Bruce and I took to the skies as he was able to find the location of Kal-El's mother and friend. It was not very far and before we arrived we decided on a plan. Bruce would engage the mercenaries inside the warehouse while I waited next to where the hostages were being held. I wanted to take part in the fight, but Bruce wanted to draw the mercenaries closest to the hostages out and allow me to get them to safety. I knew he just wanted me out of the way and I figured he would work better if we were separated. We needed to be at our best, so I complied and flew to get closer to the hostages while Bruce went to make his entrance. He used his plane to make as much noise as possible to let them know he was coming. Then he breached the room where the mercenaries were fighting and engaged them all. I couldn't see everything through the windows but from the screams of the mercenaries I could tell he was winning. I took my place next to a window outside of the room where the hostages were being held and waited for my chance to strike.
There were mercenaries in the room. One had a large machine gun and the other a flamethrower. As Bruce continued fighting in the other room they just stood there listening to the gunfire and screams of their comrades. Mercenaries were always a cowardly lot in my experience and it seemed not much had changed. I got worried as neither of them had moved an inch but stayed focused on covering the door in front of them. The silence in the other room was deafening, but the last sound we heard was the scream of the last mercenary to fall.
Still they did not move. I got my sword out ready to move as soon as they did. Bruce suddenly burst through a wall and grabbed the mercenary with the machine gun. He was pointing the gun at the other mercenary and they were in a standoff. I decided to act. I burst through the window and cut the straps off the gasoline tank the mercenary was wearing making it drop to the floor. Then I removed the flamethrower from his hands, so I could kick the tank outside. I had the mercenary pinned to the wall. With no other weapons to fight us they both gave up and Bruce handcuffed them while I freed Kal-El's mother and friend.
They thanked us profusely while we introduced ourselves to them, me as Diana and Bruce as Batman. I learned of their names before they asked about Kal-El. I told them that he was dealing with a disturbance near the crashed kryptonian ship even though he wanted to come and save them. His mother gave us a stern look and told us to go and help him. His friend, Lois, agreed since they were saved, and the police were arriving. Bruce and I made sure that the police had Lois and Martha than made our way back to Metropolis. Bruce intercepted a call from Luthor asking us to break the bad news to Kal-El who was confronting him on the ship. Bruce told him "I'd like to do the breaking in person" and the line went dead.
We tried to rush our way to Metropolis, but something had happened. There were some sounds of explosions going off in Metropolis as we were leaving Gotham's airspace. We were halfway over the bay separating the cities when we saw something large enter the air above Metropolis with Kal-El underneath it. Bruce told me that something was attacking the city and we saw Kal-El take it further up into the atmosphere and into space. I started to make my way upward to help him when I saw the missile. It was closing on Kal-El and the monster until finally it connected. The explosion was massive, and Bruce told me that it had to have been a nuke. My eyes fell from the explosion. This couldn't be happening again. I didn't have time to drown in my sorrow as a flaming mass fell from the sky. The monster had survived.
It looked like it was from the nightmares of Hades and Ares combined. There were garish spikes all over its body. It had dark grey skin and red eyes. It stood up from the crater it made in Gotham harbor. The irony of the moment did not escape me. In the same place that Kal-El was almost killed an actual kryptonian monstrosity now arose. This one we would have to kill to save the world. Bruce moved quickly to distract it and lead it to the abandoned part of the harbor. It gave chase and blasted his plane with a beam that came from its head. Before it could deliver a killing blow to Bruce in his crashed plane I jumped in front of him and blocked the beam with my bracers. The monster finally relented after realizing it couldn't get through my defenses. Then we heard a sonic boom in the skies above us as something hit the monster back into a building and it collapsed. Kal-El survived! He looked a little pale, but I was happy to have him back. It would take all of us to defeat this monstrosity.
The monster moved to attack us again and I charged to meet it with Kal-El at my side. The monster stopped short of us to launch debris in the air which I cut through as Kal-El went above it. I undercut the monster's legs as Kal-El shot downwards and hit it into the ground. Kal-El backed away as I launched myself toward the monster to stab it in the heart, but it kicked its legs upward to kick me away. Kal-El went to charge it again, but the monster caught him in mid-air and threw him into another destroyed building. I saw the monster turn its attention to Bruce who was trying to avoid its pursuit. Bruce disappeared into a cloud of smoke as the monster tried to jump on him and lost him. I recovered and slashed at the monsters back as Kal-El pelted it from the skies with his heat vision. The monster roared and pounded the ground to push me away then met Kal-El's blasts with its own energy blast. The monster quickly overwhelmed Kal-El and shot him away again.
It turned its attention back to me and threw a wrecked car my way and I cut through it. The monster followed quicker than I could react and smashed into me knocking my shield away and my sword behind me. I was thrilled to have such a challenging foe, but the world was at stake. It jumped at me again as I shook my head with a grin as I reached back to grab my sword. I blocked the monster's blow then cut off its hand. A new spike grew where its hand was and as I went to strike again it blasted me to push me away. The monster was roaring as energy was surging through it. Like an explosion waiting to happen it just kept emitting streaks of energy. That was when I saw Kal-El stumbling and trying to fly with the kryptonite spear in his hand. I had no time to react, so I used my lasso to try and hold the monster still for Kal-El. As I struggled to keep it still I saw Bruce fire something at the monster that exploded into green gas. The monster stopped struggling in my grasp and Kal-El sped forward and stabbed it with the spear.
The monster became enraged and a small surge of energy left it and destroyed the wall I was braced against. The lasso became loose and fell allowing the monster to grab Kal-El. I yelled for him to watch out, but I was too late. As I fell away from the two of them I heard Kal-El scream in pain as the monster stabbed him with its newly formed spike hand. I could see Kal-El struggling and pushing the kryptonite spear deeper to try and go through where the monsters heart would be. He finally pushed it through the monster and impaled it completely as both him and the monster cried out and the monster fell. I rushed to Kal-El's side, but there was nothing I could do. The life was gone from him. He used the last of his strength to kill the monster. Bruce approached slowly as I wrapped Kal-El in his cape and pick him up. A police car had approached us since the battle was over and I slowly walked toward it. Martha shot out of it with Lois close behind her. Both cried out as I slowly placed Kal-El down, so they could cradle him. They were sobbing and hugging him close. Tears left my eyes as I remembered somberly that amazons never cry.
Kal-El sacrificed himself to save the world. I felt responsible in a way for his death. I had been so engaged with battling the monster I never thought to form a plan or try to strategize. If only I had more time. I was invited to the funeral by Lois. Not Superman's memorial funeral given to him by the world, but Clark Kent's funeral held by his loved ones. I got to see a glimpse of his alter ego and all the people he had met along his journey that knew him and loved him in their own way. Kal-El, Superman, and Clark Kent died that day, but his legacy was set in stone. A legacy of inspiring others and being kind whenever he could, no matter which persona he was in. Unfortunately, he had to die to inspire me.
As we walked to the cemetery after the service I noticed Bruce standing off to the side in the trees. I decided that I was no longer going to hide myself. If Kal-El could show himself to the world and try to lead everyone with his actions, so could I. I wouldn't need to do it alone either. I strode toward Bruce as I contemplated what I was going to do. I would find the metahumans I saw in the files to bring them together. We would honor Kal-El's sacrifice by doing what he did. Fighting for those who can't fight for themselves and saving the world when we are needed.
End