|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Wonder Woman
The Amazon Prince
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 1
On Paradise Island, Cassandra awoke with a shudder. She composed herself and tried to shake the images of nightmare from her mind.
"Hera preserve me! May this be but an errant whim or eerie phantasm sent by the capricious son of Hypnos," she sighed. She laced up her sandals and gazed out at the moonlight as it bathed the marble courtyard in silvery splendor.
"If this be a true vision and not a nightmare, then how can I go on, how can any of us continue in a world turned as mad as the raging Maenads?" she said.
The prophetic dreams of the lithe, red-headed Amazon were often true, and in this case they were omens of dread.
The night upon which this vision so distrubed the girl was a tense one for most of her lovely sisters. Their beloved Princess Diana (Wonder Woman) had come home to give birth!
Her husband had faced Nazi agents, alien invaders, and crooks both costumed and petty, yet Steve Trevor seldom had such a stirring in his stomach. The expectant father to be paced back and forth nervously while his Angel gave birth to their second child within the palace medical center.
"Steve Trevor, why do you worry so? Our Dr. Althea is a brilliant daughter of Asclepius. She shall see my child and your bride through this fateful hour. And Paula is ever ready to help. See how she provided the anti-gravity platform on which you tread above the sacred soil of our island home?" asked the raven haired beauty who ruled the Amazons.
Steve had never lost his awe in the company of Queen Hippolyta though she had been his mother in law for over twenty years. "I know, I know. You've got all the bases covered, but this waiting is tough on a man of action," he said sheepishly.
Within, the lovely Diana smiled in relief as Dr. Althea and Paula eased her rest.
"Princess, you've give birth to a handsome boy! He has the look of you and the reckless spirit of his sire," said Dr. Althea.
"Praise Hera," sighed Wonder Woman as she held her new son.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 2
Steve cradled Diana and said, "Angel, he's wonderful. He has your looks, thank goodness."
Diana kissed her beloved and said, "Let's hope he won't be able to play upon you so willfully as Lyta does. You'll spoil him too."
Steve grinned, "Gosh, growing up in the midwest made me appreciate the nice things I can give... we can give... our kids. I just want the best for my son."
Diana laughed, "I'm teasing. I know you to be the best of fathers and husbands... though I wish you did not have to rush off soon to join Steel."
Steve frowned. "I'm lucky he let me join you. I need to get back soon; can't leave the kids in his grasp for long. The man is so driven, so ruthless. I'd hate to think of this little guy working for him someday."
Diana nodded. She hoped to sever Steve's tie to Steel's group, too, when she was recovered.
Mala hugged her goddaughter, Lyta Trevor. "It's a boy! The first male to be born on Paradise Isle!" gushed the lovely, demure blonde.
Lyta touched her own bulging belly. As Diana's daughter, she knew the isle's history well. She wondered if her child should also be born there amid the ancient glory and magic. "I can't wait to see my new kid brother!" she said eagerly. She also sadly thought of the man in her life Hector Hall. He and she were apart. Would they ever reunite? The beautiful blonde just didn't know.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 3
"He's... well, wonderful, Mother," said Lyta Trevor as she held the tiny infant. Her grandmother, the regal Queen Hippolyta smiled fondly at the scene.
"To think that I was childless here with my sisters for so long before the merciful Aphrodite and the other goddesses blessed me with Diana and now through her, I have more loved ones," she said.
Lyta grinned. "But will this little sprout be able to touch the ground when he starts crawling, or will the no males ban apply to the son of an Amazon?"
Hippolyta said, "That matter rests, as do all of our fates, with Aphrodite and the Olympians."
Steve said, "Speaking as one who has been both blessed and cursed by them, I hope my son keeps his distance from the whole bunch of them!"
"Steve!" admonished Diana.
"Daddy, this is not the time for a debate on Greek culture. That's a platform, but not a soapbox," joked Lyta to lighten the mood as her grandmother's face darkened.
Steve smiled back, "Okay, Little Angel, I get the hint. No offense, Your Majesty." As they departed to leave mother and child to sleep, a new figure appeared.
She was lovely, and yet her features were distorted with a rage and madness that drove her relentlessly. Her name was Helena Kosmatos, and as the first heroine known as Fury, she had fought the Axis briefly alongside Johnny Quick, and later in the 1950s, as part of Team Justice, she had sought to fill the gap left by the inactive JSA. Still, her powers came from the Furies of myth, and those harsh mistresses threatened to rob the girl of her mind and morality. She had retreated from Man's World twice, and found sanctuary on Paradise Isle where she worked as a scholar of Greek culture, religion, myth, and antiques. Many books bore her name and she was a respected scholar, if a forgotten heroine. Yet now the unaging woman was possessed by the Furies who forced her to do an act she would have never considered if in her right mind: they drove the Greek beauty to steal the newborn infant.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 4
"You are ours now. We shall raise you free from the taint of the milk-blooded Amazons. We shall nurture in you a spirit of retribution," she cooed madly.
Diana stirred and rose shakily. "Helena, release my son!"
Fury scowled and said, "This infant is sought by those who would end his life. We merely seek to preserve it!"
Wonder Woman stepped forward, but she could not act with anywhere close to her normal speed and strength so soon after giving birth. Thus the lovely woman staggered as her son vanished in the arms of a madwoman. "Steve! Mother!" she cried.
Queen Hippolyta burst into the room, as did Trevor, Lyta and Mala.
"What is it, daughter?" asked the Queen with worry in her tone.
"Angel! Where's little Troy?" cried Steve.
Lyta ran outside on to the deck. "That magical flash! Someone took my brother, didn't they?" she said.
Diana sank into her husband's arms. "Steve, the first Fury... Helena... she stole our baby... she says his life is in peril!"
Mala gasped and embraced her best friend. "Easy, love, we'll find him."
Steve frowned. "No woman or man from myth or reality may wrong the scion of Odysseus!"
Cassandra cried out in ernest across the isle. "I tell you, the Olympians have turned against us! They seek our deaths!" she insisted as she related her dream once more to a stolid guard.
"If this be true, then what shall become of us all?" whispered the guards.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 5
Paula worked feverishly in her lab. The pretty Austrian rejected one idea after another. The woman who had once been Hitler's proudest scientist had long since devoted her talents to the Amazons and their patron goddess Aphrodite. She sought a way that the weakned Diana could rescue her son. She had recently employed an android host body, but that poor artificial woman was now shattered and scattered beyond repair. Thus Paula paced and worried. "Mental transference? A golem? An exo-skeleton?"
Then an idea occurred to her as a butterfly passed her window in the morning sunlight. "Desira," she smiled.
Meanwhile, Hippolyta prostrated herself before a statue of a towering beauty in the Temple of Aphrodite. "Great Daughter of Cypress, hear my plea. Save my grandson!" she pleaded.
The statue shook suddenly and fell directly toward the Queen as she flung herself to safety. "Athena preserve me," she gasped among the shards of the once majestic statue.
A voice -- terrible in its severity -- spoke from the thin air around her: "You seek the source behind the whelp's abduction? Well, thou shalt know the truth all too soon, Hippolyta of the Horses," echoed the dark tones.
Meanwhile, Steve Trevor retreated deeper into the persona of Odysseus as his daughter Lyta attempted the thankless task of soothing two raging and worried parents.
"Daddy, you are Steve, not Odysseus! You must recall that. Mother needs you, not some battlehappy berserker," she insisted.
Diana herself was risking her health in her exertions and stress. "If Mother delays much longer, then I'll go to him and rip the truth from his lying teeth!" she vowed with a steely glint in her blue eyes.
"Him? Who do you mean? The original Fury stole my brother Troy," said Lyta.
Diana shook her head. "No, Hippolyta. Fury was but the mad pawn of the Olympian who hates me most. It is Mars alone who plotted this foul act."
Hippolyta rushed within. "No, I know the truth. It is an Olympian who threatens us, but it is not the Dweller in Areopagus. Athena help us... it is Aphrodite herself!"
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 6
Wonder Woman could not believe her mother's shocking words. "Aphrodite, the golden goddess of love and beauty, is behind the abduction of my child? How can this be? She has ever stood for the ideals we Amazons embody! She is virtue and love personified!" said Princess Diana.
"Aye, and she be more as well. She was the honey-tongued seducer who betrayed Hephaestus for Ares. She was the vain and cruel beauty who cursed many a maiden whose beauty rivaled her own. Still, whatever guise she wears, she shan't rob me of Ithaca's heir," said Steve.
Lyta and Diana exchanged worried glances at how deeply the worried Steve was descending into an Odysseus persona.
"Diana, the goddess spoke to me in her temple," said Hippolyta. "She said that the Furies robbed her of her chance to destroy the abomination that was your son. She was angry and said that they alone would have the nerve to defy all of Olympus. It seems, as horrible as it is for me to even put it in words, that Aphrodite seeks the death of your baby! Aphrodite claims that it was a treason against her authority for you, an Amazon to wed a mortal male and to have a son by him. She regrets ever allowing you to leave the Isle and marry. She said..."
"The Flower of Cynthera speaketh for herself!" said Aphrodite as the gorgeous blonde appeared before them. She loomed gigantic above them all in a filmy pink tunic and gleaming armored feet and arms. "'Twas ere my deluded manner to govern with kindness when a firm hand would better serve my cause. You Amazons betrayed me once with Herakles and his army, yet I showed you mercy and granted you freedom and this Isle. Yet you bear the bracelets of submission to this day as a sign of your rebellious conduct eons ago. Now the daughter of your Queen, the child I gave life to from formless clay, has dared to wed a mortal male and consort with other costumed men. She did all this and I sanctioned it... till now!
"Now I see her for the harlot she is! A male baby is a symbol moreso than that stripling there of your flagrant defiance of the ancient command that I gave you to dwell apart from men. I even ordered you not to wed, if at all, until you had vanquished evil from the world. Only now do I see clearly that the infant must die, and my will shall be heard. You will find the baby and surrender him to me for destruction, or I shall visit my wrath 'pon you all. Then I shall lead you all in open warfare 'gainst the Man's World beyond this cloudy realm, where my will or that of brawny Mars shall reign once and for all!"
Hippolyta stepped in front of Diana. "Please, Aphrodite, hear us! My child has ever served you well!"
Diana said, "Hear me as well! Goddess or woman, sane or mad, you will not get away with this! Wonder Woman vows it!"
Steve roared and raised a fist toward the blonde icon. "I have great power as well, and I can fight you. I was cursed and tempest-tossed by your kind for ten long years. I forget naught and I forgive less!" he cried.
"What has been freely given may be taken away as easily," said the goddess.
Steve cried out and fell to his knees upon the anti-gravity platform that kept itself beneath his feet as his moved. He seemed a smaller man at that moment.
"Hera help us!" gasped Diana as she was helped to her man's side. "He has lost his powers!"
Lyta shook her head, "Daddy! No one hurts my father. Not even a blonde bunny from a bad beach flick!"
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 7
As the women confronted the distorted goddess gone mad, Steve rose again. He was his old self. "I'm Steve again... I still have the power of Odysseus, but I'm myself again," he groaned.
"Stay still, darling," warned Diana.
Lyta rose from her hands and feet where she had fallen after diving toward the vanishing apparition of Aphrodite. "She's flipped!" she exclaimed.
"Truly, I fear for her sanity, too. Yet, if she commands my sisters to attack the world of men, how can we dare disobey?" asked Hippolyta.
Diana said, "You can't listen to such madness. Mars himself could suggest nothing worse."
Paula entered then. "Diana, what has occurred? Are you hurt?"
Explanations followed and Paula examined them all. "Steve still has his powers, though I'd wager the momentary loss of them was meant to warn you not to challenge the Olympians," she said.
Diana said, "If Aphrodite could voice such mad threats, then she must be sick or insane or under some spell. We've all seen magic, and much of it dark, at that."
Lyta shivered. "I begin to see why Daddy tries to avoid all this Edith Hamilton stuff."
Steve held the blonde girl close. "Princess, don't you worry about little Steve. We'll get him back and settle this mystery. The JSA will help us if necessary."
Lyta nodded, "And Infinity, Inc. too... or most of them."
Paula said, "I have a visitor for you all that will help. Queen Desira of Venus is here via the magnetic earrings."
She held out the red earrings Diana normally wore. They broadcast a sweet-voiced message from the hyperspace world of Venus where delicate winged women ruled fragile men in peace and love.
"Blessed child, this news grieves me. If fair Aphrodite wages war upon your world, then how can we do less? Still, out of the love I have for you and the kindness you and yours have ever bestowed upon me and my own child Eve, I heed Paula's plea and bequeath you the use of a spirit body!" said the lovely gossamer winged queen of Venus.
Diana smiled as magically her weakened body glowed with new energy and health. "You've returned me to my fighting peak!" she said eagerly.
"Pregnant women everywhere would love to get their old figures back, much less one as dynamic as yours back only hours after giving birth." gasped Lyta.
Diana nodded. She was magnificent. She had no trace of her weakened state. She was the glamorous, powerful woman out of myth and fantasy she had been when she first appeared in Man's World over forty years before. Desira's magic had made her recovery nearly instantaneous.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 8
Desira said, "I offer you this chance to restore our fair beloved and your child. If things continue in this manner, all of Venus may be forced to wage war 'pon your world!"
Steve said, "Thank you, Desira. We'll save our son."
Desira said, "While this crisis lasts you may count on my aid."
She was gone and the Queen of the Amazons smiled in appreciation. "Well done, Paula. As always your keen mind continues to work miracles," said Hippolyta.
Paula hugged her Queen and said, "Ever I live to serve."
Diana wore the eagle-breasted, red, white, and star-spangled blue costume that made her world famous. She now wore the hot pants from most of her career and not the split skirt of her pregnancy. "Steve and I shall try to solve this riddle. You stay here, Lyta," she ordered.
"Mother, I am a heroine in my own right!" sputtered Lyta.
"Young lady, listen to your mother. You are also pregnant and lack your mother's full Amazon power," warned Steve.
Lyta frowned and sat down. "Just be careful and bring back little Troy."
They kissed their daughter, then the pair who had faced amazing perils for decades rushed off in her invisible plane.
Queen Hippolyta said, "Be of hope, Hippolyta. Your mother is legendary for her victories."
Lyta nodded, "I know, Grandmother. Still, I wish I could join them."
As she walked through the garden, she noticed the red earrings still resting on the marble column where Paula had placed them.
"Just maybe I can," smiled Lyta as she glanced in both directions. She whispered into the earrings, "Queen Desira, I beg you, lend me the power to help my folks." A glow came over the blonde as she also received a "spirit" form from the gossamer alien queen.
Lyta was still pregnant, but she now had the vitality and stamina of her mother, and that meant a lot. It was temporary, to be sure, since Desira could only offer such a boost in power by draining the resources of her own world. Still, as Lyta faced a mirror wearing a copy of her mother's recent star spangled, thigh-split skirt, sandals, and eagle top, she smiled. "Here's comes Wonder Girl, for this case only!"
She ran toward a swan-shaped spacecraft and climbed aboard. Okay, old Fury get ready to face the new and improved version, she thought.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 9
Diana silently piloted her invisible plane over the rocky coast of Greece. As she drew nearer to her destination, an old man appeared on a high mountain. He was bearded and benign, except for a rather glazed look to his eyes.
"Steve, hold on tightly, this looks like trouble!" said Wonder Woman.
Trevor, a pilot of some reknown, nodded. "What's the old man doing? That sack he's lifting -- great Scott -- is that what I think it is?"
Diana steered sharply and replied, "From the ancient markings which I can translate, it is indeed the bag which holds the winds. He must be Aeolus of legend."
The old man gently unwound a rope, and as the mouth of the sack flapped open, a hurricane force wind exploded... no, roared like a living being, out of the sack.
The plane was struck, and even with the grim determination of the superb pilot and the craftsmanship of the Amazosilikon vehicle, the fight was a rough one.
"Steve, my best efforts can't slow the buffeting force of this gale! I need to take a more direct action; will you take the wheel now?" said Wonder Woman as the plane spun around like a top.
He replied, "Sure, be careful."
Diana smiled and exited the plane in one swift, graceful movement. She soared through the air and acted with ease. She folded her legs up tightly against her chest and rolled forward in an expert acrobatic manner. She seemed to ride the wind currents, which were in fact solid enough for a prodigy such as herself to do. She rolled out of the dive and hurled her gleaming tiara.
She smiled even as she hurled her lasso to catch a peak below and swung remarkably to a safe landing as the sharp circlet sliced through the rear of the bag. Wind exploded out of the back end and knocked the old man flat. She raced toward him and looped her now free lasso around his arm.
"Summon back your winds," she ordered.
He obeyed, and at his verbal command in ancient Greek, the sack repaired itself and absorbed the mighty winds, even as Trevor wrestled high above with the plane's controls. He commanded the plane to hover as he dropped the ladder for his bride.
Diana spoke to the man called Aeolus. She helped him to his feet and caressed his withered cheek. "Steve, Aeolus here says he was commanded to let loose his winds when we appeared. He had no choice but to obey the woman he knows only as the Mistress," she explained.
"Friend Odysseus, forgive me. I recall you well from long ago. 'Twas not my desire to harm you," said the sad old man.
Steve nodded and patted the old fellow's shoulder. "I understand. Who is this Mistress you serve?"
he asked.Aeolus replied, "I know not. She merely appeared to me 'pon my floating isle, and her magicks forced me to obey."
Steve said, "Sounds like Aphrodite."
Diana shook her head. "No, whatever madness possessed her, she wants us to rescue our baby from the Furies so she can... slay him herself. We're being opposed by either poor mad Helena who never had magic before, or some unknown evil."
"But I promise that she will fail. I'll save my son, or die trying!" vowed Wonder Woman.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 10
"Angel, I have to admit that I'm feeling really uncertain about myself. I don't know if my reactions are those of a guy from middle America or those of a epic hero from 'rocky Ithaca'," said Steve.
Diana knew her husband's nature was not normally of the reflective type. He had grown as a result of their long relationship, yet she had no answers for his question either. "I can only tell you that you are the man I love and father of our children, and if you do anything as Stephen Trevor it's going to be noble, brave, selfless, and wonderful. Oh yes, and reckless," she said, pressing her hand against his chest.
He grinned that old boyish grin that had first set her heart pounding back in the early 'forties when she nursed him to health on Paradise Isle. They marched upward to a rocky slope that offered a view of the immediate vacinity. "What's our destination?" he asked.
Wonder Woman said, "The natural, or supernatural hold of the Furies was centered around the pits found nearby. They are said to lead down to Erebus itself. I believe it's logical to assume that Helena Kosmatos will have taken our child there out of deep instinct."
"Angel, I know she's sick, but if she's hurt our boy..." began Trevor.
Diana nodded, "I know, I know. Let's pray we can restore her and our child while solving the madness of Aphrodite before she leads the poor Venusians in war against the Earth."
They turned a craggy corner and jumped back as a hulking brute lurged unsteadily out of the darkness.
"Noman! You smell of the one called Noman! But my father knew you to be the hated Odysseus," growled the one-eyed beast.
A cyclops, thought Diana as she raced into battle.
Steve knew this to be a cyclops as well. He knew it from the boyhood stories he enjoyed on winter nights growing up on the farm... more troubling still, some part of him insisted that he knew this from memory. He recalled such monsters from the epic and ceaselessly troubled life he had led as Odysseus.
Wonder Woman danced aside as a fist the size of a boulder slammed down at her nimble feet. "Too slow by far to catch one who raced with the centaurs," she joked.
"You are his mate. I thought you to be a silly maid weaving by a fire, not a fierce warrior princess! Still, you'll taste the same as any female," roared the Cyclops.
"Hold it, buddy. Nobody makes a buffet out of my wife," said Steve as he grabbed the brute's massive leg and lifted. He sent the brute crashing downward even as Diana landed a swift kick to the monster's nose.
"Let's end this quickly," she said. She reeled backward as a punch connected with her stomach and she gasped in pain. She stood again and jumped toward the beast. She drove both fists into his chest and sent him rolling down the slope.
She jerked Steve back sharply. "Let him fall. Then, follow through," she advised.
"Penelope, I need your combat advice less than your silent obedience!" shouted Steve.
He's going mad again, she thought as he tore free.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 11
"The Mistress said you'd come. She promised me your entrails!" cried the monster as it slammed into Steve.
Wonder Woman hurled herself through the air and prayed that this nightmare would not result in the loss of Steve Trevor and their baby. She punched the Cyclops and said, "Tell me the name of your mistress! She lied to you... she used you... she thought you as blind as your father."
The creation cried out and said, "Curse her! Curse you all! Her name is not mine to reveal; she works the dark arts. And she hurts me even now!"
Diana saw the beast writhe in pain. Some spell drives him onward past his own limits. She tripped him and let him slide down into the waters below. "Steve, are you unhurt?" she asked.
He said nothing. "The Son of Laertes is well," was his delayed reply.
She led him upward and frowned.
Deep within the bowels of Erebus, her daughter Lyta, wearing the modified Wonder Woman costume and powered by Desira's magic, had reached the heart of darkness. She pushed back her long blonde hair and called out, "Show yourself! I know you are here, Helena!"
She deliberately used the Greek woman's birthname in an effort to reinforce her damaged sense of self. If I can just reach the heroine and scholar within the Fury magic, she thought. She had located the ancient place faster than her mother and father, since she was not attacked by any minions of the mysterious Mistress.
A low, guttural laugh echoed in the limitless shadows. "Pretender to the name of Fury! Welcome to your final retribution!" growled a voice.
She spun in time to avoid narrowly raking claws and heated breath. She saw Helena transformed fully into a bat-winged monster with red eyes and talons in place of hands. "You have my brother. I want him back!" declared "Wonder Girl" as she'd styled herself for this personal case.
"Try to take him!" screeched the mad creature.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 12
"Foolish maiden! With your ivory skin and flaxen hair, you preen and pose and dub yourself Fury? The gall of such an act, the unyielding hubris, mocks us!" cried the monster.
Lyta said, "Listen, you should be the last person in this cave to offer a critique of physical beauty!"
She fell hard as the leathery wings blew a gust of wind into her. Before she could move, the Fury was sitting on her with sharp talons closed across her face.
"We seek to protect the infant! We will keep him safe from the spite of Aphrodite! We will raise him to carry our venegance to the world above and to lofty Olympus itself!" screeched Helena.
Her distorted face was inches away from Lyta's own, and she struggled to breath beneath the weight of the beast and the pressure of the claws across her mouth and nose. She thought of her brother lying alone in the ebony vastness of the cavern, and she surged upward with both knees.
"Those wings look vulnerable! Let's see how durable you Furies make your puppets!" she said. She pulled with all her enhanced might and thrust out a powerful leg to add leverage to her effort.
A shriek echoed through the blackness as the wing began to tear free from the fibrous ridge that held it to the shoulders of the altered woman. "You fight well! Mayhaps you could host us in the future in that nubile form!" cried the wounded beast.
Hippolyta said, "Don't hold your foul breath! I've had enough of being treated as someone's plaything to be discarded when the mood hits him! I have a brain, desires, and feelings of my own! I do not need some partner or master to make me complete! I am a child of the Amazons... and we stand alone!"
She rolled across the cavern to see a rude cradle. "There's a dear!" she cooed as she saw her brother Troy sleeping unhurt. "If there is any part of you that still feels what Helena Kosmatos felt when her mother was ripped from her by Nazi agents, then you'll release my brother to his family's care. Tell us why the previously loving Aphrodite has pitched a hissy fit like some harpy!" pleaded Lyta as she stood defiantly between the monster and the infant.
The Fury shuddered. "A mother's love! A mother's loss! Those are feelings that touch us still! Perhaps those impulses led us to steal the boy to begin with!"
She screamed once, then fell to her knees as the blonde and weary Helena Kosmatos. "Forgive me, please!" she wept.
Lyta helped her up and said, "Shhh! It's over now. They have left you. Can you tell me why Aphrodite has turned so evil, why she wants my brother to die?"
Helena said, "The Furies took me over to safeguard the baby from her. They may have had their own bloody motives for doing so, but they acted to preserve his life... at the cost of my own self worth and sense of identity!"
Lyta gently picked up her brother. "But why does the so-called goddess of love and beauty suddenly pull a Cruella DeVille?" she continued.
"She acts as she does because she has been robbed her all sense of her true self. She no longer knows how Aphrodite would and should act. She is under the foul spell of one who plans evil against the world, and most particularly against your parent!" said Helena.
"You know all this from your communion with those Furies? Who is it that hates mother so -- Mars?" asked Lyta as they huddled in the dark cavern.
"You misunderstand me. It's not your mother she hates. The parent she wants to destroy is your father!" explained Helena.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 13
Above the ground, Wonder Woman and Steve reached the opening to the pit.
"We've arrived. Below us is the abode of the Furies of old. Look, a swan craft! I fear Lyta disobeyed us... as usual!" said Diana. Odysseus grunted in response, for that was who stood before the Amazing Amazon. Odysseus, not Steve Trevor.
Before they could speak or descend, up came Helena Kosmatos, Lyta, and the baby.
"You rescued him! Praise Athena!" cried Diana as she helped the girl to the surface. She frowned briefly at the sight of Lyta's revealing and familiar garb. "Wonder Girl?" she said quizzically.
"Hey! This was a family matter, and could you see me calling myself Fury under the current circumstances?" she said with a shrug.
Odysseus said, "Hand me mine heir, girl!"
"Daddy! Oh no, he's gone mental again!" said Lyta.
He stepped forward to hold the baby, as as he did, some light of reason, some will-o'-wisp of memory tugged at his troubled and clouded mind. "Thanks, honey!" he said softly.
Diana noticed the change and hoped it would prove to be a lasting one. She could not wrestle with the headstrong King of Ithaca and settle the madness of the Goddess of Love as well.
"Mother, Helena told me who is behind all this. An ancient witch who was spurned by the real Odysseus long ago seeks to turn father fully into the reincarnation of her old lover and either seduce or kill him. This whole charade with the deluded Aphrodite has been a ruse to upset you both and trigger the change in him while occupied you. She cares nothing for the baby or the war that Aphrodite threatens to start! Those are merely side effects of the spell she put on Aphrodite," said Lyta.
"Hera guide me, I know who you mean! We Amazons thought her banished to a world called Sorca long ago, but like all vile threats she returns anew," breathed Wonder Woman.
Just then a beautiful redhead appeared before them. Her violet eyes and long ringlet-styled hair marked her as an excetionally beautiful woman. Her malice and sheer passion made her more of a peril than any cyclops or Fury.
"Circe!" said Wonder Woman as she stepped in front of her family to confront the witch.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 14
"Yes, wench of Hippolyta, it is Circe! You know me as one whose ancient enmity your race of unnatural harlots provoked long, long ago," whispered Circe. She continued, "It is of the smallest value to me that you were troubled by my wiles. I seek the same goal as always -- vengeance upon the man who rejected my love long before!"
Trevor said, "You really are a witch! Trust me, honey, you don't want to see the real Odysseus! He has no regard for womankind. He'd just as soon as belt you one as look at you!"
Circe laughed, "You poor, pathetic, castrated Amazon eunuch! How little you comprehend what lies within you! 'Twill be a sport to draw forth from those mortal loins the true warrior I once enjoyed!"
Diana slapped her to the ground. "I'd advise you to surrender now. We've seen through your web of deceit!"
Circe remained prone on the dirt. "You resort to the crude physicality of your man-hating breed. I need only make your outward form match the raging beast within!" She spoke in a harsh tone, and words of power crackled like fire in the air around them.
Diana transformed into a snarling dog for seconds before returning to normal. It appears as if this Desira-empowered form is immune to her magic, she realized. She hurled herself at the witch, only to be jerked upward by her hair. She struggled in a mighty grip and shuddered in realization of who held her. "Steve! Dear Aphrodite, no! Circe has enslaved you!" she said.
"Lyta! Take your brother and Helena and use the swan ship to get back to the Isle. Call the JSA, especially Dr. Fate if possible! This is my battle alone!" she commanded.
Lyta heard her mother speak in the regal tone of a true warrior princess and she obeyed. She rushed off with Helena and the baby. "Mother, my prayers are with you!" she called.
She departed, and Circe laughed again. "You thought I would harm the maid? I care naught for your kind. I want nothing more than my rightful mate. You may depart with the pain of knowing you were not woman enough to keep your mate!" she sneered.
Diana fell as Odysseus shoved her down. He embraced Circe and they kissed as Diana's mind raced.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 15
Queen Hippolyta was deeply shaken by all that had occurred. She had always had a strong faith in her Olympian goddesses. They had, in fact, carried her through the darkest of times. Now when she realized that her patroness Aphrodite sought the death of her new grandchild, she was faced with a soul-shattering dilemma. Ultimately, there was but one course open to the woman.
She stood before her assembled subjects and spoke clearly and calmly:
"Sisters! I stand before you and openly say that my world has been altered irrevocably. Our goddess has spoken not in the honeyed tones of old, but with a bitterness and malice that wounds me and frightens as well. She has claimed that unless I surrender my newly born, newly-rescued grandchild to her for execution, she will bring destruction upon us all. She also plans to lead us in a bloody war against the world without. I speak frankly when I say that I defy her. My family will not be sacrificed for such mindless hate. I suggest that she is under some spell or madness. I ask you all to stand with me in open rebellion against her decree. If you can not do so, then I understand."
The speech reached the ears of women who had dwelt in harmony on this isle for eons with the rule of a woman they loved and respected as no other mortal. Thus, when faced with a choice between love and unity and hate and civil strife, they as one voiced their devotion to their royal family.
Hippolyta smiled tearfully. She was thrilled and secretly moved by the loyalty her sisters displayed in open defiance of a powerful enemy.
She saw Lyta working frantically on a mental radio. She approached and placed one hand on the girl's blonde locks.
"Grandmother, the Justice Society is occupied even as we speak. I fear though they would willingly risk all for mother, that circumstances prevent them from doing so. I also regret that my allies in Infinity, Inc. are battling a menace as well. We are on our own!" she announced.
Hippolyta nodded. "I pray our resources shall prove enough!"
Mala, blonde, beautiful, and demure, gently rocked the infant son of her best friend, and prayed he would soon find peace in his mother's arms.
Elsewhere, Wonder Woman descended in her invisible plane and walked across the fields of the small isle. She found a rustic structure and noticed grazing animals all around.
She kicked the doors down and said, "Circe! Face me now!"
Circe was sitting on the lap of the mind-numbed Trevor.
"You dare challenge me again? I shall merely order your former lover to chastise you for me," said the violet-eyed witch.
Diana charged Trevor and connected with a sudden right hook. As he staggered, she slammed her palm against his open mouth. He choked and swallowed the moley herb, as she had intended.
He gasped and his eyes widened in awareness. "Angel! That witch had me under some spell!"
Diana smiled, "I know! I just freed you by giving you the same herb Odysseus used to thwart her magic long ago -- moley!"
Circe stomped her foot and cursed. "You crafty sow! I may not use my magic upon you or your mate, but I can and will escape to plague you anew!"
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 16
Circe spoke her magic words, and nothing happened!
Diana gripped her by her elaborate collar and said, "Did I forget to mention that I sprayed the entire hut with moley from my plane before entering?"
Steve grinned. "That takes me back to my old barnstorming days before I joined up."
Diana twisted Circe's lithe body around and pinned her arms. She bent a metal rod around the woman's hands and said, "Now just to hold you safely while we talk."
Steve said, "So this moley stuff, which tasted horrid I might add, stops her spells? I should recall that, but I don't! I'm myself again!"
Diana carried the kicking Circe to a cot and tossed her down. "Yes, her powers are useless when faced with the moley herb. Now she's going to tell us what she did to Aphrodite. Her powers, though vast, should not have affected the goddess at all."
She looped her lasso over Circe's head as the red-head scowled and shook her red ringlets. "What did you do to so derange Aphrodite?" she commanded.
Circe said, "I substituted waters of Lethe for her scented bath waters, and her maidens used it upon her unwittingly. It being a river of Hades, its power could rob even a goddess of herself!"
Diana gasped, "The audacity! Lethe's water causes amnesia!"
Circe laughed, "No! Translated exactly it causes one to forget one's self! To lose all morality, to act on baser impulses!"
Steve frowned. "Hey! That sounds like the Stream of Ruthlessness!"
Circe nodded. "A branch of the Hadean river flows through the dimensions to your world and it has such a name in mortal language. It is less potent than at the Underworld source, of course!"
Diana nodded. "That explains both the origin of the Stream that I once was altered by, and it reveals why the loving goddess now ruthlessly seeks gender separation and warfare between the genders instead of merely offering the ways of peace and love through example and dialogue."
"You mean now she'll make you love her or kill you! I guess our son would seem like a betrayal of her old decree of isolation from males for the Amazons if she was drugged by such magic," said Steve.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 17
On the other-dimensional world of Venus, the beautiful, gossamer-winged Queen Desira heard the news about why Aphrodite had become a threat to Earth and now behaved more like Mars than a love goddess. She spoke via the "magnetic hearing" Wonder Woman's earrings bestowed upon her.
"My child, I rejoice that the goddess is not in truth altered, but rather suffers under this foul spell. That allows my people time to resist her demands of war. How shall even a Wonder Woman stop a frenzied goddess?" she asked.
Diana replied quickly, "I have a plan based upon what I personally have experienced of the effects of this Stream of Ruthlessness, or Lethe water. The waters are addictive, and Aphrodite's drink of the divine Lethe River water must be doubly so. She will have to drink again of the waters, and that means we know where to find her. We need to be ready to confront her there and prevent her from drinking of the waters. That will allow time for the effects to wear off."
Desira frowned. "So you must beat her to Lethe River. Where is this magical stream?"
Diana replied, "In Hades domain -- the other side, the Underworld."
Queen Hippolyta whispered to Mala, "My daughter means to brave the very Underworld itself. She may bring the anger of other Olympians down upon her in her quest to end the madness of another."
Mala, the demure blonde warden of Transformation Isle, knew the dangers of dealing with criminals, yet she shuddered at the thought of her best friend dealing with an entire kingdom full of corrupt figures from countless eons.
Lyta sat with Helena. "You must not blame yourself for the actions you committed while under the spell of the Furies. It's like someone else did the abduction, not Helena." She held the woman's hand and smiled. "I forgive you, and mother and daddy do as well. Please forgive yourself. You were a heroine in the 1940s and '50s. You've done much good in your life."
Helena gazed at the second woman to carry the name of Fury and smiled. "I thank you. The blood madness forced me to seek sanctuary here, because as a member of Team Justice I found that the act of battle could produce the frenzy of the Furies. I hate that I brought their evil to this peaceful place."
Lyta said, "Mother shall end the danger. Trust her."
"And what of you? You've lost those extra powers granted briefly by Desira, but you still wear the Wonder Girl costume?" she asked.
"It suits me during my pregnancy for now. I need to figure out what role I'll play in my own future. Heroine, college student, mother, possibly wife. Plus, for now, I intend to help Mother settle this case," said the determined blonde girl.
Steve Trevor was eager to finish this war against the beautiful goddess, and he wanted time with his son. He held young Troy and gently talked to the bright infant. "Who's going to be a famous pilot?" he cooed.
Diana entered and smiled at this scene of warmth. The platform hovered beneath her men and kept them from touching the isle. "Steve, it's time. Paula has the transporter ready. I know you'll insist on coming."
Steve agreed with the woman he had loved for over forty years. "Take me to the river..."
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 18
Princess Diana and Steve Trevor stood before a gaping crater that led down to the fabled Underworld of Hades. She had been there before and faced the challenge calmly. He was more than a little anxious to see his wife safely through what terrors awaited them. Thus, they lowered themselves down the sheer slope to a gateway of glowing metal.
"Nobody's home. Guess we'd better come back later," he joked nervously as she gripped the bars and tore them asunder.
"This is no time to be a gracious guest," she smiled as they marched on toward a hulking three headed dog.
"Cerberus!" she gasped. "He guards the entry path, but we cannot be delayed by his fierce manner."
She looped her lasso around the beast's snarling left head and pulled him aside as Trevor raced by. She then released the rope and jumped over the creature's snapping jaws with the agile grace of her namesake.
"Look, Angel -- the river!" yelled Steve as he pointed to a steaming waterway.
"No, Steve, that's not the correct one. You see before you the river Styx. We bypassed it by taking the short cut. There in legend the ancient boatman brought the dead across its sacred depths in his boat," she explained.
"So which river is right? The one to the far right?" he asked.
"No, that is Acheron the river of fire. We need to venture deeper ahead to find the waters of Lethe," she continued.
She raced forward and he followed. It was a novel experience for him to be able to keep pace with her. For decades, she had always had to carry him if he was to stay with her when she chose to run at top speed. Perhaps there were advantages to his altered condition, even with the occasional bout of identity crisis.
Now as they reached the shores, she shivered even so near to the blazing Acheron behind them.
"That's the one, I feel it. It flows or stirs like the Stream of Ruthlessness. This is the source of that powerful magic," she declared.
"Indeed. Too bad you shan't live long enough to taste its sweet intoxication again," vowed the lethal Aphrodite as she appeared before them clad in her normal filmy tunic, but wearing a look of pure malice.
"Angel, I'll hold her!" cried Steve as he flung himself at the blonde.
"Mortal! You may carry the aura of a hero about you, as others do carry a tunic or cloak, but I shall never let one such as you soil my form!" she said.
He grabbed for her, only to find himself clutching mist as she teleported to the rear. She shoved him forward and he plunged helplessly toward the waters of Lethe as her laughter rang out in the Stygian gloom.
"Hera, no!" cried Diana as she struggled with a weighty object that had been folded over her supple shoulders.
Then the gleaming lasso caught Trevor and jerked him to shore in seconds. Diana sighed with relief.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 19
Meanwhile, Lyta Trevor danced a deadly ballet of battle as she darted between gleaming figures who surrounded her. She rolled under clutching arms and kicked her way through the golden automatons. "You golden girls really are getting on my nerves!" said the pretty blonde as she shoved past another metal woman. "Mother warned me that I'd be fighting these artificial Barbie dolls, but I thought there'd be several of them, not dozens," she sighed.
"Allow me to help you," cried Helena as she landed beside the girl. She slammed her fists into the automatons and cried, "Go, Lyta! I'll deal with them!"
Lyta grinned and gave a thumbs up sign as she raced into the Temple of Hephaestus. "Hephaestus -- hear the cries of the grandchild of Queen Hippolyta! I beg you -- aid me in this time of strife. Your past wife Aphrodite threatens the world entire!" she called in the formal diction of the Amazons.
She knew Hephaestus to be the smith of the gods. He was the cunning craftsman who devised all the wonderful items they used day to day and took for granted. He had been the betrayed husband of Aphrodite, and Lyta prayed he retained some enmity for the Flower of Cyntheria.
She frowned as silence was all that greeted her efforts. "Look, she is under the spell of Lethe water! Please help us to cure her if you still love her. Help us stop her if you want to get even with her. Either way, you win!" she urged.
Finally, the hulking blacksmith of Olympus appeared. He was homely, yet carried a mighty upper torso on bent and damaged legs supported by golden braces.
"You are a fair nymph, as fair as any I've seen in eons. I'll help you cure my fickle lover. I wish no evil toward her or her subjects... not after so long a time," he said.
Lyta smiled winningly. "I hoped you'd see it my way."
Back at the River of Lethe, Wonder Woman saved Steve from the cruel embrace of the water even as Aphrodite bent to drink from the water.
Diana hurled her lasso around the goddess and said, "Let the truth set you free!"
Aphrodite was held firm but she struggled fiercely. "This lasso came from my own girdle bequeathed to your mother. Its magic can not affect me, but it may prove an annoyance!" she roared as her blonde curls tumbled wildly.
Steve pushed her flat and said, "Where's Lyta? Time is running out -- she's unweaving the rope!"
Indeed, as Diana kicked her goddess back down, the rope's fiber began to unwind at the command of the woman who first bestowed it upon Hippolyta as a girdle.
"I shall teach you both the meaning of betrayal!" she hissed as she reached out for the addictive waters.
"Lady, you'll thank us for this one day," groaned Steve as she broke free of his arms.
"Now I drink!" cried Aphrodite as she swallowed the waters anew.
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 20
Even as Steve shouted "No!" Lyta, Helena, and Hephaestus appeared via the Olympian's chariot.
"This shall hold her!" cried Lyta as she hurled a net to Diana.
Diana caught the gleaming web of magical metal and breathed the words, "Guide my arm, Athena." She tossed the magical net at Aphrodite who was too busy gulping the addictive waters of Lethe to notice before the magical net bound her head to toe and wrapped itself around her of its own will.
"What? Not again!" she cried.
Hephaestus nodded grimly. "Aye! 'Tis the same magical net with which I once snared you and your lover Ares/ It holds you tightly even after eons." He pulled the struggling goddess away from the waters. "I did not wish this. In days you shall return to your senses and thank us all for stopping you from a madness not of your choosing," he said.
Diana hugged Lyta as Steve gathered around them. "Excellent work, daughter," said Diana.
Lyta said, "Helena helped me. I owe it to her, and the net was perfect for this job, just as you suggested when you sent me to fetch its maker."
Steve hugged her, "Great job, Little Angel!"
Helena said, "I am glad I redeemed myself in part. As a classicist, I wish to remain here... with Hephaestus. He is lonely and kind and can teach me so much. It's a scholar's dream, and perhaps he can craft some cure for my own Fury-inspired attacks."
Diana approached the sad blonde. "Be at peace, sister."
They thanked the burly smith, who tossed Aphrodite into his chariot and declared, "She shall be a prisoner for her own good, ere the waters run dry from her system and she craves more. This time I shall see that she does not partake. That will bring her back to her normal kind and loving ways."
Wonder Woman, Steve, and Lyta departed eagerly.
"Well, you saved the world again," said Steve.
Diana smiled, "I am only happy that our son is safe.'
Steve grinned, "Yeah, I have just enough time for a couple days with little Steve, and then I need to get back to Commander Steel."
THE AMAZON PRINCE: Part 21
As they walked away from the Underworld, Diana dropped the package that had been upon her back.
"Moley herb. Enough to keep Circe from ever getting too close to the Lethe River again should she ever escape from her own isle prison," explained Diana.
Lyta said, "I only hope poor Helena finds peace."
Steve nodded. "Yeah. Poor woman. Maybe she will at that."
Days later in the Temple of Aphrodite on Paradise Isle, a rebuilding process was under way when the gleaming and cured goddess herself appeared befor a startled group.
Hippolyta stood before the goddess, holding her baby grandson. "I beg you to forgive us our conflict," she pleaded.
Aphrodite smiled winningly. "'Tis I who owe all my followers blessings and recovery from my madness. I value you all more than ever, for you have proven that Amazons can show love to even the goddess of love herself. As for this little one, he shall do great things and be cherished by all the Olympians, but most especially by the goddess of love and beauty. 'Tis my unchanging decree that this male alone may safely and freely walk on Paradise Isle without harming the magic thereof."
She touched the sleeping infant gently and smiled warmly.
The sun rose and a new day dawned on Paradise Isle.