I do not own Superman, or any other D.C. character mentioned. The rest, I made up for my own story. This is a fanfic, and not for profit, so just enjoy.
SUPER
By LJ58
3
She sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, dark hair falling free over strong shoulders, and down an unblemished back of alabaster skin yet curiously unmarked by the hot sun overhead. Clear blue eyes that had had many men lost in their depths from the first glance now stared blankly out over the endless sea, and she sighed quietly, dropping her arms as she leaned back to stare up at the sky.
Other than a few peculiar adornments, the voluptuously rounded woman was naked.
A strangely woven girdle adorned her hips, holding a coil of golden rope that seemed to gleam and glisten as if oiled, or one might even think, glow with an inner light. On her arms, a pair of matching bracelets were locked seamlessly around her wrist. Other than those peculiar adornments, the dark-haired nymph now stretching out on the beach was as naked as the day she was born.
Behind her, a small tropical island stretched out for more than thirty miles in diameter. Large enough to host some animal life that sustained her, but too small to be noticed. Which was why she was literally alone in this world. That was what burdened her just now. As it had since she woke on this strange, desolate patch of ground with no idea how she had gotten here, or what had become of her sisters, her friends, or her world.
In the past six months she had counted off since waking on this isolated rock in an endless sea, she had not seen one aircraft. One ship. One sign of life other than the few animals, fish, or vegetation on which she fed to keep herself alive.
She was about to head back into the jungle as the afternoon sun's heat began to fade when she heard a series of dull explosions far overhead. She looked up, frowning, wondering what this portended now. She had come to the belief that the gods were somehow testing her, or had been displeased, and cast her out of her world for reasons known only to them.
Now, after more than six long months of silent contemplation and solitude, she heard sounds that betrayed life existed around her after all. Intelligent life, since only men seemed to be able to create the sounds of explosions like the ones carried to her ears.
She heard a low boom in the wake of the explosions and knew it was a sonic boom. Several followed in quick succession, indicating something, or someone was moving fast overhead. She focused her eyes on the sky and caught a glimpse…..just a glimpse, of a thin streak of color against the pale blue sky.
Only one man she knew left such a wake.
Even as he went vertical, climbing faster and higher than any man or machine in existence could manage, she smiled.
If he was here, she was still on her own world after all.
It didn't solve the problem of why she could no longer fly, or why her power seemed….muted. Still, it seemed that she was not alone. Not forsaken.
Full lips stretched into a smile, and she considered her options.
No longer weighted by indecision, or confusion, Diana, princess, and heroine, rose to her feet and turned to the forest behind her. She might not wield her full, godlike powers any longer, but she still possessed a degree of her former might. More than enough for the task before her now once her mind was made up.
She walked up to the nearest tree and looking up at it, judged it worthy of the chore she had ahead of her. Steeling herself, she reached for the trunk of the fairly straight tree and pushed. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, but then the tree swayed off center slightly, and fronds overhead swished as the trunk leaned, and tried to straighten, only to lean even more drunkenly as the roots began to stretch, and the base of the trunk itself began to crack.
When it gave, it went down fast, and she wanted to howl with the delight of what she had managed. Where once she might have been able to rip the tree right out of the ground, or snap it like a brittle twig, she now had to strain to gain her goal. Still, she had done it. And if she had done it once, she could do it again. Searching out more trees, she began dropping them in methodical succession until she had the raw materials necessary to start building a raft.
For the first time in months, she had a goal.
She had hope.
S
Hope was fleeting just now despite her good beginning.
Two weeks of hard work making, and outfitting the crude raft had kept her busy, and optimistic. Buoyed by the prospect of finding an ally, and known comrades, she didn't hesitate to launch her raft into the endless ocean and follow the sun to the west, guessing she must still be somewhere in the Atlantic judging by the stars she watched at night. She drifted with the tide only when she rested, using a rough oar to guide her raft when she was awake, pushing her still more than human stamina to its very brink before she would finally rest each night.
There were no other sightings of her League companion, and secret love in the first week she spent upon the open ocean. She had half hoped, half expected he might fly over again, and spot her with his amazing eyes. She chided herself at the end of every day he did not appear, reminding herself she had been on that island for over six months without so much as an aircraft flying over. In many respects, after all, it was still a very big world.
The second week passed, and she was running low on the water she had stored in the many gourds brought from the island, as well as her food which she had rationed as severely as possible without starving herself. She augmented the food with fish from the sea and wondered if perhaps Arthur was somewhere out there under the great sea he called home. If he were, she never saw him. Not so much a surprise, though, considering how reluctant he remained in approaching the surface world of late.
Not that she could truly blame him.
Then the rain started. Heavy, driving rain that chilled even her, and had her shivering in the gray curtain that seemed to have descended upon her like a curse from the gods. She clung to her raft, shivering violently with cold and fear as even her boundless courage was tested by endless days of the drenching, strength-sapping rain while the storm hammered her for what felt like an eternity. It did not help that she had only a rough breechcloth from a boar she had slain for clothing.
She never knew when it finally stopped. She was sleeping off yet another round of exhaustion after yet another endless night when she woke to a morning sun that warmed her cool flesh, and she found herself laying atop her raft that had been scoured of the last of her provisions by the storm. Even her crude rudder and oar were gone. Not even a single water gourd remained. She was now a helpless prisoner of the sea itself.
Voicing a prayer to Poseidon for his aid, if he had not turned a deaf ear to her as well, she sat on the raft and drifted.
How long she drifted, she was not sure. She only knew that one moment she was thinking she should have remained on her island, and the next she was looking up at a sleek, white ship that was bearing down on her as if aiming at her raft.
She cried out and dove over the side even as the bow smashed into the side of her raft. She was swept down the side of the vessel by its wake and would have been carried under the stern, possibly right into the propellers, when she spotted a line dangling from the rail that she instinctively grabbed in both hands. The rush of water deafened her, so she wasn't sure if she had been seen, or if the line had simply been left there. She did not wait to find out.
Using what little strength remained, she pulled herself up the thick rope, not daring to hope as she reached the railing, and heaved herself over to land sprawling on the deck, flat on her back.
She lay there, eyes closed, breathing hard as she regained her breath before finally opening her eyes to look up again. She was startled to find more than a dozen men in uniform staring down at her, some of them openly leering at her, most gaping in simple disbelief. Gathering her strength, she accepted one older man's hand and got her feet under her.
"Where did you come from, Miss," the man with an officer's rank asked as she tried to decipher the bronze sigils on his collar.
"She climbed right up the probe's lead-line, Admiral Zayer," one of the sailors told the man as she glanced at the rope as if the obvious were just that. Obvious.
"Your ship," she panted, still sucking air into her weary lungs as one sailor finally appeared to hand her a woolen blanket to wrap around her sagging shoulders. "Struck my raft. I am surprised…..you did not see me."
"Must have been a small raft," one of the sailors told her.
"That, and our attention is on a new probe we're….."
"Belay that, mister," the senior officer snapped.
"Seaman," he turned to the man who had brought her blanket. "Take this woman down to sickbay. I want her under guard until we ascertain who she is, and where she came from."
"Aye, sir," the man saluted sharply and turned to her to gesture with a smile.
"This way, Miss," he grinned. "It is Miss, isn't it?"
"It's…..Diana," she told him. "Do you know where I might find Superman just now? It's urgent I find him."
"Uh, Superman," the sailor frowned as he caught sight of one of his comrades making circling gestures at his temple.
"Someone was in the drink too long," the man next to the sailor making gestures said solemnly.
"Just let the doctor check you out, Miss," the admiral told her. "We'll figure out where you belong, and how you ended up in restricted waters later."
"Restricted….? This is open water, isn't it," she frowned.
"Miss, you're smack in the middle of a top secret…."
"Sailor, just do what you're told," the admiral barked as the men began dispersing to return to their respective duties, more than one casting envious glances at their buddy who accompanied the virtually naked goddess to the sick bay.
S
"What did you find out," Captain Jeremiah Butler asked, painfully aware of the admiral behind him as he received the doctor into his quarters to be briefed about the strange woman that had apparently come right out of the sea to climb up onto the deck of his battleship.
The only reason the admiral was even present on this highly classified run was to oversee the test of the new sonar probe they were testing. If it worked they could detect enemy subs at ranges that would give them plenty of time to evade them or blow them out of the water if necessary. In the meantime, a strange frequency overload earlier that month was still plaguing the techs as they tried to decipher current tests to see if the overload was a natural or unnatural occurrence.
It didn't help that they had been put on high alert over something so secret only the admiral knew what was even going on. Secrets were one thing, and they were a part of life on the sea as a naval captain. Only it was damnably hard to run his ship properly when he didn't even know what was going on around him. It was hard on morale, and hard on his command. He disliked either consequence.
"Well, aside from her obvious delusions, she is remarkably healthy. A bit hungry from the amount of chow she wolfed down earlier, but in remarkable physical condition otherwise.
"It's her mental state I'm concerned about, Jerry."
"I know some of the boys said she asked after….Superman?"
"That's right. She's convinced she actually knows Superman and the Justice League.
"Hell, my grandkids still read those funny books, but even I know they're only make-believe. I can't begin to imagine what is going on in that head of hers so that she thinks they're real."
"Just who does she say she is, Dr. Helms," Admiral Zayer asked him curtly, not liking what he was hearing. "And more importantly, how did she end up right in the path of our covert test run?"
"Well, Admiral," the doctor shook his head. "She claims she is Diana. As in Wonder Woman. She said she was marooned somehow on an island east of here and was making her way back to the States by raft when we ran into her. And, sir, I don't think she's faking. She honestly believes she is that cartoon heroine."
"Sans costume, along with any shred of credibility, I noted," Franz Zayer noted with a snort.
"True. She claims she woke on the island with no memory of how she arrived and no clothing.
"But….here is the peculiar thing. She has this belt on, and these odd bracelets that I can't get off her. And she started getting suspicious enough of my questions that she refused to remove them. I almost didn't get that odd, cordlike rope off her belt, and even then, she grabbed it back before I could have it removed. I….was a little concerned about leaving her the thing, fearing she might harm herself. But frankly, she seemed more upset about losing the yellow cord than anything else, so I let her keep it."
"I only saw her wrists. And a ragged hide she was wearing," Franz remarked with another deep scowl that made his weathered features look all the more unfriendly.
"The belt was under her….ah, loincloth. Whoever she is, sir," Ian Helms turned to his captain, and longtime friend. "The woman really does believe her delusion, and I have to suspect she's gone through something really bad to have retreated so deeply into her fantasies."
"Put her into the brig. The SP's can handle this once we return to port," Franz decided before Jerry could speak.
"The brig," Jerry frowned. "Admiral Zayer, do you think that is really necessary?"
"Need I remind you we are on battle alert status? Not to mention being on a covert mission for naval intelligence, captain? Put her in the brig. And keep a constant guard on her."
"Do it, Ian. But keep an eye on her yourself. I don't want her molested, or anything of that sort by some of the clowns we took on board for this mission."
Ian Helms nodded and left after saluting his captain, and the admiral. Not that he was a stickler for formality with his friend in private. He had already noted the admiral was a real prick, and wasn't giving the ass any ammo to further lampoon Jerry over something as minor as a freaking salute.
S
Themyscira never seemed so far away to the once powerful Amazon.
Diana counted nine days behind the thick, steel door that once would have been little use in holding her in this tiny cell. Just now, she wasn't sure if she would have been able to even dent it with her vastly reduced strength.
At least they had given her clothing, such as it was. The starched unisex jumpsuit wasn't much for flattering her appearance, but she was at least covered from the gazes of boldly leering men who were far more open than most in eyeing her. They even produced boots that fit relatively well, though they were not what she was used to at all. The doctor, a kindly enough man, had even arranged for her to get a brush from some other woman that must serve on this ship.
The same doctor, however, seemed convinced she was quite mad.
She supposed she couldn't blame him. She didn't have the abilities she once possessed to convince him of her identity. She certainly wasn't looking her best just now, yet she still should have been afforded some dignity as a representative of her homeland to Man's World. Yet he acted as if he had never heard of Paradise Island, or the Amazon race.
Just as he frowned at her every time she mentioned Superman.
She sighed as she stared at the door, wondering what was going on that she should be tried in so odd a fashion. She knew the gods could be petty, and even perverse, but she had proved herself time and again to those deities who had charged her with her mission as surely as her mother had before she first ventured into Man's World.
It worried her she had not been able to get the seriousness of her need to contact the League across to the physician. Surely his ship's security would not be violated by contacting the League. She wondered if something had happened on the political scene that was influencing meta affairs again. She recalled the problems Luthor had thrown at them when he had been President for a time. That had been bad enough, but this was far worse just now. It was as if she were simply being dismissed.
Locked away, and….?
She didn't know. She just knew she didn't like this admiral who was acting as if she were here to personally subvert his mission. Whatever it might be.
Still, all she could do was wait. At least she was fed, and treated fairly. Although the looks of some of those men worried her at times. Especially the big, bald one that had the strange tattoo on the side of his neck. She supposed she could be prejudiced against bald, arrogant men after all the trouble they had had with Lex Luthor over the years, but it was more than that. The way he looked at her violated her on levels she had never considered.
And that was telling for a woman who had been Darkseid's prisoner at one time, and the puppet of a mad god of war another.
She sighed again. Odd, that she would miss her island just now. Not Paradise Island, although she missed it, and especially her sisters. No, she was thinking of where she had been marooned. Even that uninhabited rock she had left was pleasant enough in its own way compared to this stifling, cramped metal box they had stuffed her into after making sure she was healthy enough to survive it.
The ship seemed to be in constant motion, so she supposed they were still underway, heading wherever it was they were going. They had yet to try questioning her again or telling her anything since the admiral had shown up just once demanding she tell him who she worked for, and how she had known the location of their test route.
He seemed to be unable to believe she knew nothing of his mission. None of what he mentioned, at any rate.
He stalked off in anger and ordered her kept under constant guard.
That had been seven days ago.
Three hundred and thirty-six hours.
Twenty thousand, one hundred and sixty minutes.
She sighed, stopping her mind from counting seconds.
Sometimes her goddess-inspired knowledge and wisdom could be annoying.
Still, she was more convinced than ever that something very wrong was happening around her.
She just had no clue what it was, or how to proceed.
"Okay, Princess," the bald sailor called out sardonically as he came into the brig with his usual swagger, his voice carrying easily through her door. "You ready to get out of here?" She wisely said nothing. This man wasn't one in any authority anyway. He obviously couldn't help her.
The door opened, and the sailor leered at her as he stood back to let four guards enter the small cell. "Don't fight, sweet cheeks," he advised her. "You'd only get hurt."
She frowned as she saw the manacles one of the men held, and rose to her feet, unable to believe they thought they had to chain her.
"I will not submit to the indignity of bonds," she told the man who stopped to stare at her in disbelief.
"Listen, lady, I really don't care if you think you're the fuckin' queen of England. You're a prisoner, and prisoners are transported….."
The man howled every inch of the fourteen feet he flew back through the hatch before slamming into the bulkhead that finally stopped his flight. He barely moaned as he slid down the wall to the deck, unconscious before his feet ever even touched it.
"Jesus H…! Grab her," the bald man spat as he looked back from the unconscious SP as the other three guards reacted too slowly to even keep her inside the cell.
She burst through the men with surprising ease considering her weakened state, slamming them back and away from her with both hands as their close quarters actually worked to her benefit. She rushed down the corridor, slammed the hatch behind her, and used a thick baton taken from one of the men to jam it closed.
A quick climb up the first ladder she reached, and she found herself standing between a half dozen gaping sailors who looked at her, then down the empty hatch, and ran to sound an alarm.
Guessing it was time to get off this ship one way or another, she raced down the upper corridor, took several ladders as her still keen senses led her up toward the strong scent of salt air, and…..if she was not mistaken, land.
The ship was near land.
Men shouted as she emerged from an open door onto the lower deck overlooking the bow, and one man turned to gape as she stood there for a moment, eyes adjusting to the bright sun overhead as klaxons continued to wail, and men shouted conflicting orders at one another.
"Down," she heard someone shout as she simply leaped the safety rail, and dropped to the deck below her. She had caught sight of the land before her, and wherever it was, it had to be better than on a ship full of men who refused to hear her.
Something in that curt command that came from behind her had her spinning just in time to see a man with a rifle aiming at her back. Was he going to simply shoot her? In the back? Bracelets half hidden by her jumpsuit's stiff cuffs flashed, and she thanked Hera she had not lost all her skills along with most of her powers as she deflected the rounds that would have taken her life, her suit's cuffs shredding as she caught each round with the ease of long practice.
The men around her screamed in alarm as the ricochets bounced wildly among them, and the shooter stopped to gape at her as she wasted no time in using the reprieve. She turned for the rail and raced for the freedom promised her there.
Four feet from the rail, five men joined forces to block her path. She gathered herself, and leaped right over their heads, and dove into the warm ocean beyond, her body cutting a sleek path through the water as powerful limbs carried her quickly, and surely toward land.
Unfortunately, she realized belatedly she had not thought that far ahead. Even as she came out of the surf, she found herself surrounded by nearly twenty armed men in uniform as she rose from the surf, dripping water and breathless as she found a grim smile stretching her lips as she faced the soldiers in drab uniforms.
"So," she said somberly as she walked purposely toward the men, using the lull to catch her breath and measure her reserves. "It is a battle you seek? Then do as you must, for so shall I."
"Is this woman nuts," one of them asked as she faced them with grim determination.
"Psycho, or spy, we take her alive," the man with sergeant's stripes ordered as he raised a small pistol.
"Now, lady, hands up, and….."
The noncom's orders were lost in his shout as she lunged forward, grabbing him by the collar to fling him around to clear a path through the men around her. She broke through the line and was ready to race for the nearby road, and the town beyond when she felt something sharp pierce her lower back.
The electrical charge that stole her strength and will also sent her face-first into the sand, completely unconscious.
"This bitch is nuts," one of the men growled as he toed her with a boot after she went down, his rifle trained on her skull all the same.
"She's strong as a mule, too," the sergeant spat blood as he came up behind him. "Someone get shackles on her, and pronto. The heavy ones. We won't be taking any chances with her. The navy boys say she could be some kind of spy. We'll let the men in charge figure it out."
"They really gonna stick her in with those ragheads," one of the soldiers asked as they surrounded the unconscious woman being cuffed hand and foot before she was lifted to be dropped into a nearby jeep between two guards with tasers aimed point-blank at the sergeant's orders.
"I was in Iraq," the sergeant spat. "Some of those women are just as nuts as the men. They'd blow your ass to hell just as quick, too. She even twitches, put another ten thousand volts in her ass," he told the MP's. "Make sure the garrison knows to use heavy restraints on this one."
"Will do, Sgt. Molina," one of the men nodded as the jeep started up. By then, a launch from the visiting battleship had reached the shore, and a full admiral stepped off the boat to glare after the prisoner who was being driven up to the prison at Guantanamo.
S
Clark was still reviewing Chang's latest figures when he heard the familiar sounds of a helicopter approaching. He glanced up, right through the roof, and relaxed. "It's Agent Carter," he told Chang. "The man I told you about," he added.
"Of course. It has been almost two weeks, I began to think we were being overlooked," the scientist said, both of them knowing the news had been filled with tensions rising between America and China over the past month though neither side would say just why.
The two men knew but remained hopeful when no government liaisons appeared to complicate the idyllic days they were spending. Even now, Alicia was in town with Laura, shopping for things they needed as they made the isolated farm their temporary refuge.
"I'll go meet him," Clark decided as he rose from the chair where they had been reviewing Chang's latest formulae based on ideas they had been batting around for days.
"I shall come with you. I do not wish to appear cowardly before a man that may be our best hope of gaining official asylum."
"Well, he's landing now, so let's go," Clark said as he glanced at the wall again as the sound of the rotors grew louder.
They walked out the front door, past the new porch swing he had hung for Laura, and around the side of the house toward where the pilot was setting down. Chang had to hunch against the rush from the blades, but Clark didn't even feel it as he stood there waiting for the single passenger to climb down from the government vehicle.
It didn't take him long.
James jumped out, signaled the pilot, and then headed right toward them. He didn't look too happy.
"Clark," he nodded. "Dr. Li," he then greeted the Chinese scientist. "Let's talk in the house, shall we?"
"We're alone here," Clark told him.
"We could be seen," James told him pointedly, glancing up. "Spy satellites are getting more powerful all the time."
Clark glanced around, and up, and shook his head. "Nothing in the area, colonel," he said, adopting a solemn lead from the man. "Now, why don't you tell us what's on your mind. You obviously didn't come here to share good news."
"I'm not handing you this," James told him after glancing back at the pilot who was focused on readying the aircraft for liftoff. "I suggest you read it privately and destroy it.
"And if you…..do anything, I suggest that this time you use the cape we mentioned. Call it….a professional courtesy."
Clark took the file, glanced at it without opening it, and his eyes flared as he looked back at the agent. "Is this real?"
"Forgot about those eyes of yours," he said as the still sealed file he had pulled from out of his jacket was suddenly vaporized by an unseen heat source in the same instant the hero held it out. "And, yes, it's very real."
"Whatever that is about, does it concern me, or my wife," Li asked a little anxiously.
"No, Dr. Li. The fact is, the U.S. has maintained complete ignorance of your presence here, or your wish for asylum just as the White House continues to try to play ignorant of the supposed superweapon that was allegedly sent onto Chinese soil to….ah, abduct you."
"I see. So, officially, no one is doing anything on behalf of the Chang, or his wife," Clark said grimly. "And….unofficially," he asked pointedly.
"Unofficially, they're hoping the whole thing blows over because right now, we've got a nut with a nuke in the Middle East threatening to blow up the Iraqi oil fields if we don't evacuate the region as of yesterday. Things are getting complicated in the big picture, Clark, and that's about all I can tell you at this point. But whoever you are, and wherever you are from….. I have to give you the benefit of the doubt considering how you have already helped us out. That's why I told you about…..that situation."
"There's more to it, isn't there?"
"The naval brass is pushing for a discreet, and immediate execution," he said as he nodded. "Someone thinks she's more than she claims, and wants her neutralized before some liberal judge can free her, and send her home to some supposed terrorist cell they're convinced sent her out fishing for top secret information."
"Bruce would love your world," Clark told him. "It would only prove his famed paranoia has a basis in reality after all."
"Bruce," James frowned.
"Never mind," Clark sighed.
"Well, I would have called you, but….I didn't dare leave a path they could use to track this leak through me."
"Thank you for the information, colonel," he said quietly as he turned to the scientist.
"Dr. Li, I think you had best return to the house. I'll be back as soon as I can," he said, headed toward the back of the house.
James stared after him, then headed toward the helicopter after assuring the scientist he was not forgetting him. It was all a matter of timing.
Even as the helicopter rose back into the sky, he saw a colorful blur cut across their path, and vanish over the horizon before he could even blink. He was taking a calculated risk revealing the secret file to the alleged hero, but if he were right, and they did nothing, God help them all if the man found out after they executed a possible friend.
Because somehow, the overly strong female they were holding calling herself simply this Diana, did not sound like an Arab spy. For one, no Arab he knew would use a female in such a position. And what Arab would ask to see Superman in this world?
He had gone with his gut on this one, and that was all he could do for now.
S
Diana felt a lethargy that went beyond the drugs they kept her filled with after an endless parade of constant abuse, and torture. They used tactics she thought had gone out with the Nazis, and yet none of them broke her. She was an Amazon and a warrior in her own right. Even with her reduced power, she was still an Amazon. That did not change.
They took her lasso away, but could not remove her enchanted girdle, or bracelets.
They nullified both by weighing her down with chains, and using rifle butts to hammer her into submission along with the rest of the brutal maneuverings the men seemed quite willing to subject her to without compunctions of any sort. If they never raped her, it was simply because they genuinely feared to get too close to her. Even drugged, she still retained some of her strength, and she had broken more than a few bones when some of the men grew too unwary around her.
Now, she knew well enough, they were tired of her resistance. It took little imagination to know what lay ahead of her as she was dragged in chains from her squalid cell before a group of men in dirty robes and bound to a low stake in front of a bullet-riddled wall. She shook her head in disdain when a man holding a black book asked her if she would like a blindfold.
When the uniformed priest, as her addled mind finally realized he was asked if she had any last requests, she glared at the men before her, and stated, "A sword, so I may at least die like an Amazon."
Not one of the men laughed. Nor did they give her that request.
"All right, father," one of them nodded. "She's headed for hell anyway, so step away, and let's get this over with."
"Brave man, who hides behind others," she spat at the junior officer who never once got within ten feet of her. He was always behind his guards, even with the other prisoners.
The Arabs that were captives here stared in silence at her as they watched the day's 'lesson' being given before them this day. She had little doubt one of these cruel bastards had told them that this was what happened when you were too stubborn. Too proud. She almost felt an affinity for these men of the desert that would not break despite the deprivations and abuse they suffered right alongside her.
Especially as she felt some of them truly were innocent from the prayers she sometimes overheard late at night as she wondered where her own colleagues were, and what had happened to the world she once knew. For surely this could not be the world that once venerated her alongside great men like Superman, or Batman, or even J'onn, that last noble warrior from Mars.
She swallowed hard as her eyes met every last man lifting his rifle to take aim at her chest.
"Great Hera," she murmured faintly in prayer, steeling herself as she heard bolts thrown, and the order was given to stand ready. "If I must die this day, make it swift."
"Aim," the officer shouted, and six safeties clicked like thunder in her ears.
"Fire."
The order cut her into her like a lash, which she had felt often enough of late, and she forced herself not to cringe as the sound of gunfire exploded, and she did close her eyes as she waited for the shot that would kill her.
Instead, she heard the telltale whine of ricochets. She felt her breath catch when she looked up and saw a wide, red cape settling around a powerful body before her. She almost laughed in heartfelt relief as the men shouted in confusion, and she saw several of them not blocked by Clark's broad shoulders dropping suddenly melting weapons.
"Sorry I wasn't here sooner," he told her, turning his back on the men to snap her chains like brittle string. "Are you okay?"
"I am now," she smiled weakly. "But….that popinjay has my lasso," she said, gesturing to the lieutenant that had been a bane to her existence the past few weeks.
He turned to face more than a dozen men rushing toward the prison courtyard as the Arabs howled in mad delight at his appearance, and then he raised a single foot. The shockwave of his firm step sent the men sprawling like drunken children who had spent one turn too long on a carousel. He then jumped across the twenty-five feet separating them to snatch the young officer from the ground, and held him up by his collar.
"Where is Diana's lasso," he demanded, giving him little courtesy considering the crime he was to commit here.
"That rope is….is in my office," the man whimpered, a suspicious dampness spreading across his khaki-covered crotch.
"Hold it right there, mister," a burly sergeant appeared just then with a rifle at the head of another dozen armed men as the others still worked to pick themselves up only to find all their arms had all been rendered useless by strangely melted barrels. "I don't know what circus you came from, or what you think you're doing, but….."
The sergeant howled as his entire rifle glowed white-hot before it literally melted from his hands. He barely avoided severe burns as he dropped the stock before the molten metal could flow over unprotected flesh.
"He's some kind of super freak, Sarge," one of the men from the firing squad complained. "I think he's for fucking real!"
"Show us to the office," Clark demanded of the officer as he dropped and shoved him forward, Diana close behind him, pride holding her up more than anything else just then.
The guards all backed away from the colorfully clad invader in the bizarrely familiar costume. That he had come for the woman in such dramatic fashion had some questioning her claims anew, but none of them did so aloud. Not one of them didn't doubt someone would be court-martialed for this foul-up, and none of them wanted to be that squeaky wheel. Not after the last round of scapegoats had all ended up doing serious time to cover some Brass' ass.
Ten minutes later, Clark led Diana, who now held her lasso in her right hand like a trophy, back out into the compound where the guards at least managed to quiet the other prisoners. The lieutenant was out cold, left dangling from a coat hook in his own closet. Clark eyed the sergeant that tried to reclaim order in the prison and walked over to the man who stood his ground despite his sore, blistered hands, and obvious unease.
"Treat these men fairly," he told him firmly. "Or I may just come back to see if they truly deserve to be here," he added.
He then lifted Diana into his arms, and launched himself into the sky, his bright red cape fluttering in his wake.
He was gone from sight in but seconds.
"Holy…shit," the sergeant rasped.
"I thought he was make-believe," a lanky soldier drawled as he stared up at the sky where the colorfully clad man had disappeared. "Ain't he?" The sergeant did not answer. He was trying to figure out how to report to his superiors when the inevitable ass-kicking began over this one.
S
Diana smiled as she turned to see Clark walking toward her holding a silver tiara, once more clad in his usual navy suit he favored when in disguise. The only difference here was that he had foregone the usual glasses he favored back home.
"I found this on your island when I located it," he told her, handing her the distinctive headpiece that was part of her usual costume. "You must have lost it when you landed on that island. Dr. Li helped, actually. Knowing his coordinates help me estimate where you were when you materialized on this planet."
"So, we're really not on Earth anymore," she asked as she slid her tiara back into place, feeling more natural in spite of the khaki slacks, and pale, blue blouse she now wore thanks to Laura Hastings' generosity.
The tiara helped complete her, and she felt a tingle as the sympathetic magic involved filled her, but she still sensed her powers were yet dangerously low. Far below what they had been.
"No, and yes. This is another Earth. An Earth where heroes don't exist. Nor does magic, gods, or apparently aliens, as far as I can tell."
"So, this dimensional gate the Li's were speaking of brought us here. Can it not send us back, Clark?"
"I hope so. However, between the political climate, and the scientific uncertainties of the technology involved, Dr. Li is still reluctant to even attempt trying."
She nodded. "I can understand his caution considering the implications his wife discussed with me last night.
"Still, I do not care much for this world. And not just because my powers are so limited here."
"I do understand. Yet, oddly enough, my powers seem…..augmented. Enhanced."
"Perhaps because they are based on scientific principles that are plausible in this realm," she suggested after a moment's thought. "While mine are more magical in nature, originating from the gods as they do."
"Perhaps. I'm just glad you're all right, Diana. To think, you've been here all this time…."
"But…you've been here longer than I have. You've been missing for almost nine years, Clark. People think you either left the planet or were slain by some enemy."
"Nine….years," he choked. "I've only been here for three months."
"I've been here almost ten months as far as I can tell," she told him in resignation. "And before I was….taken, you had been gone for almost nine years. Time, it seems, flows strangely here. That can't be good for our chances of returning either."
"You mentioned you were on that island over six months when you thought you spotted me," he recalled.
"Yes. I wish I could have attracted your attention then, but you were too high, and going too fast."
"I was distracted, too," he said quietly. "Little wonder I wasn't paying attention."
"I suppose I could have handled things better myself, but….it seemed no one would even listen to me. They only shouted their peculiar questions at me, and….."
"It's all right, Diana. It's over. And there will be an accounting, I promise you."
"While you were out," she interrupted him. "Did you see if…..?"
"I looked. Just as I looked for Smallville. There is no Paradise Island on this world. No Amazon race. Just…..a few tiny islands that look to have been left uninhabited for years."
She smiled almost sadly. "I suppose….I could always found a new Themyscira," she suggested wryly.
Clark smiled. "I suppose we may have to consider something along that line if we don't find a way back anytime soon," he admitted.
She looked at him, and smiled back. "Do you think anyone misses us? I mean, from my perspective, you were missing nine years. Who knows how long I've been gone in our world."
Clark's smile faded. "You do have the advantage of being virtually immortal, Diana."
"I don't know. Am I immortal in this world, do you think? I've lost a lot of power since waking up….here. "
"I have a theory."
"Now you sound like Bruce," she managed a weak laugh.
"I've had lots of time to think here," he admitted.
"So, what do you think?"
"I think…..you must have barely survived the crossover. I think it drained you doing so. Badly. It may take time for you to recover that lost energy. After all, while you were….physically powerful, virtually my equal in ways, you lacked my actual invulnerability. It may have cost you a lot of your energy just to survive the rift, as Dr. Li calls it."
"So, others might have been pulled in, and not survived at all," she realized.
"Possibly, based on what the doctor thinks. But they have only tested the machine three times, twice since I've been here. That must be why you and I are here."
"And the third time?"
"He didn't amp the power enough to create a rift. He only ran it long enough to make it look good for his government."
"Another discovery turned toward destructive purposes," she sighed. "I sometimes wonder if there is any hope for Man's World."
"There is always hope, Diana."
"Even now," she asked him, turning to look into his eyes.
"Even now," he stated firmly. "Give yourself time. If my theory is right, you'll recover gradually now that you aren't being…..tried so harshly."
Her full lips thinned as he tried to downplay the experiences she had suffered in prison. "I would dearly like to go back there, and….."
"They were following orders. It isn't an excuse, but you can't completely blame those men for what their leaders order. Although, from what I saw, some were….excessive in following those orders.
"I've noticed this world has a different kind of war waging, though. Women and children die as easily and often as men in this guerilla war they wage against one another in the name of religion. You can almost understand the West's desire for compromise, or utter control and security, depending on your outlook. But to yield to either extreme is to give up what we've spent our entire lives fighting for in our world. I'm not ready to give that up," Clark told her. "Not even here."
"Boy scout to the end," she smiled again, boldly taking his nearest hand in her own.
"So I've been told," he said and gave her hand a light squeeze.
"And I am an Amazon, Clark. A warrior. It isn't in me to yield the fight so easily, either. So…..What do we do?"
"I expect we're going to be approached very soon by this world's government. You can't just break out of one of their prisons and expect to fly away untouched. Well, figuratively speaking," he chuckled at her expression.
"What will you do when they come?"
"I expected them sooner or later, to tell you the truth. I do believe there is a potential friend in their ranks, though, and it'll depend on what he manages to get across to his leaders. As to what we do? Maybe your island sanctuary isn't a bad plan. I noted some isolated, likely uncharted, islands in the region where Paradise Island should have been, and they would be easily defensible if we wanted to hold out there."
"But you aren't talking about just hiding from this world."
"No. I promised the Li's they would be safe when I took them from China. If need be, it might be a good place to operate from, and hide them."
"You can't have just thought of this," she realized.
"No. While I searched your island out, and then went looking for Paradise Island at your behest, I took the liberty of storing some provisions there. Things that might be needed."
"And Mrs. Hastings."
"She is innocent of anything beyond sheltering us. And she's popular among the locals since she's given so much of her wealth to shelters, and charities in the nearby town. I doubt the government would harass her if we weren't here."
"So…. Do we leave now, or wait…?"
"We wait to see what their first move is, Diana. We don't react. We don't give them a reason to claim self-defense. We wait, and then we act to whatever decision they make first. It isn't like they can stop me if we have to move fast."
"I just realized. This is actually Bruce's worst nightmare."
"It is," he frowned.
"Not the fascist elements that seem to be growing around us. You. A world without Kryptonite and no magic means you're virtually untouchable here. He would hate that."
He looked down at her hand still held in his. "I suppose that is true. But unlike our world, that also means there is no power here that can manipulate, or possess me. That leaves me in complete control, and of my own free will, I wouldn't become the kind of threat he fears."
"No?"
"No," he said firmly. "I wasn't raised that way. You know that."
"I do," she nodded. "They don't."
"I know. I know," he said as they stood in the field beyond the barn where Diana had been walking when he joined her.
For a long time, they simply stood quietly, taking comfort in one another's company. Just then, it was them alone in a world that didn't know them. Even when the sun was setting they stood alone and simply watched. They didn't need to say more. They both knew what they were facing, and knew they could count on one another in whatever lay ahead.
S
"It's almost sad," Laura said as she turned from the window where the growing darkness hid the unique couple from her eyes as night fell.
"Sad," Chang asked as he looked up from the table where he was listening to a small radio broadcasting the day's news.
"Yes. They are literally strangers in our world, unwelcome, and still likely to end up hunted. Yet back on their world, they were heroes. Champions. Celebrated, and loved."
Alicia shared a solemn expression with her husband, and he nodded. "Yes, I see what you mean, Mrs. Hastings. Unfortunately, every theory or scenario I conjure to reopen a rift only suggests more danger, or possible death for them, or another who might be inadvertently pulled through the dimensional barriers we pierce."
"Allowing for the unlikely possibility our government would even allow us to try such a venture in the first place," Alicia added.
"True," Chang said Laura turned to the stove to finish the supper she was making for them. Even as she poured water from the spaghetti she had been boiling, the telephone rang, and she scowled, almost missing its former silence when she had been unable to keep up service.
"Hello," she answered as Alicia rose to take over the preparations for her as she went to pick up the receiver on the fourth ring.
"Yes, it is. I see. All right. All right. I'll tell them. Yes. Of course. Thank you."
She hung up the phone, her eyes dark with worry as she looked at the Li's.
"Bad news," Alicia finally asked.
"I believe so," she said and went to the door. Even as she opened it, Clark and Diana entered the kitchen. They both looked as solemn as ever, and she swallowed twice before she finally said, "You had a call."
"I heard," Clark told her as he closed the door behind her.
"What? Why didn't you tell me," Diana asked.
"It's pretty much what we expected. Dr. Li," he said to Chang. Then echoed the address as he looked at Alicia. "We need to make a decision."
"What was that call," Chang asked after a moment's pause to study the pair.
"Tell them," Clark told Laura.
"It was that man from homeland security. He said to warn Clark, and Diana," she added with a glance at the Amazon. "That tomorrow, the local Guard has orders to come here, and take you all into custody. By any means necessary."
"What do we do now," Alicia gasped, looking as stricken as that evening Clark had first appeared at her window in her office, ripping open steel bars to gain access to her without tipping off the guards outside her door.
"We have an option available to us. It is up to you," Clark told them as he looked to Diana, who nodded.
"We have trusted you this far, my friend," Chang told him. "Our lives are in your hands. As is only right, since we both owe you so much. Not only for your aid but for our transgression in bringing you here in the first place."
"These things happen," Clark smiled blandly as he gestured for them to sit. "I'll tell you what I have planned as we eat. It will be a long night for all of us, and we should be eating, and rest, to face whatever is ahead."
"I agree," Laura told them, and helped sit the rest of the supper she had been making on the table.
She had already noticed that while the Li's ate light, Diana and Clark both ate heartily when allowed, and the food was available. She didn't mind feeding them at all. She also noticed Diana was looking much healthier since her arrival just a day ago when she had seemed pale, thin, and uncertain. She obviously had a superhuman stamina, too, even if it weren't as powerful as Clark's.
"So," Chang, ever practical asked as they began to eat. "What is your plan, my indestructible friend?"
S
Five helicopters flew around the farmhouse as an entire battalion of men and tanks moved to surround the farm. The orders were to contain, and take captive all those in the house by any means necessary. They were listed as potential security risks, and a genuine threat to the nation and the President himself had ordered extreme force as necessary.
It seemed that after the female's escape from Guantanamo, the nation's leader demanded Carter brief him on Clark once again. This time paying especially close attention as he finally realized just what kind of threat the otherworldly hero could prove to be if left free. Unfortunately, he refused to listen to James' suggestion that the pair be given certain leniencies and respect that might help sway them to take more active roles in the country's defense without creating open conflict between them.
The vice president himself shot that one down, and his longtime friend and leader of the 'free world' seconded the opinion the generals all but shouted that they were too dangerous to leave free. For the sake of the nation, the pair had to be neutralized. It was felt that if the woman could be retaken, which they felt easy enough based on their earlier reports from the navy, that they could use her as a lever to hold the stronger alien in check.
James could only listen in dismay as they made their plans, and hoped the hero really was as reluctant to battle the people he would have called fellow countrymen in another dimension as he had previously indicated.
What truly concerned him was the Pentagon's insistence they also bring in the Li's after rumors of their research, and the alleged weapon they were working on reached their ears. James, having seen what had apparently resulted from the few test-fires already, did not want to see his own country make the same mistake, and perhaps bring in something far worse than a few lost heroes.
He was on the team that was ordered to go into the house, demanding the illegal aliens, as they were now ironically being described by the powers-that-be, surrendered. He insisted on going in with them, hoping his presence would at least keep things from getting off to a bad start too soon if they saw him. Hopefully, diplomacy might still keep things from escalating into a true fiasco.
Damn politicians anyway, he thought as the chopper he rode in on with the first insertion team set down just a few yards from the house. He was the third man off the aircraft, the first two carrying twin machine guns big enough that they would have chewed up the house itself if the men opened up with them. He told the lieutenant to stand down when the man wanted to lead a charge right up to the house.
Cocky weekend warriors, he realized, were hardly the kind of people meant for this kind of work.
"You charge in there, and all you'll do is get someone killed," he told him.
Fortunately, cocky, or not, the lieutenant was not that eager to die or have any of his men hurt either. He listened, and James walked towards the house alone, hands showing clearly that he was unarmed. He started to knock on the door when it suddenly opened, and Clark came outside to join him.
In full costume. Cape and all.
For some reason, the colorful costume didn't seem quite so silly to him now. Not knowing that man in it was no actor, but a being of unimaginable power. Power enough to rip aircraft apart in mid-flight, or carry pocket nukes up out of the atmosphere in seconds. Power enough to shatter a world, if some of the stories were true.
And his President wanted them to arrest him?
"Worst-case scenario, Colonel Carter," Clark spoke first as no less than twenty AR1's lined up on the colorful sigil adorning the broad chest of the man standing beside the former soldier. "Just what does your military expect?"
James studied the powerful man, and nodded, deciding honesty was going to be the best policy here with this man. "They want you detained. Neutralized. Perhaps….directed if you can be made to….see reason.
"Their reason," he stated needlessly as Clark merely stared at him, saying nothing as he seemed to ignore the full battalion of men and machines rumbling into place even as he stood there. "They think threatening your friend Diana, or the Li's will make you see that reason."
"Someone is not very bright, are they, Colonel Carter?" James said nothing as he simply shook his head.
"What will you do?"
"That depends. What about the Li's asylum?"
"Overlooked, essentially. They want him to design a sonic weapon for us. I think the Brass hope to….use it more effectively than the Chinese."
Clark still did not respond.
"I gave them my word they would be safe, colonel," he finally said in a quiet tone.
"I know."
"I try to keep my word, colonel. I am not America's enemy. But, neither am I the enemy of any other man, woman, or child in any nation on this planet.
"I will not interfere with sovereign governments, nor their duly appointed leaders."
"That is good to hear," he said with a rueful smile.
"However," he added, now looking directly at the military forces aligned against the small farm. "Neither will I stand idly by and let innocents be threatened, or used as bargaining chips in this, or any endeavor. Most especially any endeavor pointed against me personally."
"I tried to tell them that, Clark," he told him sincerely.
"I believe you, Colonel. Now, go back and tell them one thing more for me."
"Yes," he asked, hoping they would get out of this mad situation without violence after all.
"Tell your leaders the Li's are under my protection now. As is Diana, who is both friend, and colleague, as well as an honorable woman. Because I understand the confusion over our presence here, I will not act on what happened to her further than I already have in freeing her," Clark told him.
"Again, however, I will act if attacked. Or if anyone under my protection is attacked."
"I tried to tell them they were wrong in taking this tact," he told him again as Clark stepped off the porch, and dozens of safeties clicked off at the senior officer's simple gesture. "Clark, I can't do more than what I have now. You have to stand down, or people are going to be hurt. They have orders to use force if necessary to take you and the others."
"So, the military of this allegedly free nation is prepared to fire on an innocent widow's house to accomplish its purposes?"
"I'm afraid so," James finally nodded.
"And your leaders in Washington actually condone this action?"
"They ordered it," James said coolly. "You should know that."
"I do. I just wanted you to clarify that for those watching," he said as he turned to the camera hidden just inside the house that was pointed at them, its red transmission light blinking as if in warning.
"It's live," James asked as the captain behind him turned a baleful eye on the door, and saw only then the faint reflection of the camera lens he had missed until now. Or been misdirected by Clark to purposely hold the Q&A session that just left the administration with its collective butt hanging.
"It's remote. No one else is here, colonel. Just me. And I'm leaving. "Don't try to follow," he suggested with a wry smile as he began to rise from the ground.
"Freeze, alien," the captain behind James shouted, aiming his pistol at him, forgetting the camera, and thumbing the hammer of his weapon. He had his own doubts about this man's tricks and was still certain a bullet would do a lot of damage if aimed beyond any possible Kevlar he might be wearing.
Clark shot him a look of utter contempt and literally vanished as the wind left in the wake of his sudden acceleration almost blew James and the captain both down.
When the captain staggered back, his already taut finger squeezed the trigger of his pistol, and the single shot created a chain-reaction among his men as dozens of men, already on edge, opened fire on the only available target. The house.
"Cease fire. Cease fire, damn it," James howled as he threw himself to the ground to avoid the firepower being emptied into the house.
By the time anyone bothered to listen, let alone heed him, the chagrined captain had picked himself up and looked at the house riddled with dozens of high-velocity rounds. The camera, needless to say, was literally shot to pieces. James sighed, realizing they did not look too good here.
Clark had acted peacefully, blandly stating the obvious, and departing without acting against anyone. In response, the National Guard had just shot an old woman's house full of holes and looked more than foolish as they searched the farm only to find no one, absolutely no one was even present. Clark had diverted them, letting the others either escape or covered their absence in the first place.
"Congratulations," James scowled at the captain who was standing by the battalion commander now as they sent teams to investigate the entire farm, out buildings, and all. "You've just captured an old lady's empty house."
Both officers scowled darkly even as the first press trucks began rolling up, along with no less than three news helicopters, all with cameras rolling.
They were definitely going to look bad here, James realized. This Clark was obviously more than just brawn. He had suckered them in from the start, and let them have it with both proverbial barrels. The President was going to have to do some fast talking this time. God only knew where the fallout over this fiasco was going to land. It didn't take much to guess he might just be out of a job very soon.
Still, he couldn't help smirking as he realized that not only had Clark and his people gotten clean away, leaving them with a lot of very touchy questions to answer, he had left them without a clue as to where they might have gone.
Not one clue.
To Be Continued…