Sorry for delaying, was swamped with notices and reminders from college. … I promise that I'll update sooner after this.
Btw, ldypebsaby, ccabello, No Name… love ya guys! Mwah! Thanks for your reviews. XD
Enjoy!
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She flew aimlessly toward the waning sun, her blue eyes fixed on the orange horizon. Knowing that she might worry or upset her teammates by leaving without any notice, she didn't care much. She only needed to escape from the Justice League business, needed to evade the inevitable, curious inquiries of her colleagues if they see her puckered brow.
J'onn would definitely ask about her. But she couldn't face him. Not now. She needed time to reflect, she needed peace from mortal chaos.
As soon as she landed on Themyscyra's sandy shore, she was immediately greeted by glinting smiles from her sisters who were previously pacing towards their princess. She instantly forgot her grief and returned their smiles with her own dimpled grin and a few cheerful greetings.
Without warning, a high-pitched squeal reverberated across the beach and everyone who was present instantly scowled and stood in fighting stance; Diana's arms were poised high above her chest, her sisters' strong hands ready on their hilts and spears.
And then, out of nowhere, something black landed on Diana with a blinding whoosh. Diana fell back in surprise, and when she looked up, she happily hugged the brunette who was currently sitting on top of her.
"Troia!" When Diana reluctantly let go of her sister, Troia stood up and helped Diana up.
"And for a moment I thought that I was about to battle against a menacing squirrel that relishes Amazonian meat," Diana joked. Troia then mischievously raised her brow.
Diana quickly added, "Which is highly daft of anything like it to dare bare its teeth upon me."
After saying this, Diana appraised her sister thoroughly. Troia, also known as Donna Troy, was more beautiful than the last time Wonder Woman remembered her. Diana saved Donna from a burning village when she was but a little girl and brought her to Themyscyra, where Donna was later considered as an Amazon and was bequeathed unparalleled strength.
Donna had thick, silky black hair like Diana's, and her eyes, halter-top, and tight jeans were just as dark as her long mane. Diana gave her a sister a generous pat on the back, then pulled her into a hearty embrace once more.
"You look beautiful."
Donna's eyes were beginning to well up. "You don't know how much I missed you these past years." She looked at Diana. "I've always been waiting for you."
Diana's eyes softened. "Well, it's great to be back."
Uproarious cheers instantly rang everywhere; her fellow warriors laughed, patted Diana's back lovingly, and some dared to break free from their hard shells just to hug their returned, acclaimed warrior.
When their jolly roars died down a little, Diana saw her mother walking towards her, her face beaming with bliss and pride.
"Welcome back, my child." Queen Hippolyta opened her arms to take Diana in a long, hard embrace.
After a teary-eyed moment, Hippolyta murmured in Diana's ear, "Let's go inside." Then she bellowed to her dear warriors, "Let's have a feast to commemorate the gods for bringing our princess back home safely."
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Diana couldn't help feeling so welcomed and loved as plates full of roasted boar and freshly grilled codfish were heaped in front of her. She even had to persuade them that they should stop pushing forkfuls of meat in her face; Donna kept doing that at least.
"C'mon, sister, you have to eat something!" Donna held the fork in front of Diana pursed lips. "Open wide…" she sang teasingly.
"You do realize that you're making Mother flush with embarrassment just by seeing your childish manner." Diana arched her brow. But she accepted Donna's offer with a wide mouth.
"All right! Now…" Donna was now searching for the kishke.
Savoring the moment that she was momentarily free from Donna's agonizing insistence, Diana turned to her mother, smiling.
"So… how is the Man's World so far?" Hippolyta asked.
"Other than predictable chaos overwhelming it constantly…" Diana frowned a bit. "It's fine."
Hippolyta mused over this for awhile. "You don't seem too happy about it."
Diana tried to hide the discomfort from her face and voice by smiling, but it must have looked like she was straining too hard because her mouth began to hurt, and her mother's brows were knitted together in anxiety.
"Diana… You don't seem like yourself…" Queen Hippolyta attempted to smooth Diana's hair comfortingly. But Diana turned away.
"I'm fine, Mother. Don't worry about me." Diana was about to lift her fork when Donna suddenly wailed, "Halt there!"
Perplexed, Diana only stared at her sister.
"First, you have to try this." Donna pushed the spoonful of Shepherd's pie into Diana's mouth, making Diana choke back a little.
When Diana finally calmed her breathing, she exclaimed, "Donna!"
"Whoops! Sorry, I got carried away," she said as she blushed slightly. "The kishke was gone, but I think this is a similar comparison to the next best thing." Donna flashed Diana a wild grin, instigating Diana to forgive her sister instantly.
As Diana gulped down some wine, she could sense her mother staring at her again. So, out of impulse, she effortlessly slid her fork to the floor with the sweep of her arm. A clichéd yet ingenious trick she learned from Wally.
"Oh dear. Sorry about that." She nudged her head ever so slightly toward the floor, looking at Donna intently so her sister could follow her gaze. But Donna just kept stuffing her mouth with pie.
When her head was under the table, she blew out a sigh, then pinched Donna's leg.
"OW!" Thankfully Donna's head appeared under the table, her face three inches apart from a scowling Diana. Donna was about to question Diana but Diana pushed a finger to Donna's lips. Diana then pointed towards the door.
Donna got the message and quickly sat up, finding her mother and sisters staring at her quizzically.
"Um… an ugly, harmless rat bit me," she explained. When some warriors were about to peep under the table, she stopped them by exclaiming, "But I'm fine. It's gone…"
They were still looking at her; some of them resuming their dinners, but others were still focused on Donna's blushed face and Diana's bent form.
"Diana?" Hippolyta asked. "Are you—?"
"You know what? I'm full," Donna interrupted when she noticed her mother lifting the white tablecloth to check on Diana.
Hippolyta slowly let go of the white cloth and exchanged puzzled glances with some of her top warriors. They saw that Donna's plate was still overflowing with mixed delicacies, and despite Donna's striking form, she was a hearty foodie.
Hearing Donna's excuse, Diana nearly poked Donna's leg with the fork. She instead sat up, and luckily everyone at the table was staring at Donna.
Sensing pitiful trepidation creeping up, Donna quickly countered, "I'll finish my food later. But now…" she glanced at her sister. "Diana needs some fresh air since… it's such a lovely day."
Neglecting confused curiosity from her mother, Donna grabbed Diana's hand, and then stormed out of the room, ignoring murmurs from behind.
When they were out of eyeshot, Donna eyed Diana suspiciously. "Okay… what was up with that?"
They stood in the midst of protective palm trees, the knolls providing perfect cover from intruders. Diana looked from side to side, then said, "Your excuses are just as bad as your airborne dive."
Donna scowled at Diana. "Well, you caught me by surprise." Donna regrettably rubbed her flat belly. "In addition, I'm still hungry. It was so hard thinking on an empty stomach… and a throbbing leg." Donna rubbed her leg.
Diana smiled at this. "I'm sorry. I got carried away."
"Obviously." Donna then looked at Diana with a worried expression. "Mother's right. You are not yourself lately. Something bothering you?"
"Actually," Diana blew out a frustrated sigh, covered her face with her hands. She sat down on a rock that was fixed next to a shaded tree, then she continued tentatively, "You remember Batman?"
"How could I not?" Donna sat next to her sister. "When I was part of the Titans, he was one of our mentors. And the grouchiest man I've ever met." She sighed happily. "Yup, those were the days…"
After the Titans parted ways, Donna still never lost contact with them. She smiled in spite of herself. "I hear Robin's in Bludhaven…?"
"You heard right."
"I wish I could visit them… but Themyscyra's my priority now. The giants and Cyclops are still chasing after our home, and…"
As Donna began blabbering about the recent events that have transpired in Themyscyra, Diana tuned Donna out. As she sat on the rock, pondering what to do next, thinking if she had made the right decision of surprising Themyscyra with her unexpected visit, Donna forcibly shook Diana.
"You're not listening to me!" Donna whined.
Blinking her eyes several times, Diana looked at Donna with a puzzled expression. Then she apologized. "It's just that… I've had a tough time. I thought that coming home would make me feel better."
When Diana didn't disclose any of her reasons, Donna asked after an uneasy minute, "Batman dumped you, didn't he?"
Shocked beyond measure, Diana gawked at Donna. "How did you…?"
"Puh-lease." Trying to avoid Diana's discomfiting gaze, she clicked her tongue annoyingly. "I've been keeping touch…"
"With who exactly?" Diana asked brusquely.
"Oh c'mon… I was sworn never to tell, otherwise, I'll never find out if Dick actually proposed to Babs yet…" But she closed her mouth instantly when Diana scowled at her.
After a long sigh and more clicking sounds with her tongue, Donna admitted, "The Flash."
Diana made a mental note to hunt and gun down Wally the instant she returns to the Watchtower.
Composing herself, Diana asked, "You don't sound disturb about the news. If Mother finds out about this, she would have already flown to the Batcave to terrorize the Batman."
"And won't that bring such satisfying vengeance?" Donna giggled at the prospect of Batman cowering behind his massive computer, evading Hippolyta's apocalyptic rage and razor-sharp sword of doom.
Diana smiled too. "But I would rather be the one who brings chaos to the Batman," she said half-jokingly.
Donna's eyes glinted mischievously. "Ah… I see carnal vendetta coming this way. Oh what great day to think up nasty plots to thwart the grim spoilsport." Donna twitched her lips from side to side as series of vengeful plots began storming into her head.
Diana shook her head as if resigned to whatever ploy Donna had in mind. But she also knew that seeking vengeance, whether harmless or anarchic, always brought misery in the end. And yet, she had to admit that Donna's proposition sounded like fun…
"Cupid!"
"What?"
"Cupid! You know, Venus' son, Psyche's husband. He's perfect!" Donna rubbed her hands together with devious intent. "He's the perfect channel for getting back at the Batman."
Diana thought about this. She and Cupid were friends back then, but ever since she joined JL, she lost connection with her celestial friends. Her past close friends were namely Hermes, Artemis, and Cupid.
Looking back, she even remembered being invited to the commended, sacred union of Cupid and Psyche, where Diana was one of the main witnesses as Psyche—she was once human—ate a slice of ambrosia and became immortal.
Suddenly, a memory she had thought forgotten after years of detachment sprung up like a stray weed. And then she quickly turned to Donna, only to see that she was grinning at Diana roguishly. "Oh yeah… Now you remember."
Diana couldn't resist the temptation to grin with her sister. "But how did you know? Only a few, intimate gods, goddesses, and supernatural beings know about Cupid's other power…?"
"Oh sister. I've made friends in high places. And one of them is… not Cupid."
Diana almost wrung Donna's neck for the reason that Donna was suspending her in suspense.
"It's Psyche," Donna said. "We're like this." She joined her index and middle fingers together. "We're like… girlfriends!"
Diana laughed. "Okay, okay, I get it."
After a moment of excited silence, Diana said, "And I almost thought that you were suggesting the more widely-known power…"
"Oh c'mon… that was so last millennium. It's high time that the Man's World… or rather, one of them learns that Cupid doesn't just carry love arrows."
Diana smiled in agreement. "It's true. Cupid may not seem like it, but his rarely used method is just as potent as Zeus' thunderbolt."
Determined, Diana stood up, rested her fists on her hips. "Shall we now tell Mother that we're going on a short trip to Olympian suburbia?"
"The sooner we tell her, the better."
The sisters abruptly darted towards Hippolyta's temple, their wide grins never faltering as they made their way to the alluring yet formidable structure that towered above them.
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Annoyed, the Question slammed the table with his fists, careful not to hit his defunct laptop no matter how alluring it seemed to throw it to the wall. He leaned his head back, and was thankful that the cafeteria was vacant for the moment.
Cursing to himself, he didn't realize that Green Arrow and the Flash emerged through the doorway. He immediately sat up and tried his best to restart the PC.
Ollie and Wally sat together two tables from the Question, the Flash circling his finger around his ear as he glanced in the Question's direction. Ollie tried not to look and laugh out loud at Wally feigning an indifferent façade.
After chuckles and inoffensive mockeries tired the two a bit, Ollie started to mope when he saw Black Canary passing by the door.
"Ah… love. It creates a new man, yet it kills him in the process almost instantly. It sucks," Ollie said as he gulped down his bitter coffee.
"Dude, keep drinking that, you'll turn out to be a bitter, forlorn lover… seriously." The Flash patted Ollie's back amiably. " It's just a petty argument. I'm sure you can sort it out soon."
"That's the problem. I'm not in the mood to apologize first."
"Oh," Flash said. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, then wolfed down his oily fries with a loud gulp.
Then they heard the Question cursing under his breath again, his head slumping on the table next to the laptop. He rubbed his face wearily, sighing heavily when he had to shut down his computer.
Concerned because the Question never before showed any signs of lethargy or fits of frustration, Wally asked from the table, "You okay, dude?"
The Question looked up, then he shook his head. "Love."
He stood up, then walked out of the room, leaving Ollie and Wally to exchange glances.
"You don't think…" Flash began to ask.
"Huntress must have dumped him…" Ollie said without thinking.
Flash leaned his chin on his hand. "I suddenly feel so pathetic."
"You're kidding me. I'm the one who's supposed to say that, not you." After a pause, Ollie continued, "You have two girls chasing after you. You're practically a stud!"
Wally laughed at this. "But I haven't made my decision yet." He looked at Ollie. "At least you and the Question have already encountered love quarrels. I'm not even in the first stage yet!"
Hearing this, Ollie had to agree with Wally. "You've got a point."
"I suddenly wished I didn't say anything. Now I feel more miserable."
"Then pick one already," Wally looked up to see Green Lantern walking towards them through the doorway.
"I can't… it's too hard to decide," he told GL.
"Before you say anything further, does Linda Park know you're Wally West then?" Ollie interjected.
"Nope, just the Flash. We watched the movie in a drive-in theatre. But Beatriz knows about my identity." Wally smiled inwardly. "She likes my hair."
"It's hard not to…" GL unexpectedly chimed in. Wally and Ollie then stared at John with puzzled faces.
"John… aren't girls supposed to be saying that about my hair, not you…?" Wally hesitantly said.
Shaking his head, John stammered, "Huh? Whoa… it's not that! It's just that…"
"You having problems with Vixen?" Ollie asked.
John only shook his head. "Not really… but there's something else." When Ollie and Wally only stared at John, waiting for him to continue, he finally blurted out, "It's… Shayera."
"Oh…"
"That's complex, dude," Flash said after a long pause.
"Don't think I don't know it," John quickly countered.
Stepping into the entryway, Batman saw his three colleagues hunched over their coffees as if the end of the world was imminent. He walked towards their table, his presence still unknown to them.
When none of them looked up, he cleared his throat. "It's not hard to foretell that three of the most prominent superheroes would end up contracting Alzheimer's disease at an early age of sixty for the sole reason that during their spare time, they keep staring stupidly at nothing in particular. What's wrong with the three of you?
As if he was nothing but an illusion, they glanced up at him numbly. Flash then replied, "Love. What else?"
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To be continued (soon)…
You like? No? Why? Review please… XD
Author's note: I'm up for suggestions or comments about Flash's future love. It's up to you guys to choose: Linda or Fire?