Wonder Woman

Diana stood, steadying herself with her feet as far apart as possible. To her vision, through the somewhat murky molten rock that now made up the formerly liquid aspects of her eyes, she could vaguely see her opponent before her.

The fire elemental had just ignited the air around them. Every molecule of Oxygen and nitrogen was burning around her and she couldn’t see a damned thing. She’d trained for this, as an Amazon, but she’d not been trained how to fight blind in a body that reacted on a geological time frame.

As Kako moved with frightening speed, her foot prints leaving burning and molten earth beneath her, she landed seventeen punches on Diana’s rock hard body before she was even able to take a step forward. She lurched forward, trying to catch herself but the ground simply swallowed her foot as Kako landed more burning punches, sizzling away at the layer of rock that was now her skin, bringing the molten ‘blood’ underneath her to the surface.

“S…Stop,” Diana pleaded, though her lips barely reacted to her wishes. She needed to take control. The fire elemental was going to prove that she didn’t deserve the powers of the Elemental. Though she moved slowly physically, her mind could still work quickly. As she tried to regulate her breathing a little more, something that she didn’t need to do, she attempted to calm herself. This was just as much war as it was when she was Wonder Woman, no more difficult than the last time she lost her powers and her station. Violence was always violence, you lead with you heart, back up with your brain and focus your body. She took one final breath as Kako began to raise the ambient temperature, rocks starting the sizzle as the environment turned to wavering lines of heat.

The barren wasteland barely had any life on it to begin with and now all that had been there was dead and gone. The rocks were beginning to melt and even Diana was beginning to feel the heat. Instead of fighting, she simply sat down on the ground and crossed her legs. The smaller pebbles around her began to turn red with the energy being released and Kako’s face did as well in a mixture of rage and disappointment.

“Couldn’t even be bothered to fight me, is that it? You’re not taking your place in the world seriously are you? ARE YOU?”

Fiery temper.

“No, I…think it is….you who isn’t…acting seriously.” She turned her head slowly towards Kako, who stopped and looked at her.

“How dare you! HOW DARE YOU!” The heat ramped up again, some of the smaller pebbles turning into liquid completely, as plumes of steam jetted from inside rocks and cracked them in half. Diana turned her brain on and began to study what would happen if she was indeed an elemental.

Swamp Thing; Red Tornado; Even Naiad from what limited experience she had of her, could control and become their base elements. It was clear that Kako was made from fire, though fire was a very basic form of energy release. Did it not then make sense for her to become more than just a rock being?

Concentrating more she remembered learning of volcanoes, of the ecology and by products of eruptions, of aerated soils and rocks.

Of Pumice.

She got to her feet quickly, leaping higher into the air than Kako dared ever consider. How did she work it out so quickly? It had taken Kako at least a month to consider the prospect of turning her body to flames and then work as a flame does, rather than as a human controlling the flames.

Diana landed next to her, flicking her wrist and flattening her palm against Kako’s neck, without any power at all.

“Demonstration,” she said simply, stepping back from the fire elemental, who dropped the power levels down to an acceptable level and stood arms at her side, staring at Diana.

Kako’s anger built to crescendo, the burst of flames knocking Diana’s much lighter form off balance and she flipped backwards a few times, seeking refuge behind a large boulder. As she touched it, the rock seemed to give Diana a taste of what it was, who it was. Plants, Animals, Flames, Water, Air currents and Rocks; they all had their own identity.

The rocks around Diana gurgled and spat onto her form. She gathered her geological tunic up, and leapt as high as she could into the air, as the rocks, and other heavier elements finally exploded into flames and liquefied, leaving a large pool of lava beneath her. As Diana reached her terminal height, she cast her vision down again and felt the fluidity of the rocks beneath her.

For the first time in her life as an Elemental, albeit a short period of reflection, Diana felt some Speed to the world of the Earth, to the rocks and strata of the lands. The magma flow beneath her dispersed, flooding backwards as she landed, fist on the ground and one knee bent to allow her a perfect landing. She looked up at Kako and smiled, gleaming white Calcium shards were her teeth now, and she stood slowly, the lava swirling around her, lapping just before her feet.

She threw a hand out from her body and the Lava collected and tore itself away, leaving only a steaming and hardening surface beneath them. Kako stood looking shocked as Diana walked over to her again, speaking slowly.

“Control.”

Diana didn’t want to share just how difficult it was; she thought her mind was going to break under the strain. She’d practiced extreme concentrative states before this, but this went above and beyond meditation and control, this was trying to impose order on something that fundamentally wasn’t ordered. It was mind numbing.

“How did you even think of that?”

“Amazon’s are taught…that violence comes…with intelligence and intelligence…with wisdom. We are taught how to fight…but only after we are taught…how to think.”

“And?” Kako asked

“I thought…my way…out.” Diana said simply, to a huff from Kako, who pushed passed her and pointed to the ridge.

“Over there.”

“Two of you?” For Diana’s next challenge, she stood before two elementals, Father and Daughter.

“We speak for….The Green…” Swamp Thing said, his voice as usual meandering and slow, whilst Tefé stood beside him, leather jacket, ripped jeans, various piercings over her body and a cigarette hanging from her mouth, plumes of acrid smoke rising into the atmosphere. She thought her father had not noticed or she simply didn’t care.

“And the Red.” Tefé shot Diana a toothy grin before taking another long toke on the cigarette.

As Alec reached down and pinched his fingers over the end of the Cigarette.

“Not…Now, Tefé.” Alec, stood to his full height again as Diana took the affront this time. Her pumice body charging forwards, her tunic flowing behind her, as much as rock could. She pulled her fist backwards and hurled it into the centre of Swamp-Thing, who simply absorbed the punch and looked down at Diana’s fist.

“Think like a…Human, still don’t …you?” he asked in a voice as slow as her own but with more mulch tones to it, lips smacking like moss crunching under foot. Tefé snorted and pulled her own hand back, placing it against Diana’s shoulder as Alec did the same to the opposite one. Within seconds, Diana’s body was covered with parasites, bacteria drilling into her form and mosses plants and ivy’s crawling over her body. Her limbs were tangled with Kudzu, the fastest growing form of vine in the world, trapping her limbs. Her form was violated with anaerobic bacteria that began to harvest the rock that was her body.

It hurt…it really, really hurt.

She let out a scream that made Tefé jump. She didn’t expect that sort of reaction from a warrior princess, but she piled it on anyway, forcing Hydrogen and sulphites into Diana’s body whilst Alec pumped on the Chlorophyll.

“Stop…it…Please,” Diana begged, dropping onto a knee and looked up at the two.

“You need to know, Diana.” Tefé crouched down and cupped her chin, kissing her cheek softly.

“You need to know that we all balance each other out,” she continued. “Fire extinguishes water and visa versa; rocks don’t burn easily, wind doesn’t drown, but we all prey on each other slow and eventually. Plants and bacteria…we kill rocks.”

Kill rocks? Diana pulled herself away from their grip, arms wheeling as she used the last of her mental strength to change herself back to something denser, arms tearing at the roots and vines that bound her legs to the ground, eyes flicking up to her attackers every now and then. She needed to create some distance; she needed a chance to think.

How does a rock prevent being over taken by bacteria or overtaken by plant life? She thrust her hands into the ground and a stone podium shot her into the air, tearing the plants from her body, whilst the bacteria clung to her insides. Tefé and the Swamp-Thing began to scale the side of the podium, Tefé using bone claws and Alec simply allowing vines to do all the lifting, while he remained in exactly the same position as he had been standing.

“I will not…be defeated…” She thrust her hand into the ground at her feet again, pain overtaking her reflexes and her muscles spasmed, shards of rock exploding outwards like the spines of a puffer fish and impaling Alec, thrusting him away from the rock while Tefé deftly avoided it all.

Diana dropped to her knees atop the podium and began to vomit, voiding the bacteria in the form of lava and thick, green slime from her insides. She could feel her internal composition move without her thinking about it, as though it were gathering the creatures and voiding them. The podium began to crack and the three of them dropped from the sky.

In a last ditch effort, Diana fell away more as she pushed from a fragment of rock and plowed into Tefé, her fist colliding with the girls jaw as they both hit the ground. Tefé bounced, Diana didn’t.

As Diana tried to right herself, Alec pulled himself from the rubble and rushed over to his daughter.

“Tefé? Tefé?”

“Swamp-Thing I am…Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Tefé shook her head as she looked up from the ground with a black eye, smiling before passing out again. Alec turned slowly to Diana and gestured towards the next stage of her trails, a line of flowers blossoming before her.

“Thank you, Swamp-Thing.”

Their eyes met across the expanse, the Android locking eyes with her.

“I do not want to hurt you, Diana.”

“Nor I you, John.”

They stood, admiring each other, for a moment before the synthetic man moved towards, taking her hands in his own and looking into her glowing eyes with his own hollow slits.

“I have been through many forms, Diana, some advanced, some less so. Every time I have done so, I know the disadvantages of learning your new body, your new place of rest. I know that it is difficult to process, to think as you move and react. You are a quick study, a quick learner; I know you will do our pantheon proud.”

“Thank you, John I..”

“I am not finished yet, Diana. There is a down side. You will be asked to control your end, you will have to parlay with Gaia and with the Parliament of Stones, you will have to achieve states and ideals that were beyond your mortal form, and you will need to understand that the rocks need guidance as much as the humans did. You tried to change the human world and, sadly, you failed. Now it is time for you to change the world of rocks, if you can.”

“I’m not sure I…”

“There is a Seventh, Diana, there is always Seven. Wind, Earth, Water, Fire, Plant and Animal, what binds us all together, what keeps the water water, what keeps the fire burning, the rocks floating, the plants growing the animals alive and the winds blowing?”

“I…”

“Electromagnetism, Diana. Electromagnetic fields keep light, gravity and magnetism together. It’s what keeps us together and our Elemental brother or sister is about to be born. Gaia has spoken to me, at length, about finding this elemental. I go now to achieve my task, but I give you also advice and bad tidings. The battle hasn’t yet begun for you or for us, many challenges and transformations will occur to you over this time and you will have challenges to your form, to your power and to your life. Be brave, my princess.” The Tornado gave a short squeeze of her hands before the gusts of wind shot him into the stratosphere, oscillating just outside of Diana’s vision.

Grave warnings indeed and Diana couldn’t help but fear for herself and the world. She held herself for a few moments, before a loud, gushing noise over-took her thoughts.

Diana instinctively lifted her hands to protect her from the surge of water. It rushed past her already weakening form. The Sea and the Earth had always had a more…tempestuous relationship. The rock’s threaten to take over the sea’s, shifting and moving underneath them, like conspiring lovers, whilst the sea works to remove the earth from its path, eroding trails through the lands and crashing against cliffs. Naiad’s face was all around her as Diana instinctively puffed her cheeks up, though she no longer had lungs or a need for such a thing.

As the torrents of water charged around her she could feel herself already beginning to break apart. As she looked down at her body she saw tiny chunks being pulled away from her frame, fragments of herself lost forever. Naiad increased the flow, exertion written on her transparent features as Diana dug her heels into the surface below her and resisted the flow of the water. She felt an entire section of hair float away, causing her to bend down and ram her hands into the surface to give her some purchase.

She looked around her, feeling more and more of herself being pulled away. She watched her arm get gradually smaller and thinner until she was sure the rest of her body matched. A veritable skeleton of rock, only the hardest and toughest chunks hadn’t been pushed away now. She wasn’t sure what to do…was this going to be the end of her?

As she began to think it through, it seemed the current increased in strength or Diana was down to her last ebbs. At that moment something clicked in her brain: where was all this water coming from? How could Naiad maintain such currents when there was no water to begin with?

She was drawing water from the air, moisture from everywhere, and if Naiad could do it…

As Diana thought of it, the area around her began to sink lower as her mass, specifically rock mass being absorbed by her body up through her arms and legs gave her greater mass and strength than before, until she stood upright.

Chunks floated from her new body as she crossed her arms slowly. The more that floated away from her, the more she drew from the surrounding area until it was essentially a stalemate; neither elemental could affect the other.

The torrents died down and Naiad faced Diana in the form of a puddle.

“Your final challenge awaits you, Diana. All you need do is step into me.”

Diana paused for a moment before slowly and clumsily moving into Naiad.

“What…”

“…are you…” Diana’s words were cut off as she stumbled through the portal before her. Closure, Gaia had assured her. Closure was the final test, her final task in this new world she inhabited. She stepped from the bright light into the cool surf as the sun set in the distance. She heard distant yells as the clunking sound of metal on metal as the armor plating collided with one another.

In less than a minute, the Amazon army had been mobilized. Her body had been trained by dozens of highly skilled archers that now stood at the fore in front of her vision behind a row of strong shouldered women bearing huge round shields, losing their shape only to the notch that allowed their spears to protrude. Diana took a long drawn breath, despite the fact and necessity of breath was long since a vain attempt at retaining some normalcy, and spoke.

“Mother,” Diana said simply as a woman wearing heavy armor stepped forth, a long broadsword held in her hands, held aloft as the other Amazon’s lowered their arms to acceptable levels but not abandoning them.

“Diana! What have they done to you, my darling girl?” Tears welled at her mother’s eyes, threatening to spill over onto her face, as the new Earth Elemental walked slowly towards her former ‘kinswomen’. Anger wrote itself over Diana’s features and the faint glow of magma beneath her rock skin grew brighter and brighter, giving off more and more heat. Steaming glass foot prints were left in the cracked sand as she stood a few feet from Hippolyta, who shielded herself from the heat with her cloak.

“They, Mother? Who..are they?” she asked in anger, balling her fists at her side as clay-like residue began to evaporate on her eye-line.

“They’re turned you into this…Abomination…this…you were never supposed to be like this Diana, you were made in my image, in the image of the Gods.” She reached out a hand, feeling the nerves in her hands burning a little. Diana smacked her hand away.

“All the more fitting that I should reject the both of you, as you rejected me ‘mother’, she virtually spat, raising her hand and fist in front of her mother’s face, as huge chunks of rock exploded from the surface and cut Hippolyta from her army. Diana’s face was a combination of hurt and anger. “You didn’t even try to defend me, Mother! You bowed to the will of your Gods…”

“Our Gods, Diana; our Gods who will not be den…”

“SHUT UP!” Diana yelled throwing her hands to her sides like a petulant child. Her mother responded in kind, as the stones behind her vibrated with her daughter’s anger.

“They’re NOT MY GODS…any longer, Mother, nor am…I any relation to…you or yours. You can keep your …army, you can keep your so called…Paradise Island, and your Gods..and their barbarian magic.”

“Diana, please, I tried everything that I could to save you. You know how the Gods are, they..”

“They CHAINED me…Mother. They held me down and…humiliated…me in front of…and you! You stood there and you did…nothing! Why?!”

“How could I disobey the gods, Diana?”

“You have before now, Mother. You chose not too, to save yourself and…to embarrass me. You never thought it would go this far, did you?”

Hippolyta held her head lower, looking at her feet, whilst her daughters rage heated her body.

“No, I didn’t. The Gods normally forgive and they normally forget. You needed to be taught..”

“Taught?” Diana intercepted, raising a hand to hit her mother, but catching herself inches from doing it, the woman cowering at her own daughter. That was not something that a warrior queen often did…especially THIS warrior queen.

“Taught what, mother? Taught how to fail? Taught that the confidence of the gods is a commodity to be bought when you’re in their favor, but not when you make…a mistake? Taught that one mistake is all you’re good for, or that the God’s seek only to debase and humiliate their own?

“I cannot condone their actions, Diana, I did try to…”

“You did nothing, Mother, as you have always done. You stand and you preach, but you stay on the side lines and you just tell everyone else how to act and work. You are nothing; you’re less than nothing. You’re an observer, not a warrior queen!”

Diana dug her hands into the soil, bending onto one knee as the stones dropped and revealed the army behind her, arrows sliding into the soft areas of rock on her body immediately.

Diana rose to her feet again. The arrow’s meaning nothing to her as the wooden shafts exploded into flames, likening her to a burning pyre. The Amazon’s approached her and Hippolyta once again raised her sword into the air.

“Why did you come here, Elemental.” Her words were strong and tough now, as she was before her army and she had to show strength and courage and no emotional attachment.

Diana turned around and walked back towards the ocean, the water lapping over her feet and up to her shins, sizzling at the heat of her anger.

“I’ve come to say goodbye, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazon’s and servant to Gods filled with hubris, arrogance and incest. May you devour each other in your never ending cyclical march toward destruction.” Diana didn’t turn to face her mother as the clay tears rolled down her cheeks and into the ocean, thick plops and plumps can be heard from the ocean just above the sizzling, as the Amazon’s stood in silence watching the Earth Elemental slowly walk into the rising salty waves of the sea.

To Be Continued...

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