I do not own any D.C. or Disney characters named herein, and am only using them for a story meant for entertainment purposes only.
Kim Possible: Wonder Girl
By LJ58
3
Queen Hippolyta pointed.
"You must reach the peak, and bring back whatever you find atop the uppermost crest. I had it placed there, so I know what it is, and there can be no cheating. You must bring me the exact item, or I will know you failed."
"No big," Kim shrugged, still feeling a bit foolish wearing the abbreviated armor of an Amazon trainee, complete with leather skirt. She glanced around, and leapt onto a horse galloping past her, and then straddled it even as she leaned low over the animal, and snatched up the offered spear another Amazon held out.
"Still think she has no chance," Artemis asked Diana as they watched the redhead ride into the forest toward the jagged peaks that lined the eastern side of the island.
"She is confident," Diana murmured. "Almost….cocky."
"Like you," Artemis teased.
"I'm not that bad," Diana protested as her mother simply eyed her without comment.
"Diana," Hippolyta turned. "Follow her. Discreetly."
"Really," Artemis frowned. "But she's supposed to go alone. Isn't she?"
"She is not a true Amazon. She may…. May be a relation of Anastasia's, but I'm still not certain. Either way, I do not wish her untimely death due to foolishness by either of us. Follow. But do not intercede unless she truly needs aid."
Diana nodded.
"I'll ensure she is not harmed."
"Just remember her pride. In that, I've noted that you two are much alike," the queen told her daughter.
Diana said nothing to that, but loped over, and leapt astride a white mare that stood waiting as if knowing she would be needed. Diana carried only her usual sword, and trotted after Kim without being in too great a hurry.
After all, she knew where the woman was going.
KP
"Agent Steele," her superior frowned. "Aren't you on requested leave?"
"I need an extension," the woman told him.
"You haven't even been gone a week," the man behind the desk frowned.
"It's important. There is a chance, just a chance, I might be able to find what happened to Kim Possible."
"Possible? Half the world is ready to write her off as dead by now. Are you saying you have reason to believe she did survive?"
"Maybe," the statuesque redhead murmured. "I only have….suspicions, but….that is a chance I can find her. A small chance. Still, it's going to take time. And very special preparations."
"What do you need," the head of the agency asked without hesitation.
"You're trust. And a launch with enough provisions to get me across the Atlantic."
"Why not fly," the senior agent asked her.
"For where I'm going, boats are best, sir."
"Well, the entire Navy had more than a few boats out there, and…."
The man stopped, and eyed the piercing, green eyes of his best agent to date.
"This is one of those weird hunches of yours, isn't it, Steele?"
"Maybe. As I said, I need your trust. No one can know what I'm doing. If the wrong ears hear, it could ruin any chance I have," she told him, not bothering to tell him just whose ears those were.
"Done. Get down to Palm Beach. I'll have a suitable boat waiting on you by the time you arrive. Is that all?"
"I've updated my will," she said, handing him a seal manila envelope. "Just in case."
"I'll save this until you get back," he told her.
She said nothing to him as she turned, and walked out.
"Stace. Be careful. I wouldn't mind seeing Possible back. She's a good woman. But you're too good to lose. Don't take any chances."
"I'll do what needs doing," she said, and walked out of his office, not adding that she was the only one who could.
Still, what she was about to try was less than certain.
She could be going to her own death. Or trapping herself once again behind a veil from which no one escaped unless the gods allowed it. Which still made her question her own freedom gained so long ago. Was it truly just an accident, or had the gods allowed her freedom with a purpose. If so, she had never learned it, and they had never appeared to make demands.
She had not minded that one bit.
Only now family was involved.
Her great-granddaughter. And she was not going to let Anne, or Kimberly suffer because of the whims of the gods. Not if she could help them.
KP
"Some challenge," she Kim grunted, launching herself on to the narrow plateau atop the high peek when she finally reached the ledge. "Climbing a hill," she snorted.
She walked over to the center of the small plain, and eyed the small, leather pouch with the queen's seal on the corded braid that sealed the bag. She wasn't sure what was in it, but as if was sealed, she supposed opening it would likely be a breach of the test, or something. She slung the bag over her shoulders, and walked to the edge again.
Getting down was always harder than climbing, she mused as she looked down. Just then, she would have loved to have her grapple again. Or even her jetpack. She especially missed her Kimmunicator.
Too bad all that gear was currently at the bottom of the sea.
It had occurred to her that by now everyone back home likely thought she was dead. She wasn't sure now how much time had actually passed. She only had the queen's less than subtle hints that time flowed differently on the island. To a woman allegedly ageless compared to the world beyond, Kim had to wonder what she deemed different.
She just knew that somehow, no matter what, she was going to find a way off this mythical island, and back home.
She was still Kim Possible, and she could still do anything.
A shrill scream cut into her thoughts just as she was about to begin her descent. Turning, she gaped as a huge bird came flying down out of the sky; long, sharp talons extended as it eyed her as prey.
Kim's eyes instantly assessed it, marking it as a hawk of some kind. One that had to be as big as a horse. She didn't let fear, or uncertainty freeze her. A lifetime of facing oddities, and threats of all kind had her already moving even as she looked up.
She rushed right at the bird as it came down toward her, talons stretched to catch, and rend, and timed her leap even as the big bird faltered, confused by her rush toward danger.
She barely noted the cry behind her, but then it lost anyway as she leapt up, grabbing one, thick leg she used to fling herself around, and then up. In that same instant she was somersaulting to land astride the bird's long, muscular neck, and quickly locking her hands, and feet on, and just under its powerful wings.
"Now, birdbrain," he leaned forward to eye that single, big eye turned toward her. "I need a ride, and you showed up just in time, so up," she said, and forced the wings to shift, knowing enough of birds, and flight, from her work with a rescue shelter to know just how they needed to go.
The bird's path rose, then banked, and glided down off the mountain at a sharp angle away from the cliffs.
When it tried to cock its head back, the sharp beak seeking her vulnerable flesh, her sandaled foot intercepted it, and viciously kicked the head away.
"Keep your mind on flying, birdie, and we'll both be happier," she chided him.
The big hawk shrieked its outrage, and angled its glide to plunge directly toward the forest below. Kim laughed, and clung to its back, letting it fall. She knew just when to shift her own perch when those powerful wings spread again, and halted their headlong plunge, obviously designed to throw her off. She stayed in place, and again tugged and prodded to make the hawk circle.
She heard her horse left behind at the start of the climb neigh in terror, and saw it through the foliage as it galloped away.
"Great. Guess I'm walking," she muttered, watching the animal flee through the forest in panic.
Then she grinned.
"Or…..not," she decided, and tugged up and back at the hawk's wings.
It shrieked protest again, but the bird's sense of self-preservation had it flapping harder as it rose into the sky, and then banked in the direction Kim wanted.
Far below, and behind her, blue eyes watched as the pair flew away from the mountains.
"Great Hera," Diana watched from the plateau behind her as she murmured in disbelief, "Mother was worried about her?"
She had feared the redhead was in trouble when one of the few great predators left on the island from Ares' last attack tried to take her as a snack. The god of war's pets were nothing, if not deadly. She had called out, rushing up to aid her, but feared she was too late.
She reached the plateau even as the woman launched herself right into the sky astride the war-bird as if it were but another familiar mount for her to use. She stared as the deadly hunter spun, and dove, and banked, and the redhead clung to its back as if glued. Then, the pair rose, and turned to fly toward the city.
"Mother will never believe this one," she said, and launched herself into the sky to glide down to her waiting horse.
Which, she soon learned, was gone; apparently, with Kimberly's mount.
Sighing, she headed back toward the city, and chose not to fly.
That war-bird, after all, was not the only one still in the region. Best not to borrow trouble, as Artemis liked to say.
KP
"War-bird," the first scouts shouted, and Hippolyta, waiting idly for Kim's return, curious herself on the possible outcome, sat reading on the porch of her temple.
She leapt to her feet, her eyes searching the skies even as she spotted the huge bird left behind by the mad god during his last cowardly strike at them. She gasped as her archers prepared to face it even as it banked, and turned to glide over their city as its cries echoed overhead.
Just before the first archers could fire, her eyes saw the impossible.
"Hold," she cried to her Amazons. "Hold fire!"
"But, my queen," Artemis herself, spear in hand, complained. "If that creature attacks….!"
"Look closer, my friend," she told her, and Artemis looked up even as the shrieking bird abruptly dropped the final few yards like a stone, wings outstretched, and landed with a hopping stumble before the queen herself.
Kim dropped down, swatted the big head that moved toward her, ignoring the snapping beak, and growled at the huge bird.
"Don't start that again," she ordered. "Now, go home. And stop behaving so badly," she chided it, making a shooing motion.
The bird squawked indignantly, eyeing her with a cold gaze. Still, it only spread its wings to fly away, and vanished after wheeling overhead a few times before it flew back to the mountains.
"Uh, sorry about that, but I lost my horse, and I didn't feel like walking back," Kim said sheepishly as every Amazon present just stared at her.
"You….flew…..?"
Artemis just gaped, unable to finish her sentence, her mind genuinely reeling.
"Kimberly, test aside, I have no doubt that you are our own true sister. A child of the Amazons. If not the gods," Hippolyta told her.
Kim was pulling the satchel from her shoulder, about to hand it over when she frowned at the women who openly gaped at her.
"What?"
"You flew….on a war-bird," Artemis exclaimed now.
"That? No big. It showed up just when I needed a lift, so I just borrowed a ride." She grimaced, added, "Don't know what kind of favor I'll be owing him, though."
"Favor," Hippolyta frowned. "Kimberly," she called her now. "In all my time, none has ever tamed a war-bird. They are the favored beasts of Ares himself. Deadly, and unyielding. When it appeared over our skies, we feared the worst."
"But…it was just a big bird," Kim huffed. "So not the drama. I've faced worse."
"Indeed," Hippolyta murmured herself as Artemis just stared on.
Along with the Amazons around her.
"So, I pass," Kim finally asked, still holding out the satchel.
"Open the bag, Kimberly," Hippolyta told her with a nod.
She eyed it, pulled the cord that popped easily enough, and opened the leather satchel. Inside, she found two slender, silver bands like the bracelets all the Amazons wore.
"Those bands mark the elite of the Amazon warriors. They are a token of a bond between ourselves, and Hera and Athena, who charged us, and blessed us, and gave us this refuge from Man's World. Put them on, sister, and join us as a fellow Amazon."
Kim held up one of the silver bands.
"This means…I can do the whole phoning the gods bit, though? Right?"
"Once you complete the training, and earn your place among us," Hippolyta nodded. "You will have the right to approach the gods' temple, and make your appeal. It will be up to them to hear you, or not. Now, put on your bands, sister."
"Uh, I don't have to...cut anything off, though? Do I," she asked sheepishly.
Hippolyta laughed.
"Male propaganda," she told her. "You need not fear that," she smiled, nodding at the bands. "Or have you not noticed your sisters all remain whole?"
"I noticed I'm still kind of skinny compared to most of these women," she grumbled, glancing back down at her own petite frame.
The queen only smiled now, and gestured at her bands.
Kim sighed, and slid the band onto her left wrist. She then pulled out the other, and slid it onto her right. Even as she did, she felt them somehow contract, and if fitting themselves to her arms so snuggly they seemed to become a part of you.
"Now, you are an Amazon, sister," Artemis said, smiling hugely. "There is little doubt of that," she beamed at the redhead still studying one of the silver bands now on her wrists.
"Training begins at dawn," the queen told her, nodding at her.
"Man, what is it with the early rising around here," she groaned.
Many of the women laughed.
"Feast," someone shouted.
More than a few shouted her name.
Queen Hippolyta only watched as they led her away, pondering what was yet to come. Kimberly, she had a sense, was very special. Perhaps, more special than even she knew.
KP
Three weeks, and she had to be in the right area.
The compass was off, the instruments were going crazy, and the radio had long since stopped working.
Still, at least Poseidon wasn't hammering her small ship into kindling. It was known to happen.
Slowing the engines, she eyed the apparently empty ocean around her, and dropped a sea anchor. Here, she felt, was as good as any place to start her appeal. Perhaps, after all this time, it might just work. She could only pray it did.
Going below, she pulled off her civilian clothes, stripped away all the jewelry, and accessories she wore, and was left standing only in a pair of gleaming, silver bands. Pulling out a shapeless, ivory robe she had not worn in a very long time, she pulled on the garment, and pulled her hair back with a simple cord. Then, she padded out barefoot to the desk, and looked around again.
In her left hand, she now held a bottle of grape juice, and her right held a small haunch of raw meat. She walked carefully up to the bow, and looked ahead as she held out both hands.
"Guardians of Themyscira, Anastasia of the Amazons has returned home."
There was no reply.
"Poseidon, I make offerings, humble as my own person, asking safe passage through your realm."
She dropped the ham into the ocean, letting it sink without watching as she now opened the grape juice.
"Athena, I beg your blessing, once granted me with all my sisters. Bring me home. I beg you, bring home this wayward sister."
She poured out the bottle, and didn't stop until it was empty.
She did not throw it into the sea.
That would have been disrespectful.
She capped the empty container, and threw it back toward the stern for disposal later.
Dropping to her knees, she bowed her head, and cried out again, "Hear me, gods of my youth. Anastasia of Themyscira is here. She would return to her own. Please, hear her!"
She held her breath, remembering the far too many failures, some at the very beginning, that had left her marooned in Man's World for generations. For a time, she took solace in her own family, watching over them, and ensuring none harmed them. Only now, she had a mission beyond mere homesickness. She had to find Kimberly, and send her home.
Even as she prayed, kneeling on the bow as the small ship bobbed in the waves, the very air shimmered around her, and she almost cried as she saw the huge, lush island materialize as it did. The air changed, the salt yielding to a perfume born of flowers, and living things.
She stared hungrily for a moment, then scrambled for the wheel after jerking up the sea anchor, all but wailing as she finally, after generations, found her long-lost home. It had, she knew, been a very long time.
"Thank you," she cried, letting her tears flow freely as she guided the launch directly toward the beach nearest the city. "Thank you, Poseidon. Athena. I thank you for hearing this wayward traveler!"
Even as she neared the beach, she heard the shrill cry of something from a long-ago nightmare.
She stared in horror as a massive war-bird flew past, moving to circle toward the city of her sisters.
"Athena, no," she cried, and shoved the throttle forward, praying she would not be arriving to a slaughter.
KP
"…and then she leaps from the bird, and says, 'Sorry, but I lost my horse, and didn't feel like walking," the redheaded Artemis related as Anastasia's return was celebrated just as intensely as Kimberly's elevation to novice.
The warriors all shouted, and laughed, and Anastasia could only stare.
"Kim," she called her, "I have seen, and heard of your exploits for years. But even I never dared think you would…. Didn't you realize the danger?"
"It was just a big bird," she huffed. "No big. You know, except for the bird. It was pretty big," she grinned.
Anastasia could only gape as several of the women laughed.
"And, you, sister," Artemis smiled at her last true blood relation. "Four generations in the Outside World, and yet you come back to us as young, and strong as when you left! You must tell us of your adventures!"
"Tell, tell, tell," the warriors at the tables around them chanted, pounding fists.
Hippolyta, sat a nearby table watching the two honored sisters, apparently kindred. She said nothing as yet, merely watched, and listened.
"It began with what I felt an accident at the time," Anastasia told them.
"Don't most stories," someone asked, making them all chortle.
"I was fishing…."
"You mean daydreaming," Artemis asked knowingly, which brought more laughter.
Anastasia didn't deny it.
She spoke of the sudden storm that blew her small boat away from the island. Of the strange night that fell over her, and the unnatural chill that threatened to freeze her in spite of her divine gifts. She spoke of the captain of the schooner that found her half dead, and dry as dust from thirst. He nursed her to health, and she fell in love with him. Traveling with him, uncertain as to how, or why she had been flung from her home, she took solace in the man's arms, finding him a kind, and gentle partner in spite of the violence of those around him.
When several attempts to find her way home failed, she followed the man when he chose to retire in the new colonies. She went with him, and eventually became his wife.
In time, she bore him a single daughter.
Over time, she watched her child grow, and buried her husband. With dyes, and artifices, she made herself appear to age, surprised herself that she was not aging as she half expected once away from the island. She finally had to arrange her own death, and slipped away to create a new life. Each, in turn, giving her a place, and position to watch over her own family.
Her daughter bore a girl child. And her another. When Kim was born, even she was astonished at the girl's strength, and daring.
Then she watched all the more as Kim began to grow, and became a hero in her own right. She even spoke of the redhead's adventures, making that particular woman blush as she went on, even speaking of warriors beyond the stars she suspected were sent by Ares himself to test the humans. When Kim, and her friends drove them away, she knew Kim was surely blessed by the gods herself.
Which was where she concluded her tale. And made her appeal that surprised them all.
"And that, my queen, is why we must help Kimberly find her way home. She is more than a woman there. She is a champion. A symbol. She is giving all women, all humanity, hope. That cannot be undone with a mysterious ending. She must go home. She must live, to show all the world, the Amazon way."
Kim just gaped at that one.
Just then, Diana herself walked into the great hall, and stood there staring at Kimberly.
"I agree," the princess declared.
To Be Continued…..