WONDER WOMAN:
The Senator’s Crisis by marat
Chapter 7
It didn’t take as long for the ambulance to
reach the scene as it had the much-longed-for backup. The
police rushed forward once the four armed men
had disappeared, hurrying to the side of Penelope
and Robert Brooks, for this was the name of the
young man whose foot was injured by the same
bullet that put down Diana Prince’s roommate.
The police grabbed a first-aid kit from their car and
used pressure to attempt to staunch the flow of
blood from Penelope’s thigh. Though the wound was
bloody, there was no indication that any serious
or permanent damage had been done. Robert’s foot
wound was painful, but it too was not serious.
The medical people confirmed these police
assessments when the ambulance got to the scene.
One policeman bent over the unconscious Wonder
Woman and gingerly pulled her breastplate and
bustier back over her exposed breasts. The
Amazon lay on her back, with her arms falling loosely
out in a relaxed cruciform. Her head was facing to
the left and her legs made a rough approximation
of the figure ‘4’, her right sole and heel lying
under her left knee. He turned her face to inspect for
injury, for he had been told of the fearful
beating she had sustained at the hands of the two large
powerful gunmen. He was surprised to discover
that there were no bruises or cuts anywhere. He
raised her eyelid, looking to determine whether
there were unseen injuries, examining for dilation of
the pupil and the like. Again, there was no
evidence of injury. As he was puzzling over this, the
crowd began to push closer to the prone
superheroine.
‘Why didn’t she do something?’ one person
demanded. ‘Two people shot and she didn’t do a thing.’
‘There’s not a mark on her. Is she unconscious?
How could she have been beaten so much and not
have a mark on her? Was it a fake?’ another
asked. That would be a question asked frequently over
the next two days. It wouldn’t take long for the
crowd to turn angry.
‘Some superheroine! Where is she when we’re
being shot at?’ ‘It’s her fault this happened! They
said they were looking for her. It’s her fault
those people were shot!’ ‘She ought to be arrested as a
menace. She sent those bullets flying all over
the place. Someone else could have been hurt.’ ‘Who
needs a superheroine who isn’t doing her job?
Get her out of here!’
The officer lifted the unconscious Amazon and
carried her to the patrol car parked at the curb. Her
carefully laid her across the back seat, then
went to the front seat and got a thermos of water. He
sprinkled it on her face, the rubbed it on her
forehead and the back of her neck. Slowly her eyes
opened, fluttering as she tried to focus.
‘Where am I?’ the Princess from Paradise Island
asked quietly. ‘What happened?’
‘Wonder Woman, we’re going to have to take a
statement from you, so you’ll eventually be coming
down to headquarters. Right now, you’re still at
the Air and Space Museum on the mall. And, if I
were you, I’d stay here, away from that crowd.
Two people were shot during the fracas, and some
people are blaming you. We’ll determine that
when we get statements from you and from some of
them.’
‘Two people were shot?’ This shocked Wonder
Woman into sharp awareness. ‘Please let me go to
them.’ She sat up quickly. ‘Please show me where
they are.’
As soon as the policeman began leading Wonder
Woman across the plaza toward where Penelope
and Robert Brooks were being treated, the crowd
started yelling. Some booed; some simply yelled
derisively; others made unseemly and insulting
gestures or called her uncomplimentary names.
Wonder Woman was taken aback by the catcalls,
but she wanted to try to reach out to the injured.
She was first taken to the young man with the
injured foot.
‘Is it serious?’ she asked the man in white who
was treating him.
‘No. It’s probably more painful than anything,’
he answered. ‘We’ll take him to the hospital and
have them look at it. He’ll probably have to
stay off it for a little while, but he’ll most likely go home
today.’
‘Get her away from here! I don’t want her around
me! This is her fault!’ Robert Brooks complained
to the policeman.
‘What?’ Wonder Woman looked shocked. When she
saw the anger and pain in his face, she tried to
be apologetic. ‘I’m very sorry you were injured.
Please, if there is anything I can do to make you
more comfortable….’
‘Yes. Just go away,’ he said.
Wonder Woman rose, and immediately the shouting
from the crowd began anew. ‘May I see the
other?’
She was led to where Penelope was lying. Wonder
Woman didn’t see who it was until she had been
taken past the crush of emergency medics working
around the body. When she saw Penelope’s face,
twisted in pain, she took a step back. Dear
Hera, she thought. How did this happen? ‘Is she going to
be all right?’
‘She’s lost some blood and she’ll probably stay
overnight at the hospital, but she’s going to be all
right,’ the young medic replied. Wonder Woman
didn’t hear all of the response. She just kept
looking at her friend and the pool of blood that
she was lying in.
Wonder Woman turned and walked toward the centre
of the plaza. As she did so, the angry cries of
the crowd followed her. She felt a sense of loss
in the pit of her stomach and tears began to form
around the corners of her eyes. She needed to
get away as soon as possible, to compose herself. She
turned to the policeman. ‘When do you need me to
make my statement?’
‘If you would be at the H Street station in
about an hour. Ask the desk sergeant for Sergeant Trower.
That’s him over there with the boy.’ He pointed
to where Robert was being treated.
‘I’ll be there.’ She turned and, surrounded by
the anger of the crowd she walked toward the corner
of the building. As she walked she felt the eyes
of the crowd on her. Everywhere she went, she
knew that that she was the centre of attention.
But this time the attention was different, hostile. She
felt their eyes on her and the chills of their
hatred. Despite the heat, goosebumps formed on her bare
back and shoulders. She stiffened as she moved,
trying to lessen the satin swish of her costume,
anything to remove this now-unwanted attention.
She listened as the mob accused her of just
walking away from those she had injured, accused
her of fraud, accused her of abandoning the
injured.
When she turned the corner past the building,
she ran quickly alongside the Museum to the back
corner and there she finally stopped. She leaned
against the wall, her forearms resting between her
head and the wall. Penelope. Penelope! How could
something like this happen to you? It occurred to
the Amazon that maybe Penelope had been right.
Maybe she should just disappear. Let fully
authorised law enforcement agencies do their
job. As the shouts of the crowd still rang in her ears,
she cried, worried about her friend, fearful
that her years of work had been undone by this one day.
Turning corner so that she now behind the
building and separated from the crowd, tears streaming
down her face, she returned to her Diana Prince
persona. She didn’t even care if anyone saw her,
but, happily, there was no one within seeing.
Then she walked down to the street and sat on the
curb. And she cried.
*****
After putting in her appearance as Wonder Woman
at the H Street police station, where she made
her statement about the events of the day, Diana
then rushed to the hospital. She first went to the
Emergency Room, to see if Penelope had been
admitted yet. It turned out her roommate was already
in her room on the fourth floor.
Penelope was alone in the room, the other bed
not being used. When Diana pushed open the door,
she saw Penelope gazing out the window looking
at the sun. The rays struck her in the face, but her
eyes were only half-opened. Hesitantly, Diana
eased into the room. ‘How do you feel?’
The smile that spread across Penelope’s face
wiped away all doubt from Diana’s mind. ‘Oh, Diana.
Thank God you’ve come. I was so worried about
you.’
‘About me? You’re the one who’s hospitalised,’
Diana responded, entering the room and closing the
door. Seeing the tubes entering Penelope’s arms
gave Diana a new shock but the attitude of her
roommate reassured her of her welcome.
‘It’s just overnight. For observation. There was
a fair loss of blood, but the leg will be fine. No bone
was damaged, no major blood vessels touched.
Just in and out.’ Penelope was speaking quickly
now, just like her old self. ‘The doctor was
very encouraging about rehab, too. I’ll need to be on
crutches for only a short while. You’ll have to
help me change the bandages once or twice during
rehab. Then the stitches will have to come out.’
‘Is it painful? When I saw you on the plaza, you
looked like you were in agony.’
“I was, but that’s because they were using
pressure to stop the bleeding. It would have been worse
if the bullet were still in there.’
‘The bullet went right through?’
‘Oh, yes. It lodged in the foot of the guy
behind me. That probably accounts for his temperament. He
hasn’t wanted to talk to anyone, not even me.
You’d think that two people wounded by the same
bullet would have something to say to one
another.’
‘I met him on the plaza,’ Diana recalled. ‘He
blamed me for it,’ she said softly.
‘He blamed me for it, too. “If you had just
stayed still, none of this would have happened!” God,
what a wimp!’
‘Well, he did have a bullet in him.’
‘In his foot, for God’s sakes. He was hardly bleeding,
and they were treating him like it was in his
heart. Me, I’m laying in blood, barely
conscious, going into shock, and they’re looking for a
band-aid.’
The image of Penelope sitting in a pool of blood
recalled the fear to Diana’s mind. Standing next to
Penelope’s bed, she ran the back of her hand
across the side of her roommate’s face. ‘Are you sure
you’re all right?’
‘It wasn’t as bad as all that. Yes, I lost a lot
of blood, and I felt faint briefly, but I wasn’t ready to go
into shock. The medics were fantastic and they
stopped the bleeding in no time. They even sewed
me up in the Emergency Room. Didn’t even have to
go to the operating room.’
Diana lowered her head and kissed her roommate
on the temple.
‘So, then, tell me what happened to you,’
Penelope inquired. ‘Why were you getting beat up?’
“It was like I couldn’t move. My legs weighed a
ton each. I couldn’t turn my body, at least of my
own free will.’
‘I’ve told you to cut back on carbohydrates.
They make you all stuffy.’ Penelope was smiling.
Diana stared at her bedridden lover for a
moment. Finally, a smile edged its way to the corners of her
mouth and she finally laughed for the first time
since the confrontation on the plaza. ‘I’ve
encountered this sort of thing before, Penelope.
It’s magic.’
‘MAGIC!! ARE YOU NUTS??’
‘Not so loud. And, yes, magic. It’s the one
thing that can affect me in this way. Somehow, those
criminals got hold of some practitioner of Magic
and….’
‘You mean, like a witch?’
‘A witch, or some kind of magic talisman.
Something that could hold me in a spell and allow them to
do what they did.’
‘Why aren’t you bruised?’
‘Because I never lost my Amazon power or
strength. I simply couldn’t defend myself. What knocked
me out was simply the accumulation of blows,
like a prizefighter who goes down after being
pounded for fifteen rounds. It was the totality
of the beating.’
A nurse opened the door, asking about the loud
cry she had just heard. ‘It’s nothing, Ellen. My
roommate here just promised to clean the
apartment while I’m laid up. If you knew her, you’d
understand why such a statement is a shock.’
Diana stared at her friend.
‘Well, try to keep the noise down. There are
many more patients on this floor.’
Both women apologised for the disturbance. The
nurse shut the door. ‘Ellen? You’re getting familiar
with the staff here pretty quickly.’
‘She’s nice. She’s a dyke, too, but she doesn’t
let on.’
‘She told you that?’
‘I can tell. Anyway, have you run into this kind
of magic often? What does it do to you?’
‘Some of my most dangerous opponents are
magicians of some sort: Circe, Cagliostro, both have
great power. And they don’t have to get me under
the control of my magic-please notice, dear, my
magic-lasso or bind my bracelets to weaken me.
These are the most dangerous enemies I face.’
‘Does it have anything to do with whatever it is
you’re investigating?’
‘I… don’t know. But somehow I’m convinced that
everything that I’m dealing with has to do with
Senator Carlton.’
‘Carlton? From Arizona? You better not accuse
him and be wrong. He packs a lot of power and can
even make Wonder Woman disappear.’
‘For three days this week, I think he did.’
The conversation turned to the more serious
issue of Wonder Woman’s continued career. The only
difference this time was that it was Diana who
argued for the disappearance of the heroine. The
response of the crowd to her failure, worries
over the well being of her friend, the dangers to the
Amazon as it was obviously now well-known that
she had clear weaknesses. All these arguments
Diana made. And Penelope responded with Diana’s
own well-worn arguments about spreading the
doctrine of peace and love, about the Meaning of
Princess Diana’s life. They agreed to spend more
time talking about it tomorrow, when Penelope
returned home. For the moment, Diana would go out
and get her roommate a hamburger. They spent the
entire evening watching television and
discussing the apparently declining quality of
the shows. They also agreed that ‘All in the Family’
might represent a new beginning for the tube and
the entertainment it offered. At nine o’clock Ellen
returned to tell Diana that visiting hours were
over. Diana kissed her friend good night and promised
to be back the next morning, to take her
roommate home.
*****
Wonder Woman was not seen anywhere for the next
several days. Diana was half-convinced that
she was no longer needed or no longer relevant
to the world. She even put her costume into storage,
as she reconsidered her role.
Penelope continued to try to get her roommate
out of her funk. After trying all of the usual
arguments, and listening to Diana talk past her
in response to these points, she raised the question
which had been giving her a great deal of
concern.
‘If Wonder Woman retires, does Princess Diana
return to Paradise Island?’
Diana looked shocked. She had not considered
this. The end of Wonder Woman’s career could
mean a return home, to prepare for her role as
ruler. It may even mean a new contest among the
Amazons to find a new Champion to take her
place. She opened her mouth to answer, but she didn’t
know what to say. She thought of having to leave
Penelope behind.
‘If it did, would you come with me?’
Now it was Penelope’s turn to be shocked.
‘That’s not a fair question. If you go to Paradise Island,
you’re returning home. If I go there, I’m
leaving everything I have ever known. I know the stories
about you, being offered chances to go rule
distant galaxies. Everybody knows Andros made that
offer. You turned it down.’
Diana looked embarrassed. ‘I hadn’t though of it
that way.’
She walked out of the bedroom, slowly,
contemplatively. She closed the door behind her and walked
down to the living room. Shortly, Penelope heard
a Schumann Piano Quintet on the stereo. Diana
was into some heavy thinking, Penelope mused.
*****
The car raced up the driveway to the Senator’s
house, spewing gravel and dust in its wake. Before it
had even come completely to a halt, the large
man pushed open the passenger-side door and ran
inside. The car then picked up speed and went
around the house toward the garage level.
Inside, one of the men who had confronted Wonder
Woman on the plaza raced to the stairway
leading down to the guard levels. He was
carrying a small stack of tabloid-size newspapers.
When he got to the dormitory rooms, he hurried
from room to room tossing one or two copies of the
paper inside. ‘Wait’ll you see this! We made the
STAR! The Senator is gonna love this!’
Inside the supermarket tabloid, the Star, on
page five, usually reserved in Rupert Murdoch’s scandal
sheet for semi-nude bikini-clad girls, was the
headline ‘What’s Happened to Wonder Woman?’ It
blazed across the entire page, above six columns
of the story. Included in the story, in fact the
principal reason for the story in the first
place were three photographs, two of them published in
colour. The largest one, spread across the
entire page, showed the defeated and unconscious Wonder
Woman, supine on the sidewalk, clearly in front
of the Air and Space Museum. The photo showed
most of her body, cutting off at the top of her
boots, her head nearest the camera, facing it, her eyes
closed. The tits so many had hoped to see were
not quite visible, Murdock being the titillator that he
is; there were small strips of black covering
the exposed nipples, but the breasts themselves were
quite visible. A second photo, this one in
black-and-white, like wise showed the beaten Amazon in
the same position, but from a slightly different
angle, her head still nearest the camera, but the top of
her head visible. The third photo, again in
colour, showed the superheroine being beaten by the two
men, receiving a blow in the head, her body
twisting away from the man striking her.
‘These pictures are great! They’re going to make
every workshop wall in the country. Guys will be
looking at these for years to come. That was a
great touch Al added, pulling her top down like that.’
The black uniformed guards gathered quickly, all
talking and cheering again the defeat of their
nemesis.
One man added, ‘And, you know, she hasn’t been
seen anywhere for almost a week. Maybe she’s
too embarrassed to come out.’
‘Well, this isn’t going to make her more
willing.’
‘’You know, maybe we’ve seen the last of Wonder
Woman.’ The level of talk diminished at that.
Then it rose again, as they continued their
self-congratulation.
*****
Penelope had drifted off to sleep, napping for a
couple of hours during the afternoon. The Schumann
had that effect on her. When she awoke, it was
getting dark, both because of the lateness of the hour
and the increasing clouds, portending predicted
thundershowers forecast for tonight and tomorrow.
In the dim light of the room, she rolled to her
left to see the clock radio. She wasn’t sure how late it
was, but she was starting to feel twinges of
hunger.
She sighed. On the one hand, she thought, I
should call Diana to make something to eat. After all, I
recovering from wounds received in an attack on
the public. She smiled when she thought of that
one. On the other hand, if Diana is still puzzling
over her dilemma, I shouldn’t intrude on her. She
doesn’t need extraneous and irrelevant
distractions.
There was a knock at the door, just a light
tapping. ‘Penelope? Are you awake?’
‘Yes, Diana. Come in.’
Wonder Woman entered carrying a tray, bearing a
bowl of soup and a large salad, large enough for
two. The superheroine was fully attired,
complete with tiara and boots. Her golden belt was around
her waist and the magic lasso was attached at
her hip.
Penelope first broke into a broad smile, then a
great grin. Sitting up in the bed, she spread her arms to
embrace her lover. ‘Put down that tray and come
here.’ Wonder Woman placed the tray on the
nightstand next to the bed and sat on the bed.
Penelope reached around her, pulling the Amazon’s
shoulders down to her as she fell back on the
bed. Penelope began kissing her roommate, long and
deeply. Tears rolled out of the corners of her
eyes toward her temples and ears, but she brushed her
wrists across the sides of her head to wipe them
away.
In a moment, Wonder Woman raised her boots from
the floor, and was lying next to Penelope. For
her, the approval of her lover for her decision
was paramount. The level of understanding between
the two women was such that Penelope knew that
for the Princess to remain in the United States
and to continue performing her duties as Wonder
Woman were not things she could or would do on
inertia. She had to wish to do so.
Princess Diana’s decision, Penelope knew, was
her own to make, a risky personal one. In the first
place, Penelope had expressed misgivings about
her role as a costumed superheroine. For Wonder
Woman to actively decide to continue that role
meant risking her relationship with Penelope.
Secondly, the heroine was obviously at risk in
her ability to defend against the attacks of her
enemies. Concerns about her own death were
certainly playing around in her head.
By the same token, Wonder Woman recognised that
Penelope’s acceptance of her decision was an
acknowledgment of the Amazon philosophy, the Meaning
they had discussed. Diana was Wonder
Woman, and she embodied all of the ideals and
virtues, which that figure, publicly represented. Now,
the superheroine also recognised, Penelope would
need to embrace as much courage as she herself
would have to put forth, because Diana and
Wonder Woman would have to face one of the most
trying episodes of their career.
Penelope penetrated Diana’s mouth with her
tongue, running it against the full length of Diana’s
teeth, pushing it as far back into Diana’s
throat as she could. Diana complimented her partner,
running her own tongue around the cheeks of her
perspiring and sweaty lover. The breathing of both
women grew heavier and deeper as the long
moments of oral probing went on.
Penelope’s hands ran into Diana’s hair, running
it through her fingers, as she pushed her hands up to
the top of her lover’s head again and again.
Finding the Princess’ tiara buried in the deep black
tresses, she ran her fingertips along the cool
metal shape, feeling both the honed edge and the highly
polished surface. She felt the tiara all the way
‘round the crown of Diana’s head, the metal offering a
new sensuality to the tactile relationship
between the women.
Meanwhile, Wonder Woman’s hands caressed the
body of her lover. One hand ran into the light
brown hair that Penelope now let hang loosely
down her back and shoulders. The hair almost
reached to the small of Penelope’s back, its
fine texture usually glistening in any light. Diana seized
small clumps of its fineness in her fist, kneading
it in her hand, and drew it up to the top of her lover’s
head. Then she opened her hand and released the
clump. Drawing the dancer to her, that same hand
than ran around the neck and head of Diana’s
partner. The other hand worked its way under
Penelope’s t-shirt, running the length of her
side and back, slowly, sensually, feeling each muscle of
her torso, running between the ribs and up and
down the vertebrae. When she slid off her lover and
lay beside Penelope, this same hand now toured
her lover’s stomach, feeling equally sensually the
finely tuned muscles of her abdomen. Finally,
Wonder Woman’s hand traveled to the large round
breasts of her bed-mate, feeling her hardening
nipples, her fingernails stimulating their erectness. In a
matter of moments, the powerful arm of Wonder
Woman tore through the thin cotton shirt, leaving it
on the bed beneath the two wrestling women.
Her t-shirt removed, Penelope now felt the
coolness of the Princess’ satin uniform against her chest.
Her already stimulated nipples brushed against
the golden eagle of the breastplate and the sensation
drove the injured dancer higher into ecstasies
of sensuality. With one hand, Penelope now dropped
her exploration of her partner to her waist and
hips, the open palm running across the smooth satin of
the tights, then rushing up her body to caress
the smoothness of the golden girdle. All of these
sensations liberated Penelope and she began to
lubricate, the joy in her manifesting itself in the
turmoil she felt in her groin. Even Diana’s
leather boots, rubbing against her uninjured leg, served to
raise Penelope ecstasy. Soon she was cumming
freely and her breathing was rasping and audible.
The pleasure of her partner heightened Diana’s
own experience, as she too now felt herself losing
control. Her rate of breathing increased, the
lubrication of her own sex flowed freely dampening her
star-spangled satin tights, tingeing the blue
between her legs a darker colour than the rest of the
uniform. Forgetting herself, Diana raised her
left leg and dropped it over Penelope’s injured right
thigh and both women were brought back to
reality by the sharp wincing produced from the throat
of the injured girl.
The Amazon Princess slid off her lover, keeping
her right arm beneath her neck and shoulders to
continue the tactile enjoyment of the moment of
love. Together, the two lay in bed. After a moment,
Wonder Woman looked at her partner. ‘You really
do like the uniform, don’t you?’
‘It’s the main reason I keep you around here,’
Penelope responded. ‘Even if you did give up being
Wonder Woman, you’d have keep the uniform.’
They giggled like a couple of teens. Then
Penelope continued, ‘I knew you would decide to stay.’
‘Oh, really? And how did you know this?’
‘You were listening to the Schumann. That puts
you in a more romantic, emotional frame of mind. It
made you not want to leave your life
unfinished.’
Diana looked at her partner silently.
‘Now, if you had used the Mozart, I might have
been more concerned about your decision.’
‘Or the Bloch.’
‘If you had used the Bloch, we’d be packing our
bags now.’
‘Am I that predictable?’ Diana paused. ‘And did
you say we?’
‘Yes, and yes.’
They kissed lightly. ‘Just because I approve of
your decision doesn’t mean that I will stop worrying
about you. You’ve talked about how helpless you
are against magic. Were you held by magic the
first time they took you?’
‘I still don’t remember anything about that.
It’s possible that they used my magic lasso to erase my
memory. You saw Kane do that. I suppose it’s
possible that they took me that way, but the marks on
my wrists and ankles lead me to believe that
they chained my bracelets.’
‘If they could do that, then they could
overpower you. Oh, Diana, the danger is so great. And these
people involved are powerful. Even if they don’t
destroy you, they can end your career. Is there
anything I can do? I feel so powerless just
lying here.’
‘You look so lovely just lying here. I’m going
to have to inspect the Senator’s house. According to
Steve, that’s where my assignment had taken me
when I disappeared for those three days. They may
have taken me then, which means that they can do
it again. But they may not be expecting me to
come back. And, since I know that they represent
a genuine danger both to me and to what I believe
in, I’ll be more careful this time. Capturing me
will be harder. As for you, you can be of some help.
Stay awake, stay by the phone, and be prepared
to call the police. I’ll contact you, both to let you
know how things are going and whether I need
help. You can notify the authorities. If you don’t
hear from me, it’ll be because I’ve notified
them myself, and was able to handle things there.’
‘If I don’t hear from you, it may mean that
they’ve taken you again.’
‘Hey, I’m a big girl now. I promise you I won’t
do anything foolish. What I’m going for tonight is
simply evidence. I’m not aiming to bring anyone
in. Besides, the weather will also be working on my
side.’ She nodded toward the window. The sound
of heavy rain on the windowpane was evident.
‘The forecast says that there will be
thundershowers tonight and tomorrow morning. I’ll be safe.’
‘When are you going out?’
‘Probably about midnight. If I’m not back by
noon tomorrow, call the police in any case.’
‘And tell them what? That I’m Wonder Woman’s
lover and that she went to Senator Carlton’s
house and hasn’t come back. Not only does it
sound ridiculous, but don’t forget how much power
the Senator carries around here.’
‘Just tell them that a friend of yours was
supposed to be going to the Carlton house and has not
returned. Let the police handle it from there.
Also, since a person isn’t missing for twenty-four hours,
tell them your friend has been gone for two
days.’
‘Wonder Woman! You, the symbol of truth and
rightness! Telling me to lie?’
‘Or you can really wait another day and make the
call on Monday, after I have been gone for
twenty-four hours.’
‘I’ll call at noon.’
The two women sat up in bed and Wonder Woman
retrieved the great salad she had prepared. She
placed the tray with the soup before Penelope.
Penelope sampled the soup and the two friends
shared the salad.
Their meal finished, they settled in for an
intimate conversation. They spoke of their thoughts and
their feelings, conspicuously avoiding any
discussion of their fears. This was a time for looking
forward, not for worrying about the present.
As it grew darker, Penelope asked Diana to turn
on the light. Diana got up and did so, then returned
to sitting on the edge of the bed. As their
conversation continued, Penelope played with her partner’s
costume, drawing her right hand across the satin
of the breastplate and bustier, of the tights, of the
gold of the belt and lasso. As the intimacy
continued, she swirled the strands of the lasso between
her fingers, finally slipping it from the
Amazon’s hip. Then she dropped it around the throat of
Wonder Woman.
‘You know, I never got to control you like this
in Delaware,’ Penelope said. ‘I always felt a little
jealous of Kane for that reason.’
Diana felt the electricity of the lasso passing
through her body. ‘You did control the lasso during our
dance, if you remember,’ Wonder Woman corrected
her. ‘I saw that in the movies.’
‘Yeah, but I never got to give you orders.’
‘Now you give them without holding the lasso.’
Penelope struggled to sit up in the bed. ‘Lay
down here,’ she ordered.’
The Amazon Princess lay on the bed, as the
command shot through her being. She lay on her back.
‘Spread-eagled,’ Penelope ordered.
The magic lasso forced the mighty Amazon Maid to
obey. She lay with the lasso around her throat,
her arms outstretched toward the corners of the
bed, her legs reaching toward the lower bedposts.
Penelope moved awkwardly, hobbled by her still
hurting thigh, running the lasso from the throat of
her lover to her right wrist, securing it to the
headboard. Then she ran the golden rope to Wonder
Woman’s other wrist, where she did the same.
After securing the Princess’ ankles to the base of the
bed, Penelope sat on the edge of the bed,
looking down at her captive. Wonder Woman did not
struggle under the influence of the lasso’s
magic. ‘I could keep you here if I wanted to, you know,’
Penelope told her.
‘The magic lasso would compel me to obey,’
Wonder Woman replied.
‘Kane was right. That response could drive you
crazy,’ Penelope smiled.
The helpless Princess from Paradise Island
looked like a fly trapped in a spider’s web. Penelope
continued to hold the lasso, wrapping it tightly
around her hand. ‘This should keep me from
dropping the lasso and losing control.’
‘What are you going to do with me?’ the prisoner
asked.
‘Don’t be melodramatic. You’ve been in the
position often enough to know when someone means
you harm. You should recognise that you’re not
in danger now.’
‘When I am under the influence of my own lasso,
it is always the time of my greatest danger, no
matter who controls it. I may be in the greatest
danger when I am a captive of someone I love.’
‘Like now?’
‘Like now.’
Penelope reached around the helpless Amazon and
released her golden belt. She plucked it from
around her middle and dropped it on the floor.
‘You are absolutely helpless when controlled by your
own lasso, aren’t you?’
‘Yes. You know that I am.’
Penelope now ran her hands over the exposed body
of Wonder Woman. When she ran her fingers
up the inside of her thigh, Penelope discovered
the wetness at her crotch. ‘Hmmm. This is something
that you never hinted at.’
‘When bound by my own lasso, I lose control over
myself. The subservience is somewhat exciting.’
Penelope looked longingly at the powerful
Amazon, spread-eagle on the bed. She lightly caressed her
body, allowing herself to exult in the utter and
absolute power over her charge. Then, without
another word, she reached up and began to untie
her wrists. ‘I really wanted to keep you here, to
protect you. I can’t do it.’ She began to cry.
‘I wanted to force you to stay with me tonight, to stay
with me until I could go with you, so I could
help you. I can’t do that to you, Diana. You are who
you are. Your life has Meaning because you give
it Meaning. If I force you to act differently, I’m
destroying who you are.’
Wonder Woman sat up. As she untied her ankles,
she spoke to Penelope, ‘When we became lovers,
you knew that there was danger in what I did.
You even saw that danger first-hand in Delaware.
But you have to trust me. If we don’t trust one
another, we can’t survive together.’
The two women looked deeply into one another’s
eyes. The love that they shared was present in
this look. Penelope continued to cry. ‘I am
desperately frightened for you.’
‘You have no idea how much that simple statement
means to me,’ the Princess responded, as she
affixed the magic lasso to her belt.
‘Please be careful.’
End of Chapter Seven
Comments, questions, suggestions welcome::
contact the author at marat1793@comcast.net