"FIND THAT SHIP!" Du-kem screams at the bridge crew of CS-1121, the Arion colony ship serving as headquarters for the Arion force in the Sol system.  "Use our assets, use human assets, but FIND MAR-VEL'S SHIP!" the colony commander yells at his staff.

"We tracked her ship, Commander," one of the Beta technicians softly replies.  "She was chasing the Velorian Protector northward from an island when the ship exploded.  We know within a few spraks the location of the explosion.  We can direct ships and aircraft to the area to search for survivors."

"What happened down there?" Du-kem asks, his raging temper subsiding slightly.  He moves to stand behind one of the more efficient technicians, one who has been most useful at tracing the Protector's flight from New Danzig to the island of Hispaniola.  "And why, in the name of trinary logic, did Mar-vel go after that Velorian without consulting with me?"

"Sir," the tech begins, picking her words carefully - Du-kem's temper is the stuff of legends.  He's killed more than a few Betas in a rage at some minor mishap or slight.  "We detected an object last night flying toward the south from New Danzig.  I identified it tentatively as the newly-arrived Protector.  Given her flight path, and based on the historical behavior of Protectors,  I suggested she might be going to Hispaniola to help survivors around an erupting volcano on that island.  Number One agreed with this analysis, scrambled a team and took a lander after the Protector.  The First Officer's assault lander reached the scene less than two hours after the Protector went off our scopes near the volcano.  Then, a few hours after local sunrise, we saw her flying northward again.  The lander soon resumed its pursuit but in this area - here - west of the island the humans call Bermuda, here is where we saw through our satellite links a battle.  The lander fired several tachyon bursts, then exploded.  Telemetry indicates its engines blew up for some reason."

"And the Protector?"

"Sir, no sign of her or any survivors after the explosion.  But out satellites would not have been able to pick out individuals within the blast zone . . ."

"Watch Commander," Du-kem says, turning abruptly toward the Arion Prime in charge of Command Deck Operations, "what is being done to search for Mar-vel . . . for survivors?"

Like his Beta technician, this Prime knows about Du-kem's temper.  The fact that Mar-vel is both the second in command of the invasion force AND Du-kem's current bed mate means her survival is more important than that of most others.  Especially given her history in subjugating the humans.  He too must tread lightly here.  "We have contacted our personnel in Sud Orienberg - here, at the end of this large peninsula on the east coast of Westland, and on the island of Bermuda.  They have already sent human Air-Sea Rescue units to the site."

"What about our ships?"

"Sir, none are equipped for a rescue at sea.  We must use the humans' assets."

"Keep me updated, Watch Commander, I'm VERY interested in this!"

"It will be done, Commander!" the WC replies, snapping to attention and saluting his departing Lord.

"Mmnnhh," the Velorian Protector protests, shaking her head sideways, "it's too comfortable!  Can't I lay here a little longer?"  She knows she should get out of bed, though, so even as she begs for more sack time, Cai Trin of Velor, known to some on Earth as Suprema, the Protector, rises to a seated position and slides her legs out from under the soft white sheets covering her nude body.  As she swings around to put her feet on the floor, Cai raises her arms over her head, locks her hands together and stretches backward.  The sheets fall away from her body, revealing her 38D breasts and washboard tight abdomen.   Muscles on her upper body swell to incredible size as the woman suddenly shows musculature any professional body builder would envy.  Earlier, a now-dead voodoo priest on Haiti had funneled mystic energies through Cai's body, recharging her energy levels and increasing her body size in every way and her height from 5' 6" to 5' 9".  Now she has the outward appearance of a twenty year old, instead of looking, as she did yesterday, like a teenager.

Artemis, a Warrior Maiden of the island of Themyscira, standing beside Cai's bed, raises one of her eyebrows in appreciation of the magnificent display of feminine development.  Artemis is wearing a red and gold bustier, similar to one which had been seen briefly some fifty years earlier.  Artemis also has small blue panties, little more than a thong, metal bracelets, a belt of shiny gold-colored cloth, and red ballet slippers on her feet, with wide laces that circle her calves almost to her knee.  The 5' 11" redhead has apparent age of less than 30 and also has an excellent physique.

When Suprema washed up onto one of Themyscira's beaches a few hours earlier, Artemis was one of the Warrior Maidens who found the Protector.  She was brought to the main settlement's hospital.  After removing Suprema's costume, the island's healer examined the young woman and found that she was healthy, just stunned.  After a short rest, the young woman awoke and now seems ready to meet her benefactors.

The young Protector rises to her feet and stands just a foot or two away from Artemis.  The Protector has to look up to see into the eyes of the redhead.  Cai notices that Artemis is definitely NOT interested in maintaining eye contact.  "Interesting," Cai muses to herself, "I hope she likes what she sees!"  Cai ENJOYS having others gaze upon and appreciate her naked body.

To Artemis, Cai asks, "Uh, Artemis?  Do you know what happened to my costume?  Maybe I should get dressed . . ."

"Covering that body would be a sin," Artemis says absentmindedly, then "uh, what I mean is, you don't have to, uh, what DO I call you?"

"Well, my name is Cai Trin.  I'm a Protector from the planet Velor.  Well, at least, I WAS . . ." suddenly a tear comes to one of the young girl's eyes.  "I . . . I think something happened . . . I think I came to this planet from another dimension!  I just don't know . . . everything is . . . confusing.  Upside down!  I'm supposed to be a heroine here, but I've been hunted like a fugitive.  There aren't supposed to be so many Nazis.  The Arions are supposed to be hard to find, but they seem to be in charge of this planet . . ."

A perplexed look comes over Artemis' face.  "Cai, you've left that Earth behind you!  You are on Themyscira now, and we are . . . not on Earth."

"Rao!" Cai says, a hand rising to cover her mouth.  "Where am I now!"  More anxiety rises in the young woman - she had nearly accepted the crazy conditions on Earth, and now she's . . . somewhere else?

"Relax, Cai," Artemis says, placing a hand on the younger woman's bare shoulder.  Artemis moves to stand beside the Velorian and slips one hand around the girl's waist.  Cai's body trembles slightly at the soft, warm touch of the older woman, then she sags against it, using the other woman's body for support, for strength.  She turns her head toward Artemis' as the redhead says, "we are not ON Earth, Cai, but we are CONNECTED to it!  You must have passed through the gateway that links our island with Earth.

"Centuries ago, we received some help from our friends in Atlantis - among the treasures they gave us was a way to move off Earth to this dimension.  We have a link back to Earth through a kind of shield or barrier.  I'm surprised that you got through.  You must be like us - all of us here are superior to normal humans, faster, stronger, more intelligent, more beautiful.

"So we have stayed here, hidden, away from the petty wars and jealousies of Earth.  Come, Cai," Artemis says, leading the Velorian out of the hospital, a powerful arm around the girl's waist, "let me introduce you to our queen and show you our island."

"Can you <blub> can you see anything!" Mar-vel yells at Lee-dak.  The two Arion Primes are floating in the ocean - in an area known on some worlds as the Bermuda Triangle.  When Suprema caused their assault lander (space craft) to explode, these two managed to leap clear and survive the explosion.  The same powerful explosion threw Suprema's unconscious body through a force field designed to permit passage of bodies with ultra-dense molecules, whether in a ship or on a plane or floating in the water.

"I <glub> I think I see Bermuda, Number One . . . there, off to the east," the male Prime replies as his body floats upward on a powerful swell.  "Yes, I see it there!"

"Do . . . do you see that . . . that <blub> blur to the south?" Mar-vel sputters, pointing in the direction Suprema's body had gone.  "I think the Velorian went that <gulp> that way!  Damn, I wish we could fly like that Velorian bitch!"

As the two Primes float up and down in the four foot swells, Lee-dak decides to take action and begins swimming toward Bermuda when Mar-vel yells at him, "Lee, come this way!  We're going after the Protector."

"She <glug> she's dead, Number One.  That explosion must have killed her.  Let's just go home," the man yells back, his arms clawing broad strokes through the salt water, pulling him quickly toward the east.

"NO!"  Mar-vel yells, starting to swim toward a blurry area off to the south.  "Follow me!"

Reluctantly, the male Prime slows, turns, then begins digging deeply into the water with his powerful hands and, like his superior, begins rapidly plowing through the water toward the distant blur.

"My Queen, may I present the latest addition to our community, Cai Trin of Velor," Artemis says, bowing toward a stunning forty-ish brunette seated on a raised bench in the island's *palace*.  Artemis and Cai, who is now wearing white sandals and a flimsy white gown that hangs loosely on her body approach the queen.

"Welcome, Cai Trin," Hippolyta, ruler of the Warrior Maidens of Themyscira says to her young visitor, "welcome to our sanctuary, the source of our strength as a community and the jewel of our existence."

"Th-thank you, Queen," Cai responds, drinking in her surroundings - she's standing in a wide, low-ceilinged hall in an ancient marble palace.  In addition to the queen, there are maybe thirty other women, whites from the northern European tribes, Asians, Africans, Semites, and others, all beautiful, all tall and powerful looking, and all members of Homo Superior.

An ancient god-like race, the Galens or Ancient Ones, had taken the best humans to another planet to form the Velorian (and later, Arion and Gehemite) races.   They left behind many descendants, results of breeding between these Homo Supremis or supreme humans and normal humans.  Eventually the best of them sought out their own kind and bred true, and THEIR descendants evolved into superior humans - not as powerful as Velorians but far *better* than their human counterparts and neighbors.

After centuries of murderous persecution of the Superiors by *normals*, the Ancient Ones intervened again in human history.  All the male Superiors were moved to an island in the far north, the basis for the legend of Valhalla.  All female Superiors were moved to the island of Themyscira in the archipelago of Atlantis in the western Atlantic Ocean.  Despite legends, the Superiors were not all white, but represented many races and cultures.  Both provided sanctuary to other Superiors, regardless of their origin.  Some called these women Amazons, some called them Miracle Maidens, but here they called themselves Warrior Maidens.

The Ancient Ones hoped the Superiors would no longer breed, especially since they were almost immortal.  Over time, the two islands were lost to humanity, helped by the powerful magicks of Atlantean sorcerers.  Like that archipelago, eventually Valhalla and Themyscira became separated from Earth, with Atlantis and Valhalla eventually disappearing in time and space.  Only Themyscira maintained a tenuous link with Earth, hoping that other Superiors might turn up, seeking sanctuary from oppression by normals.  A force field was erected, linking the island with Earth.

"Artemis," the queen says, "why don't you show our home to Cai?  We can talk more later, after she gets settled in."

Cai is about to say something to the queen about not wanting to *settle in* when Artemis grabs the Protector's elbow and steers the younger woman out of the palace and onto the plaza.  "Come along, little one, and let me show you some of our treasures."

As the two woman walk toward a nearby hill, Cai marvels at the wonderful scenery - clean white buildings, beautiful women in various stage of undress, exquisite sculptures, and the distant tones of haunting music.   The scene is like a Protector's fantasy - beautiful people, engaged in the creation of magnificent art and music, peacefully sharing their bodies and their creations, unashamed to bare their bodies, unashamed to bare their souls to each other.

"Artemis," Cai begins, "I don't see any men here."

"And you won't, Cai.  There are several hundred women here, Cai, all refugees from the world of Man."

"Then the Nazis chased you here?"

"Who?" Artemis replies, a perplexed look on her face, "no, little one, we left Man's inhumanity long before THEY arose.  They are merely the latest example of Man's inhumanity toward his fellows."

"Then . . . then you've never returned?  But you MUST know about these Nazis.  If you knew about those evil people back then, why didn't you do anything?  They're just the kind of evil that persecuted you, aren't they?" Cai asks.  Becoming more animated and agitated, the young Protector says "They are against everything you value here on Themyscira, they tear down and destroy art and music and beauty.  You - you can't just HIDE here, hoping the Nazis will go away.  Besides, it's not just them.  There are . . . "

"Cai," Artemis says icily, "we have, from time to time, sent emissaries back to the world of Man, both to learn and to teach.  We sent one of our sisters, MY sister, the queen's first-born daughter, some fifty or sixty years ago.  She went to America to help fight those same Nazis and disappeared.  Shortly after the bomb went off, destroying the American capital, I went to America to look for her.  I found her friend, the Army officer.  All he knew was that she had been captured by the Nazis, by some Nazi superwoman named Fusta or Fausta or something.

"I went to Germany and spent two weeks secretly interrogating Germans, but never learned what had happened to my beloved sister.  It was as if she and the Nazi superwoman had vanished off the face of the planet.   When I returned and told the results of my search to Queen Hippolyta, she mourned for some time, then she forbade us to have anything else to do with the world of Man."

"Oh, Artemis," Cai says sadly, lowering her head, ashamed by her bold prying, "I - I didn't know . . ."

The two women cross the last step and reach a patio atop a low hill overlooking the island's main community.  Beyond the patio is the entrance to another marble building with tall columns across its front.  As the two women turn to look down upon the community, Artemis again wraps her arm around the shorter woman's waist.  She leans down and gently kisses Cai's neck, just below her ear.   "Sweet Cai," Artemis says, her mouth just an inch from the Velorian's ear, her breath blowing softly on Cai's neck and ear, warming them, sending a shiver through the Protector's body.  "You couldn't know all this.  You said you are from another planet - how could you know?"

"NNnnhh," Cai says, suddenly feeling weak in the knees, and in a good way.  "I . . . mmnn . . . I like that, Artemis.  But I am sorry.  I shouldn't force my values on you."

"Forget about it, darling little Cai," Artemis says, running one hand slowly up Cai's bare arm, raising goose bumps on the girl's arm and neck.  Emboldened when Cai doesn't resist her, Artemis slowly turns the young Velorian around so they face each other, their bodies just inches apart, then lightly presses her lips against Cai's.  Cai starts briefly when their lips connect and the other woman's wet tongue darts lightly across her lips, probing for an opening.

Velorian Protectors have no inhibitions, no reservations about who they share their bodies with (except when it comes to Arions).  This overture from Artemis is met by Cai spreading her own lips, inviting the Warrior Maiden's tongue into her mouth.  The two powerful women embrace, crushing their bodies against each other as their tongues sensuously probe each other's mouth.  As one of Cai's powerful hands envelopes and sensuously squeezes the redhead's buttock, her other hand cups the back of the woman's neck and gently but firmly drags her nails across Artemis' powerful neck muscles, sending erotic chills through the older woman's body.  In seconds, each is extremely aroused, each is running hands over the other's body, meeting long-unfulfilled needs.

"Mmnnh . . . L-let's . . . <gasp> let's go into the . . . aaaAHHH temple, Cai," Artemis says, disengaging from the Velorian's lips.  The two women pull away from each other briefly and stagger toward the Temple of Sappho, Artemis' secret destination.   Inside the temple dedicated to physical culture, Artemis steers her companion toward a room in the back of the building.   The two women enter a room containing a large, deep pool, fed from an underground spring of hot mineral waters.  The water passes through a basin - the temperature of the pool can be modulated by allowing the mineral waters to mingle with colder spring water, but when offered cooler water, the Velorian shakes her head *no* before averting her eyes downward.

Standing beside the smoking and bubbling pool, Artemis slowly slides the diaphanous white gown off Cai's tanned shoulders and lets it fall to the ground around the Velorian's ankles.  As the Warrior Maiden runs her hands across Cai's shoulders and down her arms, Cai closes her eyes, sighs raggedly, and leans forward.  When Artemis' hands reach Cai's elbows, she slides her hands inward, wrapping long thin fingers around the blonde's ribs.  Her hands slow slide up Cai's ribs, then slip around to her front, cupping, then lifting her breasts.  Cai moans loudly in pleasure and her head falls backward, her mouth open, begging for the Warrior Maiden's tongue.  Artemis leans forward and fills both the need and the mouth.

The Warrior Maiden draws back from the Velorian's lush lips and looks at the young woman, still deeply savoring the caressing and kisses.  Artemis begins sliding downward, running her strong hands down the length of the Velorian's body.  Cai opens her eyes, forming thin slits, and watches her new friend's head descend.  Cai reaches forward and runs her fingers through the red hair before her, massaging the woman's head and drawing moans from the Warrior Maiden, working to help the Velorian remove her sandals.  After helping Cai step out of them, Artemis rises again, dragging her finger nails up the front of Cai's body, again causing the powerful Protector to shudder as a wave of sensual pleasure hammers her psyche.

After rising to her feet, Artemis is suddenly (and pleasantly) shocked when the younger woman begins to lower the Warrior Maiden's bustier and panties.  In one swift but pleasurable move, the gold and red top and blue bottom are bunched around Artemis' ankles.  Now it is Cai's turn to slowly descend toward the floor.  As she does so, Cai carefully floods the front of her companion's body with heat waves from her eyes - tachyon waves that prick and redden and stimulate the woman's skin.  As the wave of heat descends the woman's front, Cai's fingertips chase the wave, lightly caressing and tickling the woman's body, further stimulating Artemis' skin and causing the woman to moan throatily.  A thin trickle of liquid glistens briefly on the woman's inner thigh, then is burned away as Cai's heat vision passes.  Fully squatting before her new friend, Cai deftly opens the knots and slides the inch wide red ribbons down Artemis' calves, down to her ankles, then helps the Warrior Maiden slip out of her ballet slippers and the clothes around her ankles.  As the Protector rises to her feet, she again drags her nails across Artemis' skin, behind a second bath of heat vision.  Standing so close to her new friend that their toes and breasts touch each other, Cai looks deeply into Artemis' eyes and wills her, begs her to share her body, her muscles, her tenderness, and her skills.

Almost without looking, each keeping her eyes locked on the other woman's eyes, the two near-goddesses step into the bubbling waters of the pool and sink down in the hot waters until the water is above their hips.  They then move closer together and wrap their arms around each other, crushing their bodies together, as if they're trying to fuse their two bodies into one.

The quiet inside the pool room is broken by the bubbling of the hot spring water flowing into the pool and the gasps of pleasure escaping the lips of the two women as they slowly sink into the steamy water.   A rich scent of wild flowers and honey fills the room and Artemis begins to become aroused, so monumentally aroused she feels any barriers that might stop her from pleasing the young blonde fade into nothingness.

"Come ON, Gudrun!  You run like you have lead weights on your ankles!" Magda yells at her companion.  Beside her, Sha'kela from Dahomey easily keeps her station as the trio completes their third lap around the perimeter of the island.  Each is dressed in a short skirt that reaches down to just below her crotch, a red skirt for the blond Gudrun, white for the other two.  Six breasts bounce slightly as the women jog through the wet sand, laughing and making rude remarks about each other's bodies and skills.

"Hey, who's that!" Gudrun shouts from the rear of the pack, pointing ahead of the others.  She can see two figures out in the pounding surf.  As the women accelerate and draw near the two in the water, they see a man and a woman.  They three Warrior Maidens notice that the woman seems to be dressed in a tight black leather body suit, with white gauntlets and boots.  The man is wearing a black shirt and skin-tight trousers and black boots.  Both are black-haired.  Both are also very wet; the woman's leather shines like vinyl and water sloshes out of the tops of her low-heeled knee-high boots and the man's shirt hugs his torso, revealing his hard little nipples.

"Number One," Lee-dak says to Mar-vel as they walk toward the shore, "up the beach - three women!"

"I saw them minutes ago, Marine," the Prime woman sneers at her companion, "and have been planning my next moves while you splashed about in the water!  DO NOTHING, but follow my lead!  I will handle this!"

"As you command, Number One," he replies, "but you should know that I'm not entirely ready for any extended combat.  We've been going pretty hard now . . ."  and the man's whining trails off when Mar-vel's hand chops downward, Arion battle sign language for *shut yer yap!* (loosely translated).  She knows that the man is just making excuses - the colonization force has standing rules that when male Primes need energy, female Primes (regardless of rank) must share their energy, energy stored in their breasts (as it is in Velorian women, too).

"I don't have time to let this malingerer suck on my teat," Mar-vel hisses under her breath.

"Hello!" Sha'kela says as the women reach the strangers, "welcome to Themyscira!"

"Hello yourself," Mar-vel replies, smiling innocuously at the attractive Black woman.  Scanning their bodies with super vision, Mar-vel observes that the women are not Velorians, but they are also not humans - the molecules in their bodies are too densely-packed.  "We had an accident at sea and lost our friend.  Maybe you have seen her?   She's a young blond child, wearing a strange red and blue costume."

"Is that . . ." Gudrun asks.

"The one Artemis found this morning . . ." Magda chimes in helpfully.

"Yes, we did find someone like that.  She was at our hospital when we went on our mid-day run a few hours ago," the African woman says to woman in black, now just a few feet away.

"Oh, thank you!" the leather-clad woman replies, clapping her hands, not getting the desired effect as the wet leather gauntlets *splat* against each other, "we were afraid we had lost her for good!"

"How did you get through the shield wall?" Sha'kela asks, looking at the newcomers with a suspicious eye.  Her intuition tells her that something just doesn't ring true about these two.  "What happened to your boat?  If you could get through the shield, your boat should have been able to get through, too."

By now, the two Arions are just a few feet away from the three Warrior Maidens.  Realizing that her act has not entirely duped these strange women, Mar-vel leaps into the air and the toe of her boot flashes toward Sha'kela's face, hitting her chin with a loud *SMACK* that sends the African flying backward twenty feet, landing on her head and plowing a furrow in the wet sand.  She doesn't rise and her two companions nervously shift their looks from Sha'kela to the strangers and back at Sha'kela.

Scanning the woman with her super vision, Mar-vel says in her most authoritative voice, "you two, forget about that one, she's dead.  I snapped her neck with my kick.  If you want to live, take us to the Velorian!"

Magda and Gudrun turn toward the strangers and rush them, screaming feral war cries, intending to beat them and punish them for killing Sha'kela.  As Magda reaches the male, he expertly parries her closed fist and slips her arm around behind her back, stepping closer to the woman and shoving his forearm over her shoulder under her chin.  In an eye blink, the Warrior Maiden is suddenly pinned by the man's incredibly powerful hands, unable to do more than kick uselessly at the man's steel hard legs.  She realizes instantly that he has more strength that she does.

Mar-vel doesn't even wait for Gudrun's attack.  A quick blast of heat vision hits the Warrior Maiden's eyes, boiling the liquid from them.  As Gudrun's hands move to cover her eyes, she screams like an animal from the terrible pain.  Mar-vel uses her super speed to race behind the stricken woman.  Gudrun's arms are roughly pulled down to her sides and Mar-vel wrapsone arm around the Warrior Maiden's body, lifting it off the ground and holding it close to her own.  Gudrun continues to cry and shout from the pain in her eyes, unaware that the blindness is only temporary.

"Shut up, you cow!" Mar-vel sneers at Gudrun, disgusted by the way the two women fought and at Gudrun's wailing.  "You two run well, but your fighting skills would not impress one of our children!  You there!" she says, looking at Magda, "take us to the Protector!  The little blond girl, idiot!"

Slowly the four figures walk off the beach toward the main settlement, the two Warrior Maidens held in front of, and close to the two Primes, as living shields.  Despite their super human strength and fighting skills, the two *Superior* women are no match for the two *Supremis* Arion warriors.

In the pool in a back room of the Temple of Sappho, Cai is floating on the hot water on her back, one hand cupped around her right breast, her fingers teasing her nipple, her blond hair streaming out from her head as her other arm stretches away from her body, both hair and arm moving in response to the weak currents and eddies in the pool.  Artemis is kneeling between the Velorian's legs, her face buried deeply in the woman's most sensitive and sensual place.  Cai gasps and pants as the Warrior Maiden's tongue transports her to new highs.  She had a friend back on Velor with whom she once played tentative, exploratory sexual games.  She and her friend shared forbidden pleasures and found new uses for parts of their bodies, uses that both exhilarated and embarrassed Cai and her friend.  She had just used those same secret and forbidden skills on Artemis and enjoyed seeing the powerful Warrior Maiden melt in her hands.

Now Cai feels like a child who feels especially proud at being able to spell *cat*, then sees a dear friend easily spell *sesquicentennial*.   Artemis' tongue has totally melted the Velorian's strength and she floats limply as the Warrior Maiden's hands and tongue play across her body.  Several times the Velorian screams in ecstasy as powerful orgasms rip through her body.  The air in the pool room is rich with the wild flower and honey scent of Cai's pheromones, the scent driving the other woman into her own sexual frenzy.  Cai's efforts were not as experienced as Artemis', but the pheromones made the techniques SEEM like those of the greatest courtesans in history.  She too is weak from several mind-blowing orgasms.

"MmmmnNNNH!" Cai cries weakly as she feels the other woman's hands moving away from her ribs, down along her hips and thighs and across her stomach, "Oohh <gasp> Ar-Arrrtemissss . . . that feels sssOOOO GOOOOD!  Please donnnnnHHHHH ssttooppp!"

"Mph," the Warrior Maiden says, raising her lips from the golden hairs between the Velorian's legs, "<pant> I - I need <pant> to rest, darling.  I can't even see straight!"  Artemis rises and stumbles back away from the younger woman, falling against the wall of the pool, panting.

"Please don't leave me," Cai says, shifting to a more vertical position, her legs fluttering under the water, her arms performing a languid breast stroke with just enough strength to move slowly toward the Warrior Maiden.  As she reaches the other woman, one hand slips down under the water between the other woman's legs and Cai's lips envelope one of Artemis' breasts.  The Protector's other powerful hand cups under Artemis' other breasts, raising and lifting it and gently squeezing it.  Artemis' head falls back against the wall of the pool and she gasps loudly - the young girl learns quickly!

In a few days, or even just a few hours, Artemis will learn that she has been paid handsomely for sharing her skills with the young Velorian.  During their lovemaking, Artemis was exposed to Cai's hormones - in her kisses, in the love juices she devoured so hungrily.  Even as the two women *wind down* from their enthusiastic sexual activity, Cai's hormones are changing the very DNA of the Warrior Maiden, enhancing her, giving her some of the Velorian's powers.  This transfer of energy has also helped to physically weaken the Protector.  But at least she can soak in the natural heat of the mineral waters and, in a few hours, will regain much of the energy she lost.

Four figures enter the main plaza just as the queen of the Warrior Maidens and several of her friends exit the palace.  One of Hippolyta's hands covers her mouth as she gasps - she can see two of her subjects held captive by two strangers.  "Hera help me," she says to her gods, "I hope these two are not here because of Cai!"

As the two Arion Primes cross the plaza, Magda indicates that the queen is just yards away.  Mar-vel bellows across the intervening space, "WE HAVE COME FOR THE PROTECTOR!  SURRENDER HER, GIVE US A WAY OFF THIS ISLAND, AND WE WILL LEAVE YOU IN PEACE!"  In her mind, Mar-vel thinks, "but we will return with a company of Marines to occupy this island."

Warrior Maidens around the plaza also suddenly notice the Arions and their captives.  Several make moves toward the quartet to free Magda and Gudrun, but Lee-dak and Mar-vel shoot short punishing bursts of heat vision at the women, burning deep holes in their skin.  After half a dozen Warrior Maidens fall to the ground, shrieking and covering the burn holes, Hippolyta yells for her subjects to stop their attacks.  In the blink of an eye, the two Primes and their burdens race across the plaza and ascend the steps of the palace to stand near the Queen and her entourage.

"Sensible, Queen," Mar-vel sneers, now just a few feet from the queen.  She and Lee-dak clutch their prisoners close to their bodies and keep the wall of the palace at their back.  When they see that the Warrior Maidens are not going to attack, the two Primes decide to push for a quick resolution to this little drama.  They slowly sidle near the Queen, then Mar-vel shoves Gudrun to the ground.  Before she can react, Hippolyta suddenly finds Mar-vel's powerful hands around her body, pinning her arms to her sides and choking her neck.

"IF YOU WANT YOUR QUEEN TO SEE TOMORROW," Mar-vel yells at the women assembling below the palace steps, "BRING THE PROTECTOR TO ME!"

"<Gack> W-who do you mean?" the queen asks, "we don't know any protectors."

"That little blonde bitch you dragged off the beach this morning, you stupid cow," Lee-dak snarls, then withers under Mar-vel's disciplining gaze.

"You can either bring her to us, and give us a way off this fly speck," Mar-vel says softly into Hippolyta's ear, "or watch us burn down your subjects - like THIS!"  A red beam shoots from Mar-vel's eyes and hits the side of one of the other women standing on the steps of the palace.  The woman emits a brief yelp, then falls sideways off the steps, smoke pouring from her ear where the tight tachyon beam had bored a hole into her head.

"AAAIIEEE!" the queen screams, shocked by this woman's brutality and abilities.  "Stop - please stop!  Why do you want the girl?"

"We want to take her off this island with us, whore," Mar-vel hisses, "so your choice, your decision is simple.  Is her life worth the life of fifty, of one hundred of your subjects?  Because we will keep burning your people, or crushing their skulls, queenie, until that little blond shit is in our hands and we're on our way off your precious little island."

Mar-vel decides to impress the queen with her earnestness and hide the fact that she's bluffing - she doesn't have the energy to kill that many women and the Commander might want these women for . . . recreational purposes.  Mar-vel lashes out with one arm and her clenched fist hits a nearby woman's shoulder.   She screams in pain as her shoulder shatters from the powerful blow, then falls to the ground sobbing, her head on one of the queen's sandals.

Hippolyta begs for Mar-vel to let the healer tend to the wounded women but Mar-vel repeats her demand for Cai and a way off the island.  The queen finally accepts defeat - she can't resist the power of these two people at the expense of her subjects.  The queen, sobbing, tells one of her guards to find Artemis and bring Cai back to the plaza.

"Wrap her . . ." Mar-vel says, gloating at her cleverness, "wrap her tightly in gold chains, if you please."

"Do as she says, Irene" Hippolyta says resignedly.  "Take the Girdle of Submission from my quarters to Artemis."

The Warrior Maiden rushes past her queen and into the palace.  Moments later, she rushes out and runs toward the Temple of Sappho, two miles away.

"Maeve," Hippolyta says to the last of her entourage on the steps beside her, "go get that plane thing and bring it here.  Make sure these . . . these people can get off our island in it.  Please hurry!"

As Cai and Artemis lie in each other's arms on a wide soft couch beside the pool, nuzzling each other, kissing each other lightly, the Warrior Maiden hears someone calling out her name.

"Cai, darling," Artemis says, struggling to untangle herself from the Velorian's arms, "I should see why I'm being called."

"Mmmm, noooo!" Cai whines, acting like a child again, reveling in the warm glow her body feels from the sexual pleasure and release she's had.  "Don't be gone long, my love!"

After Artemis leaves, Cai rolls off the couch and drops back into the pool, luxuriating in the intense heat of the mineral spring.  As she submerges completely under the water, letting the heat flow into her body, her heart soars from the love and sex  and warmth she's had this day.

"They've invited me to stay here," she thinks, "and I don't know what I can do *back there*.  I'm sworn to protect Terrans, but Nazis are Terrans, too.  Just because they won the war with Arion help, I still can't treat them as I would an Arion.  But unless I attack them, I don't know if the other Terrans will work with me.  If I DO go back, how do I, alone, defeat all the Arions hidden on this planet?

"Mmmnn, this water is so delicious," she thinks, distracted by the hot bubbling water and suddenly aware that Artemis has returned and has re-entered the pool.  Cai turns toward her friend and powerful legs propel her quickly across the pool, still under the water, toward the Warrior Maiden.  Upon reaching the woman's legs, Cai shoots up from the bottom of the pool and bursts out of the water, bobbing on her feet and smiling at her friend.  Cai laughs and throws her arms across Artemis' shoulders and says playfully, "you took too long, Artemis.  I got soooo cold I had to . . .

"<GASP> MMnnn!  NNOOO!!  What are you . . .!" Cai suddenly screams.  Artemis had entered the water with the island's Girdle of Submission, a magickal artifact from Atlantis.  Designed to subdue and pacify unruly people, the Girdle had only been used once or twice in the island's history.  When Cai put her hands on Artemis' shoulders, the Warrior Maiden deftly slipped the wide belt of gold around the Velorian's waist and snapped the clasp, closing it.

Gold is not as dangerous to homo Superiors, due to the diluting effect of human genes.   Prolonged exposure merely arouses them sexually.  On a Velorian like Cai, the effect is much more profound.  Cai screams suddenly in pain and shock, her eyes widen, and her lips form a silent *o* as the hated toxic metal sucks the energy out of her body.  Sparks shoot from the tips of her breasts down toward the girdle, and other arcs form, originating between her legs.   She sags forward, falling into Artemis' arms, her eyes closing as her young body shudders from the effects of gold poisoning.

Tears streaming down her face, Artemis climbs out of the pool, dragging her young friend with her, ashamed at what she has to sacrifice for the greater good of her community.  As the Velorian tosses and bucks on the floor, trying to fight the effects of the gold poisoning, Artemis slips into her bustier and thong, then dons Cai's white sandals, determined to not show her body to the strangers down in the plaza.

Artemis and Irene lift the nearly unconscious Protector off the floor.  Cai's eyes are almost closed and her hands are furiously rubbing her breasts and between her legs, trying to stop the burning pain she's experiencing.  A thin trickle of drool seeps down her cheek from her lips and low moans and gasps escape her mouth.  The harder she rubs her body, the more sensual pleasure she experiences, increasing the flow of energy from her body to the belt, and restarting the cycle at a higher level.

"Irene," Artemis gasps, "I . . . I can't just give her to those people.  Not like this!"

"You have no choice!"  the Semite replies.  "You don't know how cruel these people are!  We must give her to them, and get them off the island before others suffer!  You heard the orders from your mother!  Give them the girl and the plane, get them off the island!"

"Well, at least do one favor for me, Irene," Artemis says as they leave the temple.  She explains what she needs, then takes the Protector in her arms and tosses Cai over her right shoulder, wincing as the energy arcs between Cai's body and the golden belt strike her own body.   She continues descending the steps of Temple Hill and walks slowly toward the plaza.

"Well, well, well!" Mar-vel gloats when she spots Artemis carrying the Protector into the plaza, "the little bitch who's been causing us so much trouble!  BRING HER HERE!"

Artemis reaches the bottom of the steps leading to the palace and gently lowers the Velorian to the ground.  Cai is unconscious but her naked body still shudders from the insidious effects of the gold, occasionally letting a low moan slip between her lips.

After regarding the woman and the wide golden belt around her waist, Mar-vel decides she doesn't want to have to touch the Protector while she's wearing the belt.   As the Arion First Officer spins fantasies in her mind about the triumphant greeting she'll get when she returns to the ship, she is abruptly interrupted by one of the Warrior Maidens.  "Enjoy your victory," Artemis says, "but when you return to your people, remember that it was MY treachery that brought down this . . . child, not your skills!"

Mar-vel is about to fire a mighty blast of heat vision at this insolent woman when a thought crosses her evil mind.

"You're absolutely right, woman.  I'm taking a Protector back to my people, not a naked blond child.  Where is her costume, where is her infamous red and blue Protector suit?" Mar-vel asks the Queen.  After being told that it's in the hospital, Mar-vel orders a Warrior to fetch it.  Minutes later, after transferring Queen Hippolyta to Lee-dak, and having Artemis remove the Girdle of Submission from around Cai's waist, Mar-vel walks down the steps and stands over Cai, holding her costume in one gloved hand.  The women lining the plaza gasp as one when the Arion kicks Cai in the ribs once, twice, then reaches down to grab the girl's golden hair, dropping the Suprema costume on the ground beside Cai.

"Wake up, you useless Velorian whelp," Mar-vel says loudly, reaching down to slap Cai's cheeks.   Cai manages to open her eyes slightly as she slowly recovers from the effects of the gold.  "Come on, wake up, girl!  Good!  Now, put on your costume, and be quick about it!"

Dully, her mind in a haze, Cai tries to get into her costume.  Mar-vel has to help the dazed heroine step into the blue leotard top and affix the cape.  Then Cai is allowed to fall to the ground onto her butt to put on her boots.  After the weakened woman pulls on her second boot, Mar-vel again reaches down, this time grabbing Suprema's cape near her neck.  Mar-vel yanks on the cape, getting the Velorian to look at her tormentor.

"While you're down there, Velorian, I want you to clean my boots - WITH YOUR TONGUE!" Mar-vel sneers, overjoyed at being able to humble and humiliate a Velorian Protector.  No Arions have had this pleasure for CENTURIES!   Slowly, the blond in the red and blue Protector suit, Suprema, leans forward and her face approaches Mar-vel's white boots.  Suprema's tongue darts out quickly and runs across the top of the boot, scraping sand off the surface.  In a minute, she's licked the tops of the boots clean and they shine as if they had just been polished.  Her body shakes slightly as she sobs, humiliated beyond measure by this Prime.

Again the Protector is lifted to her feet, this time hanging limply from her cape.  "You there!" Mar-vel yells at Artemis as she tosses Suprema's red skirt and yellow to the Warrior Maiden, "make yourself useful - put this on the mighty Planetary Protector, then put that golden belt back on her."  A thin trickle of wetness seeps down the inside thigh of Mar-vel as she shudders, basking in a warm glow of conquest and domination.  Not only the Protector, but an island of powerful women, under her thrall!  Her name will be legendary among Arions!

As Artemis swallows her emotions and picks up her friend's skirt, she walks slowly toward Suprema and bends at the knee.  As Mar-vel holds the Protector upright, her legs bent, her boots dragging on the ground, Artemis lifts the Velorian's legs and slides the red skirt up her legs, up to her waist.  Under Mar-vel's withering glare, Artemis cinches Suprema's belt tight and closes the clasp.  As she then puts the Girdle of Submission back around Suprema's slim waist, Artemis looks into Mar-vel's face, insolently looking the Arion Prime in her eyes.

"Your costume is familiar," Mar-vel says, her eyes moving slowly, tracking down Artemis' body.   "Reminds of the costume a *super heroine* wore back in the thirties, but she had big blue panties with stars on them and long red boots.  The only good fight I ever had was with that woman.   She almost got away from me, thanks to her golden rope and the stupidity of a human officer, but I was able to recapture her.  I even broke her legs!  She never ran away again.  I wonder if they're still using her for sex on ship two?  No matter . . .

"WHERE'S OUR TRANSPORTATION!"

As Mar-vel's shout echoes around the plaza, Maeve, Irene and another woman push an ancient L-5 Army Air Force plane into the plaza at the far end.  This is the same plane Artemis *borrowed* back in 1943 to return to Themyscira.  The little high-wing single-engined reconnaissance plane sputters briefly, then its little propeller begins spinning and the entire plane shudders.

"Well, it's not much," Mar-vel sneers, "but it'll do, I guess.  You there!" she snaps at Artemis, "come with us and put that Velorian bitch in the back seat of the aircraft, and be sure that she's tightly secured!  Otherwise I'll have to come back here . . . "

A small party heads across the plaza toward the L-5 when Mar-vel suddenly stops and turns to Lee-dak, speaking to him in the Arions'  battle language.  "That plane," she says, "isn't big enough for all three of us.  You stay here with the Queen.  I'll return tomorrow with reinforcements.  Just keep the Queen in your hands and everything will be all right."

Mar-vel turns and resumes her triumphant march toward the plane, with Artemis and Cai behind her.  When they reach the plane, Artemis lifts the unconscious Velorian and places her on the back seat of the little plane.  As she leans into the cabin to fasten Suprema's seat belt, Artemis slips one hand behind Suprema and unfastens the golden girdle.  Then in one swift move, Artemis replaces the Atlantean artifact with her own golden belt, one made of colored fabric and lacking sorcerous abilities.  As several energy arcs flash between the girdle and the Velorian, Artemis uses her own body to hide the sparks from the Arions.  Her forearms singe briefly and energy rushes through her body before the arcing subsides.  "I hope this helps you, little one," Artemis whispers to her friend, "we have a surprise planned for the evil one. "

Suprema's eyes still focus with difficulty even as her fantastic body recovers quickly from the removal of the golden girdle.  She wants to scream at Artemis for the betrayal.  All she can do is hold one eye open and watch as Artemis dons the real Girdle of Submission.  Finally, the Warrior Maiden tightens the nylon belts around Suprema's body, securing her to the seat.

"Hurry up, you whore!" Mar-vel snaps, spanking Artemis' bare buttock.  The super powered slap drive Artemis deeper into the plane's cabin and raises a huge red welt on her ivory cheek.  Covering her smarting buttock, Artemis pulls out of the cabin and steps away from the plane, one hand slowly massaging her cheek, the other casually resting across her waist, partially hiding the Girdle.  She lowers her head and awaits orders from the Arion as the Girdle's insidious abilities take over her mind.  Fortunately, Mar-vel is too lost in the moment to have noticed the switch or Artemis' behavior.

"I've wasted enough time here," Mar-vel snarls at Artemis as she climbs into the cockpit.  "Be sure that my man is alive and well when I return here tomorrow to get him, and you and these other women can go on as if nothing has happened!"  Not waiting for a reply, Mar-vel slides the throttle forward and the little plane begins to roll across the grassy plaza.  Bounding across the grass, the L-5 spurts up into the air near the end of the plaza and circles it, giving Mar-vel the chance to wave at Lee-dak before heading toward the gateway back to Earth.

Behind her, Irene turns toward Artemis and nods once, slightly.  Together, the two women turn and walk back toward the queen and Lee-dak.

Several minutes later, everyone in the plaza hears a distant *BAM*.  Turning toward the gateway, they can see a smear of smoke several miles away.  In a heartbeat, screaming like wild animals, Maeve, Irene, Artemis, and half a dozen other Warrior Maidens leap up the steps to the palace and attack Lee-dak.  The Prime is still too shocked by the explosion of the L-5 and he's lost control of the situation.  Even as his attention is pulled back to the present, the mob of very powerful, very angry women swarms over him, driving him and Hippolyta to the ground.  In a second, a dozen powerful blows hammer the man, breaking his grip from the queen.

Lee-dak has tremendous power as an Arion Prime, but against the rage of these women, he is quickly pinned to the ground, stunned by their attack.  Artemis quickly removes the Girdle of Submission from her own waist and slips it  around Lee-dak's.  "NNOOOO!!" the man screams as the gold's insidious toxic power begins to leech his own energy.  The man tries to arch his back, to rise off the stones, but too many Warrior Maidens hold him down.  He screams in rage and pain as his powers flow out of his body into the belt.  After a few minutes, his body sags, beaten and too weak to resist the women of Themyscira.

"You will not remove that belt until we tell you to do so," Hippolyta commands sternly.  "You WILL obey my orders, or those of any other Warrior Maidens, male. "

"Y-yes, I must," Lee-dak replies, unable to resist the magicks in the belt.   When two of the women help him to his feet, he lowers his head and stands meekly, awaiting orders.

"Magda," the queen says, turning to her old friend, "close the gateway.  Turn it off."

"NO!"  "STOP!"  "You - you can't" a score of voices shout.

"My queen," Magda says, "if we turn off the gateway, we won't be able to turn it on again.  And we don't know how to reach the mystics of Atlantis - we'll be out of contact with Earth . . . forever!"

"That place has brought us nothing but grief and pain, despite all the peace and love we have shown to them.  It is time we fulfill our own destiny.  We are not human and we cannot protect them from themselves.  Please, old friend, break the link so we may move toward our own future."

As the plane moves through the energy shield to return to Earth, it begins to bounce and buck in response to the eldritch energies washing over the plane and its occupants.  Suprema moans once or twice as the web restraints dig into her breasts, breasts still tender from the powerful love making with Artemis and from the leeching effects of the golden Girdle.

"Moan if you must, Protector," Mar-vel sneers over one shoulder as she guides the plane through the gateway shield.  "You'll have more reasons to moan when we reach the base on the moon, you Velorian pig.  I am going to have so much fun beating you into total submission to my will!  I think I shall allow you to continue to wear that silly costume of yours, to remind you and others of my power.  Now shut up and let me . . ."

*BAAAMM!*

Irene had put some explosives in the plane's engine compartment, rigged to explode from excessive vibrations.  As in passage through the eldritch gateway.  The engine dissolves into hot flying chunks of metal, peppering the front of Mar-vel's body like buckshot, sounding like a rain of metal on a tin roof.  As the cabin breaks apart, the women are hurled free, still secured to their heavy steel seats by the web restraints.  As she plunges, once again, toward the ocean below, Mar-vel screams in frustration and struggles to free herself from her seat.  Suprema, still too dazed and weak from her ordeal,  just rides her seat down and into the water.

Both women hit the water on the Terran side of the gateway to Themyscira.  As Mar-vel struggles back to the surface, the heavy chair drags Suprema into the dark depths.  Suprema struggles weakly, but the chair continues to sink.  It drops several hundred feet below the surface before Suprema has enough strength back in her arms to flex them and burst the nylon webbing pinning her to the seat.  As the metal seat continues to sink, Suprema begins to float back toward the surface, scanning ahead for the Prime.  "I can't fight her now," Suprema realizes, "I'm far too weak to do anything to a Prime. "

Bobbing on the surface, Mar-vel scans the wave tops and just below the tops with her super vision.  "NOW where is that Velorian!" she screams, struggling to keep her head above the waves.  "DAMN her flying powers!  She must have escaped me again!  That golden belt must have been a fake.  Those women will pay dearly for deceiving me!"

As the Arion First Officer scans the seas, she spots a white helicopter heading toward her from the east.   In seconds the ship heads toward the woman, spotted by a Prime who's super vision was helping the S&R crew searching for the *high-ranking Reich official*.   A cable is lowered to the water and moments later a sputtering and angry Arion is hauled into the chopper.  "Help me!" she yells, "that Protector might be still around here!"

The helicopter circles the area slowly for another ten minutes, then has to return to Bermuda to refuel.  Further searches would be difficult as the sun sets to the west, casting long shadows on the waves.  As the craft moves away, Suprema, still floating several hundred feet below the surface, begins to rise slowly toward the surface.  Ten feet below the water line, the Velorian thrusts her legs together and shoots upward through the water and into the air, water streaming off her costume and hair.  She quickly scans the area with her super vision but can't see the gateway back to Themyscira.

"I - I know it has to be around here!" she says, hovering some twenty feet over the water.  After repeated scans, the Protector realizes sadly that she cannot see the gateway any more and can't get back to the island of Warrior Maidens.  Suprema belatedly turns and begins the flight back toward New York, still as drained of energy and *lost* as when she had flown to Hispaniola two days ago.

"Watch Commander," the Beta technician says, "we just received a report from the planet.  The First Officer was just retrieved from the ocean.  She's alive and on her way to Bermuda."

"Excellent!  I'll inform the Commander.  Was anything said about the Protector?  No?  Well, maintain your surveillance in case . . ."

"A moment, Watch Commander," the Beta interrupts, "yes . . . THERE!  Sir, I'm getting the same signature on the satellite feed.  The Protector is flying northward again - she's leaving the same area where Number One was recovered.  Sir, I think she's heading back toward New Danzig."