As the light moved further and further away, Artemis began to realize that she was never in a tunnel at all. Soon the light was nothing but a speck in vast darkness filled with other sparkling lights. It was like she was in an sea of distant stars. She had no concept of up or down, left or right as her spirit floated in the endless abyss. Artemis had no idea that she was in fact moving, at the speed of light toward yet another destination. Intense red light illuminated her arms and legs from behind until she was completely consumed by a fiery glow and finally; blinked into nothingness.
Hippolyta slowly returned to awareness after the stun effect of Circe's last spell wore off. The first thing she noticed was the rise and fall of the chest that lay beneath her head and the warmth that accompanied it. A moment of realization hit her and she sat up hurriedly. Her head swam, but she ignored it. "Artemis... you are alive." the queen whispered under her breath.
"Indeed it is a miracle. Though I would not get your hopes up, Hippolyta. While her body is alive, her soul is far from present. She will not be waking up any time soon. She most likely never will."
The queen tried to move her hands. They were bound behind her back, by some sort of magic blob. She tried to wiggle her fingers and was unable to move them. "What did you do to her?", The queen demanded.
"Technically, I killed her and then brought her back to life. The latter being an accident. No matter, I am sure I will find a good use for her body, even in this state." Circe responded. The witch had a faraway look in her eyes as though pondering the possibilities as she sat upon her dark throne. Only her legs were clearly visible from the shadows. The entire throne room seemed to have been converted into a dark magic lair.
Hippolyta did not like the tone of witch's voice in the slightest. She decided that the best course of action for now would be to keep Circe talking until help arrived. "You are not an Amazon. Why are you here?" The queen asked. She really hated being civil to this villain but it was her only option. She would have to wait until the blond that ran past earlier could summon help.
"Is it really that obvious? Let me guess, the hair gave it away?" When Hippolyta didn't respond, Circe decided to continue. "I have been around since a time before even the Amazons. While your nation was hidden from existence, I have watched this world become the vile place that it is today. The problems of the past are the problems of the present. There are countries where women have no rights at all. They are beaten, raped, exploited and murdered at the hands of men on a daily basis all over the world." Hippolyta's eyes widened.
"Do not look so surprised, my dear. Surely you know better than anyone the true nature of man. It is why you chose to hide your people to begin with is it not?" Circe leaned forward from the shadows and rose an eyebrow. "I can only wonder what the world would be like now if your people had chosen to stay and fight throughout the ages instead of removing yourselves from reality." the witch tapped her chin in mock reflection.
"What is it you intend to do about this problem that thousands of years of civil evolution have not yet been able to accomplish?" Hippolyta asked, refusing to take the witches bait for an argument.
A smirk played at Circe's lips. "Kill some men, turn others into the beasts they truly are. I am not that hard to please really. As long as the job gets done and all guilty parties are extinguished." Circe raised the other perfectly sculpted violet eyebrow and tilted her head slightly back to look down her nose even further at Hippolyta if that was at all possible. "I was hoping that we could come to an agreement. Your Amazons would handle the brawn aspect while I take care of the rest. I am sure your sisters would jump at the chance mete out justice to the vilest men in the world." Her smirk turned into a full blown evil smile.
Diana swiftly turned left to accommodate the globe's arrow direction, hoping that the alley wouldn't suddenly wind in another direction again. She seemed to have passed the most of the shooters when she crossed into the inner part of the small city and was using the labyrinth of walls and deserted stalls to hide her movement from the enemy. She could just fly over the buildings but she didn't want to try her luck blocking and dodging that many bullets. The communication device beeped at Diana's ear. "Wonder Woman, do you copy?" came the official and fatigued sounding voice of the female officer from earlier.
"I hear you loud and clear", the raven haired warrior was still very much concentrating on the globe and finding the right destination. "What do I call you?"
"Major Hynde - but that's not important right now -" Diana could hear some rustling in the background and Major Hynde's muffled barking of orders over gun shots through the communications device. "According to our Intel, the agents we are trying to rescue are close to your current location. Would you do us a colossal favor and rescue them for us? They are pressing us pretty hard and we can't advance, now that they know we are here, we can't waste another minute."
The raven haired warrior knew what the Major was implying but didn't want to put into words. "What does your information tell us about location?" Diana looked at the glass sphere in her palm, fully expecting the answer already. She had already deduced that she and the team of soldiers had a common mission in this, she just didn't know how much longer using the globe would take. She would rather not waste time triangulating the correct location or going the even longer rout by knocking down every door and searching every building the arrow pointed her at.
"A long, two story building, about one hundred and fifty feet north west of your location, just on the other side of the wall you are behind now. The outside has four heavily armed guards." The Major responded.
"Thank you, Major." Diana said and looked down at the globe. She had been correct and fortunate in saving time. She tucked the globe and lasso back into her belt, got into a lowered running stance and took off westward. She had built up quite a lot of speed a short distance which she utilized by kicking off to the north suddenly and propelling herself fist first through the stucco covered cinder block wall.
Shards of brick exploded in every direction. A large chunk flew at one of the guards by the door. With a sickening crack, he collapsed to the ground. Diana didn't waste the element of surprise. The second guard barely had time to blink before she had slipped behind him, put one arm around his middle and one arm around his neck, knocking him out in three seconds flat. Noting the growing spread of blood puddling around the first guard's head, she bent down to do a quick pulse check. He was alive. With a small grunt she hefted one of the guards over her shoulder and carried the other at her waist as if they weighed next to nothing and walked around the eastern side of the building to wait for the other two guards to show up. Diana didn't like the idea of letting a person bleed to death in such a helpless state, so after setting them both down gently, she tore off a piece of his uniform and made a quick bandage around the bleeding fellows wound.
As she was tying the final knot the other two guards came blazing out from the opposite side of the long building yelling in foreign words. The skinny one pointed towards the hole in the wall and they both ran towards it, just as Diana expected they would. When they had almost reached the hole in the wall, she ran stealthily behind them, knocking the burly one out with a solid punch to the face. The skinny one managed to get a single shot off by the time the raven haired Amazon was on him, she blocked it effortlessly and soon he too was on the ground with his friend.
The shot must have alerted the occupants inside of the building because they came pouring out of every door, hallway and window like bees from a disturbed hive. Soon, Diana was faced with at least two hundred men in loose fitting sand colored garb, all of which were armed to the teeth.
Only one word came to Diana's mind.
"Crap"