D.J. ran out into the open and straight for Wonder Woman. She knew she was putting herself in danger, although she had no idea that even at that moment Green Arrow was aiming his bow straight at her back. But danger be damned! She could not believe, would not believe, that Diana had forsaken them. Yes, the Amazon Princess was in the throes of an Orgone-high, but she was a woman of indomitable spirit who had only recently been given a chance to turn her back on the sordid and evil life she'd led here in the Antipodes. D.J. refused to let the gains Wonder Woman had made in regaining her true heroic spirit be lost, and now, at this most critical point, she would do whatever it took to help Diana keep true to the path of redemption. Even if it meant risking her life.
"Diana!" D.J. cried out as she rushed toward the now eight-foot tall amazon giantess. Diana seemed not to hear her but instead kept her gaze turned toward the dense growth of the pale pink forest. Was it too late?! D.J. wondered with dread. Was Wonder Woman so far gone from all that Orgone that she didn't even know what was going on around her?
And then Wonder Woman suddenly turned on D.J. and with a twisted curl on her beautiful red lips seized D.J. in a steel-like grip and hefted her into the air. "AAIEEEEEEE!!" D.J. screamed as Diana twirled her around and then threw her down onto the ground with a thud. D.J.'s body shook with the impact, but what hurt more was the fact that D.J. had failed - Wonder Woman's future destiny was lost, the great hero had fallen back into her life of villainy.
"Oh, Diana!" D.J. wailed.
"The name's Wonder Woman, you silly little cunt," Wonder Woman snarled at her. "Now lie still, I've got some pathetic Robin Hood rejects to take care of." And with that the mighty Amazon swept her long golden lasso out of her dark, curly bush and began to twirl it around and around.
"That stupid bitch," Robin muttered as she stared at D.J.
"Keep you recriminations to yourself," Dabbler barked, "until we can get D.J. back to safety. And then I suggest we get the hell out of here."
"Fuck you Dabbler," Robin answered coldly. "Fuck all of you. Me and my team are leaving now." And then Robin sent a high pitched whistle through the air and an immediate withdrawal of all of the outlaws began. "Robin!" Dabbler cried out, "you can't just leave us here!" Robin looked one last time at Dabbler, her eyes hard and bleak. "Dabbler, you brought this onto yourself. I've already lost too many of my people, and for what? For you? The simple fact of the matter is, you're not worth it." Dabbler could not believe what she was hearing and instinctively reached down to her belly where her unborn child was growing. How could Robin be so uncaring, especially considering the fact that she was the father of Dabbler's child? How could she doom that child to a certain death?
Dabbler never got the chance to ask Robin that question for the outlaw leader was already gone, and with arrows zipping through the air and muffled explosions rocking the forest it was suicide to try to chase after her.
"What do we do now, Dabbler?" JigSaw asked weakly, hopelessness quivering in his throat.
Dabbler turned to him, her pale face set with a dark determination. "We run like hell. But first we rescue D.J." "But how?" JigSaw implored. "Wonder Woman's right on top of her, waving that damn lasso around. Green Arrow's firing at everything that moves. And it sounds like Arsenal is pulling out every trick he's got!"
"I still have a little extra mana left," Dabbler answered. "And so do you. Together we're strong enough to show those damn Supers what Authors are really capable of."
"Except, we're not really Authors anymore, are we?" JigSaw replied gloomily. "The Antipodes is draining us dry, leaving us as little more than just glorified Characters. While right now Wonder Woman is overflowing with mana. Nothing we could do would touch her. As for Green Arrow and his little buddy, we have no idea what tree they're hiding behind. They'll see us long before we see them. And then it's kaput for the both of us."
"We're not leaving without D.J.," Dabbler angrily retorted. JigSaw shook his head, "I'm not saying that, it's just that we don't have a lot of options." And then the others crawled up to Dabbler and JigSaw and none of them looked very hopeful either. Mort was glaring at everyone around him and muttering 'I told you so' over and over; Dabbler was actually surprised that he had stuck around at all. Sindy was on the verge of hysteria. And Rincewind was so petrified with fear he actually seemed incapable of madly running away screaming at the top of his lungs as he usually did in situations like this. It was too bad that the wizard hadn't spontaneously transformed into his more powerful witch persona, Dabbler thought regretfully. The rules of this damned Backstage Quarter certainly seemed to be capricious sometimes.
But what was absolutely for certain was the danger they were all in, and the fact that they needed to save D.J.
But how?
Go back - Go to the parent episode.
Thu Dec 11 21:50:33 2003