Scarlet Starlight | By : DarthMeow504 Category: zMisplaced Stories [ADMIN use only] > Spiderman Views: 35790 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3 |
Disclaimer: This is a work of non-profit fanfiction. The Marvel Universe, the DC Universe, the Image Universe, and all characters and elements thereof are copyright their respective companies. Additional disclaimers within. |
[Author's note: I have always hated the name Greer, it seemed like at best an awkward attempt at something that sounded like "grr" and it barely even sounds like a woman's name. The only notable appearance of the name as a first name and not a surname that I can find is actress Greer Garson in the 1940s, and in modern times is obscure to the vanishing point. Thus, if nothing else for my own tastes, I have moved "Greer" to the status of middle name and named her Marie, in honor of artist Marie Severein who designed the character.]
Chapter 7 part 2: Thunder and Lightning
Barbara had underestimated the Quinjet's speed. They had gotten home from their excursion to Gotham well before dawn, and had time to clean up, eat, and wind down a little before the first light of the sun. Now, she was about ready to get to bed and she doubted the others would be far behind her. All told, it had gone pretty well, even counting the interference from the Batman. Bruce Wayne, her former mentor... she'd always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with him, torn between wanting to win against him and wanting to win his approval. Unable to simply be satisfied with the success of their mission, instead she kept going over it in her mind, cursing herself for every mistake, every failure to achieve perfection and absolute success. It was a habit she'd learned from him.
Aside from the self-recrimination, which would be salved by picking apart everything she'd done and isolating every error for elimination, the primary forces in the storm of thoughts and emotions that prevented her sleep were worry and guilt. The worry was reasonable, but also rather easily answered. Surely, he knew where to find her, but she doubted he'd come after her. For one, he almost never left Gotham, period. For another... he was her mentor, and she'd asked him to trust her. She wasn't sure, you could never be really sure with him, but she thought from the look in his eyes that he just might. Regardless, the sun was coming up and so even if he did come it wouldn't be till after dusk that evening. If there was anything you could count on Bruce Wayne, the Batman not to do it was come out during the daytime. Surely, he'd decided his course of action by now and would act on it when he woke up this evening. That was his way. Whatever would happen, she had time to deal with it and prepare.
The guilt was a little tougher. Her reasons for engaging in grand theft object d'art were flimsy at best and she knew it. Sure, her motivations weren't harm or personal profit, and she intended to see the piece returned where it belonged, but if nothing else her actions could be categorized as troublemaking and mischief. That seemed to suit her feline companions just fine, but she wasn't the sort. Or she hadn't been, and yet she not only went along with the plan, she had come up with it. It was enough to make her wonder if the two of them were a bad influence on her. She couldn't simply blame them, though, part of her had always admired Selina Kyle, even envied her. The fact that her youthful crushes and puppylove fantasies had featured Selina as often as they had Bruce didn't help. She'd moved on from those feelings for Bruce, but the torch for Selina hadn't been so easily extinguished. She still dreamed of the feline femme fatale from time to time, and when she sought release from built up sexual tension by her own hand, it was often Selina who filled her mind's eye.
And so it was that when the proximity alarm went off, just as she was settling into meditation to try to put her mind and heart at peace so she could sleep, she hoped it was Selina more than she feared it was Bruce. To her disappointment and confusion, it turned out to be neither.
-----
Located at the top of Mt. Davidson in central San Francisco, Avengers Mansion West wasn't the sort of place you just walked up to and knocked on the door. The winding, narrow road up the tall hill was designed to slow down approaching traffic, the house itself was surrounded by a courtyard gate with a spiked railing atop it to discourage climbers, and the roadway ended in a small parking area that didn't actually reach the level of the house itself, forcing visitors to proceed up a narrow tunneled staircase under and through the wall with it's own metal gate if they wished to reach the front door itself. Cameras and a call system were in place at this entrance for polite visitors to contact the house by, and the same was in place at the service drive that allowed access to the delivery dock around the side.
Of course, that was just the light security to dissuade casual interlopers of the nuisance sort, such as paparazzi or curiosity seekers. It also served well to keep away door to door religionists and other such marketing types. What it was not designed for was to be a serious line of defense against more dangerous threats, particularly of the superhuman variety. There were much more robust interior defenses for that purpose. Most important was the fact that the house was exactly that, a house. Guest bedrooms, kitchen and dining areas both formal and casual, a large den for social occasions, formal banquet hall for special events, a pool, the sorts of things one would find in any normal mansion, and aside from it's heavy-duty armored construction there was nothing unusual about it. Everything sensitive that needed real protection was deep underground, protected by the hill itself and multiple layers of armor and forcefield protection and supplied with power, water, oxygen, and even food by it's own self-sustaining internal systems. Of course, that didn't mean the house itself was unprotected. The courtyard was well equipped with sensors, security, and countermeasures both offensive and defensive, and that's where their current "guest" found herself trapped as the alarms alerted the superhuman residents inside to the intrusion.
At the security station, her image was plastered on multiple monitor windows, showing her from the angle of several different cameras including those attached to the mobile autodefense turrets that had her pinned down. Nets and spikes had closed in around her as well, and she wasn't going anywhere. In another window of the huge monitor, a CGI profile of her was being rotated with information. UNKNOWN, it said for name, while it listed the abilities and weapons the sensors had detected during her failed attempt at breaking and entering. Superhuman speed, dexterity, agility, and feline body modifications were primary on the list of displayed superhuman abilities, while the sensors had detected no weapons more advanced than the sword and lion's paw weapon she held and the extendable staff she'd used to vault the wall. Not a serious threat by herself it seemed, unless she had hidden abilities she hadn't shown. She could always have reinforcements on the way as well, but for now there was no reason to think she posed any real danger.
It was curious that she wasn't in the database, but that had become a lot more common since the otherwolders had come. She could easily be from that world, or be someone new. That's not what had Tigra so intrigued. It was the fact that she'd called her out by name.
"I'm here for the Tigra!" she'd shouted multiple times, both at the cameras and at the house. No insults or threats, no seeming anger, more like she was announcing herself. Could she be one of the Cat People? Her appearance would certainly fit the profile, short-furred and feline-featured much like herself, a cat-woman hybrid of the cheetah variety. Tigra didn't recognize the insignia she wore, but it could be a heraldic symbol of some sort. The Cat People as she knew them were still a very feudal sort of people, with royalty and nobility and a warrior caste that rose above the common civilians. It panged her that she didn't know more about them than she did, and thus about half of herself. She knew that her Tigra self was a reincarnation of their legendary warrior, and she'd had some sparse interactions with them, but there was still so much of their history and culture that was simply unknown to her. Much of it was lost to even them, though, she knew that much. The witch hunts that had raged through Europe in the wake of the Black Plague had taken a devastating toll on them, slaughtering them wholesale and leaving the survivors scattered and disorganized. A culture shattered, by human ignorance and violent fanaticism. Not the first to be sure, nor were they the last, but never again if Tigra had any power to stop it.
Making a decision, she worked the controls on the security computer and opened a path for the feline woman, opening a side door to the house as well. That door led into the den, a nice and friendly casual setting. If this woman wanted to talk instead of fight, it would be a good place to do that. Turning over the station to Barbara, who was much better with it than she was, she moved for the elevator to go and meet this woman. The others could stand by and be ready to back her up if necessary, but she wasn't going to make the atmosphere more hostile by showing up with a force behind her. The view on the monitors as she left, showing the feline woman simply walking through the offered pathway inside instead of rushing in at attack speed gave Tigra confidence that she'd made the right call.
Tigra couldn't have anticipated how the woman would actually react to her. Instead of an attack, or even a wary call for negotiation, the feline woman actually dropped to one knee before her, head bowed, muttering "my liege", along with some cat sounds Tigra couldn't translate. Well that confirmed she was one of the Cat People, there was no other imaginable explanation.
Before Tigra could decide how to react to this bizarre display of fealty, the blonde feline took it another step, taking the lion's paw with dagger sheathed in it from her side and offering it up to Tigra. What the hell was she supposed to do now? It felt like a ritual or ceremony that Tigra didn't know the protocol for. What was she supposed to do with that? Was she offering it to put aside, disarming herself like a samurai before their lord? Was she giving it to her? Was she supposed to knight her with it? She just didn't know what was expected of her, and she didn't want to offend the woman or risk sparking a confrontation by doing the wrong thing.
She was interrupted from this confused and scrambling for a course of action train of thought by a new voice, from the doorway. A woman's voice.
"Don't take that. It's not hers to give."
-----
As soon as the new set of alarms went off, alerting them to the intrusion of the new trespasser, Barbara had been in near panic mode. Her, here?! They had nobody on base that could match her kind of power, and the ground security measures weren't enough to more than annoy her. Making a snap decision, she shut down the defense turrets and let the Amazon warrior woman through. She'd be hard enough to deal with without pissing her off by shooting uselessly at her. The guns on the defense turrets were only SHIELD-issue stun blasters the type they used on Mandroid armor, the leadership had been hesitant to put anything more potentially dangerous like repulsors on automated defenses, choosing to err on the side of safety. It wouldn't do to blow some teenaged pranksters to charred chunks because of a computer error. Barb understood the reasoning, and recognized that the real security was reserved for protecting the sublevels and not the house, but she wished she had more firepower at her command right about now. She would lobby for some heavier weapons on lockout for human operation only to be installed, but that wouldn't help her right now.
So she did the best she could, she put out the emergency signal to summon backup, and grabbed Felicia to go up there and back Tigra up until help got there.
-----
Unlike Titania the afternoon before, Tigra recognized the intruder on sight. Diana, the Wonder Woman, member of the JLA and one of the otherworld's greatest heroes. What the hell was she doing here, and why was she after this Cat People woman? As she reacted to the surprise visitor, the Cat woman made the first move, pushing the paw and dagger into her hands and rising to take a defensive position in front of Tigra, brandishing an extendable staff and for all intents and purposes guarding her from Diana. Well that certainly established definitively that the feline fighter was on her side, if the whole kneeling to her thing hadn't been enough evidence. Right now though, there was more on her mind. In fact it was like the confrontation with Diana and --Cheetara? how did she know her name?-- was distant, and the only thing that mattered was the cats-eye gem in the center of that dagger, glowing in her sight and purring in her mind. She couldn't help it. She had to touch it. And when her hand wrapped around the pommel, the glow became an explosion of light and the purring erupted into a triumphant roar.
------
For Diana, things had gone from bad to worse in a hurry. Two allies had shown up for her foes just as something happened to the feline Avenger she recognized from files as Tigra. The tigerwoman had ignored her warning about taking the stolen artifact, and the Cheetah had taken a defensive posture over her immediately after kneeling and presenting her the weapon. It certainly seemed that the two were allies, and now two other cat themed superhumans were flanking her from behind and backing her up. Now it was four on one, and her backup wasn't there yet. They had the feel of a themed team, and that made Diana's mind reel with questions. Were these all Avengers as well, a subgroup, or villains working covertly in their midst?
"That's a stolen item, Tigra... it needs to be returned to where it belongs." She didn't expect it to work, but she had to try.
Tigra's eyes were glowing inhumanly, making her tigerwoman form suddenly much more intimidating and monstrous seeming, and when she spoke it wasn't a normal voice, instead echoed by a second set of voices, a growled echo as well as purrs and other feline sounds. It was like she was possessed, and it made Diana's blood chill in her veins.
"The Sword of Omens does not belong to humans. At last, it is back in Thunderan hands, where it truly belongs."
Diana's heart sank, realizing she was going to have to fight. Near as she could tell, no one she was facing were real heavy hitters but she was badly outnumbered, plus there was that artifact that was possessing Tigra, there was no telling how powerful it might be.
That distressing possibility turned into chilling reality, as with an echoing roar both sonic and psychic the dagger grew in her hands to a full sized sword, and from the gem was projected a glowing red spotlight replica of the insignia on the Cheetah's chest, turning the room red with it's light. That light, and the roar behind it, were more than physical, carrying a regal and undeniable aura of pure power and predatory prowess. Though the blood of Artemis ran in her veins, Diana suddenly felt much more like hunted than hunter.
"Tigra... Marie... this isn't you. You've been possessed, fight it!" Remembering Tigra's real name from the file, amazed she was able to recall such obscure information but glad she had, she hoped to reach Tigra's human self. It was her best chance.
The response was definitely not encouraging. "Wrong, Amazon... on the contrary, I am my true complete self for the first time. I remember... everything. Thousands of years of history lost to the Thunderan people... even our name... our very name as a people was lost to us... now all is restored. The Eye of Thundera has shown me more than I ever imagined."
She smiled on the Cheetah next. "Let the memory of the Thunderan people celebrate forever this day, the day that loyal Cheetara returned our birthright to us."
Well that confirmed that this woman wasn't the Cheetah she'd known. This Cheetara was someone else entirely, one of the "Thunderans" that she, Tigra, and Hawkman had all mentioned. He'd known what a Thunderan was, before the woman had even identified herself as one. There was more to this situation than the obvious, and the one person on her side who had the information she needed was incapacitated thousands of miles away. She felt like she could maybe resolve the whole thing without a fight if she just had those missing pieces to the puzzle, but there was no time to go and interview Hawkman about the subject.
And then a tense situation got even more tense. Her backup had arrived.
-----
Barbara groaned as things went from bad to worse. Not only did she not have the first clue why Tigra was acting like she was, but Diana just got reinforcements in the form of Superman and the Flash. Just what they needed... they already didn't have the power necessary to handle Diana, numbers on their side or no, and now there was no chance in hell. Diana or Superman alone could easily handle them all, and together? Not a snowball's chance in hell. Best she could do was bluff.
"You are on Avengers property without authorization. I suggest you leave immediately."
Superman wasn't buying it for a moment. "We're here to collect stolen property and service an arrest warrant on the thief. You're already risking charges of revieving stolen property, don't add aiding and abetting to that."
The cheetah woman growled. "It was never yours, human, and we will die before surrendering it!"
Superman shook his head. "I pick option C. Nobody dies, but you and the artifact are coming with us."
Tigra shook her head. "You will take nothing. Leave this place, while you still can."
Felicia looked at Barbara, just as nervous and confused about Tigra's behavior as she was. Barb didn't really know what to think of the whole thing, but she decided she'd rather back her up than abandon her. Before Superman could even ask them, when he looked their way she replied to his as-yet unspoken question. "We stand together. I may not know what this is all about, but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt."
Felicia nodded. "Same here. You want her, you have to go through all of us."
Superman sighed, and actually looked regretful. "I'm sorry you feel that way, ladies, but that means I have to take you in as well. I hate to do it, but you're not leaving me a choice."
Diana frowned, clearly not liking the way this was going. She flew up and grabbed his arm, just as he was moving in. "Kal, wait, I don't think we know the whole story here..."
He shook his head, and shrugged off her grip. "We know enough. They can tell their side to the judge."
Just as he began to move for them, lightning struck the ground between he and they, and a booming voice roared out.
"I say thee NAY!"
It was about damned time they got some help.
-----
With the new arrival, Diana's hopes of settling this peacefully dwindled further still. Worse, she recognized him. Of all the Avengers who could have arrived to reinforce their side, he was quite probably the most dangerous.
Kal-El was clearly either ignorant of who he was or just plain didn't care, as he ordered him to stand aside or face arrest with the others. That went over about as well as she thought it might, and she sighed inside as the situation deteriorated with no way she could think of to salvage it.
Thor's eyes narrowed on the Kryptonian. "Who are you, mortal, to give orders to a god???"
Kal was taken aback, and then scowled "They call me Superman, and the First Amendment might give you the right to blaspheme but I don't have to like it. Just who do you think you are to make that kind of claim?"
The sky crackled behind him as lightning split the sky to accent his words."I am Thor of Asgard, Son of Odin and Aesir God of Thunder, and I place these women under my protection. Attack them, and face the wrath of the Thunder God."
Kal blinked, disbelieving, and Diana sighed. "He's who he says he is, Kal please, don't push this..."
Barry Allen, the Flash, blinked softly and muttered nervously. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea...?"
Superman shook his head, eyes set with determination. "I can't believe you'd back down, Diana... regardless of who he is the law is the law, and I have a warrant to serve. Even if I have to do it alone, I've got a job to do and I'm going to do it."
-----
Superman was as good as his word, and the fight had begun soon thereafter. Even he wasn't sure quite who started it, but it could have been anyone or anything as tense as that standoff had been, and regardless of who moved first there was no going back now. Judging the self-proclaimed Thunder God as the top priority threat, he'd moved to eliminate him first. He didn't hold back, either, hoping to neutralize him quickly and demoralize the opposition into surrendering. If he couldn't handle it, then he only had his own boasting to blame.
Unfortunately, it hadn't gone down as well as he'd hoped. An all-out speed blitz had only ended up with his fist connecting with the stone-like metal of the hammer as it moved in a blur to parry his strike, and instead of it breaking as almost anything else would under his Kryptonian strength it had almost felt like his hand would break instead. His split-second stun from that jarring impact had been enough of an opening for a counterattack, and he'd taken the full brunt of that hammer under his chin with a force that sent him hurtling skywards and struck his vision white. He'd been hit a lot of times by a lot of powerful foes, but he couldn't remember the last time he'd been hit harder. Not since Doomsday.
He wouldn't give up, though. He didn't give up. Not ever. Flying back at top speed and firing his heat vision beams in quick bursts, he found those attacks as well being blocked by that hammer of his. He tried a few feints as well, attempting to get inside his defenses, but failed. Despite his size and strength, and the heft of that weapon, he moved it with the speed of a fencing foil, blocking his every move. The hammer-weilder was just as fast on the riposte as he was on the parry, and if not for his own super-speed he'd have been clocked a time or two more instead of barely avoiding the counterstrikes. This definitely wasn't going his way, and he couldn't win on these terms. He had to think of another way.
Opting for a different tactic, he flew back and tried his freezing breath, as that wasn't something that could be blocked by something like a hammer. For a moment he thought he had him as the ice coated him in thick sheets, forming layer after layer into what was quickly becoming a solid block. That brought up the worry about his oxygen supply, but he seemed like a tough enough guy that he could hold out long enough for Kal to drill him some airholes once he was incapacitated.
It was not to be that easy. With a crack and a sound like a thunderclap, the ice was shattered from him, and he laughed. "Fool, you think to harm an Aesir with ice and cold? I have braved the frigid wastes of Hel itself, I fear not your mild breeze!"
Below, the Flash and the cheetah-woman had run off, engaging one another at supersonic speeds. That left Diana facing off with the three remaining feline women, and Clark had no doubt in her abilities. Still, neither side had engaged, both watching the sky and the battle between he and the Viking man whom he still refused to believe was a god. That convinced him all the more that he needed to win to inspire the remaining enemy to surrender, and as he weighed his tactical options, he was almost taken by surprise as the "thunder god" threw his hammer. He was fortunate to have been at a decent distance, and thus had even the split-second he needed to dodge, and had he been closer he'd have been nailed for certain. He realized the possibility for an opening in his defenses just as that opening closed, as the hammer returned to his hand as if he were some sort of Jedi pulling his lightsaber to him, but if he could get him to throw it again...
"I know who God is, mister, and whoever or whatever you are you aren't Him."
That had done it, as with a roar of rage the blond behemoth threw the hammer again, and this time he was ready for it. Sideslipping past it even as he blurred forward with all his speed, he felt the satisfying crunk of his fist meeting his foe's chin even as his shoulder slammed into his chest a moment later, and pouring on the speed he drove him into the earth with a massive impact that formed a crater as deep as they were tall. Pinning him down, and pulling his fist back to finish him off, he suddenly saw the man's eyes flash like lightning just as his hammer returned to his hand. Something told him to get away, even as he was reeling back to avoid the expected hammer swing, and he barely escaped the bolt of lightning that struck where he'd been atop the thunderer but moments before. Even still, the smell of ozone was thick in the air and his every hair stood on end, and a chill ran through him as he saw the man --or whatever he was-- rise from the crater, electricity arcing over his body and to the ground as he shed the electrical charge he'd gained from being struck, rage in his face as blood trickled from his lip bit otherwise no worse for wear.
With a sinking feeling, he started to wonder if Diana was right.
-----
Felicia smirked, as she and Barb watched with awe and Tigra with interest as the two titans fought, but she had no doubt who would win. It really wasn't a question, SuperMAN vs Thunder GOD, and she told the Xena-lookalike from his team exactly that. In reply, the woman just sighed with a frustrated wince, like she was getting a headache. If Felicia was right, it wouldn't be the worst of what she'd be getting.
-----
Diana was indeed getting frustrated, but not simply at the prospect of Superman losing, nor did she fear even facing Thor herself. She was an Amazon, a warrior of Themyscira, and she feared no man or god and nor did she fear death itself. This whole situation was infuriating to her, however, convinced as she was that there was no need to fight at all. They were all heroes, supposedly, all purportedly on the same side, and yet they were squabbling like children. To her dismay but not surprise, it was the two strongest males that led the charge in butting heads. She was quickly growing past the point of patience with it.
While she watched, growing increasingly more outraged and muttering for Athena to bolster her fraying nerves, the situation took a turn for the worse. Superman again taunted the thunder god into throwing his weapon, but this time when he blurred in to attack the Asgardian was ready for him. Catching him in a grapple, pitting staggering strength against unimaginable force and holding his ground, the impact rang out like a sonic boom. She saw Kal-El's eyes glow red as he prepared to shift tactics, face to face with the thunderer and prepared to unleash his heat vision, but Thor took that moment to turn her "butting heads" metaphor literal. Then as Kal shook off the blow, Thor threw his hand up into Kal's face as if to block the incoming heat vision blast, but that's not what he was doing. Neither Superman nor Diana realized it until too late, as the hammer returned to Thor's hand with Clark's head right in the flight path.
The impact, straight to the back of the head and neither defended nor braced for, dazed Superman and drove him to his knees. Thor spun his hammer, prepared to bring it down on his foe's head and finish him if he didn't drop on his own, but the Kryptonian wasn't finished. He was enraged. Diana recognized the ominous red glow on the ground, then in his eyes as he looked up at Thor with a face set in rage, eyes blazing red... by the gods, they could kill each other!
"BY HERA, THAT'S ENOUGH!"
Diana had seen enough. Blurring up between them with the speed granted her by Hermes, she came between them without a moment to spare. Her sword drawn and at Thor's throat, causing him to hold his strike, and her Moonshield in Clark's face reflecting the deadly blaze of his full power heat vision, strong enough to melt whole city blocks to slag. She'd been just in time, and she growled at them both with a voice that brooked no argument.
"Both of you stand down, RIGHT NOW, I'm going to get to the bottom of this thing. Then, once it's settled if you two want to go back to killing each other you can do it without involving the rest of us."
Superman blinked, shocked from his rage. "Diana, wha--?!" he started to question her, but she cut him off.
"Shut it, Kal, I'm serious." The look in her eyes could make a enraged grizzly bear think twice. And indeed, it was he who backed down.
Thor merely chuckled, impressed by her display. "Aye, woman, I will stay my hand. For now."
She nodded. "Good..." then got on her communicator. "Diana to Watchtower, is Hawkman awake? If so, I need him on hologram five minutes ago."
The reply came through. "Oracle here, Diana. Checking... confirmed. Patching through in 3... 2..."
The Hawkman, Carter Hall or Katar Hol depending on if you went by his true name or the anglicization, appeared in the hologram emitted from her communicator.
Before he could speak, she asked him quickly. "The woman we fought in the museum was a Thunderan, right? I take it you know what that is?"
She sighed as he started to rant about "Thunderan scum" again, mixed through with english and Thanagarian curses, and she said simply. "I'll take that as a yes. That artifact, do you recognize it? Is it Thunderan in origin?"
That inspired yet another profanity-laced rant, but it confirmed that the item in question was indeed a Thunderan artifact. "Thank you Hawkman, that's what I needed to know."
He yelled at her to wait and listen to him, but she cut the channel and turned to Clark. "You heard that as well as I did... they were telling the truth. It's their artifact, they simply took it back."
Clark Kent, the Superman, sighed. "Diana... it's not that simple. If it's theirs, they can sue for their property in a court of law, they can't just claim it."
Diana wasn't budging. "On the contrary, if the museum has a real claim on it beyond 'we found it so it's ours', they can file suit for it. I'm not taking it away from it's people, and neither are you."
Superman was incredulous, and was about to argue further, when Cheetara returned and threw the unconscious body of the Flash at his feet. "The fastest man alive, perhaps, but no match for the quickest of all cats."
Worse, two new arrivals streaked onto the scene, and they were Avengers. As the two women lined up with their comrades, and Diana stood her ground, he realized to his dismay that he was outnumbered by better than six to one. There was no way he could win now.
He looked at Diana with burning eyes. "So be it, then. I'll file my report when I get back to base. Don't expect it to go easy on you." He then picked up the unconscious but thankfully largely uninjured looking Flash and hoisted him over his shoulder, and winced softly as he put his hand to the back of his head. He pulled it away bloody, and he scowled at her as he flicked the blood to the ground between them as if accusingly, saying his blood was her responsibility. Maybe he was even right, but she did the only thing she felt was right.
"We'll talk about this again later, Diana. Don't think it's over." And with that, he ascended to the sky with their fallen teammate and he was gone.
-----
As she watched the Man of Steel disappear into the distance, Diana sighed, not sure where she should go next and not sure if she even wanted to stay in the country or Man's World at all right now. Part of her wanted nothing more than to go home. She was interrupted from that uncomfortable train of thought by a feminine voice from behind her. It was Tigra, the Sword returned to dagger size and sheathed in the claw-shield at her side. Her eyes were gentle and there was a soft purr to her voice as she spoke.
"I owe you our thanks, Amazon. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that if you need it, you are welcome to stay here tonight. In fact, I'd very much like it if you would."
Diana blinked, shocked at the offer but also appreciative. There was something familiar to her in the catwoman's manner, like she was addressing her from one honorable warrior to another, noblewoman to noblewoman. After a moment's consideration, she nodded.
"It has been a long night and my battles began the day before... I could sorely use a bath, and a bed. If you could spare it."
Tigra smiled to her, and nodded in return. "Then please, stay and rest. You'll be safe here, and welcome, you have my word. We'll set you up a room, and speak more of all this over tonight's dinner. Do you accept?"
Diana nodded, and returned her smile. "Accepted with gratitude." Then she paused, and extended her hand. "Diana of Themyscira."
Tigra's smile was almost a grin, and she grasped her arm at the wrist, a warrior's handshake. "Well met, Diana of Themyscrira. Tigra of Thundera welcomes you."
None of the other Avengers, least of all Felicia, knew quite what to make of Tigra's odd, almost archaic new mannerisms. But all of them were of one mind in deciding that a full explanation could wait till evening.
-----
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