"Uouuughhhh!"
Steppenwolf shudders as I ram my daiklave through his back, staring down dumbly as the point of the blade exits through his chest. For a moment it feels like he's trying to turn, then the strength leaves his legs and he starts to collapse.
I pull my blade free and stare down at him dispassionately.
"A cruel blow, great uncle, I know. But let us be honest:
nothing good would have come of you going to Earth."
He falls to his side and then flops onto his back, eyes staring as if he were looking right through me.
"Mo… Ther…"
No sense in letting him suffer. He is
family, after all. I raise my daiklave up by the guard and then bring the point down directly between his eyes because
that's what you get for not wearing a faceplate.
Now. Where was I?
Ping.
Ah, yes. Quite right. I stride through the boom tube-
17th November 2017
09:14 GMT +3
-and into a.. cave..? No, this is clearly an artificial structure. Tomb? No,
vault. The local Darkseid's Mother Box sits on a plinth in the middle of the room, the light from within shining
just brightly enough to pierce the outer casing. A curious design choice, but given the things he was using it for I suppose-.
"Who are
you?"
Oh! Is this..? Mother Box?
Ping.
It
is! Themyscira! That explains the women pointing spears at me! Which.. means.. that the middle aged blonde glaring at me is…
"Queen Hippolyta, I presume. My name is Grayven. I'm here for Father's Box."
There's a general tightening of bow strings and bracing of shield wall-. Well, it's not really a shield wall anywhere other than by the entrance. They're more buttresses guarding the archers.
"You will
never have it."
I raise my eyebrows. Then I turn my head to look right. Then back at her. Then left. Then back at her. "How..
precisely.. were you planning on
stopping-"
"Loose!"
Arrows -
iron-headed arrows- plink harmlessly off the armour covering my chest, back, arms and thighs. One or two strike me in the face.
I
smile. "-me?"
And they're still shooting. And what I'm learning from this is that local Amazons are baseline humans rather than demigoddesses and that their arrows are unenchanted.
I fold my arms patiently behind my back as they continue to draw and loose at me.
"The greatest archers this world has ever seen-" A lucky hit lands directly in my mouth. I bite through the shaft and turn my head to the left as I spit out the head. "-were fifteenth century Englishmen. They used longbows of around one point two metres-" I hold up my hands to indicate the length. "-with a draw of around four hundred Newtons. About twice what you're using." They've stopped loosing. "With a two hundred Newton draw, drawn back forty centimetres and at a distance of… What is this, five metres? The force of the impact on my skin is something like three million kilograms per square millimetre-."
"Form up!"
The Amazon hoplites form up around the huddle blocking the door, the bow wielders drawing swords and assuming a skirmishing position at either side of the shield wall.
"Perhaps another history lesson, then. In seventeen fifty six, the British Admiral John Byng led a force of thirteen ships of the line against a French fleet of twelve. The French ships were modern and in good repair, the British ships dilapidated. The initial fighting saw the British-"
"Advance!"
"-take the worst of it. In the end, he decided that it wasn't possible to win, to relieve the nearby garrison or even to inflict significant damage on the French. So, he retreated his fleet."
I take a few slow paces to the right so that the line can advance without needing to split around the plinth.
"Afterwards, the Admiral was recalled, tried, and executed for 'failing to do his utmost against the enemy'. So I
understand why you're doing-" I gesture towards Queen Hippolyta with both hands. "-
this, even knowing that it is futile. Indeed, I respect you all the more. And when I rule this world I will ensure that there is a place for all of you in it."
I
lunge, knocking aside seven spear points with a swing on my right arm and
shoving the shields behind them with my right hand. Warrior women go
flying backwards as I step into the gap, brace and
shove.
Swords and spears plink uselessly against my armour.
"You might need to..
improve slightly before it's a place of
honour, but-."
There's a slight
scraping noise as someone -it's Hippolyta, isn't it?- grabs Father's Box and sprints for the exit.
"Close the gates!" Past the reforming hoplite huddle around me I see.. burly Amazons in bikinis take sledgehammers to wooden pillars supporting the ceilings above them, their strikes splintering them and causing stone sheets perhaps forty centimetres thick to fall into place.
Did they.. not.. see the boom tube I arrived by?
"But there's always a place for women of courage-"
More iron weapons scrape uselessly against my armour. "-under my rule."
"
We defeated your kind before!"
I lightly grip the speaker's spear head with my right hand, anchoring it in place. "You did? You don't
look like a Green Lantern."
"
All the people of this world fought against Steppenwolf's hordes!"
"Our histories only mention Green Lanterns and a couple of local gods. I don't remember hearing about iron age barbarians. Are you
sure your people achieved anything noteworthy?"
I shove my arms outwards, pushing the Amazons pressing against me away and giving me the space to grab one in my right hand. Then I pull a nerve jammer off my belt with my left and delicately place it on her neck before dropping her. Her eyes move and she can still breathe, but her arms and legs are completely still. Good show.
This isn't about killing people, no matter how-.
A section of the crowd parts and a large woman swings a hammer at my head. It hits, and then rebounds with such force that she loses her grip and it-.
I catch it in my right hand before it can brain one of her fellows, toss it at the far wall and then grab her and nerve jam her. Huh. Gone rather dark with the only light source blocked. And -amusing as their feeble attempts to harm me
are- I'm not really achieving anything here.
Mother Box.
I get into a rhythm, grabbing and nerve jamming every Amazon still assailing me.
Mother Box, boom tube to… Wherever Hippolyta is about to be.
Ping.
BOOM!
Those Amazons still standing are knocked off their feet as the tube opens, and I nudge the fallen aside with my feet before striding through it-
"Hyarh!"
-bracing myself and catching Hippolyta's horse mid-stride as she tries to run me down, casually absorbing its momentum as I lift it off the ground.
And again, if you please.
Ping.
BOOM!
Horse and queen in hand, I leap through the tube before her fellow Amazons can reach us.
