---

The snow whipped against the backs of the assembled heroes that stood atop the Parliament of Rocks Mountain. Unusually, the Parliament had called the potential Elementals to their mountaintop shrine, instead of their inner sanctum at the catacombs of the World. The snow dared not touch her boiling stone skin. Melting before it even touched her, it was steam taken away by the frigid gusts, kissing against the fringes of her senses.

Glancing amongst each other as the final woman ascended to the top of the snow coated Plateau, the potential Elementals stole looks at each other. Diana recognized Major Disaster, who gently covered the end of his lit cigarette against the cold, harsh winds of the mountain side. Just to the side of him, his long chest-folding coat flapping in the wind, stood the JSA member and hero Sandy Hawkins. Sediment dripped from the edges of his face, whipping into the craggy, outcropped features of the woman just slightly off from the group, her back turned to their assemblage. Diana didn’t recognize her but the vibes she was giving off made her liquid rock core rumble and gurgle in protestation.

Amongst their number, dancing, humping and wiping sweat from his naked and bruised body was a man she had never seen before. His body, dripping with sweat, blood and semen was a tool he used to commune with the Stone in a way that Diana hadn’t ever considered before.

She caught wind of what Major Disaster said and allowed herself a brief and unladylike smirk. “Dunno how he uses sex to commune with rocks; two seconds ain’t even registered in geological time.” She knew how puerile it was, but it seemed to fit with the insane frolics and movements of the man.

Before Diana stood the people she would have to fight against, including her current lover. Geo-Force stole a glance and reached out with his hand, gripping hers tightly despite the fact that actions such as this, between potential Elementals, was frowned upon.

“How did you escape?” she whispered to him, returning a squeeze and releasing it quickly. “I saw you trapped.”

Brion returned her look, confused. “I came here because I was asked to, Diana. I was never a prisoner.”

The former Wonder Woman scowled at the monoliths before her, taking several strident, anger fuelled steps. She threw her hands out toward the Monoliths and the huge black, shining stone tridents that forked from the Earth rumbled, as the ground beneath them threatened to recede away.

“Liars!” she yelled, stepping forward. Every step of her bare feet left burning marks of liquid rock and splintered craters in the sediment. Snow that had built up hissed as it skipped a transitional point and turned straight into steam, bubbling around her toes and into her flared nostrils.

The Monoliths lurched forward, sending everyone on the mountain toppling to their knees save for Diana, who dug in deep. Tendrils of rock twisted around her ankles, rooting her in place as the mountain shook and reared itself in her rage.

The Monoliths, in confusion and distress, appeared to stare at each other, twisting their black geological frames toward one another and bent almost into an arch.

DIANA.YOU. DO. NOT. DESERVE. SUCH. POWER.

“I deserve it more than you would think! I have done as you asked, as Maya asked. I have scoured the Earth trying to make up for my sins which I cannot act against, under your direction; redirecting Lava, fixing continents that broke under your mismanagement of resources!”

OUR. WILL. IS. THE. ONLY. PATH.

“It is the wrong path,” she said, her hands slowly growing in size and weight as rock flowed up her legs in huge chunks and gathered, clicking into place amongst her fingers and knuckles.

“NO! IT’S MINE TO LOVE! MINE!” Diana was immediately taken off her feet and off the edge of the mountainous plateau. Her body began being pulled at by unseen forces and she focused on the snivelling, snot and tear dripping half-frozen man that clung to her, humping the very roughest and craggiest edges of her rock body.

“Love it as much as you want,” Diana said, her granite fist smashing into the side of his face.

Instead of throwing himself away from the impact, the nude, thrusting individual pushed his face into her fist and licked her knuckles through blood-spattered teeth. “You taste beautiful,” he gasped breathlessly as they tumbled further toward the yawning hole in the ground Diana was weaving. Layers of soft rocks such as chalk lined the top of the surface, while the underneath was honey combed to give way and allow them to sap some momentum on impact. The pair hit the ground as Geo-Mancer gave himself away, thrusting a final time, raw and bloodied, into Diana’s side. She finally released her anger, in the form a pillar of rock, growing straight from her stomach and into his chin.

The end was sharp, piercing his flesh and sending him reeling backs. Clamping a hand over his bleeding jaw, his eyes turned dark and his twisted into an emotion more than delusion and sexual abandon.

All around the pair, the other members of the potential Elementals dropped from the sky. Some landing behind Diana, such as Geo-Force and Major Disaster, while others, like Geode and Terra, took their positions behind Geo-Mancer.

“False Elemental,” Geo-Mancer hissed, his lava hot fist glancing against Diana’s jaw, her whole body twisting into an impossible contortion to avoid his attack. Her fingers gently touched the ground to the side of her, to steady herself, but also to launch her attack.

Blades of flint crisscrossed from the ground and stabbed their way into Geo-Mancers thighs. He dribbled blood and coughed in riotous anger and pain. A wave of his hand shattered the flint and allowed him to shoot forward, the ground behind Diana hitting her in the small of her back. Geo-Mancer hit her in the chest with such force that he shattered the bones in his right hand and punched her left breast completely off.

She stumbled backwards, gripping her seeping wound. Already the super hot flow of liquid rock that was her ‘blood’ dribbled and spurted from her, sealing the wound but causing her immense pain in doing so.

Doubled over in his own moment of pain and violence, Geo-Mancer stared at his hand. The ground rushed to meet it, forcing its dirt and pebbles into his flesh and bolstering and offering support for his weak human bones. “YOU DON’T DESERVE THE TITLE!”

“There is nothing false about me,” Diana hissed as Geode hurtled forwards, leaping over the fallen Geo-Mancer and bringing her bolder-like hands down onto Diana. The former Wonder Woman stepped forwards her smaller hands gripping Geode’s massive wrists tightly, throwing her over her shoulders. “My abilities were earned and given, not stolen.”

Geo-Force caught the woman, who immediately hissed at him and pulled herself away.

“Ain’t no point in you doing that,” Disaster said, pulling his own fist back and knocking her to the ground. “This ain’t your right to take part in.”

Geode said nothing as Disaster sent a rippling of his Earthquake powers through her body as a warning. He offered her a wink and took a swig of alcohol from the hipflask in his pocket. He wasn’t joking, it wasn’t a threat, it was a cast iron guarantee from a drunken idiot who fought every day for redemption but found none, except for the regular cooling, heady effects of booze.

“That position does not suit you, Diana,” Geo-Mancer said, a blade of rock shifting from his body. It cut through his flesh from underneath his bone, causing a twisted red-stained smile to spread his face open with glee and pleasure. Diana averted her eyes from his body for a moment as he charged at her.

Her shining wrists, clad in rock that had been melted, steamed and set in cooling Atlantic waters, then heated again and again, shone as one deflected the first blow of the blade. The very edge of it removed the last back inch of hair from her neck, revealing it to the elements of the first time.

Diana winced as she felt the knowledge that was contained in that geological timeline drop from her mind and enter the floor below her. She raised her wrist in front of her face this time, deflecting the blow downwards and parrying with her palm. It caught the man in the chest, sending him skidding back a few feet.

However, his footsteps raised platforms of rock an lava, seeping and growing into almost living battle platforms that attempted to trip and deprive Diana of places to stand and defend herself. The blade shot out once more, joined by a second and a third, growing from the man’s other hand and from the underside of his wrist.

They varied in length and Diana was hard pressed to deflect them all. Tiny, glowing cuts where her core temperature and liquid rock center could clearly be seen began to emerge on her surface. Diana parried and deflected as much as possible, but with each slice getting closer and closer to actually penetrating her body she decided to take up action.

While the Geo-Mancer was clearly much more involved in manipulating the rock through his flesh and his flesh through rock, Diana was much more refined and deft at her weaving. A shield of igneous rock melted around her arm and grew from resources in the ground and from her shining wrist bands.

“I know what this is about, Geo-Mancer,” Diana quipped as she thrust forwards, her shield deflecting his attacks and her leg sweeping underneath him. He fell backwards, legs flailing in the air. “You’re jealous.”

“I think we all worked that out, Diana,” Major Disaster said with another slug of whiskey. Geo-Force gave him a withering look, which was met with little more than a raised central finger and a look of disdain.

“It’s more than that. Your fanaticism…it’s warped the Parliaments views on my tenure,” Diana continued as Geo-Mancer shot into the air, spines of rock exploding through his skin in a display of control and mind over matter. The pain must have been incredible, as blood spattered Diana’s body and onto the ground, but then every single drop raised itself into a crimson dart of sediment, hurtling into Diana’s body and knocking her into the ground.

“The Parliament’s view isn’t warped by me…” Geo-Mancer spat as he threw his foot forward, his toenails breaking off into missiles which quickly grew into sharp boulders. Pelting her in the body and the face, she felt lava seeping from the wounds.

Pulling herself to her feet, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief as Geo-Mancer realized he was out of bio-geological weaponry for the time being. Diana charged forward before he realised his teeth could be used as viscous lava incendiaries or something. She pulled all of her rather immense mass into her right fist and allowed her fingers to expand to compensate for the weight increase. With a final, and single, mighty blow, she landed her well placed punch into Geo-Mancer’s face.

He twisted to the side and then doubled over, where her knee was placed firmly in his stomach. He looked up with bloodied eyes, soaked in ruptured vessels underneath their aqua surfaces. Diana’s face was that of grim detachment. She didn’t care that she was beating him to death. She didn’t care that his unique connection to the Melt would be eradicated if she killed him.

He hit the ground heavily, his jaw broken, his body beaten to pieces, part of his intestines pushing through the torn muscle wall that Diana had ripped asunder from her jagged knees. As she rose to deliver another round of kicks and beatings on the Geo-Mancer, she felt her hand’s course be stayed by another.

Twisting around in anger she found the sympathetic and worried face of Geo-Force.

“Stop, Diana,” he said quietly. “He’s finished.”

“He’s a liar!” she yelled at Brion. He stood firm, holding her fist tightly. She pulled at him and yanked her fist free, only to find Disaster and Sand stood before her.

“We got your back in this, Diana, but this ain’t right,” Disaster said. “I ain’t no angel, but this guy ain’t right in the head. He’s gone wrong a long time ago.”

Disaster looked over his shoulder at the barely conscious man who attempted to shovel dirt into the aperture in his stomach. The young woman who knelt before him tried to dissuade him from his continued actions, pulling his hands down onto the ground and attempting to stop him from clawing at himself, cooing encouragements and sympathies to him.

“You don’t deserve this title,” Geode spat, slapping Diana across the face with a huge, rock fist. “You are not the Earth Elemental.”

“I AM!” Diana yelled, devolving into puerile adolescent rage. She wasn’t a Princess any longer, but continued to believe her actions to be those of someone possessed with a certain level of elevated social standing. Her actions were right because she believed them to be. Whilst that was often correct, in this instance she’d given way to more basic forms of emotion: Anger and Envy.

YOU. ARE. NOT.

The black stone Monoliths which once stood at the top of the mountain appeared before the grouping as the entire gathering of seven potential elements where shunted from reality into the Melt. For many of them it was their first time. The air was dark, dank and heavy. It smelt of metal and dirt; in fact, many of their number were convinced it was dirt and metal.

WE. ARE. DISAPPOINTED.

“Love…me…” Geo-Mancer gasped desperately as four huge stone faces appeared, jaggedly carved from the rock itself. They looked down at Geo-Mancer with typical disdain and disappointment from parents against a child who was constantly over estimated in responsibility and competency.

WE. CANNOT. GEO-MANCER. YOU. HAVE. FAILED.

“Failed…” he looked up, his eyes filled with blood and dirt he’d scooped in.

FAILED. YOU. ARE. NOT. THE. ELEMENTAL.

Silence stunned Geo-Mancer until he softly began to claw the ground onto his ruined genitals and weep. His sobs grew louder and louder until dirt forced itself into his mouth, by his own sweeping and grabbing motions with his crippled hands.

“There cannot be two Elementals,” Diana said, with more than a hint of arrogance in her voice.

THERE. IS. NOT. EVEN. ONE. CURRENTLY.

“I am the Elemental,” Diana said, stepping forward, anger building in her core. “I was chosen by Maya.”

AND. MAYA. IS. DEAD. DIANA. YOU. ARE. NOT. OUR. CHOICE.

“Choice or not, I am still the Elemental,” Diana spat, her fists clenched at her side.

NO. MORE.

With a crunch and grinding, Diana felt herself bleed to the left of her body’s spatial position. Crumbs of her began to fragment and fall away, eventually leading to the wholesale dissemination of her body. She found herself, not far from her original position, by the Lake in Markovia.

“Wha?” she asked, as the connection the Earth she once felt was gone. Her communication, be it silent or intuitive, with the ground beneath her had faded into nothingness. She was adrift in a body that hurt and ached more than ever. It felt stiffer and harder.

She attempted to call the matter underneath her to her will, to fix and fill her wounds, but found that it would not respond. The earth underneath her wanted nothing to do with her will, it wanted nothing to do with her desires and, more importantly, under some silent instruction from the Parliament itself it wanted nothing less than to be away from her.

The sand and pebbles beneath her feet receded and left her truly alone against the bedrock. She sighed, and stared down at the waters edge. Surely the water wouldn’t retract from her, nor had she truly upset the entire natural world.

Just as she pushed her hand beneath the waters surface, one of Brion’s servants appeared by the edge of the beach. His head dipped low and eyes desperately searching for somewhere else to look, he offered her a single piece of information.

“Lady Diana, the News…Please…”

---

---

To Be Continued...

Next: In Wonder Woman #15: Why is Diana on the News?

---

Previous Issue | Next Issue