Wonder Woman ducked under several tentacles that tried to attack her and she easily slashed them with her sword and then stabbed the enemy in front of her. She turned sharply and with deft and expert sword movements took out three more aliens.
She truly hated alien invasions that were more common than anyone could have expected.
Why are various alien life forms throughout the universe so attracted and intrigued by Earth and want to conquer and/or destroy it? I will never understand it.
The aliens in question -who had an unpronounceable name for Earthlings: only Martian Manhunter and the Green Lanterns were capable of pronouncing it- were a very aggressive and greedy race and, of course, wanted to conquer Earth. They were bizarrely shaped aliens who had disgustingly gelatinous dark purple skin, five eyes of different shapes and colors from each other two of which were behind what could be considered their heads, and a multitude of squishy tentacles.
Fortunately, despite their aggressiveness, they were rather easy to subdue and since they were an extraterrestrial life form actively trying to conquer Earth, the heroes had the right to kill them, which greatly cheered the warrior Amazon who could finally let loose a bit and give vent to her almost always repressed instincts.
The bad news was that these damn aliens were so many.
Like, so many of them.
She swore there were at least a thousand and this forced the intervention of the entire Justice League: in fact, the Green Lanterns included not only Hal but also John Stewart and, unfortunately, Guy Gardner.
Despite her hatred -and also that of most of the League- towards Guy for his openly arrogant, annoying, uncaring and snooty behavior, especially towards his so shoddy, nauseating, unpleasant, and harassing flirtation with virtually every woman who breathes -and he had not stopped his flirting with Diana herself or his attempts to get her to bed, no matter how many times she had told him that she would rather die than even consider dating him!-, she knew that he, too, was needed to get rid of this horde of aliens that seemed like they would never end.
These aliens are among the weakest I have ever faced. Not that I'm complaining about it, of course.
Every hero with powers was practically surrounded by a hundred aliens while the only humans like Batman, Green Arrow and Black Canary were all fighting back to back, protecting each other and fending off the countless aliens who were pushing harder and harder, killing them in just a few effective moves.
While Wonder Woman was busy with the horde of aliens surrounding her, it was not uncommon for her to catch a glimpse of a red and yellow trail in the middle of the combat area -a desolate and remote place in the middle of Australia where no one lived: at this point Diana was sure that it was more dangerous the local wildlife rather than such aliens- and she bet mostly on Barry who could eliminate so many aliens in no time.
Filled with the excitement that only a battle could give her and full of adrenaline coursing through her entire body, she continued to slash at the tentacles that approached her and skewer the aliens as if they were skewers, deftly swinging her sword from side to side with a mastery unique in the entire world and killing all the aliens that, unfortunately for them, were in the middle of the trajectory of her blade.
It had already been more than an hour since the fight had begun and yet it seemed that these aliens were virtually infinite. Each time she eliminated a minimum of one, seven more took its place, thus beginning an unbroken cycle that never seemed to end.
Distractedly, the demigoddess realized that she was virtually isolated from the rest of her team just as all the other heroes -except for the humans who were fighting together in excellent teamwork- were in scattered areas, far away from each other -to the point that Diana could not even catch a glimpse of the figures of her teammates- and each of them countering hundreds of these aliens.
"Princess!"
Wonder Woman felt her heart briefly lose a beat, her automatic and instinctive movements yet never faltering, even in the face of the unexpected voice. Turning 360 degrees on herself and decapitating a dozen aliens with a single horizontal movement of her sword she turned, observing none other than Renegade himself who was facing beside her the horde of aliens that had surrounded her.
How the hell did he get past the horde of aliens to my side without me even sensing his presence? I swear that guy is so full of surprises and, at this point, I shouldn't even ask such questions when it comes to him.
"Renegade! What the hell are you doing here?" she asked instead, continuing to pierce her enemies.
"Oh you know, the usual. It's only by fortuitous coincidence that I found you in an uninhabited wasteland in the middle of Australia invaded by thousands and thousands of aliens." Renegade finished with a casual, innocent, cheeky smile. "What about you? What are you doing here?"
Wonder Woman rolled her eyes but she felt her lips curve into a genuine little smile. "My job." she replied, playing along.
"Oh?" she saw him tilt his head as he simultaneously stabbed a total of 15 aliens with his two swords. "And how much do they pay you to stop an alien invasion?"
"Unfortunately, being a hero is not considered a job, so I don't get paid at all."
"What a shame." the mercenary nodded understandingly. "The world should wake up, be more inclusive and accept this new form of work."
The Amazon snorted in amusement as she ripped three aliens in half with a single blow. "I wouldn't complain about it at all."
"Take me as an example. Mercenary work pays very well. I recommend it, you know." the acrobat joked. "You'd become one of the best mercenaries in the world in no time and have lots of money."
"You bet I would be. Probably even better than you." she sent him a playful smirk that he returned. "Unfortunately, I'll have to decline the offer."
"Too bad."
"Besides, I'm pretty sure that among your reasons for becoming a mercenary, money is among the last places." she pointed out, turning her blade in the alien's eye and then throwing his body over three others.
Renegade dropped the six aliens skewered by one of his swords to the ground, as if they were skewers, and shrugged lazily. "Eh. You're right."
Diana smiled, pleased and satisfied that, once again, one of her intuitions regarding the young assassin was correct.
By now I can say that I know him all in all pretty well.
"You know, I've noticed that there are also other heroes in the battle that I haven't had the pleasure of kicking ass yet." Renegade reflected casually as he launched an explosive shuriken that eliminated a dozen aliens.
"Yeah, well, as you can see we needed the entire League to eliminate all these aliens." Wonder Woman grunted. "There are more than a thousand of them, damn them." she raised an eyebrow in his direction, killing two aliens who tried to attack her from behind without ever turning around. "You wanted to know something about them specifically?"
"Sort of."
"I thought you knew everything about all us heroes," she teased him playfully, her eyes widening when she realized it.
I am laughing and joking with the world's second most dangerous mercenary and assassin as I fight together with him against an alien invasion. The most surprising part is not the fact that I am fighting alongside him but that I am joking and laughing in a battle. If my mother learned about it, she would have an aneurysm.
That was a thought to be analyzed some next time, possibly when she was not busy stopping an alien invasion.
"And indeed it is so, Princess." Renegade gave her a cunning, beaming smirk that agitated her stomach before he turned sharply, decapitating some aliens with his swords. "I just wanted to know if Guy Gardner is as arrogant and annoying as people say he is. Simply put: an asshole and idiot." he casually asked since he had read nothing else about Guy's account the first time he found out the identities of the entire JL.
At the mention of his name automatically the princess of Themyscira twisted her lips downward, a fierce frown appearing on her features. "Absolutely. The worst hero I've ever met." she stated bluntly in a snarl, angrily swinging her sword in all directions, killing a large number of aliens in seconds. "If it were up to me, I would have kicked him off the team a long time ago."
The Talon arched an eyebrow under his mask, watching in amazement at her display of fierce anger. "What did that jerk do to you?"
"First he insists on incessantly flirting with me to try in vain to get me to bed. Not just me but with practically every woman who breathes." she spat venomously, disgust and contempt coloring her tone of voice and her blue eyes darkening angrily and with such hatred that it made Dick involuntarily shudder at such intensity. "Second, he's one of the most annoying, arrogant, disgusting, uncaring, shoddy people I've ever met. I hate him so much." she concluded with another fierce snarl and at the same time stabbing four aliens with her blade.
Although his movements continued automatically and instinctively the acrobat felt himself freeze and, if it had been possible, his heart would have started beating much faster. A huge boulder settled in his stomach and he swallowed hard, the familiar feeling of panic and guilt beginning to rapidly consume his body.
"First he insists on incessantly flirting with me."
Now Dick knew that he had no chance for a woman as literally perfect as Wonder Woman but he continued to flirt with her merely as a joke and for fun, in a way that was entirely genuinely affectionate and devoid of ulterior motives.
Despite his reputation Dick considered himself a great romantic, and Louise could confirm this fact: after all, he was unwavering in taking Killer Frost to bed only after taking her on at least two romantic dates, despite her protests that it was not necessary.
This is because, although he still had clouded memories regarding his life before he was kidnapped by the Court of Owls, he clearly remembered how his parents told him that woman should be courted and, although somewhat old-fashioned in modern times, he could never forget their lessons on this subject.
To make the matter clear, Dick was not courting Diana in any way -not if he wanted to prevent her from taking his head off his neck with a fist for even trying: after all, he was not in the least up to her standards, he was completely unworthy of her and he was sadly and painfully aware of this- but he was merely flirting innocently with her, with no malice behind it.
And even in the event that he were to start flirting and hitting on Wonder Woman seriously -something that would never happen, no matter how many times Sandra had told him that, at least unconsciously, he had been doing it from the beginning with the Amazon- surely the main motive was not to get her to bed but was to have a serious and lasting relationship with her.
Which would not have happened even in 100 other lifetimes but those were superfluous details.
Renegade felt a wave of fierce anger aggressively claw at his stomach, begging to be released fully against Guy Gardner. Just the thought that the asshole simply wanted to fuck Diana and apparently would not take no for an answer, treating her as a mere sex toy when in fact she was among the best people in the entire universe -so strong, compassionate, a symbol of hope and justice for all the innocent- while Guy -how the hell was it possible that he was worthy of being a Green Lantern?- was merely a dickhead, made him want to have him at his mercy.
It would take him no more than five minutes to break Guy Gardner permanently and that was even an exaggeration.
However, such anger was quickly put in the background and replaced by guilt, horror, self-loathing and panic.
What if what Wonder Woman felt about Guy's persistent and incessant flirtation she also felt about Renegade's own flirtation?
God, no. Then I would have become exactly the kind of person I hate with all my being and eliminate from the face of the Earth on a daily basis.
Just the thought of being similar to Guy and in general to such men and women made him feel nauseated and disgusted, repulsed and horrified at himself. Yet he at that moment had to have an answer to his inner conflict, no matter how fucking scared to death he was -a feeling almost never experienced by him- by the answer.
Dick would rather have decapitated himself and died permanently than continue flirting with Wonder Woman, albeit innocently and without either malice or ulterior motive, if she hated his flirtation.
So the young assassin took a deep breath, channeled as much courage as he could and, after blasting a dozen aliens into a thousand little pieces of fucking gross, mushy substance with another explosive shuriken, he finally asked the question that was so sucking at his soul.
"Do I annoy you too?" he asked all in one breath, physically forcing himself not even to call her by the nickname by which he often referred to her.
After all the nickname "Princess", though every time it was uttered by him it was filled with genuine affection and care, was an integral part of the innocent and playful flirt, so the acrobat first needed to know the real opinion of the person directly concerned about the whole affair.
Wonder Woman frowned at his question so suddenly, anger slowly beginning to drain from her body. She did not miss the mercenary's almost subdued, defeated but slightly hopeful tone -in such stark contrast to her bubbly, playful, confident and deadly dangerous personality- and part of her attention shifted to him, silently wondering what was going through his head,
"What exactly do you mean?"
"Well, you said you hate Guy's incessant flirt to death, right?"
She realized at that moment that the notorious Renegade was completely nervous around her for some strange reason that made her frown increase.
Was it something I said?
"Yes, it is." she confirmed slowly keeping the familiar and very fierce anger at bay at the mere thought of Guy, deciding to focus on her current ally and his attitude so different from usual.
"Well, there, you see... although my flirt is totally opposite to Guy's and I am nothing like him, or rather I hope I am not because I, unlike him-" Renegade shut his mouth tightly, as if he had stopped himself just in time to avoid revealing something he would always regret. He released an irritated and impatient sigh. "What I'm trying to say is if my flirt bothers you too, Pr-Wonder Woman."
Diana could not believe her own ears.
After what she had told him, Renegade's first thought was to wonder if she hated his own flirt as much as Guy's and he wanted to personally ascertain her feelings and thoughts on the matter.
Diana immediately realized that her eyes had begun to sting and glisten with barely contained tears.
But not from sadness or some other negative emotion.
It was actually just the opposite.
She was not lying when she said that no person in her entire life -nor her own sisters and mother- had shown so much care, attention and kindness to her, treating her feelings as if they were the most important thing in the world to care deeply for.
And that was exactly what Renegade was doing at that very moment.
Diana had understood for a long time now that, despite all his appearances and reputation, Renegade was actually a genuinely good, kind, caring, wonderful person who wanted the best for the world but she would never have thought that this could extend to so much, that is, to the point of caring about her feelings as if they were the most important thing for him to think about.
Maybe she should have thought so or maybe not.
Either way, it did not change the fact that Renegade was the first person in her entire long life who genuinely cared for her, treating her feelings as if they were precious jewels of inestimable value.
She in fact did not miss that Renegade had corrected himself at the last moment, calling her by her super-heroine name rather than his nickname addressed exclusively to her.
This was further evidence of the bottomless pit of kindness, thoughtfulness, goodness and the wonderful being that Renegade simply was: he, still not knowing whether he was annoying her, had decided not to use his nickname for her, fearing that it would be a source of annoyance and irritation to her.
The demigoddess was completely sure that, based on her response to him, their relationship would inevitably change.
She began to think intensely about the questions that plagued her head, distractedly killing the aliens around her with fluid and instinctive moves worthy of her nature as a fierce warrior Amazon.
Does Renegade in general bother me?
The answer was a dry and instinctive No and she didn't have to think about it for even half a second.
Does his flirt bother me?
The answer to this question also came in the form of a dry No, although in this case she was slightly surprised at herself.
However, she soon discovered that she was not to be.
Diana knew that she was an objectively very attractive, intelligent, strong, determined, resolute and dedicated woman in both her identities: as a civilian and as a super-heroine. This resulted in the fact that ever since she set foot in Man's World about 15 years ago, she has always been the object of flirt and desperate and futile attempts to have sex with her by an overwhelming majority of men and, to a lesser extent, also by women.
Which at first completely disgusted her but which over time she learned to ignore.
She, of course, always rejected these desperate, pathetic, disgusting and insistent flirtations since one of the most important things for her was her own dignity and maintenance of sound principles that she would not maintain if she slept with everyone who proposed it: in fact, she never hesitated to break the legs or arms -and it had happened so many times that it was impossible to remember the exact number- to many men and women who were so insistent on having sex with her to the point of attempting to touch her without her permission.
Key word tempt: after all, her reflexes and training allowed her to break the molester's bones even before they had a chance to even touch her arm.
Since she had arrived in Man's World, the very few and only times Wonder Woman had had sex with anyone had always occurred within an established romantic relationship and after a certain period of time with which she was together with her romantic partner.
Or how established could it be considered since her longest romantic relationship since she left Themyscira was about six months, which happened a long time ago.
My thoughts are definitely wandering.
Her point was that she was perfectly capable of recognizing when a flirt had the intention of taking her to the bed of the man or woman in front of her: an intention she could discern in every case, no matter how much it was disguised as an apparent innocent attempt to simply befriend her.
And Diana had never, ever thought that Renegade's flirt with her was an attempt by him to have sex with her, something that had happened numerous times before with other super-villains and even with common thugs.
Never.
Not even for a single millisecond.
Not even in their first encounter in their first battle.
Never.
She had noticed early on how both his nickname for her and his flirt contained no malice or ulterior motives: they were filled only and only with genuine affection and care.
Although at first this had confused and surprised her as never before -and honestly it continued to surprise and confuse her: she had simply become adept at not thinking about it too much anymore- she had never thought that the goal of Renegade's flirt -unlike that of many men and women she had encountered since she set foot in Man's World- was to have sex with her: it was simply something playful and innocent.
And this had never bothered her, or at least not so deeply as to compare even remotely with the really annoying flirts of Guy and many people she had met.
That and the fact that over time Diana had become accustomed to Renegade's playful flirting.
She was absolutely certain that all it would take was one word and Renegade would stop flirting with her and addressing her as "Princess": this because he cared about her feelings on this delicate matter and, if it really bothered her, he would not hesitate to break off the flirt, no matter how much it was probably part of his playful and joking character.
And Diana admitted to herself -not without a hint of surprise and slight embarrassment- that she neither wanted Renegade to stop flirting playfully toward her nor especially for him to stop calling her "Princess": she had long ago realized that she had genuinely grown very fond of his nickname for her -so full of affection, respect and tenderness that it positively astonished her each time by his care for her- and that she would be very sorry -decidedly more than she should but didn't care- if she no longer received it from the young assassin.
The Amazon did not know exactly how long she had been immersed in her own thoughts, continuing to kill aliens in the meantime, but finally with a determined and confident look she stared at the anti-hero who returned her gaze.
"If you dare stop calling me Princess I will make you regret even being born."
Renegade blinked behind his mask, not expecting such ferocity from her. Once her words fully registered in his mind, he felt an immense wave of warmth, happiness and excitement fill every single fiber and cell of his being and, if he were not currently busy fighting an alien invasion, he would start screaming and jumping with wild joy, his reputation be damned.
Dick has rarely felt so happy and damn if he was going to enjoy this amazing feeling fully and completely.
The Talon automatically gave the demigoddess a bright, charming, beaming smile. "Got it, Princess."
Diana felt her chest contract with an emotion that she couldn't recognize in front of his wonderful smile. She couldn't help but smile back with equal happiness and brightness, her blue eyes shining with their own light. "I hope so for you, young warrior."
The acrobat trembled when Wonder Woman's blue eyes, so damn gorgeous and bright, shone and he briefly thought that even the heat of the sun paled noticeably in comparison to this smile of the Amazon.
The princess of Themyscira saw Renegade's smile, already bright and charismatic, increase in size, reaching an intensity that she couldn't even imagine was possible and she briefly thought that that smile suited him very well.