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The Games that Gods Play	By : Ristul Category: DC Verse Comics > Wonder Woman Views: 16896 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Wonder Woman,nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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The clandestine conflict between LexCorp and Ares Macrotech was the first great corporate war in modern history. The fact that both sides employed essentially private armies, hi-tech mercenaries, and metahuman muscle to pummel each other senseless made it unlike any war before. There was nothing anybody else could do.
The military was more than happy to let the two companies test out technologies and weaponry on each other, and then purchase whatever worked best; the elected government was beholden to both companies for campaign donations; the public never even knew the truth until years later.
-Our Business Is War: A History of Ares Macrotech, Joshua Peres
Veronica Cale sighed in pleasure as she leaned back in her seat. “Phillip, do you know how many calories I have to work off every time we eat like this?”
Phillip Delacroix shrugged nonchalantly, taking a sip of his wine. “An hour in the gym or two.”
“Uh huh.” She replied unhappily. “That’s time spent that I could be using for more important business. Unless, of course, I can find somebody willing to indulge in extremely… shall I say, strenuous physical activity.” She peered at him suggestively.
Phillip resisted the urge to loosen his tie to get rid of the tight sensation around his neck. “Uhm, I’m busy most nights. Bringing you out to dinner is just about all I can do.”
“Why, Mister Delacroix, haven’t you heard the rumors?” Veronica purred, and Phillip fought to keep his expression neutral when he felt her feet caress one of his thighs under the table. “You’re seeing me so often that people are talking.”
“I’ve nothing to hide, and I do enjoy your company.” He said honestly. “People are entitled to say what they want. It’s a free world.”
She stared intently at him for a few moments, as though waiting for him to say something more, before she sighed in defeat. “All right. That’s it for tonight. We must get going.”
Phillip was not sure what he had said wrongly, or even what he had not said. But there was no point worrying about it. He scrambled out of his seat, and prepared to escort Ronnie out of the restaurant when his instincts suddenly screamed in alarm.
One side of the wall was blown apart, and Phillip shielded Cale with his body, blocking he worst of the explosion. The smoke parted to reveal a hulking metallic monster, reflected light gleaming off his alloyed appendages.
Phillip pushed Ronnie away as the monster suddenly sprouted several weapons from hidden gun ports in his body, and they fired what seemed to be plasma blasts into the restaurant. Phillip yelped as he dodged the blasts, which disintegrated anything they came into contact with.
Metallo was probably after him. He had to buy time for the rest of the people in the restaurant to escape. He shouted to Cale, “Get out of here!”
She stumbled away, or more accurately, tried to before a man in a yellow costume swooped in through the hole Metallo had blasted. Phillip pulled out his Beretta, but Metallo chose that moment to resume firing, while the yellow costumed man went for Veronica.
Shit, shit, shit. That guy’s Shrike, from the… whatever of Assassins. Phillip knew when he was outclassed, and this was definitely it. His puny gun was worthless against Metallo, and he had a sinking sensation things were going to get worse. Glory and Infamy were sitting in the Areopagus armory, and he only had a few other hidden weapons on him, some small knives, darts, and garottes secreted in various places. Maybe he shouldn’t have trusted New York security so much.
The situation got worse. A cyborg girl pushed her way easily through the feeling crowd and headed towards him. He was surrounded.
Phillip backed up to a window, and flung himself through it, just as Shrike advanced behind Metallo’s steady plasma blasts. The glass splinters slashed his skin through his suit and pants. He fired his gun, and Shrike danced away while cursing angrily at Phillip.
He somersaulted in midair, and managed to grab a nearby pole to kill his momentum and swing himself up to a nearby ledge. A rumble in the air shook the building, and Phillip lost his footing, clutching at the ledge as his feet slipped into the air. He hung almost a hundred stories above the ground, hanging on by the strength of his arms, his gun falling away to the streets below.
A figure rose up into the air behind him, a colorful figure propelled by flaming jets against the backdrop of the evening. Trickster, the new one, a recent entrant to the Flash’s Rogue’s Gallery. He pointed a weapon at Phillip, and smiled cruelly as he pressed the trigger.
Phillip let go of his grip, and landed heavily on the ledge of the next storey below in a crouch, while the Trickster’s weapon blast blew through the space he had been, smashing in the windows of the empty and darkened rooms adjacent to his present ledge, and nearly blowing him off his feet. He saw Metallo fly round a corner of the building, Shrike and Cyborgirl perched on top of the technological monstrosity’s back in some recess he had formed to hold passengers.
The King of Pain went back inside the building though the broken glass, moments before he felt something very wrong in the dark confines of the building. His senses screamed at him, and he shifted slightly to his left, neatly avoiding a knife that would have disemboweled him. He stabbed out with a small knife, and his attacker yelped in pain. He thrust forward again, but the attacker was suddenly gone.
Then there was the tickling sensation on his neck again. Phillip ducked, feeling the whiff of a blade above his head, coming from behind him. He was fighting on pure instinct, since it was so dark in the room. He wanted to switch on the lights, but that would only alert Metallo and the Trickster, enabling them to take easy potshots at him.
He was sure there was only one attacker, but how the hell… Understanding came to him. The Shadow Thief, capable of merging into darkness and shadows and then appear anyplace with a shadow with his Dimensometer, or something like that.
Hell of a lot to throw at just one man. Phillip was flattered, but really, it was also overkill.
Shrike leapt into the room, and Phillip knew his tactical situation had only gotten worse. He retreated out of the room, emerging into a brightly lit corridor illuminated by exposed light bulbs. Shrike attacked with his daggers and shuriken, and Phillip pivoted away, the shuriken spinning above his shoulders and head.
Shrike didn’t seem worried by his misses, and that was when Phillip noted the light effusing the corridor had been reduced. The shurikens were not meant for him, and the shattered glass of broken bulbs littered the ground beneath his feet, while his shadow was cast behind him in the once bright corridor.
He blocked Shadow Thief’s dagger with his knife, twisting it round his back to block the assassin’s attack.
Shrike chose that moment to attack, and for more than a minute the three combatants scrambled around in a flurry of attacks and counterattacks. Phillip managed to disarm Shrike, whipping a knife into the wall, and then hitting the assassin so hard Shrike lost consciousness for a moment.
That moment was enough for him to clamber behind Shrike and place a knife at his throat, while Shadow Thief was left in a bright section of the corridor, unable to sneak into the shadows.
“Don’t!” Phillip jammed the knife into Shrike’s neck and the gun into his back when the assassin made an abortive attempt to wrest himself free. Just need to hold on until help arrives.
“You’re surprisingly good.” Shadow Thief remarked as he licked the blood off an arm. “We should have listened to Deathstroke and asked for a bigger payout.”
“Your loss.”
“Actually, it’s yours.” Cyborgirl entered the corridor, Veronica Cale in front of her at gun point. “Put your knife down, or this lady gets it.” Ronnie trembled, and Phillip cursed under his breath. The building shook again, and Metallo clambered through. Trickster followed close behind.
He had no idea if he could influence Metallo psionically, and he didn’t care to gamble Veronica’s life on that. He could see the fear in her eyes, and worse yet, he could see that Cyborgirl and Metallo were completely serious in their threat.
“Let her go! Or,” he jammed the knife in a bit deeper, drawing a thin line of blood from Shrike, “your friend here gets it.”
“Shrike can die for all we care. We just need you dead.” Cyborgirl was nonplussed, and evidently the lack of ties between the assassins rendered his ploy useless.
He took another tack. “Whatever you’re paid for this, I’ll double it.” Phillip said.
“Sorry, no dice.” Shadow Thief said. “We do that, our rep goes down the drain. You can, however, pay us to take out the person who hired us. Vengeance from beyond the grave.”
“And you earn twice? Forget it.”
Cyborgirl did not say anything, but readied her weapon arm, a whine filling the air. Veronica tried to run away, but Metallo reached out with his huge hands and held her in place. “Let me go, you bastards!”
He had no choice. The same threats he used at the gala to convince the armed terrorists wouldn’t work this time. Phillip used his power of suggestion on Shrike at the same moment he released the assassin. Shrike kicked off, and Phillip slammed into the wall, trying to ignore the pain in his stomach from the kick. He let go of the pistol, and Shrike kicked it away. He kicked Phillip again viciously in the stomach. The assassin cursed him, “Fucking asshole.”
Shadow Thief loomed over him, ready to claim his life, when Shrike said, “Don’t kill this fucker yet. We can squeeze some more dough from him and that lady over there. Ransom money. We kill ‘em when we get the cash, and we still fulfill our contract.”
The other villains nodded their heads. Trust them to be greedy. He had merely implanted the suggestion in Shrike, but the assassin had no problem accepting it. Phillip hid a smile as Shadow Thief smashed the hilt of his dagger across his face, pummeling him into darkness.

“And they lived happily ever after.” Wonder Woman smiled at the little girl in her lap as she finished reading to the children. The other children were yawning with the lethargic manner of children who had a full day of activity. “Now off to bed, all of you!”
Mildred Rose, the kindly woman in charge of the Curing Orphanage, helped the Amazon shuffle the children off to their beds, muttering sweet nothings in their ears and tucking them in. Diana smiled when they left, switching off the lights in the room.
“Thank you so much for coming here, Diana.” Mildred said. “The kids look forward to your visits, as infrequent as they might be.”
“Oh, I don’t mind. It’s not really work, and your children are delightful.” Wonder Woman was dressed in a simple T-shirt and jeans, not in her usual costume. “I just regret that my duties elsewhere leave me with too little time to care for more children. They are our future and our treasure.”
“That is so true.” Mildred agreed as they entered the small staff kitchen. “We do our best, but it is still better to have secure, happy families for these children to grow up in.”
“But I can see that you’re doing well. I noticed a lot of new equipment and books. I didn’t know my Wonder Foundation provided so much.”
“Oh no.” Mildred shook her head. “It wasn’t your Foundation. A philanthropist named Phillip Delacroix donated the money to us to buy the stuff. We even invited him here two weeks ago to express our thanks. He did the same for every orphanage in the area. That’s a lot of money.”
“I see.” Diana smiled. “It’s good to see that there are others in society who care.” She noted the unease in Mildred’s eyes. “Mildred, what is wrong?”
Mildred sighed, and said, “When he was here, I felt as if I should know him, and I wasn’t the only one. But it was only last week that my suspicions were raised.” She stood up, and opened a drawer, pulling out a photo. “Some of the kids were doodling, and children being children, they loved to add features to faces. Amanda did this.” She handed Diana the photo.
It showed a smiling Phillip Delacroix with several children. But more importantly, was the beard they had added to his face. With it, he looked very much like Tom Serra, the beggar who lived near the orphanage before he was killed saving the Amazon superheroine. Diana already knew the truth, but having proof other than his and Gawain’s shared past was important.
Mildred said worriedly, “I didn’t know what to think. I thought about calling Mister Delacroix and asking him about this, but he’s a busy and very important man. Why would he find time to indulge my wild fantasies? But the kids kept asking me if he was Tom, and I just didn’t know how to respond.”
Wonder Woman sighed. “Mildred, Phillip Delacroix is Thomas Serra. I had been doing some investigating of my own. I still haven’t found out why or how, but yes, they are the same person.”
“But why…”
“I do not know.” Diana held Mildred’s hands in a reassuring gesture, her face gentle. “But rest assured, he must have his reasons. I don’t like to ask others to lie, but just tell the children that he’s not Tom Serra.”
“And the money…”
“Whatever he’s up to, I think you should not discount his sense of gratitude so easily. Did he ever mistreat the children?”
Mildred considered the question. “No. You’re right. I’m reading too much into it. If he’s really Tom, then I guess he does want to help us.” She smiled wanly. “Once a drifter and beggar, now a sponsor in high places. Whoever would have thought it?”
Yes indeed. Wonder Woman had thought of that strange occurrence quite often in recent weeks. She was also quite sure that the original Phillip Delacroix was dead. Her own investigation had yielded that he had likely died in an accident a few years ago, but somebody covered up the event, which later allowed Tom Serra to assume his identity, probably at Ares’ behest.
Her beeper sounded, and Diana hurried raised it to her ear. The police was calling for her assistance, for an attack by supervillains on the Empire State Building.
Diana sprang to her feet. “I’m sorry, Mildred, but…”
“I understand. Thank you for your time, Diana.” Mildred quickly showed her out.
Wonder Woman spun round, quickly changing into her fighting costume. She leapt into the air, communicating with the police through her special earrings.
She quickly found out that Metallo, Cyborgirl, Trickster, and Shrike were the confirmed attackers. More importantly, witnesses had seen them going after two specific people, and the names chilled the Amazon Princess for an instant. Phillip Delacroix and Veronica Cale.
Diana held no love for Cale. The businesswoman had fancied herself as Lex Luthor’s distaff counterpart to Wonder Woman, and she had more than lived up to her goals, hurting Vanessa severely and later by the Medousa affair, working with the deadly monster. The Amazon shivered as she remembered her battle with Medousa; it could have turned out very badly for her, but she had been skilled enough to secure the Gorgon with the lasso of truth, and then imprison her in Tartarus.
But no matter what, Cale was the victim this time round, and she was sworn to the duty of justice to save her. Not to mention Phillip, to whom she owed a great deal.
The attackers were long finished by the time she got to the scene. The police showed her the damage to the building, and their conclusions.
The detective in charge wiped his brow with a hanky. “From what we had gathered, Mister Delacroix and Miss Cale were having dinner and about to leave when Metallo showed up. Mister Delacroix put up a fight,” he pointed to the trickles of blood on the floor in a corridor, “but they apparently got the better of him. He’s missing along with Cale. We were lucky nobody else was hurt.”
“Were there any bodies?” Diana could not help but hope just a little bit they found Veronica Cale’s corpse. It was an unworthy thought, she just could not help it. If she was being honest to herself, she was also a bit jealous of Cale.
“Nope. Our experts deduced that as powerful as their weapons are, none of the attackers have enough power to completely vaporize a human being. And why should they? They’re probably holding those two for a ransom demand.”
Diana thought it was strange that Phillip had not taken down at least one of the villains, but then again, he had started off in an extremely bad situation. Much like Batman, he required preparation in order to win. Take that preparation away from him, and while he would fight well, his chances at victory was much slimmer. Add Cale to that as a liability, and the Amazon could easily imagine the battle as it happened. He had no chance at all from the start.
“Any leads?”
“Nope. Those supervillains are hard to track down once they’ve gone to ground, you know that. The executives from Ares Macrotech are already screaming in my ear, and my bosses are demanding an immediate resolution. Why does this have to happen to me on my watch?” The detective whined piteously.
Wonder Woman shook her head, hiding her disgust at the detective’s lack of determination. “Any ransom demands yet?”
“We’ll just have to wait.”
She left for her embassy. Perhaps some help from the other heroes was in order. Oracle could find some electronic trail from the villains hinting at their current location. She called ahead to her staff, asking them to do some groundwork for her.
Jonah McCartney was waiting for her back at the embassy, and he quickly gave her what information they had found. “The Asian markets are showing something very interesting. Ares Macrotech stock dropped when the news hit them, and LexCorp and its subsidiaries are trying to buy them out.”
“And how would they get the news of the kidnapping so quickly?” She had her own suspicions when Jonah confirmed for her.
“LexCorp’s news outlets. LNN broke it, and Reuters and the rest followed suit.” He grimaced. “Harvard never taught us how to handle this sort of stuff.”
“So Lex Luthor is behind this.” The Warrior Princess had half a mind to pay a visit to the wealthy mastermind, but she also knew that he probably had already thought of a way to wriggle out of anything she could do. The man was a snake and a weasel. Dealing with him always left her with a slimy feeling, as though as she had rolled in mud with evil.
“We don’t know that for sure.” Jonah pointed out. “It’s only highly subjective evidence.”
She sighed. Many people still believed Lex Luthor to be a wealthy philanthropist who got framed for crimes that led to his dismissal and impeached in absentia from the Presidency, when the superhero and supervillain communities knew very well what had gone on. No matter what sort of dirt was gathered on Luthor, he always seemed to be able to shrug it off. Her embassy staff still hadn’t encountered the sort of slime he was capable of.
She went for her office, ready to do some more investigating. It was going to be a long night.

They sat around the poker table in the café, quietly playing their cards. A small mobile fridge filled with beers cans laid on the ground near the table.
Ares could feel the disapproving glances of the others on him throughout the entire card session. He had enough, and decided to speak up.
He asked indignantly, “What?”
Morgan grunted, “You know what.”
Ares placed his cards face down on the table. “Explain it to me, because I don’t.”
Stanley frowned. “You tossed Phillip to the wolves. Come on, just tell us where he is, and we can get him out.” He added in a mumble, “Why does Gawain have to be incommunicado now?”
Ares pointed a finger at Jake. “Jake isn’t worried.”
They looked at Jake, who raised an eyebrow. “He’s right. I’m not worried. Phillip’s a big boy. The assassins have bitten off more than they can chew.”
Joshua turned on Jake. “How did you know they were assassins? I thought they were kidnappers.”
The big man smiled. “Trade secret.”
“Ares, tell us where Phillip is!” Morgan insisted.
“Sorry, the less direct interference I have in this matter, the better.” Ares considered briefly if he should tell them about Athena’s involvement in the matter, but decided not to. Interference by the gods in the affairs of mortals was sometimes considered to be like running a tab at the bar; the more they interfered in the lives of their supporters, the more power they expended, and the more dependent their worshippers got, demanding more aid in the future. Part of the challenge in being gods was that they had to expend just enough power to keep their worshippers impressed, while getting even more power from such worship.
If Athena wanted to plant her fingers everywhere, she was more than welcome to, provided she was expending power for little gain. He had no doubt Phillip would find a way out. The man was resourceful, and Ares was certain that the Lion had not exhausted his bag of tricks yet.
“It’s only information.” Stanley protested.
“Information is ammunition, and Ares is conserving his.” Jake commented. His three minions turned to Jake as the café owner laid down his cards on the table with a grin. “Full House, boys. Pay up.”
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Remember Batman’s comment at the end of chapter 17? Yes, the ‘private little war’ between Ares Macrotech and LexCorp is starting!
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The Games that Gods Play