On a beach, there's a bulwark. It's shaped like a deck-swab. Out here, the amazon girls use it as a volleyball court. Alas, as you might expect, the "volleyball" in question is no human invention...
With steady hands, Andromeda fills a tube-shaped fuse with gunpowder. She caps the fuse, and sets it. She drops it into the ball, and latches it in place. The game has officially begun.
And Andromeda serves. The ball flies high over the bulwark, and into the arena of the other team. For their lives, they serve it back. And the fight for survival is on. It's a game of chance. Whoever disposes of the ball the most impressively wins.
Atop a small rock near the bulwark, Listener is still a thousandth his normal size. Nonetheless, he's somehow acquired some tech, with which he can improvise enhanced Blackhawk tech. He'll need it. These amazons are terrifying...even if they are female, and barely pubescent...
They play aggressively. It's as if their mothers never taught them to laugh...
Listener thinks he's finally made a new Blackhawk harness. He believes it's time to test-fly it. So, he does. He spreads the wings, engages the thrusters, and, while staring at the gorgeous amazons playing "suicide volleyball," he launches himself, on his first test flight.
Alas, something goes wrong. Either there's not enough power in his thrusters, or he's too heavy. He's pretty sure it's the former; at this size, he doubts he could tip any scale...unless it was Palmer Tech. Nonetheless, he inadvertently makes his situation worse, by getting trapped on the volleyball, as the amazons are punching it back and forth, over the bulwark.
Listener's world is shattered by a quake, each time one of the amazons punches him into the air. Also, his mount isn't very geologically stable. It spins around and around, as it's airborne. If the explosion doesn't kill him, one of their lovely hands might, if they serve the ball in just the wrong spot...
Offshore, some shadowy creatures swim beneath the surface. They lack dorsal fins; that's how you'd know they aren't sharks. Alas, the amazon adults wouldn't be able to think of any native of the seas they'd want their daughters to meet...
Once they're confident they can stand, the atlantean boys do. They brush their heads off, look around, and breathe. One of them, who lacks legs and can't breathe air, stays put. He swims around, and scouts the area.
From afar, they watch the amazons play ball. Even if they are aggressive, they're sure easy on boys' eyes...
The lead one, who takes point, raises his arm, and summons the spearhead forward. Slowly, they advance towards the shore...
Slowly, the amazons acknowledge them, as they approach. The atlantean boys have impressive six-pack abs, and big arms. In small steps, they approach the shore. One of the amazons mindlessly bats the ball into the sea.
Moments before the ball splashes down, it explodes. All the amazons scream, when this happens.
Automatically, they all look at Andromeda, with hateful looks. Embarrassed, she shrugs. She really thought she'd give the fuse enough time for them to play a three-hour game. It seems she has overestimated her own talents for math and horology. (That's time; NOT whores...)
Alas, the court-martial will have to wait. These atlantean boys look interesting...even if there aren't enough for every amazon here...
Near the bulwark, Listener's in the sand. He's lucky to have abandoned the ball when he did. Otherwise, he'd be gone with the fuse. He almost gets pancaked by Agostina's foot, when the latter is drawn inshore...
The amazon girls adjust their hair and tops, while mingling with the stray atlanteans. They scratch their faces, here and there. One stands with his hands on his hips. It seems both are being reunited with one of their passions...if not their ONLY passions...
Their parents wouldn't want them here, of course. Both of their races are mostly rightist, and hence racist. It's like Romeo and Juliet...if Romeo had fins and gills. Leo DiCaprio's Romeo sure could've used gills, in that scene where he hides under a pool's surface, to avoid the preying eyes of the Capulet estate's intimidating security...
After a bit of mingling, they all agree to reboot the volleyball game. This time, however, Andromeda DOESN'T set the fuse for the ball. The amazons would hate, after all, to accidentally start a war with Atlantis. The two nations have been to war before. And hence, it seems the wars are tied. Just as many Atlantean kings have fallen to a Themysciran sword, as amazon queens have to an Atlantean trident...
Listener just HAD to end up on the side of the court that the amazon girls did. Nonetheless, he avoids getting trampled by those huge gorgeous feet, somehow, all the way to out-of-bounds. He's there by the time the atlantean boys, the guests of honor, serve the loaded ball. As expected, the boys punch the ball higher. The girls seem ashamed. They're even farther behind Atlantis's potential than they realized...
At last, Listener is safe...for now. He's not sure if he'd forgive himself, though, if all those atlantean boys started having too much sexual fun with those...SEEMINGLY less capable amazon girls...
Far behind Listener, a regal-colored hummingbird approaches. Alas, hummingbirds are fast, and doesn't stay "far behind" for long. He catches up fast, and reaches forward with his talons. Before Listener realizes what's happening, he's hanging in midair by his briefs, from the hummingbird's talon.
And now, he's getting airsick. He's used to flying, of course; just not while this vulnerable, or exposed. He's also pretty sure that whatever this otherwise lovely creature has in store for him, it's not benevolent. He already knows, after all, that older amazons are racist against outsiders...and men, more so...
Queen Hippolyta is no philandrist. And soon, she will be the regal and fabulous sum of Listener's problems...