Are you guys sure I'm not doing something huge the wrong way? Even the really bad stories usually have a better following by 100k. Not that I'm begging. It just...it worries me. Either way, 100k words, baby! Let's GO!
Oh, and Akila looks a lot like she did in Red Hood and the Outlaws. The only changes to her outfit are the directly described.
"Wait so, you worship some greek gods, some Egyptian gods, and some gods entirely your own?"
"Yes. For instance, we worship Aphrodite, our greek creator, Bastet, our egyptian patron, and Shimtari, our personal god of heroes."
"Hmm. So, is the Bow of Ra..."
"It was created and used by the ancient sun god, but eventually he gave it to Shimtari, before she achieved godhood. When she did, she gave it down to her successor, the second Shim' Tar and the first one to truely be called that. It is capable of annihilating entire planets, or causing stars to go supernova in the hands of a true, gods-sent, Shim' Tar. Without said warrior, the Bow's maximum strength is akin to your 'Atomic Bomb'."
"Hmm. Do you know of any other magical gear your people lost?"
"I know of dozens of items, but have found none."
Before Jason could ask for a comprehensive list, he heard the team above pull up.
"Come on.", He said, grabbing the crowbar a couple feet away from him, before leading the way upstairs. Once up, Artemis held out her hand and her axe, which she called Mistress and refered to as a person, flew into it. The shorter box cargo truck that had pulled up looked as normal as it's drivers, but these men were actually elite knights, practically Paladins by now, trusted to get almost anything done, and with almost every secret. And the truck itself was beyond normal, as well. It was actually coated in the same polymer as his suits, making it impossible to see through by most metas, and making it strong enough to survive a bomb going off.
"Men, listen up. This is high tier shit we've stumbled across, so I need you to do as I say when I say it, as carefully as you can. Is that clear?"
An echo of 'yes, sir's from the men standing at attention in front of him.
"Alright. Let's get this done, boys."
Victoria and Astrid had been given a room hours ago, after Astrid had been given a head wrap and some medication for the almost concussion she had. Vic didn't sleep again, though, wanting to be up when Astrid woke up. They'd been stripped, literally, of any weapons or armor, and given exercise shorts and T-shirts in replacement. She was sitting, once more with her sister's head in her lap, on the couch thinking over what had happened when her sister awoke with a start.
"Ah!...uh...Vic?"
"It's me, Astrid. We're okay."
"But...what about-"
"Worry about that later. Just go back to sleep, alright?"
"B...But-"
"Hush it. Just shhh, and get some more rest. I have a feeling you'll need it."
"A box of kryptonite, an Amazo Mark 2, a utility belt Batman lost a couple years ago, Joker's crowbar and toy gun, Scarecrow's syringe glove and connecting fear gas tank, Firefly's original firesuit, Ocean Master's trident, a few other, smaller things, and Bizarro. A very good find, all things considered. I have men looking over all of Sionis's books. If he sold anything, we'll know to whom."
"Keep a look out for anything in the past 3 months, that's when we think it was last there."
"Yes sir."
"Thank you, Eric.", he said, setting the phone down on the counter as he got himself a bottle of water.
"What did he say?"
"He said they're still looking."
"So...are we really doing this?"
"I would rather do it while you're still here than after you've got your bow and gone, and like I said earlier, if we unplug it, even for a second, he'll wake up anyways.", he said, not taking his eyes off of the case in front of him, the only thing left in the old armory. Rose had gone with the retrieval team to make sure they made it to the Vectum in Gotham.
"Well...if this goes wrong...you seemed like a good fighter to die fighting with."
"Ahh, thanks. Love you too.", which earned him a punch that would've almost broke something if he was normal.
She readied her axe, and he hit the button. The glass hissed as it flew upward, white smoke blasting from where it opened, fogging up the room. Jason could still see clearly, though, when two light blue eyes opened, infant like peace in them as well as the big man's smile. He shattered the glass as he exited, almost prompting Artemis to swing her axe, only to stop in front of Jason with a quizzical look.
"You am hair like me!", he said, in booming, childish delight, making Jason realize that yes, he had superman's curl, but his hair was an undercut like Jason's now was.
"Yes I sure do, buddy.", he said, immediately switching to Dad mode, waving the Amazon to be calm, "Think that means we're friends, doesn't it?"
"Friends? Friends!", he shouted, trapping both of them in a bear hug. Artemis didn't struggle out of fear, Jason didn't because he knew there was nothing to fear. He's like a toddler...a god toddler.
"Yup, buddy. Friends.", he said, sticking his free arm around and rubbing Bizarro's back.
"Red Him, and Red Her. Bizarro's friends.", the clone said, letting them go and taking a step back before being content that the three were friends just because of his and Jason's shared hair style, and started to look around. "Can Bizzaro come with friends? Me not like this place."
"Sure, bud. You can. First though, do you remember anything?"
"Hmmmmmm...No. Me am remember nothing."
"Okay...well then...how about we go outside? See the sun? You know what that is?"
"...It is...pretty...how me remember that? How me remember words? How me remember am Bizarro?"
"I don't know, bud, but we'll figure it out later. For now just come on, let's go see the sun."
Bizarro, perhaps, took this as a challenge to a race and before jason could blink the clone had vanished, the air wooshing to imply the clone had run outside, passing in between the two. Jason quickly followed.
Artemis thought about stopping him, but decided against it. She might not like the idea of treating the clone as if it were a child, but she liked openly speaking about how to kill it when it would most definitely hear her even less.
When Jason got topside, he found Bizarro standing many yards away, eyes fixed on something in the distance, mouth agape.
When Jason ran over to him and looked over he saw that in the distance, a large bilboard was displaying news coverage on Superman, and was showing footage provided by Superman's space suit, showing him fighting Brainic on some far off planet. What Bizarro was staring at, however, was the image beside it. A stillframe of Superman, showing off his "S" for the camera.
"Super...man? Wh-Why...why Bizarro look like am Superman? Is me Superman?", he said, finally looking to Jason and Artemis.
"No, bud, you just-"
"BIZARRO AM CONFUSED!"
"Hey! Bizarro, look at me. Look at me. It's alright, buddy. Superman is superman. You are you. You are alike, but you are not the same. Superman is a hero, and so are you, but Superman isn't our friend. You are, right?"
"...yes, Red Him. Friends."
"Alright. Then trust what I'm about to te you. Now, you look like him, because you were created to replace him, but the guy who made you messed up. He wanted to make you look and act exactly like Superman, but he wanted you to be bad deep down. When he messed up, he made you the opposite. Now you act like you do, look like you do...but deep down, you aren't bad. You're good, I know you are. Bizarro.", he paused while the clone looked back up at him, "You're good."
Bizarro teared up at those words, almost snapping Jason in half with a hug.
"Thank you, Red Him."
"Any time, bud. And, please, call me Jason. This is Artemis."
He looked over to her taking the hand she extended to pull her into a hug similar to the one he'd pulled Jason into, much to her very violent protest, which he ignored until eventually she hugged him back.
When the two were done recovering, Bizarro looked to Jason.
"Where go now, Jason?"
"Well...Artemis needs our help with something, big guy. You wanna help your friend, right?"
"Help friend!"
With that, the three went back to his car. He was thankfull the blackout windows stopped anyone from seeing that as he was driving from lunch into the late afternoon, an Amazon beside him and a giant pale Superman taking up the entirety of his back seat.
It was the second day in their captivity, and Bruce was still wondering when the bad things would start. So far, the worst thing was that collar that kept Dinah muted, and shocked the piss out of you and her if you tried to take it off. Bruce was the only one up, so far. They'd all slept in one room, together, some just sleeping on the floor. Roy was laid out on a table. Roy Harper. Bruce no longer harbored any ill will, the kid had chosen them, after all, but still. Roy should've told him, told someone, the second he knew.
No sense wasting any time on it now, he thought. He exited the room, looking for a way out. They'd been placed in their own, small, building inside the walled perimeter, seperate from the main keep. From what windows they had, he could see that every corner, every inch was under constant watch, most likely a 24 hour one. They wouldn't be leaving above ground without a fight. That left two options, underground, or somehow calling the league. He couldn't just yell Superman, for all he knew Talia's fortress was more than prepared for him. As far as tunneling went...Bruce doubted it. The idea that someone as smart as Talia wouldn't place some kind of security system under the building she was putting the Bats into was insulting to her, and her intelligence.
No, for now, Bruce thought, he would need to bide their time and be ready for an opening of some kind.
It wasn't long before Bruce remembered the child. He'd guessed that the young boy was Thalia's child with...with him. It had been about 5 years since he and her had gotten together. There was also the familiarity in his features, the way his eyes looked exactly like the old paintings of him, etcetera. Bruce couldn't prove it, but he already knew. Either he had impregnated her and the boy was a bit big for his size as barely a five year old, as Bruce had been, or she'd somehow gotten his DNA a couple years prior. Either way, the boy was his and Talia's. Yet another revelation. One that Bruce had gone through last night, even if he hadn't voiced his realization.
Selina would be fine, he'd told her about the night he'd spent with Talia almost as soon as it happened, but it would be hard for some others to accept it. It was a miracle that Tim hadn't told them last night.
Eventually they got back to the garage of the tower, and it was very hard to make sure the two weren't spotted walking to his room with him by any of the militia or civilians. This type of thing was abover their paygrade. When they finally got to his floor second from the top, Jason realized how much easier this would be if the builders just finshed his penthouse already. When the gof inside, they found Rose and Antonio waiting for them. While Rose looked only and bit stunned, Antonio's jaw dropped. A rare expression to see on the luchador's face.
Artemis, giant axe and all, walked in first, looking the two over before walking over to and ploping down on his couch, sitting her weapon beside her, as if it were a person. Bizarro followed, sitting on the other side of her, only when he sat down, the couch split on half and the legs splintered. Bizarro looked to the now on his arm and very upset amazon, and then to Jason, blushing.
"Sorry, Jason."
"It's okay big guy, just be more careful, okay?"
"Okay. Sorry."
Jason walked over to his finacee and his friend, whispering as they talked, even though they knew the two whom were now sitting on the floor could hear every word.
"Jason, what the fuck?"
"Rose, it was better to make sure he was still him while we had an amazon around."
"Yeah, but...what the fuck?"
"Yeah...what the fuck."
"Well, the novato gave me an update. The guerrera's bow was sold to a man in Qurac. Along with a few other things. The Bracers of Atlas, the Khopesh of Horus and the Armor of Shimtari."
"Hm...any of those mean anything to you?"
"They all do, and if you want to stop whomever is collecting amazon artifacts to not most likely kill millions at least, we really should get headed."
"So, I take it you know where Qurac is?"
"Yes. They were the invaders I spoke of."
"That makes sense. Alright then. Rose, Antonio, you two ready for a little adventure?"
"Sure, I guess."
"Can I go talk to my wife before we go?"
"Sure, we can wait a couple hours."
With that, Antonio left. Rose looked at Jason.
"Remeber what I said, about shit hitting the fan?"
"You were right. Now kiss me.", She said, smirking as their lips touched, "Now I've gotta go get my real gear in order. I'll do the same for you."
"Thank you.", he said, watching her as she walked away.
"You're cute."
"What?"
"The two of you are cute together.", Artemis said, slow as if he were a child.
"Uh...Thanks. Okay, Bizarro, now we've gotta go over some things."
It took an hour to explain what he meant when he said that Bizarro needed to hold back if a fight started, that even if he was playing, his strength could really hurt someone. It took another half of one for Artemis to show him the ropes of fighting, and to teach him how to use his powers, although that was instinctual for the clone. It wasn't fun when he blasted pure ice across his window with a stare to prove it, but still. When he was sure that the two would be okay, he got his uniform put on. This time, he took all his gear.
His much longer and more versatile black coat, fear bombs, freeze bombs and mines, conventianal explosives, extra ammo, his lazer katanas, Batons's staff across his back, and everthing he normally took. And, how could he forget, Horus and Tyr.
Ares and Mars were designed to be the opposite of each other in some ways, but to be equally effective. Horus and Tyr were the same way to a much higher extent, doing the same thing in opposite ways.
Tyr was built from solid Promithium, with the engravings along the huge gun being made from radion. At Jason's voice command, the gun could explode, and the blast would destroy anything within several feet, even New Gods. The 12 bullets Jason had made for it, however were even more deadly than said explosion would be.
Each one was fashioned to one shot kill world threatening enemies. Each bullet costed more money than most ever saw, and were more devastating than almost any other weapon a human had ever controlled. The specific design incorporated small amounts of Radon, Red Kryptonite, and silver from crusader crosses. On top of that, the volitile Promithium that made up the tip of each round insured that they exploded on contact violently enough that said materials coated themselves on the inside of whomever the penetrated. Jason had needed years to finish the gun, and was proud that such a powerful weapon could be made, purely using technology.
Horus, on the other hand, was magical from the get go. It was the same size and also had Radon engravings, but the similarities ended there. Where Tyr was dark due to the promethium that made it up, Horus glistened, Nth metal being it's base. Where Tyr's handle was partially made from the wood of the world tree, Horus's handle was partially made from a piece of the dark black metal that made up one of Darkseid's helmets. And where Tyr used bullets, Horus used Jason. It was connected to his soul, and used his drive for the annihilation of evil doers as it's drive, as it's power. It required no recharging, nor any reloading.
All it required was that when Jason aimed, he aimed to kill. When it shot, no metal came out. When it shot, it shot a beam of pure, black, death. It was made for Jason using materials he posessed by a group of sorcerers in egypt, when he passed through the african continent on his travels.
Jason didn't use it often because it's destruction would cripple his spirit, and he would never again be able to wield the All Blades or any other, soul-tied weapons, but better to be safe then sorry when dealing with weapons of the gods.
All her real gear on, he looked to Rose. Her real battle suit was a sight to behold, even if it didn't hug her curves like her usual outfit or show any amount of skin like almost every other uniform she'd worn over the years. Her armor was a reproduction and heavy modification of the Ikon Armor her father had worn on occasion. It was exactly like his, only hers used many of the same gadgets and tricks Jason's suit did, she had red in place of her father's orange, and, of course, Jason had ironed out two of the Ikon suit's biggest problems; the power supply and the fact that anyone in another Ikon suit could easily disable her father's. Her suit, code named The Bloody Mary, had much more power, making her gravity sheath much more powerful, and her suit's programing was entirely it's own, the only thing that could manipulate it was Jason's kill switch, which instantly deactivated the suit's AI and it's GS.
In place of his broadword and staff, she had another two katanas. She kept Ravager, her promethium one, almost at all times. But the two on her back, were different.
They were both made along side Tyr and Horus, and their names were Scabere and Secare. They both functioned as the Deathstroke blade did, as did her sword, but they both went beyond that. They styles of each blade went along with the styles of Jason's respective revolvers. They both could absorb energy as the Ravager or the Deathstroke could, cut through almost anything, and potentially kill New Gods.
Scabere, the one that followed Tyr's design was capable of shooting very powerful blasts of energy through the hilt, to wherever the tip of the sword was aimed, or self destructing, provided the energy cells in it's hilt were replaced often enough. Secare, the Nth metal sword that followed Horus's design could throw out black slashes of magical energy similar to the beams dished out by Horus, the sword being similarly tied to Rose's soul, relying on her drive to kill her opponent just as Horus did Jason's.
Of course she also brought her twin submachine guns.
"Ready?", she asked as she sliped her helm on.
"Oh, yeah. let's go."
When the two walked out, they found Artemis teaching Bizarro how to meditate.
"We good?", he asked, causing the two to open their eyes and look at the two. Bizarro looked curious, possibly not yet realizing the two were his friend and the white-haired woman pirate from before. Artemis looked like might've rolled her eyes at first, until she took a second look at their aresenals, realizing the magnitude the power the two were wielding. She especially got wide eyed looking at Secare and Horus, as if the pistol's holster or the sword's hilt alone told her what she needed to know.
"Impressive. A vast majority of amazons never even see weapons as powerful as those."
"Who am you? Where am Jason?"
"It's me, bud. My voice sounds different. And while I'm wearing this, try to remember to call me Red Hood, and her Ravager."
"Okay. Red Him look scary."
"Hmm. So, we ready?"
"I know I am.
"Bizarro am ready."
"I am as well.", Bane said, walking into the room in full battle gear other than his helmet, which was in his hands.
"Alright then, people. Looks like we're going bow hunting in a war-torn shit hole.", he said, heading out first. Last to leave was Bizarro, who was trying to remember what Red Him's words meant as he flipped the lights off.
It was a clear, empty night when they arrived at the airstrip. Normally, a commercial flight would take 12 hours. Artemis's invisible jet, which she was still insisting was a real thing, would've taken 8. Their plane, however, was Jason's personal jet, partially made using reverse engineered alien tech. It would take two hours, at most. It would be around 10 pm when they showed up, making it much easier, presumably, to find something that shot sunlight. But, until then, Artemis, Rose, and Jason spent what time they had resting up, or quadruple checking their gear. Antonio, however, was teaching Bizarro never to swear, like he was the clone's "fly right" uncle. Who just so happened to be a giant, muderous Luchador. Why does this feel normal?
Bruce and the others had been adjusting to live in captivity all day, and the major consensus was that overall, it could've been worse. Sure, they couldn't escape yet and would need to be patient, but they'd been in tougher spots. At least they knew that Gotham was safe from people loke Joker, at least.
Still, though, the fact that Jason was alive and working against them, it hung over even the ones who never knew him like a shadow the entire day. It didn't help that the house was devoid of anything entertaining, no books, or TV. There was nothing to do but plan and train for a most likely impossible escape.
There was no relief from that boredom, until someone knocked on the door. When it opened, a man came through and announced that soon, dinner would be ready, if they wished to eat. They accepted, and were soon were back in the same dining room as before, but this time, after finishing, Bruce struck up a conversation.
"I want to know. Everything. I deserve that."
"...Yes. I suppose you do, all of you."
It didn't take long until they arrived near the airspace border of Qurac. Jason slowed down, not yet getting near the border. He activated the cloaking system, causing the plane to retro-reflective panels of the plane to turn it invisible to the people on the ground. As far as computers go, the slanted design of the plane combined with it's altitude made it impossible to see with anything to be found in Qurac.
Jason landed the plane carefully in an abandoned strip of flat earth. The 5 got out of the plane, and Jason began speaking.
"That way", he said, pointing, "Is the capital of Qurac. General Heneli, the local despot, is the man we're here to see."
"Me am hearing...screams."
"Yeah, bud. Welcome to Qurac. You get used to it."
With that, he activated the command for the plane to release an all-terrain transport. Jason drove with Rose beside him, Artemis and Antonio in the back. Bizarro was flying over them, when he heard a scream he couldn't ignore. A little girl was screeching, only to stop at the same time as Bizarro heard a lound bang. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew he had to do something. He had to find that little girl. So, he flew off into the night, going the opposite direction they had come.
Jason worried, but they couldn't have kept up with Bizarro if they could afford to try, so they just headed closer to the city. The only modernish building in the whole damned city was Heneli's home and propaganda center, an enourmous glass tower that stood proudly as the people around it suffered, no end to their pain in sight.
They quickly scaled the building opposite it, a mere 6 story hotel, and before the three could grappel up, Jason got an idea. At his request, Artemis took out the circular, greek style sheild on her back, using her superstrength to boost them, one by one, 17 stories up and onto the roof of the building. Jason and Rose were trained to catch themselevs from such falls, but Antonio needed her to throw him, jump, and catch him. She argued for a moment, but relented. Once the four were there, Jason led the way down stairs. Beyond one or two unarmored guards, no resistance. No cameras.
When they made it to the man himself's room, they barely cared enough to stack up. This was hardly worth the trouble of coming personally so far. Inside the doors was a very Qurac room, but no Quraci general to match. That was, until they found the bedroom of the tiny penthouse. Inside, laying alone on a kinda small bed, was a pretty small man. He was thin, and lacked the muscle Jason remembered from back when he'd first met the man, back before genocides against his own people became commonplace for him. Jason stalked until he was to the man's left, Rose was to the man's right and Artemis was at the foot of his bed. Antonio was on lookout duty.
Artemis grabbed the mans legs, waking him up instantly, picked him up, and slammed him back down onto the bed, audibly breaking most of the springs and some of the frame. The man was up in a second, looking around. Seeing the two to his sides and not recognizing them, he looked to the woman at the foot of his bed, whom held her massive axe in her hands.
"Oh! Oh! Please, please, please! I got you the bow, please give me more time to find the rest!", he begged Artemis, groveling as best he could with Jason's unmoving hand on his neck.
"What are you talking about?"
Jason flipped on the light for the confused man, who gasped at seeing who Artemis really was. Still with Jason's holding him down, he spoke.
"YOU! Thank God! I thought you were the crazy one."
"The crazy one?"
"Yes...a couple years ago, a woman with a helmet like that and burn marks all over her skin came to me. She told me either I would keep her existance quiet no matter what, and do as she told me or my family would die. I laughed in her face and...and she came back with my mother's head. Since then she does whatever she wants, massacres my people, further destroys my home, and under the threat of killing my daughter, I take credit for it. She told me to get her a bunch of ancient weaponry from around the world. The Bow was the last thing she asked for, a few weeks ago. She hasn't been back here since."
"You lie.", Artemis said, obviously disturbed.
"No, I swear, I swear, please!"
"Akila is dead! She couldn't have-"
"General, what did I tell you about telling lies about me?", said a new voice from another room. A voice that sent Heleni into a fit of panic, shortly before he spontaneously combusted before their eyes, becoming a piece of charcoal in seconds. In his chest laid an arrow the was angled to have come from behind Artemis. Only, when Jason and Rose looked over, nobody was there. Not the attacker or Artemis, they realized.
They rushed into next room, Secare and Horus at the ready. Their weapons glowed black with readiness as they rushed out, only to find Antonio laid on his back, his neck underneath the heel of a woman who was holding an unconscious Artemis over her shoulder in her left hand, and a glowing golden kopesh in the other.
"Come closer, and I snap his neck."
The dark skinned woman was dressed in exactly as you would think an egyptian amazon would, but very specific parts of her outfit caught Jason's immediate attention. Golden braclets that shined even though very little light was present in the mostly dark room, the silver sandals that she wore, upon which were wings that actually fluttered, as if alive, the large amulet she wore, which glowed a deep crimson. The glowing golden lasso on her hip, the bow across her back, and, finally, the white hood pulled over her helmeted face, which kept Jason from really seeing the details of it out.
"How about you let both our friends live, and we don't kill you."
"You cannot kill me, foolish man. Even with that mockery of the divine you hold."
"What do you want?"
"I want her and what I came for."
"And what did you come for?"
"Her axe. But she can summon that for me once she is awake. I wouldn't stand to close it, nor attempt to follow us, unless you would like to die."
With that, the hooded figure, their new friend over her shoulder, flew, literally and metaphorically, out of the nearest window, leaving Antonio gasping for air.
"I...she..."
"It's alright. She's cheating even worse than we do."
"I hate to say it, Jason...but maybe we should call in the League. Maybe Superman could-"
"We have a Superman. BIZARRO!"
"Yes, Red Him?", Bizarro said the second he was finished yelling out his name.
"Buddy, what happened?"
"Bizarro am stopped bad men hurting people. What wrong?"
"Artemis got taken by a bad person because you left and weren't paying attention when we needed you. It's good you want to help people, bud, but we needed you, too."
"...Me am sorry."
"It's okay. Cuz I know how you can make it up to us. You see that axe? I want you to hold onto it as hard as you can, to keep it in place when it starts moving, Antonio is going to hop on your back, and me and Ravager are gonna be right behind you. Go slow, but let the axe go where it wants. Okay, Biz?"
"Yes, it okay. But me no understand, how axe move on own?"
"I've got no idea, buddy. As usual."
Diana had finally awoke. Superman had been flying around Metropolis all day, but when he'd gotten around to going to see her, his old friend was surprisingly conscious.
"Where's Bruce?", she said, the first words she'd spoken after sitting up.
"He's in Gotham, a new case has come up. Ollie and Dinah are there with him. Apparently they found Roy."
"Hmm. Wow."
"Do you remember what happened?"
"Not really, walk me through it a bit?"
"You and Bruce were in Qurac, investigating the troubles there. You split up, and when you met up again, you'd been mind controlled somehow. Bruce 'held you off', long enough for Jon to arrive, and he brought you back here. Bruce and he were out of their depth, so they handed the case over to the League. I just took it if you feel alright enough to join me?"
"Sure...just given me an hour, we'll head to Qurac. See if we can pick up the trail of whatever it was that got me."
Artemis awoke without her armor on, in it's place was a white toga. Her hair was let out of it's ponytail, as well. She was laying in a bed, which she immediately recognized as Akila's bed, one they had shared many times, many years ago. The thought made her face flush, but the realization that she was not alone in the room made her fling herself off the bed, wordlessly getting into an attack pose. That was when she saw whom it was in the black toga that stood, silently, at the foot of the bed.
"A-Akila? Is this the work of Circe or..."
"Yes, I am truly here, my love.", she spoke in the sultry voice Artemis knew well.
"How? How are you back I-I-", she stopped when she noticed the left half of her face along with a majority of her body shimmer, until it stopped revealing a sight that made Artemis gasp, putting her hands over her mouth. The right half of her face and some spots here and there along her arms were all, that she could see, that remained of her old friend's body. The rest of it was burnt, blackened and purple. Her eye was a milky white. Her mouth and chin were untouched by the fire damage, and deep down, Artemis couldn't help but feel grateful to every god in every pantheon.
"But...but who did this happen? I killed you. The bow consumed you, and I-"
"Things are not always as they seem, Artemis. What you saw as killin8g me, was really you giving my soul my free will back. And if you remember, my will is unmatched, even among our sisters. Is it so strange that in our world of gods and demons, that a will like mine combined with the spiritual power becoming a Shim' Tar imbued into my soul was more than enough to crawl my way out of the Underworld, and back into my body?"
"I...I suppose not. But still...what are you doing? Why have you been collecting weapons of the gods, wh-"
"Shhh.", she said, placing a burnt finger on Artemis's lips, "Shhh. To use words alone to describe it, it would do it a disservice. Allow me to show you.", she said, taking Artemis by the hand and leading her to the door.
It was beautiful sight. From the very tall vista, she could see it all. Bana-Mighdall, reborn. The pyramids, the temoles, the homes. Except for a lack of amazons and slaves, it was exactly as she remembered.
"We have much to discuss."
Akila explained what happened. When Artemis killed her, she was sent to the underworld, but before Anubis could pass judgement, she escaped, and her sould returned to her body in it's crypt.
Once she escaped feom said crypt and returned to Bana-Maghdal, finding it in ruins. She then swore she would rebuild it, after she had recovered all that had been stolen from the amazon city by the Quracis when they'd invaded, including the Bow of Ra. She hadn't known how to contact Artemis, so she'd done it on her own, and now she almost had it all.
The Hood of Hecate, the amulet of Shimtari, the Bracers of Atlas, the Sandals of Hermes, the Kopesh of Horus, the Golden Promise, and now, the Bow of Ra. They were all in Amazon hands, once more. So many more artifacts were left, but now, with the ones she had and Artemis by her side, no one, not even gods would stop her from reclaiming the rest.
Once she had all of them, she would use the power of the artifacts, and she would restore the one thing her new Bana-Maghdal lacked, the sand storm protection barrier. Once that was done, she would bring their old sisters from Themyscira back to their home.
"All would be as it was, as it should be!", she finished.
"So...that's all? You've left nothing out?"
"Well...I've undersold the role I want you to fill. I do not just need help recovering the artifacts.", Akila said, her left hand cupping Artemis's face, "When this is over, we will need two only two things in Bana-Mighdal. A Queen, and a Shim' Tar. I've already proven myself to not be Ra's champion, but you...if anyone in the cosmos is his champion, it is you. The Gods misjudged you, but I know it. I want you to be our people's champion, and I wish to be their queen. I will pass the spirit of Shimtari to you, and will give you the weapons every Shim' Tar should have. With me, Bana-Mighdal will cease to be a ruin. With both of us, together again, it would be the great envy of Man's World Again, only this time, not so weak that they could crush us.", Artemis had her eyes to the ground, but Akila's other hand made her look up into her former lover's face, "Isn't that what you want...Am I not what you want?"
"...Yes it is, and...and of course you are."
When the two's lips met, and every vein in Artemis's body lit up with flame, figuratively and literally, as the title of Shim' Tar finally became hers. She felt herself gaining strength, in body and soul, but Akila was what truely demanded her attention. She could've been given the power of every god, and the lips and tongue of her old friend and new queen would still have been her only focus. Finally, when the two seperated, Akila invited her back into the bedroom. The new Shim' Tar retrieved it, the weapon that had been the focus of her existence for years, and was about to put it over her shoulder before looking to Akila.
"No, no, no, my love! We can get to our duties tomorrow! Tonight, come. Be with your queen.", she said, leading Artemis towards the bed. Before she could get there, though, Artemis had already tackled her over onto the matress.
For those of you who didn't get the referance, pre-crisis Artemis was the Shim' Tar at one point, and used most of the divine gear that was listed. And, I'm sorry, but I hated Akila's story in Red Hood and the Outlaws.
It felt like there was a bigger story planned and they condensed it all until what should've been the arc that defined Artemis became just the setup for why she gets the Bow of Ra as well as Mistress. So, yeah, don't expect it to be all fine and dandy next chapter. If you're a fan of the Dark Trinity, though, do NOT be worried, the three will eventually be working together again, it just won't be, like, five mjnutes from now.
Also, if you didn't know, the Golden Promise is the Crime Sydnicate Wonder Woman's version of the Lasso of Truth, named the Lasso of Submission. Please look up what it does. I already hate that I spend so much time describing the stuff I come up with, like the stuff the Outlaws use.
Love you guys!