A/N: Hello! The beginning may be rocky because writing action intimidates me. I love the SM/WW pairing, even if the DCEU wants to have them treat one another like perfect strangers. Honestly, how do you have Wonder Woman make her cinematic debut, and she doesn't trade one piece of dialogue with Superman? It was criminal. So, this is starting off how the end of BvS should have been, imo. No worries, I have no intentions of retelling the movie as I don't see this fic taking exact place in the cinematic void. Nevertheless...
Happy reading and thank you so much for giving it a chance.
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN METROPOLIS & GOTHAM|
The sky resembled the inside of a volcano bathing everything in shades of maroon and black. The air was dense and reeked of sulfur and twenty thousand corpses left to rot under a baking sun. Rocks and pebbles trembled along the cracked earth with every step it took. Waves of heat and radiation wafted from its flared nostrils as its mass increased abnormally. An ear-splitting roar bellowed from deep in its throat sending out shock waves that smashed into anything substantial. Destruction, only destruction was on its mind.
A moving object in the sky captured Superman's attention and he had to do a double take because what he was seeing had to be a figment of his imagination. Eyes narrowing at the corners, he focused and saw…a woman…a flying woman in battle armor? His chiseled jaw dropped open slightly out of shock but mostly out of awe as she landed five feet in front of him, stirring up a plume of dust. She wore carnelian and dark blue leather with a shield and sword strapped to her back. Thigh high boots were buckled on mile long legs that tensed each time she made the tiniest adjustment on her feet.
Superman told himself to stop staring yet it couldn't be helped.
She looked at him over her bare shoulder with flint in her bright blue eyes, "It is an honor to meet you and to fight by your side," she said in a richly accentuated voice. She then swung her gaze to the left to acknowledge Batman, "You too."
If Superman weren't mistaken he thought he heard a hint of amusement in her tone.
Batman grunted.
The woman unsheathed her sword with markings and symbols that, if he were looking at it correctly, could be carbon dated back to the classical period of ancient Greece. Superman's brows nearly lifted off his forehead. That was definitely not something acquired from eBay. As he took her measure once more, he realized that her armor told its own story that the writer in him was itching to investigate and tell. What could she have possibly seen and lived through and what did she have to say about it? But most importantly, where had she come from?
"Are we all agreed that that…monstrosity doesn't make it off this island alive?"
Her question snatched Superman out of his musings.
He and Batman glanced at one another. Their feud, the reason they had been fighting like bulls in a china shop less than an hour ago came rushing back to the surface. Their ideals and methodologies were as different as Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud's disagreement on the theory of the unconscious mind, yet on this they had to agree if they had any chance of winning.
"We do what it takes to stop it," Batman's modulated voice said.
Superman nodded.
But maybe they should form some kind of game plan.
And just as quickly as the thought sprang into his head, the woman had leapt nearly two hundred yards and rammed her shoulder into its leg catapulting the creature into the air.
"Damn…she's strong," Superman muttered under his breath and without realizing it, he smiled. His feet cleared the ground and he charged headfirst into the fight.
|1|
Wind and debris flew through her raven locks, brushing them behind her shoulders. Shoulders that were strong enough to lift a mountain if they had to. The sole of her boots dug a slight trench in the ground when she was forced back. With the simple twitch of her muscles she came to a screeching halt, smiled, and sprang a hundred yards in a nanosecond, slamming her shoulder into flesh so dense she might as well have been running into a titanium wall. Just as she readied herself for another hit, the monster batted her away and she went sailing through the air unable to stop her momentum.
Until it was stopped for her.
Arms cradled her like she weighed nothing. "Are you okay?"
She glanced at the caped figure that held her. And in that glance, she had etched the line of his jaw, the dimple in his chin that was so deep it could cushion the tip of a finger. Most noticeable of all…his scent. They had been fighting this maddening creature, a perversion of genetic tampering for the last hour or so, and he didn't reek of unwashed male flesh or perspiration. He smelled…good—well, pleasant.
Cracking her neck once she was placed on her feet, Diana tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword. "I'm fine. We need to find this creature's weakness, otherwise we'll only continue to make it stronger. Any ideas?"
"It was created using technology from my world. As I just learned very recently, I have a weakness. This thing…it should be susceptible to it as well."
"Good."
Not good, Superman thought glumly. If he got within five feet of that glowing green rock, he'd be leaving himself weak and vulnerable on a level he had never experienced before. Unfortunately, there was no other way to stop this creature. None he nor or Batman could see, and they were running out of time.
"I'll get the weapon," Superman volunteered without a hint of joy.
"And I'll keep it distracted."
|1|
Diana held on to her lasso with all her might, her feet braced on the broken piece of concrete acting as leverage while she kept the beast stationary for Superman to deliver the killing blow. She could see him struggling to fly as he held the strange glowing spear. He faltered, losing altitude but he pressed on through the pain that was written across his grimacing face. Just a little farther, she thought silently urging him on. Her arms were beginning to shake with fatigue, and the lasso was slipping through her fingers in discernible centimeters. She was two seconds from turning the chunk of concrete into dust from the pressure she was exerting on it to remain upright.
"HURRY!" her command was lost in the cacophony as the beast recharged to release another wave of electromagnetic energy.
"AAAAHHHHH."
Diana blinked and nearly missed it. Dread fattened her veins, her stomach dropped to the bowels of Tartarus because the creature…no! It shifted its mass making a shank out of its arm and ran the man of steel clean through. Just before she had the chance to utter a word of disbelief, she watched in something like suspended animation as Superman reared the spear back to gain momentum and with one final push of his depleting strength, thrust it through the heart of man's abomination.
The roar the creature let out was deafening, that it nearly ruptured her eardrums.
The blow back sent Diana spiraling. The same for Batman who landed on his side, his ribs, hip, and elbow taking the brunt of his fall. His jaw dropped out of shock. Rising, he yelled Superman's name, the call being wrenched from his throat that felt like it was being squeezed in his cowl. This was not how it was supposed to end. He was running.
Diana stood up one foot at a time, brushing dirt off her hands.
The air was still.
They destroyed one another? She wasn't quite sure if Superman had perished, but from how still he was laying on the ground, she doubted he survived. Good triumphed over evil but evil also got the last word in this case it seemed. The threat was over, but so was the possibility of a man's life.
With the flick of her wrist, Diana coiled her lasso and attached it to her hip and took off, landing beside Superman's eerily still form. Her hand brushed across the symbol on his chest, while the other gently prodded around the grisly wound.
She heard the mechanic whirl of a grappling hook almost absently, and felt the slightest disturbance as Batman landed on the other side of their fallen comrade.
She checked for a pulse not expecting to find one. His skin was still very warm and…dense. Pushing that idle thought to the back of her mind, she waited to feel a telltale thump against her fingers. Twenty seconds, thirty, at forty seconds she felt a thump, a faint thump, but a thump, nonetheless. Her own heart leapt with renewed hope and maybe even a hint of anxiety and relief.
"He's alive!"
"What?" Batman dropped to his haunches in disbelief. Diana had moved her fingers out of the way so Bruce could feel, but he didn't feel a doggone thing. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. His pulse is weak but it's there. I'm sure of it. We have to help him."
"The question now is how. There's not a doctor on this planet able to treat him. He's virtually bulletproof, and I imagine it's the same for his muscles, veins, bones. He's an alien in every sense of the word."
"Well we have to think of something. We can't let him die. Maybe…"
Both of their heads swiveled to the genesis chamber.
Clark regained consciousness with a gasp and a wince. Diana's eyes widened and Batman was proud of the fact he didn't start at the sound, but a rush of relief went through them both.
"Superman," Diana said, "please don't move. You're badly injured."
"…s-su…" he wheezed tiredly and in deep pain.
"Don't try to talk," Batman ordered brusquely.
Superman ignored the command. "…sun…I need…sunlight."
Diana was confused as to how sunlight was going to help him. He needed a healer, not rays of ultraviolet light. Then again, would sunlight be any different than the purple ray used to heal her sisters on Themyscira?
"How much longer until sunrise?" she asked.
Batman lifted his head and looked toward the horizon. "We have two hours until the sun is fully out on this side of the world."
Diana got the message. She carefully lifted Superman who blinked languidly, his gaze unfocused. He winced and let out a quiet yelp at the jostling, and bit the inside of his cheek when his right arm was carefully thrown over a pair of feminine shoulders.
"I'll take him where sunlight is the most abundant at this hour," she said to Batman and directed these words to Superman, "Stay with me."
Superman met her gaze and nodded solemnly. He didn't know what was happening, where he was going, but if he was going with someone who had such kind eyes, he wouldn't complain. He ached everywhere but especially his chest that felt like it had a gaping wound in it. He looked down—oh damn there was a gaping wound, he mused. Sweat, something he so rarely did, began to dot his hairline and in about five seconds he knew he would start shivering.
Batman stood from the ground as Diana rose with Clark in her arms. He stared as they floated up ten thousand feet, twenty, until they were not even a speck to his human gaze. He could hear copters diverging on the area, which was his cue to vacate. One thing Batman never did was talk to the press. He did pause long enough to get a couple of blood and tissue samples from the creature, storing them in his utility belt before pressing the bat symbol on his belt to summon his backup ride.
Diana broke through the mesosphere, the highest she had ever been away from land. It grew increasingly hard for her breathe, but if she could get Superman a little higher, out into the pocket of space, there he could get as much unfiltered sunlight as he needed to heal. Piercing light from this universe's largest star made her wince, and its rays stung.
"I can…I can take it from here. Go back," Superman said already starting to feel better.
"I can go a little higher."
"No. I can hear your heart struggling to beat. Go…back," Superman pulled away, his hand inadvertently brushing down her arm, their fingers briefly touching. He hovered on his own and stared at her with a tiny smile, "Thank you."
Diana didn't follow but returned his smile, "You're welcome."
He spun and flew higher and broke through the exosphere whereas Diana turned and headed home. At least that had been her intent. Instead, she dropped back into Earth's atmosphere where it was easier to breathe and waited.
Clark spread his arms wide as he floated and let the sun's rays bathe him in bright white light. His cells drunk in the sun's radiation, and he felt the wound in his chest tingling as his muscles and skin sutured itself back together. He languished in this sort of euphoric medium where his senses weren't bombarded by eight billion heart beats, the smells, or worrying about using the right amount of pressure as he walked on a street that felt as sturdy as wet tissue to him.
Sighing, his lids slowly opened taking in the infinite scope. He would never get tired of the sight. Superman then stared down at Earth where a solitary figure caught his utmost attention. Stretching his arms in front of him, he soared to where she was as a blur of red and blue that came to an abrupt stop.
"You waited."
"I did. I couldn't take the risk of you possibly losing consciousness and falling back to Earth. That would have been dangerous, not only for you, but for wherever you landed."
Superman nodded in acceptance of her explanation.
He had so many questions. His first question if she was Kryptonian ran through his mind, but he nixed that judging from her armor. However, they shared at least two abilities: god-like strength and flight. Could she shoot lasers from her eyes, hear from far distances, see on the atomic level?
"Umm…hi," Clark cleared his throat.
"Hello."
"I'm—"
"I need to go."
"—oh. Right," his preternatural gaze dropped to what was happening on that uninhabited isle. He didn't like what he was seeing. "They're circling the creature. I should get it out of there. I can't let it fall into the wrong hands and have a repeat of what happened tonight."
"Right."
Their gazes met once more.
"Everyone is going to wonder about you," Clark said. "Who you are? Hell, I'm curious."
Diana's smile was enigmatic. "Then I'll let them wonder for a little while longer." And with that, she flew away.
|1|
One week later…
METROPOLIS, N.Y.| Newspaper made a poor substitute for an umbrella, but it was all he had besides his trusty satchel which he hated to get wet. There was no help for it today. He was soaked through and through. Glasses fogged up, hair curling at the ends, his shoes were a virtual swimming pool. Ugh, was there anything worse than wet socks? Grim, he shook the droplets of water from his person, which of course did nothing. Wiping his nose with the back of his finger, Clark Kent awkwardly pushed through the revolving door of The Daily Planet.
Showing his lanyard to the security guard, he made his way to the bank of elevators as fast as humanly possible. There were about twenty people waiting, some complaining about the rain, others talking rapidly into AirPods, while others sighed with impatience at the lag in the arrival of lifts to take them to where they'd be trapped until it was time to leave. It was the kind of monotonous bustle that used to get Clark's blood up, but today, for some strange reason, he wasn't feeling it.
Perhaps nearly being skewered to death will change a man's perspective, he mused wryly.
Unconsciously he rubbed the area where that…perversion of Kryptonian science and human insanity pierced him. Clark, swallowing back a near audible groan, jolted forward once the ding of the elevator sounded, the doors parted, and people boarded.
He headed for his usual spot in the back after pressing the button for the twenty-fifth floor. He accidentally shoulder clipped a guy who just had to stand with his legs shoulder width apart as if there wasn't a small legion trying to fit into the twenty-two square foot space.
"Watch it, man," the guy sneered.
"Sorry about that," Clark apologized then used his middle finger to push his black-rimmed glasses up his nose.
The man's sneer turned into a depreciating snort after catching the gesture and turned back to face forward.
Small problem diffused, now it was just a waiting game for people to clear out and give him a bit more wiggle room, and most importantly to get his head in the game.
Clark ran through his schedule but also the story ideas he wanted to pitch to Perry. That, Clark knew would be a crap shoot since Perry didn't seem to be particularly interested in his ideas or what he thought at all. When he first started at the Planet, it was a way for him to keep his feet planted on the ground and to know where he, in his Superman persona, could help. But being a reporter also afforded him the opportunity to meet the kinds of people he'd never come across if he had stayed to be a farmer in Smallville. Nor would he have been able to immortalize their stories, giving millions the chance to learn or be exposed to the grit, the grime, the beauty of life.
But nope, Perry wanted him to write puff pieces that could be devoured and forgotten about in the time it took someone to brush their teeth.
Your breakthrough will come, Clark. Right now, you have to go through the paces and earn your stripes just like any good reporter, he heard Lois' voice loud and clear. She was away, having caught a flight to Chicago. Reassuring her that he was fine and didn't need a nurse took some doing. Eventually she realized she was dealing with an indestructible man and hopped on the next plane smoking.
Indestructible to a certain extent he might have been, Clark couldn't overcome a sense of vulnerability that he tried diligently to shake off. Work should help, he thought drily.
The fluid arrival of the elevator on his floor broke Clark out of his reverie. Doors springing open, the cacophony of voices bludgeoned his ears until he filtered out the worst of it, focusing primarily on what he needed to hear. The sound of the coffee machine.
"Good morning…good morning…hey," he greeted his coworkers who mumbled their hellos as they zipped between cubicles. It was barely eight in the morning and already the place was abuzz. That's how it always was when news never took a break or a vacation. Being the first to report meant the claws stayed out and sharp, and blood was always drawn quick and ruthlessly.
"Did you get caught in a monsoon, Kent?" Lombard asked with a guffaw. "They sell this wonderful invention called an umbrella. Might help to get one."
"I'll keep that in mind, Lombard. Thanks." Clark shrugged off his satchel, tossed his wilted newspaper in the recycling bin, and woke up his computer.
"Hey, Clark what's another word I could use in place of universal that also begins with the letter U?" Jenny Park who sat two cubes down from him asked.
"Ubiquitous."
"Thanks."
"No problem. How's Perry this morning?"
"Congested and grumpy. Star City Observer broke the story first about mega-financier Matthias Roth and his role in destabilizing the government in New Vladonia. Meg had been working on that story for months, double and triple checking sources. Things were on the final round with legal when SCO posted at ten last night just in time for the eleven o'clock news circuit."
"Damn."
"Right. So, gird your loins. It's going to be a spectacular day," Jenny remarked cheerily before darting back into her cube.
Parking his damp rump in his desk chair, Clark had barely opened up his email before he was confronted with yet another interruption. This time being Jimmy Olsen who was slowly growing on Clark. Jimmy suffered from a classic case of little brother syndrome, constantly flitting around joking while secretly trying to gain his approval. The auburn-haired, freckled-faced, and hazel-eyed young man did good work and made himself available practically around the clock. He had the scruff demeanor of an underdog, the looks of the unassuming boy-next-door who could be counted on to use as an alibi should you ever need one. In all, he was good people.
"Hey CK, catch the game last night?"
"Missed it. Who won?"
"Tulsa by twenty-three points. Their point guard, Dallas Braswell is a freaking beast rumored to go number one in the first round of the draft. Our defense was useless against him, couldn't get anything going until the fourth quarter, but by then it was pretty much pointless. Braswell scored fifty points in the first half alone. I got some shots, wanna see?"
"Yeah, sure."
Jimmy beamed and sidled up to Clark with his trusty camera which was as much a part of the photographer as his arms and legs.
While Clark looked at the crystal-clear snapshots of the next Lebron James in the making, his ear twitched at the sound of Cat Grant's contralto voice. Absently, Clark listened to what she was reporting. Another celebrity scandal, government blunder, or new movie release was his guess. Let it be anything than another replay of what happened just a little over seven days ago. Impossible, Clark knew that, but the strongest man in the universe could dream.
Superman making headlines was nothing new, and some five years later, Clark wondered if the novelty would wear off. The fervor had been renewed as two more players made their debut on to the world stage. One, having made his splash as being a feared and brutal black knight, and the other a seemingly mythological being dropped in modern times. Motives, objectives, goals, the world salivated for their next move sparking that phantom wound in Clark's chest to burn once again.
"Excuse me, Jimmy, need to make a coffee run."
"Oh, all right. Doing anything for lunch? A group of us is heading to Iago. You should come."
"Don't you find it a bit disconcerting to eat at a place named after a man who betrayed everyone he knew because of his sense of entitlement?"
Jimmy's brow furrowed. "I'm not following."
"Never mind. I'll probably work through lunch to get caught up on some pending assignments. Maybe tomorrow."
"I'll hold you to that, CK. On that note, I need to get a move on to the courthouse. Levin the hacker is being arraigned at…" Jimmy paused to check the time on his watch. "Dammit, I need to go. Later, man."
"All right, Jimmy."
Grabbing his mug, Clark made his way to the kitchen, bypassing more coworkers that he greeted with the pomp and circumstance most had come to expect from him: a shy hello and a head nod. His feet carried him closer to that anointed caffeinated elixir that would officially awaken his creativity. But no matter how far he seemed to get from those huddled around the wall of monitors that played non-stop news, his hearing picked up the occasional comment about the event he tried not to spend every waking moment thinking about.
"…aww look, Superman has friends now…"
"…what kind of grown man dresses like a giant rodent…do you think he's a furry…"
"…who's the babe…"
"…if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes, I would have thought they were filming the sequel to 300…"
"…are we seriously not going to address that we might have another alien on our hands…"
Clark could admit some of those questions and concerns ran through his mind as well. Not about Batman possibly being a furry, but about the woman. He hadn't seen her since that horrendous night despite the frequency of her traipsing through his thought—which alarmed him. And yes, he might have scoured the planet with the veiled hope of running into her again to talk, she had seemingly vanished.
Was it possible that he wasn't the last of his kind? Or not exactly one-of-a-kind? Did Wayne know who she was? Of course, Kent, he scoffed as he entered the kitchen, washed out his mug, and helped himself to the coffee that had been freshly brewed.
Leaning against the counter, Clark contemplated if he should make a surprise trip to Gotham and inquire about the woman. He owed her, but he'd also like to have the chance to hear her story, learn who she was.
Learn her name.
For what name could ever do justice to a face like hers?
Feeling his cheeks heat, Clark pushed away from the counter and got to work.
Sitting back at his desk, Clark dug out his notes for a story he had been working on for the last six months. One he hoped Perry wouldn't scoff and immediately reject especially if everything checked out. Scanning his notes, Clark inexplicably found his thoughts going back to that first editorial meeting after his fight with what the Planet called the Doomsday creature. The excited murmur of voices around the table and those having to stand, the smell of coffee that mingled with faint traces of body wash, cologne, and the stinging scent of nicotine that clung to clothing.
Perry had burst into the conference room and said without preamble as he took his seat, "We're sitting on the biggest story to happen in the last five years since Mr. Red Cape marched his Kryptonian ass on the scene and he and his fellow brethren engaged in battle royale from Kansas to here. We know nothing more than what we started with. I need a name. Background. Who is she? What is she? How long has she been among us? Who else has she helped? Where is she now? What's her connection to the lunatic in the black leather suit and the Kryptonian refugee? What did she have for dinner last night? I need answers and I need those by the end of the week. This week. I don't want to see any of you in my office until you have something viable. You get a lead, follow it until you get a better one. You know the drill."
Marci Briggs the managing editor had chimed in with, "It's obvious that information about her is scarce to non-existent but we could come up with a name in the meantime."
"All right. So let's hear some ideas," Perry tapped his fingers on the table.
Suggestions immediately burst forth at rapid speed.
"Superwoman."
"That makes her sound like she's married to Superman…She's not, right?"
"Xena."
"Pretty sure we could get sued for using that name."
"Spartan Lady."
"Seriously, Judd?"
Clark replayed his one and only conversation with the mysterious woman, and what she said before flying off. How she was going to let them wonder for a little while longer. "Wonder Woman."
Perry, squinting, leaned forward in his seat. "Say that again, Kent."
"How about…Wonder Woman?"
And so a legend was born.
In the present, Clark's fingers flew over the keyboard as he brought up the online article that christened the woman with a moniker. The name he came up with. "Wonder Woman," he spoke in a low register. His brain burned with impatience to find her so they could talk, which he tried to tune it out, but was finding it impossible to do so. He just needed to kno—
His ringing phone startled him. Shouldn't have been possible because he could hear signals traveling along metal wiring long before a phone began ringing. Annoyed with himself, he put a smile on his face nonetheless, answered, "Daily Planet, Kent speaking how may I help you?"
A/N: Thank you so much for reading yet again (and reviewing). More is coming...