JLU 2001 Fanfiction - Wonder Woman #10

The Amazon Princess.....

Wonder Woman

"The Fires of Anarchy"

Wonder Woman #11 - November, Year One

by Des Davies

Gateway City looked like it could have been the twin of Darkseid’s Apokolips. Diana’s face paled as she took in the devastation that had overtaken her new home.

The area around the docks was a mess of buildings on fire. In the glow of the flames, she could see mobs of men going at each other with a variety of crude weapons. As the structure of one warehouse collapsed under the intense heat it toppled forward, consuming a mob fighting there.

Every intersection appeared to be clogged with cars that had run, or been driven, into each other. Even there, people seemed to have taken matters into their own hands and were hammering at each other.

A boom rang out, shattering windows, and she turned to see a building begin to collapse in the northern suburbs. All across the city, fires burned, people fought and chaos descended. She could hear the screaming of police, fire and ambulance sirens but many were bogged down by the jammed intersections. Several helicopters arced through the air. Some bore the colors of the emergency services, while others were from news organizations.

Coming to decision, Diana soared back to the youth center. Entering through the hole she, and the creature, had created earlier she alighted on the floor of the gymnasium. Her surprise entrance caused several guns to be pointed in her direction, but she ignored them. Lightly she came to rest on the wooden boards that made up the floor.

She made directly for two of the boys sitting nearby. Jerry made to get up, but she waved him down. As the man standing before them turned she was surprised to see it was Detective Schorr.

“Did you…”

Mike Schorr trailed off, not knowing exactly what he hoped she had done to the creature.

“It escaped by falling into the bay. It called itself Gansta. You should have listened when I told you to stay out of the building until I arrived,” she chided the two young men.

“They told me about the thing,” Schorr said. “It absorbed the people it touched and added them to itself.”

Reuben said, “It was like some weird sort of colony mind. The people who had been in there the longest were all bound up into it, with Sean Leahy being the dominant personality. We kept trying to fight him and take over, but he was too strong. It was like wrestling in my mind but the other side had me outnumbered, five to one.”

“You should not have…”

Jerry cut across her. “We didn’t have a choice. We could hear people screaming. Our friends. We had to go in and try to get out whoever we could.”

Diana smiled at the answer. Then she turned her head to regard Mike Schorr. “Where can I be the most help?”

Schorr’s face darkened. His response was cut short as he turned to look at an uniformed officer than had approached him. They conversed in low tones and when he dismissed the man he turned back to Diana. His face was pinched and tight.

“There are armed mobs marching on City Hall from three different directions. The mayor and city council are all there. Thanks to the mess the city has become, we have a very limited police force there. Can you…”

“I will do what I can. Do you need to get there?”

“Yes.” He paused, not fully comprehending her question. Then, understanding dawned, and he added, “There’s a police helicopter coming. I’ll take that.”

Diana smiled but nodded. Turning back to Jerry and Reuben she stated rather than asked, “You are both well.”

They both nodded and answered in the affirmative. Then, after glancing at each other, they began pushing to their feet. “We want to help,” Reuben said.

Diana shook her head, but it was Schorr who replied. “Get into your own neighborhoods and settle people down. This is turning into the biggest race riots we’ve ever seen.”

“But…”

“Listen to the detective. He knows where you can be the most use.” With that pronouncement Diana took to the air and quickly passed out of sight through the hole in the roof.

What should have taken Diana five minutes, actually took closer to thirty. When she finally landed on the steps leading up the Gateway City Town Hall, she smelled of smoke and black stains covered her hands and arms.

Her appearance had an immediate effect on the crowd that was already gathered. A hush spread from the front ranks and quickly enveloped everyone.

One of the uniformed policemen stepped forward and gratefully said, “Thanks.”

She smiled in return, then asked, “Where is the mayor and the other councilors?”

The officer jerked his head in the direction of the sealed doors behind them. “They’re all holed up inside. Chief’s orders,” he added with a shrug.

Diana nodded and turned to face the crowd. She took a moment to look them over. There were several thousand people shoved into the People’s Plaza. Nationalities were many and varied and, she noted grimly, they were all sticking together in their own national groups.

“Everyone. The city is already suffering enough without you taking up the time of the police and the council. People are dying in the streets.”

She paused to let that sink in.

Most of the crowd dropped their eyes, but small knots of people throughout the crowd remained glaring up at her.

“Go hom…”

‘You think you can stand up there in your little cheerleader outfit and tell us what to do? We’re sick of people telling us what we can’t do! Taking our jobs!”

“Ain’t us taking the jobs, man,” shouted a man half way across the plaza from the first speaker.

A chorus of other joined in. Diana let it continue, hoping that they would be able to talk out their frustrations. It was becoming increasingly obvious that they all shared the same complaints, and were blaming each other for them.

When two of the groups close to each other began to surge together Diana launched into the air and hovered between them. “Enough.”

The command in her voice stopped them all in their tracks. A mix of sullen and angry faces looked up at her. Before anyone could speak she said, “Have you not heard what you are all saying?”

She looked around the crowd, taking in the other groups that had fallen silent too. “Every one of you is complaining about the same things – lack of jobs and how another group is taking all of them. You,” she pointed at a tall, black man, “are saying that the Asians are getting all the jobs. Yet, he,” she now pointed at a slim, tanned, Asian man, “is saying that the Latinos are taking all the jobs.”

She stopped and slowly turned around in the air to regard each of the groups in turn. There were a few puzzled faces out there, but still too many who wore their anger like a coat of armor.

“Each of you select two people to come with me. We will go and talk to the council and try to work this out.”

She drifted back to the steps. Just as she set her foot down, the first shot cracked across the relative silence. It was like slow motion as she saw the black man she had spoken to crash to the ground. A spray of blood cascaded over those near him. As the crowd began to panic another shot rang out, and another man – a Latino this time – fell.

The crowd began to stampede to all the corners of the open Plaza. Several fell, but no one took notice and they disappeared under trampling feet. For a brief second Diana was caught, then she raced into the air searching for the shooter. She saw the muzzle flash from a window on the upper floor of the town hall. She was a blur as she moved to intercept it, and with a clang it ricocheted off her bracer in the air. A second was blocked. Then a third. With each block she moved closer to the shooter.

With her focus set on the killer she did not notice the arrival of her young charges. Cassie Sandsmark, clad in skin-tight red leggings and a blue t-shirt, dropped to the ground on a curtain of air. She gestured, and one of the men who had fallen in the stampede floated upwards and out of the mad rush. Across the plaza a second figure flew down, and scooped up two more and sped them to safety. The look on Lin-Tse’s face was one of exhilaration.

On the edge of the plaza, Jerry and Reuben, tried to direct people down the side streets, urging them to be calm. They were helped by an older man. Sweat glistened on Darius’ fore-head and his tight grey hair was matted with it.

All five looked up as the sound of gunfire halted. They were just in time to see Diana crash through the window and disappear. A moment later she reappeared carrying a large assault rifle with some strange device attached to it. Even from the ground they could tell she was fighting mad.

A voice erupted from the edge of the crowd drawing Diana’s attention immediately. She ignored the curses that had caught her attention, then dipped down and, in the blink of an eye, stood some three feet from the transformed figure of Stefan Holiday.

“You did this to me!” he screamed.

“I don’t know you,” Diana began.

“No, but I know you. Things were going exactly as planned until you arrived. Then I had to bring in an outside killer. Someone who could handle you. But he proved incapable. Then he killed me instead. But someone didn’t want me dead. So now I’m back and I’m going to have my Vengeance.”

He did not hear the name that slipped from Wonder Woman’s lips as he lunged for her, hands out-stretched like claws. Diana wheeled away from the grab and her leg tangled his and sent him dropping to the floor.

She glanced at her shin as he clambered back to his feet; surprised at the pain the trip had caused her.

The negative image that was Vengeance looked at her and grinned. Spittle dripped from his lips. This time he closed more slowly. Diana raised her arm and blocked the punch he threw, making no effort to retaliate. “You sold your soul to Neron.”

“It wasn’t important to me. Power. That’s what’s important. Now I have it, and I’m going to be running this pitiful excuse for a city.”

In response to his next punch, Diana wrapped her arm around his and stepped to the side locking him in place. She applied pressure, trying to keep him immobile. However, she let go and moved away when pain erupted in her own shoulder.

“Are you hurting?” he asked mockingly.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she considered him. Taking a quick step forward she snapped out her hand against his chest. She staggered backwards as something hit her in the exact same spot.

With a grim smile she said, “Every attack that is made against you is reversed and returned to me.”

The grin vanished from Vengeance’s face and he lunged forward once more. Diana did not try to stop him. Shock touched her eyes as he passed through her. The sensation produced chills on her arms, but otherwise caused no harm.

“I don’t have time for this.” Saying that she pulled the lasso from her hip and with a whirl sent it over his head.

The oily smile that had started to come back disappeared as he realized he could not pass through the material of the lasso. He started to thrash wildly in it, his face this time consumed with disbelief.

Diana waited, holding the other end of the lasso firmly in her hand, but applying no pressure. Eventually he stopped thrashing and came to a rest, looking at her with hatred.

“You said when you first arrived that “things” had been going as planned until I arrived. What do you know about what transpires in the city now?”

Vengeance, the creature that had been Stefan Holliday tried to clamp his lips shut. The five people who had been helping to handle the rampaging crowd watched, as an invisible pressure seemed to push at him.

When he finally opened his mouth the words dripped out. “I know what’s happening.”

“Good. Tell me who is trying to destroy the city.”

“I don’t know.” A light blinked on in his eyes as he realized he was only limited to answering the questions he was asked.

“You were working with someone and you don’t know who they were?”

“No.”

“Describe them.”

Vengeance launched into descriptions of people he had been working with. After the third one, Diana stopped him and clarified her question.

“Describe the person who is behind the chaos in the city.”

He grinned nastily before answering. “He’s six feet tall and looks like a wrestler. He’s got white hair. Looks like he’s in his early thirties. Wears black pants and purple tops. Moves like a dancer.”

The description fit no one that Diana knew, and when she looked at her five friends they all shrugged or shook their heads.

“Where did you meet him?”

He gave her the address of the house that he had always met the man.

Turning her attention, Diana gestured for Lin-Tse. “You are the strongest here, so I want you to hold the lasso until STAR Labs arrive to take him into custody. Cassandra, you stay with her.”

“Where are you going Princess?” Darius asked.

“To find the source of the chaos. Can you coordinate these four children?”

“I’ll manage,” he replied with a grin at the looks that others directed at Diana.

As she took off into the air she told them seriously, “Do not attack him in any way. You all saw what he was capable of. Make sure you let the authorities know. Thank you.”

If they answered, Diana was too far away to hear. Moving too fast to be seen she was at the address in moments. The house was nondescript. Cautiously, she shoved the front door open, and walked in.

The first three rooms were empty, devoid of furniture. The fourth room contained two couches and a chair. A table sat against the wall opposite the window and a door stood next to it.

Diana’s brow wrinkled in puzzlement as she looked around the room. Something about it pulled at her senses. Slowly she moved around the room. It was when she neared the other door that she realized what she was sensing.

There was the aura of a magical gateway, and it was coming from the doorway in front of her. Moving to the side, she reached out and pulled the door open. To normal sight it appeared to lead into a bedroom. Diana saw the faint overlay of blue energy; rippled veins of grey streaked it. She tried to peer through, but the connection was too thin and all she could make out was an empty grey space beyond.

Without hesitation she stepped through.

The air was chill as she emerged through the dimensional portal. The room she stepped into was featureless and grey. Wisps of mist, or fog, floated through the air, and it carried a cloying smell that stuck in her throat. There was another doorway, opposite the one she had come through, and she stepped confidently towards it.

The room beyond was more of a cave. The walls were rough hewn, and the floor was uneven. It was large, and the pale grey wisps of fog obscured an easy glimpse of the opposite side even for Diana’s keen eyes. She moved into the room then stopped to take it all in. It was empty of any decoration, other than a weapon rack that stood against one of the walls. She stepped towards it, noting the variety of ancient and modern weapons it contained. Clubs and staves were lined up next to machine pistols. Swords were racked next to a shelf holding grenades.

In a blur of motion Diana pivoted and brought her arm up. A ping filled the room, echoing throughout off the walls.

“You’ve caused me a lot of trouble,” a voice said from her right.

She was in front of the speaker as the last echoes of his voice died away. With one hand she pinned him to the wall.

“Who are you?”

The man, dressed in loose fitting black pants and purple shirt, was wearing a strange metallic helm which did nothing to distort his melodious voice.

“I am Prometheus.”

Diana’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, not the Titan from your myths,” he continued smoothly. “Rather, someone who brings a new type of fire to the world. A fire than will cleanse the earth.”

“You are talking about the chaos you created in Gateway City.”

He nodded once, and she had the feeling he was smiling beneath the concealing helm. “Yes. I will expose people for who they really are. Living, breathing vessels of hate and anger. Chaos and destruction. Love, you will see is fleeting. Already they are turning on each other. I will give this gift to other cities, then to whole countries. No one will be left out.”

Diana felt a chill at the calm, almost nonchalant air the man spoke with. “Well, Gateway City is already starting to calm down, and I’ve gotten hold of you, so you won’t be spreading your nonsense anywhere else.”

“Actually princess, it is I who have you. The fire will be easy to re-kindle in Gateway City as the embers of hate are still burning, but first…”

As his words trailed off, he brought a hand down to grasp Diana’s arm, and drew one leg up to his chest. Snapping it back out, he caught her in the stomach and she was thrown backwards. She caught her balance after two steps but surprise registered on her face.

“Surprised?”

As he spoke he glided forward, his hands moving in fanning gestures on either side of his body. As he came closer, he rocked back onto one heel and sent the other into Diana’s chin. Her hand had come up to block the blow, but it had been too slow. She tumbled backwards and rolled into a crouch.

She shook her head to clear the sparks that were flying inside it. Her mouth settled into a grim line as she took a fighting stance.

“What did you do?”

Prometheus glided forward, his feet seeming to skim over the floor. “As we talked, you were breathing in an agent that worked against even your impressive body. In a fair fight, due to your strength and speed you would mostly likely have beaten me. Now, with those negated, you will have to face me skill to skill. That is a fight you cannot win.”

The hand that snapped out this time was aimed at her nose. Diana countered the feint by swaying to the side and then caught the other hand between her crossed wrists. With a twist she pushed it aside and sent an elbow at his ribs. He turned with the motion and the blow sailed past. From his position to the rear, he kicked out at the back of her knee. Diana lifted her leg above the kick then sent it back towards his stomach. He glided comfortably out of range.

The next series of collisions resulted in multiple blocks by both parties, and finished with Diana and Prometheus stepping back to regard their opponent.

“You are better than I gave you credit for,” he said.

Diana did not reply. Instead she stepped in once more. This time she came in a curve, spinning like a top. It was a move she had learned from the gang member several weeks before. The capoeria move was a surprise. Prometheus blocked the two punches, but then found himself tumbling downwards as Diana’s leg swept his out from underneath him. He rolled away, coming to his feet in time to catch the jab Diana sent at his head. Even slowed by the drugs in her system, he winced silently at the force he took on his forearm. He ducked underneath the next jab and went to close the distance, striking out at her body with stiff fingers.

The elbow Diana dropped onto his shoulder produced a grunt, and drove him to his knees. Before he could pull his arm back, Diana twisted her own around it, putting her hand on his shoulder. With a twist she drove him downwards and drove her knee into the small of his back.

“Give in,” she told him.

He snarled in response. Focused, as she was on subduing him, Diana was too slow to react to the spray of black liquid that erupted from the back of the helm.

Diana jerked her head to the side, but continued to apply the arm lock. The liquid splashed across the left side of her face and over her eye. She closed it in time but kept it that way to avoid anything dropping into it.

As she shook her head to clear as much of the ink away as possible, Prometheus roared in fury and twisted to his left. There was a loud crack as his trapped shoulder was wrenched out of its socket, then Diana felt a sharp pain across her ribs as his elbow drove into them.

She rolled with the blow, releasing his trapped arm. As she came to her feet, Prometheus rushed at her. One arm was hanging loosely at his side, but he still flew into the air aiming a heel at her head. With her depth perception faulty thanks to the closed eye, she reacted too quickly and dropped down while punching upwards. The punch flew wide, as did his kick.

His arm threw him off balance on landing and Diana swept out her long leg to take his feet from under him. She rolled across the floor and as he tried to roll out of the way, she covered him and snaked her arm around his neck. She dropped her body over his, in a classic wrestling pin and started to apply pressure to her arm. This time she kept her head as far away from the helm as possible.

Prometheus bucked and rolled trying to dislodge her. His frantic attempts became slower as his air started to run out, but Diana hung on. Even when he went limp, Diana continued to apply pressure for many seconds more. Finally she released him and slid to one side. He remained unmoving.

Carefully she looked for a way to remove the helm. After a moments fumbling she found a release catch and popped it. The face she revealed was young, although the hair, and beard, were snowy white. Even unconscious there was a tightness around the eyes and mouth.

Without her lasso, she was forced to raid the weapon racks and stripped the string from a longbow. With that, she tied his hands together then rolled him into a sitting position and slapped him lightly to wake him.

Glaring eyes opened to regard her. “So, you think you’ve won,” he snapped.

She said nothing, and he continued more calmly. “How are you going to get to the bomb in time?”

Diana’s eyes narrowed. “What bomb?”

“The one I placed in the fault line. It’ll detonate within the next hour and Gateway City, plus half of the western coastline, will fall into the Pacific.”

“Where is it?”

He replied with a viscous grin that tightened his eyes.

Diana shrugged. “I’ll take you back to the city and you’ll tell me when my lasso is around you.”

“If you had your normal strength I’m sure that would be true. However,” he paused, “you don’t. By the time you get me to the Plaza the bomb will have gone off.”

“What do you want?” The coldness in her voice would have warned most sane men of the danger they were in.

“I will tell you where the bomb is. You will go and retrieve it, and when you get back I will be gone.”

Diana did not hesitate. “Where is it?”

Prometheus gave her the directions and she ran for the doorway, leaving him sitting, with hands still tied, against the wall.

As she left the house Diana took to the air. Her speed was badly affected by whatever the madman had infected her with, but she pushed upwards as quickly as she could. Angling back towards the coast she searched for the land mark he had described. There was no way of knowing if he had been telling the truth, but she had nothing else to go on.

The jagged rocks sticking out of the ocean some twenty miles south of the city slowly drew closer. Diana had noticed over the last few minutes that she was starting to move quicker. She was grateful for that, as the amount of time it had taken her to cover this much ground was eating at her. Diving down, she circled the rock and then flew directly inland. It took another twenty minutes to find the fissure that had been described to her, even though she was now almost back to full strength and speed. He had not been completely honest with what he had told her, as it was covered by brush.

Streaking downwards she landed and started tearing great chunks of brush away. With that done she dropped to her stomach and stretch her arm downwards. Almost immediately it touched cold metal. It was at the edge of her reach, so she drew back. Gripping a section of the ground in both hands, she heaved and tore it away. Two more followed, and she was then able to drop into the hole she had created, and look more closely at the device.

The main body was round, and about a foot across. Five thin metal arms stuck outwards and were driven into the surrounding rock. There was no display on the device, but she could hear the quiet throb emanating from it.

Prometheus had given her instructions to shut it down, but she hesitated. Shaking her head, she lightly brushed her fingers over the central section. She found the catch and released it. A circle of steel popped upwards on hidden hinges to reveal a single display. It continued to count down and was now at 12019. The nine changed to an eight and then a seven. Suddenly, without a sound, the numbers started dropping much more rapidly. In seconds the number dropped below 11000. Ten seconds more and it was below 10000.

Diana’s fingers flashed across the buttons set below the display, entering the combination she had been given. It came as no surprise to her when the numbers continued to drop.

As her eyes narrowed, she reached underneath it and, bracing her feet on either side, pulled. Tendons popped out on her neck as she strained against it and sweat dripped down into her eyes. Stopping, she dropped to her knees, she reached up and pulled the golden tiara from her hair. With a snap she straightened it, and then cut it down against one of the metal arms. It sheared through the metal with a screech. Her arm a blur, she brought it down four more times and severed the other arms.

She cast the tiara to one side and reached for the device once more. It continued to resist her, but this time she could feel more give. Setting herself, she gave one last titanic heave and then staggered back as it ripped loose. A sixth arm had been extended downwards. Ignoring that, Diana shot upwards. As she reached her current top speed, she pulled the arm holding the bomb down and then sent it upwards.

The bomb shot upwards, as though flung from a cannon. Diana sent a prayer to her patron deities hoping she was in time. A thump rent the air above her and she watched as a wave of force distorted the air. It smashed into the rock tower she had passed earlier and it was reduced to dust.

When she knew that the predicted earthquake was not going to happen, Diana let out the breath she had been holding.

Two hours later Diana returned to the house with the gateway to Prometheus’ realm. As she entered she knew that the gateway was gone. The doorway that had supported it now led into a bedroom.

In frustration she punched the wall, leaving a hole in it.

Shaking her head, she left the house and took to the air. There was still much cleaning up to do in the city but it was calmer now than it had been in days.

NEXT: The long awaited conclusion and aftermath of Des Davies' run on Wonder Woman here at JLU: 2001! Be here in 30 for Dusk and Dawn, the Epilogue...