Uncanny Wonder Woman

Chapter 14: Wonder Baby

By

The Uncanny R-Man

Disclaimer- All familiar characters belong to DC.

Quote of the day- 'One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, my dear. Goodbye, Susan.'- The First Doctor (The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

The Batcave-

Diana panted heavily as she sat up on the examination table inside the Batcave. Bruce had already taken the liberty of calling in an old friend for assistance. Bruce Wayne may have been the Goddamn Batman, but he obviously didn't have very much experience with delivering babies. That was why Doctor Leslie Tompkins was there. The kind grey-haired woman had almost been a surrogate mother to Bruce. Plus, the woman was a dab hand at stitching up the odd gunshot wound in a hurry.

'Please tell me the baby's ready...' Diana hissed through clenched teeth. 'I don't know whether I can take much more of this.'

'The baby will make an appearance when she's ready.' Leslie told the concerned Amazon. 'We can't hurry things like this. Just let nature take its course.'

Diana swore something in a language that Leslie didn't know and grabbed onto the side of the examination table for support as she felt another contraction, almost breaking it in half.

'Oh, my...' Alfred cleared his throat nervously. That nasty dent in the examination table would take quite a while to get fixed.

'Perhaps you should try to calm down, Diana...' Bruce suggested gently. 'It would be in the baby's best interest!'

'Don't you tell me what to do!' Diana snapped loudly, making Bruce jump slightly. 'I'm the one doing all the work here!'

'Diana, Bruce is only trying to help...' Leslie tried to calm Diana. 'You have to calm down, for your daughter's sake.'

The angry snarl slowly disappeared from Diana's face.

'I'm... sorry.' The Amazon apologized. 'I have never done anything like this before. Tell me, is giving birth always this painful?'

'I can't say from personal experience...' Leslie answered. 'But there is always a small degree of pain involved in childbirth.'

'Oh, that is just wonderful...' Diana grumbled, just as another contraction hit. 'Hera have mercy!'

Diana reached out and grabbed the nearest thing for support, which just happened to be Bruce's arm. The raven-haired Amazon tightened her grip, the bones in Bruce's arm starting to groan under the strain.

'Diana...' Bruce gritted his teeth through the pain. 'My arm...'

'You did this to me, Bruce Wayne!' Diana snapped, her hormones getting the better of her once again. 'And I intend to put you through the same kind of pain that I am going through! We are in this together!'

Bruce tried to pry Diana's fingers off his arm, but couldn't quite better the Amazon Princess's strength. It looked like Diana wasn't the only one that was going to end up on the examination table.

Metropolis-

Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, flew through the skies of Metropolis, carrying Wildcat along with her.

'You make sure that you got a good grip, 'kay?' The veteran hero reminded Hippolyta. 'I'd make a pretty mess if you ended up dropping me.'

'There is no need to worry, Wildcat.' Hippolyta reassured her passenger. 'I will not drop you.'

'Look, down there!' Wildcat pointed down in the direction of the Metropolis Museum of Natural History, now with a great big hole in the ceiling. 'That must be where Despero landed!'

Hippolyta flew down into the hole.

'Shouldn't we wait until the other guys get here?' Wildcat asked. 'Despero ain't no pushover.'

'I cannot allow any innocents to be injured.' Hippolyta told her teammate as she looked around at her surroundings. 'You can keep an eye out for anybody that has become trapped. I will find Despero.'

Wildcat opened his mouth to try and discourage Hippolyta, but thought better of it. Hippolyta was the Queen of the Amazons. She wasn't some rookie, she knew a fair bit about the art of war.

A short distance away, Hippolyta walked into a section of the museum that held the Ancient Greek exhibit. She pressed her hand against a glass case that held what seemed to be an authentic Amazon sword. The blonde Amazon frowned slightly as she read the description of the sword on the case. Was this how the people of Patriarch's World saw the Amazons? As man-hating warrior women with a thirst for blood?

Hippolyta's musings were cut short as she saw something move behind her in the reflection of the glass case.

Hippolyta rolled out of the way just in time to see Despero demolish the glass case with one mighty punch.

'Rraaagh! Blasted woman!' The giant alien warrior roared in anger. 'I shall crush your bones into dust!'

'You are welcome to try, fiend.' Hippolyta challenged him. 'Come on, give me your best shot, as those in Patriarch's World would say.'

'You show an eagerness to die.' Despero chuckled, his laughter sounding like grating glass. 'Most admirable.'

Despero slammed his hands into the ground, creating a shockwave along the floor. Hippolyta flew up into the air to avoid the move.

'You fly as well?' Despero growled. 'Pfah! That shall not help you!'

Despero picked up a large chunk of wood. A bronze plate claimed that it was a piece of the bough of the Argonaut's famous ship, the Argo. Hippolyta didn't need to be Queen of the Amazons to know that it wasn't anything like the Argo. As a matter of fact, most of the items in the exhibit were obvious fakes. Or they were Roman in origin and had been labelled incorrectly.

Despero threw the chunk of wood at Hippolyta, but the Queen of the Amazons smashed it into splinter with a well-aimed punch in midair.

'You are only prolonging the inevitable, woman!' Despero snarled angrily. 'If you surrender now, I will make your death a quick one.'

'I am an Amazon, Despero.' Hippolyta retorted. 'We never surrender! Especially not to a fiend like you!'

'Oh, well. I was hoping that it wouldn't come to this...' Despero sighed as the third eye in the middle of his forehead started to open. 'You have brought this upon yourself...'

Hippolyta clutched her head with a scream of pain as her mind was set ablaze.

Despero smirked in triumph as his foe crashed down to the ground.

'No matter how mighty a being proclaims to be, they can never resist my hypnotic eye for long.' Despero commented as he strode towards the seemingly defeated Hippolyta.

However, the Queen of the Amazons wasn't as out of it as it appeared. Hippolyta began to reach for the Amazon sword that had fallen to the floor when Despero had smashed the glass case.

Hippolyta saw her moment to attack as Despero reached for her with one colossal hand. Hippolyta brought the sword down in one swift arc, swiftly cutting off Despero's hand at the wrist.

'RRAAAGHH!!' The alien warrior roared in pain as he clutched his bleeding stump. 'Foul temptress! You shall pay dearly for this!'

Hippolyta shielded her eyes with her free hand as Despero tried to take her down with another mind blast.

'Your powers are useless when I cannot see you.' Hippolyta pointed out as she brought her sword down upon Despero's head, almost cutting it in half.

Despero fell to his knees with a grunt of pain. Hippolyta slowly moved her arm away from her face to see whether her foe's powers still worked.

Fortunately, the sword blow had pretty much obliterated Despero's hypnotic eye.

Hippolyta sighed heavily, thankful that he foe was vanquished.

'Hera be praised...' Hippolyta leant against a nearby column with a heavy sigh. 'I thought he would never fall.'

'What in the name of Jeebus was going on here?'

Hippolyta slowly turned around to see Wildcat and the rest of the Leaguers run up.

'Hippolyta, are you alright?' Green Lantern asked, indicating her blood-spattered uniform.

'Do not worry...' Hippolyta smiled slightly. 'Most of this blood is not mine.'

'Then whose blood is it?' Supergirl asked.

'Umm... His, I think.' Stargirl replied, pointing at the fallen figure of Despero with a great big sword sticking in his face.

'Jinkies.' Plastic Man blinked in surprise. 'That was hardcore!'

'Not to rain on the victory parade or anything...' Green Lantern piped up. 'But we'd better get Despero out of here before he recovers.'

'But the guy's got a sword in his face!' Wildcat pointed out. 'How can somebody come back from that?'

'This is Despero.' Green Lantern explained. 'It would take something short of a nuke to totally destroy him.'

'Let's see how he will recover without a head...' Hippolyta said as he reached for the sword.

The other leaguers gawped at the Queen of the Amazons. Did she really say what they thought she said?

'That was a joke.' Hippolyta smiled. 'Perhaps I need to work on my sense of humour...'

Gotham City-

A rather bedraggled Diana lay back in her bed, gently cradling a small bundle swathed in a yellow blanket.

'She's beautiful.' Diana smiled happily as she looked at the sleeping newborn baby in her arms. 'The gods have truly praised us.'

Bruce matched his lover's smile and leant in to plant a gentle kiss on her cheek.

'You need to get some sleep, Diana.' The Dark Knight told the Amazing Amazon. 'This has taken a lot out of you.'

'Shouldn't we let everybody in now?' Diana asked. 'I am sure that Donna, Dick, and everybody would love to meet the new addition to the family.'

'Sleep first.' Bruce repeated his suggestion. 'They can meet Cassandra tomorrow.'

'Very well.' Diana nodded as she handed the little baby girl over to be placed in her crib. 'Childbirth is a most tiring experience. I would not wish to experience it again any time soon.'

Diana was asleep before her head had even hit the pillow. Bruce looked down at the tiny little girl sleeping away peacefully in the crib. He had never felt this happy. Not that Batman believed in that kind of thing, but he agreed with Diana. The gods had indeed blessed them.

TBC...

Next: Meet Cassandra

Diana and Bruce's friends and family meet little baby Cassandra.