Title: Partners (1/1)
Author: BradyGirl_12
Pairings/Characters: Steve/Diana, various brigands
Genres: Action/Adventure
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: References to rape
Spoilers: None
Summary: While on a mission, Wonder Woman is confident of her back-up.
Date Of Completion: May 17, 2013
Date Of Posting: January 16, 2014
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em, DC does, more’s the pity.
Word Count: 1356
Feedback welcome and appreciated.
Author’s Note: This story has been sitting around in my notebook/on my hard drive for awhile, because first I wasn’t satisfied with it, and then I couldn’t come up with a title. I did some revising and the title isn’t the greatest, but it fits. :)
"In the heat of battle, one needs a comrade one can trust."
Major Alan Rivers
U.S. Army
1944 C.E.
Wonder Woman stood in front of the citadel in all her star-spangled glory. She rested her hands on her hips, her dark hair blowing in the wind. The arid air seared the lungs of ordinary mortals, but the Amazon shrugged it off. She was ready for whatever came next.
The citadel was gray stone in this barren land. It was a brooding structure with a thick, round window set high. A parapet ran around the outer structure but no one could be seen patrolling it. A drawbridge was drawn up tightly with large linked chains. It was a formidable stronghold, but Wonder Woman felt calm as she prepared herself.
The citadel looked abandoned but she knew better. Her fingers brushed against the Golden Lasso resting on her hip. Its sparkling energy sent a tingle through her fingers and up her arm. She could play this waiting game all day. For one who had grown up in Paradise, time was immemorial.
Finally there was movement as someone appeared on the parapet. Wonder Woman continued to wait. The lone figure disappeared and the drawbridge lowered noisily, landing with a clang as dust puffed up from the hard ground. The lone figure walked across the wooden drawbridge, his robes flapping in the hot breeze. He stopped several feet away from Wonder Woman.
“Woman, you are not wanted here.”
“Your government says differently.”
The man spat at her feet. “Our oppressors, you mean.”
“The village you and your men plundered only care that you robbed and raped.”
The man bared his teeth in a confident smile. “And do you intend to take us all in by yourself?”
Wonder Woman smiled. She could feel the presence of her partner high up in the rocks, his gun trained on the smirking robber. He would use all his military training for stealth and surveillance and had her back. He was also an expert marksman.
“Surrender, and consider yourself lucky.”
The robber threw back his head and laughed. He looked at her gleefully. “You are going to take us all in?”
“That is correct.”
His dark eyes glittered as he scratched his beard. “Woman, you are sadly mistaken.” Disgust crossed his weatherbeaten features. He waved his hand dismissively. “And cover yourself up. You are shameless.”
Wonder Woman’s smile was enigmatic. She said nothing but her fingers curled around the Golden Lasso at her hip.
The robber shrugged. “So be it, then. Defeat will be bitter for you, brazen one.”
“Are you unacquainted with Amazons?”
The brigand snorted. “Fictitious creatures created by lustful Westerners.”
“I believe that you will find out the measure of an Amazon, rapist.”
The brigand’s lip curled. “Woman, you should learn to be silent.”
This time Wonder Woman was the one to throw her head back and laugh. Her opponent frowned as he scratched his beard again.
“What is so amusing?” he asked.
“Your arrogance, rapist. You believe yourself on top of the world, yet you refuse to acknowledge superior power. You shall find out differently.” Her expression was predatory. “You are truly isolated in this sad little corner of the world. Be gone.”
The brigand turned on his heel and stalked across the drawbridge, which was drawn up behind him. Wonder Woman unhooked her Golden Lasso from her belt. She cocked her head slightly back and smiled. Her partner was ready to watch her back, as always.
A spray of bullets kicked up the dust at her feet. The next salvo aimed at her head but she easily countered with her bracelets. The bullets ricocheted crazily around the rocks as the attack speeded up. Wonder Woman increased her own speed and deflected the projectiles.
Bullets ‘N’ Bracelets is one of my favorite games.
She played a little while longer before she summoned her invisible plane and climbed aboard. The bullets merely bounced off its clear surface as she piloted the plane toward the stronghold. She could see the men scurrying around and said, “Dive, plane.”
Wonder Woman ran out to the wing and twirled the glittering Lasso over her head. She let it fly and caught one man, pulling him up out of the stronghold. He struggled mightily but Wonder Woman swung him with ease onto a flat-topped cliff. A camouflage-clad figure popped out from behind some rocks and quickly punched the brigand, knocking him out. Wonder Woman pulled her Golden Lasso off and her partner waved as he dragged the prisoner away.
She flew her plane back over the citadel, sharp eyes spotting movement in a window. She ordered the plane, “Bank,” and climbed out to stand on the wing again. She knew how many men had been reported as seen in the village and estimated at least a half-dozen more that had stayed behind. American Intelligence had given her enough information to figure her strategy.
Her blood boiled as she thought of the barbaric acts committed by these men on the defenseless village that they had recently pillaged. When the embattled Prime Minister had requested the JLA for assistance, she had volunteered to take the mission. She loathed rapists and the brigands had committed these scurrilous acts. She hated rapists. From time immemorial, men on the battlefields had plundered with brutish ferocity, usually using rape against women though sometimes against men, too.
Men like that do not deserve compassion or consideration.
Wonder Woman ordered the plane to dive as she shrieked like Xena (where did people think the producers got the idea?) and jumped to the ground. She whirled the magical Lasso above her head and called, “Surrender, despicable scum! You will not escape!”
Wonder Woman saw a shadow move in one of the windows. She threw her tiara through the window and smiled as she heard a scream of outrage. The tiara came back and she affixed it to her head. One more brigand knocked out.
She decided to stop fooling around, as her partner would say. She deflected a new barrage of bullets, charged forward, and grabbed the shooter. With a flick of her wrist she tossed him all the way back to the cliff. He would break a few bones but what of it? He deserved more than that.
Wonder Woman leaped through the window just as a missile from a rocket launcher exploded in the courtyard. She smiled. Her partner was right on target.
As she stalked the dim corridors, every sense alert, she knew that she could clean out this nest of vipers by herself as a fully-trained Amazon, but it was wise to go into battle with a trusted comrade at her side. Back home that would mean Mala or Artemis as her comrade-in-arms. In Man’s World, she had JLA friends like Clark, Bruce, Dinah, Shayera, Ollie, J’onn and many others.
And, of course, my partner.
Wonder Woman ran down the brigands and defeated each one with Amazonian skill. She ignored their misogynistic curses and used their own chains to bind them together. Hopping onto her invisible plane, she flew away from the citadel and to the cliff. Sunlight glinted off the blond hair of the man below who waved at her.
She hopped down from the plane. “You must call the Chief of the Royal Guard and tell him that the criminals he seeks are ready to be taken custody of by his men.”
“Great.” Steve took out his cellphone. “He can pick up the two you dumped into my lap.” The two prisoners were bound and gagged and sitting against a boulder as they scowled.
Wonder Woman rewound her Golden Lasso. She and Steve worked well together. He understood the Way of the Warrior in ways that sometimes even her fellow superheroes could not. Trust and competence were necessary companions in battle situations. Wonder Woman was pleased that she had a worthy comrade and lover.
Steve flipped his phone shut and watched appreciatively as Wonder Woman walked toward him. She ran her fingers through his thick hair and pulled him close as she kissed him with fervor.
A fine partnership, indeed.
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