(Four hours later, neomage and Yami Marik are still dueling against each other)

YAMI MARIK: This is getting boring...

NEOMAGE: Then let me liven it up! It's time I used my almighty authoring powers! (pulling out his keyboard, he types a few letters)

YAMI MARIK: (alarmed like hell) WHAT'RE YOU DOING?!

NEOMAGE:  Time to die! (behind him, Slifer the Sky Dragon, Obelisk the Tormentor and the Winged Dragon of Ra emerge)

YAMI MARIK: OO That – is – NOT – possible!!!!!

NEOMAGE: When you're a fanfic author, anything's possible! Now, my ultimate beasts – snuff him out!

(The three monsters blast Yami Marik into oblivion; neomage grabs the Millennium Items)

NEOMAGE: Now, I have great power at my disposal...Millennium Items, restore everything as they were before!

(Everyone goes back to normal)

NARRATOR: Oh, sire, I'm so sorry! How can I ever make it up to you?

NEOMAGE: Do the disclaimer.

NARRATOR: "neomage doesn't own Justice League, Yu-Gi-Oh, Yu-Yu Hakusho, Guilty Gear or Outlaw Star or any of their characters."

NEOMAGE: Good. Now, while we continue our search for Wonder Woman, let the real fanfic commence with Chapter 9!

CHAPTER 09

TIME: 11:25 a.m.

PLACE: Midway City

By and by Flash and Wonder Woman arrived at Midway City and headed straight for the museum. "So, what'll we do?" Wonder Woman asked.

"Business and pleasure," Flash answered. "Of course, pleasure first!"

She rolled her eyes, but agreed. Together they went up the steps into the museum. Once inside, they found a crowd gathering around what appeared to be a large rock. Of course, Wonder Woman was dumbfounded. "Don't tell me THAT'S what you came here to look at, Flash," she groaned.

"That's not just any rock, Diana – that's a meteorite," Flash explained. "Recently, some archaeologists found it somewhere in the Himalayan mountains, and it's said to be well over 25,000 years old!"

"I see you've done your homework," a woman's voice behind them commented. Both heroes turned – and were immediately transfixed. The woman behind them was fairly tall, about Wonder Woman's height, with blond hair set in a bun, and blue eyes hiding behind a pair of thin glasses. "My name is Kendra Saunders," she introduced herself. "I'm the assistant director here at the Midway City museum."

"Uh, hi," Flash began, transfixed by the woman's beauty. "We're—"

"Yes, I know who you are," said Ms. Saunders. "Everybody in Midway City knows all about the Justice League." She then regarded Wonder Woman. "Excuse me, are you all right? You seem to be...staring..."

At once Wonder Woman caught herself. "Please forgive me," she apologized, "it's just that, in a way, you seem familiar to me...like I've met you before."

Ms. Saunders smiled. "It's all right – I get that a lot," she remarked.

Wonder Woman then turned her attention back to the meteorite. "So, what's so special about this thing that it would be put in a museum?"

"When this meteorite was found," Ms. Saunders explained, "it was glowing, even after 25,000 years. Our STAR Labs branch here in Midway City ran tests on it and concluded that it had to be stored somewhere where it would not be in any danger, so it was suggested that it be sealed in a block of quartz and kept here at the museum."

"Glowing," said Flash. "Could it be radioactive?"

"That's the strange part," said Ms. Saunders. "When the tests were run for radioactivity, absolutely nothing came up. No matter what STAR Labs ran tests for, nothing abnormal could be found on the meteorite. In the end, they decided that the best thing would be to just store it away somewhere...and they chose this museum to keep it in."

"So, does it still glow?" asked Wonder Woman.

"Only on certain days during the year, and especially during autumn," replied Ms. Saunders. "Like it should in a little bit..."

Almost as she finished speaking, to the amazement of all looking at the meteorite it started to glow, though faintly. "See?" said Ms. Saunders.

All Flash and Wonder Woman could do was look at it and wonder.

"That was simply awesome!" Flash exclaimed once they were outside. "The way it glowed all of a sudden...it was just so cool!" He then noticed that Wonder Woman seemed lost in thought. "Hey, you OK?" he asked, concerned.

Her face was troubled. "I can't stop thinking about Kendra Saunders," she said, almost to herself. "She looks so familiar, like I've seen her somewhere before..."

"Well, one thing I can say," Flash sighed. "She was certainly a looker. Although, if her hair hadn't been blond..."

"When will you ever stop lusting after women and just grow up?" Wonder Woman reproved him.

Then suddenly she stopped and looked at Flash sharply. "Flash," she said cautiously, "what did you say just a while ago?"

"That she was a looker?"

"No, the other thing."

"Oh...I was just saying that if her hair was a different color, she'd be even more gorgeous."

Wonder Woman grabbed Flash by the shoulders. "What?" he exclaimed, surprised out of his wits.

"THAT'S where I've seen her before!" Wonder Woman said excitedly. "Now, imagine her for a minute in your mind's eye, okay?"

"Uh...sure." He closed his eyes.

"Now, remove the glasses and release her hair from that bun – let it just be flowing to just past her shoulders."

"Yeah...she looks a little prettier now...but what's your point?"

"Concentrate, Flash! Okay. Now, her hair's blond, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"What if...her hair was red or orange instead?"

Flash paused...then slowly he opened his eyes as a sudden realization struck him. He could hardly talk for a moment, but when he finally did, his tone was at once low and grave. "She'd look like...Shayera Hol...our Shayera!"

"Exactly right! And not only does Kendra Saunders look like Shayera Hol, but I'm almost positive that Kendra Saunders IS Shayera Hol!" Wonder Woman declared.

"Hey, hold on a moment – Shayera had green eyes, but Kendra Saunders' eyes are blue," Flash countered. "I can understand if she dyed her hair, but I've never heard of anybody applying dye to their eyes. And besides, Shayera had wings – REAL wings – but did you see anything resembling a feather anywhere on Ms. Saunders?"

"Even so, I still think it's worth looking into," Wonder Woman insisted. She touched her comm.-link, punching in the frequency for Batman's line. "Batman? It's Diana."

"Go ahead."

"Listen, I need a favor," Wonder Woman said. "Could you do a bit of background checking on a woman named Kendra Saunders? She's the co-director of the Midway City Museum."

"Why?"

"Just a hunch I have. I'll explain later."

A pause. Then Batman answered, "All right, I'll do it. By the way, have you and Flash finished your search?"

"Not yet, but we should be done in another hour at the most," Wonder Woman replied.

"Well, don't take too long, then. I'll go ahead and run that search. Out." And with that, the line went dead.

Flash looked at Wonder Woman. "Um, Diana, I know Superman told me not to bring this up, but I just have to ask you..."

She looked at him inquiringly. "What's wrong?"

"Look, I don't know how else to ask you this. Do you – do you still hate Shayera?"

Wonder Woman's eyes widened in surprise, then she relaxed a little. "Let's sit down somewhere," she suggested.

The two of them walked across the street to the park, where they sat down on one of the benches. "Wally, dear, I'll be frank with you," she said quietly. "To be sure, I'm still upset at the fact that she betrayed us to the Thanagarians, and I was surprised when all of you were so ready to forgive her – even Batman. For a long while I didn't think I could ever forgive her.

"Then one day a few months back, I got a message from my mother, Queen Hippolyta, saying she wanted to see me and to talk. So, we met together, and in little less than an hour I'd told her everything that happened. When she finally responded, she asked a question that I've had to ask myself many times since that meeting."

"What did she say?" asked Flash.

"My mother looked me dead in the eyes and asked me, 'Diana, are you angry with Shayera because you had never expected betrayal from a woman?' As you know, I was born and raised on Themyscera, which does not allow men on its shores, and when I brought you and the others there I was banished – I was never to return there."

Wonder Woman paused for a moment. All that could be heard at that moment was the background chatter of civilians as they passed, some of them commenting on the fact that two members of the Justice League were actually sitting together in their city's park. Then she went on.

"All my life I'd grown up believing that women were the only ones that could be trusted, and even after the time I spent as a member of the Justice League I was still wary of men. But when Shayera...did what she did, all my beliefs came crashing down on me. I didn't know what to do, what to think. All I could think was that she betrayed us – or more correctly, she betrayed me, betrayed everything I'd come to believe about her. I've never been able to easily forgive anybody who has wronged me, the way you and the others were that afternoon when we sat together and deliberated on her fate together.

"But when my mother and I continued to talk, she revealed to me that over time, since the day she banished me from Themyscera, there is not a day that she hasn't longed to be able to tell me that I could come home. She was able to forgive my transgression of Themyscera's rule system...why shouldn't I forgive Shayera for her betrayal, as well?

"I thought a lot about what my mother said to me, and after a while I said to myself, 'In the end, Shayera gave up everything she knew in order to save the world and us. She is now an outcast from her home, her people, and we in the Justice League are the only family she has left...if we send her away, too, then she will truly be alone.' I did a lot of soul-searching for myself...and I realized that there are two people who I need to forgive – Shayera for her betrayal, and myself for carrying around so much anger toward her for so long. So, to answer your question...no. I don't still hate her. Not anymore." She looked at Flash out of compassionate eyes. "No matter what happened...she still is and always will be one of the Justice League. And she will always be our friend."

Flash didn't say anything for a long moment. Then he reached out and touched her arm. "Diana...thank you."

She nodded, then stood up. "Well, shall we continue our search? That is, if you're ready."

"Yeah, I'm ready. I'm always ready!" he declared, his usual cheery grin back on his face.

In a moment both of them were at the Midway City police station, talking to friendly Commissioner George Emmett. "We're investigating the reports of winged-people sightings," Wonder Woman explained. "From what we understand, the first few reports started here in Midway City."

"Yes, that's right," said Comm. Emmett. "The very first case was that case when those thieves tried to break into the museum and were apprehended by the mystery winged figure. Of course, these crooks were well-known to our department and it was a fact that all of them frequently got high on cocaine, so we figured that they'd mistaken one of the winged statues for a real person, since that was how we found them – the statue right on top of them at the museum entrance. But a few days later several more sightings popped up around the city."

"What did you think?" Flash asked.

"Well, due to the fact that the Thanagarians had taken over the Earth last year, we naturally thought it was a repeat invasion," said the commissioner. "At least, for a while we did. But then a couple of months back, when the winged person showed up and saved our mayor from being killed by a hitman, she became our city's resident superhero."

"She?" asked Flash. "It was a woman?"

"Oh, to be sure," replied Comm. Emmett. "And there was one other thing that assured us that she wasn't one of those Thanagarians – her wings were made of metal; they weren't real. Of course, the way they functioned, you'd think they were the genuine feathers."

Flash and Wonder Woman looked at each other with wide eyes.

TIME: 11:54 a.m.

PLACE: Keystone City Hospital

"My, we sure are getting a lot of superhero celebrities today, aren't we?" the doctor chuckled as she checked Superman's eyes. "Well, I've done a thorough physical of your body, and there is absolutely no trace of Kryptonite poisoning anywhere. You should be grateful that Batman and your other friend brought you here when they did."

"Yes, I am," Superman laughed. "Thanks a lot, doc."

He stepped out of the office and found Jimmy waiting outside the door. "You all right, Superman?" he asked.

"Yes, Jimmy, I feel fine now," Superman assured him.

"Hey, man...I'm sorry they got to you like that," said Jimmy, hanging his head a little.

"Don't blame yourself, Jimmy," Superman placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You had no idea what they were going to do or even that they would have kidnapped you. But I'm starting to think that that beeper I gave you may not have been a good idea after all. So from now on, anytime you want to call me, just give your special whistle as loud as you can. You remember how it's done?"

"Do I!" Jimmy put his fingers to his mouth and blew, letting out a shrill blast that fairly startled everyone nearby.

"Yeah, that's it," Superman said warmly. "Now, I gotta take you back to Metropolis..."

"Aw, don't worry about that," said Jimmy. "I've got relatives here in Keystone who I was gonna come up and see, anyway. Remind me to take you to their house and introduce you one of these days. Well, see ya!" And with a cheery laugh he walked down the corridor and was soon out the hospital door.

"He's a cheerful guy, isn't he?" said a voice behind Superman. Turning, he came face-to-face with Green Lantern and J'onn J'onzz.

"He's a friend in need," Superman answered.

"Well, I'm ready to leave the hospital now," said Lantern. "I'm ready to take on those villains now!"

"Same here," said J'onn. "We should call the others and get ourselves ready. Now that we fully know what we are up against, we should strike while the iron's hot."

"Very well, then," said Superman. "Let's assemble the rest of the gang!" And with that, the trio exited the hospital and flew off into the sky.

(neomage is sitting quietly, contemplating, as his comrades come up to him)

ZOOM: Hey, boss, you OK?

NEOMAGE: I was just going over this chapter, and...I'm seeing Wonder Woman in a whole new light. The way things are turning out, maybe we've been wrong all along...

YUSUKE: You mean the hit's called off now? Oh, damn...

NEOMAGE: I need to go find Wonder Woman and tell her I forgive her...

WONDER WOMAN: It's okay. I forgive you, too.

(Everyone turns to see Wonder Woman emerge from the nearby forest)

DARKSEID: Hey, what do you know – it's her!

NEOMAGE: Wonder Woman, I've been such an idiot...

WONDER WOMAN: There, there...

(Suddenly, from the sky there is a shout)

BATMAN: There they are! Get them!

WONDER WOMAN: OO;; Oh, crap, I forgot I called Batman and all the Amazons of Themyscera to come and save me from you.

NEOMAGE: ;; Well, just one thing to do now...RUN AWAY!!!

(They all stampede away as Wonder Woman's forces chase after them)