Wonder Woman Beginnings: The Alpha

WONDER WOMAN: BEGINNINGS
BOOK ONE: THE ALPHA
by JR

Based upon stories by George Perez and John Byrne, as featured in the Wonder Woman comic, Volume Two, issues #10-12, and in Action Comics issue #600; told now without any damn censoring.

PROLOGUE: HEADLINES

"Hot dammit!" Eyes and mouth could grow no larger in the field of freckles that was Jimmy Olsen's face. "I mean, look at her! Just LOOK at HER!"

Though few in the crowded newsroom paid any notice, Clark Kent adjusted his glasses, pretending to squint. The first page of the Planet's extra edition Jimmy held was dominated by a large photo. "Ah, yes. The Boston press is calling her Wonder Woman."

"Ya bet she's a wonder, Mr. Kent, look at those..."

"Lemme see that." Lois Lane snatched the paper from Jimmy's hands. Sitting on a corner of Clark's desk, she casually crossed her long legs. "Oh, come on! Couldn't she give them a less obvious cleavage shot?"

"Lois, I don't-"

"Shut up, Smallville. Look at her! It's all about the boobs!" She threw the paper down. "Fake, too."

"Fake?" Jimmy winced. "Really think she ain't real, Ms. Lane?"

"Maybe she can really fly and all that. I'd buy that easier than those tits being real."

"Fake?"

"What'd you think, Smallville?"

"It's not really my-"

"Yeah, yeah, always the gentleman, Smallville; maybe worked for you back in the sticks, but here-?"

"Fake?"

"The important thing, Lois, is whether she's really as powerful as-"

"As Superman? Fat chance. There's only one Superman, boys." She smiled smugly. "I know that well."

"They say she stopped a crisis at a military base that-"

"Ok, she has some powers, or she'd sure as hell topple face-forward with all that silicone up there, but-"

"Silicone?"

"LOIS!"

"HERE, PERRY!"

"Stop bugging Kent, Lois. Let the boy work."

"Oh, Chief, she isn't-"

"Sure, Kent, sure." Perry White, chief editor of The Daily Planet, sat on the desk next to his star female reporter, both with their backs to Clark. "Lois, get something new on that Wonder Woman broad for tomorrow. We need text to go with a new set of pics-"

"Damn, Perry. I thought we had better standards!"

"Girl sells newspapers, Lois. Cute as a doll and wears the Union's colors like a good American; all great by my standards."

"Oh, sure, naked but for a few bits of flag and-"

"Actually I think she isn't American at all-"

"Shut up, Smallville."

"Hey, Chief-"

"Olsen, I've told you not to call me-"

"You think they're fake, Chief?"

"The pictures? FAKE? Who said-?"

"Her chest, Perry."

"What? Oh. Damn, grow up, Olsen."

"It's said she comes from an isolated, all-female society hidden in-"

"Come on, Smallville, you can't believe all that hot lesbian paradise island crap the Meyer Agency is-"

"Lesbian? She's a lesbian?"

"Shut up, Jimmy."

"Lois, you're just jealous someone else got the scoop this time."

"Come on, Perry! You just can't compare a half-naked cheerleader showing up with Superman's-"

Clark Kent adjusted his glasses. "I can do it."

"Uh?"

"Ah, I can do the piece on Ms. Wonder Woman if Lois-"

Lois rolled her eyes. "Yeah, wouldn't you want a piece of that shameless-!"

"If it's fine with-?"

"Sure, go drool at the silicone! MEN!"

"Lois-?"

Perry White shrugged. "Ok, Kent, you do it."

"Could it really be silicone? They look so-"

"SHUT UP, OLSEN!"

PART ONE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

He would always remember that first time.

The mechanical constructs rampaged through the street, each larger than a bus. Quadrupedal extremities and viciously fanged maws destroyed storefronts and parked vehicles.

"Giant robot dogs?" The man in blue tights shook his head. "Who the hell makes giant robot dogs?"

"It's better to make a giant insect flier?" Booster Gold told the frowning Blue Beetle. "Oh, crap, they're coming this way."

"We on candid camera or something?"

"Fuck! Wrist blasters ain't doing shit!"

"I mean, GIANT ROBOT DOGS?"

"Get close to me!"

"What?"

"My force-field! GET-!"

"Oh-shi-!"

A blur of red and blue dove through the head of the canine-like automaton, halting its rush.

"Damn, thanks."

"Maybe you should help with the evacuation." The tall man in the red cape threw the ruined robot aside with ease, before taking to the air again.

"That's Superman."

"I could tell. Big ‘S’ on the chest kinda gives it away."

"Superman, dude. We're on the big leagues now!"

"And that means giant robot dogs? Sheesh..."

The Man of Steel rushed to intercept more of the giant mechanical creatures, smiling despite himself. Frivolous as they may be during the sudden attack of Apokolipsian robo-hounds, he could not help but find Blue Beetle's dry comments amusing. Maybe he should work with others more often.

Grabbing another robo-hound by the tail, Superman threw the construct against another of its kind, dismantling both. A glowing wedge of green then materialized and pushed most of the remaining pack backwards, towards the containment structure being shaped by Doctor Fate, another of the costumed protectors on the scene.

"Watch and learn, Pretty Boy!" called out the red-headed man with the bowl-haircut, green energy pouring from the ring on his finger.

Superman stopped to nod amiably at Guy Gardner, and was slammed face-down into the pavement. Jaws of metal not forged on Earth crunched around his neck, and for an instant he grimaced, caught off-balance. He was about to throw the attacker off, when the pressure suddenly disappeared. The hound was pulled away and swung about by a black-haired woman in red, blue and gold.

Superman stood up, and stared.

She was tall, but not as large as Big Barda. Yet the Apokolipsian war-machine crumbled in her hands. First impression was of powerful vitality, balanced by understated elegance. She was obviously in amazing shape, but not just because of the natural exuberance of her curves; perfectly toned muscles flexed under her flawless skin. Even after stepping away from her vanquished opponent, she had the relaxed alertness of the trained fighter.

"Thank you," he said, approaching her, noticing with some embarrassment how little modesty her minimal clothing afforded. She turned around then, and long black hair flowed aside like a glossy curtain of night to reveal her face. Unlikely as it seemed, awareness of even her spectacular figure was then lost, banished by the perfect features and the brightness of those clear, blue eyes.

For a moment he almost stammered, at loss for words. "Er, Wonder Woman, I presume?"

She frowned, and the wrinkling over her nose just made her more fetching. "Diana. Of Themyscira."

"Diana." Suddenly presenting himself as Superman seemed a ridiculous boast.

Then she smiled. Somehow that made her radiant beauty increase exponentially, into the truly heartbreaking. "You are the one called Superman."

"Wow," Booster Gold muttered. "Are those real?"

PART TWO: MY PEOPLE WILL CALL YOUR PEOPLE

Vanessa Kapatelis stepped out into the back yard, her thin frame shivering at the night chill, and stared, surprised. She rubbed her eyes, but the moonlit figure of the nude Amazon Princess remained unchanged. Vanessa blushed, unsure of whether to speak or hide.

Diana's long hair fell in thick waves of dark curls covering most of her wide back, stopping a hand span above her waist and the flaring of her athletic hips. Vanessa tried not to stare at the solid, perfectly rounded buttocks crowning the long, muscular legs, but failed.

It was Diana's fault. After all, she was the one going out butt-naked in the middle of the night.

The teenager just shifted on her feet, and the rustle of her pajamas was surely inaudible, yet Diana still turned to her.

"Vanessa?"

"Uh, yeah." Her face grew as red as her frizzled hair, and she fought not to look down from Diana's face, unsure of just how to even stand, her body language full of the awkwardness of most teenagers after their first growth spurts. "Hi."

"Did I wake you?" Diana's accent was still funny.

"Uh, no -well, yeah. Uh, so, watcha doing?"

"Praying."

"To, uh, your... gods?"

"Yes."

Vanessa shifted uneasily. She still wondered if Diana was actually nuts, powers or not, with all that weird talk of old gods out of books being real. Superman also flew and all that, but never talked crazy that she knew about. "Must you be... um, like that? To pray, I mean."

"Oh, does it bother you?"

Vanessa looked up from the awesome boobs, and reddened even deeper. "No! But... You may give a heart attack to one of the neighbors, you know."

"Why?"

"Uh, what're you praying for?" She actually meant the question. Diana already had everything anyone could ever want and more, didn't she?

"Guidance."

"What?"

"I am... perturbed."

"Per-what?"

"I dreamed again. Of him."

"Him? You mean-?"

"Superman."

*********************************************

Clark Kent rarely perspired at all, but this time he woke up covered with sweat, and for an instant he felt like a teenager again, furiously embarrassed, worried that Ma would walk in. This almost never happened to him; he had better self-control.

But he had dreamed again about Her.

*********************************************

"Superman? SUPERMAN?" Mindy Mayer's eyes lighted up. "Diana, dear, of course! It's fantastic! Fabulous! Should've thought of it myself!"

Princess Diana of Themyscira shifted uneasily on her sandaled feet. Something in Meyer's luxurious office, in the whole floor housing the public relations company, made Diana uneasy. She had been told the assistance of professionals was needed to better reach people with her Amazon message of peace and harmony, but each time she came to this place, she felt like it was all a cage, a gilded cage, shiny but cruelly restraining.

"I'll get you two a date in no time! Oh, the press will eat this up! You'll be the hottest couple ever!"

*********************************************

"Oh, is it you?" Diana smiled brightly and held the telephone receiver tightly. "Your voice... sounds so different."

"Ah, yes. It's... complicated."

"I wanted to see you. Can we-?"

"You're asking me-?"

"Is that alright? I don't know if-"

"No, no. Of course I'd like to see you, too."

"Yes?"

"Yes. Sure."

"Where can-?"

Mindy Meyer smiled, watching the young woman nervously fidget with the telephone's cord while she spoke. Diana always appeared so centered, so assured, that it was amusing to see her so flustered. It was actually humanizing. Maybe they could use it, somehow.

Superman. It was just perfect. She could spin it into a media frenzy. And all it had taken was a promise of an interview with Diana to that Kent fellow.

*********************************************

Hanging up the phone, Clark Kent felt the need to sit down and breathe deeply.

It was just a date. A date. People did that all the time. It was ridiculous to feel any anxiety. Beautiful as she was, she was also warm and friendly.

And she had called him. She called him.

Yet there was something about her: a sense of aloofness, of detachment, somehow at odds with the warmth her smile and voice conveyed. She was also actual royalty, a real princess from a strange foreign land, and that unsettled him. Despite his Kryptonian heritage, he had been raised a simple Kansas farmboy. Lois made a point of always reminding him of that, didn't she?

Lois and Wonder Woman, in so many ways they were so different, yet also so alike. Lois seemed to go out of her way to make him feel inadequate. Wonder Woman did the same by just being there.

He shook his head. It was just a date. Wasn't it?

PART THREE: THE DATE

"Why do you wear those?"

"What, the glasses?"

"Yes, those. Don't you-?"

"It's a disguise."

"A disguise?"

"So people don't... think I'm someone else."

"And they don't? Really?"

"Has worked so far."

Diana frowned. Despite the many surprising features, the wonders of science and achievement in Patriarch's World, her opinion of modern man kept getting lower.

He shrugged. "The different clothing helps, and the posture and... It's many little things."

"So it's a deception?"

"Of a kind... A necessary compromise, for privacy and-"

"Privacy?"

"In order to live a more normal life among-"

"Normal life?"

"Yes, to live as people do, with-"

"But you are not like other people."

"I can just do more than others, but-"

"And what we do is not linked to what we are?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that-"

"But why would you need to hide who you are? Are you not proud of being-?"

"Please, don't say that here-"

"And you sustain this... disguise all the time?"

"Not always. Uh, just in public, as Clark Kent, when-"

"But you are Clark Kent. That was how you grew up, no?"

"Yes, but-"

"But?"

He sighed. "I said it was complicated, didn't I?"

"How do you stand it?"

"Stand-?"

"The lying."

He actually blushed, embarrassed. "It's necessary. For protection-"

"Why would YOU need protection? You-?"

"For those close to me. Many would... move against me through my friends and family."

"I see." Diana frowned. The Kapatelis house had been attacked once already, and Decay had come far too close to harming Vanessa. "Maybe I am imperiling my own friends, then."

"Most everyone in this... line of work does the same-"

"I don't know if I could do it."

"Well, you're just learning about our culture-"

"If I also wore such glasses and strange clothing-?"

Clark smiled. Diana had her long hair in a simple, unadorned ponytail and wore a flowing robe of vaguely ancient Greek style, which covered her from ankles to shoulders, yet every pair of eyes in the restaurant remained fixed on her, and half a dozen waiters stood nearby waiting for any excuse to approach the table.

"I think you'd need much more than just that."

*********************************************

"WONDER WOMAN!"

"Princess Diana!"

"WONDER WOMAN!"

"-any work done?"

"What's your stand on abor-?"

"Are you really dating Geor-?"

"WONDER WOMAN!"

"Will you pose for Pla-?

"-they real?"

"WONDY!"

"-fake?"

"SMILE!"

A constellation of multiple flashes and a cacophony of overlapping voices demanding answers to all kinds of questions had met them as they exited the restaurant. Diana smiled shyly for the cameras, while Clark kept back a pace, fumbling with a hand-held voice recorder of his own. Few among the reporters or paparazzi glanced twice at the hunched man with the thick glasses and ill-fitting suit.

"-the Gaza strip-"

"-who does your hair?"

"WONDER WO-!"

Diana lifted a hand up, open and facing outwards.

"Please."

Impossibly, silence ensued after that single word and her firm, imperious gesture. Even Clark was impressed.

"I apologize, but I cannot answer questions tonight. I promised... Mr. Kent that he would have an... 'exclusive'?"

As the reporters erupted in even more frantic questions and demands, she turned to Clark and smiled.

"May I give you a lift?"

Clark frowned, genuinely baffled, and did not fake his surprise as Diana calmly lifted him off the floor and held him up, cradled in her arms.

"Please excuse us," she said, smiling broadly, before she flew up and away.

*********************************************

"You were surprised?"

"Yeah. Well, I'm normally the one who-"

"Did it bother you?"

"No, no. It's just-It's nothing, really." Superman looked away for a moment, embarrassed again. You could not lift anyone that way without close bodily contact.

"I was trying to preserve your secret."

"Yes, I know. Thank you."

They were high over Boston, flying a few feet apart, and the cityscape was a sea of lights under them, mirroring the starry sky above. Superman had changed into his distinctive outfit, while Diana still wore her robes, which clung to her body, buffeted by the strong wind.

"I love it. Flying."

He nodded, smiling at her. "Me, too."

"It's... pure. Up here."

"Yes."

"I confess I like your cities better from above."

"Is it so different where you come from?"

"Oh, yes."

"Tell me."

She smiled back at him.

*********************************************

Superman placed the last of the lifeboats on the dock, near the waiting ambulances, and smiled, waving back at the grateful occupants. He flew up, and saw Diana, steadily pulling the damaged cruise liner, towing it with her golden rope. Once again, he was amazed at seeing her in action, at her strength and presence.

There were a few others in the world that could also perform such a feat, but probably nobody looked as good as her while doing it. Then, she went to speak for a while with the people they had rescued, and he actually felt chided. Maybe he was used too much to helping and running, in a sense.

"You're wet," he said, as she flew up to join him. She had dived into the sea to bind the cruise ship with her lasso.

"So are you," she said, smiling broadly. There was a glow to her, he noticed. She had looked like that back after destroying the robo-hound, as if the action made her even more alive.

"I can dry you," he offered. "With heat-vision."

"Really?" Her smile grew in radiance. "Just by looking at me?"

"Uh, yes, it's-"

"Good ahead, then. Look." She spread her arms wide, arching her back and throwing her head back.

He hesitated for a moment, before bathing her in the heat of his vision power. She rotated slowly, soaking the warmth, and making him realize that his skin-tight clothing could be a source of embarrassment.

"I liked that. Thank you." She brushed her hair to a side casually, coming closer. "Now, how may I dry you?"

"Oh, you don't need-"

"Should I get you out of those wet clothes?"

He met her eyes. They sparkled with starlight.

"Ah, I normally just fly higher, towards sunlight."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Fine. Let's do it."

*********************************************

They reached the upper limits of the atmosphere, and when the sun broke through the line of the horizon, casting its golden low over the Earth's curved edge, they held hands without really noticing.

Both shared the beauty of the spectacle for a long moment before finally turning to face each other.

Then they kissed.

*********************************************

The TV newscast made Lois Lane look up from her toes and drop the nail polish.

She frowned and pursed her mouth. So Smallville got his interview with WonderBoobs after all. Big deal. It should not bother her at all.

She snorted when the top-heavy bimbo lifted him up like an overgrown baby. Just when you though Kent could not look any more ridiculous. Anyone smarter probably would have coped a feel, but she knew the farmboy better. That there was probably the most action the guy had got in ages, if not ever.

It was all over the networks, and speculations were running wild. Lois shook her head, baffled. People would believe the craziest of things. Really, what could Smallville even talk about with that siliconed cow? She could not think of a more mismatched pair.

It still should not bother her at all.

She grabbed the remote, and shut the damn thing off.

*********************************************

There were no words that could describe the taste of her, no metaphor fitting the pressure of her against him. His hands moved from her toned arms down to her waist, and he marveled at its slenderness before their embrace vanquished all conscious thoughts. She was both soft and hard, firm and yielding, and he could not get enough of her.