An Amazon Odyssey, Part 4: Apollo's Bow

“Uhhhh…”

“What the…”

“Where are we…what happened…”

Ultra Woman, White Owl, and Amazon Arrow were waking up, a couple of hours after they had encountered Parasite and had their powers and energy drained.  The lights were bright, and they were trying to get used to that – as well as not being able to move.  As the three heroines looked around, they realized their predicament: they were all hogtied, and suspended from the ceiling.  They were still in their outfits – that was the only good thing they could take from it.

Ultra Woman was in the center, between the other two; and as she tried to pull herself down to the floor, she saw that the other two were being pulled up at the same time. And when one of them tried to pull down, it pulled her up.

“Hera,” Tania gasped, “we are all tied together…with my lasso!”

“Why, yes you are, Ultra Woman,” The King chuckled as he walked into the room.  “It was so thoughtful of you to bring that fun rope.  You three are quite ‘knotty’ girls, aren’t you?”  He guffawed at his pun.

“Let us down!” Chryseis shouted, as she struggled to get herself free.  The Amazon Arrow was still too disoriented to try and use her Light Rings to get out of her situation.

“You insignificant little weasel,” Athena shouted, “you are going to pay for this!”

“No, White Owl, you have it all wrong.  People are going to pay ME for all the videos I’ve taken of you girls.  Pay me a lot!  I will have to thank Parasite somehow.  As for letting you down, Amazon Arrow, I will, in due time.  Right now I am enjoying having four powerful superheroines in my grasp and completely helpless.”

Tania looked around.  “Hey, where’s Curia?”

The King laughed.  “Ah yes, your friend Wonder Woman is in my ‘museum’.  A temporary exhibit, if you will.  Now, if there was just some way to make it permanent…Her lasso came in quite handy as well.”  

Athena looked at him crossly.  “I am going to wipe that smug look off your face with my fist, King.  And I don’t believe for one second that you have my friend in your museum – she is far too powerful to be held by the likes of you!”

“What are you doing?” Chryseis whispered across the room.

“I think she has a plan,” Tania whispered back, “and I have an idea what it might be.  Can you use your rings yet?”

“I think so,” she whispered back, “but your lasso is unbreakable, right?”

The King was looking a bit miffed.  “I have her the same way I have the three of you.  And what are you girls whispering about?”

“Just about how you aren’t nearly man enough to hold the mighty and powerful Wonder Woman,” Tania replied, giving Athena a wink.  

“Oh yeah?” he snapped.  “I will show you! I will go get her right now!”  And he marched off, down the hallway.

“Okay,” whispered Athena, “Chryseis, do you see that cabinet below you?”  Amazon Arrow nodded.  “Tania and I are going to push up, that should let you pull down far enough to reach the floor and hide behind it, with a bit of slack.”

“Ooh,” Chryseis answered, “I know what you are thinking now!  It just might work!”  And she did as Athena had instructed.  A couple of minutes later, The King emerged, dragging Curia behind him; she was not only hogtied, but there was enough lasso left over to gag her, bind her breasts over her bustier, and make a crotch rope.  The expression on Wonder Woman’s face told how much pain and agony she was in.

“See, bitches,” he laughed, “I got her.  Just like I said.”  He looked around.  “Hey, where’s the other one?”

“The other one what?” Athena and Tania asked innocently.  

“You know!” he shouted angrily.  “The Amazon Arrow!”  He dropped Curia on the floor and rushed over to where Chryseis had been hanging.  “She was right-”

“Here!” Chryseis shouted, as she shot one of her powerful Soul Arrows into the back of the large cabinet, causing it to topple onto its side and almost crushing The King.  In a flash, she was on top of the cabinet, with now plenty of slack in the lasso.  She quickly wrapped the slack around his wrist.  “I order you to free me now!”

The King resisted initially, but his will was no match for the Amazon’s, and he reached out and untied the lasso binding her wrists and ankles together.  The moment she was free, she released him from the lasso and tied him up with a normal rope that was lying nearby.  She then untied Curia, and Curia flew up and released the others.

The King was squirming about on the floor as the four pissed-off heroines approached him.  “You weak, pathetic excuse for a human being!”  Chryseis shouted at him, as Athena reached down and grabbed him by the collar, yanking him up.

“I know what you are going to ask me,” he shrugged, and motioned to a stack of tapes against the wall.  “They’re over there, all of them.”  Curia strode over to the stack and with one swing down of her fist, crushed them all into a pile of plastic and dust.

Athena glared menacingly at him.  “That’s a start.  Now, what do you know about who took the Sandals, and how did Parasite get here?”

“I don’t know who he was, he was wearing some sort of hood.  He had Parasite with him – I had no choice but to give him what he wanted!”  He sighed.  “You girls know what those sandals can do, right?”

They all nodded.  “They enable the wearer to fly,” Chryseis answered.  “Something I would love to have – so they don’t have to keep carrying me around!”  That got a laugh.

“So, I guess this is the part where you haul me off to jail, right?” The King asked.

“You don’t look like you are going anywhere anytime soon,” Tania replied.  “We may just stop by and tell Sheriff Roscoe you are all tied up and see what he wants to do about it…” And she walked out, followed by the others.

“So,” Tania asked Athena once they were outside, “what now?”

“Well, it still seems that somebody is planning to bring Medusa back from the dead.  We know it’s a man now, or that there’s a man involved.  I’m guessing someone with very deep pockets – Circe, Pyrrah, and Parasite didn’t come cheap! And that’s just the ones we know about…” Her phone suddenly started buzzing, and she took a look at it.  “So, how’s your Japanese?”

“Japanese?” The three Amazons looked at Athena quizzically.

“Yes, we are off to Tokyo!  The last known location of Hermes’ sword was at the Meiji University Archaeological Museum; the text I just got confirms it is there!  We have to get to it before they do!”

As the four heroines prepared to take off again, Chryseis snapped, “If we ever get our hands on those winged sandals, I’m putting in a request to borrow them for a while, ok?  I appreciate the rides, but I feel like such a burden!”

“Nonsense,” Tania smiled, as she and Curia hoisted up the Amazon Arrow between them, “you are no burden at all!”  And without another word they took off, flying full speed towards Tokyo.

They had just passed over Hawaii when White Owl got another text, and motioned for the others to slow down.  “An alarm has gone off in the museum.  We must hurry!”  And they took off, flying as fast as their powers would allow, and descending a short time later on the flat roof of the Meiji museum.

“We had better split up,” Athena said, “and see if we can find the Sword, or whoever is trying to steal it.  The security guards probably don’t speak much English, but see what you can find out from them.  As soon as one of us gets our hands on it, contact the others, and we will meet back right here.  Got it?”

“Got it!” Tania, Curia, and Chryseis replied, and the four heroines took off, each heading towards a different corner of the roof and the stairwell located there.  Each of them were hoping  that, for once, they wouldn’t be too late!

Tania was running around an exhibit room in the west corner, and she didn’t see anything resembling a Greek sword.  “Athena,” she spoke into her communicator, “everything I see here is Japanese.  Are you sure the Sword is here?”

“It’s on loan for a month,” Athena replied, as she looked around a similar room in the north corner.  “It’s probably going to be a separate exhibit from anything else.  A lot of these museums will borrow valuable artifacts to try and entice people to come and visit.”

“Makes sense,” Tania said.  “I’ll keep looking!”

“These guards are useless,” Chryseis muttered from her location in the south corner.  “I ask them if they know where a sword is, and they just throw their hands up and mumble something in Japanese and walk away!”

Curia had scoured one of the rooms in the east corner, with no luck; she, too, had tried to question a couple of the blue-suited guards, but had gotten no farther than Amazon Arrow had.  As she headed down a long corridor, she spied a white-haired man sitting in a chair, his head down.  “Hello?” she called out.  “Do you know where the Sword of Hermes exhibit is?”

The man looked up at her.  He was wearing a pair of dark glasses, and his blue suit seemed a bit different than the ones the other guards were wearing.  “You’re Wonder Woman!” he exclaimed, in perfect English, as he stood up.

“Oh, Thank Hera!” Curia exclaimed.  “Somebody who speaks English!  And yes, I am Wonder Woman.  Who are you? Do you work here? Do you know where I can find the Sword?”

“I knew it!  You are even hotter than Ultra Woman,” he added, as he stepped a bit closer.  “You can call me Mo.  And I’m just here on…assignment.  What sword are you looking for?”

“Oh, you know her?” Curia asked.  “And it’s the Sword of Hermes.  It is supposed to be on display here, somewhere in the museum.”

“We’ve met,” he replied coolly.  “I heard some alarms going off – is that why you’re here, gorgeous?”

“Umm, yeah,” Curia blushed ever so slightly.  “I need to get to it before-”

“Before the bad guys do,” he interrupted, finishing her sentence.  “That is such a pretty tiara you are wearing,” he smiled, as he reached his hand up towards it.  “Is it gold? Do you mind if I…touch it?”

“I…umm,” Curia started to say something, but before she could, his finger reached her tiara, and she felt a sudden electrical charge come through her tiara, and into her head.  At the same time, his blue suit lit up with a similar electrical charge.  “My mind…fuzzy…body tingling…can’t…move…”

“I guess blondie forgot to warn you about me.  I am Dynamo, and you look so ‘shocked’!
He laughed as he relished her expression – her eyes were wide, her mouth open, and her arms were out at her sides, stiff.  “I did the same trick on her – I’m using the gold in your tiara to focus my powers to override the synapses of your brain.  In about, oh, two minutes, I will have part of your brain locked up, and I will control your body.”  Her expression was frozen in place as he added, “And what a body it is!”

There was a crackle of a different sort that came through Curia’s communicator at that moment.  “Tania, Curia, Chryseis – I have the Sword!” Athena shouted in delight.  “Meet me on the roof in five minutes!”

“Ah, so Ultra Woman and White Owl are here, too,” Dynamo chuckled, as he walked behind the motionless Wonder Woman and wrapped his arm around her waist.  His fingers slid down for a moment between her legs, and as he touched her, she let out a barely audible whimper. “My lightning is racing from your love button right up to the pleasure centers of your brain, Wonder Woman!  After a few more orgasms, your brain will be mush…But I guess that will have to wait.  We have to go up and meet your friends,” and he lifted Curia up like a ragdoll and carried her towards the stairwell.

The other three heroines were already on the roof, in a circle near the middle, as Dynamo tiptoed up the last few steps.  Dynamo quietly approached, staying in the shadows; as he got closer, he could hear their voices.

“Finally, we got to one of these things in time!” Chryseis exclaimed, as she, Tania, and Athena looked at the amazing artifact Athena held in her gloved hands.  “And there’s not a villain in sight, either!”

“Quiet, Chryseis!” Tania barked crossly.  “Don’t jinx us by saying th-Aaaaaah!!!” she screamed, as a burst of lightning suddenly struck her in the back, knocking her to the ground, the metal throughout her suit acting as a conductor.  Athena and Chryseis jumped back, and, as Dynamo stepped into the light, they could see that he was carrying the motionless Wonder Woman under his arm.

“Dynamo!” White Owl shouted, as the villain raised his hand towards her.  “What have you done to Wonder Woman?”

“I found this one wandering the halls, all alone,” he chuckled.  “It was too easy…I have control of her now.  You remember what that’s like, don’t you, Owl?”  He took another step towards her, his hand still raised; Athena knew she should act, but she just stood there, as visions of her last encounter with Dynamo raced through her mind.  “That’s right, of course you do…I wonder what I could do with two pretty playthings?”

“Stay back…I’m warning you…” Athena said, but her voice sounded hollow and unthreatening.  Ultra Woman was on the ground a few feet away, incapacitated still.  Dynamo stepped closer, his prey frozen like a deer in the headlights.  He was about to reach out and touch Athena’s forehead, when something came flying from the side, and struck him hard, knocking him to the roof in excruciating pain and causing him to lose his grip on Curia.

Athena shook her head, trying to clear it, as Chryseis stepped forward, her Soul Bow in hand.  “That’s what you get for messing with my friends!”  She walked over to Tania, who was almost recovered from Dynamo’s blast, and helped her up.  Curia was still lying on her back, not moving;  Dynamo was a few feet away, writhing in pain.

“I really hate that guy,” Tania growled, as she limped over to Dynamo and wrapped her lasso around him.  “Thanks Chryseis!”

“Hey, you came and rescued me – we got to have each other’s backs, right?”  She knelt down next to Curia.  “Is she going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” Athena muttered, “he has done the same to me, and Tania.  He has this ability to…get into your mind somehow, rewire things a bit, but it’s not permanent.  She should be able to move again soon.”  She glared down at the bound Dynamo.  “Lucky for us, he’s a bit of an idiot, and he almost always slips up somehow.”

“An idiot, huh?” Dynamo chuckled, as the Soul Arrow, and the pain, subsided.  “I almost had you again, White Owl, and I will have you, again.”  The local police were coming up the stairwells, and the heroines were only too happy to turn Dynamo over to them.

“Make sure you put him in a well-insulated cell,” Tania called out to the police as they were dragging Dynamo away in cuffs.  As the police left, a well-dressed woman passed them, walking towards the heroines.

Curia’s eyes blinked, and she was able to move again, as she sat up.  “What happened…oooh, my head,” she mumbled.

“You met Dynamo,” Tania answered her.  “He got into your head, probably through your tiara…Arrow took him down, though,” she added with a wink to Chryseis.  “We have the sword, though!”

“Well, it wasn’t a total loss, then,” the woman, who had caught up to them, interjected.  “Mira Kisaki.  I’m the museum curator.  Was that man the thief?”

Athena shook her head.  “No, I doubt it.  He doesn’t have the brains for it.”  She picked up the sword.  “Whoever it was, this is what they were after…We need to keep it with us.  They are going to come after it again, I can assure you.”

“What about the bow?” Mira asked.  

“What bow?” was the reply of the four heroines.  

“Apollo’s Bow.  It was on loan here as well, and it’s gone.  Who is this thief?”

“We don’t know,” Tania shrugged.  “We keep arriving too late, it seems.  Whoever it is, they are not only a step ahead of us, but they keep leaving behind a villain, as if they know we are going to show up!”

“The items they stole before,” Athena interceded, “the Aegis, the Helmet of Hades, and the Winged Sandals – they were all items Perseus used to slay Medusa.  This sword,” she added, as she raised it up, “is what he used to cut off her head…but I am an expert on Greek history, and I know for a fact that Apollo’s Bow never figured into it at all!”

“So, what good would it do them?” Curia asked.  “There must be some other connection we are missing?”

“The Bow is what Apollo used to kill the Python.”  Athena looked around at her friends.  “I think we need to head back to Queen City, and keep digging until we find this connection.”  She turned again to Mira.  “You understand now why we need to keep this sword?”

“Sure,” Mira nodded.  “It’s pretty obvious we don’t have the security in place to protect it, anyhow.  I will let the other museums know that it will be on loan at Queen City for the near future.”

“Then, I guess we are off,” Athena said.  “Nice to meet you, Miss Kisaki.  Hopefully we will be back to return this and the Bow in due time.”

“You okay to fly, Curia?” Chryseis asked Wonder Woman.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Curia replied.  “I can’t rest until we solve this mystery, anyway.  Let’s just go!”  And White Owl and the Amazons took to the air yet again.