Issue #12: "Who is Wonder Woman?" Conclusion

Diana free fell from the rooftop of her apartment building. Luckily for her the part of Gateway City she lived in had buildings packed so closely together she landed roughly on an opposing fire escape with little difficulty. Bullets bounced off the metal of the fire escape as she careened down it at full running speed. She’d landed badly on her left wrist and she thought it felt broken. She cursed under her breath and carried on running. She could hear the running feet of one--- or maybe two--- agents around the corner, and she knew she couldn’t escape on foot. She stopped and looked up into the sky, her eyes relaxing on the clouds as if she were trying to find the hidden picture. A ray of sunlight smiled around the edge of a cloud and she leapt into flight.

Steve whirled himself around in the chair, criss-crossing his hands on the wheels to turn quicker. He started off towards his car as fast as he could muster, pulling himself into the driver’s seat and clipping his phone’s headset to his ear.

“Bishop.” He said quickly, no time for other formalities, “You know the situation, I need a favor. Look into it and make sure she comes out clean.”

Steve hung up and pulled his wheelchair into the car, throwing it into the back seat. He was putting the keys in the ignition when he looked up to see a familiar costume. He saw Zenobia approach the agent with the buzz-cut and saw them speak for a few seconds before Zenobia took off.

He watched her trail and realised where she had to be going.

“Themyscira.”

Diana reveled in the sky. She hadn’t flown for a year when her powers weren’t stable, and now she was re-capturing the joy she felt when she had first touched the sky. She had only been able to use her powers in scattered circumstances over the year, when lives had been in danger she had somehow been able to call them up. Most of the time she had been powerless. And she had hated it.

It is very difficult to live without amazing powers once you’ve lived with them--- especially if you were born with them. Now it seemed they were back with a vengeance, even her broken wrist had healed completely.

Reality hit her suddenly as she remembered the armor she wore. She had been framed for stealing it, and she didn’t know who had framed her or why. She had to see Steve.

The woman in the black lipstick was bleeding. Blood dripped from her nose and she smeared her trademark to rub it away. She’d been running for hours now, so hard and so fast she worn half a centimeter from the sole of her boots. She leaned against a wall and caught her breath; she knew she hadn’t lost them. They were not of this Earth, they did not tire, they did not stop and they were coming for her. Or at least for the ancient slab of rock in her slim backpack.

The demons rounded the corner. The leader, a plump five-foot tall imp with fire inside his mouth instead of a throat pointed at her and squealed in a language so foul her ears bled. She was in trouble.

Diana sat up straight, awaking with a start. Something… felt wrong.

“Diana?” Steve asked, he was sat in his chair at the end of the bed.

She put her hand in the air as a signal for silence and stood up and started to carefully walk around the room. Something was about to go down.

Steve’s phone rang. He picked it up and answered, “Steve Trevor.” He scowled; it wasn’t good news. “I told you to sort this out. I don’t even know how they know she’s with me. Just stall them and…” Steve’s eyes widened in shock, and he looked up at her. “They’re outside. We have to leave.”

Diana turned to the window and saw a familiar figure.

“You’re not going anywhere.” Zenobia said calmly.

Behind one of the DEO SUVs, the buzz-cut agent flinched at the sounds of battle. He shouted into his phone to be heard above the sounds of the fight.

“Faraday!” He shouted, “We need major backup here, it’s like World War Three! There’s two Wonder Women and they’re beating the holy crap out of each other.”

Zenobia leapt with a battle cry from the cracked and broken hotel wall. Diana rolled to her right and avoided Zenobia’s charge, shoving the blunt end of the spear into the back of Zenobia’s head. She fell forward and rolled with her momentum, before whirling and standing back up to face Diana. She readied the shield on her arm and awaited Diana’s attack.

Diana began to spin the spear around her casually. She stepped slowly towards Zenobia, the spinning spear obscuring her eyes and blurring her visage with the golden streak of the spear. Zenobia’s eyes subconsciously followed the spear’s head, distracting her momentarily. When Diana saw her chance, she lunged at Zenobia and used inhuman strength to force the head of the spear through Zenobia’s thigh and into the road, lodging the bronze-skinned Amazon in place.

Zenobia screamed in pain. Diana tilted the spear less than an inch to the left and her foe screamed again. Diana looked down on her with disgust.

“How strange to find ourselves in the other’s shoes,” Zenobia remarked, wiping blood away from a split lip, “You have the spear, I have the shield. You have me pinned down and I am at your mercy. You are relentless and I appear defeated. You are the challenger, and I am Wonder Woman.”

“Not any more.” Diana’s voice shook. Her hand made a fist at her side, but she didn’t strike out with it. Every fiber of her being wanted to beat Zenobia bloody and leave her for dead on that destroyed street they had made their battleground. Her temper had more than gotten the better of her, it had overtaken her.

Diana shook the red haze from her eyes and looked down on Zenobia once again. This time pity filled her eyes, not disgust. Zenobia was a valiant warrior, she did not deserve the beating Diana had given her. Even in their original fight Zenobia had not gone above and beyond what was needed, in the same way Diana had tonight.

“Well, exile?” Zenobia asked, “Will you kill Wonder Woman and take the mantle back? Will you give me an honourable death?”

“Killing her achieves nothing.” A new female voice said, approaching from the edge of the battle zone. The woman was young, attractive with dark brown hair and light skin touched up with a hint of rouge on the cheeks. She was even quite fashionably dressed. “She is not Wonder Woman, in the same way that I am not the voice of this young woman.”

An elderly lady appeared from the other side of one of the, now abandoned, DEO SUVs. She spoke, using the same voice as the young woman, “Wonder Woman is the Earthly title of my champion. I choose the warrior that fills the role, and nobody else.”

“Athena.” Diana said, finally realizing who was addressing her, “You gave me back my powers.”

“They were never taken from you my child, when you didn’t want to be Wonder Woman you couldn’t be,” the voice said, this time from the mouth of a young girl aged only six or seven, “your loss of confidence and self-belief triggered the sporadic loss of your powers.”

The sickening sound of flesh ripping combined with concrete breaking caused Diana to turn back to Zenobia. The fallen Amazon now stood leaning on the spear that was covered in their blood. She lowered her right arm and Diana’s shield dropped down to the broken road. Sadness and rage boiled below the surface of Zenobia’s eyes, causing them to fill with water. Tears that would never be shed. Those teary eyes met Diana’s in a silent moment of realization before Zenobia turned and leapt into flight and away from the destruction of what had been their final battle.

“I should have held myself back, my rage overtook me.” Diana said, looking to the ground in shame of what she had put her fellow Amazon through. The little girl with a goddess’ voice came and touched her hand.

“It was not your fault, there are… Other powers at work here.” Athena said mysteriously, “But I have not just come for this, I have need of you. The mortal world is in danger, and even this much direct contact will be severely punished.”

“What do you need of me?” Diana replied, her worries pushed back. Her patron needed her help, she must focus on the immediate dangers.

“In the darker days, before man set his foot upon the world, one of the more foolish of our number created a situation we could not resolve un-aided. We asked the Amazons to help us, but in order to do so they needed to go back and re-write history. The one thing that we are expressly banned from doing.” Athena’s Voice told Diana. She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts before continuing. “We created a tablet, the Kronus Tablet, and gave it the power to traverse the timescape.”

“You need me to go back and repair history?” Diana asked, thinking she knew where this was going.

“No, I need you to retrieve the Tablet. It was stolen from Themyscira House a few days ago by an old enemy of yours, hence why you were framed with the theft of the armor you now wear.” The little girl with Athena’s Voice looked Diana up and down, “Which is something I would speak to you about as well, when you return the Tablet and we have more time.”

“Wonder Woman!” a voice shouted.

It took Diana several seconds to realize that it was referring to her. It was the buzz-cut DEO agent.

“You are wanted for several crimes of assault, vigilantism, use of unnecessary force, theft and the kidnapping of Diana Prince.”

Diana saw Steve out of the corner of her eye in the doorway to the damaged hotel, he was smiling and he shot her a thumbs-up.

Buzz-cut was coming closer and pulled a pair of handcuffs from his pocket with his free hand, the other was occupied pointing a gun at Diana. His partner, a shaved bald man with a soul-patch adorning his chin, also in a black suit, came running up to him just as he came level with the Voice of Athena.

“Hey, I just got a call through---” Soul-patch started to say before he was interrupted.

“Can’t it wait? I’m about to make the biggest arrest of my career--- of any career.” Buzz-cut shouted back to his partner, not taking his eyes off Diana.

“No,” Soul-patch replied, “it’s about her. HQ says we’re dropping all charges, apparently she was framed. The real culprit’s still an unknown.”

“I’m still taking her in. For destruction of property, if nothing else.” Buzz-cut reached for Diana and held out the open cuffs, “I don’t want any hassle. Just put them on.”

Diana raised her eyebrow at him in disbelief, then looked to his partner.

Soul-patch put his hand on his shoulder, “Mate, she’s been given carte blanche. We can’t do anything.”

Diana looked to where Steve had been and saw an empty doorway. She nodded politely at the two DEO agents before taking off into flight. They had now stopped talking to her and were simply bickering like an old married couple.

She had beaten Zenobia, and Athena had confirmed what she had doubted for almost a year--- that she was Wonder Woman.

And she had work to do.