JLU 2001 Fanfiction - Wonder Woman #10

The Amazon Princess.....

Wonder Woman

"There Be Monsters Here"

Wonder Woman #10 - October, Year One

by Des Davies

Several police officers ducked behind their cars, as a body crashed through the doors of the old school house and slammed into the wall of the building opposite. Groggily, Wonder Woman picked herself up from the ground and looked back at the school. Her focus was such that she did not see the policeman around her, or hear their alarmed whispers. With her face set in grim determination she launched herself back into the building by one of the upstairs windows.

Alighting on the floor at the top of the stairs, she called out, “Creature! I had hoped to end this peaceably but it appears that you will not allow that. Tell me where the children who were here are.”

The cackling laughter than answered her sent a chill up the spine of the normally resolute Amazon. It reminded her too much of another she had fought – Dr. Psycho. It had the same ring of madness and pain etched into it.

She heard the heavy footsteps before she saw the figure. They echoed throughout the old school she had restored for the children, that was now empty once more.

As the creature stepped into view Diana’s face hardened and her lips thinned into a tight line. It lifted its primary head and a memory tried to surface in her mind but proved to be too elusive for her to catch.

It seemed to be made of a black, shiny substance that bulged and flowed as though alive. The creature stood over eight feet tall, and was broader than three men standing side by side. The head was devoid of hair and the lips curled into a nasty leer. The most disconcerting part was the way the body pulsed and grew extra limbs. Even faces, most screaming, would form in the creature’s chest and try to burst their way out, only to be pulled back in moments later.

The creature’s nudity, and obvious, exaggerated maleness, brought a wave of revulsion to the normally unflappable Amazon.

“Gonna crack your bones for what you did to us. Gonna make you one with us,” the creature screamed as it stomped up the stairs.

Diana’s brow furrowed as she considered its words. It seemed to think they had met before. I’d have remembered if we had, she thought.

With the speed of Hermes, she flew down and landed three blows on the creature’s head before rushing past it. She felt something touch her leg and she pulled it closer to her and looked back to see another arm had emerged from its back and had barely missed snagging her. It had been another of the unsuspected arms that had caught her unawares earlier and sent her flying through the window.

This time she avoided it and looped around and down. Keeping going, she angled off to the side and came back upwards through the wood of the staircase. With a scream of rage the creature tumbled back wards. It came to rest in a heap at the bottom of the staircase. Unfortunately, it appeared more angry than hurt as it pulled itself back to its monstrous feet – of which there were now three.

“Gangsta will kill you,” it bellowed as it started forward once more. “We’re stronger than you now. We’ll grind your bones into dust.”

Diana was about to dart forward to hit it again when a face appeared in its chest. She recognized it and a name slipped past her lips. “Jerry?”

The name brought a smile back to Gangsta’s face. “Yeah, your little pets are now part of us. Their strength is ours. We’re going to use it to hurt you. Break you. Make you part of us!” To emphasize his point he grabbed a nearby table and launched it at Diana.

She flew to one side and easily avoided it.

Recognition hit her. “You are the gang leader who disappeared into the ooze beneath this place after the duel. You escaped from STAR’s custody.”

Instead of answering the creature flexed its mighty legs and thrust itself into the air. Not expecting the move, Diana was too slow moving out of the way and she felt one of its hands wrap around her arm. Two others came down in crashing blows, one to the head another to the stomach.

She fended off several more blows with her free arm before she flipped in the air and drove Gangsta into the opposite wall. He refused to let go and she sent both of them crashing upwards through the ceiling into the second floor. When that did not shake him loose she continued through the roof of the building.

As they crashed through into the bright morning sky, Diana noticed the cold seeping into the arm held by the monster. When she looked down she noticed that a thin film of blackness covered her upper arm and was spreading.

Noticing her look of shock even as he sent a flurry of punches at her, Gangsta howled, “Mine now. You’re mine.”

Diana’s face tightened in anger and she went on the offensive. She slammed a fist into his face again and again as she drove her knee upwards into his maleness. The blackness on her arm did not loosen even when his head was slammed backwards. As she twisted in the air to drive another kick into the creature she was startled when it screamed in pain and loosed its grip on her.

As it plummeted towards the old school’s roof she tried to work out what had happened. She dropped her deliberations when she saw a body split off from the creature. Rocketing down she grabbed the falling figure of Jerry and deposited him gently on the street near a police car. His face was blue and his teeth chattered uncontrollably.

She ignored the loud crash as the monster made its own landing. Instead she looked over at the police officers and snapped off orders. “He needs help. Quickly.” More softly she told Jerry, “You should have followed my instructions, and stayed away until I got here. You will be okay now.”

As she turned to rejoin the battle Jerry weakly laid his hand on her arm. It felt like ice. “It’s Sean,” he hissed through teeth he could not control.

“I know,” she answered.

“The lasso,” he began but could not go on.

He was glad when the light of understanding went off in her eyes. “The Lasso of Truth touched the creature and he could not stand it.”

Jerry managed to nod.

“Take care of him,” she told the police officers. “I will take care of the monster.” With that, she turned and re-entered the building.

“Mistah Smithe, how are the boys on da docks doing now?”

“Very well, sir,” replied the smaller, bespectacled man who stood on the opposite side of the large desk. “Once the new situation was explained to them, they decided it would be in their best interests to… how should I put it… play along.”

“Have we covered everything?” the new boss of organized crime in Gateway City asked.

Smithe was the only one of Painkiller’s deputies that did not flinch at the direct stare he gave everyone. There was probably no one remaining in Stefan Holiday’s organization that did not appreciate the change in management. Kenneth Smithe thought it was a huge improvement simply based on the new tactics this man was employing. All in all, he was pleased that he had suggested bringing him here to Gateway in the first place.

“No sir, there is one other item that I think you need to be aware of. Someone is putting guns on the streets of the city. We have been attempting to discern the identity of the person, or persons, however it does not appear to be the work of anyone we know.”

Painkiller’s eyes narrowed as he listened but he kept his silence until his man had finished his report. “Continue looking into it. Too many guns can lead to too much police interest. Find out where they’re comin’ from.”

Any further conversation was halted as the double doors to the room burst open and a body flew through them. It’s landing was ignored by both men as their eyes were firmly fixed on the opening. Standing, there was a figure that looked like it had been cut directly from an old movie. The shade of Stefan Holiday was made up of blacks and grays, edged with red. His face seemed to be folded in shadows making the red eyes stand out.

“Mr. Holiday,” Kenneth Smithe exclaimed as he stood and moved around the table away from the strange figure.

“Kenneth! How are you?” Holiday’s voice seemed to come from a long distance but it brought with it a chill.

“You’s dead Holiday. Go away. You’s got no business here.”

Holiday’s head swiveled to regard the powerful, black man who had killed him. “To quote, ‘I got better’.” He stepped forward into the room and Painkiller got to his feet and rounded the desk.

“Don’t matter much to me. Killed you once. I’ll kill you again.” Without taking his eyes from the shade he said, “Mr. Smithe, you’ll want to be waiting outside. I’ll call you when this is all taken care of.”

“Very well, sir,” he said as he pulled the door open and slipped through.

As the door clicked shut Painkiller asked, “So you some sort of bogey man now? Is I supposed to be afraid of you?”

Holiday stopped and considered the question. “No, not a bogey man. I’ve been given the name of Vengeance, and I think it suits me well.” He directed a glare at Painkiller as he added, “You should be afraid, but you’re probably too stupid to be.”

“Stupid enough to have killed your sorry self once. Stupid enough to do it again.” With that he reached out with his power and tried to squeeze Holiday’s heart. He quickly discovered that there was nothing to grab and Holiday’s mouth curled up into a smile a shark would have been proud of.

“What’s the matter? Having a problem? Let me show you how it’s done?”

Fire erupted in Painkiller’s chest and it drove him to one knee. In moments the pain disappeared and with deep, gulping breaths Painkiller levered himself back to his feet. He found himself face to face with the shade. There was a grave-yard smell surrounding him, but the big man refused to back away.

Dropping his shoulder he whipped his head around, sending his knife-heavy dreadlocks slicing through Holiday’s face. He followed it up with a leg sweep that went through the shade before stopping in a crouch facing it.

His eyes narrowed as he took in the dreadlocks that now hung from Vengeance’s head. The little blades bore a reddish hue. Holiday was grinning broadly as he stepped forward and whipped his own head around. Painkiller rolled backwards and avoided the majority of them, although a few drew lines across his cheeks.

Rolling away he climbed to his feet and stood grinning down at Holiday. He glanced away and looked at the blades woven into his own hair. When he looked back his grin was even larger displaying pearly-white teeth.

“You’s got nothing. You be stealing what I give you. Stupid here,” he punched his chest, “thinks that if he don’t attack you, there’s nothing you can do to him. What do’s you think?”

Vengeance’s face was a mask of rage. “How did you…” he spluttered around his anger.

“You treated me as stupid when you was alive. You treating me as stupid now you’s dead. Real stupid one here is you. You’s way too obvious in how you do things. Makes it easier for even a stupid person to see what’s what.”

He paused to give Holiday a chance to say something. Instead the shade threw himself at Painkiller, tearing and kicking. Painkiller stood still and refused to respond. With a look of disdain he turned and walked back to his desk leaving Holiday standing in the middle of the room.

As he sat he said, “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’s going to leave this place and not come back. You’d also not going to bother my people. Yeah,” he cut over whatever Holiday was trying to interject. “I said my people. None of dem what anything to do with you.”

“I’m going to…” Holiday began.

“No. You’d not go’ to do anything. I see your sorry self around here or messing with any of my people I’m goin’ to be sending for a hougan and he’s goin’ to be sending you back to where you came from. Now get out. I got work to do.”

He stared long and hard at the shade.

Holiday’s face was wrapped in fury. The shadows rolled and curled and his eyes burned with an intense red fire. He managed to force out, “This is not the end,” as he disappeared.

Painkiller waited for several minutes, then called Kenneth Smithe back into the room.

“Sean!” Diana’s cry cut across the gymnasium and stopped the monster in its tracks.

“Gangsta,” it bellowed in rage. “More than just Sean now. Now I have the power to hurt you and take what I want. There’s nothing you can do to stop me.” With that announcement he began to move forward again.

Diana took to the air and easily looped over him, although she had to avoid several arms that erupted from the creature’s shoulders and back. It spun and bunched its legs ready to leap at her then stopped itself as it took in the golden lasso she now held.

He made to turn away but Diana snapped the circle of the lasso around the creature’s massive chest, pulling its arms in tight. The cry of pain that it unleashed shattered the windows in the room, raining glass fragments onto the two combatants.

Diana held onto the lasso with one hand and deflected much of the deadly debris away with the bracelet on her free arm. With her concentration divided the creature arced and bucked like a roped bronco. The unexpected reaction almost tore the rope loose from her hand, but she held on, ignoring the slices she took from the remaining glass shards.

Switching to a two handed grip she pushed herself higher into the air dragging the writhing monster with her. As she fought to hold on, several body parts began to push out of the black mass that made it up. When the first boy slipped free she dropped closer to the floor. Another, then another, soon joined the first. Soon the floor below them was a mass of twenty or more bodies, all of them shivering violently.

Gangsta still stood eight feet taller, but was no longer so broad. It appeared that no further bodies were going to be released so Diana rocketed away from the bodies on the floor and crashed through the roof and out into the bright morning sky. Heading out over the sea she did not notice that the creature had managed to get his hands onto the lasso until a new howl made her look down.

Huge muscles in his upper arms bulged and he managed to push them wide giving himself more room within the loop. Diana sent a whiplash down the rope and Gangsta howled in frustration, and pain, as the loop pulled tight once more.

“Give up,” she told him while hovering over Gateway Bay. “I’ll get you back to STAR and they’ll be able to help you.”

The torrent of abuse he sent her way could have scoured metal. The only thing she paid attention to was the fact that he did not want help. “Then I’ll have to take you there anyway.”

“I’m going nowhere with you.” As he snarled out the words she noticed a change start to take place. It was not obvious at first, but then she saw that he was getting taller, while at the same time growing thinner. The loop of the lasso contracted with him, but the process seemed to be accelerating and in another few heartbeats he was little thicker than the rope that held him. With a pop, he became thin enough to slip through the lasso and was little more than a long, thin string dropping to the ocean below.

Diana dropped after him but he hit the water before she could close. She grabbed at the topmost part and immediately it began to cover he hand. Only when she slapped at it with the lasso did it release her and fall into the waters below.

She was about to dive in herself, when she noticed two ships steaming directly for each other. The men on the decks were shouting, trying to attract her attention. With one last look at the point Gangsta had entered the water, she sped off towards them.

“The wheels are locked.” “We can’t turn.” “Save us!” Were all phrases she heard as she neared the closest ship. Diving to the bow of the ship she slammed into it and began pushing. As with any large object, the first movement was the most difficult. Then it began to move away from its original course and back out to sea.

The second ship appeared to have a similar problem, but with it heading towards land a simple shift of direction was not going to work. Instead, Diana dove behind the ship and into the water. Reaching out she grabbed the shaft of the propeller and tore it loose. Dropping that to the ocean floor she quickly reached the bow of this ship and drove it backwards until it stopped.

Flying to the deck she asked the first man she saw, “What happened?”

“You don’t know? It’s been like this all over the city. Everything’s gone crazy. The radio said there’s a mob marching on city hall, a monster at a Rec. Center and another one in one in the Carson Hill area of the city.”

Diana took in the information that the man, and his colleagues, threw at her. Then she silenced them all with a raised hand.

“You are all safe. I’m going into the city to see if there’s anything more I can do.”

With that she lifted into the air and shot high into the sky to get a better view of the chaos that was assaulting her new home.

NEXT: Diana versus the architect of the chaos. Plus, the majority of the cast gets to help out as the city erupts and “The Fires of Anarchy” are lit.