Chapter 14 - Revenge Comes to Themiscyra
"GREAT HERA! the Amazon queen exclaimed.
"Great Mother!" Napolipolita and Deesha whispered, as both women began to back away.
A-ko said nothing. She was too busy holding her father in her arms and crying on his broad shoulder. Only this time, the tears that freely rolled down her face were tears of joy, not sorrow.
Her father hugged his oldest child in his arms, stroking her red hair, his own tears mixing unashamedly with hers. "Don't cry, Baby! Don't cry! I'm all right, thanks to you!"
"You were dead - thirty years of medical practice told me that you were gone," Doctor Stellamaris said, coming closer and scanning his big form with her own medical equipment.
"It was the same weapon the Collector used on me all those years ago, only worse - much worse. I came to only when Diana began pounding on my chest. But I couldn't move, nor could I tell her that I was all right!"
The Man of Steel tried to stand up, but quickly slumped down again. Turning back to his daughter, he told her, "GO FIND YOUR MOTHER, AND STOP HER BEFORE SHE DOES SOMETHING SHE WILL REGRET FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE!"
He grimaced. "I saw that look on her face once before - long before you were born - and what happened then was too terrible. If you love us both, Punkin', go to her, find her, and stop her!
Torn between her desire to stay with her father and her wish to obey his orders, A-ko finally moved when she saw the look of fear on her father's face - not for himself, but for the woman he loved. With her mind made up, and - after a kiss on her father's cheek - A-ko rocketed into the sky, streaking in the same direction as her mother had.
Clark finally managed to stand up with Napolipolita's help. Even Dee rushed forward to lend a hand, but the pain in her leg gave her pause. Hippolyta stood close, staring at her son-in-law with a strange look on her face.
"I don't ever want to go through that again," Superman remarked as Aysha Napolipolita-Daitokuji gently eased him down to rest against a large boulder.
"Not much chance of that," Deesha announced. "The Revenge used up the last of its power attacking you! She's falling out of orbit, and atmospheric friction will soon incinerate her."
Clark lay his hand upon hers. "How many people would be on a ship that size?" he asked.
Dee answered, "Not counting the ones already on the ground, I would estimate at least twenty-five thousand of my one-time Shakanar "Sisters" remain on board."
A-ko's father shook his head sadly. "That many people?" he whispered.
Napolipolita grabbed his chin and turned his face toward hers. "Listen to me, Clark! The operative word in Dee's description is 'Shakanar'. Shakanar aren't Leptonoids! They're what Terrans call psychopaths. They're born that way, and remain so long before they enter military service. Shakanar soldiers enjoy inflicting pain on others, and watching others suffer while they do it. They torture, maim, and butcher in ways that would nauseate any real human being. Clark, please realize that these Shakanar aren't even people. I say, let them all die!"
In response to The Leptonian ambassador's tirade, Clark turned to Deesha. "Can you contact the Shakanar ship with that thing on your wrist?"
Hesitantly, Deesha nodded her head yes.
"Well, do so and tell them to divert all of their remaining power to the structuraI support fields protecting their keel! If I try to support that much weight, I will tear through the hull like a hot knife through butter."
Aghast, Napolipolita shouted, "Are you mad? Those animals have been trying to destroy your wife's girlhood home all day! They are bent on killing all of our children! They damn near came within a heartbeat of killing you - and now, you're going to try and save them?"
"It's what I do," Superman quietly responded. "It's who I am, Aysha."
The former captain shook with rage and fear, remembering that the Shakanar walkers almost succeeded in crushing Aki and Kir's little bodies. "No. As a mother, I can't help you. I'm sorry. I would - and will - kill anyone who threatens my babies." She walked around him, fists tightly clenched. "You're a father, too! What kind of creature are you?"
Unphased, Clark gave the tall woman a warm smile. "It's what I do, and who I am. If you want to blame someone, blame my parents."
"That's just a rotten excuse for your own cowardly behavior!" Napolipolita-Daitokuji growled. "I can't believe that your mother would have allowed harm to come to you!"
Clark sighed and spoke slowly. "My parents were the ones who took in a lonely orphan and raised him with love. They taught me many things, the most important lesson being that life – ALL life – is precious and worth saving!"
Napolipolita, too upset to continue, shook her fists and walked away. As if to take up her gauntlet, Hippolyta added, "You're in no condition to do this, my would-be son-in-law."
"I didn't know you cared, Hippolyta," he replied.
"I don't! What I care about is my foolish daughter and my grandchildren, because they would miss you!"
"And you wouldn't?"
The Amazon Queen was silent.
With that said, the Man of Steel took a final deep breath, and then leaped skyward and was soon out of sight.
"Captain?" said Dee, worried by Aysha's distress.
The Leptonian ambassador swung back toward the other women, shaking with rage. "Damn them all to Avernus' darkest pit" she snarled. Then, she placed both hands under her dark glasses - whether to wipe away tears of anger or of sadness, Dee didn't know - and stopped her pacing. Napolipolita then let out a final sigh. "Contact the Revenge, Dee, and advise those - those creatures - that help is on the way."
Already resuming her pacing, she turned toward Hippolyta, her expression inscrutable. "I have resigned myself. May the Mother help us, when even our allies give aid and comfort to the enemy!"
The Amazon queen stared back at the Cygnan, her own expression as inscrutable as hers.
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Akana returned to the family wing of the Imperial Palace, having concluded her scouting out the rest of the building. She looked at her stepsister Biko and asked, "Any sign of trouble headed this way?"
"It's pretty quiet, but I did see a couple of those overgrown freaks wandering the grounds outside."
"Did they see you?"
"If they had, I wouldn't be here talking to you, would I?"
Ignoring the flippant answer, Aki thought for a moment and responded. "I think we should get the children to a safer place."
"Agreed. I have just the right place for them, too."
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Diana's double ax was already stained red with the blood of a dozen Shakanar as she cut a path of destruction through the ranks of the enemy troopers.
To the Shakanar who dared face her, she was death itself. Those who were less brave or more intelligent knew that The Demon had been unleashed among them; they had no intention of confronting her. The only real question was whether Diana was more interested in dealing out death, or by doing her best to join her love by jumping into Hades' dark kingdom herself.
Finally, the Sisterhood could take no more. E-ko and her loyal troops were now close to their backs, and The Demon was killing anyone who came close. They simply broke and ran.
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Princess E-ko, C-ko's older and more aggressive sister, spied the Amazon princess coming her way and offered her hand in friendship as one warrior to another, expecting to be greeted as an ally, or perhaps even as a friend. Instead, what she got was Wonder Woman's steely grip around her throat, choking the breath out of her.
Even as her ever-loyal troops ran to her aid, E-ko fought back, all but helpless in the Amazon's grip.
Raising her labrys, the Amazon Nation's infamous double-headed ax, to decapitate E-ko, Diana snarled, "You and your people have brought nothing but heartbreak and death to this land. How dare you! I will kill you as surely as the Shakanar would, because your people have killed my love and deprived this world of its greatest defender and hero!"
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"I'm not going to do it," shouted C-ko. "If there's going to be trouble, I'll face it side-by-side with the both of you!"
Biko had just finished handing Jon down to her own half-sister Mitsuko. Next to Mitsuko stood her baby brother Kir, Shiiko, and little Lois. "All right, C-ko, you're next,"said Biko as she handed a Shakanar pulse rifle to the diminutive blonde.
''I'll be damned if I'm going to hide in a tunnel with the children!" protested C-ko.
"You're my friend, C-ko, and I trust you to protect my baby brother, my sisters, and the Magami kids if anyone gets past us. If you get in the tunnel with them, we can cover the trap door with a rug and push the sofa on top - those dummies will not even bother to look! But if those oversized psychos see you, my little royal friend, they will go nuts. You know very well that they want to bring down your mother and her reign, and killing off her daughters would just be more icing on more cake. They'll never stop looking for Kir or the rest of the kids!"
C-ko thought for a moment, then realized that the safety of the children came even before her own pride. Reluctantly, the small blonde nodded her head yes. Then, with pulse rifle slung over her shoulder, she joined the children.
As Biko was closing the tunnel door behind them, C-ko looked up and said, "I promise, Biko, that they will have to kill me first before I let any harm come to the kids!"
"I already know that," the heiress responded as she closed the trapdoor and covered it with a rug. A moment later, she and Akana dragged one of the largest sofas in the room on top, hiding the entrance from sight.
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"We are receiving a transmission from below, Admiral," reported the new captain of the Revenge.
"Are the ground troops reporting in?" asked the half-mad Chitai.
"No, Admiral. It seems that this message is from Ambassador Napolipolita's aide, Deesha Dakina."
"What does that traitor want?"
"Nothing. She wants to give an offer of aid."
"She must think I'm a fool,"the Shakanar commander spat. "This is just a trick thought up by that murdering bitch Napolipolita!"
Looking over to where the dead body of her predecessor lay, the new captain said, "Since we will all be dead in the next twenty minutes, I don't see that we have a lot to lose, Admiral!"
Borna Chitai thought for a moment. "Very well. Put her on vox, Captain."
When she finished carrying out the order, the new captain of the Revenge nodded her head in Chitai's direction. "What do you want, you treasonous dog?" the Admiral snarled at her former Shakanar "Sister".
"How about saving your miserable life?" answered Dee.
"ls this your idea?"
"Hardly," answered Deesha.
"Then it must be the idea of your drunken mistress!"
Chitai heard Deesha's deep and throaty laugh as she answered, "My Captain would like to see you and your kind condemned to Avernus only slightly more than I do."
"Then whom?" Chitai demanded.
"Someone who is a far better person than any of us, you crazy idiot!"
"This is some kind of trap!"
"Fine. Then, die in ignorance, you kakamatandula," Aysha Napolipolita-Daitokuji responded, breaking into the conversation.
"So - the Mother of Freaks has finally worked up the nerve to speak!"
"Animal! Either divert all your power to your bottom shields, or burn. I will waste no more time with you," the former starship captain snapped, turning off Deesha's communicator.
Admiral Chitai stood, puzzled but determined to hide it. "Captain, divert all power to the keel shields!" She then thought to herself, "I don't know what you're planning, you drunken skank, but I swear by the Mother that I will be feasting on your heart before this day is done!"
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Princess E-ko – the warrior daughter of Queen Zazen'lda and the leader of the dreaded Kollya Stragaesh – knew instantly that she would soon die.
Her own Pathfollower faith assured her that she would join her ancestors, but her own rational thought failed to help her to understand why Diana was going to take her life. All of this ran through her mind while she dangled some two feet above the sacred soil of Themiscyra, held by the throat by the second-strongest pair of hands on the planet. Even as her ever-loyal members of the Crazy Division rushed to her aid, Diana's heavy labrys swung back to take her head.
Suddenly, it stopped, its mistress hesitating for a moment before she completed the act that would send the blade through the neck of the alien princess.
E-ko had received a few seconds of reprieve, and only so because she so closely resembled C-ko – a young woman who was a daughter in all but name to the wild-eyed Amazon princess who was about to end her sister's life. However, even this could not save E-ko forever. She watched the head of the battle ax rushing toward her neck.
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"That is one huge ship!" Clark Kent thought, now flying to intercept the falling Cygnan warship.
He braced himself at the bottom, supporting the immense weight on his back. He had lifted greater weights in the past, certainly; however, he hadn't just been hit by a twenty-megaton blast in his face, or by almost having his very molecules ripped asunder by the forbidden Omega Beam.
The unfiltered sunlight helped, but Clark was still quite weak. What drove him on in spite of his own exhaustion was the realization that lives were at stake – a great many lives - and that life must be protected, even if they included the cruel and twisted Shakanar in their numbers!
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A blur suddenly crashed into Diana's body.
Mother and daughter rolled on the ground together, with Diana so lost in her warrior madness that she began to fight her own child. While so distracted, Wonder Woman relaxed her grip on E-ko's throat. The Cygnan fell to the ground, choking but trying her best to breathe once more.
Her ever-loyal "children"rushed forward to deal with the threat to their beloved leader. However, a sudden hurricane blast of breath from A-ko sent them tumbling back from whence they came, even as she continued to struggle with her own mother.
''MAMA! HE'S ALIVE! PAPA'S ALL RIGHT!" she shrieked into her mother's ear. "THERE IS NO NEED TO KILL OUR FRIENDS!"
"Kal?" was her only reply.
A-ko broke away from her, panting. "He's all right! The Omega Beam only stunned him! He's all right, and he's waiting for you! So, come with me, Mama! Don't make him wait!"
The girl glanced at Princess E-ko, silently telling her that she would be wise to get the hell out there. The Leptonian winked at her little sister's best friend and raced away to help her soldiers back onto their feet.
Diana rose in a flash. After giving her oldest child a hug, she streaked off to be with the man she loved.
A-ko briefly spoke in explanation to E-ko, and then left to join her parents. Leaning on her second-in-command for support, E-ko turned to her and said, "Remember when I told you that I wouldn't challenge that woman for all the good-looking males in the Kingdom?"
"Yes, my Princess."
"Well - after this, I don't think I'd challenge her even if she had the only male left in the known universe!"
Her second broke out in a booming laugh, which E-ko soon joined. Catching their collective breaths and getting over the insult to their warrior egos, the members of the Crazy Division then went back to doing what they did best - killing Shakanar.
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A great shudder ran through the Revenge from stem to stern as A-ko's father plowed into the bottom of the rogue Leptonian ship. Bracing himself, Superman dug his hands into its bottom, supporting its great weight on his broad shoulders.
"We're slowing, Admiral! The hull's temperature has already fallen to one hundred and twenty-two degrees!"
"Any confirmation of our destination?" Chitai demanded.
"If our would-be savior can keep doing whatever it is that he's doing, all information points to a soft landing right on the beach of this so-called Paradise lsland!"
"Excellent," said Admiral Chitai, standing up. "Our foes have decided to be our chums today. We can't allow such an unbelievably stupid strategy to pass by our notice. Tell the rest of the attack force to meet me in the main cargo hold. As soon as we land, drop the main cargo door so we can attack. I will lead the attack myself!"
With that said, Borna Chitai decked herself out in her black command cloak, hitched up her broadsword, and stormed off the command bridge. Finally - miraculously, even - she was on her way to avenging her dead child. Surely, the Mother favored the Sisters of the Blood-red Armor over the puling and cowardly "graduates" of the thrice-cursed CygniCity Space Academy!
Borna Chitai raced down to the massive main cargo hold of her ship. Standing before her Shakanar troops, she drew her sword and waved it over her head.
"In a few minutes, we will land. At the moment we do so, I want the main cargo door to open and for each of you to follow me in our final glorious attack." Chitai looked down upon the ugly and steroid-thickened faces surrounding her, their eyes glittering with bloodlust. She knew she had them in her thrall and this realization pleasured her. "This day will be ours, along with the wealth and power of the so-called Amazon Nation – and with it, our recovery of our right to motherhood!" All murmured, bobbing their misshapen heads in agreement. Admiral Chitai continued. "And sweetest of all, my Sisters, will be our revenge against the Royal House that used and betrayed us all!"
With this, Chitai raised her arms toward the ceiling. With a sudden savage gesture, she clenched both into fists. "Soon, my Sisters - very soon - we will leave Mur Sejanus, our cold desert home. We will make our way to the capital, and take that which is ours. The Council of Sisters will destroy those weak and simpering betrayers who robbed you - and you - and you - of That which was Lost!" With a sudden scream, Chitai made the Leptonian tiger-claw salute - arm crossed straight across the chest, hand in a fist that touched the shoulder. She then raised that arm and shot it straight upwards in a gesture of defiance to the Throne that was the secret salute of the Shakanar Sisterhood. "After this day, my warriors, the name 'Cygnan' will once again be feared throughout the cosmos!"
A cheer went up from the assembled troops in response, with even the Shakanar in the armored walkers and tanks responding in kind. Admiral Chitai raised her chin for silence. "One proviso, my warriors; and hear me well. Kill anyone in any way you wish this day, my best of the best! Swim in their blood! Grease our weapons with their crushed bodies and pulverized bones! And for those of you lucky enough to find the half-breed freak children of that bitch who calls herself ambassador, a special treat! Use their long green hair to attach their severed heads to your utility belts!" An ominous and unearthly low-pitched buzz, almost insectile in sound, rose from the throats of the assembled shocktroopers. Admiral Chitai grinned. "And so, enjoy yourselves this day, my pets! But - remember one thing, and at your peril. Defy me under penalty of death," Chitai snarled, and waited. "Napolipolita herself is mine. Bring her to me alive, so I might enjoy avenging the death of my baby girl upon her killer!"
Cheers once more arose from the throats of thousands of homicidal maniacs, whose ugly heads nodded in approval as they honored their leader. Even though Chitai had not been born Shakanar, her subordinates to a woman each knew that she was every bit as insane as they.
"One minute to touchdown, Admiral," a voice from Chitai's wrist vox announced. Chitai smiled eagerly. Leaning forward, she commanded all present to brace for their imminent impact. Taking hold of a handy structural strut, Chitai thought to herself, "Soon, Tarim - - soon, my sweet child - we will have our revenge on Napolipolita and her whole accursed family!"
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The huge bulk of the Shakanar starship Revenge seemed to come out of nowhere. One moment, it was nowhere to be seen; then, within milliseconds, it filled the sky above the soil of Paradise Island from horizon to horizon.
For one horrible moment, the Cygnan and Amazon defenders on the beach thought the massive ship was about to fall down upon them all. Even Diana thought the same as she landed between Hippolyta and Phillipus. Suddenly, a mighty gust of wind knocked them over as the ship landed with a crash in the water next to them. The air trapped between the great ship and the sea had no way to go except to the sides. The few who hadn't been knocked over by the blast of air were soon leveled by the wave generated by the landing of the Revenge. Although this impact force was huge, it could not truly be called a flood. That term was better applied to the horde of charging Shakanar troopers, released once the massive armored door of the cargo hold fell open.
First came hundreds of infantry, followed by a wave of armored vehicles rumbling forward with Admiral Chitai sitting on top of the first tank, waving her sword in triumph. Second came the armored ranks of the Shakanar walkers and tanks were immediately followed by thousands of Shakanar infantry, each eagerly waiting her turn to charge forward and join in on the kill.
Both Amazons and members of the Kollya Stragaesh - who only a few minutes before had been ready to battle one another - now closed ranks to face their common enemy. All rushed forward side by side to meet the new threat.
Fortunately, the wave generated by the crash landing of the Revenge had not swamped the rocks upon which both Deesha Dakina and Aysheia Napolipolita-Daitokuji had been standing their ground. Hippolyta, her General Phillipus, and A-ko's mother Diana had not been not so lucky. They had been flung perforce to the bottom of the very hill upon which the two Cygnan compatriots now stood. More surprised than hurt, Wonder Woman now attempted to right herself when a hand was thrust in her direction.
The face of the woman to which the hand belonged was familiar to the Amazon princess. E-ko smiled as she reached down and said, "Need some help?"
The Amazon princess was shocked that the very woman she had been merely seconds from decapitating was offering assistance. Still, Diana took the proffered hand. Rising back to her booted feet, she looked at the leader of the Crazy Division.
"I'm - sorry - I - "
"Ah, forget it. No sweat. Your daughter explained things to me. If I had a lifemate myself - not that a soldier would ever be permitted one - I expect that I would also lose it if anything happened to him." Princess E-ko's broad grin - startlingly like C-ko's - suddenly appeared. "Well, you know, I did flirt with your boy toy myself when you both visited Cygnan Prime." E-ko laughed. "Didn't know that, did yah? Hah! Not to worry. His heart is yours, no doubt about it. Hey, let's face facts here and admit that your taking my life would have been your just deserts for my attempt to take your property!"
A-ko's mother smiled. "Well, we Amazons aren't into the males-as-property mindset. In fact, I don't own him as much as we own each other." Diana shook her beautiful head, half-hiding it in shame. "That doesn't take away the fact that I was still wrong to attack you."
"Hey, a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do! Go for it, I say! No doubt about it, Diana - you're a very strange woman who comes from a equally strange world!" Queen Zazen'lda's wild child grinned, showing her strong teeth. "But I still like you both!"
This exchange had all taken place while A-ko had hovered overhead. None of it mattered to her at the moment. Her thoughts weren't upon her mother or grandmother; both were safe for the moment anyhow. They weren't even upon the oncoming torrent of Shakanar warriors that erupted from the side of the great ship. At that moment, the young redhead's mind was upon the one person whom she couldn't find.
A moment later, her x-ray vision helped her find her quarry and the powers that came from both her parents allowed her to dive into the sea to find her trapped father. A-ko found the Man of Steel with his leg pinned beneath the bulk of the great ship. She wasn't sure if even she was strong enough to move the massive weight which pinned him, but the one thing about which she was sure was that her Pop needed her, and that nothing on Heaven or Earth could stop her from coming to his assistance.
Within seconds, A-ko lay flat on her back atop a coral reef. Its shards dug into her back as she braced her legs under the ship's keel. Bubbles of precious air escaped from her clenched lips and nose as she grunted with the effort of shifting its vast bulk. Curls of her red blood appeared around her as the coral crushed by her own weight cut into her nearly invulnerable hide. In fact, anyone else would have been cut in two. A-ko, however, only suffered a gash or two to accompany the scratches she had already received.
With a final near head-splitting effort, A-ko pushed with her legs and was rewarded when she felt a shudder, and then a more definite movement of the weight above her. Redoubling her effort, she pushed even harder as the Revenge actually began to shift from side to side.
"Sheesh," A-ko thought. "This is like moving Mt. Everest!"
Those Shakanar still on board thought it was only the Revenge settling on the reef. In truth, it was A-ko, finally freeing her father's trapped leg from under the giant alien craft.
Father and daughter allowed the tide to transport them down the beach where Shakanar, Amazon, and Cygnan warriors wrangled with might and main. But even with the help of Princess E-ko and her ever-faithful Crazy Division, the tide of battle began to turn in favor of Admiral Chitai and her Shakanar troops, now led by her mechanical walkers and armored vehicles.
If that wasn't bad enough, more and more troops and their weapons poured from the side of the ship like maggots crawling out of a carcass of a beached whale. A-ko half-carried, half-supported her father as they struggled to the beach and its inviting soft and warm sand. His arm was around her neck as he leaned on his oldest child's broad shoulder.
Shaking his head, Superman then turned to his daughter and exclaimed, "I'm getting too old for this shit!"
A-ko stared at him, amber eyes bulging wide, her mouth agape. Her pretty face held a look of utter shock and surprise. "Papa! You said a bad word!"
He affectionately stroked her red hair. "Your papa is just having a bad day, Punkin'!"
Her only reaction was to smile back and kiss him on his cheek.
As Superman made his way to the beach while leaning on her, he told her, "The circle is complete. After all those times I carried you in my arms as a baby and on my shoulder as you grew into a woman, you now have to carry your tired old man!"
"That's all right, Pop," A-ko replied. "It's only fair!"
Finally reaching their destination, both flopped down on the warm sand and tried to catch their respective breaths. Clark reached out with his large hand; touching A-ko's face with his fingertips, he said, "You're not my little girl any more, it seems. You're a woman now, ready to go out into the world and make it your own!"
A-ko quickly frowned. "You're wrong, Papa! You're so wrong. No matter what happens - no matter what the world or the fates have in store for me - I will always be your daughter - and your little girl!"
He grinned back at "his little girl" - not so little, now- and kissed her forehead. A-ko then watched her father's expression change from one of great sadness to one of great anger.
She followed his line of sight and now observed along with him that the battle between the Amazon and Cygnan Nations and their Shakanar attackers had begun to flare up only a mile from where both father and daughter now lay. She watched his expression flicker from rage to sadness once again.
Turning back to his daughter, Superman asked her, "How about you and me finally putting an end to all of this nonsense?"
Standing up, A-ko offered her hand to her father. "Are you sure you're feeling up to it, Pop?"
"With my daughter's help, I am. Ready?"
"I'm your daughter, aren't I?" A-ko replied. With a wink, he took to the sky with his metapowered "little girl" following closely behind.
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"Biko. Hey! Biko! What's going on?" cried a muffled voice from beneath a rug-covered trap door. It belonged to Biko's young half-sister Mitsuko.
"Akana just came back from a quick scout," Biko Daitokuji replied as she stood with her stepsister Akana outside the entrance to the hidden tunnel. "She told me that some of the Shakanar are wandering the Palace grounds. Can you imagine such insolence? They seem to be trying to work up the nerve to enter the Palace!"
"Hey! When you going to let Shiiko and me out of here to fight?" Mitsuko demanded.
"When you're twenty-six, you dumb rug rat! Now, get your butt away from the trap door and back down the tunnel where it's safe!"
"Yeah, and it's sure a big one too!" Shiiko crowed.
"Come on, you little creeps," Aki growled, stomping the ground right beside the entrance for good measure. "Move it! We're not safe yet, not by a long chalk!"
Both Napolipolita-Daitokuji offspring engaged in a brief sisterly tussle over the big-butt remark (a sensitive topic among teenage girls of any race). This then rapidly degenerated into a joint mumbling of imprecations against their big sisters. Finally, there was silence.
"Well, that takes care of them for now," Biko commented with some relief. "Aki - how is Kir doing?"
"Hurting, but dealing with it better than we have any right to expect. Lois and Jon are staying with him, doing their best to get his mind off the pain."
Biko bit her lip, trying to stop herself from weeping for the pain her little brother was suffering. "My poor little Sweet Gherkin," she sighed.
"Biko, get back out here!" Aki hissed. Within seconds, both stood at attention, ready to defend their family with their two young lives.
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A-ko and her father landed in front of the Revenge's immense hatch, from which hundreds of Shakanar shocktroops and their vehicles still poured in a torrent. At the sight of the two superpowered individuals, however, the flood quickly stopped as if someone had corked an enormous stopper into the bottom of an even more enormous bathtub. However, this respite ended when the engines of the armored tanks and walkers began to rev up, as if they were ancient monsters roaring their defiance.
The Man of Steel raised his hand and announced, "Enough! This fight is over. There will be no more innocent blood shed today!"
The hatch opened in the lead tank, and the head of a young Shakanar officer came out of it. "Cursed male! We know all about you, and we fear you not! The Council of Sisters told us that you never really stole the great crystal dome of the Sanctum Sanctorum. It was all just a simple holographic illusion!"
A-ko whispered. "They must have used a force field and a hologram to replace the roof you borrowed, Pop." [See our fanfic "A Stranger in the House"] She then added, "I wondered why they got so brave all of a sudden!"
Her father's answer was more direct and to the point. The Man of Steel simply rammed his fist through twelve inches of the finest Leptonian armor plate, ripping out the engine of the tank with a muffled explosion and a shower of sparks. The officer who had flung out her defiant challenge now looked like she was about to be sick.
A Shakanar infantry squad rushed forward, weapons drawn. They stopped rather nicely when A-ko took a deep breath and blew them back into their companions, knocking them into a tangle of psychopathic outrage. "You heard my father, you nut jobs! Enough is enough! This insanity of yours must stop!"
She smirked, and then turned toward Superman. "I know you told me never to slam a door in someone's face, Pop, but – " Catching on to his daughter's plan, Clark Magami replied, "Well - in this case, I think you could be excused!"
He stepped off the massive ramp as A-ko took hold of the edge and lifted its front, forcing it upward with the sound of stripping gears and bursting pistons as proof that she was forcing the door shut against the machinery that had opened it. Holding the door shut as she hovered some fifty feet above the ground, A-ko kept the massive cargo door closed as her father welded it shut with his heat vision. And then - just to play it safe - both father and daughter tore off an outcrop of rock and used it to jam the cargo door shut.
With their work done, both swung around to face an on rushing horde of Shakanar coming their way. A-ko prepared herself for battle as her father slammed his two large hands into the very rock supporting the island, knocking the oncoming horde off their feet.
Miles away - as an Amazon mother and daughter fought the same said Shakanar - an impact tremor sped through the earth beneath their feet, knocking both the Shakanar and many of the defenders down.
"What was that, an earthquake?" Queen Hippolyta asked, picking herself off the ground.
"No, Mother," Diana replied, her voice filled with wifely pride. That was my man finally losing his temper!"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Admiral! The Demon and her mother the Amazon queen have together destroyed most of our armaments! And the false Queen Zazen'lda's cursed daughter E-Ko and her slut troops now threaten our flanks!"
Admiral Chitai sneered. "Don't depress me, you slug. What about the rest of our weaponry and the reserve infantry from the ship?"
"We received a brief message reporting that The Demon's lifemate and her spawn had stopped the unloading, Admiral!"
Admiral Chitai exploded in a rage and a torrent of profanity that would even make a hardened Shakanar blush. Her anger only grew after she learned the fate of "that drunken whore Napolipolita".
"We have reports from our scouts that she is fighting in the ranks of the Terran Amazons. The traitor Dakina has been reported to be with her, but I'm happy to report that she might have been wounded!"
"You should know better than to tell me news I don't want to hear. What is wrong with all of you? Order all of our Sisters to concentrate their attacks where that drunk is to be found. Remember that I want both of them taken alive. I have my own plans for my daughter's killer. And as for Dakina, I have already vowed to our Shakanar Sisters that we will discover the secret of how she regained her fertility - even if we have to rip it out of her body, one cell at a time!"
The Shakanar major grinned broadly at this cheery mental picture. However, her natural sadism was tempered by her military training. "But Admiral! If we turn our backs to concentrate on the Terran Amazons and the two traitors, Princess E-ko and her Kollya Stragaesh will attack us from behind, and we will be crushed between them!"
Scowling, Chitai called up a map of Themiscyra on her wrist com. "Order one division to hold this ridge as a rear guard major to engage E-ko and her whatever-she-calls-them. They should slow them down enough for us to attack the Terran Amazons and capture our prey."
"What of the Sisters we leave behind as a rear guard, Admiral?"
"What about them? They will die, but by their sacrifice they will become the heroines who will allow the rest of the Sisterhood the means to have children."
The major nodded her head in understanding and smiled broadly when Borna Chitai added, "As soon as we have taken the two traitors, we will take off and commence our revolution on the Homeworld. Once we and the Council of Sisters rule the Cygnan Empire, we will return one day and honor them by destroying this whole miserable planet!"
As her subordinate rushed off to issue the needed orders, Borna Chitai thought to herself, "Soon, my sweet Tarim - you will have our revenge against Napolipolita and her whole accursed House!"
xxxxxxx
The crazed Admiral was about to discover that here on Earth, the old saying 'the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray' was more true than not, and that even alien invaders could be included in the mix of mice and men. Both father and daughter had made up their minds to end the madness without the loss of more life, even Shakanar life.
With most of the invading army's armor and air power gone thanks to A-ko, her mother, and her grandmother, the Shakanar infantry was now destined to be mopped up by the redhead and her father.
As a young girl, A-ko had loved to play catch with her dad whenever he was able. Both spent many a happy hour in back of their old home, tossing around a baseball. Even as a girl of no more than six summers, A-ko had been able to toss the ol' horsehide faster than any big leaguer ever could!
At sixteen, of course, A-ko came to think of herself as too old and much too sophisticated for such nonsense. Young women had far more important things on their minds than tossing a ball around the back yard with their old man, of course - things such as dances, clothes, school, and - of course - boys! A-ko had never really gotten in touch with how much she'd hurt the Man of Steel when she had stopped playing catch with him.
He had never told her that, nor had he even showed his disappointment to her. But her mother had, sure enough, and she'd dropped her errant daughter enough hints to fill the Grand Canyon. However - like many Terran girls of lesser abilities - A-ko had other things on her mind such as the aforesaid dances - clothes - school - and – last but not least – boys.
"Admiral, the Terran amazons have turned our flank," reported an out-of-breath Shakanar captain.
"How the Avernus did that happen, you squawking crow?" shouted Chitai, now continuing to force her way to the spot upon which both Napolipolita-Daitokuji and Dakina made their joint stand.
"The Demon's male and twice-cursed daughter are decimating our troops, even as we speak!' she answered.
Chitai's flat face grew dark with anger. "How many of our Sisters have they killed?"
The captain hung her head in shame, unable to look her leader in the face. "Not a one, Admiral, I'm ashamed to say. The strange male swoops down, disarms our warriors, then he – "
"Than he what?" Admiral Chitai demanded to know.
"He throws our warriors, one by one, to his daughter who, in turn, tosses them into the ocean. The Demon Spawn says strange things like, 'High and outside, Pop' or 'Right down the middle'. She then laughs, and into the sea they go!"
"Damn their hides to the deepest cesspits! What of our warriors? Do they drown?"
"No, Admiral. It's a far worse fate. It breaks their spirit to be disarmed, then tossed around like toys and dunked in the sea as if it was some immense child's bathtub. When they finally make their way to shore, all they do is mill around, shaking and cowering."
Chitai screamed in rage. "Raldash! Outsiders!" she spat. "Cannon fodder! I'll go kill them myself! They are as worthless and less fit to live than The Demon and her brood! Onward! Or have you turned raldash on me as well?"