Wonder Woman – Volume 1 – 270

Synopsis

As the other Amazons look on, Queen Hippolyta offers fruits and flowers to a statue of the Goddess Aphrodite within a temple built for the purpose of her worship on Paradise Island.

The Queen pleads with the goddess to help her in her hour of need. Even now, her daughter lies in restless torment, unable to find the sleep she so desperately needs. Her dreams bring her no succor and her waking hours are filled with bitter memories of Man’s World. Especially related to a dead man she still loves.

The Queen continues that it is love that is destroying her daughter’s heart. Love both for the world beyond Paradise Island, full of pain and sorrow, of suffering and cruelty, yet a world that possesses kindness and beauty as well…and love too for a certain man who crashed off the Island’s shores and captured Diana’s heart. The queen then relates the events that brought Steve Trevor and her daughter together and how he was murdered, not once but twice. To lose one’s lover once is a pain that can be endured, but to lose them again is more than even an Amazon can stand, she states.

As Hippolyta begs for the goddess of love to help her daughter, the statue begins to dissolve into the flesh and blood image of Aphrodite. The beautiful Olympian responds that she has heard Hippolyta’s plea and has been touched. She muses that perhaps it is her fault in a way, as love was her gift to Diana when she was formed from clay all those years ago. Aphrodite asks the Amazon Queen what would she have her do?

Hippolyta asks her to grant Diana forgetfulness to let her heal her wounds. But the goddess warns her that although the mind may forget, the heart and soul may not. However, she decides that perhaps this is the only course of action left and it is worth trying. With that, she orders the mists of Neptune to rise from the sea and decrees that whomsoever they touch, let them know peace.

A soft fog drifts off the ocean and curls its way through the city. It enters the royal palace and swirls into the Princess’ chambers. As Diana tosses and turns in her sleep, struggling with demons unseen, the mist gently caresses her brow. A violet haze seems to fill the room and there is the scent of flowers in the air. Slowly Diana’s movements become less troubled and she sighs. Finally, still sleeping, she smiles for the first time in ages.

Interlude One

At an air force base on the east coast of North America, an air force colonel is shown the brand new F-38 fighter aircraft, the most advanced computer controlled supersonic jet in the world.

As he dons his flight helmet, the colonel is told how the craft is also the fastest and that no man has even flown ten times the speed of sound. His commanding officer warns him to not to push the jet to the limit on the first flight, as they want it back in one piece!

He replies that he will do his best as he climbs into the cockpit. After final preflight checks he is given the OK to take off and with a roar the fighter lifts into the sky…

End of Interlude One

The sun sits high over the beautiful Island of Paradise and not more than half a mile offshore, a handful of small boats bob up and down on the softly rising ocean. Diana dives into the clear blue waters and swims down to the ocean floor, gathering kelp, sea plants and encrusted coral. As she surfaces, one of her Amazon sisters comments on how well she looks this morning. Diana replies that she feels like a new woman and the other Amazons quietly think to themselves that unknown to the Amazon Princess, it is all thanks to Aphrodite.

As she clambers aboard the boat once more, she notices the sea suddenly swell and heave like a thing come alive! Without a warning a massive monster made of water emerges from the ocean, sending several of the small boats flying. Diana cannot believe that the sea, a source of food and strength could possibly now turn upon its children. But before she can ponder the creature’s actions, it sends her and the other Amazons tumbling out of their own boat and into the sea.

One of them, Cleo, finds herself drawn downward by the undertow and Diana swims after her as she is swept out to sea. Reaching Cleo, she finds her Amazon sister unconscious having succumbed to the pressures at the depths. Using all her might and struggling against the powerful currents, she manages to swim to the surface with Cleo. But hearing the sound of crashing waves she realises that they are too close to the reefs and that they will be dashed against the rocks.

Moving swiftly, she unhooks her lasso and snares a nearby outcrop, with the aim of using it to guide them through. She knows she must time their passage through the reef with split second precision. But she suddenly sees out of the corner of her eyes the sea beast thundering towards them with a massive watery fist raised to strike. She cannot avoid it as the water explodes around them and the tidal wave engulfs the two Amazons washing over the deadly reef. But Diana is determined not to be carried out to sea and grips tightly onto her lasso as they disappear under the surf.

A few moments pass before the two bone shocked and drenched women rise up from the foaming surf, battered, bruised, bleeding but alive! Dragging themselves ashore, they join the other Amazons who have made it back to dry land as the sea creature addresses them. It bellows that twice now they have been warned not to intrude, first by way of fire and now by water. It orders them to take heed and leave, for the next warning will be with air and it will be their last!

With that the creature dissolves back into the now calm sea and Diana tells her sisters that they have a mystery to solve – before it destroys them. To the other Amazons, it seems not so much their Princess who speaks but her alter ego, Wonder Woman!

Interlude Two

The jet fighter streaks through the sky as its pilot reports back to base that he is preparing to disengage the booster section. One of the watching Majors comments that everything seems OK so far, but another officer is still cautious. As the order is given to disengage the booster, the Colonel radios that he is about to ignite the main thruster. The top brass and technicians hear him count down to zero. As he reaches zero though, he lets out a cry as the plane accelerates rapidly into a strange vortex.

The whole craft begins to shake and he reports back that he is losing control. He has no readings on his instruments and it seems like the whole world has blacked out. But he gets no reply from base as the bucking craft thunders into the blackness…

End of Interlude Two

The clear skies of morning over Paradise Island have now given way to ominous black clouds which block out the sunlight. Lightning cuts a ragged tear through the darkness as an Amazon Galleon makes its way across the ocean. Onboard, Queen Hippolyta and Diana watch the coming storm and the Princess suggests that this must be the source of the recent attacks. The queen agrees, as it is the only unnatural phenomenon in the region. She wonders though whether they should risk seeking out their enemies in this way?

Diana replies that they have no choice as the water beast had warned of another attack by air. As she points to the sky, they see fireballs plummet down towards them. They know that if any one of these hit the wooden deck the ship will go up in flames. Diana uses her lasso to hook one of the approaching fireballs and guides it into the water instead. Moments pass as the woman warriors fight frantically to protect their vessel from the deadly deluge.

Just then though, during a momentary lull, one of the Amazons cries out and points to the heart of the storm cloud. An opening appears, flickering with strange blue light from beyond. A voice booms from the portal announcing that they have received their last warning and to be gone or die where they stand.

As a warrior prepares to fire an arrow up at the portal, Diana orders her to stop. She tells the others that twice they have been referred to as ‘intruders’. Perhaps there is some justice in their attacker’s claim. What do the Amazons really know of these waters that Man’s World has called the Bermuda Triangle?

With that, she tells her Amazon sisters to remain where they are as she leaps up into the hole in the sky. As she disappears inside, she instructs them to avenge her if she does not return in an hour, but until then, not to take any action.

Thunder now splits the sky where the Princess had leaped through an instant before and a brilliant blue light fills the clouds with eerie radiance. When the light fades both portal and Princess have vanished! Knowing they are helpless, Hippolyta and her Amazons can only wait as instructed by Diana.

Meanwhile, Diana finds herself surrounded by a strange luminance and becomes aware that she is not alone in this new place. Questing lights bob and dance about her like curious children. Voices speak to her without sound and she heeds. They asks “Who are you and why have you invaded our home?”. Beneath the impatient anger of the questions she senses something else..fear and loneliness. She replies that she is Diana, daughter of Hippolyta, who is queen of the Amazons. One of the little lights draws hesitantly close to her face…

Back on board the Amazon ship a lightning bolt suddenly strikes the deck but where it touches does not burn. Instead, a figure forms within the blue light and transforms into the form of Diana. As the Amazons surround her, hugging her and asking barely formed questions the clouds overhead fragment and the lightning fades. A fresh breeze comes up from the north, blowing a path through the wispy darkness – a path to clearer skies and home.

Diana explains to her sisters that the entities are an alien race, coexisting with our world in another dimension. The Bermuda Triangle is their home too, acting as a doorway from our world to theirs. For the past thousand years however they have been on a sojourn to another plane of existence and have only just recently returned. They were shocked to find ‘intruders’ living on Paradise Island but when they learned from Diana that the Amazons had been there for several thousand years and that they meant no harm, the aliens decided they had acted improperly. They have agreed to let the Amazons stay – at least for another thousand years at any rate!

Suddenly, Diana is interrupted by the sounds of a screaming jet engine. Looking up, the Amazons see an American jet fighter appear out of the clouds just before they dissipate completely. The out of control plane crashes into the ocean not far away and instinctively, Diana dives into the sea to rescue the pilot.

She swims the half mile distance in seconds and rips off the cockpit canopy. Soon she has brought the unconscious pilot back on board the Amazon vessel and gently removes his helmet. A watching Hippolyta gasps as she sees the handsome man lying on the deck. “No! It isn’t possible! He’s dead! The fates cannot be so cruel” she thinks to herself.

The man begins to stir and groggily he opens his eyes to stare into the beautiful face of Diana, leaning over him. “An Angel! Tell me I’ve died and gone to heaven!” he murmurs. Seeing his rank designation on his uniform, Diana replies “You’ve been injured but | think you’ll survive, Colonel…?”

He finishes her query with the words “Trevor, Colonel Steve Trevor!”