Friends
Written by Amazonia V
Chapter 13:
Wonder Woman was at Gotham’s HER Residence. Since she was here, she might as well go across and meet the residents, she had thought. Superman was with her, having insisted that he wanted to meet them too.
Batman had gone back to his cave – he wanted to close the loop on Chico Valentine, whom he was sure was a link to a drug smugglers ring.
Just now, Wonder Woman was standing in the small toy shop attached to the HER Residence and was showing Superman the toys, some of which the women had made for the resident children. As she leaned against the counter, she smiled into his face. His eyes were color of the river at dusk. His lips, as they formed the barest hint of a smile, were impossibly attractive, alluring. Involuntarily, she remembered what it felt like to feel those lips against her own – to watch his face as mouth met mouth, and see herself reflected in his eyes.
Stunned at her thoughts, she stepped back and her voice grew cooler. “Should we leave?” she asked.
Intrigued by the sudden change in tone, Superman looked at her more closely. Hadn’t he seen something in those fabulous eyes of hers. Or was it wishful thinking? It had gone quickly enough, heat smothered in frost. For the life of him, he could find no reason for either.
“Diana.” He laid a hand on hers as she began to turn away from him. Slowly, she lifted her eyes but not before she had noticed that his hands were beautiful, wide-palmed, long-fingered.
“Yes.”
“Why do I keep getting the feeling you’d like to skewer me with a sword.”
“You’re mistaken,” she said evenly. “I don’t think I’d like that.”
“You don’t sound convinced.” He felt her hand flex under his, soft and strong. The image of steel lined velvet seemed particularly apt. “I’m having trouble figuring out exactly how to behave around you.”
The door jangled open behind them and he released her hand. Three children, fresh from school, came in giggling. A young boy with blonde hair and face bursting with freckles stood on his toes in front of the counter.
“I have three dollars,” he announced.
Wonder Woman fought back a grin. “You’re very rich today, sir.”
He flashed her a smile that revealed his latest missing tooth. “I’ve been saving up. I want that remote controlled race car.”
Wonder Woman only lifted a brow, as she continued, “Does your mother know you’re here spending your life’s savings?”
The boy remained silent.
Wonder Woman was not gifted with patience for nothing. She merely let the silence grow.
The boy shifted from one foot to another. “She didn’t say I couldn’t.”
“And she didn’t say you could,” Wonder Woman surmised. She leaned over to tug at his spit curl, so similar to the Superman next to her. “Go and ask her, then you come back. The car will still be here.”
“But, lady….”
“You wouldn’t want your mother to be mad at me, would you?”
The boy looked thoughtful for a moment, and Superman could tell it was a tough choice. Rao knew that he himself did not want Ma Kent mad at him at any time.
“I guess not,” came the answer.
“Then go ask her, and I’ll ask the store lady to hold one for you.”
Hope blossomed in the boy’s face, “Promise?”
Wonder Woman crossed her hands over her chest, in the Amazonian manner. “Solemnly.” And hunkering down, she gave the boy the most heart-stopping smile Superman had ever seen. It was a smile filled with promise. Filled with hope. Filled with love.
And Superman was annoyed with himself for wishing he were a ten-year old blonde-haired boy with a missing tooth.
****
“Moving in with you?” she cried.
Hal watched the shock on Fanci’s face.
It was too early to tell her so many things. About the trouble that she was in. That she was attracting greater danger by simply being here. That the JLA had received a message to keep her under close protection. Batman hadn’t had enough time to tell Hal everything earlier. He had just tersely told Hal, “Stay close to Fanci Webb, your agent. Don’t let her out of your sight.” Which accounted for that stupid taxi chase, Hal thought ruefully. He definitely wanted to protect Fanci from whatever she was running from.
That stopped him short. He wanted to protect her? Surprised, he explored the thought. As Green Lantern or as Hal Jordan?
Fanci was watching him. He was joking, he had to be, she thought desperately. Of course, he was pulling her leg because right after he said the words he stepped back from her and opened the door of the car.
“In you go,” he said with his perky charm. She didn’t want to “go” anywhere. She wanted to go home, turn on the air-conditioning, full blast, lie down in front of it and cool down.
When he opened his own door and slid inside, she expected him to continue the conversation, but instead he said, “Hey, you mind if we run an errand on our way back to town?”
Mind? Of course she minded. All she wanted to do was get away from him fast. To forget about how nice it’d been to have his hand stroke her face. How hot it had felt.
“No,” she choked out. “Of course not.”
“Great,” he said, leaning toward her and resting a palm on her thigh.
She flicked it off.
“Oops, sorry,” he said. “There I go invading your space again, huh?”
She could tell that he wasn’t sorry at all. She looked out the window, struggled with a way to bring up the subject of her supposed “moving in” with him, but in the end she chickened out. Besides, he’d obviously been pulling her leg. He was inhaling something other than exhaust if he thought they’d ever live together.
But Fanci thought she had better make it clear. “I’m not moving in with you.”
He flashed her a grin that echoed the twinkle in his eyes. “Not immediately,” he said. “But you will. And you’ll be safe, I do have more than one bedroom.”
“What?!,” she cried, feeling very unsafe just now.
Why couldn’t he have been joking?
“Where are we going, by the way?” she forced herself to say.
“I want to go look at some homes.”
“To buy or build?” she immediately asked.
“To rent,” he murmured.
She didn’t like the idea of going sightseeing with him at all. What if he pulled off the road? Tried to kiss her? Maybe attempted to prove to her that he really did want her?
You’ve been inhaling more than exhaust fumes, a little voice said. Relax, Fanci. It’s not as if he’s going to force himself on you.
She knew that. She just didn’t like the thought of being alone with him any longer than necessary. All the training that she had received had not prepared her for this. She couldn’t let her attraction to this fabulous male specimen distract from the reason she was here, in the first place. True, she had a much larger role to play in time, but keeping a tab on Hal Jordan was just as important. If only she had realized men like him still allowed primitive emotions to rule them. Once she had sorted out this Hal Jordan issue…
“Um, why?” she asked, more to distract herself than anything else.
“You’ll see,” he said noncommittally.
And that was it. That was the extent of their conversation. He never touched her again. Never said another word, and Fanci found herself feeling—all right, she could admit it—disappointed. She liked him flirting with her.
‘Focus, Fanci! Focus! Stop behaving like one of his women!’ Fanci mentally pinched herself.
Hal knew that Fanci was all hot and bothered. He could just feel it. Even without the power ring to tell him so. Hell, he was a still a hot blooded man, wasn’t he?
Hal spotted a small diner and pulled in. He needed to eat, and from the looks of her, Fanci need a nature break.
As soon as the car stopped, Fanci got out, and rushed to the Ladies room. Hal waited patiently for her to reappear, idly watching the other inhabitants of the diner.
There was a lady at the counter ahead, nursing a coke. Two heavy set men, one bearded, one clean shaven were reading their menus, while watching the game on the TV screen attached to the wall.
In front of him was a table at which a noticeably younger crowd were merrily chatting and joking with each other.
A plump woman wearing an ‘I watch my weight’ T-shirt waddled over to the cubicle next to him, and sat down, the bench sagging under her weight. Resting a huge handbag one her lap, she looked at the menu, then bowed her head briefly as if offering up a prayer, and then began to order three of the days specials, and a salad.
Hal wondered if her T-shirt message meant that she wanted to lose weight or add to it so that there would be more to watch.
Keeping an eye open for Fanci, Hal continued to scan the inside of the diner. There. A man with his back to him at the neighbouring table, his head snapping back a little too fast to suggest the glance he had just given him had been accidental. And again, only this time he didn’t break eye contact. He knew Hal had seen him. He was tipping the waitress, getting up. This was it.
‘GL to JLA,’ Hal muttered into the com-link, hoping he was clear enough for the others to hear him over the noise. ‘White hair, black…’ His voice tailed off as the man turned round and nodded.
Dressed in a black suit, he was about five feet ten with a curling mop of white hair and sun-coarsened cheeks. But it was the silver band encircling his wrist that had drawn Hal’s attention, its unexpected glare seeming to cast a bleaching wash over everything at the periphery of his vision.
“He’s one of us,” Hal breathed in disbelief, as much to himself as anyone.
The man advanced towards him. “Who are you?” Hal asked.
“You don’t know me, but you recognize the band I wear,” the man replied, Hal detecting a strange accent.
“I need some more identification.”
“Would it help if you spoke to your friend – the Superman? He will confirm that I am who I am.”
“And who are you?” asked Hal a little more forcefully.
“My name is Black Star. I’m from the Legion of Super Heroes, from your future, Hal Jordan. And I need the woman from your time who calls herself Fanci Webb.”
“That’s impossible. She’s with me.” responded Hal.
“She will need to travel back with me to the thirtieth century. I’ve come back for her. And you well know that the JLA of your time has been informed. They would have communicated the details to you by now. I have received confirmation that you already know what is expected of you.”
There was an anxious edge to the man’s voice that surprised Hal. For a super-hero and a meta, he seemed a little tense, although perhaps, revisiting the past was enough to make most people tighten up.
“I need to talk to Fanci first,” Hal reminded him, feeling his stomach tightening. His power ring was in overdrive. Something wasn’t right. The air was charged suddenly. There was an abrupt shift from languid calm to urgency to an almost languid calm as if…as if…
A shot rang out, its whiplash crack cutting through the diner’s raucous noise. Hal turned instantly, activating his will power and the ring, turning into Green Lantern, taking in the scene before him.
The world suddenly slowing, as if someone was holding the movie projector to stop the
reel from turning - the individual frames crawling across the screen; a soda bottle being opened, the cap frozen in midflight; the soundtrack stretched into a low, slurring moan as words folded into each other. Hal’s power ring making every noise and image sharper, keener than ever…
Then, almost immediately, everything sprang forward, only sharper, louder and faster than before, as if time was overcompensating as it tried to catch up with itself. The bottle cap fell to the table, the diners continued dining, the youth at the table laughing loudly. But their celebration was drowned out by a terrified scream, one voice triggering another and that one, two, more until, like a flock of migrating birds wheeling through a darkening sky, a sustained, shrieking lament filled the air.
Green Lantern moved instinctively to his left. Fanci was lying on the floor. Her blouse was stained bright red.