Justice League_The Gauntlet

by Simonson, Louise

  He reached toward an alarm button. But Wonder Woman was there first, grabbing him by the hood and hurling him across the room.

  Desaad slammed into the wall and slid down, unconscious.

  Wonder Woman pulled the Brain Binder helmet from Himon’s head and hurled it to the floor. Then she stomped down on it hard, crushing it beneath her foot.

  “Your filament worked, Himon. My mind was protected. My will is my own!” she said as she ripped apart the metal shell that imprisoned him.

  Himon stepped free. “If being a super hero ever fails, you could become a fine actress,” he said. “You had me worried, despite our plan.”

  Wonder Woman smiled sadly. “I have seen the Brain Bound up close, so I knew how to mimic them.”

  Methodically, she smashed Desaad’s machines, especially the computers that held her digitized memories. “Themyscira and the Earth are safe at last,” she said.

  Diana glanced at the wall screens displaying the dungeon cells.

  “Now let’s free Desaad’s prisoners,” she said as she walked toward the lab door.

  “Wait! The cells can be opened via a master switch,” Himon said. He depressed a large lever. “There!”

  On the observation screens, Wonder Woman could see cell doors sliding open. Slowly, prisoners began to shuffle forward, then run toward the exits. Wonder Woman knew the escapees would soon be climbing up the stairs as she had, searching for a way out. And Desaad’s guards would be waiting for them.

  “I’ve got to protect the Lowlies,” she said, “until they’re safely away from here.”

  Wonder Woman and Himon ducked out the lab door and sprinted down the hall toward the stairs. Several guards rounded a corner and Wonder Woman drop-kicked them, hardly breaking stride.

  She opened the stairwell door. From below came screams, shouts, the pop of weapon fire, and the tramping of hundreds of feet as they climbed up the stairs.

  “The ground floor is three flights down,” Himon said. “There’s a side entrance that leads to the courtyard you escaped into.”

  On the ground floor, Wonder Woman threw open the stairwell door.

  Guards and officers fired energy blasts, which she deflected with her miraculous silver bracelets. She ducked back into the stairwell.

  “Wait here!” she said to Himon. “I’ll be right back.”

  Wonder Woman flew down a corridor, evading and deflecting weapon fire and taking out the attacking guards and officers.

  She ripped the exterior door from its hinges and smashed a gaping hole in the courtyard wall.

  Then she zoomed back inside.

  Wonder Woman flew down the stairwell.

  She assailed the guards, deflected their weapon fire, and protected the Lowlies as they streamed past her up the stairs toward freedom.

  They ran like frightened animals, not stopping to glance her way or thank her. Not questioning their good fortune. Only scrabbling desperately for safety.

  So Wonder Woman was amazed when a teenage boy hesitated and looked up. The crowd almost knocked him down, and he fought to stand upright as he shouted up at her. “I thought we Lowlies were too worthless for anyone to care about. But I was wrong. Thank you!”

  An old woman behind him grunted and shoved. “Stop jawing and move, boy. We ain’t free yet!”

  On the landing leading to the ground floor, Himon waited. The teenager stepped away from the Lowlies streaming past and stood looking at Himon with shining eyes. “You’re a legend among us, sir. I hope I see you again.”

  “You will, lad, that I promise,” Himon told him. “Mother Box will lead me to you.”

  The boy smiled shyly at Himon. Then he ran out the door and into the slums beyond.

  The last of the prisoners was dashing to freedom as Wonder Woman rejoined Himon on the landing. Seeing his smile, she asked, “You spoke with that boy?”

  “He’s beginning to know his own value,” Himon told her. “And his eyes will open to myriad possibilities.”

  Mother Box pinged several times, interrupting them.

  “Mother Box tells me Desaad had back-up equipment. But, while we were in his lab, she was able to trace and analyze their frequencies. She has just created and broadcast a virus that, even now, is destroying every Brain Binder program on Apokolips.”

  Desaad’s sneering voice came from the stairwell above. “You were fools to risk recapture and death to free those ingrate Lowlies. And even greater fools to think you could foil me so easily. Guessing what you would do, I have already taken measures to reacquire an intact Brain Binder program. Your efforts there were wasted.”

  Wonder Woman glanced at Himon, alarmed. “What—?”

  “He’s probably referring to the canister still on Earth. It would contain intact Brain Binder technology.”

  “Twenty points!” Desaad sneered.

  Wonder Woman grabbed Desaad by the front of his robe. “What have you done?”

  Desaad smirked. “Invisible though it remains, your Justice League cohorts found the canister and took it to their satellite headquarters. Minutes back, I transported a squad of Parademons there to retrieve it.”

  From outside Desaad’s manor, Wonder Woman could hear shouted commands and running footsteps.

  Desaad smiled. “It seems that, while we stood chatting, my Master and his troops arrived. I anticipate your recapture—”

  Wonder Woman snarled, “Then you’re doomed to disappointment!” She threw Desaad roughly against the wall. He slid to the ground, once again unconscious.

  “Himon,” she said. “You once told me you could send me back to Earth. Can you send me to our satellite instead?”

  “Place the coordinates in your mind,” Himon told her. “Mother Box will call up a Boom Tube and deliver you there.”

  Wonder Woman took his hands in hers. “Thank you, Himon—and Mother Box—for this and for all you have done.”

  As she stepped back, Himon smiled gently. “And I thank you, Wonder Woman. You have given an old man hope. You are a woman of spiritual as well as physical strength, worthy of your armor. Now leave! We must both be gone before Lord Darkseid arrives.”

  She hesitated. “You can get away safely, then?”

  Himon grinned mischievously. “That shouldn’t be a problem!” Mother Box ping-pinged and Himon began to fade into invisibility.

  Then Wonder Woman heard a clap of thunder as the Boom Tube vortex surrounded her, teleporting her back toward Earth.

  Wonder Woman fell from the Boom Tube onto the main observation deck of the Watchtower—the Justice League’s satellite headquarters. Behind her, the teleportation vortex disappeared.

  Through the large floor-to-ceiling window, Diana saw the planet Earth orbiting below and spotted the Aegean Sea, where Themyscira lay hidden by the magic of the ancient gods she served. Please, Athena, help me keep them safe! she prayed silently.

  Strident sounds of battle clamored behind her. She whirled and saw a tangle of warring figures and ricocheting energy blasts, a cacophony of grunts and shouts, of screams of anger and shrieks of pain.

  She sighed with relief. If the battle’s still going on, I’m not too late, she thought. They haven’t got the canister. Yet.

  She spotted Superman using heat vision to melt Parademon weapons into slag. Then Superman himself was hidden by a swarm of attackers.

  As Wonder Woman rushed to aid him, she heard the crunch of knuckles on demon-flesh. She ducked as an unconscious Parademon sailed overhead and slammed into the viewport window. She dodged a second, and a third, till she reached Superman and joined the fray.

  Superman’s voice was warm with relief. “Diana! It’s good to have you back!”

  She started to ask him where the League had stored the canister, then held her tongue. If the Parademons didn’t know, she didn’t want to help them find out.

  A group of Parademons tackled her, knocking her into Martian Manhunter, who abruptly disappeared. The Parademon attackers rose in gawking, squawking confusion.

/>   “Green devil was just here!”

  “Where’d he go?”

  Invisible hands pulled off several of the monsters, freeing Wonder Woman. And invisible fists began to pummel them in earnest, with a strength that rivaled Superman’s.

  “Useful power,” she said. “Thanks, Manhunter!”

  “My pleasure,” said his voice. “Welcome home!”

  Down a corridor, a beam of emerald energy was surging from the Power Ring wielded by Green Lantern. By an act of will, Green Lantern had shaped the ring’s energy into a cage that had imprisoned a score of Parademons.

  Hawkgirl, hovering at his back, swung her mace with eager expertise, knocking aside their attackers. A pile of fallen Parademons attested to her skill and strength.

  The Flash was racing at superspeed, skillfully evading ricocheting energy and tricking Parademons into firing blasts at him that inevitably struck their own comrades.

  Wonder Woman saw that, for now, her teammates were more than holding their own. Except—where was Batman?

  Batman, the only member of the Justice League without superpowers, was a hero by dint of talent and determination, but most of all, through force of intellect. He would have deduced what Wonder Woman knew: that this attack, this pitched battle was a diversion to distract the Justice League while other Parademons searched the Watchtower for the canister.

  Batman would have rushed to protect it.

  She grabbed at the Flash as he went by. “The canister, Flash! Where is it?”

  Grinning, the Flash screeched to a halt. “Hey, Princess! You’re back!” Then he looked at her blankly. “What canister?”

  “The one that—” she began, then realized she couldn’t go there. So she asked instead, “Where’s Batman?”

  Flash glanced around, concerned. “I don’t know. His lab maybe? He was in there working on that invisible thing you—”

  So the canister’s still invisible, she thought. She didn’t know if that was good or bad, but at least she knew where to find it.

  “That’s why the Parademons are here!” she whispered urgently. “Tell the others! Hurry! I’ll help Batman!”

  She flew down the maze of corridors to Batman’s laboratory. Dismayed to see that the lab door had been forced open, she rushed inside.

  Parademons, felled by Batman’s assorted inventive weaponry, lay among the shattered remains of modern scientific equipment. Batman himself, scored by a dozen wounds, was fighting several monsters hand to hand.

  Even as Wonder Woman dove to aid him, one of the fallen Parademons fired a blast, striking Batman in the shoulder. He collapsed sideways across a counter, but his body was suspended above its surface by . . . a thing that wasn’t there!

  With a shout of triumph, his Parademon assailants spotted their objective and lunged for the invisible cylinder. But Wonder Woman was there before them. She snatched the canister into her arms, leapt high into the air, and kicked out. The Parademons flew backward and slammed into several others.

  But at their cries, other Parademons had swarmed into the lab.

  Wonder Woman reeled backward under their onslaught. Tucking the invisible canister beneath one arm, she used the bracelet on the other to deflect their weapon blasts.

  Though she fought desperately, she knew that she alone could not prevail against such numbers. Several of the monsters had already gotten close enough to tug at the invisible cylinder, and she could feel it slipping.

  Then, in a burst of heat, the Parademons tumbled backward. With the Flash in the lead, Superman, Green Lantern, and the rest of the Justice League poured into the lab.

  The room became a maelstrom of fists and fangs, of wings and weapon blasts.

  And when it was over, not a single Parademon was left standing.

  Diana knelt beside Batman. He opened his eyes and smiled up at her. “You showed up in the nick of time!” he said. “Any idea what’s in that . . . invisible cylinder?”

  As they tended Batman’s flesh wounds, Wonder Woman told the League about her adventure on Apokolips, of the threat that Darkseid’s Brain Binder posed, and of Himon’s help in neutralizing that problem. Only the canister on Earth had remained a threat. Superman lifted the invisible cylinder and smiled grimly. “It won’t be a threat after I throw it into the sun,” he said. “Not even Apokoliptian technology can survive that!”

  Green Lantern grumbled, “All this has been . . . interesting, Wonder Woman. But next time you might consider sticking to the plan!”

  Wonder Woman grinned. “You know, GL, I just might do that!”

  She glanced at the corner of the room where the unconscious and disarmed Parademons had been neatly stacked, and wrinkled her nose with disgust. “What are we going to do with all these Parademons?”

  With a roar, a Boom Tube appeared, swept up the Parademons, and was gone.

  Superman quirked a brow. “Apparently Desaad didn’t want us questioning his minions too closely.”

  “Desaad might not work and play well with others,” she said, suppressing her laughter, “but at least he picks up his toys when he’s finished playing with them.”

  On Apokolips, Desaad was hunched disconsolately in his destroyed lab. He was so miserable he hardly cringed as his master Darkseid swept into the room, then stopped abruptly, surveying the wreckage.

  Darkseid’s granite brow lifted sardonically. “Wonder Woman did all this? Freed all your prisoners? And then escaped?”

  “With Himon’s help!” Desaad muttered savagely. “I had the Brain Binder on his head. I was so close to destroying him.”

  “It wouldn’t have worked,” Darkseid said. “Even if I had allowed it. Theirs was a bold stratagem, Desaad. They practically forced Willik to arrest them. And they came here prepared to destroy your hold on Wonder Woman. I suppose we have lost all the Wonder Woman data?”

  Desaad cringed. “Every shred of it! I ran the Amazon through the gauntlet that is Apokolips, Sire. I tested her. But, in the end, I failed to deliver the data. Or her—Brain Bound—to you! Forgive me!”

  Darkseid shrugged. “An interesting experiment, Desaad. But I hardly need Brain Binding to dominate Apokolips—or Earth!”

  Wonder Woman’s achievements were most impressive, Darkseid thought, even in befriending the only man on Apokolips who could have helped her. Perhaps, in this Amazon, I have finally found a goddess who is worthy of me.

  Aboard the Watchtower, the Justice League sat down to dinner. They raised their glasses in a toast to Himon.

  The Flash said, “To the most godly New God on Apokolips!”

  He glanced sideways at Wonder Woman, waiting for her to mention Amazons, or remind him that her mother was a goddess or that she knew a batch of real gods.

  But she didn’t do any of those things.

  She simply clinked glasses with him and smiled.

  Wonder Woman stood alone on the observation deck, studying the Earth below.

  After seeing Apokolips, Diana finally understood that it was Hippolyta’s love of Themyscira’s peace and beauty—and superior understanding of what might one day happen to her realm—that had made her train her daughter as a champion against such evil.

  Diana was grateful now for her education. Because of that training, she had grown into the warrior that she needed to become.

  Diana silently thanked the wise Athena, whose gift had let her grow up headstrong instead of simply burdened with duty. Because she had been given the freedom to follow her heart, when the time came for her to act, she was able to take the armor—though it was forbidden—and thus fulfill her birth prophecy.

  Diana hoped that, one day, Hippolyta would understand that and forgive her for leaving their island home. But Diana knew that, in using her special skills to protect the whole Earth, she had made the right choice.

  And whatever happened, Diana also knew, she would always be an Amazon.

  LOUISE SIMONSON was born in Atlanta, where she attended Georgia State University. Her first job in comics was at Warren Publis
hing, where she eventually became vice president and senior editor. At Marvel Comics she was an editor of numerous titles, including Star Wars and The Uncanny X-Men. Simonson left her editorial position to pursue a freelance writing career, creating the award-winning Power Pack series. Among other titles she has written are X-Factor, The New Mutants, and Web of Spider-Man. For DC Comics she has scripted Batman, The New Titans, and Superman: Man of Steel. She is also the author of Superman: Doomsday & Beyond (Bantam, 1993), I Hate Superman! (Little, Brown, 1996), and Steel (Troll, 1997), a novelization of the film starring Shaquille O’Neal, based on the character she co-created. She has also written numerous episodes of The Multipath Adventures of Superman (presented by Warner Bros. Online, 1999–2002). Louise Simonson lives in upstate New York with her husband, Walter, who is also a writer and artist.