Thanks so much for the reviews and favs.
A thousand thanks to Hellacre for her editing.
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Chapter 20 – It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
Day 26
Planet Fred – Fortress of Solely Two – 6:30 a.m.
Diana opened her eyes to a pinkish glow coming from outside, the first early day lights. She tried to roll on her back, but something was blocking her.
"Kal," she whispered with a smile. Their beds were tied together and there they laid naked, spooning. She rubbed her body gently against his just to feel his warmth one last time before getting out of bed for her morning prayers. Oh, yes, the Amazon had a lot to thank the universe for on this day. Hopefully, for a great many days to come, she thought. She washed and started her early rites, not bothering to throw any clothes on. This was another reason to rejoice: their new found intimacy. Their physical relationship was far from perfect, but, at least, they were able to pleasure each other and explore their loved one's body. That was enough… for now. The Princess knew, without any shadow of a doubt, they'd be out of this planet before their bodies demanded more.
This wasn't a moment to be clouded by negative thoughts: after a long time they both found the courage to let their feelings out in the open and they were lucky enough to be able to express those feelings in every possible manner, with some restrictions on the sexual aspect. Personally, in the past the Princess wasn't sure, a time would come when she and Clark could be together at all, and it did. Chances were, the time when they could finally be one in body as they were in soul will also arrive.
After giving her thanks and saluting the rising of the twin stars, Ye Xian' and 'Jun-Li', Diana went inside their refuge to wake Clark up.
He was already awake though still dawdling in bed. "So…I wasn't dreaming. Yesterday really happened."
The Amazon bend to kiss him on the mouth. "Yes, Beloved, it did. And I couldn't be happier for it."
The Kryptonian returned the kiss. "Neither can I." He sat up and put his arms around her waist. "You are a vision I'll never get tired of seeing." He began kissing her flat belly. "Or touching…"
"Mmmm. Stop that." She grabbed his hands and took them off her. "You think you're off the hook because you are sleeping with the coach? Think again, pretty boy." The Princess started to dress into her training gear.
"What I think is I got the short end of our bargain." Clark grunted. "Never mind. Nothing will ruin my mood today." He put on a tank top and Bermuda shorts and went out to wash while singing, " I've got you, babe. Na-na…na-na. I've got you, babe. Na-na…na-na …and electricity too, babe…" As he was drying his face, he added "Today I'll strip our Javelin of all unnecessary wiring and start making an electrical grid inside the Fortress…"
"Be sure to add some lights outside, where we usually eat and spend the nights after dinner." Diana said, then she made that face one has when a brilliant idea strikes, "I know what I'll be doing while you play electrician: I'll build a training obstacle course!"
"A WHAT!? Whoa, whoa! I didn't know I joined the military!" Clark protested.
"No, Beloved. You joined a much more demanding corps: The Amazons! There's no Elite Force as trained and prepared as us, except, maybe, Bruce and his proteges," she stated proudly.
Clark's face showed painful concern. "But I…I…Oh, man!" His arsenal of excuses was empty.
"Come on, Kal! You've made such great progress since we started! It's the natural evolution of your combat training!" Diana pleaded.
"I definitely got the short end of this bargain! Let me warn you, lady, you'll have to do a lot to compensate if I agree on doing this travesty," he pointed indignantly.
"Which I'll do gladly." She licked her luscious red lips. "And then some…"
For a moment, Clark forgot to breathe "Uuh…o-kaaay…" and added firmly, "I'll do it!"
"Excellent! I'm very proud of you, my beautiful Amazon!" She clapped her hands.
"AmazonO!" the Kryptonian corrected her.
"That's…uh…very well then..." She rolled her blue eyes "And, Kal…?"
"Yes, Love?" He adored being able to call her that.
"Be careful what you wish for." Diana threw him his spear and shield and, slapping his bottom, shouted "Let's Gooo!"
Far from sharing her enthusiasm, the Kents' son looked to the sky saying, "I'm sooo screwed!" and started running after her.
Two and a half hours later, with five new bruises and two scratches extra Clark went to the pond to bath, but this time, Diana was with him. They got naked and the Amazon started massaging his aching upper back and shoulders once they got into the water.
"Aw-aw-aw! There! Oh, god, it hurts! Just there!" he groaned.
"I'm very proud of you, Kal. You walked almost twenty yards upside down on your hands. You earned yourself a treat…" she teased, lowering her hand to his waist and lower.
"And I want nothing more than that…but I don't think I ca…Oh, look! Someone is not as tired as I thought!" he exclaimed looking down.
"On, my! Release the Kraken!" she joked. Their bath extended for another hour and a half, until Argos interrupted them.
"Oh, hello big friend!" Diana greeted the beast. They both played with their oversized pet for another half hour. Pushing Clark into the water with his front leg at Diana's command seemed to amuse him greatly. For Diana this was a perfect picture of happiness, only obscured by the kryptonian lack of his usual powers. She still worried on how was this affecting him.
"Kal, are you alright?" she asked.
"I'm great! Why you ask?" he said surprised.
"All this…Us. This is all I've ever wanted from our couple…from you." And then she added, "But I can't help wondering if you are fine. I mean, without your abilities and all…" The Amazon wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I started coping with it, thanks in no small degree to a beautiful and challenging brunette I'm currently seeing. I'm not gonna lie to you: I miss them, especially now that we're together. I'd love to make love to you while we're both flying, but I'm sure the time will come for that to happen. Look at me, the things I'm considering instead of getting us out of here. Truth is, I always wanted to spend time with you alone, and in our regular lives that would be very difficult, without something urgent popping up every time. But here we are. This may be a blessing in disguise for us. One thing Ma and Pa taught me is to do the best possible with what you have at the moment, and I have a lot right now: I have you. I wanted this since shortly after we've met, even if I was stupid enough not to noticing sooner. Together we were always capable of doing the impossible, and this will be no different. I'm with you, how could I ask for more?" He returned her embrace.
"I'm…I'll do anything you need me to…anything." A single tear of emotion rolled down her cheek.
"I know, and I want you to know that so do I. Let's seize the moment. Hmm, it's been too long since last I said I love you, isn't it? I love you, Di." They shared a sweet and passionate kiss.
They returned to the Fortress holding hands and joking with each other.
"Well, I have to get suited up to go back to my orbital search of the ever eluding beacon," said the Princess.
"That's a good title for a movie." Clark moved his hands forming an imaginary billboard, faking an announcer's voice. "'The Ever Eluding Beacon', action, suspense and romance (that's my favorite part) in an astounding Sci-Fi thriller. Soon to play in a theatre near you." And he added, "That reminds me: I have in my computer files a library with 679 movies, most of which I haven't seen yet. Would you like to set a weekly movie night, now that we have power to run videos?"
"That sounds great! I was also thinking about our dancing sessions: now we can play music and dance to a wide variety of rhythms. My music library has 5,877 different songs and tunes," pointed the Amazon. Now that they were intimate, he was helping Diana get ready for her daily excursion. "Kal, is it wrong we're enjoying our time here while there's still a lot of people out there needing our help? I feel so guilty about it."
"I know what you mean. But it's not like we aren't doing anything in our power to return to our normal lives and our duties. We are doing everything we can. Most importantly: we WILL return to our lives and obligations, that's why you're dressed as a Kryptonian. By the way, that suit was a waste on me, you really do it justice, Di. You look like an angel in it."
"Thanks, but you're wrong. You fill it wonderfully, especially in those parts hidden by the cape…" Her hand descended to his butt cheek as her face showed a playful smile.
"Sometimes I think you see me only as a piece of meat…" Clark said, faking indignation.
"But you are! Beloved: you're prime beef (Is this how you say it?) and I'll be the only one to sink my hungry teeth in it! Yummy!" she joked.
He loved this playful side of her "Then I'll bring the gravy. Now, voracious lady, let's go find that damn contraption!". 'In fact,' Clark thought, 'I love every side of you.'
After synchronizing their time pieces and tying her lasso to their waists, they kissed and Diana took off to the skies. When the Amazon was no longer visible, Clark took a few tools he needed and went inside the Javelin to start working on removing the wiring. He liked to work with some music, and, since yesterday they had had the chance to recharge their Ipod's batteries, he put on the ear pieces. "That's more like it," he said, moving his head to Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Look Around". While unscrewing a panel, the screw driver slipped from his hand and fell under a console.
"Damn!" It rolled far from his reach, he would have to get under there to get it. The lasso was hampering his movements, so he took it off his waist and tied it to one of the seats at the Command Center.
"Just for a second" he said to himself. Laying on the floor he barely could touch it with his finger tips, so he had to remove the ear pieces to get his head into the opening, in which it narrowly fitted. After recovering the tool and when he was about to get on his feet again, a bumping sound caught his attention, coming from outside.
"Argos!? Is that you, boy?" he shouted. No answer. He went to the ramp of the ship, grabbing Eunice's hilt. Diana told him to have it strapped to his thigh all the time when she wasn't around, as a precaution.
"Maybe I should had taken a plaser gun…" Clark thought. He looked around. Everything seemed calm. He turned to get back inside when a shadow jumped on him from the Javelin's roof: one of those bird-like creatures, a bigger one this time. Before the Kryptonian had time to unsheathe the sword, the beast grabbed him by his shoulders, sinking its claws in his flesh and taking off with the acquired prey.
"Aaaarrgghh!" Pain. Pain like Clark never felt before. He fought to stay conscious. Long seconds went by, until "Work…through… the…pain…, work through…the pain…Damn you, Bruce!" That was one of Batman's favorite self encouraging phrases.
His right arm wasn't able to reach Eunice. Using his left one, the Last Son of Krypton managed to take the sword out of its scabbard. Since both his shoulders were immobilized, he could only move his forearms. With great difficulty and under excruciating pain, Clark could, stabbing upwards, inflict a wound in the monster's left rear claw. The animal screeched but still wouldn't let go. It tried to grab the sword from its prey with his front smaller claws, but the Kryptonian didn't let go either. Eunice had a strap attached to the pommel and he looped it around his wrist in case his hand got loose from exhaustion. "Diana would kill me if I drop her Eunice," he grimaced. He took a second to look down. They were flying over water, incredibly fast.
"What the hell…?" he said. It seemed to be the ocean, with emerald green waters in which the twin suns reflected vividly. By their position in the sky, Clark inferred it must be noon already. "Di still has forty something minutes left..." he said with resignation. They were rapidly approaching an island .
At that precise moment, the monster moved him slightly forward and, with its beak, struck him violently in the head and the Kryptonian passed out immediately.
He woke up face down in a concave pit of dirt, five yards in diameter. Trying to use his arms to get up the pain put his senses on alert. Both shoulders and head were bleeding and the enormous animal was closing on him from the other side of the pit, with its wings folded. Instinctively he took the sword still strapped to his wrist and began swinging it in the beast's direction, which was trying to strike him in the head again with its beak.
"For some reason you seem unwilling to kill me. Let's take advantage of it, Kent. Come on Big Bird! I'll send you back to Sesame Street!" Somehow his body was dodging every blow from the beast. "Thanks, Di, for your training!" He tried to get out the pit, but when he reached the edge he noticed it was a gigantic cup, made of dirt and on top of a peak, surrounded by nothing more than precipices. Unable to go anywhere else, the Kryptonian jumped forward and with the magical sword he severed one of the beast's "arms". With terrible screech, the animal took off.
Having a moment to organize his thoughts, Clark looked over the edge of the cup he was in. Similar cups were all around him on adjacent peaks. In the nearest lower one, he could see an animal looking exactly like Argos, but with a tenth of his size. "A cub, no doubt". The poor beast was lying on the base of the cup, shaking and rolling over its back, growling painfully. "Hold on, buddy! I'm coming!"
As he was looking for a way to get to the other cup, a nest of sorts, the Man of Tomorrow could clearly see the stomach of the suffering animal being torn open and a dozen nestlings eating their way out and chirping loudly
"God! So that's why it wouldn't kill me: it needed me to host its eggs or whatever until the offsprings reach maturity and feed from the living incubator." Immediately he started looking in his own body for marks of him being inoculated by the monster. Fortunately it didn't have time to do it. "Got to get out of here. Now!" he thought.
Sheathing Eunice, Clark , growling painfully, started climbing down the side of the peak when he saw the mother to be, with the severed extremity covered with a green mud, and another beast a little smaller closing on him fast. Rapidly, he took shelter in a crack in the wall and both animals missed him by mere inches. Knowing he probably wouldn't be able to dodge another attack, the Kryptonian waited for their second attempt and jumped on the smaller one, straddling the beast's back. "I'm sincerely sorry for this!" Taking out the sword once again, he stabbed the giant bird repeatedly. They began falling. The other one, furious and without any intention of keeping him alive this time, rammed towards him with its beak open to bite his head off. In the nick of time, Clark jumped from the dead monster's back and the attacker collided with it, hitting against one of the rock walls.
Falling down at great speed but being familiar with air currents, the Kryptonian used the same trick sky divers use to correct their course before opening the parachute. Keeping perfectly horizontal, he spread his arms and legs to lower his speed, and pointed his head to a close thick group of trees. With a slight inclination and with arms and legs tightly aligned with his torso, his own aerodynamics steered him in the right direction. When he was over the tallest tree he tried to slow the fall again spreading his extremities.
That was all he could do. "Here goes nothing. Diana: I wish I could've said good bye at least. Maybe one last kiss. I love you. I'm sorry. Yyyaaaaaaaahh!" When he reached the upper branches, he tried desperately to grab them, leaving some skin from his palms in the process and dislocating a shoulder. It didn't matter. At this point he was beyond pain. The little, younger branches scratch him lightly, but the thicker ones hit him hard several times, but they effectively dampened his fall. When he touched ground, hard, Clark was still alive, but beaten and unconscious. Should he be a regular human, he'd be long dead by now.
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Planet Fred – Exosphere - 39,000 Km/24,375 miles above surface - 12:33 P.M.
"Another fruitless search. Never mind: we Amazons don't discourage that easily." Diana was expecting the usual pull on the lasso any second now, telling her that her time was running short. Nothing. She checked her watch to be sure. "Strange. I must go back." She started descending a little concerned. "Kal probably got caught up in his work. Still is a little odd coming from him" she picked up her speed. Her concerns grew with every yard she fell.
She touched ground so violently she had to squat and roll to diminish the impact.
"Kal?" No answer. Following the lasso she ran inside the Javelin, only to find the other end tied to a seat. "Oh, Gaea, NO! Kal! KAL!" What could possibly made him take the lasso off him? She ran back outside. Two meters from the right landing array she spotted a few drops of blood. Her keen olfactory sense recognized it as his.
"KAL! WHERE ARE YOU!?" She shouted at the top of her lungs, her blood began rushing in desperation. She lifted from the ground to cover more terrain with her hunter eyes. "This isn't happening. KAL! OH, Gods please, tell me this isn't happening!" she begged. Diana scanned three square miles and saw no sign of him. Going back to where she found the blood, she fell on her knees, with her eyes flooded with tears and screamed.
"Kal, where are you?! KAAAAALLL!"