[LOCATION: GATEWAY CITY]

Angela Kushner was looking for excitement.  It was a quest that she had been on for some time now.  Her search had started when she graduated from college and moved to Gateway City to take over a position in an advertising firm.  From then on, Angela’s life had been a repetitive trap of tedious events.

It was always the same.  She would wake up in the morning and get ready to go to work.  She would have a cup of black coffee and two slices of lightly toasted wheat bread.  She would drive to work where she would spend the next eight hours spinning products to make them more desirable to the public.  She would come home, make herself a pitiful dinner, and take her dog for a walk.

That’s where she found herself currently.  The sickly looking Scottish terrier padded along in Angela’s wake.  The canine never failed to stop at least a dozen times to piss up a storm.  As it stopped once more, Angela sighed with frustration.

She had considered on more than one occasion quitting her job, moving to Hawaii, and selling the damn dog.  But while the idea was appealing, Angela knew that it was unrealistic and would never happen.  She was not the spontaneous type.

Angela looked up to the stars that were just beginning to show.  A shooting star streaked across her eyes and she felt herself smile.  She made the same wish she did while blowing out the candles on her birthday cake each year.

And that was when Angela Kushner heard the sounds of screaming and breaking furniture.  The sounds were foreign to her so she thought at first that she was hearing things.  However, when the distinct screech of a woman started up a second time, Angela knew that her wish had finally been granted.

Trusting her ears to point her in the right direction, Angela turned to face the house that her dog had stopped in front of.  She did not know Helena Sandsmark on any kind of personal level, but she knew the woman from her professional reputation.  Helena lived in that house along with her teenage daughter.  Were they in trouble?  She should call in the police?

Angela realized that though something exciting and out-of-the-norm was happening, her inexperience left her without a clue of what to do next.  The terrier was yipping at her feet, running back and forth like a chicken with its head cut off.  She reached for the cell phone in her pocket.

The front bay window exploded outward, sending shards of glass onto the front lawn.  A cry from Angela rode a passing breeze.  She lifted her hands to her face to protect herself from any airborne shrapnel.  The dog leash slipped from her hand and the terrier took off running back the way they had come.

When she was confident the danger had passed, Angela looked back at the house and felt her jaw drop.  Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she saw the scene laid out at her feet.  A young blonde girl was lying on the front lawn, apparently thrown through the window.  The girl — Helena’s daughter — was moving slowly and trying to return to her feet.  Glass shards had raked across her exposed skin, leaving behind thin trails of blood.

“Are you okay?” Angela asked but the younger Sandsmark didn’t appear to hear.  She moved forward a bit, bending over to help the girl but maintaining a safe distance should she need to run for her life.

Cassandra shook her head, an annoying ringing in her ears.  She moaned softly, her joints popping as she pushed herself upright.  She looked around at the environment she had been thrown into.  She spotted Angela for the first time.  “Are you hurt?” she asked.

“Am I hurt?” Angela asked, flabbergasted.  “You were the one thrown through the window.  And now you’re okay.  How are you okay?”

“It’s a long story,” the girl responded.  She had turned away from Angela and was peering through the shattered window back into the house.  “This is going to go really bad.”

“What is?  What happened in there?”

The girl rested her eyes on Angela again.  “You ask a lot of questions, you know that right?  You need to get yourself somewhere safe because this is definitely not the place.”

There was a roar from inside the house.

“What was that?” Angela asked, a shiver going down her spine.  She discovered, however, that as she asked the question, the girl was in the process of heading back into the house.  “What are you going to do?  Do you need help?”

“I need you to get out of here,” the girl replied.  “I’m going big game hunting and it’s going to get ugly.”

With that, Cassandra Sandsmark disappeared inside her home.

Angela Kushner stood immobile for a moment.  Everything was happening too fast and she still had none of the answers she was looking for.  It was in that moment that she did the one thing she figured she could do.

She ran away as fast as her legs would carry her.

[LOCATION: CAPE COD]

The day was an unseasonably warm one, especially for New England.  However, if you asked any of those who lived in the area, you would not hear a single complaint.

Greg Stanford had taken the day to heart, using his excellent attendance record at work to justify calling off for the first time since he had gotten his appendix removed the previous year.  Traveling the hour to Cape Cod from his suburban Massachusetts home had actually been quite enjoyable.  When he arrived at the cape, he found that he was not the only one with the idea of spending the day by the water.

The sandy beach was littered with people in every direction.  Laughter was riding the air like a cool breeze.

Greg threw his towel over his shoulder and took his first step onto the beach.  The sand sunk between his toes as he made his way closer to the water.  He laid out his towel and laid back, his iPod already plugged into his ears.  The day was all about relaxation.

So when the screams started, Greg Stanford couldn’t help but feel irritated.  He tried to block it out, instead focusing on the music flowing into his ears.  Unfortunately, the screaming didn’t stop.  In fact, it only got louder.

Greg ripped the iPod earpieces from his head.  He sat up and looked around.

And gasped.

They were coming from the water.  Women who were as beautiful as paintings and draped in armor that had obviously seen battle many times before.  Greg looked off into the distance and saw canoes floating lazily on the ocean water.  They had paddled here for a reason, and as they walked onto the beach like figures from the deep, that reason became all too clear.

The woman in the lead pulled a sword from a scabbard and stared at it for the moment, studying it as if searching for a flaw.  The New Englanders who had come to the cape for a good time watched this, unable to determine what she was thinking.

And then the woman from the water slit the throat of the visitor closest to her.  The woman who had been attacked choked for a moment, her eyes bulging as she tried and failed to take in a breath.  The poor woman who had meant no ill to anyone was dead and she didn’t even know it yet.

The next few moments lasted forever.  The woman who had been attacked collapsed back onto her towel, her eyes open but no life reflecting in them.  The man who had loved her screamed with a rage that Greg had never heard.  The spectators who had just witnessed death jumped to their feet and ran for their lives.  And Greg stood stock still, watching as the women from the water grew in number and made their way inward.

The man who was screaming for his lost love was murdered quickly.  His screams ended, only to be replaced by a couple hundred terror stricken individuals.

And all that time, Greg Stanford did nothing but watch.

A shadow overtook him and Greg realized that his opportunity to run away had long passed him by.  He looked up to see one of the women, beautiful and deadly, standing over him, her sword drenched in blood and hanging over him.

That was the last thing Greg Stanford ever saw.

His body and death were all but forgotten as his murderer moved to rejoin her sister Amazons.  They were on a mission from their homeland.  It was a simple one really.  It started with the death of anyone they came across and ended with total domination over the world.  It just so happened that the United States was first on their hit list.


 

The Amazon Queen.....

Wonder Woman

Survival Instincts
Wonder Woman #30 - May, Year Five
by Matt Hrubey

[LOCATION: WASHINGTON D.C.]

Those assembled in the White House Situation Room held their collective breath.  The outburst was forthcoming.

“That ungrateful bitch!” the President swore, his palms slamming down on the table.  “How dare she do this to my country?  After everything I did for her and that island of feminists!”

The White House Chief of Staff shook his head, annoyed at yet another presidential outburst.  “Do we even know for sure that these women are from Themyscira?”

“Do you have eyes?” the President demanded to know.  He resumed the pacing that he always broke into whenever a conflict arose.

The Secretary of Defense cleared his throat.  “I believe what the President is trying to say is that satellite imaging confirms it.  At 1100 hours, there was a mass movement of boats from the island of Themyscira to parts of New England.”

“Where are they attacking?”

“So far they have kept their attack limited to Cape Cod and Boston,” the Secretary responded, “but we expect to be hearing of more attacks within the hour.”

“Do we have a motive?”

The Secretary shook his head.  “As of this time, we’ve been unable to get in contact with Wonder Woman or the island.”

“Why didn’t we expect this?” the Chief of Staff asked, extremely frustrated.  “You just said we had satellite images.  Why wasn’t anybody paying attention?”

“With all due respect, sir,” the Secretary responded, “there are conflicts going on all over the world.  My department is only so big.  We can only focus on so many things at a time.”

“With all due respect, Mr. Secretary,” the Chief of Staff responded.  “Defense is the biggest expenditure of this government.  We already have a deficit that would make Bill Gates blush.  And now you’re using this opportunity to ask for more money?”

“Money or understanding, sir.  The world is a big place.  We may pay a lot of money in defense, but to remain the superpower that we are, we have to spend more.  Everyone seems to have an agenda nowadays.  To maintain oversight on every threat is going to take more people, more time, and more money.”  The Secretary of Defense took a deep breath and sat back in his chair.  “Besides, I was led to believe that Wonder Woman and her Amazons were on our side.  I didn’t think they needed to be watched.  She is Wonder Woman after all.”

“Okay,” the Chief of Staff said.  “We’re getting nowhere with this bickering.  We need a plan of action.”

“We have a few options,” the Secretary responded.  “The basics: negotiations, warfare, some kind of combination of the two.  But the decision is the President’s.”

“Mr. President?” the Chief of Staff asked.  He turned in his chair, looking to the man who had stopped pacing and was now staring intently at a map of the United States.

The Secretary of Defense cocked an eyebrow.  “Sir?”

He turned to face them.  His eyes betrayed the anger he was feeling.  Then he said the words that each and every person in the Situation Room feared:

“I’m going to blow that bitch and her damn island out of the ocean and off the face of the earth.”


[LOCATION: GATEWAY CITY]

Wonder Girl climbed back in the hole she had been thrown through.  The first thing she noticed upon reentrance was the Cheetah straddling the unconscious body of her mentor.  Whatever Barbara Minerva had put in Diana’s drink had knocked the Amazon Queen out quickly and kept her that way.

“Get off of her, you psycho!” Wonder Girl exclaimed.

“I’ve waited for this moment for too long,” the Cheetah whispered.  She ran her claw along Diana’s cheek, drawing a thin trail of blood.  She then proceeded to lap it up with her tongue.  “Her blood tastes just like I imagined it would be.  Refreshing and strong.  Truly of the Gods.”

While Barbara Minerva spoke, she failed to see Wonder Girl reach for the fireplace poker that was sitting in its holder a few feet away.  The moment Wonder Girl laid her hand upon it, she pulled and threw.  The Cheetah barely evaded the attack.  She hissed and was on top of Wonder Girl, knocking her to the ground before Cassie Sandsmark knew what had happened.

“Leave now or suffer the same fate as her,” the Cheetah responded, her thumb pointing back to Diana.  “Usually I don’t give this option, but this moment supersedes the pettiness of my past.  I want Wonder Woman, plain and simple.  Leave and stay alive.  Stay here and you will die.  I promise you that.”

Wonder Girl tried to speak but the arm pressed roughly against her throat kept her from doing so.

“I don’t need your words, but I require your cooperation.  I’m going to get off of you and you are going to leave.  Understood?”

Cassie made no response as the Cheetah lifted herself off of Diana’s protégé.  She was seething inside.  The decision was made a moment before she acted on it.  Wonder Girl lifted her feet to her chest and kicked.

A pair of feet caught the Cheetah in the sternum, sending her sailing backward into the dining room.  The Cheetah, however, was ready and twisted her body in mid-air.  She landed on her feet.

“I saw that coming.  Congratulations, girl, you are now as dumb as Diana.”  The Cheetah bared her teeth.  “Don’t say I didn’t give you an out.  Time to die now.”


[LOCATION: BOSTON]

The older woman felt her heart break as she watched Vanessa Kapatelis sleep.  The girl, barely an adult in her own right, had lost her mother earlier in the week and now seemed to be in a downward spiral herself.  She had not moved from her hospital bed since she had been placed into it and she had not spoken a word in just as long.  The doctors were making sure to give her the necessary nutrients intravenously, but Vanessa could only stay alive so long in such a fashion.

The doctors wanted someone Vanessa knew to watch over her, to try and coax her out of her emotionless stupor.  Diana had been here for a time but she had disappeared quickly on the hunt for Julia’s killer.  In her place, however, Diana had given the hospital staff the number for Etta Candy.

When the situation had been fully explained to Etta, she had felt weakened, exhausted to the point of dropping the phone.  Julia had been a friend from the past.  They had not seen each other in a long while, stemming mostly from the fact that it was Diana who usually brought them together.  But now, Diana had appeared in Boston again.  Only this time, a family had been shattered.

Etta had driven into Boston as fast as she could.  She had not left Vanessa’s bedside for nearly a day, holding out a vain hope that the girl would snap out of her daze.  Nothing yet, but Etta was not done praying.

Etta felt her eyes flutter, sleep forthcoming—

The door to the room slammed open, startling Etta upright.  The man that entered was well over six feet tall and he was wearing a uniform that identified him as hospital security.  His eyes were bloodshot and he was visibly quivering.  “Ma’am, you need to get your things together and come with me now.”

“What?” Etta asked.  “Why?”

“They’re coming,” was all the security guard said.  He grasped Etta around her pudgy arm and began pulling her after him.

“Stop that!” she exclaimed.  Etta pulled herself free, though not without a great deal of pain, and smacked the man across the face.  “Pull yourself together and tell me what is going—”

BOOOOOOOOMMM!

The explosion crushed the windows in the room and shook the foundations of the hospital.  Etta heard herself scream, more out of surprise than fear.  The security guard pulled her down, throwing his own body on top of her for protection. 

“Vanessa!”  When the shaking was over, Etta was on her feet at Vanessa’s side, years of military training guiding her actions.  Vanessa was still alive and was lying much like she had been prior to the explosion.  Etta’s life had flashed before her eyes and Vanessa had lain immobile, completely unaffected.  It was one of life’s mysteries.

“Ma’am, you have to leave the girl and save yourself,” the security guard spoke up.  “It’s not safe here.”

“What is going on?” Etta asked.

The guard pointed to the window.  “Take a look for yourself.”

Moving to the window, Etta looked out over chaos.  There were people running away in all directions.  Running from…badly dressed women?  Etta cocked an eyebrow and watched as a wave of women in battle armor crossed the parking lot, slaughtering every person they came across.  It was a massacre.

Etta’s stomach dropped even farther.  She knew who these women were.  It was the Amazons.  Diana’s Amazons.  The ones she claimed to rule over now.  What were they doing?  And where was Wonder Woman?

The questions continued as Etta spotted something else.  Something out of the corner of her eye.  No, not something…someone.  It was a man with a set of glorious wings.  He circled the scene a few times and dived bombed the attacking Amazons.  The mace in his hands cut a path through the invading army.

Etta smiled—

Hawkman.

The Justice League was here to help.


[LOCATION: GATEWAY CITY]

Cassandra could feel the breath being choked out of her as her vision began to haze over.  Though the lithe form of the Cheetah didn’t show it, Barbara Minerva was strong.  Her strength was nothing compared to that of Diana or her teenage protégé, but given the current situation and Cassie’s lack of leverage, the Cheetah’s strength more than sufficed.

Cassie whimpered as she felt the claws wrapped around her throat begin to puncture the skin.  Small droplets of blood formed at the point of intrusion, and as the Cheetah increased the pressure, the blood flow quickened its pace.  For a moment, Cassie stopped struggling, fearing that movement in the wrong direction would end in her jugular being ruptured.

“Get…off!” Wonder Girl demanded.  The whimpering had stopped, replaced instead by an intense anger.

Minerva hunched down and lightly grazed her tongue across Wonder Girl’s neck.  Cassie shivered as the Cheetah lapped up all the blood that had been spilled thus far.

“Yummy,” the Cheetah responded.  “Almost as good as Diana’s.”

Eyes widening, Cassie realized that she had forgotten all about Diana.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the queen out cold, unmoving.  Diana had been slipped something during dinner, but from the way she had yet to even twitch Cassie wondered if Wonder Woman was dead.  She felt her already passionate anger grow and looked for any weapon she could use on the woman who had killed so many.

The darkness was growing across her field of vision, and even though Cassandra could not breathe well, she refused to fail and die.

Something glinted out of the corner of her eye, over by where Diana was lying.  It was the lasso.  It was sparkling over and over as if drawing Cassie to it.  Wonder Girl didn’t know if the effect was a result of her distress or whether the lasso truly appeared to have a life of its own.

There was only one way to get out of her current predicament.  Cassie knew it was going to hurt.

Concentrating on one final gamble, Cassie swung her fist, catching the Cheetah in the side of the head.  The attack was weak but Minerva was surprised that her prey still had so much life in it.  She was thrown off of Wonder Girl, but not without taking a fair sized chunk of skin with her.

Cassandra felt very cold as she crawled toward Diana.  Her hands were slick with her own blood and she was leaving a trail as she moved.  This wasn’t going to end well.  She had just reached Diana when the Cheetah pounced once more.

At the last moment, Wonder Girl fell away causing the Cheetah’s claws to miss their target.  She landed past where Cassie was.  She was growling when she felt something around her neck.

Barbara Minerva looked down and found Wonder Woman’s golden lasso wrapped around her neck like a noose.  She looked back to Cassie in shock.

“It’s called payback, bitch,” Wonder Girl responded wearily before she tightened the lasso around the Cheetah’s neck.


[LOCATION: THEMYSCIRA]

Circe was delighted.  Revenge was sweet, but this was orgasmic.  The events unfolding in the United States were playing out before her eyes through the looking glass in the Throne Room she had conjured.  She could smell the death even from her seated position miles away from the action.

A normal person would have felt guilt over the conflict that Circe had created, but the sorceress considered herself far above normal.  The conflict was not a tragedy; it was a stroke of genius!  Circe laughed long and hard—

This entire ordeal—the death, the deception, the destruction—was all about revenge, nothing more and nothing less.  Diana had been a thorn in her side for too long.  She had thwarted too many of the sorceress’ attempts at power and now she was going to pay.  But no, no, no…Wonder Woman wasn’t going to pay with just her life.  Circe was going to take away everything that Diana was first.  She was going to tear down her friends, her island, and then, when Diana had nothing left to live for, her life.

Circe would be the first to admit that it was a plan that lacked originality, but sometimes the classics were the best option.

“This is going to get worse before it gets better,” the sorceress purred.  “I hope you realize that.”

The comment was directed toward the woman tied to one of the pillars in the room.  The woman’s appearance was so like that of Diana that gazing upon Donna Troy made Circe angry.  The former Titan had not said a word in some time.  The revelation that the Amazons were deeply unhappy with Diana’s rule had shocked her more than Circe had expected.  Troy had been ignorant to the denizens of Themyscira, but now she knew better.

Donna looked Circe in the eyes.  “Where is Phillipus?  What have you done with her?”

The sorceress looked to the other side of the Throne Room to where similar shackles as those holding Donna lay discarded and unused.  When Donna had first awoken, the Archon Phillipus had been a prisoner as well.  Now, the woman was gone.

“Phillipus has gone to do her job,” Circe explained a moment later.  She rose from the throne.  “I’m happy to say that the good Archon and I are now seeing eye to eye.  She is out there now, in the thick of things, leading her sisters as she has so many times before.”

Donna shook her head, refusing to believe.  “Never.  Phillipus would not go along with this needless violence.  The Amazons are a peaceful people—”

“Who have been brutally attacked on more than one occasion in the past year,” Circe interjected.  “It’s called karma, Donna.  The peaceful beliefs of the Amazons have no place in this world.  Only the strong survive.  And as the world is seeing now, the Amazons are the strongest.”

“This doesn’t make sense,” Donna said, more to herself than to Circe.  “The Amazons would never do this.  Even if they were unhappy with Diana’s rule, they would never go on a killing spree.”

“As much as they want to deny it, the Amazons are killers by nature.”

It clicked right then like someone had flicked a light switch.  “You!  You’re doing this!”

“I don’t want to take complete credit for this,” Circe responded.  “I simply gave your sisters a push in the right direction.”

“You have no idea what you’re doing!  You have no idea the work you’ve ruined!”

Circe’s lips parted in a smile.  “See, that’s where you’re wrong.  I know exactly what I’m doing.”  Her tongue flitted across her teeth.  “I’m tearing apart everything Diana has ever done.  I’m ruining everything she’s worked for.”

“Why?” Donna asked.  “What do you possibly have to gain from this?”

“Why?” Circe asked, repeating the question.  She shrugged her shoulders.  “Why not?”


[LOCATION: GATEWAY CITY]

A sneer formed on Cassandra’s face as she pulled the Lasso of Truth tighter around the Cheetah’s neck.  “Where is my mother?”

Through the Cheetah’s gagging, there was laughter.  “D-d…dead *cough*…”

“You’re lying!”  Cassie pulled the lasso as tight as she could.  All sound ceased.  Minerva’s eyes bulged as what little airway remained closed shut, restricting any attempt to breath.

Cassie imagined that she was watching the scene as a spectator.  She could see the violence she was inflicting, but there was nothing she could do to stop herself.  The thought of her mother being hurt or worse unleashed the torrent of emotion she had been holding back the past few weeks.  She was justifiably angry and the Cheetah was going to pay the price for it.  Watching the sluggish form of Barbara Minerva, Cassie could imagine the skin beneath her fur turning to a deep shade of blue.

The Cheetah’s hand rose to her neck and wrapped around the lasso.  She pulled to no avail.  In a last ditch effort, her claws began hacking at the Lasso of Truth.  Her air was completely gone; she could feel her body getting weak and her vision blacking out.  Minerva would have laughed if she could.  After all her battles with Diana, it was Wonder Woman Junior that would do her in.  Life was one cruel irony after another.

“No,” Wonder Girl muttered but her muscles tensed and refused to relax.  Deep inside, she was screaming at herself to stop.  She knew what she was doing was wrong, but it didn’t matter.  Not when her mother’s fate was still unknown.  The Cheetah said she was dead, but why trust a villain?  They lied.  Diana had taught her that.

“Trust no one when there is the slightest doubt,” Diana had said to her one day a few months prior.  “Believe in yourself and you can’t go wrong.”

But it was a lie.  The former Goddess of Truth had told her a bold faced lie.  Cassie knew what she was doing.  She wanted it so bad.  The Cheetah’s actions demanded justice.  After all, Diana was probably dead.  And her mother?

Cassandra wanted it, but she knew she was wrong for wanting it.  She believed that she was wrong, but it didn’t matter.  Not anymore.  Her only family was gone, torn away from her.  She wanted reciprocity right now.  She didn’t trust herself anymore.

Cassie’s head turned and spied Diana.  Her eyes widened as she spotted the Amazon Queen moving.  It was small movements, but Cassie saw them.  It was a sign.

She was making the wrong move.  She was about to take a life.  No one recovered from that.

Wonder Girl looked down at the Cheetah, who had stopped fidgeting altogether.  Barbara Minerva was almost gone, or was she already dead and Cassie hadn’t noticed?  Tears rolled down Wonder Girl’s face as she realized the consequences of what she was doing.  She was still a child.  What was she doing?

“Cassie,” Diana said, “you have to stop this.”

The girl jumped as if she had been stuck up on.  The eyes of truth were on her now, watching her every action.

“Don’t do this, Cassandra.  Don’t do it.”

She stopped.  The lasso in Cassie’s hand slipped through her fingers.  The Cheetah collapsed to the floor.  The action that Cassie had felt was so impossible now seemed the obvious decision.  In the blink of an eye, her rationality returned.  The adrenaline pushing her to kill diminished.

Wonder Girl fell to her knees.  Her body was wracked by sobbing.  Her anger and sorrow were waging a war of indecision over her.

Arms wrapped around Cassandra’s shoulders some time later.  She didn’t know how long she had been kneeling there.  She looked up into the caring eyes of Diana.  The queen, still obviously hurting, was crying too.

The anger finally died away.  The sorrow took over.

And deep down inside, Cassandra Sandsmark knew that her mother was gone for good.


[LOCATION: WASHINGTON, D.C.]

The President of the United States lifted his head from the table.  “It’s time,” he said in an uncharacteristically soft voice.

The other public officials gathered in the Situation Room of the White House shared a glance.  The thought of going to war was a last ditch effort in their minds, one that they collectively felt had not been warranted yet.  It was no secret that the President favored a strong military and refused to look weak in front of the global community, but no one in the room thought he was making the right choice.  Of course, it would be career suicide if any of the President’s aides decided to voice that opinion.

The Chief of Staff cleared his throat.  “Mr. President, perhaps we should give the Justice League more time?  I mean, they are just beginning to stem the tide.  For all we know, this could be one giant misunderstanding?  Do we really want to go to war with Themyscira over a simple misunderstanding?”

“Simple?” the President asked.  “There’s nothing simple about this, John.  I know what the American people think of me and I know what you all are thinking right now.  I want to assure you all that I am not going to launch this attack because it makes us look like enforcers to the world.  I am doing this because we have been wrongfully attacked.  American citizens have died and are continuing to die as we speak!  There has to be retribution.”

“We can try and contact Wonder Woman—”

“We’ve tried and failed,” the Defense Secretary interjected.  “We can’t make any kind of contact with Wonder Woman or anyone on Themyscira.  They are either ignoring us or something is wrong.”

“Or both,” the National Security Advisor said.  “We have no idea what’s going on in Themyscira.”

The President looked from his Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense to the National Security Advisor to the others seated all around him.  They were all dear friends and respected colleagues, but in this he knew that none of them would ever agree.  After the last debacle with Themyscira** and all the recent troubles in the Middle East, a military response was something that everyone was dreading.  However, the events of the day had made it necessary.

(* The “Relocation” storyline)

“The Justice League—”

“Have had their chance,” the President replied to the Chief of Staff, “and failed to stem the tide of the Amazons inland.  Besides, this attack is going to do nothing to repel the attacks going on inside our borders.  I’ve deployed the National Guard to help the superhuman volunteers against the Amazons.  The Amazons are going to be taken into custody and tried for their crimes.”

“If we bomb Themyscira—”

“Launch the jets,” the President interrupted.  “I want them in the air five minutes ago.  Themyscira is going to pay.  The Amazons are going to pay.  And Wonder Woman will learn she doesn’t have free rein in this country.”

There was a flurry of movement as the President’s orders were carried out.

“The United Nations will be on our side,” he said, mostly to himself.  “They’ll see that what I’m doing is a natural reciprocation.  This isn’t going to change anything.  Themyscira shouldn’t even be here.”  But somewhere inside, the President couldn’t believe himself.

“Sir, we have some news.”

The President was shocked out of his thoughts, momentarily dazed and confused by the voice.  He shook his head to clear the cobwebs and looked to his Chief of Staff, who was reading off some note that had been passed to him.  “What is it?  Something good, I hope.”

“Better than good, Mr. President.  It’s Wonder Woman, sir.  We’ve found her.”


Next issue:  Things get worse...

Story © 2008 Matt Hrubey and may not be reproduced without permission.