Wonder Woman Beyond #1

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Wonder Woman Beyond #1
A New Wonder
Part 1
Ruins

Written by Dean Grey
Edited by Daniel Dyer

It's nearly 50 years after the start of the 21st century and the world is poisoned by war. Violence, bloodshed, and turmoil are widespread across the globe, all placed with a methodical hand. Ares, the Greek god of war manifests his visage across battlefield after battlefield claiming to be the proprietor of the chaos. His message is simple and the same in every nation, state, and region. Troops, rebels, soldiers, terrorists all hear Ares’ demands: “Worship me as your one true god. Serve me or be destroyed by war!”

But the Earth isn’t the only one to feel this destructive force. High above the heavens, in realms outside of time and space lie the gods of ancient past. A majestic mountain exists here, tall and grand surrounded by such full clouds that it almost appears to be floating. It is called Mount Olympus, where the Greek gods dwell, and it’s crumbling.

Once filled with glorious temples that mortals could only dream about, this fabled mountain of myth is being attacked. Marble floors begin to quake and elaborate columns crack and split from 80 foot ceilings, debris drizzling down from above, as two goddesses race through the immense, main temple. They are Artemis, the virgin goddess of hunting and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. Artemis in top form takes the lead, while Aphrodite hiking up her flowing white robes, clenching them so as not to trip, trails behind.

“I can feel myself slowly fading half-sister, there isn’t much time left,” Artemis yelled behind her reaching the temple’s entrance. With her longbow tightly gripped in one hand, the hunter goddess pushes massive, golden doors open with the other, her lean muscles flexing under her short, simple red tunic.

“We are almost there, just beyond that terrace,” Aphrodite shouted back, pointing slightly up straight ahead into the distance.

Both outside now the female Olympians hurry through the enchanted courtyard, open and spacious, it’s supposed to be filled with lush gardens. Their sandaled feet crunch on fragments of formerly graceful statues and shards of decorative vases.

“Everything in the sacred garden, it’s dead,” Aphrodite said just about out of breath, shaking powdery dust from her bright blonde hair.

“I know,” Artemis agreed jogging at a steady pace, her arrows jostling around in her quiver, securely fastened to her strong back. “Have you noticed the rancid smell in the air? Even the sky seems gray and dull.”

Not nearly as athletic as Artemis, Aphrodite’s perfect skin is softly flushed from all the running. And as her feet ache more and more she worries, knowing an immortal isn’t supposed to feel human pain. That is one way the love goddess knows the time of the Olympians is waning. She watches Artemis up ahead, with her reddish-blonde hair carefully braided into a long tail resting behind her neck out of her stoic face. Aphrodite stares deeply knowing this will be the last time she sees her sister.

“His power must have increased ten fold,” Artemis said almost in disbelief.

“It’s all the wars in the outside world, they fuel his fell power,” Aphrodite replied, clearly upset by this.

The pair speed past withered flowers and blackened trees and large fountains at one time so stunning now barely recognizable. Huge sections of two smaller temples could be heard crashing in the far distance, plumes of ashen smoke rising from them. Finally Artemis and Aphrodite reach their destination; the furthest, highest ledge on Mount Olympus.

Looking back at all of the utter devastation and finally catching a second wind Aphrodite questioned, “How could it come to this?”

“Do not blame yourself, none of us would have thought him to lead such an assault,” Artemis assured her. “I can no longer sense the others, how fares Athena?”

“Nnhmph,” Aphrodite moaned. “Ares and the Amazons have struck her down. She is dead.”

Artemis tilts her head back and presses her tear-filled eyes closed for a long moment and then with a determined look about her refocuses on the crisis at hand.

“How will we know who to send it to?” the hunter goddess asked, taking off a glowing, golden lariat draped from around her broad shoulders.

“Athena didn’t say,” Aphrodite replied in a flustered tone, almost hinting at panic.

Both anxiously look back as more sections of temples can be heard falling. Artemis pulls a sharp arrow from behind her back out of her leather quiver. She sets the glowing, golden lariat on the arrow’s tip, walking to the very edge of the cliff.

“What if I send it to the wrong mortal?” the hunter goddess questioned.

“I will imbue a portion of my power onto your arrow,” Aphrodite explained. “It will find the one with the greatest heart.”

With a gentle touch of her finger the love goddess makes the arrow shimmer brightly. Artemis places the charmed arrow on her longbow, an ornate bow finely crafted that is the full length of her body. With the glowing, golden lariat at its tip the hunter goddess aims the shining arrow down towards Earth. Artemis loses her concentration for a second as she sees chunks of the mountainside down below break and fall into the billowy clouds.

Sharp, blue eyes refocus and toned arms tense as Artemis extends the ensorcelled arrow on the longbow’s string. She pivots her body slightly forward and down as Aphrodite looks on. The bow completely outstretched, the hunter goddess lets the arrow with the glowing, golden lariat fly. It races down from the heavens so fast that only a god could see its descent.

“It is done Aphrodite, I have sent the magic lasso, my aim is true,” Artemis said in a faint tone, slowly fading. “I’ve done all that I can. You and Ares are the only Olympians left. You are all that stands to stop him. May the fates be on your side....half-sissttterrr...”

Artemis disappears into the sour air as if never having existed at all. Aphrodite turns away trying not to believe it. There is a brief pause that seems like an eternity to the love goddess, a moment of uncertainty. Aphrodite clenches her chest and looks back at what was once her home. Now nothing more than wreckage she can feel his dark presence. In the collapsed halls she can hear his deep voice. She can hear him laughing.

“You will not win Ares,” Aphrodite whispered angrily to herself.

She turns to the very ledge Artemis had stood and walks to its farthest point. The love goddess looks down and also sees more and more pieces of this once legendary mountain crumble and drop away. Her vision blurred with tears, she wipes them from her beautiful face letting out a sigh of pain and sadness and regret. Aphrodite looks back at the fallen temples then back down over the cliff once again. The ground beneath her now slowly begins to dematerialize.

“You...will...not...win!” Aphrodite hoarsely shouted.

She concentrates and in a brilliant show of light simply seems to vanish. Not fading away, but more like going somewhere else.

Mount Olympus shifts and trembles. This once timeless place so warm and vibrant is brutally cold and dim. Here the Greek gods quarreled, loved, deceived...all things that go on in everyday people’s homes only on a godly scale. Heavenly temples reduced to ruins, ruins reduced to rubble, rubble reduced to dust.

The very mountain itself grows pale, then turns so transparent that the voluminous clouds can actually be seen right through it. Like a thing dying it quietly rumbles softer and softer, dissolving into the air as if it were just a mirage, just a myth nothing more. And in its empty void a war god can be heard laughing and laughing.

~*~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Back on Earth in the heavily populated area known as Gateway City in the U.S.A. all is much calmer for now. It has been raining for the past week and this night is no exception. Thunder growls among the tall, sleek skyscrapers and without warning booms, while lightning violently flashes overhead. Booms and flashes. A young woman in her late 20’s is caught in the storm.

“Of all the days to work late,” she said to herself huddled under her umbrella, dashing down the street. “It’s pouring so hard, I can barely see.” Thunder booms, lightning flashes.

With weather this severe mostly everyone is safely inside taking shelter. An occasional car cautiously drives past, but other than that the city looks deserted. Only the foolish or brave of heart are out tonight and at this point the woman wonders which she is. Thunder booms, lightning flashes.

Two blocks to go, she thought. Thunder booms, lightning flashes.

Puddles splash and sploosh as the young woman now completely drenched runs towards home, cutting through an alleyway as a shortcut. Just then, a brilliant flash of light appeared in front of her followed by a sharp crack.

“Oh God!!” she screamed huddled on the flooded pavement, thinking she must’ve been struck by lightning or come extremely close.

There’s a faint sizzle in the air and then all she can hear is the rain again and claps of thunder in the distance. The young woman unflinches her shaking body, carefully trying to stand up.

“I’m never, never, NEVER working late again!” she scolded herself.

“What the hell is this?” she wondered, picking up a glowing, golden lariat, neatly coiled and lying in a shallow puddle in front of her. The young woman examines it in her hands, squinting at it through the relentless rain.

It looks like some kind of weird rope, she thought.

Her first impulse is to drop it, leave it, and just go home. But she can’t. As the young woman stares at its strange glow she feels... something... coming from the lariat. A warm, radiant presence making her want to keep this newfound item. Again, she thinks to just drop the rope, but for some reason can’t.

“Natalie, I don’t even know who’s this is,” she argued with herself, no longer noticing the thunder or lightning.

The young woman looks nervously about from all sides to make sure no one is watching. With not a person in sight she places the glowing, golden lariat under her soaked, clinging trench coat and runs for home, disappearing into the stormy night.

~*~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Three months later.....

Today is a sunny, relaxed morning in Gateway City. A young woman dressed in an old t-shirt and comfortable slacks is in her home catching up on some much needed house cleaning. Her name is Natalie Nemos-Nikolaos and she is determined to enjoy her time off, hoping today will be a better day than she’s had as of late.

“Have to try and get everything cleaned before Nathan gets home,” she said. “That boy could pitch in a hand or two. But I can’t be too hard on him, he’s had it rough. We both have.”

Natalie is an average looking woman with neatly styled, yet slightly disheveled dark brown hair that brushes the tips of her slender shoulders. She has a guarded appearance and a forced look on her face that tries to say everything is fine, which is a lie. So much so that if one were to ask her how she truly was doing she would probably start to cry.

Even though it’s still pretty early in the day Natalie has managed to complete most of her chores. She heads into her bedroom to change her bed sheets.

Where’s the new comforter I bought, she wondered rummaging around several dresser drawers.

Natalie bends down to the bottom most drawer, kneels, and pushes musty contents around. She moves her dark brown hair from her face and stops. She sees it again. Tucked carefully under several old sheets is the glowing, golden lariat. Natalie stares at it for several long moments, her heart beating, she tries to touch it but pulls her hand away. She wants to close the drawer yet can’t. Natalie looks at the strange rope again and finally picks it up, shoving worn fabrics to the side.

“It’s so tightly woven and thin, but seems quite strong,” she noticed, feeling the glowing, golden lariat in her hands trying to pull and stretch the rope. “So perfectly braided too, it must’ve been made by a machine.”

“But how does it glow and not cast any light? Why does it glow? the young woman asked herself, sitting on the bedroom floor Indian style.

And as she questions, the glowing, golden lariat seems to glow a little brighter. Natalie feels a gentle tingling almost as if something is being pulled out from deep within her. Emotions begin to stir and she becomes teary-eyed. All she can think of now is her brother Mark and her husband. She can see their faces, hear their voices. Harsh truths emerge. Natalie lets the lariat drop onto the carpet and the sensations, the memories leave her instantly.

“Ever since I found this rope, this is the third time I’ve held it and the third time that’s happened.”

Not wanting to touch it too long, the young woman quickly gathers up the glowing, golden lariat and puts it back in the bottom dresser drawer. She hurriedly places old sheets back on the top of it, to hide it, and closes the drawer. Natalie sits there sadly, almost motionless. Leaning against the side of her still unmade bed she softly shakes her head in disappointment.

“I was hoping things would get back to normal. Maybe they never will,” she said sniffling. “I thought I’d gotten past all this, but...how can I?”

“I wish I could have been with him a little longer,” Natalie gently whispered looking at a nearby picture on the night stand. She reached over picking up the decorative frame. Her dark blue eyes widen, gazing on the young man in the photo. Proudly standing, he’s smartly dressed in a marine’s ceremonial uniform.

“I miss you so much Jason,” she whimpered, beginning to cry. Hunched over looking at her husband’s picture, all she can do is sit there and weep.

“Why couldn’t someone else have died instead? Someone who deserved it, not you. Not you or Mark,” she cried angrily to herself.

Just then the doorbell rang, followed by a light knock at the door. Natalie got up, quickly composing herself, grabbing a couple of tissues to blot her watery eyes and blow her nose. The doorbell rings for the second time.

“Coming, I’m coming,” Natalie tried to shout but her throat is still tensed from crying.

Readjusting her hair and straightening her clothes she finally opens the door. An incredibly beautiful woman stands before her with brightly curled, golden hair and striking blue eyes, wrapped loosely in a long, white trench coat.

Taken aback at the woman’s beauty, Natalie is momentarily stunned speechless, and then asked, “Um, yes? How can I help you?”

“You are the one, I can feel it. It is you,” the beautiful woman declared. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“I am Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. Have you not found the magic lasso yet?”

Natalie’s eyes are wide opened as is her mouth, thinking to herself, And I thought this was going to be a quiet day.

To be continued...