Title: Dragons, Demons, and Other Wonders of the Heart (14/??)
Author: Allaine
Disclaimers: DC Comics, Cartoon Network, Bruce Timm, the JLA animated series, etc, etc. No profit intended from my infringement.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Up to the episode "Starcrossed".
Feedback: Please, please, please!
Summary: With five of the seven members of the Justice League in relationships, the Flash is determined to meet someone now. But what will it do to the rep of the self-proclaimed "ladies' man" if he's the last to find love? The sequel you demanded to "Always a Bridesmaid".
Chapter 14
"Well," Flash said, remarkably successful at keeping a grin on his face, "looks like you have doctor's permission to get out of our date. No need for me to feel embarrassed now."
"Flash!" Koriand'r said, surprised. "It's not for another week!" As if to show that she would be in more than adequate condition by then, she straightened in her bed, but a shadow crossed her face and she imperceptibly slipped back down.
He put a hand on her shoulder. "Easy there, Koriand'r," he told her. "Raven says you were about fifteen seconds from meeting X'hal when she healed you - did I say that right?"
"Yes," Koriand'r assured him with a small smile. "You said the name of my people's god very well. You could be an honorary Tamaranean yourself."
"All I need is some golden skin," Flash joked feebly. His eyes still showed his disappointment as he spoke, however. "I spoke to Raven before I came in, Koriand'r. She warned me that while she healed your injuries, your body is still very weak from the injuries Luminus inflicted on you. Maybe in a week, you'll be all right, but I'm not going to drag you out of the Earth's atmosphere and test your strength for some party."
"Luminus," she repeated, her eyes flashing. "Where is he now?"
"The prison infirmary at Stryker's," he said. "Doctors don't think he's waking up any time soon." Flash didn't mention that J'onn hadn't detected Edward Lytner's consciousness inside his body. Wherever his, for lack of a better word, "soul" had been taken by Trigon, J'onn had gotten the impression that it wasn't a very happy place.
"I see," Koriand'r said. "I'm not sorry." But now it was her turn to look disappointed.
"What?"
"I spoke to Ms. Graves earlier," the alien princess told him. "She informed me that I could stay as long as I needed."
Mercy had insisted on keeping "Starfire" at her penthouse. Since all she needed was plenty of bedrest, taking her to an Earth hospital to be gawked at wouldn't make much sense. Superman had told Flash that he couldn't be sure if Mercy's actions were motivated merely by gratitude, or if there was something else involved.
Like Lex Luthor, whose poll numbers had risen five points when the police informed the press that after investigation, Edward "Luminus" Lytner had attempted to murder Mercy Graves and frame Luthor for it. Superman still couldn't shake the feeling that Koriand'r had been some kind of pawn in the whole affair.
Without proof, however, Flash said none of this to Koriand'r. Instead he asked, "Why is that bad?"
"Because," Koriand'r sighed, "my services as her bodyguard have been terminated."
"What?! Just because you're going to be laid up for a week or two - "
"It's not that. She says now that Luminus is no longer trying to kill her, she no longer has need of a super-powered bodyguard." Koriand'r looked worried. "But I know . . ."
"Know what? Koriand'r, what did exactly happen here the other night?" Both Koriand'r and Raven had slept for over twenty-four hours - the one because of her injuries, the other from the strain of both healing Koriand'r and briefly carrying her demon father's essence - before Mercy Graves made indirect contact with the Justice League and informed them the two were awake.
Koriand'r paused for a moment. "Mercy and I were having dinner when Luminus broke in through the front door. He distracted me with three of his solid-light holograms while he entered the room, invisible. I was hit from behind after the holograms were disposed of, and that's the last thing I remember."
"Do you know why he had it in for Mercy?"
"Because of Lex Luthor, of course."
Flash nodded. That much, they knew from Mercy. The question was how he was involved. "Why him?"
"He wanted everyone to think Luthor was behind the murder, so his political career would be over. Something about Mercy's shares of Lexcorp, I believe."
He looked into her guileless face and saw she was a bad liar. "Is that the real reason?"
She nodded calmly. "I'm told the police agree."
Mercy had definitely talked with Koriand'r before he arrived. The alien had been coached. "Fine then," Flash said. He slowly rose.
"Flash, please," Koriand'r said, moving her hand to touch his wrist. "Do you honestly believe I would be involved in anything bad?"
Flash hesitated before shaking his head. "No," he replied.
"Then please leave Miss Graves alone. She has done nothing wrong."
"Except almost get you killed. If Raven hadn't arrived - "
"Then I would be dead. I highly doubt we should be blaming the victim rather than the assassin."
"I guess not." Flash considered pointing out that if Koriand'r had died, Raven would have become her father's puppet, but he didn't know exactly how much Koriand'r knew about Raven's connection to Trigon. Besides, whatever secret of Mercy's Koriand'r was keeping, he wouldn't get it from her today.
"So - you're calling off our date?" Koriand'r asked.
He nodded. "Yeah. Sorry."
"I should be the one saying sorry, Flash," she said. "You must have been looking forward to this for a long time. Raven tells me you have pursued me for quite some time."
Flash blushed a little. "She told you that?"
Koriand'r smiled and nodded. "She speaks extremely highly of you. You know how I appreciate the time you've spent with her."
"Yeah well, I think pretty highly of you yourself. You're the first person I've never managed to catch up with."
She chuckled. "What will you do with your party?"
"Well, everyone's already said they're attending, so I can't exactly call it off. Guess I'm going stag."
Koriand'r looked confused. "A deer?"
Flash blinked. "Oh, no, no, I mean I'm going alone."
"Oh! . . . Flash, maybe I have an idea?"
"What?"
"Why not take Raven instead?"
"Raven?" he repeated. He'd never even considered it. "Well, uh, she's never struck me as someone who likes parties."
"You're right, but those were other planets where she was surrounded by strangers. She'll be among friends at your party, and no matter how strongly she assures me that she's used to being alone, a Tamaranean like myself could never understand how anyone would like to be alone." Koriand'r smiled at him. "Surely you enjoy her company. You weren't spending time with her just to impress me?"
"Absolutely not," Flash said with a straight face. Okay, so maybe in the beginning - but the quiet empath had grown on him.
"And don't you think she's pretty?"
Raven's face and petite body seemed to always be enshrouded in a hooded cloak or a sari, so she'd never turned heads while they'd been outside. But from what he'd seen of her, Flash acknowledged that she was indeed pretty. Her best feature was her luxuriant hair, which unfortunately always seemed to be her most hidden feature.
Funny how he'd never thought about her looks. Maybe because Raven couldn't help but fade into the background next to the taller, more voluptuous Koriand'r. God knew, Raven preferred to be in the background.
"Then why not? Wouldn't you both rather be together than alone?"
Flash scratched his head. Maybe - Koriand'r was right.
Unfortunately, his JL communicator chose that moment to awaken.
Mercy stared into her coffee mug. She'd taken a couple days off from work after the Luminus affair, and she'd spent much of it sleeping fitfully. Her coffee was so strong, and so dark, that it almost resembled the shadows that had accumulated the other night above that friend of Starfire's.
She shivered, even with the warmth of the coffee emanating through the ceramic mug and into her hands. Mercy would never forget the glimpse she'd gotten from inside those shadows. She'd seen a place - if that was what Hell was like, then she was going to live a better life.
Mercy snorted. For someone like her, that wasn't possible. Even now she lied with every breath. Lied to the Justice League and the police about her relationship with Luminus. (And if the police managed to find Lytner's hideout, and more importantly the evidence he had kept of their arrangement, she'd be in a different hell called prison.)
Lied to Starfire about her relationship with Luminus, more importantly. And now the Tamaranean lied to protect her. Mercy had informed her that she would be giving Luthor his money. Lytner had nearly killed Starfire. Who knew what he'd do next?
She should have given Luthor what he wanted, when he wanted it. Her pride had stopped her. Because of her pride, she now had to live with the guilt of Starfire almost dying for her.
Mercy had manipulated her employee and almost gotten her killed. In other words, she'd done exactly what Luthor had done to her, even after she swore she was better than him. Mercy and Luthor deserved each other.
Starfire - Koriand'r had been a rare friend, too.
Mercy heard the shuffling of feet, and she paled when she looked up and saw Raven stumbling in. "Shouldn't you be in bed?" she asked nervously.
Raven looked up from under her hood, and even though she had only two eyes, not three, they were no less piercing as they looked at Mercy. "You're hiding something," she said accusatorily.
Mercy flinched. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"I'm an empath. I sense things about people. Before I passed out, I felt you. You're not telling them something."
"Ask Starfire," Mercy muttered, thinking Raven spoke of the cover story the two women had fed to the police.
"You're not telling Koriand'r something," Raven retorted.
"You presume to judge me?" Mercy snapped.
It was Raven's turn to tremble slightly. "Great evil lives inside of me," she admitted. "But I will allow no one to harm Koriand'r, including you!"
Mercy had a sudden image of being pulled into the darkness the way Luminus had been, and her hands shook.
Raven must have picked up on that feeling, because she sighed heavily and turned slightly away. "I would not do that," she whispered. "That was my father. I will not allow him to do that again."
"Well, you're both safe from me, okay? I fired Starfire. Our relationship ends as soon as she's fit enough to walk out my door," Mercy said crisply.
"Koriand'r says you are her friend," Raven replied softly. "The relationship ends when she chooses to, not when she no longer works for you."
Mercy now looked away. "She has better friends."
"Yes."
There was a red blur in the kitchen that blew back Mercy's hair and Raven's hood. When it was gone, Raven was astonished to find she had a piece of paper in her hand.
Mercy stared at her. "What just happened?"
"Flash," she said. "He left me this." She opened up the paper, and gasped upon reading it.
"Raven,
Wonder Woman is in trouble.
Flash.
P.S. What are you doing the night of the thirteenth?"
Diana couldn't help it. She screamed as the coils squeezed her body ever more tightly. The scales had felt like they were made of diamond, and she'd been unable to dent them with her fists.
"And here you said you would tell us nothing!" Cecrops said in mock astonishment. He sneered at her and, pulling a fist back, struck her across the face.
She looked back at him with flat eyes. "I'll tell you something else - that wasn't much of a punch."
Cecrops roared and flung her across the Athenian square in front of the museum where Wonder Woman had foiled a robbery only minutes earlier. Then she'd discovered the thieves had been only lures, paid by the creatures who had then ambushed her, turning this section of the Greek capital into a ghost town.
Cecrops dragged himself slowly in the direction he'd hurled her. He was a well-muscled man, completely naked from the waist up. From the waist down, however, he wasn't even human. Below the waist he had the body of a dragon, and he used his powerful trunk-like legs to pull his massive scaled body toward her. He'd used the huge tail that comprised most of his length to encircle and trap her, then thrown her aside.
Diana slowly rose to her feet. He was but one of the beasts to be resurrected from the Greek legends her mother had told her when she was younger, but they'd scattered while she fought with Cecrops. She looked about herself warily. Where were they?
A shrill cry greeted her from behind, and she screamed as she felt needle-like teeth sink into her shoulder as something latched onto her back. Short bristles covered its entire body. Diana swung her left fist behind her, connecting with the face of the monster attacking her. It let go, and she swiftly pivoted, grabbed it, and hurled it into Cecrops' path.
"Careful, Myrmidon," Cecrops growled as he narrowly dodged the bright red projectile.
Myrmidon's bulbous eyes glared at Diana with hatred as the misshapen creature, a mere three feet in height, pulled itself to its feet. Long antennae jutted from its forehead. It licked her blood from its thin teeth. "You shouldn't have let her go," it hissed.
"Shut up, both of you," Diana snarled. "What do you want from me?!"
"Where is she?!" Cecrops shouted at her.
"Who?" Diana demanded. "You keep saying 'she'. I have no idea who you're talking about!"
"Our mistress," Myrmidon retorted. "She who told us to wait for her. She who told us it was Wonder Woman's doing if she never returned. So you will tell us now. Tell us where Circe is!"
Diana suddenly understood. Circe's greatest power was her ability to magically transform men into beasts. These creatures - they had been men once! Only now, they'd been turned into hybrid creations of Circe. Cecrops was half-dragon, while Myrmidon had evidently been crossed with some kind of fire ant.
"Hey, hero! I thought you were supposed to save people!"
She turned slightly so that she could see who had called out to her, without turning her back on Cecrops and Myrmidon. Diana was greeted with the sight of her other two attackers - plus a man and a woman who they'd pulled from whatever hiding place they'd selected.
To the right was Erysichthon, an enormous man with a blue twelve-pointed star tattooed over the left side of his face. He towered over eight feet in height, but that was nothing compared to his immense girth. His bulk was so enormous that he must have weighed over nine hundred pounds, and his legs were encased in sturdy metal casings that allowed him to walk while supporting his weight. His vaguely porcine snout suggested that Circe had mixed his DNA with that of a pig.
The creature that held tightly onto their two captives was covered in a coarse white fur that was his only clothing, while Myrmidon and Erysichthon wore torn leather trousers and vests. What had once been an ordinary man and an ordinary wolf had become a humanoid wolfman with long, sharp claws and a mouth full of teeth. Correction - two mouths. Circe had crowned her achievement by giving him two heads, both of which looked at Diana with orange eyes in which both intelligence and savagery lurked. He called himself Geryon.
"Let them go!" Diana warned Geryon now. "If you stop now, perhaps the Justice League can find a way to turn you back into the men you once were!"
"Piss off, Wonder Woman!" Erysichthon sneered. "What makes you think we want what you offer us? We've got more power now than we ever dreamed of. Face it, sister - we're a combination of animals at their best, and humans at their worst!"
Diana took a step closer, but Geryon pulled the woman prisoner closer so that his teeth grazed her neck, and Wonder Woman stopped.
"Hey, give me one of those, Geryon," Erysichthon pleaded hungrily. "You don't need two."
"Which one you want?"
"The bigger one, of course."
"Yeah, well, you can have him. You know where my preferences lie." He shoved the man into Erysichthon's arms, and lazily ran a claw from his free hand along the throat of the woman he still held onto.
"Circe is in custody," Diana informed them. "You will never find her." That was the truth. As long as Circe knew that Audrey and Diana were lovers, and was a risk to use that information against them, she would remain trapped on Themiscyra, watched at all times by her mother and the other Amazons.
"We've got time," Cecrops told her.
"Maybe I'll have a snack while you change your mind," Erysichthon suggested. He put a hand on each of his captive's shoulders and turned the man to face his enormous body.
Then, impossibly, his jaw dropped. And dropped.
As Diana watched, frozen in horror, Erysichthon's mouth swelled to over six feet in diameter, almost blocking him from view. The Greek man screamed, but was unable to prevent Erysichthon from cramming his entire body into his mouth. Greedy, piggish hands shoved the prisoner into his craw until he vanished from view.
"NO!" Diana screamed, momentarily forgetting the other captive. She flew at Erysichthon.
Unconcerned, Erysichthon's gut bulged for an instant as he closed his mouth.
Diana never reached him, however, as she was struck in mid-flight by an unusual projectile. The Fiat automobile sent her flying into a nearby store.
Myrmidon grinned nastily and blew the Amazon a kiss. "Guess I forgot to tell her I can lift fifty times my own weight."
Erysichthon burped and spit a few bones out. "Excuse me."
"You're excused," Geryon replied.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
Diana smashed out of the building, once again airborne. This time she was too quick for them to expect it, and like a torpedo she struck Cecrops in the face with her doubled fist. He lurched back violently. The only reason he didn't fall was that his huge lower body didn't allow him to.
This couldn't help him, however, as she quickly discovered his upper torso wasn't nearly as well-protected as his scaly bottom. She punished him with blows to his chest until she felt fat hands strike her powerfully from behind in her kidneys. Diana dropped to the ground.
She looked up at Erysichthon's leering face. "When I consumed him," he said conversationally, "I added his strength to mine, just like all the others before him. Oh, and Geryon's gone for now, but he wanted to thank you for giving him the time to take care of his business." Then he planted his incredibly heavy boot in her back, driving her arms out from under her.
"Business?" she growled as she strained to throw his weight off.
"Geryon fancies himself something of the ladies' man, Wonder Woman."
Shocked, Diana felt her adrenaline kick into overdrive. "Hera, give me strength!"
Erysichthon yelped in surprise as he felt himself thrown backwards. He cried out as he found himself on his back and unable to get up, like a giant tortoise.
Diana flew in the direction Geryon had been standing, only to encounter him standing a couple hundred yards away. The woman had been cast aside, unconscious. "You're utterly vile, all of you," she said, her cheeks red with exertion.
"What if I told you that I decided I'd much rather be with you than the little piece of pastry?" he asked, gesturing at the hostage as his other claw meandered toward the thing between his legs.
She looked down, then back up at his faces. "You disgust me," she whispered, even as she felt the others approaching her from behind with enough speed that the ground shook.
"Face it, Wonder Woman," Geryon pointed out. "You're all alone, and you're up against the Slaughterhouse Five."
"Five?" Diana asked.
Hearing something, she looked to her right. They were standing in an intersection, and rushing toward her were what looked like a man on horseback. But the horse was moving much faster than any normal horse could have moved.
Its speed was such that she wasn't able to react in time. The horse's front hooves buried themselves in her chest as she turned, knocking her twenty feet backwards. She crashed through the plate-glass windows of an automobile dealership and was stunned when her head impacted with a car door with incredible velocity.
So she couldn't know at first that her attacker had not been a man on horseback, but rather a man with a horse's back. "Wonder Woman!" the centaur called out as he pulled out an oversized bow. "I am Nessus, leader of my band! But my intellect, great as it may be, is only a shadow of Circe's. It is she who will lead us to destroy ALL in our way! You will tell us, and you will die today."
Diana shook her head, trying to clear her mind. "Screw you," she muttered, too quietly for him to hear.
Nessus pulled an arrow from the quiver on his back and nocked it. The head was too complicated to be an ordinary arrowhead. "Or don't tell us, and everyone in this city dies."
He let his arrow fly. The explosive arrowhead impacted with the car Diana had struck, and the explosion destroyed the interior of the showroom while knocking Diana back outside. She landed in a boneless heap.
"Quickly!" Nessus ordered, gesturing to the others. "Cecrops, immobilize her before she recovers! The rest of us shall soften the Amazon."
Despite his false modesty, the others obviously followed him when Circe wasn't there. Cecrops swiftly whipped his tail about and, for the second time that day, wrapped it around her body so that her arms were pinned to either side. Her eyes snapped open and she groaned as she fought the relentlessly tightening dragon's body.
But Myrmidon casually picked up a nearby VW minibus and tossed it so that it landed on her head. Cecrops only laughed as the wreckage slid off his scales, but Diana began to tire as Erysichthon and Geryon traded turns punching her in the face. She'd cracked a rib or two, and probably fractured her jaw so that it seemed to no longer respond to her commands. She probably couldn't tell them where Circe was if she wanted to.
Not that she'd ever talk.
Nessus made his way over, surefooted amongst the rubble. He had a second arrow pointed at Diana's heart. "Where is she?" he demanded.
Diana didn't even look at him. She saw the helicopter high above them, undoubtedly capturing the entire scene on camera. She wondered if Audrey was seeing this. She hoped not. This wasn't the sort of thing she'd ever wanted Audrey to see. To some extent, the Kasnian princess had never really feared for Diana's safety before. Audrey had always been sublimely confident that Diana would always return to her.
This innocence was about to be lost.
"Excuse me, but can I have a horsey ride?"
Nessus whirled around, surprised as he felt someone tug on his tail like it was a bell-pull. "What?!"
The Flash wasn't smiling for once. "Say h'lo to my leetle friend." And he buried his fist in Nessus' nose.
Superman moved so fast that Geryon didn't have time to see him coming. The hero hit him so hard that the wolfman was knocked a whole two blocks. He didn't even bother with Erysichthon. He just turned to Cecrops and began pulling at his reptilian coils with such might that Diana felt her bonds loosening.
"You shoulda taken care of me first," Erysichthon snarled hatefully. He grabbed Superman's shoulder and lowered his jaw, Superman seemingly unaware of the danger as he pulled at Cecrops' tail.
Instead of swallowing the Kryptonian, however, Erysichthon found himself eating an electronically charged projectile that had been hurled from above. Hawkgirl's aim had been true, and he screamed as his entire body almost turned blue from the crackling electricity that coursed through his entire body.
Myrmidon was equally frustrated as a blast from Green Lantern's ring shot him out of the air just as he was about to jump onto Superman's back. He shrieked as he hit the ground with great force.
Nessus grew rapidly more enraged as he attempted to locate the Flash with his arrows, but the Flash moved so quickly in a circle around him that he was unable to pinpoint his location. All Nessus received were a host of blows to his body. "Stand still!" he roared, his horse's legs almost becoming entangled as he swerved left and right.
"Guess you're not so fast without a running start," Flash taunted him as he stopped for a few seconds, twenty feet away.
"There you are!" Nessus crowed as he fired a second arrow with surprising speed.
No matter how fast his arrow flew, however, it wasn't nearly as fast as the Flash, who was gone in an instant - revealing Myrmidon standing somewhat dazedly behind him.
"Oh sh-" Myrmidon whispered.
The explosion turned the antlike creature into a flaming ball that flailed about for a second or two before stopping.
Meanwhile the Flash leapt onto the surprised Nessus' back. He grabbed the bow out of Nessus' hands and wrapped it around the centaur's neck, pulling back tightly. Nessus reared back on his hind legs as he grabbed futilely at the bow.
Cecrops swayed drunkenly as Superman rocked his head left and right with powerful punches. "Must - retreat - " he slurred.
"I'm on it, I'm on it," Erysichthon muttered as he was pushed onto his back by Green Lantern, who had turned his ring's beam into a bulldozer blade. With clumsy fingers he wrenched a purple gem from his pants pocket and mumbled a few words in ancient Greek.
Flash felt his hold on Nessus slipping suddenly. "What the - "
In a purple flash, all of their opponents vanished.
Superman looked around, bewildered. "Where did they go?"
Hawkgirl walked over and picked up her mace from where Erysichthon had stood a moment ago. "Well, that was fast."
"Not fast enough for Wonder Woman," Green Lantern said as he kneeled over her.
"I'm fine," Wonder Woman mumbled through her fractured jaw. She sat up, but then put a hand to her temple. "Ow."
"We'd better get you to the medlab at the Watchtower," GL told her.
"No," she said. She spoke slowly so that she would be understood. "Take me to Audrey."
"Diana, you're in bad shape. You need treatment."
"I'll heal," she said, shrugging. "Audrey has heard about this by now. She'll be frantic. I need to - "
"You need J'onn to take a look at you, Diana," Superman told her. His voice dropped. "It's a good thing he contacted us. Looked like they were giving you a little trouble."
"Only a little," she said, too proud to admit it was worse.
"I'll tell Audrey myself that you're all right," he said quietly. "If you go to her looking like this, it won't help matters."
Diana looked down. "I guess you're right."
"John - "
"Don't worry, Superman, John and I will take her," Hawkgirl said as she helped Diana to her feet. She put one of Diana's arms across her shoulders. "You just worry about her friend back in Metropolis, or she'll hurt you a lot worse."
He smiled and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"What about you, Flash?" Green Lantern asked as he generated a sphere around Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman.
"I'd better wait here for now," Flash said. "Let the authorities know what happened. Um, Diana? What did happen, anyway?"
She raised her head. "Creations of Circe. We won. They'll be back."
"Oh. Okay. At least we don't have to worry about one of them any more."
Nessus clip-clopped painfully into the chamber Circe had told him of, should something happen to her. He stopped and stared at the giant mound of dirt. He heard scratching noises coming from within. "Myrmidon is dead. Who will replace him?"
For a minute, he heard only the sounds of a violent struggle. Finally, a hideous creature with a lumpy spine and eyes that rotated in two directions at once emerged from the top. He dropped to the floor, bloodied but exultant. "I am Myrmidon," it rasped.
"Good. If we are to find our mistress, we have much to do."
To be continued . . .
Author's Note - Diana's attackers are based not on DC villains, but on Greek myth. Nessus was the centaur who Hercules slew, believing Nessus was abducting his wife. Myrmidons were warriors who served Achilles. Legend has it they were created from ants after a plague. Erysichthon was a Greek man who was cursed with eternal hunger by the goddess Demeter after he chopped down one of her sacred trees. He later died when he attempted to eat his own flesh. Cecrops was said to have been one of the first kings of Athens, a man above the waist and a dragon below it. Geryon was a man with three heads, arms, and legs. Hercules had to kill him in order to complete one of his Labours. Geryon owned vast flocks of sheep, and he herded his sheep with the help of a two-headed sheepdog.
Fans of my Gargoyles fics will recognize Geryon as the monster who raped Demona in Wolf at the Door. This is an AU version of that character.