The first part of the evening was fairly uneventful and Diana was enjoying herself. No one knew who the blonde haired Diana Prince was, so they were able to spend far more time together then they normally would as Bruce Wayne and Ambassador Diana. She had managed to get Bruce to dance for most of the evening with her. She had danced with a lot of other men over the last few years, but she and Bruce just seemed to fit together. They spent so much time training and sparing that they anticipated each other and that came through on the dance floor.
She was starting to think they had chosen the wrong relic when a beautiful woman with long dark hair that hung over the left side of her face approached Bruce. She looked gorgeous wearing a slim fitting black strapless dress with a slit that, Diana thought, was a little too high and more in the front of the dress then up the side.
"Hello Beloved," the woman greeted him. Diana could feel her muscles tense.
"Hello Talia," Bruce responded in a voice that was very much Batman, "Diana, this is Talia al Ghul; Talia, Diana Prince."
This was Ra's Al Ghul's daughter? Apparently Bruce had simply forgotten to mention that he had a relationship with her.
"Dismiss your… escort… so we can speak" Talia said, eyeing Diana up and down with a look of disgust on her face.
Diana's blood was boiling. She was a warrior, and this woman had just challenged her. She was trying hard to keep from tearing her in half.
"I am not some wench to be dismissed." Diana spat.
"I am sure." Talia said with a dismissive wave of her hand, "At least not until after he sees how good that dress looks on the bedroom floor."
"I'm not going to engage you in a battle of the wits; I'm a warrior and won't fight someone so unarmed."
"Diana is a trusted friend; you can speak freely in front of her," Bruce interjected.
"As you wish, Beloved" Talia grudgingly accepted.
"And you can stop calling him that at any time," Diana said with venom in her voice.
"What is your father up to, Talia?" Bruce asked trying to bring the conversation back on track.
"I am sure you have already deduced this. That is not why I am here."
"Then why exactly are you here?" Diana asked.
"To give my Beloved a chance to come with us," Talia said as she stepped closer to Bruce, "My father's vision will come to pass. You can be his heir and my husband. We can shape the world to be one of peace, where no child will ever again have to see their parents gunned down before them. Come with me."
Talia reached up and touched Bruce's face gently. Diana could see the passion in her eyes and the pain in Bruce's.
Bruce grasped Talia's wrist and gently pulled her hand away, "We've been over this before, Talia. Your father is mad and I will stop him."
He let go of her wrist and she sighed with what looked like disappointment in her eyes, "So be it."
Talia pressed a button on her earing and suddenly the museum went dark.
That was all the warning Diana and Bruce needed. Bruce dove for cover behind an exhibit of a large tablet of hieroglyphs and quickly stripped off his tux and pulled his cape and cowl from the lining of his jacket. This version of his bat-suit was lighter than normal, but it would do the job. Diana simply ducked into a doorway and began to spin. When she stopped, she was in uniform. She saw the look on his face as he watched her and smiled, he hated magic.
Diana's eyes quickly adjusted to the dark and she saw twelve well-armed commandos entering from the north and south halls and another eight coming in from the skylight.
Diana quickly moved to get the civilians out of the way while keeping one eye on Bruce who went after Talia.
Four of Talia's men moved in front of the charging Batman in a vain attempt to stop him. He leapt into the air, used a flare from his belt to overload their night-vision and slammed the heads of the two closest men together. Dropping to one knee, he used his right leg to sweep the legs out from under one of the remaining men, dropping him hard onto his head. He continued the motion, spinning until he was facing the last man, using his momentum he connected a jaw shattering right hand. The four commandos were down in less than five seconds and he made it to Talia just as she removed the helmet from its display.
"Talia, it's over, hand me the helmet and tell me where to find your father," Batman ordered.
"I am sorry, Beloved," Talia answered, "But I cannot fail my father."
Talia again pressed her earring and part of the ceiling came crashing down as Bizarro landed in front of Talia.
Superman's deformed clone had all of his power but his mind was undeveloped making reasoning with him nearly impossible and his immunity to kryptonite made fighting him even harder. Bizarro was wearing a medallion that looked like it was made of steel and had "Bizarro #1" sloppily engraved in it.
"Goodbye, Beloved," Talia called to him as she ran out the south passage.
Batman dodged a double axe handle from Bizarro that left a crater in the ground where he was standing a moment before.
Diana tossed one of the attackers hard into a group of four more, knocking them all to the ground and flew in at full speed, hitting Bizarro with a right hook that sent him through the wall of the building and out onto the street.
Diana knew Bizarro was more powerful then she was, but she was more skilled. She had trained as an Amazon warrior since she could walk and since coming to Man's World, had studied many other fighting styles. It was why she preferred to spar with Bruce; he tested her skill whereas Kal would only test her power, her brute force. Of course if she was honest with herself, she had other reasons for preferring to spar with Bruce.
As she flew out the newly created exit in the museum, she was quickly met by a charging Bizarro
"Me like pretty lady! Me save you!" Bizarro shouted in his typical bizarre speech pattern.
Diana ducked a hard right hand, grabbed him by the wrist and used his momentum to swing him over her hip and hard into the pavement below them.
The monster quickly shot back to his feet, grabbing Diana by the throat and lifting her off the ground. Diana swung both feet up as hard as she could, connecting with his jaw, breaking his grip and staggering the beast back several feet. She quickly took to the air and with all her strength and speed, hit Bizarro with a massive uppercut that took him off his feet.
She was just about to make another attack when Bizarro suddenly took to the air at super-speed; leaving faster then she could follow.
As Diana came back into the museum, through the newly created entrance Bizarro had made, she saw Batman pulling himself free of the debris from a broken display case and the commando that had tossed him through it running out the door. She started to follow him when Bruce put up his arm stopping her. Before she could question his actions, all of the downed attackers suddenly burst into flames, burning from the inside out.
"Talia took the helmet," Batman said as he quickly made his way back to where he had stashed his tux.
"So we've got nothing?" Diana asked
"I put a tracer on the helmet."
"She knows you," Diana reminded, "She'll look for that."
"I'm counting on it," Bruce said with a small grin. He liked his surprises.
They both quickly changed back into their civilian clothes and Bruce pulled her into a small broom closet just before the museum's power came back on. Bruce made sure to misalign the buttons on his shirt, leaving it half tucked in and half hanging out and his jacket undone. Diana took the cue and messed up her hair, and smeared her lipstick a little. She smiled then smeared a little of her lipstick across Bruce's face too.
"For effect," she told him.
When they heard the police securing the room, they emerged from the closet stumbling and laughing while doing their best drunk impressions.
They were quickly questioned by the police but assured them that they were far too distracted in the broom closet to notice any robberies taking place.
Before they had a chance to straighten themselves out, several cameras flashed in their faces. Apparently the press covering the event had gotten wind that Bruce Wayne was in a broom closet with his date for the evening. Diana hoped the wig and glasses would be enough to hide her identity, but she knew there was no way it was going to fool Shayera and Wally if one of those pictures made the paper.
It didn't take long for the police to release all the guests and Diana and Bruce headed back to the hotel, continuing to play the drunken couple all the way up the elevator.