(Note: Most stories about Wonder Women occur after World War II - after 1940. We're told that her history, though, goes back to the dim reaches of time. So maybe she acquired all her gear and super powers over time. This is part of a series of 9 stories relates how she got her costume and powers over time, after several adventures in "Patriarch's World".)
PROLOGUE, 64 C.E. (Christian Era):
While the Amazons enjoyed a peaceful and idyllic life on an island they named Themyscira, a new civilization was rising to their north. The people of Etruscia founded a republic around the city of Rome and, in the years just before the Christian era, Roman legions conquered the known (i.e., Western) world, including the old Greek empire created by Alexander the Great. But in the early years of the Christian era, Rome became an empire ruled by a series of monsters, from Caligula through Claudius. Safe on their home off the coast of Africa and west of the island of Sicily, Amazon society is protected from men by a series of large, ship-killing rocks scattered around all the landing-sites on the island and sticking up through the pounding surf. No mariner dares approach the island for fear of sinking.
Druscilla, an Etruscian who washed up on Themyscira in 364 B.C.E. and was adopted by the Amazon queen, Hyppolita, discovered that she is now as immortal as the other Amazons and has developed similar strength, speed and agility. Tutors and her adopted sister, Diana, spend decades helping young Druscilla (who stopped aging in her 19th year) improve her body and mind to Amazonian standards. Other Amazons spend their time advancing their knowledge of medicine, chemistry, and other sciences.
Paradise Island:
"I'll beat you this time!" Druscilla says to her Diana. The young women are wrestling Greek style (nude) and for the last 300 years, Diana has always won such contests. This time Druscilla seems about to win after tripping Diana, falling atop the tall brunette, and getting her in a full-nelson headlock. Suddenly Diana uses the impossibly-great strength given to her by her goddesses to break the hold and toss Druscilla into the air. The teen squawks indignantly when she lands high in a tree twenty feet away.
"HEY! Get me
"Cheater!" Druscilla bellows.
"I didn't cheat!"
"Ah, but you did, Diana of Themyscira," a strong feminine voice says. Both Diana and Druscilla spin around and see a tall middle-aged looking redhead who shines as if lit from behind by a searchlight. The girls immediately drop to their knees in the presence of Hera, Queen of the Greek Olympian gods. "You used the great strength we gave you to battle Ba'al against your sister, who is a normal Amazon. We are displeased. For the past few hundred years, Diana, you have used that strength more and more where it was not needed. How many of your sister Amazons have you defeated with it in wrestling contests? We have seen with sadness that you have all too often abused your gift by using it against the weak and innocent. Now you use it to win a small and meaningless test against your own sister. We must take back our gift, Diana of Themyscira. Hereafter, you will only have the strength of a normal Amazon." Diana's thick cords of muscle tissue shrink away and disappear, revealing a normal-looking woman. Her strength is reduced to that of thirty normal men, the average strength of a common Amazon. Tears form in her eyes from being punished by the great Hera.
Diana drops down onto her belly and holds her hands up in supplication. "Thank you for this lesson, great Hera. I was foolish and overly-vain about your gift." She remains supine even after Hera fades away. She has offended Hera, and possibly also the other goddesses who protect Themyscira and keep it hidden from the prying eyes of men. Her foolishness may bring ruin upon herself, her mother and her sisters. It would not be the first time that angry Greek gods destroyed people or whole cities for such hubris.
A few moments later, Diana feels someone take her hands. She looks up to see Druscilla trying to help her to her feet. "Come, sister, let's go back home." As the Amazon princess rises to her feet, tears streaming from her eyes, Druscilla wraps her arms around her sister, crushing her large breasts against those of the taller brunette. "I love you so much, Diana!" Druscilla says, now crying herself.
"Oh
A few weeks later, as Diana and others sit in Queen Hyppolita's throne room, debating the value of honesty in relationships, an intense white light fills the room. After the light dims somewhat, two women appear beside the throne. The Amazons immediately drop to their knees before two of their goddesses.
"Rise, all of you," Hera says, and the Amazons rise and return to their seats around the throne. Athena, goddess of wisdom and warriors stands beside Hera. She appears as a tall and mature brunette. "I regret to ask you again for assistance, Hyppolita," the great goddess says sadly. "Once more the world outside your home has become a place of intolerance, fear, misery and the death of innocents."
"You need but ask, my goddess," Hyppolita says. "We will do all we can for you." Her councillors nod in agreement, as do Diana and the other young women in the room.
"Greece no longer rules the world," Athena explains. "A new empire, Rome, has arisen and conquered Greece and the rest of the world. Although they had their own gods, the Romans realized our importance and now worship us."
"But with them we are known by different names," Hera adds.
"Yes," Athena replies. "In Rome, Hera is called Juno and I am called Minerva, for example, and the Romans expect from us the same benefits we gave to your Greek ancestors in return for honoring us and believing in us."
"The problem is that the Romans have had an emperor who, in the past few years, has slowly gone mad and is slaughtering his own people in our name," Hera says. "Criminals, captured foreigners, slaves, people of other religions, even his own people are sacrificed in one-sided public combats as a tribute to one or more of us. This merely strengthens the resolve of his people to seek other gods. The Roman people want gods who are more merciful and beneficial, not cruel, like Ba'al and Astarte were for the Carthaginians. Unfortunately, there is a kind and merciful god who gets a large number of followers each time Emperor Nero persecutes his own people."
"And we lose followers," Athena adds. "We need someone who can stop this madman from destroying all belief in us."
"Are there no Romans who can help you, great Athena?" a now-subdued and humble Diana asks.
"Romans are either in the military fighting to expand the borders of the empire or they cower in fear, afraid they will be sent to the sacrifices in a great amphitheater in Rome for treason. One of Emperor Nero's chief advisors, Gaius Ofonius Tigellinus, encourages Nero's depraved behavior and set up 'treason courts' to sentence people to death in the city's amphitheater or Coliseum."
"What would you have us do?" Hyppolita asks. "Are you suggesting that we kill this emperor and his advisors? You know that since we arrived here we regard human life, all human life, as sacred. We believe in peace through strengh and love."
"We agree with you on that point, Hyppolita. You must send forth a champion who can stop Nero without taking his life, or that of his councillors," Athena says gravely.
"Can you not destroy this man's power yourself?" Druscilla asks. "If he is so evil, you should use your powers to remove ..."
"We cannot, child," Athena says. "He is protected by other Olympians. Ares, known as Mars among the Romans, is a staunch defender of Nero, as is great Zeus, or Jupiter as he is named in Rome. We cannot move against Nero without angering them."
"But surely they would destroy us if we ..." Diana begins.
"This is where one of you could be most helpful," Hera interrupts. "If you act indirectly against Nero and his councillor, Zeus and Ares may not notice your activities because you are human, not god-like. They may see and believe that humans are acting against Nero for human reasons. However, there still would be a chance that one might act to stop your champion."
"And would you then protect our champion?" the queen asks.
"We would not accept her death," Hera replies, cryptically. A silence fills the throne room for several heartbeats.
"Mother," Diana finally says, turning toward the queen, "as you know, I shamed myself before our patron goddesses and misused their great gift. I beg to serve them in this task, to pay for my error." When Hyppolita nods 'yes', Diana turns toward the two goddesses. "May I serve you, great Hera?" she asks.
Hera doesn't reply. Instead, she, Athena and Diana disappear from the throne room in a flash of bright white light ...
Rome:
... And reappear on a hill overlooking a great, sprawling city. Diana finds that her clothing has changed as well. In place of the simple sandals and long toga she was wearing in the palace she now wears a red and gold dress which hangs from her shoulders and extends down to the middle of her thighs. A thin golden belt holds it tightly against her body, just below her breasts, accenting them. She also has on the running shoes favored by Artemis, the hunter. Small red shoes that look like slippers are bound to the feet by straps which run up to the top of her calves. Finally, the red and gold cloak given to her outside Carthage is draped around her left shoulder and upper body like a Roman palla.
"This is Rome, Diana," Athena/Minerva says. "There (and she points at a large stone building dominating a huge central plaza) is the coliseum in which enemies of Nero die. To the left is the Temple of Venus/Aphrodite/Roma, the patron goddess of Rome." She continues to point out the palace, the Pantheon (where all the other gods and goddesses are worshipped) and other key places.
"We have given you the strength of fifty men, Diana, and hope that this time you will not abuse our generosity," Hera says in a stern voice. "You may need to defend yourself against the evil that men do."
"Never again, mistress," Diana promises, looking down at the dirt as an act of piety.
"We also give you the dress and cloak you're wearing, Diana," Athena says. "Our dear friend Haephestus/Vulcan made them from some special, living metal he has created. It is woven into threads provided by Arachnae, the spider-woman. Haephestus told me that if you spin rapidly, to agitate the fabric, and think hard about how you want them to look, the dress and cloak will change form and color for you. Any covering you imagine can be created by the dress and cloak. Give it a try."
Diana nods her head and slowly begins to turn in a circle. Suddenly there is a flash of light and her dress vanishes, to be replaced by a long white toga. The red cloak has also changed, this time into a blue wrap. "This is amazing!" she gushes. Then she spins again and the dress and cloak reappear.
"Proceed with care, Diana," Hera tells the young Amazon. "Remember that you must bring about Nero's downfall without being detected by Zeus/Jupiter or Ares/Mars. Aphrodite/Venus may be of assistance to you, but she might not, given her special favor among the Romans. We cannot help you because it would warn Zeus of our presence. Good fortune to you, Diana," Hera says as she and Athena/Minerva fade away.
Diana easily passes through one of the city's gates and finds herself walking along a narrow street with shops on either side of her and a crowd of people filling the street. She is quickly offended by the shoving, pushing herd of humanity and its rude smells and behavior - at least one person gropes her butt or even one of her breasts every few minutes! Finally, when she sees a hand moving toward her left breast, she quickly reaches up and grabs the man's hand.
"Owww, owww, don't ..." the man begs when the Amazon bends his wrist back at an impossible angle. Diana frog-marches the man out of the street and into a very narrow alley.
"By what right do you believe you can fondle a woman?" she asks angrily. If the gods had given her the power to send daggers from her eyes, the man's face would be shredded by now.
"I'm a man ... you're a big-breasted woman. Why not?"
"I should break your arm for such arrogance," Diana says, her face less than an inch away from the man's. "Instead, give me your purse and consider it a donation to the goddess He- ... er, Juno." After the man hands Diana his coin purse, the shoves him roughly further down the alley and dodges out into the sea of humanity in the street. A few hundred paces later she looks in the purse and finds a variety of coins, none of which have meaning for her.
"I hope he had enough money for me to find a place to stay and food," she says, hiding the purse inside her dress. She pulls the cloak tighter around her body - the red and gold dress shows too much of the tops of her breasts, she feels. She almost feels pity for the man - he couldn't resist touching her body. The tops of her breasts look like ripened fruit, ready to be picked.
"I think I should cover up more, but I know from personal experience that the less I'm wearing, the more flexible I can be in combat and Hera - or rather, Juno, said to be ready for combat at any time," Diana thinks as she walks along the crowded street.
Less than an hour later she spots an inn and decides to eat and stay the night there. Several times while eating a simple meal, men approach her with lewd suggestions. She rebuffs them all and only has to squeeze the hands of two especially rude men. As the sun sets in the west, she decides to take a walk toward the Pantheon, the temple for honoring Rome's gods, and unwittingly walks into the subura, a district east of the forum. The dark narrow streets of this district are filled with the less fortunate Romans, the many prostitutes of the city, and the narrow alleys are notoriously dangerous to any stranger, with many criminals waiting to rob the purse of a hapless stranger. And Diana is a very attractive target.
"I pray you, mistress, may I offer my assistance as your guide while you're here in Rome?" a scratchy voice says to the Amazon as she wanders the district. Diana turns to see a man in ragged clothes, sorely in need of a barber and bath.
"Thank you, but I can find my way," she replies confidently. Diana turns to continue walking toward the Pantheon. Suddenly half a dozen other men, as scruffy as her 'guide', appear in front of her.
"I insist," the first man, now behind her, says. Diana starts to spin around to face him when he abruptly grabs her arms and pins them against her body. "This one looks like a wildcat! Lend a hand!" the man yells, his fetid breath making Diana wrinkle her nose in disgust. As his friends near the Amazon, she drops to her knees and handily flips the man into his friends. The gang of young men drops to the ground like bowling pins and Diana returns to her feet in a simple fluid motion.
The thugs rise to their feet and rush the tall brunette but just before they reach her, she flexes her legs and does a standing jump that carries her upward ten feet over the gang and past them by fifteen feet. She lands roughly, staggers, then recovers. The men look at the woman then turn and run away from her. Obviously she isn't a cheap target! Diana smiles and continues her walk toward the Pantheon.
Arriving at the temple, she sees that there are alcoves for worship of the various Roman gods. She recognizes the names of Juno/Hera, Minerva/Athena, and Mars/Ares, but the many of the others she does not. After a few more minutes, Diana leaves the Pantheon and decides to head past the palace once to see its defenses. She strolls past the high walls and after learning nothing about the inside, returns to the inn. "I'll have to explore tomorrow during daylight," she decides a while later as she pulls the covers over her naked body.
After roaming the city for two days, Diana has learned more about Rome and it's mad tyrant. Nero's mother, sister of Emperor Caligula, married his successor, Claudius. She struggled to get her son named as his successor, instead of his own young son, Britannicus, but when Claudius seemed to waver and was about to nominate his own son, the emperor suddenly died under mysterious circumstances. Nero's mother Agrippina, according to rumors, sought the advice of a certain Locusta, a woman of not only a shady but an evil reputation as a witch. The woman was also a known expert in poisons.
Nero became emperor in 54 C.E. and ruled well for the first five years, then seemed to go off the rails. His step-brother Britannicus died during a dinner party in 55 C.E. Nero had his mother killed in 59 C.E. (poisoned), divorced his wife Octavia, daughter of Claudius, and married Poppaea Sabina, the wife of his friend. She later died of his brutal beatings. His troops conquered the Britons and Welsh and recently captured the English queen, Boadicea, who is imprisoned somewhere here in Rome, awaiting public execution in the Coliseum. For the past five years, he and his advisors have engaged in one depraved debauchery after another, from mass murders to bestiality to public concerts by the emperor.
Nero himself is fair-haired, with weak blue eyes, a fat neck, a pot belly and a body which smells and is covered with spots. He usually appears in public in a sort of dressing gown without a belt, a scarf around his neck and no shoes. In character he is a strange mix of paradoxes: artistic, sporting, brutal, weak, sensual, erratic, extravagant, sadistic, bisexual, and almost certainly deranged. People are tagged for execution for the least affort to him - a barber who cuts off too much hair is decapitated. His chief advisor, Gaius Ofonius Tigellinus, daily sentences scores of people to death in the Coliseum. Some are butchered by gladiators, others rendered by wild animals.
Diana shudders at the prospect of getting anywhere near this human monster or his close associates. However, she must do something to undermine this man's power, to unseat him before he destroys all belief in the old gods. She manages to gain access to the palace grounds through a small door along a side wall of the compound. She spends two days moving among the household staff, talking with slaves, servants and gardeners and others.
On her fourth day in the city, Diana is on her way to visit one of Nero's chefs when a guard stops her on the palace grounds. Unwilling to hurt the man, Diana lets herself be led to the tribune in charge of palace defense. "Why is this woman here?" the tribune sneers at Diana and the guard. "Who let this prostitute into the palace grounds?"
"Unknown, my lord," the guard replies, bowing deeply. "I found her in the Augustine Garden and immediately brought her here."
"Why are you here, girl?" the tribune asks.
Of course the Amazon princess knows no one in the palace. In desperation, she says, "I'm here as a guest of Gaius Tigellinus."
The effect is electric. The tribune apolgizes profusely for detaining her and harshly orders the guard to escort her to Tigellinus' offices. The guard bows deeply at Diana and gingerly ushers her out of the guard building and across the grounds to a smaller building near the main palace. As soon as they're inside that building, Diana spins and hits the guard in his chin with her elbow. The man's head snaps backward and he falls to the ground, unconscious.
She spins around when she hears slow clapping from behind her. A few yards away she spots a short, ugly little man with a grotesquely-huge head. "Well done, mistress," the little man says. He stops clapping and starts walking toward the Amazon. "You're only the second woman I've seen who can drop a soldier with one blow." The little man reaches Diana and holds out his hand to shake hers. Diana thinks a moment, then shakes his hand. She's instantly repulsed at the cold, clammy touch of his skin. His dress is like that of a Roman noble, but the 3' 6" man looks more like a sideshow freak than a blue-blood.
"I am known as the Duke of ... of Dalmatia," the creature says. "And you are ...?"
"Diana of Themyscira," the Amazon princess replies, freeing her hand from his. "If you'll excuse me ..." she says, turning away from the creature. She takes one step when the little man leaps up onto her back and presses his palms against the sides of her head. Diana instantly screams as massive pain hits her head. She drops to her knees, her hands rising to her head. She grasps the little man's hands and, to his surprise, peels them off her head. She then tosses the Duke over her head and out of the building. Using a wall for support, the woman rises onto shaky feet just as the Duke re-enters the building and rushes at her.
"No one does that to the Duke of Deception!" the man snarls as he reaches toward the woman. Once again he makes a fantastic leap upward, from six feet away, and his spindly little legs wrap around Diana's upper body, pinning her left arm to her side. She raises her right arm to fight the monster but again he plants his little hands on the sides of her head and again intense pain stabs at the woman.
"AAAAOOOOWWWWW!!" she screams, dropping to her knees again. "SSTOOPPP IIITTT!!"
she cries. Her eyes close tightly as if that will stop the stabbing pain. It
doesn't. She's about to succumb to the pain when she makes a last desperate
attack, hitting where the Duke's face should be. She's rewarded with a solid
"How can you do this?" the Duke asks, sitting up on the floor. "I'm a GOD! Well, a demi-god, but god-like! You're just a mere girl!"
"Wrong," Diana says, leaning forward to punch him with all of her strength. "I'm
an Amazon!" and her fist hits the Duke on his nose with a tremendous
"Ohhhh, Hera help me!" she moans as she again rises to her feet, using the wall for support. Her legs feel like rubber and her head feels like it's been hammered by a huge club. The woman quickly moves further into the building, checking first one room, then another, but unsure of what she's seeking. The emperor's right-hand monster is in here somewhere, she knows. How can that information help her bring down the tyrant?
Suddenly Diana rounds a corner and finds a door guarded by two soldiers holding shields and short spears. As she skids to a halt, one soldier spots and yells "Halt!" He and the other guard turn toward Diana and raise their shields and spears for combat. Diana, her head still pounding, straightens up and walks toward the soldiers. "Hola!" she says. "I am here to see Tigellinus," she lies.
The soldiers look at her warily, then straighten up. "The councillor is in the other wing, mistress," one says. "This wing is for prisoners only."
"Really?" Diana asks sweetly. "Who do you guard? Some terrible warrior who has defied the emperor, perhaps?"
"No, mistress," the man replies amiably. "We guard the witch known as Boadicea, from the land of the Britons."
"Is she a great warrior?" Diana asks, slowly moving closer to the guards.
"Her armies killed many men," the other guard says, lowering the point of his spear. The first guard also lowers his. How dangerous can this beautiful, seductive-looking woman be?
Diana decides anyone who is an enemy of Nero is a potential ally so when within
a few feet of the guards, she explodes in a flurry of activity, using her hands
to bat aside the guards' spears, then punch their shields. The bronze shields
Aware that she's made too much noise. She grabs a sword from one of the guards and uses it to pry open the door in front of her. She quickly throws the door open and spots an attractive thirty-something woman with long brown hair. Her wrists and ankles are bound by heavy chains and cuffs. "Are you Boadicea, from the land of the Britons?" Diana asks. When the woman nods 'yes', the Amazon princess grabs the woman's hand, pulls her to her feet, then lifts the woman into her arms and carries her out of the room. "Come with me, sister!" Diana says, carrying the queen of the Britons down the hall away from the building entrance.
Outside, behind Tigellinus' building, Diana and the queen of the Brits halt behind some bushes for a moment. Boadicea is dressed in threadbare rags and is barefoot. "Let me help you, highness," Diana says. She uses the stolen sword to prise open the cuffs on Boadicea's wrists and ankles. After freeing the woman, Diana gives her red and gold cloak to the queen, as well as her shoes and the stolen coin purse. "Take these, highness," Diana says, "and flee Rome!"
"I will be hunted by dogs," Boadicea says ruefully, shaking her head. "Besides, I don't have the strength to fight these people any longer. They've killed my husband and my children. There's no way to stop them."
"Who here in the palace has seen your face?" Diana asks., quickly formulating a plan in her mind.
"I was brought to Rome yesterday - only the guards who brought me and their leader, a centurion named Sentius. I haven't seen anyone since they locked me in that room. I was supposed to go before Nero tonight. For his amusement as I die, no doubt."
"I still think you should flee the city, your highness. Return to your people. I promise you won't be pursued. I'll take your place here."
"WHAT? I could never let someone else take my place where death is concerned. I cannot ..."
"You MUST! I have a plan to stop Nero. Perhaps your country will be set free if Nero falls from power. But I need to impersonate you for my plan to work."
The queen looks at Diana for a few moments, then leans forward and kisses the Amazon's cheek. "I will leave. But first, tell me the name of my savior, that I may sing your praises in our temples." The queen of the Britons puts Diana's shoes on, then drapes her cloak over her shoulders.
"Diana of Themyscira," the Amazon replies, kissing the queen's cheek. As Boadicea turns and runs toward the door leading out of the palace grounds, Diana drops the chains to the ground and slowly begins to spin in a circle. There is a flash of light and Diana's red and gold dress is replaced by a torn and dirty gray gown similar to Boadicea's. She then scoops up a handful of mud which she rubs into her hair and across her face, arms and legs, making her body look like it's been dragged several hundred miles by legionnaires. Finally, she picks up the wrist and ankle chains and locks them in place on herself.
When soldiers rush out of Tigellinus' building a few minutes later, they spot a chained woman hobbling toward an exit from the palace grounds. The soldiers easily capture the woman and return her to her cell. When questionned, the woman says that the young maiden who rescued her vanished into thin air once they were outside the building. When the guards lock the door holding Diana, she smiles slyly at the first step in her plan. The guards expected to see a dirty woman in chains, that's what they saw, so it must have been Boadicea they captured.
"Stand up straight, woman!" Tigellinus orders. He, Diana and several others are in what must be Nero's dining room. The Romans lay on couches formed into a rough semi-circle. Diana, still chained and dirty, stands in the middle of the semi-circle with her head bowed and her shoulders slumped in defeat. Or so it seems. With a great show of effort, she stands taller and raises her face to look at those around her.
"Great Hera!" Diana gasps silently. "That's the little monster I defeated earlier today," she realizes, spotting the Duke of Deception lying on one couch. Then she recoils again when she recognizes the leather-clad man beside Deception. "ARES!" she thinks. "If he remembers me ..."
"Who among you would like the privilege of slaying this Briton witch?" the 27 year old Nero asks his cronies in the room. Several volunteer, loudly, and the emperor scans them, one by one, as he decides who to reward.
"Obviously all the good men of Rome are not in this room, if you would kill an unarmed and chained woman!" Diana says defiantly. "The men who captured me must be very different from those in this room. I slew four before the others overwhelmed me."
Most of the Romans are shocked at the woman's audacity, but Ares/Mars begins to laugh and slowly clap. "Well said, woman!" he says. "What would you have us do? Release you?"
"I am a warrior," Diana replies, looking directly at Ares and hoping he doesn't remember her. "I ask for no more than the chance of a warrior's death, in combat against another warrior, in the Coliseum!"
"This could be interesting, my Lord Mars," Nero says. "A fight to the death, the barbarian queen against all comers! My subjects will love this! Take her away!"
"A moment, great Nero," Mars/Ares says. "I would like to speak with her, warlord to warrior, if you will. Let me accompany her back to her room." With that, Ares rises off his couch like a lion rising and begins to walk toward Diana. The Amazon shudders inwardly - what does the god of war have in his mind? When Deception also starts to climb off his couch, Ares pushes him down and says, "Why don't you stay here and amuse the Emperor with your abilities?" The little demi-god's face reddens and flushes with his anger, then quickly changes back to its normal look.
"Of course, great Mars," the Duke says, watching his master follow the woman out of Nero's salon.
A few minutes later Diana and Mars/Ares enter her cell and Diana sits on the one chair in the room. She looks warily at the god of war. Seconds pass and neither says a word - Mars/Ares just looks down at the woman, his arms crossed. Finally, he moves across the room to sit on the bed, some two feet away from the Amazon princess. "You aren't Boadicea. How did you come to replace her? WHY did you replace her?" Mars/Ares asks.
"I am Diana of Themyscira," the woman says softly. "How and why I came to be here is not important. What IS important is that noble Boadicea has her freedom again."
"Good!" When Diana arches a questioning eyebrow, Mars explains, "If she gets home, she will raise a new army to fight the Romans. I like to see armies clashing. Especially Roman armies. They kill and die in my name, and this makes me stronger among the other gods. I should thank you, but I sense more is involved here than just freeing one woman.
"You look familiar," Mars says. "Have we met before?"
"I have never met Mars before today," Diana says, biting her tongue to avoid smiling.
"Let's clean you up a bit," Mars says. He waves his hand and Diana is suddenly naked and clean! Her 'old rags' lie on the floor at her feet. "Hmmm, not too shabby!" the god gloats. "Come over here!" he commands. As he rises to his feet, his clothing disappears from his body. He's not only well-endowed, he's also starting to get an erection at the sight of Diana's naked body.
Diana covers her breasts and crotch with her hands, then crosses her legs. She looks defiantly at the god of war, daring him to try anything. She's not disappointed - Mars walks over to her and grabs her by her hair and lifts the woman to her feet.
"Oooww!" Diana cries as her long black hair is yanked upward. She rises to her feet and her arms drop down to her sides, her fists balled and her arms bent at the elbows. Before Mars can react, Diana punches his belly with both hands using all of her enhanced Amazonian strength.
"Nnnh!" Mars grunts, surprised more than hurt by the woman's blows. He releases her hair and takes half a step back before slapping the Amazon's cheek. His blow spins her sideways and she topples half-over the chair, then drops onto the chair with her butt sticking up. Mars lifts the woman off the chair, his hands on either side of her slim waist. Diana immediately begins to thrash, kick her legs back toward the war god and pounding his hands with her delicate fists.
"LET ... ME ... GO!" Diana protests as she's carried across the room to the bed. Her protests and resistance are futile - Mars tosses her onto the bed, face down, and leaps into bed, landing atop her. His left hand presses into her back, pinning her to the bed, as his right hand helps him slip between her thighs.
"Not a virgin, but not my first slut, either," Mars says as he dribbles some pre-cum onto her ass crack. He waves his hand over her ass and a gooey liquid seems to pump out of her anus. As the woman struggles beneath him, Mars slowly slips the head of his penis into her ass hole.
"Ooohhh ... Ares! Don't do this!" Diana yells when the tip of the god enters her.
Mars suddenly stops penetrating the woman and asks, "Why would you call me Ares? Just who ARE you, woman?"
"Your enemy!" Diana replies indignantly. Mars responds by roughly slapping her
ass cheek
"Tell me why you are my enemy, Diana of Themyscira," Mars orders. When the woman doesn't reply, he resumes sliding his tool into the woman, his entry helped by the magical goo he materialized inside her hole.
Diana struggles mightily, squirming and twisting and flailing her arms and legs,
but nothing stops Mars from raping her ass, slowly at first, then faster and
faster. Her hips rise off the bed as he strokes in and out of her hole and her
high-pitched screams fill the room as he drives harder and harder against her.
Now a loud
Mars continues for several minutes until he finally explodes into the woman. For several heartbeats, he pumps jism into the woman until it backwashes over his penis onto the bed. When he finally withdraws, Diana slumps down on the bed, exhausted and beaten from his rough rape. Mars walks around the side of the bed until near Diana's head. He lifts her head off the bed by grabbing a handful of her hair and again asks her why she's here. Again she doesn't answer the god of war.
Mars uses his abilities to magically remove all signs of their intercourse from his tool, her body and the bed. Then he flips the Amazon over onto her back. She lies there, looking up at him, with big, pleading eyes. She begs him to stop but Mars just grins at the helpless woman. "There's more to you than meets the eye," Mars says. "Your strength, calling me Ares ... You will tell me, woman, if you wish to see the sunrise."
"Just
"Hmmm. He does want to see you fight, and that might be fun to watch. Fine, I'll let you live the night. But first, we get to have some fun," Mars says, grinning evilly at the Amazon. As Diana's eyes widen in horror, Mars waves his hand over her crotch and a strange goo forms again forms, this time within her love canal. The tall man - god - whatever easily slides between her thighs and again holds her onto the bed with one hand as his other hand spreads her legs and positions his tool against her nether lips.
"This is not fun, Ares!" Diana snarls at the god. She begins to hammer at his chest with all of her goddess-given strength. At first she's surprised to see him totter on his knees from her mighty blows, then despair sets in when he steadies himself and seems to ignore her efforts. Mars slowly slides into the Amazon, smiling at her helplessness. The more he smiles, the more determined Diana becomes in her struggle to stop him.
As Mars slowly settles into a steady and slow in and out stroke, Diana confronts
two battles - one to knock him out of her body and one to fight a sudden new
feeling in her body! As the god of war slowly screws her, he slips one hand over
her left breast and begins to slowly caress it, then squeeze it, then pull it as
if stretching it. As he does all this, a never-before-felt warmth flows upward
from her loins and "Oooohhh ...
Mars smiles when Diana stops beating at him with her fists. He gloats inwardly when the woman's head lolls to one side and she begins to caress her right breast. He SMILES when the woman moans from the pleasure he's giving to her. Faster and faster he plunges into the woman's body and louder and louder does she moan and cry out in pleasure. Soon the bed sounds as if it will collapse under them but Mars continues to conquer the Amazon princess' mind and body. Her back arches and Diana cries out, "OOOHHHHH ... YYEESSSSSS!!! III'MMMMM CCUUUMMMMMMIIIIINNNNGGG!!" and the woman rises off the bed, her eyes closed, her arms now dangling over the side of the bed.
Mars rapes Diana again and again for the next five hours. As a god, he doesn't tire or run out of cum. As a mere human, even a long-lived Amazon, Diana lacks his stamina and after more than twenty orgasms, her body begins to fail her. "Nuh-no ... no more, Ares," she gasps after one particularly devastating orgasm. Her body and the simple linen sheet on the bed of straw are soaked with her sweat and juices. Her long black hair hangs in ropy strands from her head. Her eyes are puffy and half-closed.
"I give you credit, woman," the god of war says. "You kept up with me and didn't reveal your reason for being here. You would be a worthy opponent, I think. Well, I said I'd let Nero have his pleasure with you. But be advised that I will return tomorrow night, and every night after then, until I find out why you are here.
"Sleep now, little Amazon," he says. When her eyes open in shock at his words, he continues, "Yes, I know you are an Amazon, Diana. Who else comes from Themyscira? But I thought your tribe was long gone, except for a few small groups scratching out a grim existence in hidden valleys in Greece. Nero will see you in his Coliseum a little after mid-day. Rest well - if his champion doesn't kill you, the heat and your fatigue just might." After he finishes, Mars slowly fades away. Seconds after his departure, Diana collapses into a deep sleep.
Some time later Diana awakens from someone jerking her shoulder. She looks up to see a soldier standing over her bed. "I'm awake!" she tells the man. "Please leave so I can get cleaned and dressed."
"What are you talking about, crazy witch!" the soldier asks as he pulls her out of bed by her hand. Diana looks down and is surprised to see her body clothed in the short white dress commonly worn on Themyscira. She also has her bracelets on her wrists. Her red shoes with the laces that run up her calves are missing.
Diana looks for the pile of rags she took off before Mars raped her but doesn't see them. "Where are my clothes?" she asks the guard.
"You're wearing them, stupid whore," the man says. He tosses a bundle onto the bed and orders her, "Get dressed in these, and hurry! We must leave for the Coliseum at once!"
Diana gets permission to be alone for a moment. After the man leaves, she looks at herself in a mirror and gasps - her hair is clean and dry and her skin clean, as if she's just bathed. On a hunch, she spins around and suddenly her white dress is replaced by the red and gold dress given to her by Hera. She spins again and the white dress returns. "Dear sweet Hera must have visited me during the night!" Diana decides. "She must have put my clothes on me. And I feel as rested and refreshed as if I'm a new woman. Thank you, goddess!" Then the guard reenters the room and motions for her to take up the bundle and follow him.
Diana finds herself riding a two-wheeled cart through the city, from Nero's palace toward the Coliseum. Guards put a stout metal collar around her neck and another cuff around one ankle that is chained to the cart. During the ride, she's told to dress in the clothes in the bundle she carries. After examining the contents and dressing, Diana slowly puts on over her white dress a leather and metal bustier, gauntlet gloves and a short skirt consisting of strips of leather, reinforced by metal, hanging from a belt. She also dons knee-high boots. She decides to skip wearing the helmet.
As she and her four escorts cross the city, Diana idly notices thick dark plumes of smoke rising from somewhere in the city. She asks the guards about the smoke, but they no nothing and don't want to talk with her.
Some thirty minutes later, the cart reaches the Coliseum and Diana is ushered inside, down below the seats to a waiting area near the Emperor's booth. After heavy cheering - probably the death of someone, she realizes sadly - she's led up steps and out onto the floor of the great arena. She's led over to the ground beneath Nero's seat where she stands beside a tall and very black Nubian. Her neck collar is removed. On the ground in front of Diana and the Black is a trident, a net and a sword.
"For those about to die, we salute you!" Nero and his companions yell. The arena erupts in cheers and clapping. "You tormented my soldiers with the sword, Queen Boadicea. Do you prefer to use it here?" Diana nods 'no', reasoning that she can defeat the Black with the rope and trident and pin him without having to kill him. "Nonetheless," Nero continues, "I'm sure we would all like to see how a woman handles the sword. Kill her, Marcus, and you will never have to enter the arena again!"
That said, the Nubian picks up the trident and spear and Diana reluctantly picks up the sword. The two gladiators square off and Marcus immediately drops into a crouch, holding the trident forward and the net back, ready to use. Diana backs away from the man and keeps her sword ready to block any attacks by the man.
Marcus makes the first move. He steps toward Diana and lunges with his trident. She easily bats it away with her sword but before she can recover, the gladiator flings his net and it wraps around her head and shoulders. A quick yank and the woman falls forward onto her hands and knees, dropping her sword on the ground.
"KILL HER!" Nero and his friends shout. Marcus swings his trident with one hand
and the shaft hits the side of Diana's head with a solid
Grogging from the painful head blow, Diana rolls onto her other side, up onto her knees, and then up on one bended leg as Marcus jiggles his trident to release it from the dirt. The Amazon warrior uses the free time to retrieve her sword and stagger up onto her now-very-shaky legs. She backs away from the Nubian and struggles to recover from his first strike.
"Wuh-why do you ... fight for that monster?" Diana asks the gladiator as they circle each other warily again.
"I am a slave and a gladiator," the Nubian replies. "I must fight or die." He swings the net in a low sweep that Diana manages to leap over. Unused to the heavy boots, she lands awkwardly and staggers backward, fighting to remain on her feet.
"I won't kill you, but I won't let you kill me," Diana says, keeping a steely gaze on the Black warrior as she prepares for his next attack. He nods his head and continues to circle the woman, looking for an opening.
After just a few minutes, the crowd begins to jeer and 'boo' the two fighters. Nero has an aide bellow, "Fight, or archers will kill you both!" Diana jerks from the message - Nero has backed her into a corner!
As the Amazon princess looks for a way to stop this fight without killing the Nubian or anyone else, out of the corner of her eye, she notices more smoke over the walls of the Coliseum, from the northwest side to the northeastern side. "Something is happening out there!" she realizes. "Maybe we do have a chance." She then asks the Nubian, "If I see a way for us both to get out of this arena, will you go with me as my friend?"
Marcus replies by rushing the Amazon. His 6'2" height is just 2" higher than the princess but he outweighs her by at least 100 lbs. He uses the net and trident to distract her and then snag her sword. He jerks the trident and deftly disarms the woman, who's never fought someone with such a weapon. Then he surprises the woman by dropping his weapons and rushing close her where he wraps his arms around her upper body and lifts her off the ground.
The Nubian's biceps are as thick as her thighs. He squeezes the woman against his chest, crushing her breasts against his in a death-grip. "Nnnnnhhh," Diana groans as the air is pumped from her lungs by his hold. He shakes her body like a rag doll, increasing her pain and helplessness. She doesn't want to kill him but she will have to hurt him to break this hold.
"I will go with you, woman," the Black says softly. Then he tosses her into the air and steps back. Diana's body goes up into the air, then falls down with her front impacting the hard-packed earth of the arena floor. Again the wind is knocked out of her. If she doesn't fight back, this man might kill her!
Diana gets up onto her knees and hands and looks up at Marcus. Nero and many of the spectators are screaming for him to finish the woman. The Nubian sadly turns away from Nero's booth and looks at the Amazon princess. "If you have a way for us to flee, you must use it now, woman, or I will kill you. The archers up there are waiting. If I don't kill you, they will kill me!"
Diana looks up and spots half a dozen archers above Nero's booth, with arrows ready to fly. She slowly pulls herself off the dirt and dusts off her knees. Just as she's about to launch her plan, she hears the high, whiny voice of the Duke of Deception, seated near Mars/Ares and the emperor. "That's the woman who broke into Tigellinus' offices yesterday! That's not Boadicea!"
The effect is electric. Nero and some of his cronies rise to their feet shouting for archers to kill the woman. Mars also rises to his feet, but he just smiles wryly at Diana. Deception seems the most angry - he hops up and down on his chair like a deranged ape. As the archers pull back their bow-strings, Diana yells at Marcus, "Let's go!" and she turns and runs away from Nero's side of the Coliseum. The Black gladiator lumbers after the woman but isn't as fleet as she is. She gets about five feet when she spins around and braces for the arrows. Six shafts fly through the air at the woman and she astounds the crowd by easily deflecting all six with the metal bracelets on her wrists. She then spins around and continues running across the floor of the arena, closely pursued by the Nubian.
The archers hold their shots - the Black gladiator is too close to the fleeing woman. Nero bellows for them to shoot her, and two do shoot, but their aim is off the and the arrows miss Diana and her pursuer. Both soon reach the far side of the Coliseum and Diana spins around to face the rushing Nubian. "Jump!" she says, holding her hands out, forming a cradle by intertwining her fingers together.
The gladiator looks at her a moment, then quickly leaps into her hands. She lifts her arms and the huge Black is easily tossed up over the wall behind her, into a deserted section of the seats. Before the slave lands, Diana flexes her mighty leg muscles and leaps up to land in the seats beside Marcus. "Let's find a way out!" she says, helping the man to his feet.
As they run toward the exit, both of them peel off their leather gladiator garb. By the time they reach an exit from the Coliseum, Diana is clad in her white dress, bracelets and boots and the Nubian has on a dirty white shirt and short pants. "Wait a second," Diana says. She then spins in a circle and her white dress is replaced by a white linen toga and palla such as that worn by the wife of someone in Rome's upper classes.
The pair slowly head away from the Coliseum toward the east, the nearest exit from the city. Diana walks like the haughty, preening, spoiled wife of a senator. Marcus follows her, his head down, like a dutiful slave. No one even looks at them even though soldiers rush past them. After walking a few hundred yards, Diana can see dense smoke and hear screams off to her left. At a high point on the street, on one of Rome's seven hills, she looks around and gasps at the sight of great sections of the city covered by dense black smoke or roaring flames.
"Great Hera!" she gasps. "The whole city must be burning! Quickly!" and she pulls the man behind her. They get out an eastern gate just ahead of a racing firestorm. Crowds push and shove their way out of the city ahead of the inferno and the two are lost in the sea of struggling humanity.
After sundown, Diana and Marcus, seated on a hilltop several miles from the city, watch with awe as the horizon glares like daylight from the massive fire in Rome. "How can they let the city burn, mistress?" Marcus asks. "There's a river in the middle of Rome. Don't those fools want to use the water to stop the fire?"
"I don't know, Marcus," Diana replies. "I wonder if ..." and suddenly a bright white light fills the hilltop.
"We've come to take you home, Diana," Hera/Juno, queen of the gods says. "You've done your task and have surpassed our expectations."
"But I didn't succeed, Great Hera," Diana says, bowing to her knee, her chin down on her chest. "I failed you."
Marcus follows Diana's lead and drops to his knee. He too bows at the ethereal being. He doesn't know who Hera is but she is obviously a magical being. Hera then says, "But you did, Diana! You freed Boadicea. It was she who set the fires. She wanted to destroy Rome just as they destroyed her rule. The Coliseum was severely damaged in the fire. It will not be used for sacrifices for many years. And Ares knows nothing of our involvement.
"We will take you home, Diana, and we will see that this brave man also returns to his home in Egypt." With that, Hera, Diana and Marcus vanish from the hillside.
Postscript:
Half of Rome was destroyed by Boadicea's fires. Hera/Juno was wrong, though. The killing of Christians intensified after the fire. Nero blamed the fire on them. His reign also lasted until 67 C.E., with a number of vicious military campaigns waged on the borders of the empire, feeding dead warriors into the maw of Ares/Mars.
When Hera returned Diana to Themyscira, she told Queen Hyppolita that the Amazons must move again. "We can no longer protect you here from Patriarch's World - the Romans and their patron gods will soon find you here," the goddess explained. "Sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules to the west. When you get there, fire this arrow (she hands Hyppolita a golden arrow) into the water. A group of Poseidon's porpoises porpoises will join you, led by his wife, the sea-nymph Amphitrite, who will lead you to your new home."
Four months later, a small fleet of ships sets sail from Themyscira and, after passing through the Straits of Gibralter (Pillars of Hercules), Diana fires the golden arrow into the surging seas. Soon they are met by a school of porpoises following a huge porpoise being ridden by the wife of the sea god. The fleet falls in behind the woman and the school and begins to sail northward away from the great inland sea.
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