Hudson University at New Carthage“Princess, huh? Little young to be playing with the big girls, aren’t you?” Crescent Moon snapped at Amethyst as she pointed her hands in the teen-ager’s direction.
“Whoa!” Amethyst called out as she suddenly lost contact with the earth under her feet. “What’d you do?" She attempted to weave a counterspell, but she lacked any sort of balance, and each move just threw her to one side or the other, ruining her attempt.
“Just sending you on a short spin and keep us out of our hair,” Crescent dismissed the girl. “You’re too young to understand better.”
“I am not!” She shouted as she tried to jump at the white-clad woman; she had no footing and just tumbled in place, then clutched the hem of her skirt around her knees as she upended, and let out a small “Eep!”
“Relax, kid,” Hawkgirl said as she soared up into the sky, her hand snatching up Amy’s and pulled the teen away from that spot. “She’s not targeting objects, just making local gravity fields, move out of ‘em and you’re fine.” She swooped down and let the teen magician jump back onto solid ground. “You let her have it, if you think you can handle it, I’ve got the bruiser.”
Amethyst grinned and pivoted around to find Crescent Moon. She swept up her hands as the Moondancer did the same, movements looking like a ballet, but this time, Crescent’s energies rippled uselessly off a large shield of purplish energy. “Hah! Too old, too slow!” Amy teased.
“Too old? You little bitch, I’m only twenty-two! What do you know about old?”
“I know if you’re legal, you’re over the hill,” Amy taunted again as she held her shield in place with one hand and with her other, made a punching motion. The center of her shield swelled up before it unleashed a bolt of energy at her opponent, but Crescent narrowly ducked under the pulse. Both ladies watched as a marble bench broke apart under the purplish blast and gulped at the display of power.
Hawkgirl didn’t notice as she swooped down feet first and planted a hard kick to the side of Harvest Moon’s head. The large woman grunted, then growled as she backhanded the heroine, the heavy forearm smacked into Kendra’s bare midriff. She tumbled back but kept herself up in the air and recovered control just in time to watch Harvest Moon close with her. She pivoted in mid-air, rolled around the powerful blow and a round kick battered Harvest’s back, to send her sprawling in a bed of roses.
“Dammit!” Harvest snarled and meaty fists battered the soft earth, and Kendra’s smug grin faded when she saw as the reaction seemed to add a half foot or more to the terrorist’s size.
“Don’t worry, you have back up, sister!” New Moon called out as dark beams sliced through the air from her fingertips. They slammed into Kendra’s back, and heavy frost started to coat her harness.
“Ng! what the hell?” Hawkgirl started to turn, and felt the Nth metal on her back struggle to keep up with the frigid cold of the attack. The beams continued though, and battered Hawkgirl to the ground as the heroine shivered.
“Sorry, Hawkgirl, but we can’t let you stop our movement, not now. Maybe if you’re head weren’t all clouded by the space cop and your League fellows, you could join us,” New said with a touch of sorrow.
“Ah, don’t try to sympathize, she’s one of the oppressors, a member of the
Order League,” Harvest grumbled as she stepped up and lifted a foot high over Kendra’s head. “And the war machine is what we’re here to stamp out!”
On the far side of the quad, Crescent Moon kept up a fast pace, to stay ahead of Amethyst. The girl seemed insane but clearly had great power, and Crescent flung up various objects to block the beams of energy.
“I’m sorry about that, I promise you, I won’t hit you that hard,” Amy called out, legitimately concerned with the fate of the bench. She didn’t want to kill Crescent Moon, for sure. She chased after the criminal, ducked and dodged around the fields of altered gravity in her way, and tried to get a clear shot on Crescent.
“Thanks real nice of you, but I think I’ll play it my way,” Crescent Moon replied as she stopped suddenly and directed her power toward the Corinthian columns on the administration building’s portico. Her left hand eliminated the gravity at the base, her right hand increased the gravity at the top, and with a slight twist of her wrists, the effect was devasting. The heavy stone ceiling started to collapse as people sheltered from the battle screamed and tried to run.
“No!” Amethyst cried out in horror and tried to counter with her own powers. Her shield hovered in the air as the heavy stone crashed, and she could feel the shuddering in her arms. She raced toward the collapse; the closer she could get, the more focus she could put onto her shields, as people ran in fear. She was bumped and shoved, and she lost sight of Crescent Moon, but she reached the portico and with all her will, shoved the bubble of amethyst energy above her. “Go, go!” she cried to the few people who had yet to retreat, as her bubble cracked but held. The roof lay around her in ruins as she panted.
Then a shadow fell on her from above and she looked up to see a marble planter hurtling down, and tore through the weakened shields to crash into the teen-ager.
Crescent Moon watched Harvest’s throw from the far side of the quad, and muttered bitterly, “Call me old, will you?”
Mackinac Island, MichiganWenonah Littlebird stepped onto the long pier and gazed around at the scenic bay. The island was every bit as beautiful as she’d heard, she mused and shifted her shoulders to adjust the heavy backpack. Sightseeing had to wait, however, as she set forward with her goal in mind.
At the end of the pier, she rented a bicycle, and then started her journey. She pedaled along the small twisted streets, well-paved and lined with a combination of small shops and residences, most clapboard and wood, all carefully maintained and crafted to look bright and cheery for the crowds of tourists.
She continued the trip along the road, away from the buildings, into the heart of the island, and rising up as the ground rose up. Trees grew denser as the buildings fell away to the state park. Despite the bustling activity along the waterfront and in the township, Wenonah had been struck with the quiet of the island. The lack of vehicles, outlawed before the dawn of the 20th century, helped give such a peaceful and quaint feel to the area, and she smiled as it grew even more quiet further out. A breeze tugged at her lean, tanned face and toyed with the ends of her long hair. She rounded the next curve and reached higher, seeing old Fort Holmes up above her. She wasn’t far now, and she pedaled harder, faster, pushed against the bounds of Earth and up the hilly road. She felt her heart beat faster, and blood pound, and it felt very good.
Then she saw it up ahead. Through a break in the trees she saw her destination, the seventy-five foot tall stack of rock called Sugar Loaf. Home to
Gitche Manitou, the Great Spirit. It was inspiring and she had reached its base before she even realized. She shoved her foot backward on the pedal, and the bike squealed to a stop with a shower of loose dirt and pebbles. She looked up at the soaring pillar of stone and grinned as she swung her long leg over the bicycle and let it fall onto its side. A noise drew her attention behind her, and she saw the small family at a picnic table, as they ate sandwiches and drank soda in the shadow of the Great Spirit’s home, and for a moment she felt anger, but she shook it off. She wasn’t really mad at them, how could she be? They came to see Gitche Manitou’s beauty and splendor, even if they saw it for something else. So what was it she felt about the signs and tables and trash barrel that formed a loose circle around Sugar Loaf?
“Look, Dad, it’s an Indian!” the young boy said as he pointed to Wenonah.
“What do we call them, Benjy?” his father asked to correct him.
“Sorry, Dad, Native Americans,” Benjy answered and waved at Wenonah shyly, and she waved back.
“That’s better. Now let her to her business. This place, it’s very important to her, and her people, so behave,” the mother spoke as she turned a bit to look away from the woman, to give her privacy.
She paid them no more heed and looked at the sign that discussed the significance of Sugar Loaf. Simplified, easily digested for the visitors, but truthful. The feeling inside her chest started to subside, as she noticed the reverence that everyone tried to instill here, even if they didn’t always understand. She set her pack down and dropped to her knees, seeking out her supplies. She would have to wait until nightfall, and she had to be very careful not to be noticed; camping was forbidden out on the island, but she had to do it, had to do the rite, no matter what park rangers might try to tell--
“You going to dance?”
Wenonah snapped out of her reverie and glanced at Benjy, who stood next to her now, and had tapped her shoulder. “That’s what you do, right? Dance around bonfires, and use tomahawks and pipes and stuff? And talk to spirits? Have you talked to any before? Is it as cool as it sounds?”
Wenonah blinked at the questions, confused, and surprised. “Uh, um...well, to be honest, not...no dancing, not now. And no tomahawks.” She chuckled now and tousled the kid’s blond hair. “How have you heard so much about all this stuff? You like westerns do you?”
“Nah, those are old and boring,” Billy answered quickly. “Manitou Dawn came to my school a couple of months back to talk about it. She’s amazing. She’s in the Justice League and knows everything about this stuff!”
Wenonah’s eyes narrowed a bit, but she maintained her smile and nodded. “Does she now?”
“Do
you know her?”
“No, I don’t. But I intend to, you can be sure of that...Benjy?” He nodded and grinned, and then his mother was at his side and tugged him away by the hand.
“Sorry about this, miss. He’s a handful, I’m so sorry if he bothered you,” the mother said as she took Benjy away.
“No, no bother. Not at all.” She waved at Benjy and called to him, “I’ll know all about her soon, Benjy, rest assured.” Then she turned back to Sugar Loaf, narrowed her eyes again, and stared at the home of the Great Spirit. Wenonah didn’t believe in coincidences, not in the very presence of the spirit world itself. More determined then ever now, she returned again to her preparations.
Meanwhile, on the West Coast......Dawn tapped her fingers along the keys of her computer, her mind not quite taking in all of the information she entered. One piece of data stayed in her thoughts just long enough to be transferred into the spreadsheet, and then flitted away to make room for another. She wondered idly how much of her blood had been replaced with coffee before it finally woke her up.
“Stuck in here all day…” Dawn muttered to no one. “Maybe I can go outside for lunch at least. A little light and fresh air, anything to get me away from work.” She continued to tap and read and input. The job would eventually get done, but no matter how many entries she typed up, the list didn’t feel like it got any smaller.
Then Dawn’s phone rang, with the special ringtone she had put in place to signal her most important calls. She practically lunged at the phone to open it, and jumped up from her desk chair. “Jonni? Kendra? Onyx? Halo? What’s happening?”
Wind whistled into the phone from the other end and crackled through the speaker. Dawn strained to listen to the voices – Kendra’s was loud and clear, but the others were unfamiliar.
“Girls, go pluck our chicken.”
“No!” Some kind of explosion, and Dawn was already halfway out the door “No more of this! Surrender!”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld!”
“That’s better,” Dawn grinned in spite of herself, and took off.
In another city, at the same time, Jonni Thunder had let the phone ring just another moment. She was in her own office now (though still with a to-go cup from her new favorite café) and busier than she had been in weeks. By the time the call came through, Jonni sat opposite a well-dressed woman at her desk, listening to her tearful accounts of the trouble in her marriage. It sounded like a standard case, but truth be told, there was something relaxing about the old standards considering everything else Jonni had been up to lately.
Ring RingThe woman hiccuped and dabbed at her eyes. “Do you need to get that?”
Jonni wished she didn’t. But it was partly her fault, she supposed, letting thoughts of the Birds get into her head during detective time. “I’m sorry, Miss. I’m afraid I’m about to be very busy, it might be better if you went home. You can e-mail me everything else.”
“But, but George is still there! What will I tell him, how can I explain where I’ve been?”
The phone rang a few degrees louder when it wasn’t answered. Jonni pursed her lips; this woman's husband was cheating, not abusing her, she'd could wait a few hours. Jonni shoved her coffee cup into the woman’s hand. “Then lie low at this shop. Tell Frankie I said hi,” she added, took her phone, and dashed into her back room.
“What’s wrong?” Jonni asked, and the phone replied, “Who the hell are you?”
“Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld!”
Jonni sighed, and her fingers smoothed out a crease on her pencil skirt. She sat down carefully on the floor and leaned against a bookshelf; at least she could try not to ruin the suit when she left. Settled in place, she focused on the phone, and with a brilliant flash, she was off.
Suddenly, back at Hudson University!There was a burst of shining yellow light, and Hawkgirl was no longer alone. Jonni couldn’t see all of what was happening, but she shot her way out of the communicator and took stock as quickly as she could. Kendra was on the ground, shivering with cold, and something wrong with her wings, her helmet dented by a footprint. Above her stood a buff, angry redhead, with a more somber black woman a few paces away. Jonni didn’t hesitate. She flew up as fast as she could and knocked Harvest Moon down hard enough for the woman to bounce.
“The hell was that?” Harvest growled and righted herself, but not before Jonni’s electrical form shot past her a second time and left a vivid burn down the length of her arm.
Standing stiffly, Kendra whistled. “Thanks for showing up!”
“Anytime,” Jonni answered. She was next to her teammate again in a flash, and exposure to her radiant energy form was quick to melt the chill from Hawkgirl’s wings. “Rundown.”
Kendra pointed quickly to New Moon and Harvest Moon, who were themselves whispering furiously at the new arrival. “Cold powers. Strength.” She turned her head to find Crescent then, halfway across the campus and just visible in the violet glow. “Gravity control. Purple’s on our side.” Jonni nodded, and flew toward the broken building, where she was clearly more needed. When she had gone, Kendra cracked her knuckles and faced down her opponent. “Let’s give this another go, huh?”
“You don’t have to fight us!” New Moon took her fighting stance, hesitating just long enough as Harvest made a run in another direction. “All we want is peace, for everyone to live their lives without violence and war!”
Hawkgirl spun her mace in her hand, lunged over Harvest in the short chance that she was given, and brought the weapon down hard across New Moon’s back. New crumpled to the ground before she could hear Hawkgirl. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed. But I don’t exactly do pacifism.”
Meanwhile, on the far side of the quad, a groggy Amethyst could hear Crescent pacing around her in the rubble. The bright purple aura had shattered under Harvest’s attack, and the teen sorceress had lost focus as she tried to call it back around herself. Her legs wobbled as she tried to stand, and her eyes still saw double, but the magic swirled around her like it always had in her other home, and gave her strength.
“Don’t you know when to quit, little girl?” Crescent sneered. Before Amy could get her full bearings back, she reached out with her powers once again and lifted Amethyst off of her feet. “You can’t beat me!”
At that moment, there was a shimmer, as if the air were stretched out and thinning. A brown hand parted the veil and Manitou Dawn stepped out from what looked like nowhere, a proud look on her face. She wasn’t sure if she could travel the spirit world without Kid Eternity’s help, but she would have to do it more in the future after this. Dawn shook that pride away when saw the two women fighting only a few feet away; the one in purple, the other in white, and both struggling. The younger girl twisted high above the ground, gritting her teeth and one hand firm on her hemline, the other hand throwing a thin bolt of violet energy toward the older.
Dawn hesitated, her tomahawk held tight in her hand. She couldn’t see Kendra yet, or any other Birds who might have arrived. The last thing that she wanted to do was start fighting on the wrong side.
“Damn you, you little purple pest, just get out of my way!” The woman in white growled, and Dawn’s ears perked up. The voices on the phone came back to her - the voice of the ringleader who led the charge against Kendra. The truth was so clear in her mind that Dawn could almost see the madness emanating from Crescent Moon.
“That’s enough!” Dawn announced, and drew both women’s attentions. She charged toward Crescent with a yell and twirled her weapon. Crescent ducked out of the way, but not fast enough - the blunt end cracked against a rib, and Crescent stumbled in her escape.
A jet of yellow flashed above, and a moment later Amethyst was back on the ground, brought down by Jonni Thunder. The girl’s eyes were wide and starry despite the battle all around her, and Amy dusted off her costume without taking them away from Jonni. “Whoa! How’d you do that?”
“Too quick as energy for her field to bug me,” Jonni explained. Then, she turned to Dawn and called to her, “Switch off, I’ll take care of the Moondancer. I think she’s hurt,” she finished, noting a rip on Amethyst's tights, and an angry red welling up, then started to leak down her leg. Jonni bolted toward Crescent Moon now, and a moment later, Dawn came running.
“I’m not really hurt, it’s okay, do that sparkly thing again!” Amy grinned as she tried to ignore her injury..
Dawn chuckled. “Maybe later,” she said, and passed her hands over Amethyst’s wound until blood stopped and the sting disappeared.
Crescent Moon stared up at the rocketing figure of Jonni Thunder and grimaced, but stood her ground. “I don’t care how many of you there are, nothing will stand between the Moondancers and our victory! No matter how many people we have to destroy, we will have our utopia!”
“And I don’t care how many times you want to boast,” Jonni retorted. She instinctively cringed in preparation for the collision, forgetting a moment she wasn’t physical. Then electricity crackled in Crescent’s ears and all around her form, and Jonni’s voice joined it, “You’re out of your league.” The crackling increased, and the energy in Jonni’s form reached deep into Crescent’s bones. Almost magnetically, Jonni’s electric body sapped the vigor from Crescent’s muscles, until her limbs hung uselessly at her sides.
Crescent’s pale eyes floundered and she lashed out, but there was nothing solid for her to attack, the assault jangled contact with her powers. When Jonni finally pulled away, she fell to the ground, her long hair standing on end. “....regret....come back...revenge,” Crescent mumbled, too weak even to get more words past her lips.
Hawkgirl had barely evaded a vicious jab from Harvest Moon and lifted up into the sky away from New as she noticed the red-faced, redheaded powerhouse was now easily two feet taller, close to nine feet in height. Kendra also noticed the way arteries and veins pumped under the thick skin, and muscled seemed to bulge as a result. All this distracted her just enough to keep her from being really aware of Harvest’s new reach, until a throbbing pain gripped her ankle.
Harvest pulled Hawkgirl down from the sky before Kendra could react. The Nth metal wings took the worst of the blow as she smacked into the concrete, but it jarred her all the same. “Let’s get rid of your fancy mallet, before I rearrange that face of yours,” Harvest grumbled as she kicked Hawkgirl’s taped hand and forced the mace to skitter away.
“I like her face just the way it is, thank you!” Dawn cried out as she ran toward her friend. She hurled her tomahawk, the spinning weapon cracking off of Harvest’s temple, and the large woman took a step back with a grunt of pain. “You know, in a completely platonic, best friends kind of way!”
“Thanks, I feel the love,” Kendra muttered as she lifted back up to her feet. She watched Jonni zoom through the powerhouse as she scurried for her own weapon.
“Anytime you feel like falling over, I’m good with it,” Jonni said as she circled Harvest, blasting at her in different areas as the muscled giant leaped to the fountain, and shoved her hand through the stonework.
“Go! Away!” Harvest snarled as she yanked the water pipe into the open and pointed it at Jonni. She screeched in pain as the spray of water sizzled and popped against her electrical form and drove her off.
Dawn plucked her tomahawk up and debated her next action. There was a wicked purple mark where she’d struck their enemy but it wasn’t enough to slow her down. She couldn’t be sure anything would at this point.
“You go away first!” Amy called out as her fingers danced in the air, purple glittering falling from her fingertips. Suddenly, amethyst flames flickered over Harvest’s body, then the flames took the shape of dozens of dainty-looking chains. They completely wrapped up the giantess’ arms and chest, and tried to hold her down in place, but Harvest would not be denied.
“Should have thrown the statue on you!” She turned to look at Amethyst, enraged, eyes bulged as she took a step, then a second, despite the restraints holding her.
Dawn smiled grimly as an idea came to her. This girl might have the right idea, and she pulled a mother-of-pearl whistle from her pouch. She blew on it, though no sound could be heard. Not by the living people, but the water spirits heard it, and they reached strange tidal hands up from the pool’s surface. They clutched at Harvest Moon with all their might and the villain staggered, one knee splashing into the fountain’s water.
“Let’s see who’s face is getting rearranged,” Hawkgirl said as she flew up and brought her mace across Harvest’s jaw, then across her other cheek, then with a powerful, two-handed uppercut that left her prone in the pool.
“I’m gonna hate myself in the morning,” Jonni muttered but she reached over and thrust her hand into the pool, and electricity coursed across Harvest Moon, leaving the stunned woman screaming in pain. Then she lay still, slowly shrinking back to her normal, fearsome height.
Langley, VirginiaThomas Tresser, a.k.a. Agent Nemesis of the United States government, rubbed his eyes as he leaned back in his chair, to get some distance from his computer. He needed another diversion at this point; the new case file in front of him already gave him headaches, and the chat with Jonni had been hours ago at this point. He yawned and stretched his arms, then leaned forward to start reviewing the paperwork again. He grumbled as he tapped at the arrow key and scanned the document.
I don’t recall seeing Faraday ever write a report, the bastard.“Knock, knock.” The husky voice came from his office door and Tom peered up over the monitor to see the woman as she leaned against the doorjamb, all sultry and curvaceous in her dark business suit. How Delilah Tyler managed to do that was beyond him, and he sighed. “You busy, Tom?”
“Never too busy for a visit from the National Security Advisor’s office, Dee, c’mon in,” Tom replied as he stood up and pointed to a chair. “Can I get you some coffee?”
“No thanks, never touch the stuff,” she replied as she slunk into the office and settled easily onto the chair, and pulled a bottle of water from her attaché case. “So, Tom, how are you doing? Settling into your new home alright?” She gave him a wide smile, full dark-red lips making her white teeth gleam all the brighter.
“Just fine, thanks, Dee,” Tom said hesitantly as he poured himself a cup of coffee and settled back into his own seat. “How are you liking your new position? Enjoying rubbing elbows with all the power players?”
“Of course, how could I not?” She gave an exaggerated girlish giggle and sipped her water as almond brown eyes flickered over the well-built master of disguise. “Get to shmooze the upper echelons, and still check in with my best buds out on the front lines of the intelligence war. It’s a great gig. And it got you a nice long leash to do what you need, you have to admit.”
“I admit it, of course,” Tom said with a slight shake of his head. She played bimbo so shrewdly it frightened him sometimes. “And what a wonderfully roundabout way of getting to why you dropped by too.”
“What
ever could you mean, dear?” She looked shocked at his accusation and sipped her water again, not for the drink, but so that her lips glistened.
“Taking the scenic route to calling in your favor, Dee. I know you, I’ve known you since your prep school days. For God’s sake, I wrote your first recommendation, so get to the point.”
She chuckled and screwed the cap to her bottle, then slipped it into her case, and returned with a manila folder. It was pristine: clean and smooth, unmarred, and so slim, with precious few papers in it. She slid it across his desk and Tom read the label.
Birds of Prey
“What do you want?” Tom reiterated as he pulled the folder closer and opened it, to see only a portion of his report on the recent Red Claw incident; the portions directly related to Jonni’s group.
“Nothing. Nothing serious, anyway, Tom. Just letting you know that the Advisor’s opened the file, and you’re the go-to guy,” Dee answered easily enough.
“‘Go-to guy’? I don’t like the sound of that. They’re good people, they did a good job with two dangerous terrorist threats, leave them alone.”
“We intend to, Tom. To a point, but we’re about intelligence, and security. The ANSA’s office has been directed by the Oval Office to assume more direct control over monitoring metahumans,” Dee explained as she passed him a memo now. “It seems each time we set up some organization to do the job, it goes running off the rails. Some nutcase, or group of nutcases, hijacks their mission statement, and turns it into an anti-hero plot, an anti-metahuman crusade, or an anti-government conspiracy.”
Tom read the memo and pursed his lips. He nodded at the words on the page, and the way Dee explained them; he could hardly argue with the reasoning. “So now it’s one on one contact?”
“Yup. Faceless bureaucracies don’t work on the domino set, and since heroes break the rules and it works, we figured we’d break the rules too,” Dee confirmed. “You’re in already. You’ve made contact, you’re damned fine-looking, and you know they exist. That’s three steps further than anyone else. The Birds are your beat.”
“I’m not screwing them up. I’m not doing anything to them, and I’m not manipulating them into anything,” Tom said flatly as he stared into Dee’s warm brown gaze and sweet, sincere smile. “They’re doing good work.”
“Of course they are. And of course you’re not going to. We don’t want you to, not unless you find evidence saying we need to. We just need someone we trust.” She snapped her case shut and stood up, and leaned over the desk to whisper that husky, sultry voice of hers close to him. “Just think of yourself as one of the girls. You’re our...man in the ladies room.” She winked and walked out with a very nice show for Tom, who then looked back at the file and sighed heavily.
Hudson University“C’mon, Tam, get up!” Jeff snapped at her quietly as he snuck out from the bushes and shook her shoulders. “Wake up before they come back.” He glanced over to the steaming rubble of the fountain as the the Birds of Prey finally felled Harvest Moon, then back at the stirring New Moon.
“Huh? What hit me?” She held her head and glanced up at Jeff. “Hi,” she said softly. “You came back for me?” She smiled and blushed then winced in pain.
“Of course. So you got swept up in some goofy cult,” he said as he held her. Sirens filled the air, and police began to appear on the quad, over by the victorious heroines, and the down Moondancers. “And got some kinda nifty powers, and I don’t care how right now. All I care about is you’re goin’ to prison, unless we get you out of here.”
He helped her to her hands and knees, but kept her down, and started to direct her back in the direction he appeared from. “This way, Tam, I got it worked out, no one will notice, just keep your head down.”
She leaned into him and her heart warmed up as she followed him at first. “Wait,” she said, and stopped them. She knelt upright now and looked at him. “Jeff, you’re amazing.” She placed her hand on the side of his face now and kissed him gently. “I let you get hurt, and messed up your friends, and you still care? I...you’re amazing.”
“Yeah, yeah, we can talk about all that later, Tam--”
“But I’m not Tameron Davis anymore,” she interrupted him sadly. She pulled her hand back and stood up tall. “I’m New Moon. My eyes have been opened to a truer, purer purpose. I’ll always love you, Jeff, but I stand with my sisters in the face of a warlike oppressor.”
Jeff shook his head and stepped away from her as police and Kendra approached her. “Fine then, if that’s how it is, Moonpie,” he snapped. “Do what you want, you loonie tunes, I’m outta here then.”
New Moon turned to face the authority, and held her wrists out. “I will, Jeff,” she murmured as she sniffled and blinked fast to try and keep from crying as she was led to the other two Moondancers. They led her past the fountain and by a group of gawkers, already gossiping, whispering and discussing the strange women, and in the back was the young girl Kennedy. She’d watched everything, saw New Moon’s brave stance, and felt her own heart soar. This was it, her movement, her moment. She’d uphold New Moon’s bravery, and become a Moondancer, no matter what it took.
Jonni stood next to Hawkgirl and watched as Crescent and Harvest were secured as best as the police could. Her energy form was dim, and her shoulders stooped with fatigue. “You still have that open channel back to my phone?” she asked Kendra.
“Yeah, why?”
“I have to get back to my body, I’m nearly out of juice, and I’m not anxious to see what happens next.”
“See you back in Plat soon,” Hawkgirl said with a grin and waved before Jonni leaped into the communicator and fled the scene. “Now then, Purple, who are you? Where did you get these powers?”
“I’m Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, like I said at the start of the fight,” Amethyst said with a bright smile, violet eyes twinkling with excitement. “It’s great to meet you, Hawkgirl. I have a poster of you at home.”
“In Gemworld?” Kendra looked bemused as she stared at the girl, while Dawn joined them.
“No no. I mean here, on my Earth home.”
“Earth home?” Dawn repeated. “In all my research into other realms, I’ve never heard of a Gemworld...” She gestured, hoping for a name.
“Amethyst! And I know you haven’t. No one has. But I know what I’m talking about, and I
am going to get back there, just you wait and see!” She looked indignant now, and stood proud as she stared up into the heroines’ gazes.
“But who are you really? I’m Dawn Strong, for instance,” Dawn said as she tried to coax more answers out of the young girl.
“Well...I mean, it
is supposed to be a secret identity, right?” Amethyst twisted the toe of her boot into the ground as they talked, not sure what to reveal, since it was clear they were like her parents, and other grown-ups: they thought she was nuts.
“You keep at it,” Kendra whispered to Dawn. “I want to see what these Moondancers will tell us.” Dawn nodded and watched Hawkgirl step over to the police wagon. All three Moondancers had finally been settled into place, looking glum and drained after the fight. “Okay, girls, spill. What was the point? Why here, why now? And what’s this Moondancers’ crap about?”
“It’s not crap,” New Moon protested. “It’s a philosophy of ending war and bringing peace to the world. To do that, we need to end the warmakers.”
“And since they only care about violence, there’s only one way to get rid of them,” Crescent added in a weak voice. “You stopped us now, but our voice will be heard.”
“Snap...those wings off...your broken back,” Harvest muttered in a cracked tone.
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Hawkgirl said with a puzzled frown. “And there’s three of you, and you’re all whackjobs with no sense of...scale, clearly, if this was the way to start your mission. You have to realize you can’t win.”
“Our voices will be heard,” Crescent moaned as she lay back against the side of the vehicle. “We’re far from done.”
“And there’s more of us, and the Moon Queen will continue to make more of us, and we will become an army in her name!” New Moon said in a strong, reverent voice, as if proclaiming a holy epiphany.
Harvest nudged New in the ribs and both women glanced at her. “Real nice secret society we had there for a while, idiot!” the redhead grumbled. All three went silent as New Moon shrunk down and turned her head from the heroine.
“Fine, well...we’re going to talk more, just you wait and see,” Hawkgirl assured them as she stepped back and signaled to the cop she was done. “Thanks for the moment. I’ll drop by a little later to give you our report.”
“No problem, Hawkgirl. Pleasure picking up after you, and thanks for helping out here,” the cop said before the two parted.
Dawn turned back to Amethyst after Kendra walked off, and reached out to shake her hand. “Now then, thanks a lot for your help. I heard you say you were a big fan of Hawkgirl’s, so you know we were in the League together, and you can trust us.”
“I know I should, but--”
“Amy!” Herb Winston cried out as he made his way through the crowd, past the police tape and hugged his daughter tight. “Thank goodness you’re safe!” He pulled back to look at her, make sure she wasn’t hurt, then hugged her again. “What are you doing out here, you told me you were going to the library!”
Dawn watched as Amy gave her father a quick hug and tried to pull away. “Da-ad! You’re embarrassing me in front my new friends. Dad, look, I was fighting with the Justice League! I helped them win! Right, Dawn, didn’t I?”
“What are you – where did you get that dress?” Herb glanced at Dawn and then back to his daughter, comprehension dawning on his face as the panic faded away. “This is about that Gemworld isn’t it? Amy, this is going too far, you can
not go playing super-hero! What would your mother and I do if you got yourself hurt?”
“I wasn’t, I was helping, I can do it!”
Dawn stepped up to the professor and held out her hand to him as he reluctantly let his daughter go. “I’m Manitou Dawn, and I think we need to chat about your daughter. There’s some things you should know.”
Epilogue: the Winston Home“Taffy, I’m home, you gotta meet my new friends!” Amy burst through the door beaming and whistled until the dog came running. Taffy whined and jumped up toward the guests as Kendra and Dawn came through the door, until Amy threw her arms around the dog’s neck to keep her back. “Oh, you’re never gonna believe what happened, Girl!” She rushed out of the hallway and up the stairs to change, throwing a quick “Hi, Mom!” into the kitchen.
Herb came in last, his head still reeling from what he had been told in the car. After all the times Amy had tried to tell them about her magic, after all the demonstrations that had failed to work, all the stories she tried to tell, he finally couldn’t deny it any longer. Hawkgirl and Manitou Dawn had been as confused as he and Marion had always been about the Gemworld, but the fact of the matter was that Amy had powers, one way or another.
With Amy up in her room, Dawn and Kendra took the chance to sit down with both parents, and explained the day’s events once more. Kendra had taken off her mask and put away her mace; if they were going to try to convince the Winstons that they were harmless, she didn’t think the weaponry was going to help.
“It’ll be her choice, and yours too of course, but I think we might be able to help Amy,” Dawn said, when the story was through. Herb set a cup of tea down in front of his wife and then sat beside her, holding her hand. “I’m a shaman, magic is what I do. Even if her powers don’t come from the same source as mine, I ought to be able to help her learn to control them while we figure out where they came from.”
“But she’s never done anything before,” Marion protested, looking to her husband for confirmation. “She said that she could in her dreams, but when she tried to show us, nothing happened.”
“It’s entirely possible that her powers only manifested when there was real danger,” Dawn explained gently. “Now that they have, though, she needs to learn to access them safely. Believe me, Mrs. Winston, we aren’t going to put Amy into this kind of trouble just for teaching.”
“Your daughter was a real hero out there, today,” added Kendra. “Trust me, we wouldn’t be offering if we didn’t think she was a good kid. Little wacky but hell, she’ll fit right in.”
Herb and Marion looked at one another. “I can talk to Phil about a transfer,” Herb said and squeezed her hand. “There’s some good schools out there. Your practice needs to be here, but I can keep an eye on her.”
Marion nodded slowly, and then turned her head toward the stairs. “Amy, sweetheart, could you come down please?”
Amy skipped two steps at a time. Her long hair was tied in a bright purple scrunchie now, her dress swapped for faded jeans and a t-shirt, but the amethyst pendant still hung around her neck. “Yeah? You believe me now, don’t you? You told them, right?” She asked Dawn.
“They told us, Honey,” Marion reached her arm out, and Amy sat where she pointed. Her mother’s fingers reached for her hair and stroked it slowly as she spoke. “Amy...Ms. Strong and Ms. Saunders have invited you to go to Platinum Flats with them. Is that something you’d like?”
Marion almost didn’t get her whole sentence out under Amy’s shriek of joy. “I can go with you? Really, you mean it? Omigosh!”
“For therapy,” Herb said more firmly. “Not for fighting. Just until we figure out what’s going on.”
“I know what’s going on! I have magic, I’m a princess!” Amy squealed, “I’m gonna go pack!” and raced upstairs again.
Marion watched after her and bit her lip. “I thought she might at least try to miss me...”
Dawn chuckled. “She’ll remember to once she’s settled in.”
“Just take care of her,” Marion said firmly. “Whatever is going on with her. Just keep her safe and sane, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“That’s what we all want for the kid,” Kendra said as the group stood up and prepared to separate. “Believe me, Dawn can get her on the straight and narrow with her powers, and if anyone can solve the rest of the mystery, it’s Jonni Thunder. You’ve got the hard part.”
“Yeah, missing her,” Marion said softly.
“I meant keeping her from melting down until she can get on the plane.” Kendra chuckled as another whoop wafted down the stairs.
“Taffy, it’s going to be okay!” Amy said in her bedroom and squeezed the dog tight around the neck. “We’re going to save Gemworld, now that we have our new friends!”
