It was odd seeing her like this.

No, odd wasn't the right word for it...humbling?

Yes, that was it. Humbling. To see this powerful, imposing figure reduced to laying on a hospital bed hooked up to medical equipment was a humbling sight indeed. It reminded Clark that even with their array of powers, gadgets and weapons, heroes could still be thrown down to the pavement just like any of the people they strive to protect. Of course, it wasn't as if he hadn't seen Diana injured before, but this was different. He was on his way back from the Fortress of Solitude and was within a mile or two of his apartment when he heard cries for help issuing from the beach close by. When he arrived, he found Diana's limp body, blood oozing out of massive gashes, bruises littering her body. Her chest had been moving extremely slowly, her breath seeming to be labored. After shooing the crowd away, he scooped her up in his arms took her to the nearest hospital where they managed to find an open bed and injected all sorts of fluids into her before stitching up some of the more vicious wounds and telling Clark that they would be back "as soon as they could". He was sure that they were going to convene about the benefits of treating a superhero, including how they could bill the Amazons for a last minute addition to their catalog of patients. They would be disappointed, of course. From what he understood, Amazons didn't stay down for long, especially not Princess Diana. He had seen her suffer through asteroid storms, beams consisting of raw energy and other such morbid threats without a scratch. To think that someone or something could have reduced the Princess to a wounded carcass was troubling.

His gaze averted to the window where the sun's dying rays were obscured by the tightly drawn shades. It had been four hours, Clark not leaving her side for a moment. She was a good friend of his, one that had stuck with him through some of the darkest times in his life. She was the one that took Kara in and trained her to be not only a proficient warrior, but a wonderful woman. Diana took care of the funeral arrangements for Lois, ensuring that his deceased wife was paid all the respect in the world. She counseled him through his grief, aided him in making Metropolis one of the safest places to be in the world and...

He heard Diana's heartrate quicken slightly, her muscles beginning to activate. He rose from the chair he had been occupying and went to the side of her bed, taking her hand gently.
"Diana?"

The scene played over and over in her head until thinks went dark.

How had it happened? How could it have happened? When her sisters came rushing in to warn her of the sudden invaders, Diana was quick to respond. The sounds of steel clashing with steel entered her ears, prefacing the reality of the situation before her own eyes confirmed it for herself. Themyscira had suffered many a threat over the years, and still it stood a proud nation, an enduring example of strength and family. The Amazons that made the island their home were a strong, proud people and Diana the ideal among them. And yet as she crested one of the hills and looked down at the battlefield below...what she saw was not years of Amazonion tradition and martial training repelling an invading force...what she saw was nothing short of a massacre.

The shadowy figures wielded bladed weapons and and tonics in flasks and yet even as her sisters clashed their blades with the invaders and seemed to drive them back...it was not enough. The shadowy assailants struck back, breaking their tonics or grazing the sides of an Amazon and without fail those who stood in the path were handily defeated. It was as if the Amazons had given up, their swords too heavy to carry, the fire in their eyes dimmed.

Diana could not bear to see such a sight and took up arms herself as she had whenever her aid was needed. Her training carried her forward, her instincts formulated a plan of attack, her strength saw her sword arm swing swiftly...and yet it would all amount to nothing. Diana entered the fray, knocking a pair of the figures aside while clashing her blade with another's. The odds were stacked against her, but when were they never? But this time the odds would not work out in her favor. Despite fighting back, disarming and disabling her share of the figures, she felt a sharp, sudden pain in her side and felt the warm splash of blood sting at her skin. She didn't look. She couldn't look. She had to keep going even as another pain slashed through her.

And suddenly her hands felt weak. Her sword was a burden and her feet heavy. Her weapons fell to the ground in a deafened clatter; her head throbbed as the strength seemed to leave her body. But she couldn't give up...she wouldn't...her feet, though heavy, were still able to move...Another burst of pain and then everything went dark.

The next thing she heard was the sound of her own name. Slowly Diana opened her eyes and saw not Themyscira but a bright room and the concerned face of one she considered to be her closest ally. A hospital, it had to be...her will to fight on must've carried her some distance...and Clark no doubt took care of the final leg of her journey.

"Clark," Diana said as she came to, her voice returning slowly. "Is this...Metropolis? I have to...I have to return..." She had not forgotten what brought her here. She doubted she ever could.

"Yes, you're in Metropolis. I found you on the shore a few hours ago and you've been in this bed ever since." He smiled slightly as he ran a thumb over the top of her hand. It was good to see her back in the present, but it seemed as if the past was on her mind as his was.
"Return where, Diana? What on earth happened to you?" He could see that her body was slowly patching itself up, but some of the gashes didn't seem to be closing as fast as they normally did. Was her body impaired somehow? Was she-

A scream assailed the man of steel's ears, prompting him to let go of Diana's hand and open the door only to have three circular objects be thrown in his direction. He managed to neutralize them mid-flight with miniatures bursts of heat from his eyes, which only distracted him from the black blurs wielding katanas dripping with a green liquid. There were four of them, one of which made an attempt at stabbing Superman in the chest. He grabbed the attacker by the arm and threw him to the ground before slamming his fist into his chest just hard enough to render him unconscious. The triage surrounded Superman, hospital staff fleeing into whatever room they could find to avoid the carnage.
"This can end peacefully." He felt like he needed to say that. One of them snorted a laugh as he lunged forward and slashed at Superman's shoulder, the hero dodging the blow as he attempted to grab the man's shoulder only to grasp thin air, the warrior slipping behind him and slashing at his back. Clark felt a searing pain jolt down his spine as he whipped his right arm around, connecting with the offender, throwing him back several feet into a nearby wall where he crumpled to the ground. With Clark off balance, the other attackers jumped forward, slashing downward. One connected with Clark's shoulder, but that would be the last hit either would be delivering as Clark blasted both with concentrated bursts of energy from his eyes, the duo collapsing to the floor after being sent through the air.

Breathing heavy, the hero assessed the damage to find that the unconscious attackers hadn't made any on this floor a victim, which meant that either Clark or Diana were the targets...or both? In any case, Clark needed to ensure that the attackers were put in a safe place when they awoke. As hospital staff re-emerged, he urged them to call the police before placing the squadron of sword wielders in an empty room nearby, wrapping them up as tightly as he could with cord before walking back into Diana's room with an apologetic smile.
"I suppose they might be related to your current condition?"

A few hours.

To some that might've seemed like a minor issue, a small matter, but to Diana it was far too troubling. Her sisters could all have been routed in a few hours, fires could be rising from the ashes of the trees...her home could've been lost without her in those precious few hours. All she could do was hope that the attackers, whoever they were, were merciful, that senseless slaughter wasn't their goal...that her fellow Amazons could retreat away to formulate a plan of counterattack. "It's Themyscira," Diana responded, though further revelation was put on hold as Clark...as Superman sprang into action.

Diana didn't want to just sit back helpless, not when Superman didn't know what he was up against. For that matter, Diana didn't either...but she had at least some experience with their tactics...minor though it may have been. She rose to a seated position, surveying the damage she had sustained in her first encounter with the group. She wasn't healed to full, there were still visible scars and bruises along her arm and torso, but the major gashes and slashes had healed nicely in those few hours. Regardless of her condition, it didn't suit her to just sit there and do nothing.

Diana rose from the hospital bed, stepping onto the floor with a few brief wobbly steps. She was standing, that was the main thing, but she had taken too long...or perhaps Superman was just that fast - she went with the former just to make herself feel the tiniest bit better- because as she turned to the door, in he walked as if he had just gone down the hall to the vending machines. "Did they get you?" She asked, a sense of concern clear in her tone of voice. "First you feel a sudden pain and then you feel...weak. I imagine it's how you feel around kryptonite. One second I was besting them...the next I was here."

She paused, offering a solemn shake of her head in remembrance. "The question is...were they after me or you? They attacked Themyscira in larger numbers...the ones here could have been sent to finish the job. I have to help them." Again she was back to the notion of helping, well aware in her head that the situation was getting complicated by the second.

"I would assume the both of us. Normally when one of us gets thrown under the bus, we all go together...but for all of them to attack Themyscira like they did was much more targeted." Clark felt another shock of pain go down his spine, his shoulders slumping forward as he reached to his back, feeling the all too familiar stickiness that accompanied a deep wound. He wasn't feeling weak per se, but he was certainly willing to take a nap...sooner than later. His eyes fluttered slightly, shaking his head to clear the mental fogginess that was beginning to envelop him. To think that these were the effects after one wound...it was a testament to Diana's strength that she was able to stand. He placed a steady hand on her shoulder, gazing into her tired eyes. He knew she would want to fight, but then again, would she be able to? Not like he could stop her anyhow...

He would have to go with her.

"We can go back, but you're not going alone, especially not in the condition you're in." Police officers were filtering into the hallways, checking on those who were in their rooms as they made their way down to the two heroes.
"Wait here a moment." He walked to the room that he had placed the captives in, opening the door to find the cords he had tied with all of his strength severed, the window open. Cursing silently, he strode to the window, looking down. There was no railing or fire escape that they could've relied on...could they teleport? Did they have air support?
"Diana...come in here for a moment, would you?" His brow furrowed in concentration as he strained for any hint of the marauders, but to no avail. He turned, telling his companion:
"I wrapped them up in here with everything I had and they managed to get free. Not only that, but they escaped through the window with no way to get to any other rooftops or the ground without falling to their deaths. Which makes me think..." He folded his arms across his chest before he asked:
"Do you remember how they got on the island? It's not as if Themyscira is easy to find, yet you say they just...appeared. Maybe if we can find out how they got there, we can root them out at the source. That, of course, would probably require us to get there." He snorted a laugh.
"That didn't accomplish much, did it?" He sighed as he continued:
"Well, no going around it: we're headed there. You'll be ok to fly or will you need a lift?" He shot her a teasing smirk.

That was the assumption she had come to as well, but it came with an unfortunate amount of implications. If they were willing to attack Themyscira...to attack her home just to possibly get at her...what else would they do? If she was their target then they must've been furious at her narrow escape, and for all she knew that could've made the situation on Themyscira all the more dire. Why, then, was she targeted and who else would come under attack? From the way she noticed Clark's sudden slumping of his shoulders she surmised that they must've had access to artifacts and objects capable of putting them on equal, if not better, footing with both an Amazon and a Kryptonian. That was a harrowing thought. It was bad enough when just one had said abilities, but this was damn near an army.

"Speak for yourself," Diana spoke after the mention of her condition, offering a faint smirk as she offered her shoulder for Clark to rest on, "But you might be right. I hate to say it but I don't think this is something we can do alone."

Plans were forming in her head. She knew how to fight, she knew Themyscira like the back of her hand, and Clark...Superman well...he was Superman. Together they could stand a chance at at lease reclaiming her island. That was her first goal, but she wouldn't be content until she had determined their origins, their plans, and, most importantly, how she could put a stop to it. By the time she was called into another room, she hadn't come up with anything concrete, but in her defense she had much to consider.

"I wish I had more answers," Diana shook her head at the question, worrying a moment at the almost magical escape that had happened, "From what I remember, there was nothing and then they were upon us. By the time I was notified it was already too late. I'd say teleportation but transporting that number of people that distance...there's questions that need to be answered and Themyscira is our only lead right now." Diana was already removing the hospital bandages from her arm. This was no time to rest, not when they had a chance at understanding this attack.

"After you nearly fell down back there? I can't trust you to fly me down the hall, much less to Themyscira," Diana got a playful jab in, which was always nice when it was aimed at Clark. "I can handle the journey."

"It wasn't a 'near fall', it was more of a...feigned swoon." He chuckled lightly, leaning his head out of the open window. Even with his enhanced hearing and sight, their assailants had blended back into the fold of Metropolis like they were shadows. He knew someone who was awfully good at that trick...maybe he had some experience with these kinds of attackers? Maybe even knew who they were?
"Let's see if we can't get our favorite grumpy Bat to do some recon for us. Maybe he can come up with a way to reverse the effect of whatever was coating their blades. It shouldn't take him longer than a hour, right?" It was then that Clark heard it. A soft whisper, a delicate wind that floated past his ear. There were words in the whisper, garbled and hopeless, but if he just strained hard enough...

Nothing.

He shook his head. Probably nothing.
"Let's get moving, then. Here's hoping we can make sure none of your other sisters have to fall today."

____________

The carnage. Everywhere.

As Clark's feet touched down on the shores of Themyscira, his senses were buffeted by the coppery smell of blood, the choking aroma of billowing smoke and the faint gasps of the mortally wounded who knew their time was running out faster than they could control. It was humbling to see such a proud race seemingly decimated in one stroke, to se-

"DIANA!" Up ahead, a blonde haired girl with her once elegantly white tunic stained with crimson matter sprinted towards them. Upon reaching the duo, she looked to Clark, brow furrowed.
"Who...who are you?"
"A friend who's willing to help." The girl's gaze went from the oddly costumed man to a much more familiar sight.
"Diana, there are..are..so few of us left. I'm so glad you came back. There are more of them coming through one of the portals..."
"Portals?" Clark looked to Diana, his turn to be mystified.
"Yes, the portals." She seemed to scoff at his ignorance as she continued:
"We tried to route them off, but...but we couldn't. They have blades that cut through flesh like I've never seen. I had to run, you know, I couldn't..." Tears welled up in her eyes as Clark asked:
"Where are the 'portals' you set up?"