Ch. 1
Two-Faced
Injustice 2 and DC Comics are the property of their respective owners, Ocs belong to me
Where had it all gone wrong? At one point, she had been loyally serving Princess Diana, but ever since that...pretender came, everything fell apart. Now her Princess was imprisoned, the Regime had fallen, the world was falling into chaos once more, and ever since being outed as a loyalist to Diana, spent her days aimlessly drifting on a boat after barely escaping imprisonment.
Releasing a breathe, the woman leaned back in her chair and brushed her auburn hair over her shoulder and looked up at the moon with her steely, blue eyes while listening to the surprisingly calm sound of the waves gently pushing the boat. Having nothing to do would drive most people mad, but luckily the woman had someone else for company as she spared a glance at her spouse who was tirelessly working on something for their child who was sound asleep in her bed in the other room.
"And...that...should...do it!" her partner, a woman with vibrant blonde hair, dark skin, razor sharp teeth, and a tail one would expect to find on some kind of shark happily exclaimed as she carefully injected a sample of the water from a lazarus pit into the kryptonian nanotech pill, 5-U-93-R.
The dark skinned woman then crushed the nanotech pill into dust and poured it into a water bottle which she placed on the nightstand near their 10 year old child's bed. Allowing a grin to tug at the corner of her lips, the blonde haired woman gently brushed some of their child's hair back while the Amazon folded her arms.
"I don't know about this, beloved," the woman worriedly told her partner causing her spouse to knowingly nod and tightly clasp her shoulder making the Amazon grip her partner's hand.
"I know, but the Regime's gone and it's former members, i.e. you, are being hunted so we have to give Julia the best protection we can," the Atlantean reasoned while gesturing at their snoozing child causing the Amazon to sigh heavily, but nodded nonetheless as she stared at Julia before nervously gripping her arm.
"You're sure it won't hurt her or have any freaky side effects?" the second woman inquired causing the dark haired woman to nod vigorously and put one hand over her heart while holding her other hand up with a smile.
"Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye," the dark skinned woman responded while accidentally poking herself in the eye with her pinky causing her to yelp and rub the organ making her partner shake her head.
Suddenly, they heard a tired groan causing both woman to glance to the side and saw Julia groggily sit up in her bed where she stretched her arms and rubbed her eyes before grabbing the water bottle on her nightstand.
"This doesn't look like it has that nano-whatever pill in it," Julia analyzed with a loud yawn before scratching her armpit causing the Amazon to say nothing as her spouse walked over to their child and sat on the edge of Julia's bed.
"I crushed it into dust so it'd be easier to ingest, but you don't have to drink it if you don't want to," the Amazon's partner explained causing the young girl to blankly stare at the water bottle before popping the cap off and chugging the water down.
"I guess we know where she gets her appetite from, don't we Demetria?" the dark skinned woman quipped causing Demetria to scoff and roll her eyes as she approached her child and experimentally squeezed on Julia's wrist.
Instead of feeling the soft, smooth touch of flesh, Demetria felt as if her daughter's flesh was rigid, unyielding steel causing the dark skinned woman to tilt her head and poke Julia in the belly button causing the girl to yelp.
"Wow, the pill did an even better job than I expected! It's like I'm poking a blast door!" the dark skinned woman merrily pointed out while poking her child's belly button once again causing Julia to blush and cover her midsection with her arms.
"Mom, stop!" Julia sheepishly cried out causing the dark skinned woman to laugh and hold her hands up while Demetria couldn't help but let a smile tug at the corner of her lips.
"Alright, alright. Your mother and I are going to talk some more so try to get some sleep," Valeria stated causing Julia to give a thumbs up in response before laying back down in her bed and closing her eyes.
Smiling, Demtria and her spouse exited their child's room and walked up the steps of the boat near the steering wheel where Demetria sat down on the railing with her hands in her pockets while her partner leaned against the railing with her hands behind her head.
"Care to tell me what you put in the pill, Valeria?" Demetria inquired while staring at the empty expanse of sea causing the dark skinned woman to rush over to her desk where it looked like the Atlantean grabbed papers at random before returning to her spouse.
"Alright, so I injected a buttload of Venom into it which increased the tensile strength of bones and tissue to ten thousand percent which I know doesn't sound like much, but it's still an improvement over the old one and I added a syringe full of lazarus to act as a stabilizer. Best of all, it's permanent so there's no risk of her becoming an addict!" Valeria explained cheerfully causing Demetria to narrow her eyes at her beloved causing the dark skinned woman to nervously grin and rub the back of her neck before the Amazon sighed.
"I don't suppose you have anymore of those pills lying around?" Demetria asked causing her beloved to tap her chin while the amazon checked on Julia who was already sound asleep.
"I think, but I'm not too sure since I tested most of the prototypes on myself," Valeria answered as she rushed over to her desk causing Demetria to raise a brow as she saw her spouse scrounge through the drawers like a raccoon rummaging through the garbage before pulling out a case containing two pills.
"Voila! They're not as potent as the one I gave to Julia since I wanted to save the best one for her, but they're still pretty powerful. You want one?" Valeria questioned while grabbing a pill and flicking it up in the air like a coin before swallowing it causing the Amazon to slowly take the pill out of the case before putting it in her pocket.
"I'll stick to my natural strength and martial prowess for the time being, but I'm glad you took one," Demetria replied causing Valeria to raise a brow as she grabbed every note she took on her experiments and encased them in a bubble of water where she increased the temperature in the bubble to boiling levels which disintegrated the notes to nothing.
"Oh, I see. My own wife thinks I can't handle myself," Valeria responded with a fake pout causing Demetria to blush and frantically wave her hands as she tried to form a coherent sentence.
"I-I'm not saying you can't fight, it's just...I don't want anything to happen to you," Demetria stuttered causing her spouse to clasp her hands and embrace the amazon with a wide grin on her face causing Demetria to roll her eyes, but returned the gesture nevertheless.
"And I don't want anything to happen to you, but that's going to be hard since you want to free Diana so badly with only the three of us," Valeria replied while gently poking her spouses's nose causing Demetria to rub the poked appendage before crossing her arms over her chest and standing up straight while her spouse rolled her shoulders.
"Firstly, it's Princess Diana and secondly, it doesn't have to be just the two of us. We just need to find more loyalists among the Amazons and Atlanteans," Demetria reasoned causing Valeria to snort like a pig and laugh under her breathe making the Amazon glare at her spouse which made the Atlantean hold her hands up.
"Sorry hun, it's just that Diana is the Princess of the Amazons, not the Atlanteans, so to me she's just Polemarch Diana. Also, almost no one in Fishville supported the Regime and most of Diana's loyalists on Lady Island are either imprisoned or dead," Valeria replied causing Demetria to curse under her breathe and tightly ball her hand into fist to the point it turned white while barely managing to not let out a frustrated roar.
"Damn it, I feel so helpless," Demetria seethed as she slammed her fist down on the railing causing a small crack in the wood before the Amazon felt her partner hug her from behind which made the Amazon sigh softly.
"Hey, don't get so down on yourself. We'll find a way to fight through the entire Amazonian Army and your Princess's replacement who should be just as strong as her," Valeria quipped with a shit eating grin causing Demetria to give her spouse the stink eye before staring up at the night sky with her wife who rested her chin on top of Demetria's head.
Maybe some day, there would be no Regime to fight for and no Princess she was obligated to serve, but for now she had her duty and she intended to carry it out to the best of her ability.
"Jeez, you hit hard, but I know you can hit harder!" Valeria goaded her daughter while stopping the heavy, wooden training sword being swung at her head with her open palm causing Julia to curse under her breathe.
Gnashing her teeth, Julia planted her feet on the ground and began pushing against Valeria with all her might which caused beads of sweat to stream down her brow and the veins on her arms to bulge, but the Atlantean wasn't budging in the slightest. Suddenly, Valeria shoved her daughter back causing Julia to yelp as she rolled with the momentum and got back onto her feet, but the force behind the shove still carried her backwards causing her to hit the wall of the ship. Grimacing, Julia slumped over and took in deep, heavy breathes while feeling as if her legs were jelly and the training sword she spent so much time using weighed a ton. Wiping the sweat from her brow with her forearm, Julia gulped down a large breathe of air and slowly brought her training sword up with wobbly arms causing Valeria, who was scratching her butt while giving her daughter time to catch her breathe, to refocus on the training session.
Smirking, Valeria crossed her hands in an x over her face causing Julia to be taken aback before letting out a war cry and charging at her mother with reckless abandon with her training sword raised overhead causing Demetria, who was busy steering the boat, to roll her eyes. As expected, Valeria, despite seeming vulnerable, easily countered Julia's attack by landing a stiff punch on her daughter's wrist which knocked Julia's arm back and caused a painful tremor to travel up the girl's arm. Crying out, Julia unconsciously let go of her sword which made Demetria put her palm over her face and shake her head as she watched the training sword slide across the deck far out of her daughter's reach.
While Julia was reeling, Valeria launched a forceful, but restrained kick at the side of Julia's knee making the girl yelp and fall on her side while clutching her kneecap before the Atlantean pinched the inside of her daughter's nose and began pushing the appendage back.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Stop, stop!" Julia pleaded as Valeria hoisted Julia up to her feet making the girl bite the bottom of her lip and tightly shut her eyes before the Atlantean released her daughter with a low chuckle.
Stumbling back, Julia put her hands over her nose and rubbed the appendage while Valeria put her hands behnd her head as her daughter rolled her wrist before glowering at her.
"Who punches a wrist!?" Julia incredulously exclaimed with Demetria thinking she saw hot steam spew out of her daughter's ears while Valeria just laughed heartily and shrugged innocently.
"I do, sweetie," Valeria cheekily responded with a shit eating grin making Demetria stifle a laugh before she saw high rise buildings and the deafening sounds of traffic in the distance causing the Amazon to cup her hands over her mouth.
"Valeria, we're here," Demetria called out causing her spouse to raise a brow before shrugging and walking over to the edge of the boat while the Amazon jumped onto the deck and threw the anchor into the water.
"Okey dokey, you two sit tight. I won't be long," Valeria assured her family causing Demetria to nod as she rummaged through a box and pulled out two crude, makeshift harpoons before staring at her wife.
"Remember; you have five minutes to look for something else after you find whatever it is you're looking for," Demetria reminded her spouse causing Valeria to roll her eyes and stick out her tongue which made the Amazon fold her arms and narrow her eyes at the Atlantean who sighed before rubbing the back of her head.
"Yeah, yeah; I know," Valeria responded as she embraced her wife and shared a quick kiss with her while Julia timidly rubbed her arm and approached the Atlantean who stared down at her daughter and put her hand on her hip.
"Be careful," Julia requested while wrapping her arms around Valeria's wrist causing the dark skinned woman to smile and affectionately tousle her child's hair before walking over to the edge of the boat and standing on the railing like it was a diving board.
Giving a playful salute to her family, the Atlantean jumped off the edge of the boat and belly flopped onto the water where she swam towards the city swam at speeds that would give the King of Atlantis momentary pause. Keeping an eye on Valeria until she was out of sight, Demetria walked over to the edge of the boat and attempted to ascertain where she and her daughter could catch the most fish until she heard Julia meekly call out to her. Raising a brow, Demetria turned around and blankly glanced at her daughter who averted her gaze to the floor while rubbing her arm before sucking in a breathe and meeting her mom's gaze.
"It's just...why do we have to do all this hiding? I don't mind, I just want to know why," Julia hesitantly inquired and even if it was for a brief moment, Demetria's eyes widened and a cold sweat swept through her body like a flood.
"M-my friends, m-my family, and e-even the children? Why? A-are you so loyal to Diana that you ignore all the horrible things she makes you do or is it that you just don't care how your actions affect others!? Y-you...y-you monster! I...I hate you! I HATE YOU!"
"Go on then, murderer! Kill me! But know that when you die, all the pain and suffering you've inflicted on everyone will be given back to you a hundred fold...and I hope Lord Hades reserves a special place in Tartarus just for you."
"So that's it, huh? After a hard days work, you get to go home to your loving wife and child and forget that you robbed other people of that very same thing!? How many more families do you have to destroy until you realize you're serving the wrong person?"
Trembling and letting tears stream down her face, Demetria released a heavy breathe and wiped away her tears with her forearm while Julia tightly hugged her mother's leg upon seeing her distress causing the Amazon to grin.
"I'll...tell you when you're older, but for now, let's just leave it at mom did some things she wished she didn't while serving Princess Diana," Demetria answered in a tone barely above a whisper and honestly, she was expecting her daughter to poke and prod until she gathered more details, but instead Julia hugged her leg harder before looking up at her.
"I understand mom so please stop crying. I don't like seeing you sad," Julia stated while nuzzling her forehead into Demetria's thigh making the Amazon warmly rub her daughter's back before extending one of the harpoons to Julia.
"While we wait for your mom, how about I show you how to fish?" Demetria offered causing the young girl's eyes to beam like the sun and nodded excitedly as she grasped the offered harpoon and closely observed her mother who walked over to the edge of the boat with her harpoon held overhead.
Breaching the surface of the water, Valeria landed on a dock that for the most part seemed abandoned save for a few workers off in the distance just clocking in for work early in the morning causing the Atlantean to wrap her tail around her waist like a belt. If anyone asked, she could just say she was...what did the human youth call it? A furry? Yeah, that was it!
Grinning, Valeria put her hands behind her head and casually walked out onto the sidewalk where she headed in the direction of where she thought her objective was while ignoring the odd stares she was being given. Brushing off the fact that a mother concernedly pulled her child to the side as Valeria walked past them, the Atlantean picked her nose and flicked the booger off to the side before seeing construction workers tirelessly working to tear down the giant, bronze statue of the city's former guardian. Looking up at the statue, the Atlantean saw why so many people had looked up to him in the past; the S insignia was a symbol that could inspire hope even in the darkest times and with the long, flowing red cape, one could have mistaken the Man of Steel for a noble knight...at least in the past.
Now, however, all this larger than life representation of the Man of Steel brought was painful memories of a darker time. Pursing her lips, Valeria continued to walk down the sidewalk before coming to an intersection with multiple crosswalks and thought she had to take a right, but wanted to be sure.
"Excuse me sir, can you tell me which way is S.T.A.R Labs?" the Atlantean politely asked a man in a business suit reading a newspaper while sipping a cup of coffee causing the man to glance at her and jolt when he saw her gills and shark tail.
"S-sure! You take a right and from there it's a straight shot, you can't miss it!" the man stuttered causing Valeria to tap her chin and stare in the direction he advised her to go before smiling widely.
"Thank you!" Valeria gratefully told the man who awkwardly waved back at her before the Atlantean continued to walk toward her destintation while pondering what she would do if the Regime did get back in power.
Changing it from the inside was the first thought that occurred to her as far too many members of the Regime abused their power and far too often, the Regime didn't let the punishment fit the crime. Furrowing her brow when she recalled the Regime dumping Atlantis into the Sahara, Valeria released a breathe and continued to walk down the street before she saw armed guards standing outside a particular building.
"There it is, do I want to take a subtle or direct approach?" Valeria pondered while looking up at the sky as the security guards, armed with the weaponry and gear one would come to expect when guarding valuable technology, dutifully looked around for any threats.
Shrugging, Valeria casually walked up to the door with two of the security guards blocking it and two others standing off to the either side with their guns pointed at her while the leader of the group approached her.
"Subtly direct," Valeria thought to herself as what she assumed to be the leader of the guards approached her with his gun down, but ready to be brought up at a moment's notice which didn't make her nervous in the slightest.
"This area is off limits to civili-"
"Gary, I can't believe you! Cheating on me, your loving girlfriend of twenty years is one thing, but cheating on me with your coworker!? What does he have that I don't!?" Valeria screeched in the leader's face causing the man to be taken aback and share glances with his coworkers who shrugged helplessly.
"Uh...ma'am, I'm sorry your relationship isn't going well, but this area is off limits to civilians," the leader reiterated causing Valeria to fake pout and tightly clenched her fists for show before sighing softly.
"Fine, we'll talk about this when you get home and-"
Valeria ended her asinine speech as she, far faster than any of the security guards could perceive, surged forward and grasped the leader's rifle before yanking it down causing the man to uncontrollably stagger forward which gave her the opportunity to smash her forehead into his skull. The leader howled in pain and collapsed on his back while clutching his head as the Atlantean ripped the rifle in two and flung the two destroyed parts of the rifle at the security guards at her side. The two guards yelped and crumpled to the ground while moaning in agonizing pain as they clutched their wounded crotches and before the two security guards blocking the door could process what happened, Valeria rushed forward while unfurling her tail.
Twisting her hips, Valeria smacked one of the security guards across the face with her tail which caused him to scream and crash into his partner like a cannonball where they both collided against the wall making a small, spider web crack in the concrete. Collapsing in a heap, they both groaned in pain causing Valeria to look over her work, purse her lips, and nod before taking away a key card from "Gary" who was squirming on his back.
"It's okay, Gary. If he makes you happy, then you should follow your heart," Valeria sweetly told the security guard whose response was to groan miserably causing the Atlantean to place the card in the slot which opened the door leaving many workers confused as they saw her and not the security guards standing in front of the door.
"I have a rough idea of where to go, but it never hurts to ask for directions," Valeria stated as she put her hands behind her head and waltzed into the lab like she owned the place before manipulating the water in her blood which caused large, sharp spikes of iron and bone to jut out of various places of her body.
Upon seeing this display, the scientists and technicians screamed in terror and ran as fast as their legs could carry them, but one scientist wasn't fast enough as Valeria once again unfurled her tail and snagged the fleeing woman's wrist causing her to screech as she was hoisted into the air.
"Hiya! Could you please tell me where I could find one of these motherboxes?" Valeria politely requested causing the scientist to muster what courage she had left and narrow her eyes at the Atlantean who happily grinned without a care in the world.
"A-and what if I don't?" the scientist barked defiantly which didn't abate Valeria's smile in the slightest as she began shaking the woman up and down like an irresponsible child would do with a fish in a plastic bag.
"Care to tell me now?" Valeria inquired after shaking the woman for a few more seconds before stopping causing the woman to hand the Atlantean a key card which made the dark skinned woman gently set the scientist down on the floor.
"Go down the hall, make a left, make another left, and then turn right. The key card will get you in," the scientist responded while dashing over to a trash bin and vomiting the contents of her lunch while the Atlantean made sure to go over the directions a few times before glancing at the scientist who was now laying down on the floor.
"Thank you so much!" Valeria gratefully told the scientist whose response was to groan and turn on her side as the Atlantean proceeded to walk down the hall while being in awe at the various amount of technology around the lab.
"Ooh, I wonder what else they have here? This is going to be so much fun!" Valeria excitedly thought to herself like a giddy schoolgirl while launching a spike from her forearm that pierced through the lense of a security camera causing the device to spark and sputter before going dark.