Thread: Empire - City of Wonder (Black_Out and The Supple Nail)

Wonder Woman was slammed forward, the cold, unyielding surface of the mirror pressed against the willowy softness and athletic firmness of her frame. She saw her face reflected there, a pathetic mask of terror, and a wave of righteous indignation burned through her. For the first time her rage outweighed her fear. Her muscles surged, her powerful frame torquing as she wrenched her arms free. Ha! She crowed triumphantly. She grabbed, whirled, pivoted on her hip, and sent The Creep crashing through one of the nearby funhouse mirrors. Tiny shards of glass exploded with the force beyond mere impact, thrown like an explosion by the backfire of The Creep's dark power as it rebounded on him. Tiny shards knifed past her leaving a dozen tiny, insignificant cuts to mar the bronzed perfection of her tanned skin. Many of the wrestling matches in the grand arena of Themiscyra were held in the ancient greek style, skin against nude skin, and Wonder Woman was no stranger to pitting her strength, bare in the most literal sense, against any foe. Then why, as she charged forward, the perfect globes of her breasts exposed to the naked darkness, did the creeping fingers of embarrassment worm their way into her concentration? She pushed the niggling thought from her mind. Now was a moment for action, not for modesty. The fiend was too slippery to fight conventionally. She knew too little about him. But he was agile, and stealthy, and in his element she couldn't risk giving him the chance to get the drop on her once again. There was one way that she knew that she could leverage her brute strength to victory. Grappling was the answer. With an amazon war whoop she soared through the air to land a bone crunching flying elbow dead center in The Creep's torso. As much as it made her skin crawl to lay hands on him she quickly pulled him into a one armed headlock, ignoring the slavering mouth pressed against her breasts, and began to rain blow after hammer blow down on him. Then she hoisted him up by one arm and one leg. She spun once, spun twice, gathering up devastating momentum, and then flung him as hard as she could through the nearest mirror. The nearest mirror supported by a concrete pylon. There was a crunch and a shower of glass and for the first time Wonder Woman skipped back, her cheeks coloring in a deep blush as she pulled her bustier up to cover her nudity. She started forward, the hunters instinct surging in her mind to finish off her foe, but some force held her back. It wasn't fear. It was not fear, she told herself. The hostage. Yes, that was it. It wasn't that some deep terror of The Creep still gripped her, still made her want to run and hide. It was that she had a duty to find the hostage. And yet it was with a certain animal relief that she fled deeper into the maze. The dazed amusement park worker was barely conscious. Wonder Woman hoisted him bodily over her shoulder and, with a shudder but without a look back, she sprinted towards the nearest exit. ---------------------- The man had been grateful, if a bit disoriented, but for some reason Wonder Woman had simply left him with the paramedics before disappearing into the night. She was a true hero who helped those in need out of a sense of honor rather than some desire for praise and attention. But she didn't shy from praise either, like some of her one-time compatriots. So why didn't she feel up to facing the friendly and adoring police force? To endure their stares and their questions? She just wanted to curl up and hide away, to fold in on herself and protect her tiny, fragile core. The encounter had shaken her, had exposed things that she did not know were lurking in her subconscious. But even after retreating to the lavish high rise apartment taken in the name Diana Prince, even after a long, hot shower, even after a calming session of meditation, her fears and insecurities continued to eat at her. It was only in the darkest deepest hours of the night, just before sleep claimed her that the thought flashed through her mind. She had left her enchanted sword behind.