Chapter 5 - The Woodshed

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(11:05 AM, Eastern time)

Steve jumped over the crowd and kept running down the street. He eventually spotted his mother who he was almost not looking forward to seeing, but he had to brag about how he saved a girl's life.

"Steve, get in!" Diana demanded of her son, who was running towards the Mercedes.

Steve leaped through the air, and gently landed in the passenger side seat. Diana did a quick u-turn, and drove away as fast as she could before anyone could get her plates. She wasn't about to praise Steve for his heroics. She was ready to tear his head off.

"Steve...do you realize what you've done?" Diana spoke seriously as she could.

"I saved a girl's life, Mom...what's going on!? Why did you block those paintballs, what have you been keeping from me?" Steve almost was ready to cry as the secrets his mother was keeping from him, was killing him. Diana sighed and slowed the car down to regular speeds, and calmed herself down.

"Steve...when we get home, I have years of history that I have to share with you. Dad does too. We need to get this out in the open."

"What?" asked Steve, wanting to know.

"You aren't going to believe it unless I show you some pictures. There's a rich history between your father and I and some other people. When we get home, I'll answer every question you have to ask."

"Why not now? Can't you tell me? How did you stop those paintballs? How did I save that girl? WHAT IS IT?"

"Alright!" Diana screamed and regained her composure. "Steve...Your father and I...we're superheroes, alright? We've been out of the business since 2020. You must have gained our powers through birth, alright? Can we talk more at home?"

Steve hyperventilated and tried to calm himself and prepare for what his mom was going to tell him.

"OK mom, tell me at home...This is so screwy..."

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(10:20, Pacific Time)

The Coat got into his truck, and turned the engine over. The song playing on the Mix CD was "Hammer Smashed Face" by Cannibal corpse and it seemed to fit the situation just fine.

"Oh, you pricks have done it now...trying to kidnap my daughter?" The Coat raged at the steering wheel and hit the accelerator and put the truck into drive. His tires skidded off the dirt as he pushed the mean machine onto the streets.

The truck barrelled down the only road that went through Cultus Lake's village. The Van began to pull away, but not before a raised dually truck came after it.

"Hey guys! I hope you have good medical plans cause i'm gonna drive this truck so far up your ass, you'll be coughing up diesel for the next 4 months!" The Coat yelled out the window.

The truck followed the van up a dirt road. The Silverado was quickly catching them, as the Dually had much better traction going up a hill than the old van did.

"I warned you shit for brains not to screw with my family! You should've just listened!" The Coat yelled out the window.

After a 5 minute chase up the mountain, The Van pulled up to the compound, and The Coat could hear the boys in the van yelling at the gatekeepers to open up the gates.

"Yeah boys, you run to your mommies!" The Coat yelled out the window.

The compound doors opened, and the van didn't pull itself in...Kenny came up behind it, and pushed it in himself with the dually, and forced his way into the compound. He put the truck's E-brake on, and hopped out of it, armed with his shotgun. He had disable shot on it...as it wasn't his creed to murder anyone, even if he was angry enough to do just that.

"Ok, You're all gonna die!" The Coat yelled at the top of his lungs while taking cover behind a nearby Savana van, and peering out at anyone. A lot of residents were running away, while a bunch of polygamists came running out with shotguns and hunting rifles.

The Coat popped out from behind his cover, and fired 2 shots off, and hit an armed polygamist with one.

"He got Ezekiel!" yelled a voice.

"And i'm gonna get Daniel, Hosea, Joel, and Amos too!" The Coat yelled out from his cover. "Who wants to try and kidnap my daughter now!?"

A man from the compound's guard tower fired at Kenny and hit his shoulder of the trenchcoat, but the trenchcoat absorbed the blast. Kenny felt the impact, and turned to fire up at the man in the tower, and the disable shot hit him in the chest and knocked him over.

"I understand your pain friends, i'm here to offer a way out!" The Coat copied the dialogue of a video game character, the same one he did 13 and a half years before when he was storming the Opana radar site with Wonder Woman.

"Here comes the pain! Argh!" A polygamist sneaked up and tried to assault the coat with a ballbat, but The Coat saw him at the last second, grabbed the bat, and prepared a punch to the face...but noticed that face couldn't even grow facial hair yet. The Coat took the bat from the kid's hand, and threw it to the side.

"Stand down, kid...I'm not here for you." The Coat said in a calm voice. The boy stopped, and with heavy breathing, ran away.

The Coat ran out from his cover and fired more shots at the polygamists and worked his way up the trailers that were set up in the compound.

"So this is where you take girls against their will? You perverted dicks!" The Coat swore at his adversaries.

Another gunner from the polygamists was stuck behind an old car across the way, and was looking at him, and cocked the shotgun in his hand, but The Coat quickly cocked his, and fired back and slugged the polygamist hard.

"Oh did that hurt? Like I give a damn!" The Coat yelled out loud as he could.

At that point, The Coat came out and held his coat in front of himself and waited for someone to shoot at him. Eventually, a shot rang out, and the coat put his fingers to his bulletwound, and mindfrayed his unfortunate victim into falling over and holding his head.

"What the Hell?" yelled out a voice.

At that point, the remaining armed polygamists began to run away. The Coat saw them run and began laughing.

"You should just have let the sleeping dogs lie!" The Coat taunted.

There was one last piece of business. The Coat pulled a woman from behind a trash can and looked at her and tried to speak as calmly as he could.

"The boy that touched my daughter...where is he?" asked The Coat

The woman was much too nervous to speak. So, The Coat took the alternate route. He put his finger to his bulletwound, and read the woman's mind and figured it out. It was the big yellow trailer right behind him.

The Coat turned, and noticed the boy was looking right at him. His eye was black and there was a bandage on his nose. The Coat thought to just leave, but not before putting the fear of God in the boy himself. The Coat walked up to the trailer, and kicked the door in, and realized the boy had run to the bedroom in the back of the trailer.

At the back of the trailer, the boy's 3 mothers had stood in front of him, and he was crying like a little baby. But this was the fear that he needed. Now, it was time to hand out the punishment. The Coat walked into the room and heard the mother's pleas.

"Please...leave him...take us...just leave him." one of the concubines begged.

"No...get out of the way." The Coat ordered.

"Please don't hurt him!" begged one of the mothers.

The coat shoved the concubines to the side, and grabbed the 12 year old by his shirt, and showed the boy his shotgun, meaning he wasn't playing around.

"Turn around, boy." The Coat spoke in a serious voice.

The nervous boy slowly turned around and cried.

"Now...pull your pants down." The Coat demanded.

"What?" the boy asked nervously.

"GET THEM DOWN!" the Coat yelled at the top of his lungs "You want to know what you did to my daughter, how it felt?! DO IT!"

The boy slowly pulled down his pants and faced the wall, scared for his britches. The Coat pointed the shotgun at the boy's rear end.

"You have 12 gauges of death pointed at you right now, son." The Coat pumped the shotgun and held it against the boy's rear end. "You know that sound?" The Coat had calmed.

"Yes..." the boy sobbed in fear.

"If you don't want to hear the sound that comes after it..." The Coat got up really close to the boy and said very softly, and quietly in his ear...

"You stay the fuck away from my baby girl."

And with that, The Coat left the room and came out of the trailer, hyperventilating at how he handled the situation, and wondered if pointing a shotgun at a 12 year old was really the right thing to do. The residents of the place were all surrounding their loved ones, and no one pointed a gun at The Coat at all.

The Coat called out "For those of you who got shot...good news..the buckshot only put you in a catatonic state...in 12 hours you'll come back to life...and when you do..." The Coat pumped his shotgun again "...don't come near my family."

And after that, The coat got into his truck, and drove out of the compound.

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(12 pm, Eastern time)

The Mercedes pulled up to the driveway, and Steve got out of it really, really calmly and collected, and prepared to hear what would change his life forever. His mother followed him, and they both went into the house. Diana had called to Clark on the way back, and told him that she had caught up with her son and to meet them there.

"Now son...sit down." Diana ordered Steve to do. Steve found the couch, and laid down on it. Diana sat in the leather recliner and prepared to deliver the truth.

"Steve...your father...was at one point, Superman." Diana spit it out. "And...I used to be Wonder Woman."

Steve couldn't believe his ears. Were his parents crazy?

"Mom, those are just stories!" replied Steve.

"No...they're real. You saw me block the paintballs? That was an old Amazon thing. Everyone had to learn how to deflect bullets in case man's world tried to come and take us." Diana sighed.

"You mean...you're an Amazon? The mythical Amazons?"

"Yep." Diana said sheepishly. "Can I get a drink? I really need one now."

"Yeah." Steve allowed his mother to get a glass of wine. While she went off into the kitchen, Steve looked at his own hands and still had no idea what he was completely capable of. When Diana returned, Steve had another question.

"Mom...Why did you lie?" Asked Steve.

"We did it a long time ago...me and your father shed our superhero identities back a long time ago." Diana sat down to take a sip of wine. "We wanted to be together, we wanted to escape the world. The world treats it's superheroes like garbage, Steve."

"Superheroes." Steve began to laugh "Ain't that a bitch."

"Mouth." Diana scolded her son.

"I don't care, mom! You've just told me that my life up until this point was a lie!"

"I did it to protect you!" Diana shot back.

"From what?!" Steve yelled back.

Diana took a moment to calm herself down.

"From being ridiculed and having cameras pointed in your face and having everyone's opinions about you posted somewhere. I didn't want your childhood to be crazy like that, Steve...I wanted you to have the normal life. But now I see...the day has come for the truth to come out."

"Well, you certainly let it out." Steve took a pause to realize something "Oh my god...now everyone's going to see that you're Wonder Woman and..." Steve made a facepalm "Oh...geez...how am I going to deal with that?"

"I'm not a superhero anymore, Steve." Diana replied "I had my time...Now...I just want to be your mother." Diana put her hand on Steve's shoulder. "I'm sorry that you're hurting, but now i think I get it..."

At that point, Clark Kent entered the house and walked into the livingroom to see his son on the couch.

"You've told him already?" asked Clark.

"Yes, he knows now...Now it's time to start picking up the pieces."

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(11:00 AM, Pacific time)

Back at the Triton residence, the truck rolled up and stopped outside of the cottage. Josie was up front, awaiting the return of her husband to give him a hug. After the hug, The Coat had one question to ask.

"Ronda?"

Josie pointed to the livingroom. The Coat walked in, and there was Ronda, wearing a surf hoodie and long jeans.

"Are you going to be OK?" The Coat sat down beside his daughter.

"You killed them, didn't you? They're not coming back? Please tell me you killed them?" asked Ronda.

"No, but I doubt they'll be coming back now, unless they're really, really stupid." Kenny pulled the hood off of his trenchcoat. "I also met the boy who did what he did...let's just say I took him behind the woodshed for some old fashioned discipline."

Ronda had her mind elsewhere.

"I don't want to be beautiful anymore." Ronda put her hood of her hoodie over her head.

"Why?" asked Kenny

"Cause everyone picks on me for being pretty. The boys all tease me, they all call me cute...I just wish some of them would just not flirt with me, and let me play sports with them and stuff."

Kenny looked into his daughter's red eyes, and took those words and ran with them.

"And that's why you're wearing this...to not let anyone see how beautiful you really are? Like you want to escape the world?"

Ronda nodded her head. Kenny sighed and gave his daughter a hug and let her cry some more.

"This wasn't fair to you, you know?" asked Kenny, before turning away and saying to himself. "And it wasn't fair to her, either."

"I want to go home. I want to go to Abbotsford." Ronda cried.

Kenny figured that would be fair.

"Ok...we'll go home to Abbotsford...but I want to go somewhere else for a night...by myself. It's personal."

"Where?" asked Ronda

"Florida...I need to see an old friend...I think I know why she wanted to go there."

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