The whole world glimmered and shimmered and gave the young princess a feeling of powerful excitement every time she arrived. She could still feel that in her bones, deep in her heart, but the glory of the Gemworld was marred today. She was there, but she wasn’t; when the princess tried to move she found her body still and unresponsive. She didn’t remember entering the Gemworld, only waking up here. Someone had laid her out on the bed, her lavender sheets tucked around her neck, the dark violet canopy over her head.
She wasn’t alone. The princess’ heart leapt when she heard the door open, and her most trusted friends came in. She hoped she was smiling at them, but they couldn’t see – to the young man and old woman who came to her bedside, the princess was still fast asleep.
“Will she be okay, Citrina?” The young man took the princess’ hand in his and stroked it, his shoulder-length blond hair falling across his face as he knelt.
The old woman, Citrina, shook her heavy head. “I don’t know, Lord Topaz. Even my magic hasn’t been able to reach her. I’ll keep trying, but Dark Opal’s powers are stronger than mine. Whatever he did is keeping her in this sleep, and preventing me from waking her.”
But I’m right here, Citrina! Topaz!, she tried to shout but her lips were stuck closed.
I’m right here, but I can’t help you!Topaz moved his hand to her hair and wound it tenderly around his fingers. “Oh Amethyst, please wake up…we need you, I need you. Wake up, my darling…”
“…wake up, Amy, honey, come on. You’re going to miss your bus.”
This time her eyes opened, and Amy Winston rubbed them with her small hands. Her freckled face went wide when she realized where she was, in her bedroom at home, with her mother hovering over her. “Mom! I was there again, I was in the Gemworld, but they couldn’t hear me, I think I was hurt, and they need me but they can’t fix me – “
“Sweetheart, we’ve talked about this,” her mother said firmly, stroking Amy’s brow. “They’re just dreams, no one needs you…if they’ve come back, we can go talk to Doctor Stephanie again.”
“I don’t want to talk to stupid Doctor Stephanie,” Amy pouted, and folded her arms around her polka-dot pajamas. “She tried to keep me out of the Gemworld.”
Amy’s mother sighed and stood. “Fine. Get dressed. Don’t make me drive you to school again.”
“But they do need me there,” Amy said when she was alone again. She gazed out the window as she dressed, and tied her amethyst pendant around her neck carefully. She stroked the stone and willed its power to light up once more. “Why can’t I get back?”
By the time she made her way down the stairs, Amy could hear her parents’ bickering, and stayed on the bottom step to listen. Her mother’s voice was pained, after the past year’s worth of arguments. “I don’t want this to get out of control again, Herb. Our daughter is sick and I don’t want to see her sicker!”
Herb Winston hushed his wife, and Amy heard them kiss. “She’s just getting worn down. School’s been hard lately. 14-year-old problems. Marion, she’s going to be okay. How ‘bout giving her the day off, I’ll take her in with me. Give her a break and that’ll help.”
There was a soft growl at Amy’s feet, and she looked down into the eyes of a faithful golden retriever. The dog nuzzled her hand, and Amy smiled as she scratched her ears. “Aw, I’m okay, Taffy. I guess you’re stuck on Earth too, huh?”
Taffy barked once.
“It’s okay, girl. We’ll find our way back.” Amy stood and made her way into the kitchen, to find her breakfast set out and both her parents watching her more carefully than they wanted her to see.
“Morning, Kiddo,” her father smiled and patted her chair, and Amy sat. “How’d you like to skip school today? I’m doing a lecture on the Narnia books, really fun,” he winked. He was dressed as befitted an English professor, in a scruffy old brown suit that always made his wife cringe.
“Sounds good, Dad,” Amy smiled. She was already brighter by the time she had finished her eggs, and bouncy when she kissed Taffy good-bye and climbed into her father’s car. The Gemworld lingered in her mind, but Hudson University was fun, too.
*****
Dawn Make Strong Move let out a big yawn and rubbed her bleary eyes again. She blinked a couple of times then focused her attention once more on the notes scattered across her desk. She took a sip from the over-sized coffee mug and turned to her computer, scratched out a few more notes, then kicked her rolling chair over to a nearby table to start scouring a large hand-crafted book.
It’s way too early in the morning for this, why am I here in the office at six again? she mused bitterly as she flipped through the pages until she found a specific passage. The overwhelming silence of the Sanbourne Institute was broken by the chirping of her phone and she sighed again.
Right, Kendra.“Hiya, how’s it going over there on the West Coast?” Kendra Saunders asked as the woman leaned back in her chair and took a moment from her own research. She glanced around to make sure she hadn’t disturbed anyone in the Wayne Annex of Hudson University’s library, as she folded her hands behind her head and leaned back on two legs of the chair.
“Early. Very early, Kendra,” Dawn said in reply, stifling another yawn. “Why am I up this early again? Why do you suddenly hate me?”
Kendra chuckled and settled the chair back on all fours. “Because today’s the only day you’ll get to be in the office out there during my visit here at Hudson U, so today’s the only chance to compare notes before I write up my dissertation for my advisors. I really want to get this done now.”
Dawn chuckled as she started to type on her keyboard. “You do know I was only starting my postgrad work at your age, right?”
“‘My age’? You’re not that old, dear,” Kendra teased as she typed away on a netbook. “Besides, when you belong to the extended family I belong to, you have to be brilliant. My PhD by twenty-five would barely count as par in the Saunders’ family tree.”
“Geez, I thought my Dad was tough,” Dawn replied as she opened up the email just arrived from Hudson University, her fingers idly adjusting her earpiece as she chatted with her friend. “Okay, I think...I think...” She kicked her chair back over to another spot in her office, and tugged a heavy binder out, flipped quickly through the laminated photos and grinned. “Yeah, here we go. I think this is what you’re hoping I could dig up.” She got up and headed to the scanner. “How is Hudson, anyway?”
“It’s a pretty little campus,” Kendra said as she scrolled through her document and found the place-holder, starting to type rapidly now, her sharp brown eyes darting over to the book with the photo of a similar hawk-imprinted artifact as the picture Dawn scanned a continent away. “I’d die of boredom here, that’s for sure. St. Roch is a pit, but at least it’s a pit with some night life.”
Dawn laughed loud and settled back at her desk, downloading the newly-scanned photo to Kendra’s account. “Not enough to distract you from actually working?” she teased.
“I’m pretty sure they roll the streets up at night,” Kendra confirmed as she saw the attachment arrive. She opened it up and barely suppressed a whoop of success. “This is it.”
“Good, because maybe now, you can take all this hawk symbology you’re collecting for this paper of yours and use it to explain how I pulled off what I did a couple of weeks back,” Dawn said, then finished off her cup. She stared into the empty vessel and frowned. “Someone drank my coffee.”
“Gee, I
wonder who that could have been?” Kendra asked in that sarcastic drawl as she bundled up the books and slipped them into a backpack. “And yeah, it’s convenient when our mundane work meshes with super-hero work. I’d like to know when I got qualified as ‘summonable entity’ as you magic types might say.”
“You have what you need right now then?” Dawn asked as she put the binder back away.
“Yup. Got a meeting with some Dr. Jones at the Natural History department, to see some artifacts they got here,” Kendra replied as she closed up the little computer and slipped it into her bag too. “You’ll be there later this afternoon right?”
“Be here all day,” Dawn confirmed. “A very, very long day, apparently.” She yawned again.
“Talk to you then, and thanks tons, Dawn.” Kendra closed out the call and dashed from her small workspace, into the bright sunny mid-morning and dashed excitedly for her appointment.
*****
Jonni was starting to wonder why she spent so much money these days on her office, and kept returning to the Coyote Cafe during her slow hours. She might have been waiting for more calls from Mockingbird, more clues about her strange benefactor, although she knew she could receive her instructions at home. She might have been enjoying her talks with young Frankie behind the counter, as young and eager as he was. Or maybe the coffee here really was just that good. Either way, the morning found Jonni settled with her netbook and a pile of paperwork, latte and danish at the ready.
“What’s news, Miss Thunder?” By now, the morning rush had cleared out, and Frankie was busing tables, starting from Jonni’s corner. In the past few weeks he had always seemed to be sure to be there when she was taking her breaks. Even a hard-boiled detective could still be flattered by the attention of a young man.
“Nothing much.” Jonni gave him a smile and sipped. “Just the dull drudgery of office work.”
Frankie wiped down the counter along the window, glancing back toward her when he could look away. “Yeah, but you’re like a private eye right? That gets dull?”
“When there aren’t any cases, it can,” she answered. The papers were all that was left of her work; her usual clients had all been satisfied too recently to come to her again, and Mockingbird’s orders had dried up as well. It was just bills and reports now.
“I’ve got a case for you.” Frankie put away his cleaning cloth and leaned on a broom. “You can try and find out who stole my heart away…” Before quite finishing his line, Frankie coughed, blushed and looked away. “Yeah, sorry. That was terrible.”
“It was,” Jonni agreed, but she was laughing. When Frankie hurried to the other side of the cafe to continue his chores, she shook her head slowly and returned to her computer screen. She was starting to understand why she had never put much stock in computers; she filled out her forms and papers, but her work was punctuated with constant five-minute breaks to look something up, or to read a new article. Or, in this case, to have a conversation.
Tom Tresser had a more thorough grasp than Jonni did of the videoconferencing software, and had to wait for Jonni to click the right buttons and bring his image up on her screen. Her headset was already in place, and she smiled when everything finally worked right. “Sorry about that, Tom. My other contact rigged this thing up so his calls come through automatically.”
“Quite alright.” Tresser gave her a small smile as well. He was in an office of his own, his eyes darting constantly between the camera and his work, and other windows open on his computer. “As long as it’s working now. I have to admit, I’ve been looking forward to speaking with you again.”
“Oh have you?” Jonni’s eyebrow raised and she hid her grin behind her coffee cup.
“Well, as I’m sure you appreciate, there are only so many people in this world who I can talk to about all aspects of this life.” Tom smiled at her. “Nothing wrong with the life, that’s for sure, but it’s almost a relief, every so often, when someone finds out who I am.”
Jonni almost snorted into her coffee and leaned back in the seat. “Not me. I had it my way, I wouldn’t have my power at all. My calling is for the mysteries, not the theatrics.”
“Oh really.” Tom might have laughed, but Jonni couldn’t hear through the speakers. “Then that doesn’t really explain the Birds of Prey, does it?”
“Mysteries, yes,” Jonni replied, shaking her head softly. “Superheroics just come with the territory, I suppose.” They sat together across the computer screens and Jonni told her tale, that first mysterious message that came from Mockingbird, and the challenge he laid out for her. “You show me someone who could have walked away from that.”
“Just look around you. You’re not as common as you think you are.” Tom smiled again and leaned back in his office chair. “I’m going to go ahead and guess that you like your work a little more than you thought you would.”
Jonni chuckled, and rattled her empty cup; where had Frankie gone? He always seemed so ready to top off her drinks. “Whoever Mockingbird is, so far he seems alright. We’re fighting people who are dangerous, and who need to be fought. That’s always worth something.”
“And what happens the day he assigns you to kill someone who doesn’t deserve it?” Tom leaned forward again, close to the camera.
“Then we rebel,” Jonni answered, barely missing a beat. “I’m not so desperate for his identity that I’ll throw my morals to the side.”
Tom nodded. “I’m glad to hear it. You just watch out for yourself. I’d hate to see a mind like yours cut down by some rich sleaze.”
“Trust me, so would I.”
*****
The three women headed up the broad walkway from the parking lot, excitedly glancing around at the pastoral-seeming campus. There were several buildings scattered all across the grounds, all low-built, all with a simple, unassuming architecture that blended nicely into the well-trimmed lawns and precisely-groomed hedges, all surrounded by rolling hills and deep green trees in the distance.
“This is perfect for our debut, sisters,” said the woman on the right. A breeze tugged at the end of her ponytail, as it hung near the small of her back, pale blue eyes calmly taking in the administration building.
The African-American looked over at her, past their muscular friend in the middle and nodded. “So much ground to cover, where do we start?”
“I suggest splitting up, like in any good Scooby-Doo mystery,” the red-headed woman in the middle said to her friends. “We can cover more ground that way, get the lay of the land, check out sites and security. New, you go over toward the athletic center. Crescent, you check out the admin, since you’re eyeing it up anyway, and I can go look into the science building. Maybe do a circle from there, and then meet up on the hill there for lunch?”
“Oh, I like that idea, Harvest,” New Moon said with a clap of her hands. “That’s a lovely spot for lunch. And I don’t have any problem at all checking out the hotties doing warm-ups.”
“While you’re picking out a suitable target to propose, right?” Crescent Moon looked over from the right of Harvest Moon and gave a focused glare at their friend. “We have a mission. Besides, what would Jeff say if you were scoping out rivals with the visitor’s pass he got us?”
New chuckled and looked away from the two other women. “We can look, that’s okay. Just no touching is all. And I
do remember our mission, I promise. I was just trying to keep the mood light.”
“We’re not here to be light, New,” Harvest grumbled. “We’re here to kick ass, and make a statement.”
“It’s okay, sisters. We’re of one mind, we know this. Moon Queen is counting on us to make the Moondancers’ first mission a rousing success. To make our mark,” Crescent said as she moved over, to get between her friends, to wrap her arms around their shoulders. “To show the world the error of their ways. Right?”
The two others nodded in agreement, and Harvest gave New a wink. “See if there’s any of those hotties to save for me then.” She turned and took off toward her target, as the two women watched her.
“See you for lunch,” New Moon said and she scurried off in her direction, leaving Crescent to turn and walk toward the administration building.
The blond woman walked along slowly, deliberately paced to let the students and staff rush around her as she took it all in. She was striking, with hair the color of straw and skin as smooth and pale as porcelain. She was very fit from her daily two-hour workouts, and she had a very confident step, and all of that controlled walking and stoic face belied the eager heart inside. She ached to toss off the simple black blouse and skirt that hid her true skin; her costume, the crescent shape over her chest her namesake. She watched the people move past her as she entered the administration halls, and her brain raced to put them in some order for the coming attack. A professor of history? No, those who failed to learn history were doomed to repeat it. The course bored her in high school, but the teacher was too important. The rude student texting with his face pointed down at his feet and the world blocked out by those damned earbuds? Oh, that was tempting, he gained a place in the mental list she slowly formulated. Financial aid office...a tool of the government, recording and monitoring all the poor saps who applied? Very possibly.
All too small though, she thought as she continued to walk along, through corridors, up stairs, around corners. She stopped short and an ice-cold grin crossed her face.
Bingo!Harvest Moon practically stomped across the quad, aimed like a walking boulder at the science building. There was nothing graceful or feminine in her gait; she was six and a half feet of muscle. People moved around her as she paced her straight line. People looked at her with a rattled mix of nervousness and attraction. She wasn’t lovely; she was a handsome woman, but she was definitely all woman, and she collected her fair share of glances. She enjoyed that too, it all worked to her advantage. No one messed with her, and no one quite knew how to approach her. Better, when she approached someone she was interested in, it was hard for the person to say no to her. No one ever wanted to: that mixture of attraction and nervousness kept most people from thinking clearly.
She shoved through the door and nearly knocked over some four-eyed nerd, and that forced her to suppress a chuckle.
No reason to be mean, Crescent and New would tell me, she chided herself inwardly.
They’re right. Gotta be better than these people. That’s the whole point of the Moondancers. Be better, show everyone how to be better like us. She bent over and grabbed the book off the floor. “Here, pal. Sorry about that.” She tousled the kid’s hair playfully and he half-nodded, half-shook and darted out the door. She just shook her head and moved further into the science building, and everyone but her saw the truth of the scene: a bull in a China shop.
New Moon enjoyed the stop at the football field. There were indeed some fine sights to see at Hudson U, but she slowly moved on and started to examine the athletic center.
This doesn’t seem like the place to start. I mean, brawn over brain is big these days, sure, but...that doesn’t seem to be a good reason to hurt people here.She slowly walked away from there and headed along the path to a building called Gleason Hall, where she found the English and History departments and wandered along those halls. She ignored the young blond girl on the bench, but barely avoided the earnest, solidly-built brunette who darted out from the natural history room.
“Pardon me,” New said as she sidestepped the woman.
“Sorry ‘bout that, in a rush, my bad, take it easy!” the woman called out as she dashed along and also ignored the teen-ager in the hall sipping her soda.
New Moon shrugged and walked along, enjoying the different lectures she could hear through the doors. It was a languid, easy-going pace and then she was startled from her reverie when those doors opened and students filled the hall.
Nah, there’s nothing here. This is where true thought is taught, we don’t want to destroy this.“Wow, that’s a pretty pendant.” The voice broke through New Moon’s haze, and she turned her dark eyes onto the pretty young student who stared at the abstract new moon she wore around her neck. “Does it mean something? It looks like it means something.”
“It does, it’s the new moon, my patron,” she answered the curious student.
“You’re patron? You mean like a god or something? Like witchcraft?”
“Or something like that. I’m about to go and have some lunch, would you like to come with me, and learn more--?”
“Kennedy, my name’s Kennedy, and I’d love to!” The earnest woman grinned and started to walk at her new friend’s side.
“I’m called New Moon, and it’s a pleasure to meet you, Kennedy.” New Moon smiled and turned her attentions on Kennedy, and prepared to lure her into the Moondancers’ philosophy.
*****
The repetitive clicking and tapping echoed down the tile hall of the university building, as Amy sat fiddling with the tab on her empty can of coke. Professor Winston’s lecture had been fun, the sort of thing that Amy had grown up loving to learn about. But that was already an hour ago, and her father had been in a meeting since lunch began, and he was just going to give the same lecture to his afternoon class. Until then, she was stuck here on the bench outside his office almost wishing she was at school after all.
“Surprise!” Amy looked up to see her father holding out a treat for her, the last donut in the box that one of his colleagues had brought to the meeting. “I saved you a powdered one.”
“Thanks, Dad.” She smiled, although that dreamy, far-away look that all of her friends had grown so used to was in her eye.
He sat down next to his daughter and playfully patted her nose with a powdery finger. “So come on, I’ve got a little time. How’s school going?”
“Fine.”
“Friends?”
“Fine.”
“Boyfriends?”
“Dad!” Amy giggled.
“What, I’m not allowed to know when my little girl is growing up and ready to be given away?”
She touched the necklace at her throat and shook her head. “Tommy Merlott wanted to go out this weekend but he knows I can’t do that. I only have eyes for Topaz.” Amy’s earnest voice betrayed no hint of the insanity or delusion that her words always did. She didn’t remember until she saw the look on her father’s face how he and Mom had reacted the last time she mentioned her future prince.
“Am I ever gonna get to meet this Topaz of yours?”
At least Dad tried to listen, but in the last year, Amy had learned to tell when she was being humored. “Maybe. I hope so.”
“Well,” The professor hugged his arm around her shoulders, “maybe until then you should give Tommy a chance. He’s a nice boy. Who knows, you might like him better.”
“I don’t think so,” Amy said quietly, and shrugged away.
Herb watched her smile fade, and he hugged his daughter tighter. “You want to stay for the second class?”
“Not really.” Amy had been thinking the whole day about her vision, and an idea had come to her while she sat daydreaming. “Can I go to the library?”
“Sure, I don’t see why not,” Herb smiled gently. “Long as you behave yourself. Go get a visitor’s pass, and I’ll pick you up there when my lecture is over.”
“Thanksdad!” Amy bounced up and kissed his cheek, and ran off down the hallway, only slowing down when she heard another teacher yelling after her.
The Hudson U library was bigger than any for miles and miles around. She had come here once before, when she had first found her way to the Gemworld, hoping for proof that she could show everyone else that it existed. She’d found nothing, but that didn’t discourage her now. In all those hundreds, thousands of books, there had to be something that could help her. Something about the sleeping sickness that must have overtaken her other body; something about travel between planes; something about the magic that Princess Amethyst wielded. There was so much magic in the world, so many people with so many powers that there HAD to be something Amy could use.
When she got to the library building, there was already a group of four people at the security window, arguing with each other and the guard about whether their visiting IDs were still valid. Amy bit her lip and rocked back and forth on her toes and heels. There was only the one guard on duty, though the library bustled with students and professors and staff. No one would notice if she just...slipped inside? The Gemworld was counting on her. She couldn’t wait for the angry visitors to clear away in order to get her own pass.
She waited until a new student entered the library and swiped his ID card through the door, and Amy ran in behind him with nobody any the wiser. She found a staircase and started to climb, heart bursting in her throat. The books about magic should be nearby. She’d stay all night if she had to.
*****
The sun did its best to beat down over the Hudson campus through the clouds as classes broke, and students scattered across the school for lunch. The Moondancers gathered under a tree on the quad, their vegan sandwiches carefully wrapped in cloth napkins. Crescent and Harvest Moon arrived at their spot to find New Moon talking with an excitable freshman, whose long hair was covered in black ribbon and her skirt ripped by hand.
“...the whole power of the moon, and sisterhood, and the Goddess right? Like I’m totally into that stuff. Like this one time when my high school friend turned lesbian and I let her practice making out with me, and then my roommate and I -”
“New Moon, who is your charming young friend?” Crescent cut her off, and the girl’s lips clamped shut.
“One who may become an ally, with proper training.” New smiled at the girl. “I have business to discuss with my sisters, but we can continue this talk tomorrow, Kennedy.”
“Right, you bet.” Kennedy took a wary look at Harvest, and scampered away over the grass.
Harvest Moon sat down with her legs spread out in front of her and snorted. “Can’t we do better for allies than that?”
“We need all the help we can find. We can train them to competence after we’ve won their loyalty.”
Though Crescent smiled at her sister’s words, Harvest still huffed and said, in a mocking, perky voice, “She can be Slut Moon!”
“We are not here to bicker,” Crescent reminded the other two, and they sat up straighter. “We are here to chose our target. I trust that we were all productive this morning in finding options?”
“Of course,” they nodded. Crescent looked at each in turn, and let them speak.
“We can attack the chem lab, and the biology department,” New said. “They disrespect life and condone death every day with dissections and experimentation with dangerous chemicals.”
“We can target the dining halls,” Harvest offered. “They sell food made and transported using the labor of prisoners, no better than slaves.”
Crescent’s grin widened. “Both good targets. But for today, think bigger, girls.” She paused to let the moment sink in. “Today, we attack the ROTC*.”
*Authors’ note- ROTC: Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, college-based military leadership classes“The military training guys?”
“Exactly. The United States military...what bigger evil is indoctrinating impressionable, desperate people, right under our nose? They must be stopped.”
New Moon chewed her lip. “The officers, yeah. But...Jeff’s in that program.”
“Is Jeff more important than our goals?” Crescent challenged her.
“And more important, isn’t he becoming one of them?” Harvest demanded. “The whole point of the corps is to make more officers. It’s just a factory for making mindless, obedient kill-bots. Why try to spare them? They’re already too far gone.”
“We can’t just endanger our classmates,” New objected. Her lunch sat half-eaten in her lap, and suddenly she wasn’t so hungry anymore. “They’re the ones we’re fighting for.”
“The good ones,” said Harvest. “Not the ones who are part of the problem.”
“There will be casualties.”
Crescent’s light brows were narrow over her pale face. “There must be, or we will have done nothing. We will mean nothing otherwise.”
New looked between her sisters. They had all known what they needed to do, but now it was becoming real. “What if our patron wouldn’t want this kind of violence?”
Crescent barked a short laugh. “Please. You know as well as I do what the Moon Queen is capable of, what she expects of us. Don’t let me find my dear, strong New Moon losing her nerve?”
“Of course not.” She puffed her slender chest out in response.
“We are to use our powers for the most worthy cause, and to the best of our ability,” Crescent continued, a fervor coming into her eyes. “We can not use our gifts properly if we are afraid to hurt...to kill if necessary. We shall fight, and those who are good will be martyrs, and those who are wicked will be punished, and the Moondancers will be supreme!”
Harvest and New looked at each other; Harvest was grinning perversely, and New’s own lips slipped into a smile. She couldn’t argue with that. “We are ready, Sister,” she said, “ to do anything that has to be done.”
“Gladly,” Harvest added.
Crescent’s smile grew sharper, a curved blade of a mouth. “We strike in one hour. They’ll be doing their drills, all assembled together. It will be the perfect strike.”
The Moondancers bent toward one another to plan their attack without being overheard. Soon, lunchtime ended. The other students trickled back to class, leaving them alone on the grass, and the sun beat down still over the unsuspecting university.
*****
Onyx stood at the front door and looked up at her friend Zenobia. The Amazon was dressed in a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans, a pack slung over one shoulder, but nothing could down-play the power and confidence in the woman. They lingered in the doorway, Onyx with her cup of tea, and Zenobia tossing an apple back and forth in her hands.
“You’ll stay in touch, right?” Onyx asked her, voice laced with admonishment. “The others told me how well you kept up with them before.”
Zenobia gave a snicker and nodded. “I’ll send one of those postcards they like to sell in the gasoline stations,” she assured the martial artist. “I’m leaving you in good hands though, it will be alright.”
“Even Hawkgirl?” Onyx gave a mischievous grin and chuckled as Zenobia stiffened up.
“Even her. I like that grin, and I like that I’ve seen it more often in our time here. It looks good on you, you should wear it more often,” Zenobia said. “You’ll keep my spear safe when it arrives from Africa?”
“Of course, especially if I can work out with it.” Onyx nodded and the two women went silent again. “Mount Shasta first, huh?”
“It’s closest. Then this Devil’s Tower,” Zenobia answered with a relief at more conversation. “There are a number of places here in North America I wish to see, to continue my journey. And with Jonni’s stipend, I have no real need for work, so I can take this time. I may have answered your questions, but I still have some of my own.”
“Athena did a number on you,” Onyx said with a chuckle and then there was more silence. She sipped her tea and then leaned back against a wall. “Thanks again. For everything.”
“Thank you,” Zenobia countered with an affectionate look. “I understand things in my head a little better now, helping you. So yes, I guess Athena’s blessing worked strange magic on us both.” There were seconds more of silence and then Zenobia shook her head. “This is pathetic. No more moping, for either of us. We are parted by distance, and nothing else. I will be back when the Birds of Prey need me, and I will be back to see my friends again. Until then, warriors train, they stay sharp, and they do not let maudlin emotion get to them.”
“Of course.” Onyx stood up straight and held her hand out. “Travel safe. Good luck out there, and I look forward to that first postcard.”
Zenobia looked at the proffered hand with an arched brow and laughed. “Warriors don’t let maudlin emotion get to them, but sisters don’t shake hands.” She wrapped her powerful arms tightly around Onyx, who recovered a second later to hug the Amazon back. “Fare well to you as well.”
Then Zenobia slipped from the embrace and walked out into the sunny morning, with a bite of her apple, and then flew off into the sky. Onyx watched her vanish from sight, turned back into the building and sighed.
A real life. Where to start? she mused and looked for the newspaper.
*****
Kendra’s head looked into the book she’d been lent by Dr. Jones, eyes wide as she read the material, her attention glued to the pages. This whole trip was panning out, and she was very excited to sit back down with Dawn, and her notes, and get the work done. So there was no surprise when she bumped into someone headed the other way.
“Sor--” Kendra was interrupted as another person struck her, and then another, and a fourth pushed her aside. “What? Do I have something on my...back?” She looked up and saw the Army ROTC’s drill team scattered across the quad, and a large hole torn into the side of their rooms. “Knew this was going to well,” Kendra grumbled as she glanced around then dashed for an isolated stand of trees. She rifled through her large gym bag and pulled out her wings and harness. “When I get my hands on whoever this is, interrupting a really great day, I’m going to--Oh c’mon, just come out!” She griped as she hurriedly tugged at her Hawkgirl gear.
On the other side of the quad, Amy Winston sat hunched over a table, and ran her finger over the pages in her books. Her freckled face was slowly turning red with frustration as she read up all she could. The noises had barely penetrated at first, but when a wall ripped away from the building to the left of the quad, she finally lifted her head and stared out the window.
“What the heck?” Amy slipped over and pressed up close to the glass as she watched the the three costumed women rip the drilling field up and scatter the Army students. “Dad’s going to freak out, and come for you,” she muttered glumly to herself as every muscle in her body wanted to respond. “You don’t have powers here, remember? Your magic is Gemworld.” She sighed and leaned her forehead against the glass, then cringed when she saw two of the students get blasted by the rubble that was the wall to their classrooms. She turned and ran out of the reading area now, her legs pushed her as fast as they could. She couldn’t fight anyone, but she could do something help people getting hurt.
Isn’t that the whole point of being a princess? Helping out people in trouble? her thoughts justified as she took a leap that vaulted her over the turnstile out of the library.
“Whoa! That was sweet!” she exclaimed as she slammed the door open and ran into the open area. She barely stumbled a bit as she felt her amethyst pendant warm against her chest. She noticed a shimmer and then she was garbed in purple and gold, her skirt fluttering in the breeze. “Whoa! This is awesome!” she shouted now as she continued her race.
“That’s it everyone, run away! Go tell everyone that the Moondancers are here now!” Harvest Moon called out as she chucked a large piece of granite at the statue of the university’s founder, the head sheared off. “Get your news media over here and learn that it’s time for all this hatred and war to end!”
“Tam?” One of the ROTC students pulled himself up along the steps to the battered building. “Tameron, is that you? You and Lucy and Shelly? What the hell are you doing?” The young man had a bruise forming on the side of his face as he stared at her.
“Jeff, I’m sorry,” New Moon said as she stepped up to him. “But I warned you, didn’t I? I told you, I found something better than just seeing you go to some stupid country and kill people we’ll never ever know while I sit around at home being paid for wanting my man back and pumping out babies for you and whoever makes me feel better while you’re gone.”
“What? Did you even listen to yourself? What did you just even say to me, you--” Jeff’s voice was cut off into a yelp of fear as Crescent Moon’s hands shimmered with a silvery sheen and the man hurled away suddenly, to come crashing down yards away in a heap.
“No talking to the enemy, New,” Crescent reminded her. “We’re all business now.”
“I know,” New said with an earnest nod. “All business.” She pivoted and pointed her hands, darkness leaping across the quad to collide with a pair of drill team. They screamed in shock and collapsed in a heap, frosted over, skin turning blue.
“Good girl,” Harvest said with a thumb’s up. “Pardon me for a moment,” she added and leaped over toward a campus police officer, and backhanded him. He soared away, but was caught by Hawkgirl, who finally flew out from her trees. She lowered him safely to the grass and pulled her mace out.
“Okay, give it up, and I won’t have to whack you around, but you’ve got me angry, so I’m hoping you don’t listen,” Hawkgirl said as she floated closer, mace pointed toward Harvest Moon, as she activated her cellular link in the helmet.
Three to one, and some ugly powers...hope the girls pick up, she thought as she eyed her opponents.
Harvest Moon cracked her knuckles and grinned wickedly, face flushing with excitement. Kendra cocked an eye, and wondered if she just saw the woman grow a few inches. “Oh, I’ll give you the answer you want, hot shot!”
“Let me,” Crescent said. “I’ve been reading up on the Justice League, in case they chose to interfere. This should mess up the Nth metal wings.” She laughed and released her control of gravity, and Kendra felt herself buffeted, struggling to recover her mastery of the wings as she felt gravity shift and pull back on her now. “Girls, go pluck our chicken.”
“No!” A purple bolt of energy ripped up the ground, and pushed the Moondancers back in surprise. Kendra landed and all four heads turned to face the young teen-aged girl who stood so tall, defiant and gangly in her purple tunic and skirt, hands outstretched. “No more of this! Surrender!” Amy Winston tried to say in an artificially deepened voice.
“Who the hell are you?” Crescent and Hawkgirl asked in unison, from opposite sides of the battlefield.
“Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld!”
