"God damn it, when is he going to get here?"

Diana couldn't help but smile to herself as her train of thought drifted to Kal's imminent arrival, but her thoughts were rudely interrupted by the incoming fist of Mongul. She immediately side-stepped to the right and proceeded to throw him over her shoulder, where he landed, wedged in a trash dumpster twenty feet away.

Diana barely had a chance to catch her breath before a dark blur moved infront of her and grabbed her roughly from behind, holding her tightly, where despite her best struggles she couldn't move. She noticed the crackle of lightning emanating from the offender's hands and the golden gauntlets on their wrists.

"Well I know this isn't Zeus, and there's only one other person who controls lightning that way" She thought to herself, then proceeding to tense her neck muscles before brutally headbutting the man in the nose. She heard him curse and loosen his hold for just a second, which was more than enough for the Amazon warrior as she roughly pulled away, managing to put a few feet between her and him.

"Black Adam. What the hell are you doing allied with Mongul?" Diana watched as the twisted smile began to form on his face, and the lightning began to dance around the symbol on his chest as he prepared for combat.

"Who said he was in charge?" Adam said, as he and Diana began to move in a circle around eachother, daring the other to make the first move.

"You may have wisdom from the gods, but I sure as Tartarus know it's not you, you couldn't be bothered to lead anything...wasn't that why you were such a bad king in Egypt in the first place?" Diana knew she was deliberately goading him, but she was counting on him getting angry in the first place.

She watched the malice split his features as his eyes began to glow blue, but this time he remained silent.

"What's wrong? Wizard got your tongue?" She gripped her golden lasso in one hand, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

Adam simply stood there, now allowing the Amazon to get closer, moving in for the warrior strike, but then...

"Shazam!" Adam yelled to the heavens as he immediately blurred closer to Diana before speeding away just as quickly, cruelly laughing, knowing exactly what was about to happen. "Good luck Amazon!"

"Oh Gods no!" Diana thought as in that split-second before the thunder came, she had to make a decision. The last time Adam had used the Wizard's lightning to attack her and her Justice League comrades, he had nearly devastated an entire city. Diana looked to her left and then to her right, taking in the horrified on-lookers and their children nearby. To the left was an elementary school, and to the right was a busy shopping centre. She knew she had time to get clear before the lightning hit, but if she moved then the entire area would be levelled and many people would die...but if she took the lightning with her bracelets, just maybe it would contain the blast enough.

But would she survive? That didn't matter, she was a warrior and she had a job to do.

"I chose this life, I chose to do this, I gladly accept that risk and all that comes with it"

"Well Hephaestus, let's see how good a smith you really are".

Diana immediately brought her braces up just in time for the clouds to darken and the massive bolt began to make its way down, angrily splitting the sky and sending molten heat in every direction. It happened in less than a second, but Diana still saw every movement the bolt made, streaking from left to right.

Over the roar of the lightning, Diana heard a deafening crack as if someone had split the sky in half. A sound that she had heard many times before. It was as if the horizon was on fire, as if every breath of air in the sky suddenly combusted at once...a sonic-boom a thousand times over. She watched as a crimson blur streaked past her, grabbing a surprised Black Adam from behind, before tossing him just as fast over her head.

Adam barely had a chance to scream before the enchanted lightning hit him square in the chest, causing an blinding burst of light to flare out in all directions.

As the haze cleared, Diana saw an old and frail Egyptian man roll to the side as Teth-Adam was returned to his human-self.

"That was always the problem with that particular type of kamikaze attack, always taking that risk that they'd get caught in that blast" Diana turned to her left to see Kal walking towards her, moving with such ease that it was as if he should have his hands in his pocket, as though he were strolling through the park.

"Cutting it kind of close there Kal? Any later and I would have made you explain to Hephaestus why he had to buff the charring out of my braces" She stood, regarding the man before her, walking towards her, oblivious to all around him.

"God I hate that he does that" She thought to herself. It always seemed to Diana that half the time in battle, Kal may as well have been playing baseball in Smallville with the way he carried himself and the near-zen level calm he always seemed to maintain, even in the face of great adversity.

She had asked him about it many times, how he could maintain such peace in battle, and he would respond with something along the lines of his emotionless Kryptonian heritage, but Diana knew it was more than that. She had witnessed the holograms of his parents and the way their voices broke when they expressed their love for their infant son, and she had seen the anger from Zod and Faora when they had clashed with them in the past. Kryptonians sure as hell weren't emotionless, that was just a cop-out as far as she was concerned. Kal was her best friend but he could really give her the cold shoulder every now and then.

"He still remains a partial mystery" She thought as she watched that handsome lopsided grin appear on his face in response to her chastising.

"What? You can't blame a guy for being fascinated watching a woman work? Besides you handled that pretty well over there by yourself" Clark commented in response, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to where Mongul remained, groaning and half conscious with the multi-ton dumpster on the lower half of his body.

"What? I didn't drop it on him" She retorted, returning his smile.

"No, but you threw him halfway through it" He indicated that Mongul seemed to be wedged inside the steel box.

"I don't like him" She shrugged in response.

Kal's response was a hearty laugh, deep from within his chest, a noise that was music to Diana's ears. "How can just hearing him laugh make me lose focus?"

"Do you like any of the villains we have to deal with?" He arched his brow, teasing Diana with the obvious.

Clark had to admit to himself that of the thousands of things he loved about this woman in front of him, her abrupt forwardness and honesty was one of his favourite. It was part of what made her so special, that she never danced around the issue, just approached it head on, which from a man like Clark (who was used to diving in front of explosives), was exactly how he liked it.

"I don't know Kal, if Adam wasn't so evil, he would actually be a very attractive male, don't you think?" Diana arched her brow in response to Kal, having become an expert in the facial expressions of the Man of Steel. She watched with delight as his brows fell, furrowing above his eyes. She knew that she'd caught him off-guard with that one, but it only occurred for about a split-second before the playful Kansas farmboy returned.

"Well if ancient evil mystics are your type, I could always see if Faust is available for a blind-date?" He cockily responded, letting a bit of arrogant-masculinity enter into his voice, and deliberately referencing Diana's least favourite sorcerer.

It was Clark's turn to smile as he watched Diana's hand twitch over the piece of concrete she was leaning on, reducing it to gravel.

"I'll take that as a no?" He folded his arms over the shield on his chest, almost as if he was content now that he'd gotten under her skin, even for a moment.

"Funny Kal, real joker you are" She grumbled, turning away from him and surveying the scene to make sure everyone was okay.

Clark felt slightly bad that he had referenced one of Diana's most hated enemies and was about to apologize, but an angry groan interrupted him from behind.

"Kryptonian, letting a woman do your work for you?" Mongul had regained consciousness and was busy trying to extract himself from the side of the dumpster.

"You're in no position to criticize her Mongul. What are you doing working with Black Adam? You're not much of a team-player" Clark moved closer to the large yellow-skinned alien, who regarded him with the utmost disdain.

"After what you did on Warworld, I'll take any opportunity and I'll fight alongside anyone who is willing to come to Earth and take you on. You've made many enemies Kal-El, many more than you have friends I think" He said, finally landing with a loud thud on the ground.

"You see, that's where you're wrong Mongul. I have more friends and allies across the universe than you could possibly imagine, and do you want to know why? This little skirmish here with you and Adam over there, this will most likely be the most important day of your life for the rest of this year, but for Diana, myself, and the rest of the League, it's Tuesday" Clark responded coldly, picking Mongul up by the neckline of his purple armour, and glancing skyward at Green Lantern John Stewart who was floating down towards them.

"Take this garbage back to Oa John" He said, tossing Mongul casually up the air like he was an oversized yellow baseball, where he was immediately encased in a cage made of hardened green light.

"With pleasure Superman" John nodded down at him, before disappearing through the atmosphere and rocketing towards the Lantern homeworld to deposit Mongul back in the intergalactic jail where he belonged.

Diana watched as Clark continued to stare at the sky, no doubt still watching John as he began his journey through the stars. She watched his eyes as they seemed to dart back and forth, yet still fixated on an unknown point.

"Well since it's Tuesday, what do you have planned for the rest of the week Kal?" Diana watched as he immediately tore his eyes from the sky and fixated them on hers, immediately causing her heartbeat to slightly flutter.

"Damn, I hope he didn't hear that" She thought to herself, knowing that he had a habit of listening to her heart, always making sure that it was steady and she was there in the moment where he was, like her own personal guardian angel. But if Kal had heard anything, he didn't show it, as he shrugged and replied to her query.

"Besides typing up a story about this little encounter for the Planet, not much. I may take a quick side-trip to Smallville to visit Ma, she has been asking me to visit alot lately" He said, causing Diana's face to scrunch up into that of slight confusion.

"I didn't know Martha had called you lately, usually you tell me when she does" Diana said, causing Clark to feel slightly warmer at his core at her genuine concern at the prospect that he hadn't told her something as trivial as that he heard from his mother recently.

"She really does pay attention to everything" He thought to himself, but quickly dismissed the hopeful thought, knowing that Diana was a woman of details and would know that fact about any one of her friends.

"Well she doesn't exactly call me. She knows when I tend to hover in the Earth's atmosphere listening to the sounds of the world, and she calls to me from home, knowing that I can hear her voice no matter what" Clark replied, causing Diana to eye him with even more care.

"Not only does he listen to see if the entire world needs his help, but he still can hear his mother's voice amid all the chaotic sounds". In her eyes Kal seemed to always come back to his humble beginnings, one of the most powerful forces in all the known worlds, and he's was still a deeply caring son.

Diana was immediately brought back to one of the many times she had been over at the Kent's farm and watched as his mother chastised him for not pulling out the chair for Diana before he sat down as she "raised him better than that", or smacking him on the side of the head when he tried to eat before saying grace at the table. She had watched as he hung his head in shame and mumbled his apologies before reciting a brief prayer in thanks. In Clark's mind at that point, he could never have been more embarrassed as his mother had corrected her son in front of their guest, especially one as important to him as Diana, but as far as Diana was concerned, she could not have been more delighted to once again get a glimpse of why he was so different than any other man she had come across. He always held himself up to an impossible standard when engaged in battle, and yet could still be such a caring man when the uniform came off.

So many women had swooned and fallen in love with Superman in his signature red-and-blue, like that Lois Lane character who had briefly been enamoured with him so many years ago when he had first appeared on the scene in Metropolis.

Diana fell in love with him when he had been sitting at that carved wooden table, dressed in a faded jean shirt, and tan khaki pants caked in mud from farm-work all day. She was a woman who loved a man. The fact that he was Super and she was a Wonder were secondary.

For a moment they both did not speak, simply content with being there in eachother's companies, despite being in the middle of a dusty urban street.

The moment was long enough for Teth Adam to take a chance, open his eyes and see that their backs were turned. "Perfect" He thought to himself as he opened his mouth and began to speak.

"Shaz..." Adam had barely gotten the first syllable out before a black-armoured fist roughly struck him in the side of the head, knocking him out cold, causing both Clark and Diana to spin around in time to watch Adam fall to his knees and roll over onto his side, a large shadowed figure looming over him.

"If you two weren't so busy comparing schedules, you could tell that we're not done here" Batman angrily responded, sealing Adam's mouth with a special adhesive and slapping a pair of handcuffs on his arms.

Ignoring the jab from his friend, Clark turned and flashed him a full-pearly-white smile, "Where would the fun be without a little danger Bruce?"

"Funny Kent, I'll remember that the next time Luthor uses a kryptonite death-ray on you and I've got a moment before I save your ass again" He grumbled, before leaning the unconscious Adam against the wall.

"J'onn, transport Black Adam to one of our enchanted cells on the Watchtower. That should hold him until Captain Marvel and the Wizard decide how long and how far to banish him this time" He said, touching the comlink in his cowl.

"Of course Batman" The Martian's voice crackled over the speakers in his earpiece so all of them heard him. They all watched as Adam disappeared in a flash of white and blue light.

"There, now we're done, you can go back to Gotham now" Diana said, folding her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes at Bruce. "I'm barely here 2 minutes and already I feel like a third-wheel around these two" He thought to himself, taking into account the body language of both of them, in particular the clipped tone of Diana's voice.

"Hmmm it seems the Princess is ready to make her move" He looked over at her, noting the way she was looking at Clark. "She was going to ask him out". That would have been perfect for Bruce's problem, but he looked at the expression on Clark's face and noted that he still seemed to be oblivious to Diana's true intentions. "This isn't their time".

"There is nothing I would like better than to get back to my city and leave the rest of the world to the Amazon Princess and the Man of Steel, but Kent and I have some business to discuss" He said, noting immediately that Diana didn't seem to happy with that plan, so he decided to cut her off and use the second part of his plan before she could offer an alternative.

"Your sister Donna asked you to visit her on Themyscira, she did mention it with some urgency" He said, causing her to stop immediately.

Bruce watched with some satisfaction as her expression changed, knowing that despite her personal feelings for Clark, Diana was still a warrior and her homeland and family were very high up on her priorities list.

"Did she say what it was about?"

"Only that you should get there as soon as you can" He replied, suppressing the satisfaction that things were going smoothly so far. The fact that Donna had conveyed that message to the Watchtower only hours ago had been a blessing to his machinations.

"It's okay Diana, we can talk later, remember that I'm always around" Clark said softly, causing Bruce to roll his eyes behind his cowl. "Jesus this man has it bad" He thought to himself, noting that he may as well be crawling around at Diana's feet, but then noting Diana's smile at his words, "She's just as bad as he is".

"Alright, I'll talk to you both when I get back" She said, deliberately adding the coldness in her voice when she said 'both', indicating that she may have some choice words for Bruce when she got back, and with that she took to the sky.

Bruce shrugged and turned to watch, where Clark's eyes were still on the sky, the man still gazing as Diana headed off east towards the hidden island of the Amazons.

"Kent we seriously need to talk" He said, causing Clark to barely notice, besides making an inaudible grunt, but continuing to watch Diana's figure on the horizon.

"You would think by now that you would have memorized what she looks like, I don't know why you have to continue staring at her like that" He deliberately poked at him, causing Clark to spin his head abruptly towards him and respond quietly "We're just friends Bruce, that's all it's always ever been". Bruce sighed heavily, having heard this answer many times before.

"This is going to be fun" Bruce thought, thinking ahead to his quite unique series of events he had planned for Clark that night. "He's going to admit to his feelings tonight or I'm hanging up the cowl".

"I wonder if he'll be mad when he finds out how I'm going to use that kryptonite he gave me".

"Meet me at the manor in two hours, wear something nice, we're having dinner and Alfred will be upset if either one of us are late". And with that, Batman shot his grapnel gun skywards, catching onto the Batplane, and with that he was out of sight.

"Just another day at work" Clark shrugged to himself as he himself took to the sky and began making his way to Metropolis where he could get in a quick change of clothes before heading to dinner with Bruce in Gotham.

A/N: And there we are! Let me know how you like the shift as the rest of this story will be in the third-person as this chapter. Thanks to everyone for the reviews so far!

What does the Batman have planned for Clark? What does Donna need Diana for? Why was Black Adam working with Mongul? Find out next time! Enjoy!