On the edge of the blade, only the soon-to-be-dead listen.

-Tom Serra

“What’s your take on the massacre yesterday?”

“Mister Delacroix, are you worried about possible manslaughter charges against you for the deaths of the terrorists?”

“Where did you learn to shoot like that?”

“What is your relationship with Wonder Woman?”

“Are you dating Veronica Cale?”

Phillip leaned back from the press of reporters, his teeth drawn back in a menacing snarl with his hands held up to fend off the pack of slavering media hounds. “No comment.”

It was Tuesday morning, and he was irate and tired after a whole night of planning with Jake and Gawain. And more than a bit pissed off at the media. Despite all the coaching from Stanley Burnside, he could not help being angry at all the intrusion into his life. Stan keeps saying that as a public figure, everything I am is now accessible to the media. But I never signed up for this!

They had descended on him the moment he left his decoy apartment in the pricey high class suites of the Upper East End, surrounding him in the basement car park even before he got to his car. Phillip was tempted to draw his Berretta and demonstrate to them just how good he was with the gun, but that would have accomplished a great deal of nothing.

He just brusquely squeezed past them like a bull, using his strength and agility to get into his car. He gunned his engine, then punched the horns twice, sending them reeling and holding their ears in pain. He stomped on the accelerator, taking advantage of the opening to get out.

What a bunch of annoying twats, Phillip cursed as he drove off. I wish I could kill them all. Then he really wanted to draw his gun when he saw that yet another horde was lying outside the Ares Macrotech building in ambush. He stopped his car a few blocks away, and sneaked past them using all the myriad tricks learnt as a killer. Let them figure that one out.

Office work that day was office work as usual, though he could see the signs of additional respect from his underlings. Documents were faster to arrive. Answers to questions more prompt. Or were their actions due to fear? Fear of what he had done to the assassins?

He didn’t care. Respect or fear, either was fine with him, even though he preferred the latter, if not exactly appreciative of the former. He went through the transactions and meetings of the morning in record time, because he wanted to keep his afternoons free for… other business.

Phillip knew Veronica Cale was under high security, and her head of security Fallon was busy whistling up every last piece of advanced security equipment technology he could lay his hands on. Not that they would be of much use to a truly determined and prepared assassin.

I need to see how she’s taking this. Being stuck in her room all day has got to be hell on a hyperactive person like her. Phillip could see how similar they were, even after just two days. I think my visit to her might perk her up a bit. Hmmm, maybe I should get her some flowers. At least, that’s what Gawain suggested.

What the hell, I don’t even know how to approach a woman. Go with the veteran’s advice. Even if Gawain’s dating record wasn’t much better, at least the other man had the semblance of a social life once upon a time, before they had faced…

Phillip wrenched his thoughts away from places where he definitely did not want to go. Right now, he was taking the time to rest, let his injured left hand heal first before engaging in any ‘activities’. He would just stick around Cale, ensure her safety, and leave the ground legwork to Jake and Gawain. I hope they don’t screw up.

“Where are they?” Julia asked as she and Helena walked nervously around the meeting room of the embassy as Diana looked on concernedly. Vanessa and Cassie had not returned to the embassy the previous night, and their mothers were getting worried.

Helena sat down heavily on a chair, “They were supposed to be back late last night, not disappeared off to god knows where!”

“Perhaps they got involved in some activity that demanded them to stay up late?” Diana tried to reassure her friends, though she herself felt anxious, and a sense of foreboding filled her. The girls should be back. Except they weren’t.

“But they could at least call us to let us know they’re all right!” Julia pointed out. “With mobile phones so popular nowadays, it shouldn’t be hard for them to just call back!”

“Could something have happened to them?” Helena asked. “Beyond their ability to defend themselves?”

Diana paled, “I’ll go check it out immediately. Where did they go last night?”

Helena answered her, “Some nightclub in the south of the city. I found this in Cassie’s room” She handed a card to the Amazon. “Be careful, Diana.”

The Princess offered her friends a faint smile to reassure them, “I will. Don’t worry.”

Then she left the embassy.

It did not take her long to reach the nightclub in question, a rather typical business that was closed during the day. She questioned the staff there, but came up with nothing after the door guard told her that he saw the two girls leave together from the nightclub just before midnight. There wasn’t anybody else with them.

Now anxious for any sign of her young charges, Diana flew over their route back to the embassy. Cassie could have carried both of them back, or they could have taken a cab. They could not have disappeared without a trace, and if anybody had tried to grab them, Cassie would have fought back, and Artemis had trained her and Nessie to be wary of traps and ambushes.

Then a horrible thought struck Wonder Woman. What if the two girls never had a chance to retaliate at all?

“So, all everybody knows is that there’s a 100 million dollar bounty on Veronica Cale’s head.” Jake Kabrinski grunted, “Makes you wonder who’s nuts enough to spend that kind of money.” He leaned against a wall, looking like a casual pedestrian.

“You might be surprised.” Gawain Sharpe said. The bounty hunter squatted next to Jake, staring at the crowd in the crowded square. “Lots of people would pay money for the silliest of things. Though I admit this takes the cake. Too bad the fund is untraceable. I was tempted to try my hand at killing Cale for a moment myself.”

“Hmph.” Jake shook his head disgustedly at his friend’s moral weakness. “Still, I suspect there’s more to this than meets the eye.”

“Yeah, which is why we’re here, right?” Gawain grinned slightly as he took out a brown paper bag. He cupped his hands around the opening, and blew into it, inflating the bag until it was full one air. One hand held the opening tight, preventing any air from seeping out.

“Ready?” He asked Jake. His friend nodded.

Gawain brought his other hand up and hard against the bag. Like a balloon, the bag collapsed with a bang. Like a gunshot.

There was suddenly a flurry of movement in the crowded square. The two saw several men reach under their jackets, looking around anxiously. More than one guy actually pulled out his guns before he realized it was a false alarm. More than a few glared at each other before going their own way. None of them looked Gawain’s way.

He whistled softly, “Lots of interested competitors. And nervous too.”

“And more than a few suspicious fellows.” Jake smiled. “I saw a guy, Middle Eastern, react as though he was almost expecting it.” With his height, Jake could survey the crowd much better.

“What did he do?”

“He dropped to the ground instead of pulling out a piece.”

They had their target, the break in the pattern they had been looking for. Gawain smirked. “Well, let’s go then.”

Cassandra Sandsmark found herself standing in the middle of a room, the walls old and worn down. The present Wonder Girl shivered slightly. She was clad in her red and gold costume, but she did not feel strong at all. Worse of all, there was no door. And no windows. There were no lamps, yet light was present. Something felt very, very wrong.

A chill wind cut into the room, along with cold laughter. Cassie gasped as several figures sprang into existence around her, looking all too much like the minions of Trigon and Brother Blood she had fought while part of the Teen Titans.

Utilizing the Amazon fighting skills Artemis had taught her, Cassie snapped a punch at the closest figure, only to discover with horror that her blow simply had no effect.

Then they were all around her, pulling and scratching and tearing at her. Her costume was pulled off, and their cold hands clamped onto her honed and athletic body. She struggled with all her might, but she just could not break free.

Then she saw several of the figures remove their clothes, revealing long and hard penises, all hideous and gigantic. They descended on her with leering grins.

Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Girl, screamed in mortal fear.

Vanessa Kapatelis looked at herself, and saw that she was wearing her Silver Swan costume. She could even feel the wings on her back responding to her thoughts. All of a sudden, she felt very scared, like the time when there were voices in her head telling her to attack Diana.

She was soaring through the blue sky, something which should delight her, but Vanessa could not find the ground no matte how low she flew.

Then there was a loud roar from behind her, and Vanessa turned her head to see a dark swarm of ravens approaching her. She could see blood dripping from their beaks, menace in their beady eyes.

She tried to use the ability to control birds that Sebastian Ballesteros and Circe had given her, but the ravens kept on coming, gaining on her n matte how fast she flew.

Then they had reached her, and Vanessa Kapatelis could only feel the beaks, the claws, stabbing and pecking at her body. The pain was excruciating.

“Heehee!” Doctor Psycho giggled in delight as he watched the two young women squirm helplessly on the floor of his hideout, caught in nightmares of his mind’s creation, reducing them to useless, helpless females. “Excellent! Excellent!”

Psycho hated all women, but he had harbored a special hatred of Wonder Woman for years now, and if he couldn’t strike at her directly, at least for the moment, he was more than happy to get his kicks torturing those closest to her. It helped that he had financial backing and trained muscle this time. From a most unlikely source. He would not have been able to do this on his own.

Grabbing the two girls had been exceedingly simple. Doctor Psycho had simply waited for them to leave the nightclub, followed them a short distance, and then used his mind-altering powers to lead them away, then knock them unconscious. Carrying them back to his hideout was easy with his newfound allies.

“Sir, we should proceed to the next phase of the plan.” Abdullah Sayir murmured as he stared at the two young beauties writhe, his erection clearly visible through his loose pants. He was one of the many mujahideen sent from the Middle East to America to foster unrest and destruction, all for the reward of 72 virgins in the afterlife. But Psycho knew Sayir wasn’t about to give up a chance to fuck a virgin in the present life if he could help it.

“In due time, my dear Sayir. In due time.” Psycho grinned nastily. “Are the bombs ready?”

“Yes, the decoy group are ready to hit Cale’s penthouse suite.”

Psycho thought back to Veronica Cale and how she had taunted him when he was in her custody. And how quick she was to consign him to death.

He supposed he had Cale to thank for the increased potency of his powers. At the very last moment before he was to be shot, he had managed to break past the limitations of the drugs and his own restrictions, advancing to a higher level of telepathic and hallucination control in his victims, as well as being able to control and affect more than a dozen people simultaneously.

He had fooled the assassin assigned to him into thinking he had killed the supervillain, and deposed of the body. Then Psycho had spent the past few months thinking of how to exact his revenge on Cale and Wonder Woman.

It was only after a chat discussion on the net that he had come into contact with a group of like-minded bigots, who turned out to be an Islamic terrorist group sickened of the way the Amazons of Themyscira exposed themselves and the ideals they preached, which was counter to everything they believed in.

It did not take long for them to arrange for him a quick trip to the Middle East, where Psycho easily pledged allegiance to their leader, if not their religion. More importantly, the group was well-funded, and had a ready supply of metahumans.

Psycho smiled to himself as he remembered the cloning tanks holding a dozen clones of a meta-mujahideen, as they called him. Possessing the ability to lift at least 50 tons, inhuman reflexes, and high levels of invulnerability, as well as a programmed hatred of women and the West, they were the terrorist group’s most powerful weapons.

The leader had sent 2 of these metahuman clones with him. They would be his ace-in-the-hole to deal with the troublesome Amazon Princess if she proved resistant to his mind control, which Psycho did not think too likely. Right now they lounged motionless in the basement of the abandoned building in the Bronx, waiting for his orders.

Psycho’s mission was to destroy Wonder Woman and humiliate her utterly in public, with Cale as just a tasty sideshow. The plan was proceeding completely as planned, and to tie up anybody who might be coming to Wonder Woman’s aid, they had arranged for extra jihadist fighters and suicide bombers to be deployed throughout the area, ready to unleash havoc. Brooklyn, especially, was to be their chosen battleground. By focusing attention on the terrorist battle, Psycho would have a free hand to destroy Wonder Woman and her friends.

Furthermore, with the recent assassination attempts on Cale, nobody would be suspecting the Islamic jihadists of being behind the whole business until it was too late. It had been a simple matter for Psycho to waltz into the home of a rich Saudi sheikh, and abscond with the 100 million US dollars as the bounty on Cale’s head.

The assassins who had turned up in New York proved to be putty in his hands, and many of them were scattered throughout the city to pick off more women, adding to the madness. After all, they all looked like Veronica Cale.

Chaos and confusion would be their best allies, and Psycho was already dreaming of the terrors he was about to inflict on Wonder Woman to break her mind and spirit totally.

Yes, it was shaping up to be a very good day indeed.

“Fallon.” Phillip acknowledged the bodyguard as he approached Veronica Cale’s own room. “How is she taking all this?”

“Not good.” Fallon frowned. “Maybe you can calm her down.” He was seated behind a desk near the door. The entire building was tense. Phillip could sense it the moment he stepped into the building. Many of the occupants seemed to be moving out for the moment. He had to go through three checkpoints just to even enter her apartment.

“I’ve known her for just two days. You obviously think too highly of me.” Phillip scoffed. “How’s security?”

Fallon opened one side of his jacket to reveal an advanced B13 technology laser pistol in shoulder holster. “I’m just waiting for those suckers to come in. I’ve got guards at every entrance and exit point, plus cameras covering all blind areas. Not an ant can sneak through without us knowing.”

Phillip nodded. It’s a good setup for detecting solo intruders, but… His trained eye recognized the weakness of such an arrangement, which was singularly vulnerable to a concerted attack through any entrance. 6 men, well-trained, well armed, could fight their way through and get out. I know I could do it with just one backstop.

He was about to raise the issue with Fallon when Cale’s room door opened. The blonde woman stepped out and stared at Phillip, then smiled.

“For you,” Phillip offered shyly as he offered her a bouquet of roses.

“Thank you, they’re lovely.” Veronica said as she took the flowers. “Come on in.”

“Into your bedroom?” Phillip scratched the back of his head nervously, “Uh, can’t we just talk in the living room?”

She grinned at his discomfort. “The study room then.” The roses were handed off to a maid, and Phillip was struck again by how unused he was to this sort of situation. He told himself sternly, gut it out, man, gut it out. This is nothing to be nervous of.

“You feeling better?” He asked her as they sat down on a long sofa in the study room. The windows were covered with some kind of material that prevented see-through technology from piercing the cover. Fallon had truly taken every precaution.

“Yes, much better.” Cale smiled, “I never got to thank you properly for saving my life. Well, other than a kiss…” Her voice trailed off seductively.

Phillip gulped hard, “It was nothing. I did what I had to do.”

“You mean you’re used to rescuing damsels in distress all the time?”

He shook his head, and smiled ruefully, “I wish that was true.”

She leaned against the sofa. “Where did you learn to fight like that? I don’t think even Olympic competitors can shoot half as well as you did.”

Phillip answered her in his head. Learning to use a gun from birth, and then surviving countless battles would do that. War was the harshest demonstration of natural selection. If a soldier didn’t measure up, then he was dead. The battlefields he had fought on were the most unforgiving in history. And he had survived far longer than most.

But he said, “Believe it or not, I learnt it in a year at a shooting ranch somewhere in the Midwest. I was kind of wild when I was younger, and I spent all my time gallivanting and picking up useless stuff.” It was the cover story Ares and gang had cooked up for him, and from he had known of the real and deceased Phillip Delacroix, it was all completely true.

Except that it was really a lame explanation for his skills, and the look of disbelief on Veronica’s face proved it.

“Uh, anyway,” he tried to change the subject, “why were there assassins after you?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, “I’m just as surprised as you are.”

Phillip resisted the urge to narrow his eyes. His gut told him she was lying. “No enemies at all?”

“None that would be tempted to spend 100 million dollars just to kill me. I mean, I do have my enemies, but that’s in business. You should know that.”

“Yes, I know. But outside of the business field?”

She threw up her hands, “I don’t know! Why are you asking me all these anyway? I’ve already told the police the same things!”

“Because I’m trying to help you. You can’t stay like this forever.”

Veronica sighed, “I know. But until we find out who was behind the fund and get them to stop, I’m stuck here.”

He got up, “I’ll try my best to help you. Ares Macrotech has resources and contacts that might help.”

She reached for his hand, “You’re leaving? Why don’t you stay for dinner?”

He shook his head, “I’ve got something on. Some other day, perhaps.” He tried to ignore the pain inside him when he saw the hurt and lonely look on her face.

“I’ll see you out then.” Veronica stood up, still holding his hand.

“No, don’t go near the door. You stay here and rest.” Phillip gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, then left the apartment. Time to see what Jake and Gawain have found.

Wonder Woman had called in a few favors in the search for her missing friends. The entire police force of New York was on edge, first with the attempts on Veronica Cale’s life, then the disappearance of the two girls, one of which was Wonder Girl.

But Diana preferred to rely on her closest allies, her fellow sisters of Themyscira. She was in her office in the embassy, meeting with the Amazon who had briefly replaced her as Wonder Woman.

Artemis asked, “So they were abducted without a struggle? I find that hard to believe.” Diana understood that Artemis had trained Cassie, and the young girl had been an excellent student. Artemis simply did not believe that her young protégé could be taken down so easily.

“There are many ways to render an unprepared opponent helpless without a fight, Artemis,” said Diana, “And I fear Cassie and Vanessa have fallen prey to just such a cowardly attack. We need to find them quickly. I have a feeling that something terrible is happening to them.”

“That’s why you called me in?” the redhead asked. Artemis had her duties o Themyscira, but the disappearance of Wonder Girl was a matter close to her heart, and Diana knew that Artemis would not spare any effort in helping her.

The Amazon Princess nodded, “I want you to help me in questioning the local criminals in New York. Two of us could do it faster.”

“Why isn’t the police doing this?”

Diana sighed, “There’s a whole bunch of assassins in New York hunting Cale,” no need to explain who Veronica Cale was, since Artemis already knew, “and the police have their hands full just trying to keep a lid on things.”

Artemis pursed her lips, “Could the two events be related?”

Now that was something Diana had considered without any clear conclusion, without any evidence to even start hypothesizing. “Perhaps. We just don’t know. Right now, the only thing that links the disappearance of the girls and the bounty on Cale is that we don’t know anything on both cases.” And that in itself is suspicious enough, Diana thought.

“Very well,” Artemis, “I think we had better start moving if we want to find Cassie and Vanessa.”

“We didn’t get much out of him,” Gawain was reporting to Phillip, “But what he did tell us was bad. Very, very bad.”

The Middle Eastern guy Jake and Gawain had cornered, beaten up, and subsequently interrogated with all the most devious means at their disposal slumped in his chair in Jake’s café basement, exhausted and broken, and almost naked. It had been exceedingly simple. Jake and Gawain had tickled the poor guy until he talked.

“How bad?” Phillip asked as he cleaned his pistol.

“They’re going to start a full scale war in Brooklyn tonight.”

Phillip stared at Gawain. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope, I’m not.” Gawain let out a long breath, “Seems like this bunch of jihadists are going to kill a mob boss, and guess what happens next?”

“The mob shoots back, and there goes the neighborhood.” Jake walked over, cradling an M-60 heavy machine gun and laying it on the table. “But we’re no closer to finding who’s responsible for the bounty on Cale.”

“I know they’re all linked, but what’s the link?” Phillip rubbed his temples tiredly. “We have the assassins, the Islamic terrorists, the 100 million dollar bounty on Cale. What’s the one common factor that binds them together?” They had not been able to pry anything else useful out of the mujahideen, like the locations of the other members of his group, and the leaders of the plot.

“Does it matter?” Gawain was slotting bullets into a magazine holder for his sniper rifle.

Phillip looked at his two fellow soldiers, then sighed, “I guess not.”

“More importantly, are we going to fight tonight?” asked Jake. It was late afternoon, and there wasn’t much time left for them to get their combat gear ready.

Phillip glanced up, and made a decision. It was entirely possible that they could snag one or two high ranking members of the terrorists for interrogation. That made the decision for him. “Tonight, we fight.”

“Get down!” Fallon screamed as he replied with more bursts from his laser pistol.

They had attacked suddenly in the evening as his men were changing shifts for dinner, a group of 20 men storming into the building and blasting their way past his arranged security. Fallon was holding the last line of defense now, all his handpicked men dead on the ground. Their bullets had just bounced off the lead attacker, a sheer brute of a man.

Fallon suspected the guy was a metahuman, and only his laser pistol had managed to hurt the assassin, through the knees, and the guy had rolled away before Fallon had been able to finish the job. Then the other assassins came into play.

He had been fighting for several minutes before a black clad assassin caught him with an AK 47 before he could get behind cover after killing another assassin. Fallon felt only the slugs tearing through his body, slamming past the Kevlar vest he wore under his suit, before the darkness claimed him.

“Leave me alone!” Cale exclaimed in fear as the men stormed into her room. One man used the butt of his rifle to hit her across the face, and Veronica collapsed onto the ground, unconscious from the vicious blow.

The attackers picked her up, and wired the place with the explosives they had brought along. Mere moments later, her apartment was just a smoking, burning ruin.

Near the Themysciran embassy, Doctor Psycho laid in wait with his handpicked terrorists, along with one of the metahuman clones. One mind-controlled man, with a bomb strapped to his chest and hidden by his jacket, walked up to the embassy and knocked on the door.

He was greeted by one of the staff, a woman. Psycho played the man like a puppeteer, making him say that he had important information for Wonder Woman regarding the disappearance of her friends.

Within ten minutes, Wonder Woman arrived, flying over the city buildings and descending gracefully onto the rooftop before she went down into the embassy. Psycho smiled as he watched the scene play out through his puppet’s eyes.

The Amazon Princess walked into the office to meet his puppet, but Psycho could see that she already suspected something was amiss the moment she walked in. No matter. Next to him, a mujahideen pressed a button. One side of the embassy exploded as the unwilling suicide bomber did his bit for Allah.

“Go, go!” Psycho yelled. The metahuman clone ran into the huge hole in the side of the embassy made by the explosion, his fists adorned with studded knuckledusters. Psycho used his telepathic talents to observe the clone as he came upon the groggy form of Wonder Woman, her body blackened in spots from the explosion.

Beat her down! Psycho ordered, and crackled madly as the clone punched viciously at Wonder Woman, hitting her with such force that she flew out of the hole and onto the street. Blood spurted from her mouth, and the clone then punched her again, this time between her legs.

“Aiiiieeee!” The Amazon Princess bellowed in sheer pain. She laid on the ground, clutching her privates in agony.

Psycho cackled madly at the sight of the world’s greatest superheroine lying on the ground, helpless at the hands of her foes. Her golden tiara and gold highlights of her costume/armor gleamed under the dull lights of the streetlamps, and Psycho could sense the growing arousal of the mujahideen fighters around him as they observed the most desirable woman in the world squirming on the ground, hurt and at their mercy.

“Put her down for the count!” The clone stood over her, and sent a series of punishing kicks into her face. The superheroine stopped moving, a small pool of blood around the ground near her mouth.

Psycho smiled and reached with his powers into her mind, even as the clone picked the unconscious Wonder Woman up and over his shoulder. The small group of mujahideen started moving back to their hideout in the Bronx.

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Now, was that expected? Doctor Psycho is one of Wonder Woman’s more dangerous foes, and it struck me that he would make a very good villain for a R or X-rated fic.

Anyway, next chapter is all out action, in more ways than one…

Please review this fic. It means a lot to me. Meanwhile, I have to get back on my other fic. Should be a fast one.