Wonder Woman in Sydney #10

Wonder Woman was created by Dr William Moulton Marston in 1941 and is the © copyright trademark of DC Comics. My Wonder Woman stories are only fan fiction and based, primarily, on the 1970s CBS TV show (albeit, updated to the present time of writing). However, any resources from adaptations and comics may be utilized. All characters are entirely fictional. Except for any characters found in DC Comics or related adaptations, these stories and characters are my creations, unless otherwise stated. In my stories, Wonder Woman is the only known superhero. Wonder Woman was created by Dr William Moulton Marston in 1941 and is the © copyright trademark of DC Comics. My Wonder Woman stories are only fan fiction and based, primarily, on the 1970s CBS TV show (albeit, updated to the present time of writing). However, any resources from adaptations and comics may be utilized. All characters are entirely fictional. Except for any characters found in DC Comics or related adaptations, these stories and characters are my creations, unless otherwise stated. In my stories, Wonder Woman is the only known superhero.

10 Survivors

Another day passed since Diana awoke, her mind filling with possibilities concerning the enemy she faced ahead. She felt reinvigorated, eager to be discharged. Doctor Morecambe wasn’t so quite keen.

“Your recovery has been nothing short of miraculous,” he claimed.

“I know, Doctor, you keep saying,” Diana replied, “but you said yourself, the radiation was not of a kind you had encountered.”

“Yes, that is true, but even so, I’d prefer to keep you in to monitor the situation.”

“With respect, Doctor, you are aware of my vocation – I’m a busy lady. Should I be in need of first-class care again, I know where to find you.”

“Well, when you put it like that…okay.”

Roger entered the room. “Ready to check out?”

Doctor Morecombe looked up from his clipboard, puzzled by the question.

“Oh, I told Roger that I might persuade you to discharge me today,” said Diana.

“You’re a very determined lady, Miss Prince,” the doctor replied, handing over the clipboard for Diana to sign her consent. “Very determined,” he muttered to himself on his way out.

Diana took a sip of water, as she did so, the 9 News headlines appeared on the television attached by an arm extension over her bedside.     

“Good afternoon!” said the tidy female newscaster. “Are our beaches safe? That is the question being asked after several reports of swimmers getting attacked by an unidentified invertebrate no larger than a fifty-cent coin. Eyewitnesses say the creature, which resembles a small black sea hare, repeatedly bites swimmers – and not for the fainthearted – they have been swallowed whole by the swimmers themselves.

“We can go live to Tamarama Beach, where one suspected surfer got more than he bargained for when riding the crest of a wave. Isn’t that right, Deano?”

The shot switched to a male reporter on the beach.

“That’s right, Natalia, Leo Graham wasn’t expecting company when he surfed into a whitewash this morning.”

The interviewee stood next to the reporter with the top of his lip bandaged.

“The little critter stuck to my lip. I think he was trying to get into my mouth. The hospital had to prize him off, Deano. I needed stitches.” he told the reporter.

“Wow! He must have really liked you, mate,” said the reporter. “Don’t look now, but we’ve collected one of the creatures who washed up the beach a little earlier.”

He held up a glass jar with a scophoza floating, seemingly lifelessly, inside.

Diana and Roger swapped glances.

“Let’s go,” Diana said, throwing off the blankets. “I’ve been convalescing for too long.”

On their arrival at the Hilton, Roger was met with some surprising news.

“Mr Macintosh,” said the concierge. “Your wife is waiting for you in the foyer.”  

That sentence stopped Roger in his tracks.

“Is she alone?” Diana enquired.

“Yes, Miss Prince.”

“Would you like me to stick around?” Diana asked Roger.

“No, this matter is between her and me,” he replied with an added intensity.

“Alright, I’m going to get changed and head out to Tamarama Beach.”

In the control room of the spacecraft, Jun De Wang was interfacing with the Visitant. His right hand pressed on the yellow glowing plate. Mei Li stood quietly at the back, in darkness, watching the overhead screen. It showed the vision of Captain Griffiths, aboard his submarine, giving orders to the crew.

“Who are we going to attack first?” Mei said. “Will it be the Australian rednecks? the American imperialists? or their British lapdogs?”

“I have a target in mind, but it’ll have to wait,” Jun lamented, “Visitant isn’t cooperating.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Let me have a go. There is no computer I can’t program. I’ll soon tame the beast.”

A huge rumbling, like a lion purring, shook the control room as if in response to Mei’s remark.

“See what you’ve done?” Jun said, taking his hand off the plate.     

“That’s freaky,” Mei grimaced.

“Perhaps Visitant wants another sacrifice?” Jun pondered.

“That American bigmouth is expendable,” Mei replied. “We don’t need his money when we have all of this.”

“That is true,” Jun said, “Jase Chase has overestimated his bargaining power.”

The man himself lay on his bed in his cell with his arms folded. Never in his life had he contemplated his death more than in the last few days. The last desperate screams of Boi Hung banging on the door, opposite his cell, replayed with terrifying intensity in his mind. As a smart and devious man, he knew giving his bank details would be like signing his own death warrant. There had to be something else he could offer his captors that would forge his escape, except, nothing came to the fore.

The cell door abruptly slid open. Jun De Wang leaned in, placing his muscular arms on the top of the door frame.

“How are you doing, buddy?” Jun said. “I hope we’ve kept you confined long enough to reconsider how important those millions are to you.”

“Sorry, man, no deal,” said Jase, defiantly. “That stack of dough is the only thing keeping me out of the mincer.”

“What if I told you, we’ve been thinking about that and decided the money is more trouble than it’s worth.” Jun tugged Jase’s arm. “We can make better use of you.”

The last sentence struck the fear of God into the captive. “You’re feeding me to the alien, right?”

Jase tried to resist but Jun locked him up in a hold. Mei Li joined them in the corridor.

“Why not Kay-I?” Jase earnestly proposed. “She’s the one who could bring down this whole shebang.” 

“Kay-I escaped, unlike you,” taunted Mei.

“Escaped? Hey, don’t be so hasty, I could get her back for you,” Jase said.

“How? She hates you,” Mei replied.

“By making myself a target,” he envisioned.

Jun stood still outside the beast’s door with Jase unable to budge in his arms. Mr Chin listened in from the cell behind.

“What are you waiting for?” Mei said.

“Visitant likes the idea,” Jun confirmed. “He’s off the menu for now.”

He let Jase go. Jase started panting, which quickly turned into triumphalism. 

“Wahoo! Brains over muscles, big man,” he goaded.

Jun stared at Jase with contempt. He wanted to hit the jerk but wouldn’t allow himself to be riled so easily.

“Let’s go into the lounge and talk,” he suggested with a scowling smile.

Mei Li escorted Jase by the arm. He sat in his typical figure of four leg lock, but students of psychology would observe the twitchiness in his ankles.

“Make yourself comfortable,” Jun said on his way to the control room.

“You can count on that,” Jase responded.     

“You’re quite the survivor, Mr Chase, or so it seems,” Mei remarked.

“You better believe it, baby!” Jase reinforced confidently.

“In China, we have a name for men such as you. We would call you a jiba!”

“Yeah, babe, sounds good,” he replied unwittingly, his mind elsewhere.

Mei Li grinned in silence. Jun soon returned.

“Visitant has a visual. Kay-I is back with her husband,” he informed.

“That means the IADC has our property,” added Mei Li.

Jun turned to Jase. “Okay, smart man, what’s your plan? You said you could get Kay-I back.”

“If Macintosh is involved, we’ll need to outsmart him,” Jase said springing to his feet. “I hate to say it but the guy’s no fool.”

“That’s why we spared you,” Mei Li impatiently interjected. “Stop stalling!”

“I’m not, baby, I’m haggling. Let’s make a deal.”

“Eh? You’re seriously haggling?” she snapped. “Jun, let’s waste this stupid egg and make our own plan.”

“Don’t be too hasty, Mei Li,” Jun warned, “Mr Chase is a high roller and the ultimate opportunist. I can respect such a cunning mind.

“You already have money, so, what is it you want, Mr Chase?”

“You’re right, I’ve got all the dough I need for now, man, but the net is closing in. Sooner or later, the authorities here are going to arrest me. I can’t get out using the ports. I want a safe passage in this spaceship.”

“Where is it you wish to go?”  

“Uranus?” suggested Mei with caustic derision.

“North Korea, babe, I have some contacts there.”         

“Okay, Mr Chase, you’ve got yourself a deal. Dropping you off in North Korea suits us both.”      

“So, what’s the plan, man?” Mei asked in a culturally mocking tone.

“Visitant is monitoring Kay-I with Roger, right?” Jase established. “I’m betting it’s going to be one hell of an interrogation. We’ll wait until Macintosh’s teeth are gnashing and then invite him over. Kay-I shall come running after him, I can almost guarantee it.”

“What about Wonder Woman?” Mei said, cautiously. “She may come running too.”  

“It doesn’t matter,” Jun interjected, “Visitant approves…”

Throughout his career in the military, science, and teaching, Roger garnered a reputation for his calm professionalism. Accompanying Kay-I to his room, he felt a gnawing doubt like no other he had experienced in his life; a festering collage of events, feelings, and questions to which he wanted answers, or there would be hell to pay. Roger couldn’t even bring himself to look at Kay-I, other than to acknowledge her presence. Despite this, in his usual gentlemanly manner, he shut his hotel door without slamming it; he offered Kay-I a glass of water and the opportunity to freshen up; all of which she declined.

“I know what you must think of me,” Kay-I said, softly, as she stared blankly out of the window.

“I don’t know what to think of you…not anymore.”

Tears swelled in her eyes. Although her back was turned, he could hear her sobbing. He placed his hand on her tiny shoulder, but crushingly, she shrugged him off. After a pause, she wept, “I’ve destroyed everything we had for the love of someone I don’t even know.”

“Jase Chase?” Roger asked with growing indignation. “You love that little weasel?”

“No!” she yelled. “No, not Jase Chase. I hate the sight of him – he’s scum!” 

“Then who? I deserve to know, don’t I?”

The girl composed herself. She faced her husband. “My daughter, Choe.”

For a second, Roger stood perplexed. “What? You have a daughter?”

“I never told you about her…too much shame,” she said running into the bedroom in a flood of tears.

Roger followed her. Kay-I lay headfirst on the bed. It reminded him that she was still only a girl herself. A young woman whose childhood had been so incredibly traumatic that she rarely mentioned it. Roger sighed. He sat down next to her.

“I knew you were a survivor,” he gently said. “We’ve hardly ever talked about it. I guess I didn’t want to dredge it up. Perhaps I was protecting my feelings too.”

“I was only sixteen when she was born,” Kay-I informed in a mousy voice. “She is a young woman herself now. “

“When were you conscripted?”

“Yes.”

“Who’s the father?” Roger asked hesitantly.

“A general. He’s of no consequence.”

“Kay-I, were you…”

“Raped? No…they didn’t need to do that. We were expected to serve them, it’s our culture.”

“It doesn’t sound like there’s much difference, not as far as I’m concerned,” Roger contended.

“Please understand not every country is like America, the freedoms and rights you take for granted are missing in my country.

“Many girls were forced to have abortions. They allowed me to carry my baby because her father was favoured by the high-ups. After her birth, they took Choe away. I didn’t see my baby again…but I never stopped thinking about her.

“Afterward, I devoted myself to the conscripted military training. I wanted to be as powerful as could be. I think it was my way of blocking it out. They were impressed by my dedication. I enrolled into the special forces and eventually intelligence.”

“The Reconnaissance General Bureau?”

“Yes, in the RGB I learned the most valuable lesson – men want my body, but they can never take my soul. I became a spy. I sleep with South Korean officers, politicians, and Japanese businessmen. They tell me about their secrets between the sheets, or I steal them while they snore. I didn’t care anymore. I ate the best food, stayed in luxury hotels, and received the nicest presents.”  

“On one mission, I meet a man and everything changes – that man was you – someone who genuinely cares for me as if my life matters. You were my white knight. Now I’ve thrown it all away.”        

“What do you mean?” Roger said soberly. “What have you done?”

His compassion for her sad circumstances was almost certainly why he fell for her. Roger had quietly dug deep into his psyche in recent days. He recognised his saviour complex; and even if not formulated in words, he instinctively understood the archetypal nature of the daughter and then wife that he projected onto Kay-I in those early days of their relationship.    

However, he couldn’t unsee what he witnessed when visiting Park Hyatt; the image of Kay-I sunbathing next to Jase Chase burnt into his brain as if they were joined by a soldering iron.    

“I betrayed you,” she said meekly.

“In what way?”

“Remember when I used to accompany you to university?”

“Go on.”

“I was hunting for information about Choe on the internet. I didn’t want to use our connection in case it could be traced. One time, Jase oversaw the website I was using and asked me about it. He was very charming at first. I thought he meant well. He said his computer was more secure for the kind of websites I accessed. So, I confided in him about Choe–.”

“You told Jase about your daughter before me?” erupted Roger. He rose to his feet. “I worked with that weasel every day and all that time he knew you had a daughter.”

“I know, I’m sorry, so sorry,” she pleaded displaying a praying gesture. “He said he would help me by using his Chinese associates. One night, he invited me over to his home. He gave me details about my daughter that no one else could possibly know – he gave me a picture of her as she is today.”  

She took a folded piece of paper from her back pocket. It showed a printed photo of an Asian teenager. “I take this everywhere I go.”

“What did he want in return?” Roger said, cynically. “It sure isn’t in Jase’s nature to help anyone for nothing.”

“You are right,” she replied with trepidation, “but I can’t bring myself to say the words.”

Roger angrily held Kay-I by the upper arms. “Say it! Say it, damn it!”

“He wanted me!” she bawled. “I slept with him for my daughter. Alright?”

Roger threw her onto the bed and covered his face with his hands. At that moment, he wished for nothing more than to melt out of existence. Roger’s consciousness then returned to hear Kay-I crying hysterically on the bed.

“He blackmailed you,” he voiced slowly.

“Yeah, yeah,” she blubbered, “and it didn’t end there, Jase told me the Chinese wanted a favour, too, in exchange for Choe.”

“What favour?” he said sternly.

Kay-I sobbed her way through the seduction of Captain Griffiths. She described the alien creature which she put in the naval man’s mouth without a word of her own parasitic occupation. This crucial information would usually be at the top of Roger’s priorities to report, but in his current emotional state, he wasn’t thinking straight. Everything after hearing Jase slept with his wife was nothing but numb facts to Roger who stoically listened to the full horror of his wife’s betrayal as it unfolded.

“I tried to do something about it,” she earnestly attempted to convince him. “I covertly contacted the IADC as soon as I knew Jase and the Chinese were plotting something. And I knew they would send her.”

“Diana?” he inquired.

“Yes, Miss Perfect – smart, statuesque, and beautiful Diana – everything I’m not!” Kay-I said bitterly. “I’ve seen the way you look at her, but I still called them.”

“Don’t you even dare go there,” Roger warned her, waggling his finger, “not after everything you’ve done. Diana nearly God damn lost her life thanks to your antics.”   

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said crying on the floor with arms around his legs. “I’m stupid, very stupid.”

Roger was holding back tears himself when his cell phone beeped.

“Hi, there, old buddy,” said the voice on the other end. Roger froze. “I’ve been enjoying the show. Don’t blame Kay-I, the little bitch has forgotten she’s bugged! Ha-hah! What do you say we meet on Cockatoo Island for a showdown?”

After taking a breath, Roger said: “I’ll be there.”

Kay-I had never seen Roger with such tensed-up emotion. It was as if the blood had drained completely from his face like a zombie; there was nothing behind his eyes.

“Who was it?” she said.

She hung on his arm as he walked away. He threw her off.

“Where are you going?” she wailed in a sorry state.

“To see Jase Chase,” he revealed at the door.

For Part 11: click here

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Ed’s faithful depiction of Diana, Doctor Morecambe and Roger, as she leaves the hospital. Check out more great artwork from Ed: click here