"You! Underling!" shouted the queen of Themiscyra, as she pointed to the LexCorp guard sitting behind the building's front desk. "Where is your woman?"
"Excuse me?"
"Where is your wife?"
"At home?"
She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him over his desk, until his nose was almost touching the polished metal of her helmet. "Go back to her, now, unless you want others to think you are some gentleman of the night."
"What?"
The armored queen dropped the poor man, and stomped through the lobby of the LexCorp building, where both men and women in suits, who had previously looked confused at her presence, ran screaming as she pulled out her sword and put on her bandolier of knives.
"Who is your leader?" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "I demand answers!"
The only response she received came from the robotic drones, which fell from the ceiling and hovered in midair.
"Please, drop your weapon. There is no need for violence."
The only thing that surprised the queen more than how annoying the drone's mechanical voices were, was how easily her sword cut through them. She knew that Themiscyran metal was strong, and that the blacksmiths who had forged her sword and armor had spent three decades smelting the most perfect materials they could find and hammering out every possible impurity, but she also thought her enemies would put just as much effort into their creations.
"Please, dro-" was as far as the next one got, before it was sliced in half, and two more fell soon after.
"Threat Level Elevated".
Guns popped out from hidden compartments on the drones, and unleashed a volley of 45mm rounds. Unfortunately for the drones, they weren't powerful enough to get through the queen's armor, but they were strong enough to knock her around.
She held up her shield and stood firm as the bullets rained down, but as two more drones closed in behind her, she dived as far as she could before throwing her shield at one of them and her sword at the other.
Both of the machines dropped to the ground, and she made short work of the others using a shower of knives.
As she caught her breath and did her best to retrieve all of her lost projectiles, the lobby suddenly was bathed in red, and the queen's heart sank as one of the plaster walls was lifted away.
A powerful engine roared as a massive automaton rolled into the lobby, with huge tank treads and gun barrels the size of an elephant's trunk.
"Please, desist. This is your last warning."
"Do not try to give orders to me, machine! I will not-"
The queen flew across the room and crashed through the front doors. Her armored form landed on the sidewalk outside and blood dripped slowly out from between her armored plates.
Pedestrians ran screaming as the queen laid motionless on the ground. White hot pain filled every joint and muscle of her body.
One more shot from that drone's cannon would kill her, but the queen rose anyway, slowed, but still determined.
She stood up straight and went on the offensive, diving back into the lobby and sprinting for her life as automatic fire ripped apart everything behind her.
As she dashed in a circle, around the metal behemoth, it began to move toward the center of the lobby. However, she was just barely able to run fast enough to kick off the wall behind it and land on its deck.
The moment she touched it's shell, smaller drones began to pour out of the larger model, determined to tear her off of her target. When she realized that her sword and shield had been lost, the queen quickly pulled a large knife from her boot and slashed apart as many drones as she could, as they continued to emerge. When her knife was shot out of her hand, she grabbed every drone within reach and ripped them apart with her bare hands. Those that she couldn't reach, she hit with her throwing knives, and when her knives ran out, she tore apart drones by throwing or stabbing jagged metal that she ripped off the tank. And when even that was no longer viable, she ripped off pieces of her own armor and hurled them with enough force shatter the drones into pieces.
When the final flying nuisance had been taken care of, the queen was finally able to turn her attention to the tank. Both of her gauntlets had been tossed away, and electricity singed her hands as she reached between the metal plates and tore out every tube and wire she could get her hands on.
Soon the machine was sputtering and slowed, but it still remained operational. The queen, now beginning to lose hope as the pain of her injuries caught up with her, quieted her mind and whispered, "Athena, give me strength" as she tore away yet another layer of the tank's armor, exposing a mass of circuit boards and even more wires.
The queen took off her breastplate, which had cracked from taking the full force of the cannon blast. She split the metal sheet in two, and strapped the pieces onto her arms, forming a pair of jagged gauntlets, which she repeatedly stabbed into the heart of the robotic beast.
As it slowly died and sparks flew from its carcass, the queen dropped to the ground and salvaged what was left of her armor and weapons. Her helmet was lost, along with her gauntlets. She was able to find her bandolier and about half of her throwing knives, but her shield was underneath the tank's massive treads and moving it wouldn't be possible.
She pulled the armor from her left leg and tore the neck guard from around her throat as well. Both had become damaged during the battle and were now basically useless. The leg pieces had been chafing her, leaving a line down her shin where the skin had been slowly stripped away with every step, and the guard, though it had probably saved her from breaking her neck, was now bent and pressing against her windpipe.
"At least I'll be faster, now," she said, feeling lighter now that she only had to carry her back plate, right leg pieces and shoulder guards.
She headed down the first hallway she found, injured and bleeding, but not dissuaded.
"My God, she's so strong," Luthor said, taking another bite of his well done steak.
"Far stronger than a normal human." Using Mercy's phone, the two of them were able to watch the queen battle the tank on LexCorp's security cameras, while enjoying a meal, three cities away.
"I don't know what's worse," Mercy said to her boss, "The fact that you came to Greece and wanted to eat at an American steakhouse, or that you ordered your meat practically burned."
"Well, I'm sorry that I like my food fully cooked," he responded, sarcastically.
"You're basically eating shoe-leather. In times like these I remember that you weren't born with money."
"In times like these I remember that I should have fired you a long time ago."
"But no one else can keep your ego in check." Mercy pulled out her phone as she finished her sentence.
"Who's texting you? You're new husband?"
"Yes. He's upset about my impromptu trip. He thinks I'm not home enough. I'll get him a new Porsche and he'll forget about it."
"This is the artist from Queens, right? Isn't he a little young for you?"
"Do you really want to have this conversation? Should I bring up a few of your old loves?"
"Point taken."
The two of them took a moment to enjoy their food, soaking in the atmosphere and listening as their waiter, who had an accent as thick as his moustache, tried to speak with a Texas drawl.
However, soon Mercy leaned in told Luthor, "We need to talk business. There's a woman rampaging through LexCorp right now, and you don't even seem worried."
"We only have one or two controversial projects being worked on there and the money we'll extort once she's recaptured will go up with everything she destroys. More destruction means more danger, which means we can charge more for running the camp."
"But our guards let her escape."
"I made sure that were a few local policemen sprinkled through the guard roster. We'll forge a few sign-in sheets, say one of them was on duty at the time and then buy their silence. It'll cost ten thousand, at most."
"You really do plan for every contingency, don't you?"
"I like to be prepared," Luthor said, switching to a different camera view. "Now, let's watch closely. I believe that our extra security is about to arrive."
Luthor's ace-in-the-hole took detailed mental notes of everything the queen did. Even as she ran down the hallways, his mind raced as he looked for potential weaknesses to exploit.
"You! Get over here!" she shouted to a worker as she entered the loading dock.
"Are you alright?" he asked her. It was a natural response, given that the woman was bleeding and bruised, but the worker should really have paid more attention to the weapons strapped to her body.
As soon as he got close to her, she grabbed him and held a knife to his throat. "Where is the ruler of LexCorp?"
"Lex Luthor? I don't know. I'm just a forklift operator." More workers showed up, but didn't dare come closer.
"This Lex Luthor is your master?"
"Sure. Whatever. Please, don't hurt me!"
"Let him go." The queen turned and watched as a strange man crept from the shadows. A purple helmet adorned his head, and his trench coat barely hid his advanced armor, which included a set of bronze combat gloves.
The queen was tired and sore, but, even in this state, she could never back down to a challenger, and she knew that this man meant business. "How dare you speak to me in this way. Do you know who I am?"
"A slave driver from a backwater third-world island?"
A knife raced past his face, which he was barely fast enough to dodge. Luckily, she'd had to let go of the worker in order to throw the projectile, allowing him to rejoin his friends and escape.
She menacingly scraped her gauntlets together, sharpening them into a set of even more savage weapons. "What is your name?"
"You can call me Prometheus."
The queen looked at him, confused. "The bringer of fire? You've named yourself for the one who advanced humanity and gave us independence from the Gods?"
"Yup, that's the one." He wanted to keep her talking for as long as possible and keep analyzing her. He knew he'd need as much information as possible to take down the warrior queen.
"I am intrigued by you, Prometheus, but that will not stop me from killing you. In order for them to know their place, men must be punished when they step out of line."
"I should have known you were a Dom."
The queen raised her gauntlets, while Prometheus raised his fists, and, of course, the aggressive queen was the first to make a move.
Not expecting much from the male before her, she took two quick stabs at his torso and one swipe at his head, testing his abilities. He far exceeded her expectations, not only dodging her attacks, but by making a few jabs at her, which she thought she had evaded, until she looked down and saw that one of her gauntlets was missing.
Her anger grew as she saw him smile and toss the weapon aside."
"Insolent bastard."
She charged again, putting her full strength behind every swing. She had no desire in her mind, other than to chop Prometheus in half, but the man was proving to be a much more competent warrior than she could ever have thought.
Every swing she took seemed to miss, and was met with a blow to her torso. He wasn't as strong as the warriors she had fought on Themiscyra, but every shot he took struck a bruise or an already broken rib with pinpoint accuracy, causing her massive pain.
However, the queen's anger grew alongside her discomfort, and moments after another failed lunge, she called out, "Enough of this!", and kicked him into a stack of shipping crates.
It didn't take him long to jump back to his feet, but the queen was ready for him.
"Dodge this, you little cretin!"
Prometheus jumped out of the way as a sheet of metal shot past him so hard and so fast that it tore through the metal crates behind him like tissue paper. However, he didn't have to chance to stop and marvel at the queen's strength. More projectiles were already flying at his head.
The man used the metal sheet now lodged in the crate as a stepping stone to leap on top of the container, as wooden pallets shattered around him and large pieces of metal grazed his body.
The queen unleashed a roar that could be heard across Athens and rushed forward, kicking the enormous shipping crate out from under Prometheus, and forcing him to come down to her level.
The queen used her remaining gauntlet to deflect a flurry of blows from Prometheus, who had drawn his nightstick.
Despite his incredible speed, his offensive capabilities were limited against his much stronger opponent, and once the queen managed to grab his weapon, she unleashed a blow that, once again, sent him flying across the room.
He rose slower this time, but he rose nonetheless, and pulled a pistol from his coat. The queen dive away, expecting gunfire, but was surprised to see him fire it at the ceiling and grapple away.
She tried to grab him as he came back down for his nightstick, but in less than a second he was back in the rafters and out of sight.
She saw small objects being tossed out of the darkness, and soon explosions rang out all over the room, bringing high stacks of crates and sections of the wall down on top of her. She desperately tried to stay out of the way, but soon realized that she no longer held the advantage in this fight.
One last crate came down, with one end crashing to the floor and the other landing on top of the queen.
Prometheus dropped to the ground as she struggled to carry the enormous weight, but, after only a few seconds, her knees were beginning to buckle.
"What did you expect to find here?" he asked her.
"Answers," the queen told him, between gritted teeth. "I am the rightful ruler of Themiscyra, and I deserve answers for why my people have been detained, so I can save them."
The wounded man laughed in the face of the queen. "That's ironic. You want to know why you're people were moved? It was so they could be saved from you."
As the last of her strength ebbed away, Prometheus used his grapple to pull her out from under the crate, just before it could crush her.