Ultimate Wonder Woman #1: World of Wonder pt.1

[jackalope]

Ultimate Wonder Woman #1
World of Wonders pt. 1

The fog horn blew, causing the nearby people of Gateway City to look up at the giant cruise ship. The smiling and waving tourists shuffled across the boarding bridges onto the docks. The day was blue and clear. A dark haired girl in a large men’s overcoat smiled as she surveyed the city. It’s tall white and silver buildings, the market stalls, the people. She held her bag tight in her hand and manoeuvred herself through the tanned men and women that crowded the deck. A crew man dressed in a formal jacket wished people well as they disembarked.

“Welcome to Gateway City. We hope you've had a great time sailing on Starway Cruises. If you are continuing with us the ship will be leaving again at 7pm.” The man smiled at her. She stared and smiled back, then nodded. She side stepped away from the crew man and onto the departure bridge. Two chatting middle aged women idled ahead of her. She waited, bouncing on the balls of her feet before lifting her bag over her head and charging between them.

“So-rai so-rai,” she called back, and then she made it. She was on solid ground.

She wandered through the people that gathered around the docks, looking through the market stalls, and smiling at everyone she saw. She stood and strange chariot beasts that drove by. She judged their speed and manoevrability before running onto the road through the traffic, and narrowly missing getting hit by a one. Horns blared behind her and she waved back. A man in a business suit looked at her and shook his head, “...foreigners.” Others were looking also.

She hesitated. It was not the kind of attention she wanted. She waited until the glances left her and backed into an alley. The alleyway was a long concrete path that continued to another street. Trash cans lay outside a locked door, narrowing the path. She lifted a lid off one of the trash cans and looked inside. Immediately she returned it and crinkled her nose with the smell. She looked up. It was near noon and the sun shined brightly overhead and she raised her hand to block it from hers eyes. Her sleeve slipped back revealing silver covering her wrist.

“Hand it over.” She turned. A hooded man pulled at her bag. It remained firmly in her hand.

Another, pale and skinny with tattoos running up his neck, held out a knife and nodded, “Yea, giv'it here.”

She frowned, and shook her head, “<No, that does not belong to you!>”

“Yo, what th' hell she sayin'?” said the first to the other, now pulling even harder on the bag. It wouldn't budge. He spat back at her, “You don't be speakin' Russian at me. You're here now. Speak American.”

“I dunno man. It don't sound Russian to me, it sound like Greek or somethink,” said the second man, tapping the knife against his lips.

“What are you, a goddamn detective? You flunked everythin'. Now help me with her!” He was turning red with the effort he pulled with. The second man pointed the knife towards her.

“Let go now!” he shouted.

“No!” she shouted back.

The man with the knife stared at his colleague, who looked angry now.

“LET GO NOW! I'll stab ya, I will,” he waved the knife.

“NO!”

The man pulling the bag let go of it and lunged at her. She twisted out of the way, letting him pass by.

“<I do not want to fight you.>” She dodged the knife that slashed at her face. “<You must have me mistaken for someone else.>” She ducked as the man behind her punched and missed her skull. The knife dived down towards her but she pushed it aside. “<I do not even know who you are.>” Another punch missed her but landed on the shoulder of the knife wielding man.

“Stop moving!” He shouted. He reached down to his boot and pulls out his own knife, larger than the skinny man's. He held it out in front of his face, letting the sunlight glint of it. They both looked at her, grinning. They advanced towards her. She sighs. Reaching into her bag, her hand feels about until she grasps something. There is a long 'shwink' sound of a sharpened blade being drawn from a scabbard as she pulled out a sword. She smiled, the weight felt good in her hand.

The thudding footsteps echoed away from her.

She turned. Three gun barrels hovered a foot from her face. She followed the arms back three large black men in green hoodies, all staring menacingly at her.

“Look what we have, Xenu warrior princess.”

She leaned forward and curiously looked at the pistols. Her finger reached towards one.

“Oh fuck no.” The middle man stepped back slightly, and waved the pistol towards her. “Get on the ground.”

She gave confused smile, and made to touch the gun again.

“What the hell? Do you want to die?” He pulled the gun back; the other two remained pointing at her. He spoke slowly, “It’s a gun, it shoots bul-lets!”

“Lets just shoot her,” said the man to the left.

“You are in Snake-Fang territory. All this,” said the middle man gesturing to the city, “belongs to us. Do-you-understand-what-I-am-saying?”

Her eyes widened and she shrugged.

The man rolled his eyes, “Ok, just shoot her.”

The man on the left pulled his trigger. Crack. The largest of the men on the right collapsed on the ground clutching his arm. “Aargh!” The other two looked to him and then back to her, as she wiggled her finger in her ear, trying to get her hearing back.

“You hit her sword, you dick! It ricocheted!”

“Sorry.”

The other two shot, emptying the clips into her. Her sword blurred in front of her. After the ringing echoes faded the three men looked to see her standing her blade shining in front of her face. She looked angry.

“<That is really loud!>”

The man to the left, fumbled for a mag, his hands shaking as he tried to slide it into the base of the pistol. He clicked it in, cocked it and looked up. A fist whipped his face, sending him into the wall beside him. The middle man made to punch but doubled over, lifting a foot into the air as her fist punched his stomach. The third man remained on the ground and curled into a ball, trying to be invisible.

She looked at the three men on the ground. Stepping around them she gathered their guns and pushed them into her bag. Sheathing her sword she returned that also. She leant down to the main man who lay face-down on the ground. “<You have lost in battle, and bought dishonour to yourselves. By right of combat I claim your weapons.>”

She stood and swung the bag over her shoulder. “<You must practice more.>” She turned and continued down the alleyway.

Down the road between at the tall houses that lined the street she walked. She admired the green trees that were planted along the footpath, the coloured doorways. The large flat growing beasts, whose armour remained so perfectly shiny, and who slept so quietly on the side of the road, they scarcely seemed alive at all. Ahead children sat on steps passing around a smoking stick. She had never seen children before. They all looked so... serious. She laughed. A man passed her, being pulled by a small dog, there were tiny chariots on his feet. Amazing. A sad looking man in torn clothing sat with a bottle by his side, he lifted his hand towards her asking for something. She stopped and looked through her bag. “<Sorry, I have very little food.>” She felt guilty, “<here.>” She handed him a coin. “<Sorry.>” She continued on.

The man chucked the coin into his hat then looked at it. He picked it up. It was heavy. Its colour was gold. He bit it. He looked around him. Quickly he picked up his possession and tucked them in his rucksack. He looked back at the woman in the overcoat who was getting smaller in the distance. He picked up the bottle and started walking in the opposite direction, dropping the bottle in a trash can as he passed.

Ahead of the wandering woman a small old lady with grey hair and thick glasses made her way up some steps to an apartment building. A young man with a black jumper on walking towards her broke into a jog. He grabbed the old woman's handbag and sprinted onwards. The old lady called out, pointing at the young man. The woman in the overcoat stepped into the middle of the footpath. The young man angrily shouted at her to move and barges shoulder first into her. It was like hitting a wall; he fell flat back onto the ground and groaned in pain. She picked up the handbag and walked to the old woman. “<You dropped this.>”

The old lady looks surprised. “<You speak Greek.>” Her eyes sparkle from behind her glasses.

The young woman broke into a grin. “<Yes! You speak my tongue too?>” Her relief is obvious.

The old lady took the handbag in one hand and the young woman's hand in the other. “<Yes young lady, it’s been such a long time since I have had a chance. Even my children, they won’t speak it. Your accent is strange, are you from Cyprus?>”

The young woman shook her head. The old lady nodded and then pointed to the apartment.

“<Come in my heroine! You must join me for coffee, and then stay for dinner.>” She started to get the keys out of her handbag. “<I am Aria Kravitzes.>” She unlocked the door and walked in.

“<I am Diana of Themyscira>” The young woman followed her in.



The Gateway City Police department.

Sgt. Mike Schorr places his hands against his lips, palms flat against one another as if in prayer. He sighs. “So what you're saying is you shot Lil' Tim here.”

Across the desk, a man in a green hoodie shakes his head. “No, you're not listenin'. My man shoots this girl...”

“..this Xenu?”

Zack, the other smaller green hooded man, calls from across the crowd police room, his face bruised and swollen. “Hiths Xhena masn, notsh Xshenu.”

“Yea and this girl she like smacks the bullet out of the air with her sword man, it was like some samurai shit, and the bullet hit Lil' Tim.”

Mike tapped his pad with his pen. “Ahuh, then she assaulted you, this Ms Xena?”

“Na man, then we opened up on her. It was like blam blam blam, and she just kept knocking them out of the air like they were... were ping pong balls. And then she gets this look on her face, then she beats the shit out of Zack over there, and sucker punches me in the stomach.”

Mike made a note. “So you would like to report an assault?”

“Nah man, a robbery.” Sgt. Mike raised his eyebrows. Sammy 'Snakebite' Henry, leader of the Gateway South Snake-Fangs sat back with his arms crossed. “..Bitch stole my gun.”