Wonder Woman – Volume 3 – 32

Synopsis

In a street in down town Washington DC Wonder Woman confronts Genocide. As the engagement begins the Amazon Princess finds herself effortlessly thrown down the street ploughing up the roadway as she goes. She stands up, dusting herself off and warns the startled onlookers to clear the area. She then turns to face her foe and tells it that she has had enough of its hatred and that when she places its lifeless head on a pike near the Themysciran latrines, will it want to face east or west?

She then charges at lightning speed towards the creature adding “It doesn’t matter that much, as the view never really changes either way”, before slamming her fists against each of the creature’s ears simultaneously, causing it to bellow in pain. She follows this up with several punches and blows, knowing that she cannot give it time to think or else it will teleport away again.

As the police clear the people from the carnage of the fight, Wonder Woman and Genocide crash through a building. Genocide manages to grab Diana’s hair and swings her around like a rag doll. It hisses that Wonder Woman thinks it is stupid and that she can out think the monster – juts like Etta Candy had thought. Genocide pins Wonder Woman down and leans forward, spitting that using the lasso it had managed to touch Etta’s very soul and got lots of names – names of people Diana knew well or who she had even only met once. And Genocide vows to pay each and every one a visit – once Wonder Woman is dead!

It then swings the Amazon Princess around and hurls her across the street sending her crashing through a bus, out the other side and on-wards into another building. Genocide is left still holding a lock of Wonder Woman’s raven hair.

Meanwhile up above in a semi transparent stealth helicopter used by the Department of Meta Human Affairs, Magnus Morrow and Tom Tresser approach the scene of the battle below. Tom asks whether the missile they have on board will work against Genocide, and Morrow replies that he has no idea. It is not of his design and is supposed to atomise any living matter. He scowls that all of his own inventions are currently at the bottom of Gotham Bay after Wonder Woman’s recent demolishing of the Secret Society’s Head Quarters! “So, we make do or go home”.

Tom votes for “making do” and targets the figure of Genocide in the street below. He launches the missile just as Wonder Woman emerges from the rubble and she sees the missile strike Genocide in a fireball. She curses Tom for being here, putting himself at danger and they all wait for the dust to settle to see if the creature still lives or not. As Tom and Magnus try to peer through the cloud below them they suddenly see a bus full of people still trapped inside launch up at their helicopter! It smashes through the tail of the craft sending it spiralling down towards the street.

Wonder Woman watches in horror as both the damaged helicopter and the bus plummet back down and she has to make a judgment as to which to save. As she launches her self upwards she feels her leg grabbed by Genocide who pulls her back down. She uses her fingers to jab the creature in both eyes before following with a powerful punch that stuns it. She then removes her tiara and slashes the creature’s throat before launching into the sky, leaving Genocide clutching it’s throat.

She whispers “sorry Tom” and focuses her attention on the bus, just reaching it in time before it smashes into the road, lowering it down to earth safely. nearby the helicopter makes a hard crash landing leaving its occupants shaken but otherwise alive.

As Wonder Woman surveys the carnage around her she thinks to herself that the tragedy here is all of her own making. She could have killed Ares half a dozen times in the past…Doctor Psycho and Cheetah each a dozen more. But she chose to let them live. How vain that righteousness feels now. How self-serving and costly. How endlessly blind. Now she faces the fevered creation of their combined sickness and loathing and hatred and jealousy. In the form of a twisted, altered version of her own corpse. At the cost of everyone she loves and dozens she does not know. All because she wanted clean hands to cling to her ideals. At this moment though, her idealism and conscience seem a small price to pay.

Tom tries to bring Magnus around but suddenly hears Genocide behind him say “Looks painful. Can I help?”. As Wonder Woman races to the crash site she finds Tom in the grip of her foe. It asks Diana to tell Tom if she ever loved him? Wonder Woman offers her own life for that of Tom’s but the creature insists she answers the question. “Tell him or watch him die.” Wonder Woman pauses, bowing her head in resignation and lifting it again, murmurs “No. I did not”.

Tom’s eyes open wide in shock as Genocide adds “It’s true. She wanted a mate, not a lover.” Wonder Woman curses her own lasso which enables her foe to uncover secrets of the soul none of us would wish exposed. She had tried to treat those secrets with care, even from those who wished her harm. Genocide however shares no such compunction. Wonder Woman’s suffering is the creature’s delight as it continues to tell Tom that Diana thought Tom to be “Adam”, a way to remake her lost people.

Wonder Woman knows that she cannot break the grip that Genocide holds on Tom but the tendons that control the grip are another matter. She swiftly removes her tiara and uses it to slice along the creature’s upper arm, slicing through those very tendons! Tom finds himself free as Wonder Woman punches Genocide with all her might. She then grabs it and rockets into the upper atmosphere, almost to the edge of space before plummeting back down in a fireball, all the while pounding upon her foe.

Elsewhere, Zeus, Achilles and his men watch the titanic struggle through a magic pool. Achilles says that they should be allying themselves with this woman against the abomination. Why is Zeus showing them this if they are to simply stand idly by and watch? Zeus replies that he wanted Achilles to understand…to see exactly whose mantle he is going to take up. This is no mere king or petty self gratified professional warrior, whose position Achilles will usurp on Zeus’ behalf. This is the daughter of the Hunter’s Moon. And Achilles would do well to take her measure and hope he has a fraction of her steel.

They continue to watch the combatants, as Wonder Woman takes a pounding from Genocide, her face swollen and her eye blackened. Down below Tom and the recovered Magnus see them plummet back to earth and crash through the street into the subway below. As the land with a crash on the train tracks, Wonder Woman hears a snap and wonders if it is her collarbone, morality or both. But her course is decided. All fear and worry have vanished. Either she emerges victorious but wounded…or she joins her fallen sisters once and for all.

She dives out of the way as an oncoming train bears down on them, leaving Genocide in its path. She then punches the shaken creature up into the street above, receiving a devastating blow in kind from her opponent. She realises she cannot beat this creature fist to fist. It has her strength plus Ares magic besides. She must take a more vicious means. “Athena, forgive what I am about to do.”

Grappling with the beat, she takes them away from the city and out into the skies above the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. She manoeuvres herself behind Genocide and placing one boot against it’s back, grabs hold of a coil of her golden lasso protruding from the creature’s hide and pulls with all her might. Genocide howls in sheer agony as the lasso is literally torn from its body. She watches it fall to the river below, no longer in control of its arms and legs due to the damage she has caused it. It needs oxygen to breathe and she has ensured they above the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean.

She watches it hit the water and sink into the gloomy depths as she hooks her lasso back onto her belt. She thinks of the creatures final moments..helpless, paralysed, choking to death as water fills its lungs in the darkness. It freezes her heart. All she wanted to do was to kill this monster. To let it drown, alone in the dark. To have her revenge. And yet she finds she is not that person. Thank Hera. Thank all the Gods.

She dives down into the waters intent on saving her foe as tears of relief and resurrection mix with the waters around her. Right or wrong, she will not murder. She will not take another life knowingly today when any other options exists. Her heart is at last clear and with clarity…comes mercy.

But as she searches the waters it is clear the creature has somehow vanished into thin air…

On Thalarion meanwhile, Ares asks Euphemus if he has retrieved his future Queen’s body? Euphemus replies that the sea is his father’s domain and that the creature’s body is safe. Pledging his allegiance to the War God, Euphemus is told that it is time to break Zeus’ heart forever. He orders Euphemus to summon every foul creature that has even lived in the seas and bring them to both here and Themyscira.

“We have two cultures to exterminate today!” Ares growls.