheet of light exploded from the girl inside. Superman tackled Batman to the ground, shielding him with his own body until things had calmed again.

"She's Kryptonian, all right," Batman commented, unfazed by how close he'd come to being fried.

The alien girl was blonde-haired and dressed in a simple white bodysuit. She looked dazed and disoriented as she took in her surroundings with confusion.

"Where am I?" she asked, turning her blue eyes on Superman, instantly identifying him as a fellow Kryptonian.

"You're on Earth, in the Sol system," Superman responded, watching her carefully, ready to attack if she proved to be a threat, yet still curious about this fellow Kryptonian.

"Earth! Finally!" the girl exclaimed. Then she frowned. "What year is it?"

"2000," Superman replied, while Batman went over to examine the pod.

The girl blinked. "That's a lot of time…" she muttered, seemingly to herself.

"Do you know how you came to be in this pod?" Batman inquired.

The girl turned her head to look at him. "Sure," she said easily. "My dad put me in suspended animation almost thirty years ago. He said he was going to program the pod to travel to Earth."

Batman nodded, satisfied. "That would explain the lack of vital signs."

"Why did your father do that?" Superman asked.

The girl sighed sadly. "Because my planet was destroyed."

"Krypton?" Superman guessed. The girl shook her head.

"No, we managed to escape that. We went to Argos – but then that blew up too."

"So why Earth?" Batman questioned.

"Well, apparently my uncle and aunt sent my baby cousin here when Krypton was destroyed. My dad said I should look for him. I suppose he's grown up now, though." A sudden thought occurred to her, and she scrutinized Superman. "Say…you wouldn't happen to know Kal-El, would you?"

Superman blinked in shock. "That's my Kryptonian name," he admitted carefully. "How did you know that?"

The girl's face brightened with equal amounts of incredulity and joy as she threw herself on Superman. "Kal-El! Finally! It's been ages, simply ages – and gosh, you're older than me now. That's a little weird…"

Superman seemed frozen, totally nonplussed. "I'm sorry?"

The girl finally pulled away, and Superman was surprised to see her eyes glistening with tears. "My name is Kara Zor-El. I'm your cousin."

Princess Diana of the Amazons pulled her mare to a stop on the sandy beach of Paradise Island, staring out at the sea which separated Themyscira from Man's World. She could still clearly remember every detail of her first visit to the mortal realm.

Back then, Diana had been the youngest of the Amazons, the only one who had not fought in the great battle against Ares that preceded the Amazons' migration to Themyscira. So by the time U.S. Air Force pilot Steve Trevor crashed onto the island, Diana was restless enough for adventure to volunteer to escort him back to his world. Of course, she'd ended up falling in love with the handsome Steve…

Diana had no doubt that she would have stayed in Man's World had Steve not perished in the human conflict known as the Vietnam War. As it was, she'd spent over nine years in the mortal world – and of the many years in her extended life, Diana considered those nine to be the best. None of the other Amazons, save her mother, could understand that – she had to be the only Amazon in centuries to fall for a mortal man.

It wasn't just Steve, either. Diana had made plenty of friends during her visit to Man's World – most significant were those in the Justice Society. Diana had thought it was a wonderful organization at the time, and had not hesitated to join the others on the team in their worthy cause. She often wondered what had become of her old friends. She knew most of them would probably still be alive, but she had long since learned never to underestimate the frailty of mortals. Steve's death – and Jay Garrick's – was excellent proof of that.

"Diana, are you brooding again?" inquired the musical voice of her adopted sister, Donna.

Diana had not been able to completely isolate herself from Man's World. About fifteen years after she left, she had been overcome by the desire to visit again. She'd intended to use the opportunity to check in on her old friends from the Society, but had not been able to locate them. On her way back to Themyscira, she'd come across a burning apartment building from which she rescued a toddler girl, whose parents had already died in the fire. Unable to find a suitable home for the child, Diana had taken the girl back to Themyscira. Queen Hippolyta decided to adopt the youngster and had intervened for her with the goddess Hera in order to grant the new child full Amazon powers. Donna was now sixteen years old, and almost as precocious as Diana herself had been at that age.

"I am not brooding," Diana insisted, her eyes never leaving the ocean.

"Sure you're not," Donna replied disbelievingly as she flew onto the beach. She noticed her sister's faraway gaze and sighed. "You could always go back, you know."

The only answer she received was silence. It didn't take long for her to realize Diana had not heard a word she'd said.

"Do you feel it?" Diana asked.

"Feel what?"

"The world is in turmoil again. Something big is happening…something momentous."

"You lost me," Donna admitted.

"There was a disturbance in the cosmic balance over ten months ago," Diana explained. "I felt it, and so did every other Amazon."

Donna frowned. "But I didn't –"

"That's because you're still young. I thought the imbalance would eventually right itself, but it hasn't. If anything, it's gotten worse. It's disrupting the planet's forces."

"How do you know all this?"

"Pythia."

"Oh." Of course the Amazons' resident Oracle would know about the great change Diana said was taking place.

"Donna, I have to go back."

Donna nodded. "Of course."

"As soon as possible," Diana continued. Donna raised an eyebrow.

"Well, then, you'd better tell Mother. And the whole world will have to prepare for the return of Wonder Woman."

A/N: It might seem that there's many little things happening in a lot of time, but bear in mind that this is just the beginning of the story - the plot threads have to come into play one by one before they start weaving together. Anyway, it shouldn't be too disjointed - at least, I hope I wrote it well enough that it isn't.