Chapter 13 - Superman Felled
After saving Artemis from the Shakanar, A-ko realized that both of them were urgently needed in battle. Realizing also that Artemis would be too slow to make much progress by walking or running, A-ko had picked her up and took to the skies, in search of the location of the fiercest fighting.
"You make a most excellent transport! Sort of like a flying mule, only more stubborn," remarked Artemis as she dangled above the battlefield in A-ko's arms.
"Shut up!" the redhead warned, her temper beginning to flare.
"You're unlike your baby sister - whom I see becoming a truly great Amazon someday, and a worthy granddaughter of our Queen." Getting no reaction, Artemis continued. "It must be a comfort to you to know that since you are unable to make it as a true Amazon, you can always earn your living giving rides to small children at birthday parties and county fairs!"
A-ko fought back a sudden urge to drop her unwelcome passenger on her head from five hundred feet. However, she fought against this pleasant thought because it would have hurt her father far more than her annoying passenger. However, it didn't stop her from saying, "Any more of your lip, and I will drop you like First Year French!" '
'No, you will not! We both know you have too much of your sire in you to do that," laughed Artemis, knowing the best way to annoy her source of transportation.
Her bluff and threat thus being called, A-ko could do nothing but bite her lower lip and mumble a string of profanities under her breath in Japanese, English, and Homeric Greek.
"You could have left me behind. I know full well how much you hate me. So, tell me - why are you giving me a lift back to the battle?"
"The first reason is that you're a great fighter whom we need to beat back this damned invasion, even if I loathe you."
"I see that you're not totally stupid - and, the second?"
"I don't trust you alone around my friends!"
Artemis answered with a booming laugh that A-ko found even more annoying (if such a thing was possible) than her usual nasty banter. The tall redhead longed to relieve herself of her annoying burden but saw no way out.
It was only when they were flying over the edge of the battle below that A-ko finally saw her chance for relief – or perhaps, even a little revenge. "Put me down, stupid!" Artemis snapped. "My swords are thirsty for our enemies' blood!"
A-ko smiled as she looked down and saw one of the Amazon farms on the edge of the battle lines. "Your wish is my command," A-ko responded. Then, quicker than death itself, she took her passenger by the back of her armor and power-dived downward.
Swooping over the farm's animal pens, she dropped the Captain of the Queen's Guard headfirst into the filthiest part of a pig sty. Artemis bounced once, and then sank below the surface. She quickly bobbed back up to the surface, and – standing up – shook her mud-covered fist and screamed every curse and oath of revenge her twisted mind could come up with.
"MAN SPAWN!" she screamed in rage. "DAUGHTER OF A DEFILED AMAZON! PRODUCT OF AN ILLICIT UNION BETWEEN AN AMAZON WHORE AND AN ALIEN SPACE SCUM! I DEMAND SATISFACTION! I WILL DRINK YOUR COWARDLY BLOOD AND MOUNT YOUR UGLY HEAD ON MY BEDROOM WALL!"
A-ko heard the insults to both herself and her parents, and listened carefully. Surprisingly, she did not lose her temper. She was simply laughing too hard.
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A loud alarm blared from Cygnan Council Sister Sempra Vigilantia's portable computer control strapped securely to her wrist. The same warning also blared from the wrist of her ever-faithful subordinate Buyabah.
"Silence those damned things before you have every Shakanar on this island down on our heads!" Zazen'lda complained.
"Yes, my Queen, but this situation is bad - very bad," said Vigilantia, powering down her wrist computer.
"Vigilantia is right, my Queen," interrupted Buyabah. "This IS very, very bad!"
"I'd say that our present situation is dire, my Captain," warned Dee, her own wrist computer blaring a similar warning but on the other end of Paradise Island.
"What do you mean?" asked a now-very concerned Napolipolita.
"A massive energy wave is building up; it's about to go off the scale!"
"Where is it coming from?" asked A-ko's mother Diana.
"That's just the point," Deesha tried her best to explain. "It's coming from over -"
"Two hundred miles directly above us, your Majesty," Buyabah reported. "That can only mean a massive weapon discharge of some sort."
"It can only mean that we're about to be hit by a very powerful weapon from orbit," Napolipolita shouted to her Amazon hostess, as they both stood in the middle of the free-for-all surrounding them.
"Clark will prevent it," Diana cried.
"I hope you're right," Napolipolita replied. "Otherwise – resign yourselves to death."
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The door on the side of the Shakanar starship Revenge finally finished opening, and a ball of energy began to expand. It grew larger and larger. Soon, the only thing more impressive than its size was its brightness that seemed to grow exponentially.
The newly appointed captain reported, "Five seconds until weapon discharge, Admiral."
Admiral Borna Chitai did not answer. She was too busy leaning on the rail and looking out the view port at the blue water-covered world below her. "DIE, NAPOLIPOLITA, AND TAKE YOUR HALF-BREED WHELPS TO BURN IN AVERNUS WITH YOU FOR ALL ETERNITY!"
So enthralled was she with thoughts of her revenge, Chitai did not notice that all of the lights on her ship went off as the Omega Beam streaked down towards Earth and the island of Themiscyra below it. She paid no notice to the commotion and havoc being played out behind her. Instead, she stood wild-eyed and laughing in her final act of triumph. Enjoying her vengeance for the death of her only child Tarim, Borna Chitai now watched, eager to witness the total destruction of Paradise Island directly beneath her starship.
It was only a few heartbeats later when she realized that the expected signs of holocaust did not appear. She turned back from the view screen, screaming in an ever-increasing rage. Her shrieks of frustration ended only when the captain told her that their power was totally drained and all engines were offline.
"Switch to auxiliary power!" Chitai shrieked.
"Drained by the Omega Beam, along with our main power," the weapons officer interjected.
Almost frantic, Chitai screamed, "How long before engines restart?"
"Forty minutes, Admiral," the chief engineer reported.
"That will be ten minutes after we burn up, the brand-new captain of the Revenge interrupted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"NO! NO, I REFUSE TO DIE UNTIL I SEE THAT DRUNKEN BITCH AND ALL HER SEED SUFFERING IN AVERNUS FOREVER!" screamed Admiral Borna Chitai.
"That's not very likely to happen now, is it?" the dying Captain Regex answered with her next-to-last breath.
Turning to face the woman she all but disemboweled, Chitai told her in her calmest of voices, "I will have my revenge for the murder of my poor baby, even if I have to follow her to Avernus to get it!"
With her dying breath, Captain Regex responded, "Yout revenge has killed us all, you crazy, arrogant bitch!"'
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One minute earlier - and even as the Omega Beam fired - the Man of Steel streaked toward the Earth, chasing after it.
A quarter of a nanosecond passed when he caught up to the ball of energy that was traveling close to the speed of light. At half a nanosecond, Superman had passed it, and found himself diving downward toward the shores of Paradise Island. The air behind him burned in his wake and a large boom followed, louder than the largest sonic boom ever heard as new air rushed in to replace the old.
At three-quarters of a nanosecond, the Man of Steel's feet touched the once-forbidden soil of Themiscyra. No one saw him because he was moving too fast. Only his wife and his daughter managed to catch a blue and red blur because of their own meta-human senses.
He did not stop, but only pushed himself upward at an even greater speed. It was then one full second after the Omega Beam was fired that A-ko's father met the terrible weapon head-on, one hundred thousand feet above the blue waters of the South Atlantic.
A sudden burst of blinding light appeared as the Omega Beam bounced off the Man of Steel, flying harmlessly into deep space where its energy would soon disperse. With a scream of pain and in a sudden darkness that was blacker than the blackest night, the Man of Steel tumbled out of the sky and fell toward Paradise Island below.
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Pulling herself from the muck of the pigsty, Artemis continued to mumble a string of vindictive curses, all aimed at the oldest child of her greatest rival. Rushing back to rejoin the battle, the tall redhead took a moment to dive head-first, clothes and all, into one of the many lakes and pools covering the Island of Themyscira.
Shaking her head to fling the water from her braided hair, Artemis paused just long enough to think to herself, "I may end this day with a Shakanar sword in my belly, but at least I will leave a corpse of which my Zoey can be proud!"
A-ko had just landed next to her mother. Even though both found themselves in the middle of a hellish firefight, Diana felt a certain amount of pride, as well as the far-greater feeling of love. However, she also felt a small amount of relief because her "baby" was now nearby, watching her back. Even more importantly, Diana could return the favor.
Mother and daughter had iust finished tearing a Shakanar walker in two when A-ko heard an oncoming sonic boom coming from above them. The girl's ears were more sensitive and more acute than Diana's, and this was the reason she looked up and saw the red-and-blue streak plunging to Earth. In spite of her lesser ability, her mother also knew what was about to happen right before Paradise Island shook with the impact of the Mam of Steel's body.
"CLARK!" A-ko's mother screamed in terror, streaking off with the speed of Hermes to where her love had crashed to Earth.
"Papa?" was the only word a shocked and terrified A-ko managed to mutter as her mother streaked off.
Diana arrived even before the dust had settled. She did not pause, for even an instant, as she jumped into the crater to be with her beloved. By chance, he had landed near the water's edge, close to the location at which Hippolyta and her Cygnan guests had just repelled a series of Shakanar attacks.
A-ko - who had followed her mother - landed with a thud and rushed forward to join her parents in the crater in front of her. Only Hippolyta's strong arms kept her from joining the pair.
Napolipolita and Dee came closer to where the two women had sped and watched A-ko's mother as she jumped out of the hole with her husband's massive form cradled tenderly in her arms. Placing him gently on the Earth, she lay her ear to his chest but did not hear his all-too-familiar heartbeat. Tears began to well up in her pale blue eyes as she begged, "Please don't do this to me, Kal! The children need you, the world needs you, and - by all the gods on Olympus - I need you most of all!"
When she heard no reply, she bent down and began to try to breathe life back into his lungs. It was like trying to inflate a steel tank, and even her own formidable lungs failed at the task. Fearing the very worst, Diana began to pound on his chest to restart his noble heart. She pounded and pounded, trying anything to save the man she loved. She did not care about the pain or the bruising to her hands, even when those same hands began to bleed.
It was only when her own mother pulled her away from her love that the pounding stopped. "Diana, stop it! You're going to break your hands!' the Amazon Queen told her daughter. "I'm sorry, but he's gone and there is nothing you can do about it!"
Diana looked up at her mother and, in a voice twisted with hate, snarled at her, "You hated him! You always hated him! Even when he's just died protecting your precious island, you still hate him!" She raised her fist as if to strike her own mother, but, using her last bit of self- control, stopped herself. Instead, she declared, "I wish I'd never come back home - and I never will again."
Arriving just in time to hear the outburst, Artemis pulled up short and waited for her Queen's reaction. When none came, Artemis asked Diana, "Your orders, my Princess?"
A-ko had fallen to her knees, shaking her head in disbelief. Tears ran down her face as she mumbled to herself over and over, "I don't believe it! I won't believe it!" This had sufficiently distracted her so that she did not see her mother's usually sweet face darken and twist into a mask full of hatred and revenge.
Diana gritted her teeth and gave the requested order. "KlLL THEM, ARTEMIS! KILL THEM ALL!" Turning to a squad of Amazon warriors, Artemis raised her sword and pointed it toward the advancing Shakanar troopers. She loudly exclaimed, "You heard our Princess! DEATH TO THE INVADERS! SHOW NO MERCY - TAKE NO PRISONERS!"
Snatching the double ax from Napolipolita-Daitokuji's hand, Diana looked at her in a way the Cygnan knew all too well from the enemies she'd faced during her long military service. For a brief moment, Aysha was sure that her friend was about to use the ax on her. lndeed, Napolipolita's instincts were correct. She was saved only because A-ko's mother had used her last bit of self-control and instead had streaked into battle.
Deesha wasn't blind to what she had just seen. She, too, had seen the look of near-uncontrollable bloodlust on their friend's face. Shaken, she turned to General Phillipus and said, "For a moment, I thought Diana was going to attack my Captain!"
It was true that Napolipolita had almost always suffered from depression and the alcoholism that developed from her vain attempts to relieve herself of it. It was equally true that Deesha had protected her from harm through thick and thin. Nobody hurt her Captain, if Dee held anything to do with it!
"You're right," Phillipus replied. "I fear that my one-time pupil has used the last of her self-control to fight against her warrior madness."
"Is that why she took off so fast - to stop herself from attacking us because we're outsiders?" Deesha inquired.
Phillipus gave a grim smile. "That, and to throw herself into battle - to kill or to be killed - " "But why? I don't understand." "It's our way - the way of the warrior."
Dee was silent. Cygnan military law also set forth a code of ethics, and the citizens of Lepton followed what had come to be called "the Cygnan Way." Yet, nothing in either code of conduct allowed the unjustified slaying of a friend!
Napolipolita-Daitokuji shook it off. She still had no idea what had happened to her children. She resolved that she would look for them very soon, even though it might result in her own end. Sighing, she looked at the suffering girl before her and felt that saving this particular child might be the best decision.
A-ko had heard none of this as she raced to her father's still form. She knelt down beside him, and - holding him in her arms - rocked him back and forth. The tears running down her face plopped upon her father's face, one by one.
In her attempt to ease the girl's pain, Napolipolita knelt down and tried to lift A-ko away from her father's silent form. "Don't worry, little one. We will take care of your father."
Looking up and wiping her hand across her tear-washed eyes, the young redhead replied, "You don't undertstand. This is impossible!"
"Death comes for us all, Friend-of-out-Princess."
Saying nothing, A-ko turned and began to stare down upon her father's chest, as if to answer the Cygnan ambassador by gesture rather than words. Concentrating harder than she ever had before, the girl stared deeply past the layers of clothing, skin, muscle, and bone. A large smile came over her face.
"He's alive!" she cried, laughing.
Shaking her head, Hippolyta told her, "He's gone, child! Don't delude yourself. It only makes the loss that much harder to bear!"
"You don't understand!" A-ko shouted. "I saw his heart beat once!"
Napolipolita then spoke from the unbidden wisdom of her own tragic life. "I've lost enough friends and family in battle to know that the mind sometimes sees things that aren't really there. Sometimes, we comfort ourselves with pleasant fantasies because we have trouble dealing with the pain."
"I know what I saw!" protested A-ko.
Napolipolita brushed the girl's bangs from her eyes. "When I was a little girl, my mother and all the women I grew up with fell in battle on board our ship the Pana Gaia, all killed by the Kirlians. I lay next to my mother's corpse for days and days, holding her sword in my hand so that I could protect her if they came back. For days and days, I was surrounded by the bodies of every friend I ever had, their suffering still imprinted upon their faces."
The ex-Captain sighed. "My fantasies kept me from losing my mind, or from turning off the minimal life support the ship still held. I had convinced myself that my mother and all my friends were only sleeping, in spite of the horrific sights and smells surrounding me!"
The Cygnan pushed up her dark glasses and wiped her own streaming eyes. "I lay there, determined and ready to defend my mother against the Kirlians. I stayed right next to her body until a Bwanseach vessel and the Cygnan rescue ship found me. I refused to believe the truth even as they removed the bodies. Even when one of my mother's old Academy friends - Kollok-Matram Zenobia Kotetash - took me in her arms and told me how it was, I refused to accept that my madere misua - my beloved mama - and all my friends were dead and gone."
"But I know what I know!" protested A-ko.
Doctor Stellamaris had joined the small group, and lay her gentle hand on the redhead's shoulder. "I'm sorry, A-ko, but your father's body is already cold."
"COLD? HOW CAN HE BE COLD?" protested A-ko. "According to you people, he died only a few minutes ago when he fell out of orbit. If anything, he should be too hot to approach, let alone touch!"
Turning to Napolipolita she asked, "How exactly did that weapon they shot at him work?"
The Leptonian soldier sighed. "It is called the Omega Beam. It is a forbidden weapon. No one in their right mind would use it because it destroys matter by breaking the bonds that hold molecules together. I have no idea how the Shakanar came across one."
"And how does it do that?"
"By disrupting molecular motion," Napolipolita responded.
Standing up quickly, A-ko said a silent prayer to the God of her understanding and then poured a continuous blast of heat vision from her eyes, right onto her father's motionless form. She gave it all she had, pouring it on and bathing the critically injured man in a brilliant red light. She did not care how much it hurt her, or what anyone else thought about her attempt. All she knew was that the father she loved needed her, and that she would not fail him.
The sand surrounding him began to melt, then bubble before it was fused into glass. So intensive was the heat that everyone around her began to back away. Only her grandmother raced to her side and tried to put an end to it. "Martha, stop this madness! You're going to hurt yourself, perhaps even permanently!"
With a simple gesture, A-ko pushed her grandmother away and onto her back, saying, "I'm right! I know I'm right!"
Hippolyta braced herself, preparing to charge her granddaughter to prevent her from hurting herself.
Suddenly, the corpse's chest rose, and then filled, with a great gulp of air.