Chapter Thirteen
Hippolyta’s worst fears were about to come true. All during the fight she had been tortured by the worst conflict a mother could experience. Her eldest daughter was locked in mortal combat, yet she was also the one who was totally in the wrong. Victory for Diana would mean disaster for the Amazons, yet her defeat would mean her death.
And Hippolyta shuddered at the hint of the thought that she might have to bury her eldest child.
The best outcome would have been for the outsider to have battered Diana into submission and refused to take her life. Such an act would have made Diana Lois’ servant for life. And it was the outcome Lois had promised to work toward if she could.
But the outsider’s eyes were glazed and dull. Her body language told the queen that she should already have been pummeled into unconsciousness, yet still she stood and defied Diana. Lois surely did not remember her agreement with Hippolyta now. If Diana were to fall, her opponent would surely slay her.
And if Diana were to prevail, she would surely slay the outsider woman to gain her mate. But the Princess had not counted on Lois putting up such a brave and lengthy fight that the majority of the spectators would eventually take her side. Each blow Lois struck brought actual cheers from many in the crowd, and each blow landed on her by the Princess brought more cries of chagrin and encouragement for Lois than cheers for Diana.
Hippolyta had never seen any of the “Rocky” movies, but she would have recognized the sentiment of the poorly regarded challenger fighting the champion to a bloody standstill.
And the queen could look around and know that her daughter had committed a serious strategic error. In her quest to achieve the throne and bear a child with more potential than any other in Amazon history, Diana had managed to divide the nation and place herself in an untenable political position. Even if she prevailed in this contest, her condition would not allow her to lead her followers, nor would Superman be interested in a bloody and beaten lover. She would not be able to fulfill the promises she had made, and her movement would either disintegrate or coalesce in a violent internal conflict.
There was no positive outcome in sight.
Both women were fighting with the last bits of strength in their bodies. Each one had only one hand available to strike a blow, and the queen feared that they each might manage to take the life of the other with one final strike.
And there was nothing she could do to help either her nation or her daughter. Neither the law nor Amazon tradition would allow anyone to intervene.
As Diana tensed to throw one last punch and as Lois braced herself to respond, a sharp ‘crack-boom’ sounded in the sky and a blue-and-red streak of light flashed down to the ground from the cloudless sky. Hippolyta glanced upward for a moment, but could not discern the source of either the light or the thunder.
She looked at the two combatants again, expecting one or both to have finally fallen for the last time.
But that was not what she saw.
A man wearing blue tights and a long red cape was standing in the sand in front of Lois – A MAN WAS STANDING ON THEMYSCIRA!
This could not be! By every law within the canon of the Amazons, this man could not be allowed to live!
The queen did not need to issue a command. The four nearest archers raised their bows and let fly. All four arrows traced a true path to their target.
And all four arrows fell to the sand in pieces.
She looked closer. Diana lay on the sand a few feet from the man, pushing with one hand and trying to get up, with little visible result. Lois had fallen limply into the man’s arms and seemed to be trying to embrace him.
The man raised his head. His face was aflame with fury and he shouted, “THIS STOPS NOW!”
Two of the stunned archers pulled new arrows from their quivers and drew back their bows. But their arrows never left, because both of their bowstrings burst into flame where they looped over the top of the bow.
“I SAID STOP AND I MEANT IT!”
The man looked down at the sand a few paces from where he stood and it suddenly exploded. When the debris settled, Hippolyta could see a pit nearly ten feet across and at least fifteen feet deep. She couldn’t see the bottom clearly, but a great deal of heat and steam came billowing out.
This man had to be Superman!
She stepped forward and shouted, “Amazons! Hold! All of you, hold your places! I, the queen, command you to stay your hands!”
The man’s head snapped around toward her as her subjects obeyed. “Are you the one in charge here?” he demanded.
“I am the queen.”
“Where is your doctor?”
Hippolyta opened her mouth to protest his presence, then saw the set of his jaw and the tension in his shoulders. If he could create an explosion beneath the sand without moving, there was no telling what else he might do.
She turned and called, “Epione! Your skills are needed!”
The healer detached herself from one of the areas where the loudest cheers for Lois had sounded. “You must allow her to lie down,” the healer said to Superman. “I cannot examine her while you hold her.”
Superman laid Lois on the sand as gently as a mother places her newborn on her first bed. And the queen suddenly realized that an even worse case scenario than she had previously imagined had come to pass.
They had allowed someone to batter Superman’s wife nearly to her death. And he was well and truly angry.
Before she could work through the ramifications of their actions, he looked into her eyes and spoke in a cold, flat tone. “She will live or I will destroy this place.”
“What?”
He glanced down at healer, whose hands had not hesitated a moment in treating Lois, then looked up at Hippolyta again. “I said, she will live or I will destroy this place.”
The moment allowed her to recover some of her balance. “And if we do not allow you to do so? What then?”
“You can’t stop me.”
“But – but we have researched you and your behavior! You do not visit vengeance upon anyone, nor do you resort to unnecessary violence! In fact, your stated mission is to help others, to stand for truth and justice, not to destroy! You will not harm us!”
The man snapped his head to one side. Perhaps fifteen paces away, another explosion rent the sand, this one more violent than the first. Hippolyta sensed as much as she saw Epione cover Lois’ body with her own to protect her from the falling debris.
Superman glared at her. “You’re in no position to argue with me, lady. You have your people heal her or I will destroy your cloak generator and any technology you might use to fix it. I will knock down every building I see. I will burn your fields and sink every piece of food on the island in the deepest trench in the sea. And I will tell every nation on earth that there are thousands of available women on this island, all of them just begging for a man to take care of every one of them.”
Hippolyta was horrified. He could indeed do all of those things – and, judging by the expression on his face and the cant of his body, he would do them.
She stepped around him and bent low. “Can you heal her, Epione?”
The healer looked up. “I believe so, but I am not certain. I must also see to the Princess. Her condition is – ”
“No.”
The healer’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Epione, your primary task is to heal this woman. You will devote whatever resources to her which might be required to accomplish this goal. Whatever is left over may be used to heal my daughter.”
“But – your Highness, does not the Princess – ”
Hippolyta tried not to allow the trembling in her heart to be heard in her voice. “This is my royal command, Epione. I ask you to obey without question.”
The healer hesitated a moment, then nodded. “I will do as you command, my queen.” Then she stood and waved for one of the women in the crowd to join her.
A young woman stumbled to the healer’s side. Epione had to shake her arm to get the girl to look away from the blue-and-red-clad newcomer. “Go to the hospital and send two stretchers with teams of four bearers each. Then prepare two beds, one in the royal lounge and one in the noble lounge.”
“Yes, Healer!” The young woman scampered off.
Superman turned to face the healer. “Will she live?”
The healer took a deep breath. “I believe so, but I must begin her treatment as soon as possible. She is badly injured.”
Hippolyta almost missed the tremor in his voice as he said, “Please do your best.”
“I shall give her all of my attention which she requires.”
He nodded and turned back to the queen. She noted that his face had cooled from molten fire to granite. “I’m going to stay with her.”
His manner brooked no disagreement, so she merely nodded. “May I assign guards to you? To prevent other attempts on your life.”
“I told you that you can’t hurt me.”
“But your wife can be hurt. I do not wish for our home to disappear because of the actions of one well-intentioned but ill-informed patriot.”
He considered for a moment, then nodded. “Two at a time. And make sure they know how important she is to me.”
“I will make that abundantly clear, Superman.”
“Make sure you do.” His shoulders hunched closer and his neck bulged with barely restrained power. “I’m holding you personally responsible for what happens to her.”
*****
The hospital was as quiet as the temple after services, the only sounds coming from the healers assisting Epione to treat Lois Lane, wife of Superman, and from those who cared for Diana, Princess of Themyscira.
The throne room, however, was a boiling caldron of anger and offense and fear. Hippolyta was surprised and concerned that so much noise was coming from only eleven Amazons.
“We cannot allow a man to dictate to us!” bellowed Euboea. “He has violated our law! He must be made to suffer!”
“And what would you do to him?” challenged Phillipus. “You saw how the guards’ arrows shattered against his skin! And how he burned their bows from where he stood, not to mention the new features on that beach which might swallow a small boat were any of us idiotic enough to place one there!”
Hippolyta raised a hand. “It is indeed our tradition not to allow men to reside on our island. But you, Mnemosyne, have you not researched this question in our histories?”
Mnemosyne rose and bowed. “At your command, my queen, I have researched this subject. It seems that in the very beginning of our history, men were quartered in restricted areas of our island to provide both combat training to our ancestors and to help defend them against attack. Men were not expressly forbidden from setting foot on Themyscira until approximately eight hundred fifty years ago. That was when the Husbands’ Village was established.”
Euboea raised her arms to either side. “Are you saying that our nation has not always shunned men? What madness is this?”
Mnemosyne slowly turned to face her challenger. “I am repeating what is written in the personal diaries of the earliest queens, irrespective of what is taught to our daughters from the day they are born. And this is not the first time I have found mention of men on Paradise Island.” She lifted her hand against the burble of incredulity. “The Princess also knows of these histories, and I personally observed her reading them when she believed that no one else was in the library. I believe that Princess Diana had planned to supplant our queen and invite her new mate to join her here on Themyscira.”
Charges and counter-charges erupted from the group, some accusing the historian of distorting the truth or even lying, and others either attacking or defending the Princess and her actions.
The queen had heard enough. “Hold!” she cried. No one seemed to hear her. “I CRY HOLD!” she shouted. The tumult ceased as if severed by an expert wielding an axe. “This situation is unprecedented in our history. Were this man a normal man, we would expel him from our shores, or slay him if he resisted. But he is not a normal man.”
Mala snorted and crossed her arms. “Normal or not, he must leave these shores immediately.”
Phillipus smiled and pointed toward the infirmary. “I invite you to enforce your will upon him, Mala. In fact, I invite you to lead any of your friends and supporters – and any friends and supporters of the Princess – to accompany you. And do let me know how well that works out for you.”
Mala turned in her seat and twisted her upper lip into a snarl. “You would not speak thusly to me if – ” she broke off her statement.
“If what, Mala? If the Princess had accomplished her revolution? I daresay you are correct, for any semblance of freedom would be snuffed out with little mercy on the part of the snuffers.”
Before the tumult could graduate into a riot, Hippolyta raised her hand once more. “Hold, all of you! Allow me to complete my thought before you rend me from the throne.”
The queen glared at Mala, who averted her eyes and tried to make herself smaller. Hippolyta took a deep breath. “I am now issuing a royal decree. This man – this Superman – will be given free access to any and all facilities and organizations in Themyscira. There will be no restrictions on his movements whatsoever.”
Even Phillipus seemed stunned by the pronouncement. Hippolyta dropped her voice from ‘royal decree’ mode to an informal one. “I ask you, my advisors, to tell me which of us might be able to force Superman to do anything he does not wish to do. And I would also point out that he has done nothing for the past six hours save to sit beside Lois Lane’s bed and watch over her. If he had intended harm to any of us, we would already be harmed.”
“What of the Princess?” Mala demanded. “She lies as near to death’s door as does this outsider woman! Yet you have ordered our best healer to tend not to the Princess but to her opponent!”
“Yes. It was for the benefit of all Amazons that I did so. Think, Mala! How long would Superman’s wrath be stayed if the outsider were to die? How much more angry might he be if he believed that we had not done everything possible to save her?”
“That brings up another point, Your Highness,” put in Euboea. “This – this ‘Superman’ halted a legitimate Challenge before the outcome was known. What is to be done about that?”
Hippolyta sighed. “Again, what would you have us do? Shall we restart the contest when both Diana and Lois Lane are able to stand upright without assistance? When they are fully healed? Or shall you drag them from their sickbeds to pit them against each other once again? And while you are doing that, you should come up with a plan to deal with Superman.”
“I do not fear him!”
“That’s not a very smart attitude,” said a male baritone.
Every head spun around to find the owner of the voice. He strode to the middle of the room without any of the usual courtesies and put his hands on his hips, then pointed to Euboea. “You. Yes, you. Come here.”
“With pleasure!” She leaped up and skipped toward him, then threw a sudden punch at his jaw.
Her fist cracked against his face and she fell to her knees, silently cradling her injured hand.
Superman sighed at the injured woman, then lifted his head to address the group. “That’s not what I came in here for,” he said. “I only wanted to tell you that your healer says that Lois is stable, and so is the Princess. She thinks that both of them will recover fully.”
Mala huffed and crossed her arms. “And you believe her?”
He turned. “What’s your name?”
“I am Mala! I serve my nation without fear!”
“I hope that doesn’t include throwing punches at me.”
“I would not sully my hands upon you!”
“Well, that’s good, because I’d hate to think that I’d have to throw you into the ocean to unsully you.”
Mala’s face twisted in shock for a moment, then she resumed her haughty mien and turned away from him. “Look,” he said, “I came over here to tell you that I’m going to leave for about ten minutes and then come back. I heard what the queen said about giving me full access to everything on the island, but as long as Lois is safe you don’t have to worry about me.”
“So go!” growled Mala. “Depart! What is stopping you?”
“Nothing is stopping me from leaving, Mala,” he replied, “and nothing can stop me from coming back. And remember, the only thing keeping me from wrecking your island is Lois’ survival and recovery. So if anyone has any ideas about finishing the job Wonder Woman started, you’d better forget them.” He turned and looked at each woman in the assembly in turn. “Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
No one spoke for a moment, then Hippolyta said, “She will not be harmed in any manner while you are away, Superman.”
“Good. In that case,” he indicated the still kneeling Euboea, “you should get someone to look at this woman. I think her hand is broken.”
“It is,” Euboea grated.
He appeared to think about speaking again, but only turned and strode out the door through which he had entered, his cape flowing majestically behind him. Hippolyta sighed. She could see why Diana had desired him as a mate.
And she could also see why he would never be hers.
*****
He’d called in stories from exotic locations before, but never on a satellite phone while floating above a cloaked island wearing the super-suit. It was a first even for Clark Kent.
“That’s right, Jim,” he said. “The story I want you to turn in is that Lois went to Themyscira to report on Wonder Woman dealing with a serious political problem, and while they were there they both got hurt in a battle between the rebels and the royalist supporters. And the Amazons were nice enough to allow me to stay with Lois while she recuperates.”
“Yeah, right,” drawled Jim. “Perry’s not going to buy that any more than I’m buying it.”
“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, okay?”
A ‘humph’ of disgust was the only response.
“Look, Jim, if we print the truth, either the Planet gets painted as a scandal sheet and no one ever believes anything else that shows up on the front page, or there’ll be a public outcry for revenge against all the Amazons and we’ll have ourselves a war. On the other hand, if Perry prints this story and Lois gets time to recover, she’ll have enough material for several positive follow-up pieces, and the Amazons get a chance to ease out of hiding on their own terms.”
There was silence on the satellite phone for a long moment, then Jimmy said, “You are the only person I know who would offer to help these people after what they did to Lois. You really are a hopeless Boy Scout, you know that?”
“There are worse things I could be.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Okay, I’ll pass this on to the Chief, but don’t expect him to be happy about it.”
“I don’t. But I do expect to see that story in the Planet soon.”
“Fine. Hey, when are you going to call again?”
“I don’t know, but it won’t be too long. I have to get back to Lois.”
“Okay.”
“Bye for now, Jim.”
“Hey, wait!”
“What is it?”
Jim was silent for a moment, then he asked, “Just how bad did Lois get hurt?”
Clark hesitated, then admitted, “Worse than ever before. I wasn’t sure she – when I first saw her, she – ”
“That’s cool, CK, I got it. You tell her that I’m rooting for her.”
“I will. And thanks, Jim.”
*****
Diana’s eyes slowly opened. Hanging above her head was a lamp shining into her eyes. She tried to raise her hand to shade her face, but a quick shot of pain in her elbow told her that it was a bad idea.
The pain also cleared her mind. She turned her head to either side as best she could, then looked down at her body.
She was covered by a white sheet. One leg seemed to be larger than the other – it was probably the broken one, encased in a cast. And the arm she’d tried to lift was similarly encased.
With her other hand, Diana carefully examined her chest and stomach. There were bandages around her middle, and more places which were tender than ones which were not. She tried to move her free leg, but found that she was secured to the bed.
She was strapped in like an old woman who might wander off into the night.
Perhaps it is for the best, she thought. Lois had fought like a Kraken before finally succumbing. Odd, though, that she could not recall the final blow of the fight. Perhaps she had suffered a head injury which interfered with her memory.
A face drifted into her line of vision, one she felt she should recognize. “Hagggh?” she croaked.
A voice came from the face. “I will bring the healer, Princess.”
Diana tried to say that she desired something to drink, but no sound came from her mouth. A few moments later, Cydippe and another woman leaned over her.
“We are glad that you have awakened, Princess,” said the other woman. “Do you desire something cool to drink?”
Again Diana’s voice failed, so she nodded her head. “Very good,” said the woman. “Cydippe, will you assist the princess? Here is a glass of fruit juice and a straw.”
“I shall, Timora.”
Timora! That was the other woman’s name. She was an associate of Epione. But where was the chief healer? Surely the Princess of Themyscira deserved the best of care.
Cydippe placed the straw in Diana’s mouth. “Take a small mouthful at first, Princess. We do not wish you to choke.”
Diana felt the chilled juice flow all the way down into her stomach, and the tissues in her mouth seemed to rejuvenate with every swallow. She finally felt able to ask, “Where is – is the queen?”
“She is in conference with her advisors, my Princess. Here, drink some more juice.”
Diana took another gulp, this one almost in self-defense. “Where is Lois’ body? I assume it is in a place of honor.”
“Lois is in the next room, my Princess. She is recovering well. Here, drink some more.”
“Recovering?” The straw fell from Diana’s mouth. “She is here? She still lives?”
“You must not become agitated, Princess! You will re-injure yourself. Please, take some juice. Then perhaps you may sleep.”
Diana turned her head away from the straw. “I cannot rest until my opponent in the Challenge is dead, or until I am dead.” Forgetting that she was bound to the bed, she tried to shift her unbroken arm under her to prop herself up. “Assist me, Cydippe. I must finish her, and quickly.”
Cydippe sat back and stared at her. “You are mad if you believe you can slay her now! The queen has uttered an edict to say that Superman has royal permission to go anywhere he wishes on the island! And for now, he wishes to sit beside Lois Lane and protect her!”
“What? Superman – he is here?”
She slid back down onto the bed as Cydippe let out a bitter bark of laughter. “Yes, Princess. Your Challenge has brought to our island a man who would overthrow all of our traditions and practices, whether ancient or modern, and that without a second thought! We are helpless against him!”
Diana shook her head. “I would speak with him.”
“He will not leave the bedside of the outsider.”
“Nevertheless, I require that you inform him that I wish to speak with him.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
The manly baritone sent a thrill down Diana’s spine, just as it always had. Cydippe, however, spun out of her chair to the floor and crouched in obvious fear before him. Diana frowned. Despite his great power, Superman was not one to be feared. And she had believed that she had trained Cydippe to behave better.
“You said you wanted to speak to me?”
It took Diana a moment to realize that his question was directed to her. When she did, her face brightened and she took a deep breath. “Yes, Superman, I did.” She turned to her frightened friend. “Cydippe, would you inform Healer Timora that I would like to see her?”
Cydippe trembled and looked up at Superman. He stared back for a long moment and she dropped her gaze to the floor. Then he said, “Go and do what the Princess told you to do.”
She scampered out of the room and all but ran down the hall. Diana smiled up at him, but before she could speak, he said, “You were fighting Lois.”
“Well – yes, we were fighting.”
“Over me.”
“That is what the Challenge – ”
“What do you think would have happened if you had won?”
“I – I would have comforted you in your grief.”
He stepped closer, his face like carved marble. “And when I found out that you’d killed her? What then? Just how long do you think you would have lived?”
“But – but the Challenge was legal! It was all according to ancient Amazon law and tradition!”
“Lois isn’t an Amazon.”
“Huh,” breathed Diana. “She fought as if she were.”
“If you had killed her, I don’t know what I would have done. But I can guarantee you that I would be even less happy than I am right now.” He leaned down. “And right at this moment I am farther away from happy than I have ever been in my entire life.”
Less happy – why, he was actually angry!
“But she – but Lois has not given you a child despite being wed to you for five years! I can give you a child! I can allow you to put away your weak Clark Kent identity so that you might live openly as Superman at all times! I am far more suited to be your mate than she!”
His face all but glowed with internal heat. He lifted one hand and formed it into a fist. The amount of pressure within that fist would have crushed every one of Diana’s bones in an instant.
In that moment, Diana understood Cydippe’s reaction to the Man of Steel.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then relaxed his hand and let it drop to the side. “I don’t know what your mother – the queen – has planned for you, but I will tell you now that if I ever see you in Metropolis again, I will personally drive you out of town. I will do whatever it takes to make sure you don’t ever come back. And I will fight you if that’s what I have to do to make it happen. In fact, I will fight you and whoever you bring to help you. If that includes every Amazon on this island, that’s who I’ll fight, one at a time or all at once.” He stood tall and straight, and his arms crossed over his chest. “Do I make myself perfectly clear, Princess Diana?”
“But – you – I – ”
His voice was harder than diamond and colder than an Arctic gale. “Think about this. I am strong enough and fast enough to pull your head completely off your neck, drop it in the queen’s lap, turn around and grab Lois, and be far away from here before you stop moving your lips. Tell me if I am making myself clear now.”
She looked into his eyes and she knew real terror. He could, in truth, do exactly as he had just described, and no force on earth could prevent him.
Except, perhaps, Lois Lane.
Diana tried to swallow and barely managed to clear her suddenly dry mouth. “Yes. I understand.”
“So you’re not coming back to Metropolis? Not ever?”
The words came hard, but they came. “No. I will not return to Metropolis.”
“Good.” He turned and took a step away, then stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “Someone told me about the fight and how Lois caught you with a kick between your legs.” His lip curled into a mean smile. “I bet that hurt, didn’t it?” Then his expression hardened again and he added, “But not as much as it would if I did the kicking.”
And he was gone.
Diana flopped back onto the bed, suddenly awash with perspiration. It was all over. She had failed miserably and earned the enmity of the world’s strongest hero instead of his love. All was lost, and she had no hope of recovering any particle of her former aspirations.
The folly of her gamble struck her with the force of one of Lois’ blows. It had been her hubris, her pride, her certainty that she alone understood everything she needed to understand and knew everything she needed to know which had brought her to this end.
Now the queen would dismantle her organization. Her followers would either repudiate her or follow her into whatever punishment the queen deemed appropriate. Diana hoped she would only be banished, perhaps to a far northern clime. She had heard of ‘snow’ but had never seen it. Experiencing such a phenomenon for the first time would surely be a more pleasurable moment than contemplating her imminent death.
Then she realized that her fear of Superman had caused her to lose control of her bladder, just as the man she’d used as a pawn to track Superman had done. The indignities overwhelmed her and she cried out in anguish and shame.
The tears began and she believed that they might never stop.
