The Amazon Princess..... "Who Do You Trust?" ODYSSEY, Part 1
Wonder Woman #7 - July, Year One	by Des Davies

Mike Schorr entered the private hospital room quietly. His normal aggressive manner was absent as he glanced at the woman lying in the bed. "Any change?" he asked.

"Only for the worse," the figure seated near the window replied in a voice heavy with exhaustion. As Schorr moved further into the room, Daryn Phillips levered a body that was feeling every one of his sixty five years out of the chair and looked at the detective questioningly.

"We still have no idea who did it. The officers only got a fleeting look at the guy which didn't give us much to go on. I'm assuming that she hasn't woken?"

Daryn shook in head in answer. He gestured tiredly at the television screen in the far corner, "It looks bad out dere." His tiredness blunted his speech into old childhood patterns.

Schorr's gruff manner reasserted itself. "It's like a war zone in some places. We haven't had this much racial tension in years. The mayor's got a lot to answer for." After a pause he added, "Not to mention that it appears that we have a gang war to deal with."

Daryn's look of disapproval cut through the detective's anger and he calmed down muttering "Sorry" under his breath.

"Did they get the airport computers straightened out?" Daryn asked.

"Finally. Although no one has any idea of what happened or if it could happen again. We could do with her out there."

The sound of defeat coming from the hard-boiled detectives mouth sounded out of place. "Sounds like you're giving up," Daryn said with an attempt at a smile tugging his lips upwards.

Whatever reply he was about to make died as Daryn turned away as a report on the television caught his attention. Schorr looked in the same direction and felt his own mouth drop open at the news.

"We are receiving these pictures directly from Metropolis," the news announcer said. "Apparently they confirm the reports we had received earlier that Superman has gone rogue. It appears that the efforts of a team of meta-humans assembled by the government were able to stop his rampage but only at considerable cost to themselves. We can only wonder…"

Daryn turned back from the screen and looked at Schorr. "It appears that we are not de only ones with problems."

The conversation was interrupted once more as a nurse entered. "Detective, may I see you outside please?"

Mike Schorr nodded his head once and headed for the door, following the nurse outside. Daryn Phillips made his way slowly to the glass door and looked out at the scene unfolding outside. He was tired and his body was screaming at him to sleep but his mind would not comply. He had rushed to the hospital early the previous morning when he heard the news on the television that Diana was badly hurt. The tiredness he felt was washed away by the torrent of anger that burst through him.

It matched the look that was on the detective's face as the nurse pointed out the vase on the edge of her desk. Daryn opened the door and stepped out but Schorr ignored him and continued to question the nurse. "These were just delivered?"

"They were there when I returned from my rounds."

"And they weren't there when I came in. Did you see anyone else on the floor that shouldn't have been there?"

In response Nurse Rattel, as her badge identified her, shook her head.

The item in question was a black vase that contained twelve very dead lilies. The smell coming off them was enough to make even the veteran detective gag. He was about to give the nurse instructions when the door to the ward opened and three teenagers came barging through. Their conversation was a heated bubble of noise that was difficult to understand for the adults in the room.

The nurse beat the detective to the punch as she raised her voice to cut through their noise, "Do you three know you are in a hospital? If you don't shut the noise up right this minute, I will have security remove you from the premises." When the silence she requested descended she added, "I take it I am making myself clear."

A mumbled chorus of "Yes ma'am," seemed to satisfy the nurse and she turned back to the detective. He was still watching the three new arrivals as they slowly approached the desk but he turned back to the nurse and gave her instructions for the flowers. The youths stood awaiting their turn as did Daryn who wanted to know exactly what the flowers were about. The sudden appearance of a dark green cloud of smoke within Diana's room was noticed almost simultaneously by the young girl and the detective. While her first reaction was a screamed, "Look!", the detective was pulling a gun from inside his jacket and reaching for the door.

By the time he had opened the door and stepped inside the smoke was gone and a tall, raven-haired woman stood near the bed. She was dressed in a green robe that left little to the imagination. Slits in the skirt ended high on her hips while the neckline plunged almost to her golden belt. She turned as the door was opened and Schorr shouted, "Freeze!"

A hint of a smile graced her lips as she said in a commanding tone, "I am here to help."

"Then you won't mind doing as I asked and freezing will you?" Without waiting for a response and keeping his gun leveled on her chest he asked, "Who are you and exactly what do you mean about being here to help?"

Any answer she was about to make was interrupted by a young woman's voice from the doorway, "That's Circe. One of Wonder Woman's worse enemies."

"Is that so?" Schorr asked, his voice deepened by the anger it held. "What sort of help did you intend to give her?"

"My past history with Diana is my own business. Whatever differences we have had in the past are currently set aside as she would be able to tell you if she was awake."

"She's not though is she, so is there any particular reason we should believe you?"

"Frankly, I care less if you believe me or not. I am here to break the spell that will kill her and if you do not wish to find yourself in another form I would suggest that you stay out of my way."

Schorr was about to reply when a hand on his shoulder caused him to pause. Without looking around he barked, "What?"

"Easy detective," Daryn Phillips said in his deep southern tones. "Circe, the detective has a point. Diana and yourself have not had the best of relationships. We might not have much chance of stopping you but as her friends, we can't step aside without knowing what you intend."

Circe turned her deep emerald eyes on Daryn and he struggled to avoid flinching from the penetrating gaze. After a long moment the corners of her lips turned upwards a little more. "Very well I will explain what I have already discovered and what needs to be done."

She turned to face the five people regarding her. "Diana is suffering from a curse. It is only through her god-touched nature that she has managed to survive it this long. The curse is causing her body to dehydrate and will kill her."

"Where did the curse come from?" Daryn asked.

"And how did you know that she was hurt?" Cassie blurted out from the doorway.

Before answering Circe turned to look at the young woman who stared back at her. Rueben noticed the slight widening of the ancient sorceress's eyes before she said, "I was interrupted before I was able to determine the source of the curse. As to how I knew, I have spells, created in centuries past, that let me know when Diana is hurt." She seemed to be ready to add more before she stopped and looked directly at Daryn and Schorr.

"Let her help detective. It's not like the hospital knows what to do, how could we really stop her."

Schorr lowered his gun but stopped short of returning it to it's holster. Circe inclined her head slightly and turned in a swish of fabric to regard the comatose figure on the bed. The luster and tone of Diana's skin was missing and it looked like it had been drawn taut to her bones. The bed clothes were damp from the sweat that covered her body in a thin sheen.

With a slight shake to her head Circe made small movements with her right hand and under her breath spoke several words of power which only Cassie heard but even she had no idea of the language they were spoken in. Three, then four, and five minutes passed as the sorceress continued her spell casting. Then with her emerald eyes flashing she whirled about and confronted Cassie.

"You will stop what you are doing now or I will bind her power so that you will never reach it again."

Cassie felt herself shrinking under the stares that the others in the room turned on her. "Sorry," she managed to squeak.

Circe waited another long moment before turning back to the bed.

When she turned around once more there were small furrows on her brow and her eyes had a pinched look about them. "The curse cannot be countered from here. I must find the source and force them to revoke. The magic is based on water and is very ancient. Where has she been recently?"

Daryn spoke up, "The only place that I know she has been, outside of the city, is South America. She went to stop the animals from being sent to the city."

Circe nodded her head slowly.

"Ummm, there was…"

Circe once more turned her gaze on Cassie who faltered beneath it. "What?" she asked impatiently.

"Well, there was the incident at the museum with the Chinese guy."

"Explain."

Schorr interrupted. "A local mob leader tried to steal a crown from the museum. From what Diana, and this girl," he said indicating Cassie who he had finally identified, "explained, the crown was possessed by some ancient Chinese magician who took over Jimmy Hung's body. Diana beat him but he disappeared before he could be captured. Is this something he did?"

Circe pursed her lips and looked once more at Cassie. She intoned additional words of power before shaking her head. "No, the resonance of magic in that one," she said indicating Cassie, "is not the same. Those I recognize." She turned back to Daryn.

"What did she tell you about South America?"

Daryn explained, "She was looking for whoever was sending wild animals to the city for a mobster to use as guards. She found an old priest living in a Mayan pyramid down in the jungle. She said that they talked and she convinced him that he was being taken advantage of. The only fight she had was with some sort of bird-lizard-man creature."

"Did she describe the creature?"

"What she told me made me think it sounded like the feathered serpent from Mayan myth - human legs, with a scaled body leading up to a lizards head and feathered wings instead of arms."

"That would be where I will need to travel." She said decisively. "Diana was always far too trusting." She paused and her eyes lost the speculative look and focused on the five people now in the room. "You all are friends of Diana's. Therefore you will be willingly to help her. You will need to enter the spirit plane and keep her spirit from being lost. She has…"

"What do you mean 'enter to the spirit plane'?" Mike Schorr asked indignantly.

"I mean mortal, that even when I break the curse, if Diana's spirit loses touch with her body, then she will never awaken. Also, someone needs to guard her body to prevent something else from inhabiting it. Does this scare you?"

There was no humor or sarcasm in her last question, only blunt query. Schorr replied, "Yes, the idea scares the pants off me but it looks like we don't have much choice."

"Are you all willing?"

One by one, Circe looked at the others in the room. Cassie bore a determined frown as she nodded her head. Rueben and Jerry, the two former gang leaders, looked at each other before confirming their part in the process.

Daryn said, "I'm not exactly the youngest one here, so I'm not sure how much help I can be."

Circe smiled. "On the spirit plane it will be your spirit that walks not your aged body. You may surprise people."

Daryn thought about her answer before adding his own acceptance.

"You four men gather around the bed while I talk to the girl."

After a moments hesitation the men all moved to the bedside albeit with wary glances back to the two women.

Circe strode across the room until she was almost face to face with Cassie. If she could feel the eyes of the men upon her she showed no sign. "With your abilities you will be the perfect link. You will provide their," she indicated the men with one hand, "anchor to this plane after I send them to the spirit plane."

"What're you talking about?" Cassie asked with confusion evident in her eyes.

Circe's eyes narrowed dangerously but instead of replying she murmured in an ancient tongue. There was a collective gasp of surprise in the room as a ghostly figure overlaid Cassie form. She was of a similar height and build although she was obviously oriental.

"Who are you?" Circe said imperiously.

Cassie was about to reply when another voice interrupted, "I am Lin-Tse, consort of the Emperor and heir to the Dragon Lines." There was reluctance in the words as they crept out but Circe's compulsion was too strong for her to resist.

"Why do you hide in this body?"

"The child placed the Queen's Crown upon her head and I moved from my confinement there into her. I wish to be more than a spirit once more."

"Did you know that you had been possessed child?" Circe directed her question to Cassie.

"They told me that once the crown was removed everything would be fine, but…"

"What?" Circe snapped causing Cassie, and the ghostly form, to flinch.

"I had a feeling that there was still something else going on. Like there was someone whispering in my head all the time. Can you get rid of her?"

"Yes, but you would be unlikely to keep the abilities you now have."

Disappointment lit Cassie's eyes briefly. "I'm not sharing my body with a centuries old criminal. Just get her out."

"Very well, but only after Diana is returned to her body. Until then I have need of her skills and knowledge."

Cassie opened her mouth to protest but Circe's voice hardened. "She is constrained to do my bidding for now. We will discuss this when Diana returns."

Reaching out Circe grasped Cassie by the arm and led her over to the bed. Forestalling the questions she said, "The girl is being possessed by a spirit. It is the spirit that has the powers and knowledge that we need. When Diana is returned, I will separate the two. For now she will provide the anchor for you to this plane. Remember that one of you will need to remain at the portal to prevent anything from trying to enter Diana's body. Are you all ready?"

Mike Schorr spoke up, "I guess so, but I'd have thought you would be better off recruiting some superheroes for this."

"There is no time and as I told the old one, you be defined by your spirits where you are going and not the limitations of your mortal bodies."

Circe dismissed the other questions and ordered silence. In a strong voice she called out the words of an incantation which caused thick fog-like tendrils to roll out of Cassie's body and envelop the four men. A short gasp of pain erupted from each of them before they disappeared leaving Cassie and Circe alone around Diana's bed.

"You will return them to their bodies when they are gathered at the portal with Diana," she told Cassie and Lin-Tse both. "I will return as soon as I have broken the curse that binds Diana's body. With that Circe gestured once more in time with her spoken spell and when the green smoke that appeared dissipated she was gone.

Cassie looked around the room and catching sight of a mirror she asked the form of Lin-Tse that she could now see, "Now what?"

Across the city from the hospital in a very well appointed office, Stefan Holliday was yelling at two of his 'employees'. "What did you think you were doing? Didn't either of you understand the orders I gave? I. Said. No. One. Is. To. Be. Left. Alive."

His tirade paused for a moment as he turned his back to the two men. "Boss, they were only kids. We didn't think you meant…"

"That is correct," Holliday replied and the ice in his voice was enough to chill the two men to their core, "Neither of you are paid to think. You're here only to follow orders which it appears that you are incapable of doing."

Again he paused and let the silence drag. "Painkiller," he addressed the powerful black man sitting on the couch, "kill them."

The two men looked from Holliday's back to each other and finally to their executioner. They had not noticed anyone sitting in the shadowed half of the room. With lazy eyes he looked over the two men standing in front of Holliday's desk and flashed a bright, wicked smile at them. Both flinched at the menace they saw. One of the men took a step backwards in the direction of the door while the other tried to force motion into his numb limbs.

When he turned his gaze from the two men to look at Holliday's back their faces echoed their surprise. At his next words their mouths dropped open in astonishment.

"No."

Holliday whipped around and screamed, "What?"

"I said 'No'." All traces of relaxation were gone as was the usual servile tone he took with Holliday. The air in the room crackled with tension and the two men that had been expecting to die stood forgotten.

"What do you mean no? I pay you and you'll do as you're told."

As Holliday began to heap a torrent of abuse on Painkiller he failed to notice the way the man's lips began to draw tighter together into a grim line.

"… you'd be lying in a New York gutter if I hadn't brought you....urk…"

Holliday's hands flew to his throat as he felt it tighten. He tried to spit words out but he could not get the muscles to obey him. The anger in his eyes faded to be replaced with concern and as he saw Painkiller push himself from the couch he reached for the desk drawer where his gun lay. His fingers closed around the pull to the drawer and then suddenly he lost control of his arm and it fell back loosely at his side. When he looked up from the shock, Painkiller was standing no more than two feet away.

He moved backwards automatically but the big man followed him until he had his back to the wall and Painkiller had ducked his head low enough to look him directly in the eye from no more than hand's breadth distance.

"You is the one who is going to die tonight. I've been watching you for weeks and you is worth nothing little man. You thinks that treating people like dirt gets you everything you want. Well, I see what could be done here and I's going to take it from you. See those two, " he indicated the intently watching men, "they won't mind a new boss. Afterall the old one was about to have them killed. I'm gonna rule this city and now that Wonder Woman is gone there ain't no one that can stop me."

He sharply turned his head to look around the room and the action brought a scream of pain from Holliday and dozens of small blades woven into Painkiller's dreadlocks whipped across his face. Painkiller turned back to regard Holliday who was now on his knees holding his face. With a smile that would have caused the dead to step back he said, "Die."

Holliday's hands fell from his face and clutched his chest. He tried to force words around the pain but they came out as little more than a croak. A long minute passed and Holliday finally fell to the floor motionless as the black sea of death flowed over him.

Slowly, methodically, Painkiller turned to face the two men. Both wore fear on their face, but a glimmer of hope shone in their eyes. "Gentlemen, can I count on you?"

They glanced at each other before looking back at the newest boss of organized crime in Gateway City. As one they answered with big relieved grins, "Sure boss."

"Good. Your first jobs are to take dis body and dump it in the deepest, darkness hole you can find. The tell Kenneth Smithe I need him in my office yesterday."

The men nodded and moved around the desk to pick up Holliday's body. As they leant over to pick it up they both looked up as Painkiller called out, "Eric?"

They watched as the door opened and Holliday's bodyguard stepped into the room. It all seemed to happen in slow motion as Eric took in the scene and with eyes sparking with anger he reached for his gun. His hand had barely reached into his jacket when the loud crack of gunfire rent the air and he toppled backward. Painkiller dropped Holliday's gun onto the desk.

"Clean dat one up too please."

Four figures blinked their eyes rapidly as they materialized inside an almost demolished building. The noise from outside filtered in intermittently but the sounds of screams, cries of pain and war cries were only too plain.

Mike Schorr looked around surveying the damage, "Where are we?"

When no answer was forth coming from his three colleagues he turned around to look at them. His mouth dropped open to mimic the expression on their faces. "Do I look like that?"

The tall, black man wearing khaki colored pants and shirt with a pistol holstered at his side looked over and smiled broadly. "You sure do. Look pretty smart in that police outfit too."

Schorr blanched as he looked down at the sharply pressed blue pants and jacket he was wearing. Looking back up he said tentatively, "Mr.Phillips?"

The voice had sounded like that of Daryn Phillips without the depth age had added.

"Yes, and you must be Detective Schorr. That means that these are our two young companions."

One of the young men stepped forward and with a nod said, "Reuben." He was the smallest of the four and was dressed in dark blue denims with a tight red sleeveless shirt. A black glove adorned one hand. Cords of muscle were plain on his exposed arms.

The two older men looked to the other boy who looked back at them with a chagrined expression. "Jerry." Their smiles deepened causing his cheeks to flame even more.

"That's an interesting outfit Jerry," Daryn commented off-handedly.

"Must be a super groupie," Schorr remarked then added, "What's going on here? Did she set us up?"

Daryn was the first to answer. "I believe, given the transformations we have all undergone that she was true to her word. We must be on the 'spirit plane' she referred to. I could guess why we look like this but we don't have time for that. We need to work off de assumption that everything she told us is correct."

"Where do we start looking for Wonder Woman?" Reuben asked.

"Why does the place look like a war zone?" Schorr asked and the other three watched in astonishment as his clothing and then form changed to army camouflage worn during Desert Storm.

"My guess, as Circe did not see fit to tell us, is that something, or someone is controlling the look of things."

"It must be Wonder Woman," Jerry explained with quiet confidence.

"Why," Schorr asked gruffly.

"Well, we entered the place at her bedside with the intent of finding her spirit. Makes some sort of sense that we would conform to her view of things."

Daryn nodded as Jerry explained then watched as Jerry's hero garb melted away to be replaced with an outfit that would have graced a Spartan warrior. "We need to look for Diana quickly. I would have thought this would be a place of peace if she was controlling it, but this looks like a war zone. Detective you need to stay and guard the portal."

"What?" Schorr exploded. "Leave one of the kids behind, you'll need me out there."

"No. If that portal is lost then we are all stuck here. You're the most experienced so you need to make sure our way home remains." There was iron lacing the deep southern tones of Daryn's voice. Schorr's face retained its angry set but he nodded at the logic in the man's words.

"Then get out of here," Schorr grated out.

Daryn nodded. "C'mon." He turned on his heel and headed out through one of the broken walls. With nods to the detective the young men followed leaving Mike Schorr alone in the ruined temple.

A pale fire was the only illumination in the huge cave and it served to only cast more shadows on the figure sitting on a simple wooden chair. A glass of red wine was held in one hand which was lifted to red lips and sipped from.

"Come forward."

A shadow detached itself from one of the walls and slunk across the floor to grovel at the seated figures feet. It had a vaguely human shape to it and was deepest obsidian run through with dark scarlet slashes.

Moments dragged on before the seated figures deep voice that held a hint of amusement said, "What would you do with the power I can grant?"

Dry rustling like dead leaves being rubbed together filled the cavern for long moments and then died to silence as the figure's lips curled upwards.

"Agreed. Return to your body and take with you the power of Vengence."

With the merest of gestures the shadow disappeared and the smile on the figures face grew larger.

Next Issue:

Odyssey concludes in a Giant Size issue as in the midst of Gateway City falling apart, four people who hardly know each other must join together to rescue the spirit of Wonder Woman.