Wonder Woman versus the Dark Lady

Chapter 3

Distraction and Pain

by Skytower

Diana Prince's apartment was small with one large living room, a small kitchen and a bedroom. The bathroom was on the other side of the bedroom. Coming from Paradise Island where had lived in her own section of palace it had taken some time for her to get used to it. Not that she spent much time there. If she wasn't at work in the war department Diana was out in the city, studying world history at the library or working as Wonder Woman. The apartment was less of a home and more of a camp for her.

But this morning Diana was home. She had called in sick after her alarm clock had gone off that morning. Exhausted and sore after a night of love making that she felt would have tired Zeus himself Diana had woken with her joints sore and her skin raw. First the session at Colleen's, with a Nazi spy no less, and then the movie she had made at Micks' repair shop. Before when spies had raped her it was always after her golden belt was taken from her and as soon as she was free she had put it back on. It's mystical aura allowed her body to heal itself usually within hours. But she had only worn it for a half an hour the night before, not enough time for it to fully heal her. For Diana it was like waking up to her first hangover. Mick's place had been the harder of the two. The sheets covering the bed she and Colleen had used were rough wool, stiff and as abrasive as sandpaper. Nor had Colleen been gentle as she bound and whipped Diana's body. Diana had called in sick, spread the healing ointment all over her body, put the ice pack on her head to combat her slight headache and then lay down. But there was one other difference. The radio she had paid for with her body stood in the corner and the sounds of the medium filled the room. It had been hours since Diana had turned it on and the amazon found that it helped her relax. She had heard the "Morning Prayer service" by something called the "Legion of Catholic Decency" who were protesting an all girls baseball league. A show called the "Lone Ranger", a broadcast of news from the BBC, a lecture on the ancient Greeks (that Diana knew from her mother to be completely wrong). The "Adventures of Jungle Jim", "The Adventures of Superman", Horse Racing results, sports news. A mystery show called the "Secret Diary" and advertisements for more products than she ever knew existed. It was mesmerizing and perplexing at the same time. Diana usually spent her off-hours in the library or an occasional movie with Steve. It had never occurred to her to buy a radio and she'd never imagined the type of programs on the air.

It was around eight o'clock when there was a knock on her door. Amazed that she had spent an entire day in bed Diana pulled on a robe. Keeping an ear to the radio she went to the door.

"Colleen."

Diana opened the door and Colleen came in, quickly shutting it behind her. Colleen was wearing a pair of grey coveralls with her hair done up with a kerchief. In her hand was a metal lunchbox.

"Why are you wearing that?"

"Because around here it's normal." Colleen said.

"Oh, would you like some coffee?"

"Thanks." Colleen went over to Diana's kitchen table and sat down. On the radio Bob Hope said something to raucous applause and laughter. Colleen laughed as well.

"I don't understand." Diana said. "What is so funny about a cabbie running out of gas in front of the Capitol building?"

"Honey with politicians around you never run out of gas."

Diana sighed and sat down.

"I've been listening to that radio all day and I've understood less than half of it. Why are people that I've never met so concerned about my looks, my eating habits, and even my digestion? Why do I have to have "Kiddles Krispy Treats" for breakfast?"

Colleen laughed, lit a cigarette and leaned back in her chair. A look that might have been envy crossed her face.

"Look kiddo like I said before this world runs on money. Those guys on the radio want to sell you something. It doesn't matter if you got it, you don't got it, you don't need it, you don't want it, they want you to buy it. Any way they're gonna get you to buy it, they're gonna do it."

"Oh." Diana said leaning back in her own chair. "That does explain much."

"Yep, and speaking of money, we got a job tonight." Colleen opened her lunch box and pulled out a set of plans, spreading them out on the table. "This is the Sparkle Paint Company. Tonight Gumball Sam Malone is gonna dump a lot of the loot he got from the Hudson Jewelers job into a couple of paint cans."

"A good way to smuggle them out of the city." Diana said.

"Yea, but Gumball Sam missed getting Quick Louie his percentage of the take, so Quick Louie's gonna go there tomorrow and grab some of the jewels. If he doesn't find them he ain't gonna be happy. If Gumball can tell him that he can get em back he'll be in less trouble, but if he can't bring em back..."

"You have a grudge against Gumball Sam?" Diana asked looking up at the tone of Colleen's voice.

"Oh yea." Colleen said. "When I first got to town I did some pick up jobs for him." At the blank look on Diana's face Colleen snubbed out her cigarette. "Shoplifting. Gumball told me if I ever got picked up he'd have me out of the slammer and the city lickedy-split. But when I got picked up he didn't do a thing. I did a year in stir because of that snake."

"You didn't tell the police who you were working for?"

"Sure I could, if I wanted to stop breathing." Colleen lit another cigarette. "While I was inside I met Joey's sister, when I got out I hooked up with him and Quick Louie."

"Gumball never gave you an explanation of the betrayal?"

"Yea, he said I was bad in bed." Colleen snorted. "Hell he was the one hanging limp, but that wasn't something he was gonna leave me around to tell."

"He had you arrested because you failed to satisfy him sexually." Diana said and this time there was no surprise in her voice.

"Yep, so tomorrow night he gets to sing and dance for Quick Louie, hopefully in cement tap shoes. Sparkle Paint is right next to the river."

"Colleen may I ask you a question?" Diana said leaning over and studying the diagram.

"Sure."

"When you do get enough money to retire on, what are you going to do?"

"Live."

"Live how?" Diana asked. "Simply live each day doing nothing? Sounds boring to me."

"I'll do stuff." Colleen said though for the first time Diana heard uncertainty in her voice.

"Like what?"

Colleen shrugged.

For a few minutes they were both silent as Diana studied the diagram to the warehouse. Then Diana stood up and twirled, changing into Wonder Woman.

"For someone who's planned so far ahead you seem to have few ideas for the rest of your life." Diana said as she walked over to the radio. Reluctantly she turned it off. Then opened the hidden draw.

"Might go to the country and so some painting." Colleen said. "Take some pictures... Could open my own place."

"You would take others into what you do?" Diana asked as she changed her red-white and blue costume for dark leather.

"Its what my mother did and her mother did." Colleen said. "My family back three generations has brought a lot o'joy to the world."

"You said your mother drank herself to death after a man slashed her face." Diana said. "What happened to your grandmother."

"Burned herself out." Colleen said her voice toneless as she remembered. "Mom told me she worked high society for a while, but she got fooled into thinking one of those guys could love someone like us. Went crazy and threw her self into Boston Harbor one Christmas."

"That's very harsh." Diana said.

"That's the world." Colleen countered. She was about to take another drag on her cigarette but she realized it had gone out.

"Anyway enough of this, I'll figure out what to do when I'm rich when I'm rich. Now come on. I told Joey I need a break after the past few nights so he thinks we're at a movie."

"Me too?"

"I want to keep a good customer coming back." Colleen said. "Joey's bought that farm girl thing I told you about, he's convinced I'm the only friend you have. Matter of fact he's thinking about offering you a job."

"Me!" Diana blurted out as she put an overcoat on to hide the body suit and a hat to hide her long hair.

"Don't say it that way." Colleen said laughing. "It's honest work."

"That you're trying to escape from."

"I'm just planning a retirement."

"I thought Joey didn't approve of lesbians."

"You wave enough money infront o' people they'll approve of anything." Colleen said as they walked to the door.

They walked two blocks away from Diana's building and cut through an alley to a parking lot.

"Where did you get this?" Diana asked looking at the car. It was a US army staff car, complete with government plates.

"I made a copy of some keys the last time me and a general fooled around." Colleen said. "Knew they would come in handy someday. Army cars don't get stopped, especially at night." She opened the door and pulled out a mans army uniform. Pulling off her coveralls she changed quickly, adding some padding to the cloths and stuffing her hair into a hat.

"The movies we're seeing tonight is "Bell of the Congo" and "Mr.Z strikes back" Colleen said as they got into the car. "Halfway through the first one the film will break. In the last half the second one some guys are going to start a fight in the third row."

"Friends of yours?"

"No, friends of yours. I swiped your ID and told them it was for the war effort."

"You stole my ID?"

"Don't worry, I left it back in your kitchen." Colleen closed the door and they started to drive off.

She likes to paint, Diana thought as she moved toward the river. During the drive and the lecture on the movies Diana had managed to drag a little more out of Colleen. She did love to paint or take pictures, she even sculpted a bit, mostly forgeries for art theft. It astonished her that someone who did what Colleen did for a living could have an artistic side. How many other women are buried in mans world, Diana wondered. How many others sold themselves outright as Colleen did or by proxy to marriage? Diana was beginning to realize that defeating the nazi's might just be the start of her mission. A vision floated in her mind of endless decades in mans world, always fighting evil. It wasn't a pleasant vision.

The Sparkle Paint Company was a large brick lump of a building that squatted next to the river. Three stories high it had started out as a steam boat dry-dock in the 180's and changed hands a number of times since then. The bricks were black with soot and the windows were nearly as black. Only a few streetlights around the building worked and they flickered on and off. The moon was out that night but it merely made more shadows. Diana used those shadows, approaching the factory by leaping from roof top to roof top. Though she was careful the amazons' mind was still partly filled with the notion that defeating the nazi's would not end all evil. So Diana didn't notice when one of the shadows on the rooftop she had just left moved.

Ten minutes later Diana was on the roof of the Sparkle Paint Company. There had been more guards than she anticipated and they had been more alert than usua

Most likely because of me, Diana thought as she knelt next to a skylight. The Dark Lady was becoming a force in the city. One side of the skylight had been boarded up and Diana could see between the planks. Inside the factory was a large chamber filled with huge tanks and various types of industrial machinery. Metallic catwalks connected the tanks. There was light inside but it was dim and clouds of chemical smoke gave the place a hazy aura. There was no one in the chamber that Diana could see. Taking hold of the board she slowly and quietly pried it off of the window frame.

The drop to the floor was fifty feet and Diana landed as lightly as she could. A sliver of light under a door at the far end of the room gave her an idea of where to go. She advanced cautiously, trying to hear anything besides the bubbling of chemicals and the soft hiss of escaping gas.

When she was five feet from the door it was swung open. A small round man in a blue zoot suit stood there. He was holding a spot light and he shined it on Diana's face. At the same time lights erupted from every corner of the factory. Suddenly the factory floor was alive with men. Diana was hit from all sides and she quickly lost count of her attackers. A few grabbed her legs while others grabbed her arms and one threw his arm around her throat. The sweet smell of chloroform filled Diana's nostrils and with a tremendous heave she threw the men off. Even as the amazon threw off her attackers and started to rise, not having breathed enough of the horrid stuff to weaken her, two men from the catwalk tossed a heavy fishing net over her. The rope that made up the netting was a half-inch thick and slick. The smell of fish on it was nearly as bad as the chloroform. Before Diana could brace herself to tear it apart she was tackled again.

"Take her alive!" the zoot-suited man shouted "and we get ten grand for her!"

With cheers of greed the men moved in with clubs and more ropes. Diana found herself being overwhelmed by shear numbers. One of the clubs hit her in the back of the head sending the amazon's head reeling into confusion. One of the boards had a loose nail in it and the bottom of her mask was torn loose. Someone took advantage of that to stuff the chloroform rag into her mouth. The fumed filled her head and stole away a little more of her strength.

Still the princess was not ready to accept capture. She twisted and turned in their grip and got one arm free. That arm lashed out with her full strength with neither care nor limits. One man fell back as his faced crunched under her blow. Another felt his ribs crack and fell back gasping. She tore the gag out of her mouth. Diana freed her other arm, tearing through the ropes. Her arms moving in a kaleidoscope of destruction she forced the men back for a moment. In that moment Diana gathered her still bound legs under her and leaped.

She made it to the catwalk and was just starting to free her legs from the netting when the rope that still trailed her was grabbed. Unprepared Diana was slammed onto her back as the rope was jerked and her legs were pulled. She grabbed hold of the catwalk and pulled back but one of the men had wrapped the rope around an electric winch. The rope quickly grew taunt as Diana grabbed the catwalk railing and pulled.

The tug of war was interrupted by the sound of running feet. More men were on the catwalk running toward her. Diana let go of the railing and gave her body a push into the air. She'd hoped to fly into the winch and break it, but one of the men grabbed her arm and held onto it for a moment. It was long enough to shift Diana's course and she fell into one of the giant paint filled tanks.

Diana hadn't had a chance to take a breath before she was plunged into the chemical soup. Luckily her eyes were covered with glass but the paint oozed through the nylon covering her nose. It burned but Diana ignored it and reached for the ropes around her legs. Before she could do anything the rope pulled taunt again and like some fish on a line Diana was pulled with it. For a moment her mouth opened and the paint filled it. She closed it but the oily liquid seeped down her throat and caused her stomach to boil in revulsion. Frantically she clawed at the netting but the already slick coils were made more so by the paint. The rope was pulled upward and Diana found herself being pulled upside-down. Her flailing hands found the drain at the bottom of the tank and her fingers dug into it. For a few minutes it was a stalemate but in those minutes Diana's lungs burned more and more. She was starting to black out with the need for breath and the netting around her legs was getting tighter and tighter as the rope pulled ever harder. Her legs were going from filled with pain to numb and her stomach was an agonizing inferno as the paint she had swallowed tore at it.

With all she had left Diana punched her fist into the bottom of the tank. Paint rushed into the hole she had created and she did it again and again until the opening was big enough for her. Clawing her way into it Diana found air at last and took a deep cough filled breath. She was in the room under the tank, a storage room from all the crates stacked there. Diana kept crawling, digging her fingers into the wooden ceiling as she pulled herself out of the tank. The paint rushed around her as the tank drained.

The rope snapped and the amazon fell twenty feet onto the cobblestone floor. For a moment Diana lay there and tried to get her breath back. Then she sat up and started to free her legs. She was in a storeroom or a delivery room of some sort. It was light by a single dim light bulb.

How could it have been a trap, Diana wondered. Could someone have fed Colleen false information? Diana hadn't thought she could be fooled.

Diana had just freed her legs when she heard the door on the far side of the room open. She tried to stand but her legs were numb from the nets. Rolling into the shadows Diana lay silently as the pins and needles feeling of free blood flow replaced the numbness. Four men entered the room.

"Check the door." One of them said. Diana saw one of them go over to the wall. It was a large wooden door, the same color as the wall. Freedom if she could reach it. Diana felt around her in the darkness and her hand closed on something small and rough. It was a large nut.

Hera help me, she pleaded silently. She could feel her legs again but her head still ached from the blows it had received and her mouth and nose reeked with the paint. She wanted to be sick but held it down. Slowly Diana staggered to her feet and braced herself. She watched as the men fanned out and began to search. A bright flashlight beam shinned in from the empty tank above.

When the men were as far away from herself and the door as they were going to be Diana threw the nut at the light. The bulb shattered and sparks flew from the socket. The men shouted, as the only light left was the flashlight beam from above. A fire started as the sparks hit the fresh paint on the floor. Diana ignored it all and leapt at the door smashing through it.

Her momentum carried her into a group of four men who piled onto her instantly. Another man ran over and threw another net over her. While two men grabbed her legs another threw a hood over her face and chloroform mixed with the paint in her nose. The world started to black out and Diana felt her muscles turning into putty. Gathering her legs under her the amazon made one last surge upward, leaping as high as she could.

Diana blacked out for a moment but the ice cold water of the river brought her back to life quickly. Around her the men thrashed and tried to stay afloat. Diana took a deep breath and let herself sink. Once under the water she freed herself from the net, snapping the ropes as quickly as she could. Then she pulled off the hood. The water was dark but Diana didn't need to see just yet. She swam downstream for as long as her lungs could take it, then she surfaced. Looking around Diana realized she'd managed to get about two hundred yards from the paint factory. She swam over to a dock and hauled herself out of the water. Every muscle in her body ached and her stomach still rebelled against the paint she had swallowed. But she climbed to her feet and staggered away. Behind her a boat was sweeping the water with a search light.

"What the hell happened?" Colleen demanded as Diana reached the car. Behind them three of the men came around the corner and opened fire.

"Drive!" Diana coughed opening the car door she fell into the back seat.

"You got it." Colleen said and drove off. Diana lay across the back seat and let darkness claim her at last.

...to be continued

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