Big finish for the second half. Open wide. Take a deep breath. Get sucked in.
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The two friends traded determined glares in a tense stare down, hovering over the steps of the temple’s altar.
‘Stay out of my way, Kara,’ warned Wonder Woman, in her new, glowing violet “Star Sapphire” uniform, ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’
‘Don’t worry Di, you won’t,’ assured Supergirl confidently, getting ready for a battle with her beautiful bestie.
The pair of powerful heroines faced each other motionless, waiting for the other to flinch in a “Wild West” style showdown in the Amethyst Temple.
Whoever drew first, it was impossible to tell. Both girls seemed to simultaneously erupt into their Richter scale-worthy, synchronized slugfest. They wrestled in the air, inside and outside of the temple canyon. They struck each other with punches and kicks, threw each other onto the ground, pounced on one another, wrestled some more and repeated the whole process.
Kara knew even from sparring with Diana in training that she was an apex competitor. But this was very different; this was a real tilt. Not only was Wonder Woman going full throttle, her resolve was influenced by that damn ring. Supergirl had met her match.
Wonder Woman began to use the ring to zap Supergirl quite aggressively with energy blasts. This was beginning to piss off the Kryptonian very much, and she returned fire with an angry dose of heat vision.
Instinctually Wonder Woman would have raised her bracelets to defend herself from the attack. Instead she was inclined to raise the ring which surprisingly absorbed the super hot beams. The ring seemingly gained power; it strangely didn’t require a Violet Lantern battery for a charge.
An idea coursed through Wonder Woman’s mind as she faced her fiery friend. ‘I’m sorry Kara,’ she regretted, pointing the ring at Supergirl, ‘I have to do this.’ Wonder Woman lunged at her pretty opponent and began to draw the Kryptonian’s power into the ring, like a violet vampire. Supergirl was paralyzed by the assault and after a few agonizing moments she fell unconsciously limp and powerless into the Star Sapphire’s arms…
When Supergirl awoke she was lying on the steps of the altar inside the Amethyst Temple. Standing over her were six members of the Sapphire Sisterhood, including their elder, Sister Elora. Garbed in form fitting lavender hooded robes, the Sisters appeared youthful and elegant for a group of women a millenium in age.
‘She is conscious,’ one of the Sisters noted as Kara’s eyes met those of the surrounding congregation. ‘She is without power,’ another quietly observed.
‘Brave Kara ZorEl,’ began Sister Elora, crouching down beside the subdued Supergirl, ‘Where is the Sorceress Circe?’
Kara motioned toward the putrid purple pit, which emitted unpleasant sounding gas bubbles as if confirming the Kryptonian’s claim.
‘Wonder Woman,’ warned Supergirl, laboring to sit up, ‘Sh..She has the ring. I thinks it’s corrupt. She used it to drain my powers. She’s acting strange, and… she’s looking for you.’
The Sisterhood looked at each other as if their suspicions had been manifested.
‘She said she was going to deliver strict justice,’ claimed the handicapped heroine, ‘She said you’re “responsible” for killing a Star Saphhire.’
‘We are,’ admitted Sister Elora, in a matter of fact tone, ‘We did not actually kill Sister Xiola ourselves. We had Circe perform the task. We are forbidden to bring direct harm upon a fellow Sister.’
Kara frowned. ‘What’s the difference?’ she spat.
‘Sister Elora, you are revealing too much!’ cautioned one of the other Sisters.
‘She knew too much already,’ rebutted Sister Elora, smiling at the sour faced Supergirl.
‘Sister Xiola was a brilliant, talented Violet Lantern,’ continued Elora, rising and signaling for two Sisters to flank the injured superheroine, ‘But she failed to utilize the full power of her ring. We simply relieved her of that burden.’
‘So you had Circe murder her in order to steal her ring?’ queried Kara, as a pair of Sisters lifted her up by the arms.
‘More or less,’ continued Elora, pacing on the limestone walkway at the foot of the altar, ‘Until Circe betrayed us, and stole the ring for herself. That is when you and your friend arrived and helped to rid us of our… bad apple.’ The elder Sister faced Kara and smirked.
‘And now, sweet Supergirl,’ announced Sister Elora, pointing at the perilous pit, ‘It is time for you to join Circe in your eternal amethyst grave. Throw her in.’
‘No! Please, wait! UHN!!’ cried Supergirl, resisting pathetically in her weakened state as her ushers dragged her to the edge of the pit. The Sisters heaved the captured Kara out into the middle of the awaiting amethyst ooze, where she landed with a horrible ‘GBLORP’ sound.
Weak, vulnerable and powerless, Kara moaned helplessly, struggling her slowly sinking heeled boots futilely in the ghastly, gobbling goop. She strenuously pumped her long legs. Stretchy purple slime clung to her calves like stringy toffee as she tried desperately to escape the treacherous trap. Each time she struggled, the goo sucked her lovely legs deeper. Soon, the super sticky substance had swallowed her knees, and was slurping down her silky thighs.
‘Please, don’t do this!’ begged Supergirl, as the icky slime gurgled awfully around her trapped legs. Thick, gooey quickslime puckered and pulled at her helpless hips. With a gruesome, gurgling gulp the menacing mire sucked Kara down to her spandex covered waist.
‘UHN!’ whimpered the sinking Supergirl, anxiously biting her lip and begging, ‘It’s sucking me in! Please Sisters, help me!’
The Sisterhood were gathered along the walkway beside the purple pool. Silent, guilty faces watched horrified as the sinister slime sucked the struggling superheroine deeper and deeper into its depths. Sister Elora looked stoic and satisfied, as if justice was being served.
Someone else seeking justice was hovering down into the temple from above.
‘Your murderous scheme ends now, Sisterhood,’ proclaimed Wonder Woman, glowing white hot over the congregation. The violet color of her halo, her armor and her ring were all gone. Mysteriously, she was a colorless Lantern, a Star without a Sapphire. She appeared to have a reflective surface, like a shiny silver mirror… or chrome.
‘Behold! The cursed ring is void of color! Its evil will consume us!’ shrieked one of the Sisters.
‘Silence!’ snapped Sister Elora, raising her hand and glaring resentfully at Wonder Woman.
‘Diana!’ cried Supergirl, her arms mired in purple gunk. The churning slime pit slurped at her breasts as it relentlessly dragged her hopeless body deeper.
The “Chrome” Lantern Wonder Woman paid no attention to the sinking superheroine. She began to vibrate and glow brightly, preparing to unleash her punishment.
‘Yeees, enact your vengeance Wonder Woman’ egged Elora, inviting the determined Diana to retaliate, ‘Strike each and everyone of us down while your pretty friend drowns in the sucking slime.’
Diana glanced momentarily at Kara, who was on the verge of being totally devoured by the purple pit.
‘Deliver your justice, or save Supergirl,’ offered Elora, sneering deviously, ‘Choose your next move soon, Princess of Themyscira; Supergirl is disappearing rather quickly.’
Wonder Woman’s appearance of confidence was replaced by a look of painful uncertainty. She was battling an internal opponent as deep and devouring as the insatiable sludge swallowing Supergirl.
‘Diana!’ pleaded Kara, as viscous violet ooze poured in over her breasts and gulped down her shoulders, ‘Don’t do it! This isn’t you! It’s the ring!’
The ring, thought Diana. She was finally starting to realize that it was controlling her and forcing her to do its bidding. It was using her to kill, and had no reservations about letting her dear friend perish.
Wonder Woman grasped the ring with her opposite hand and began to pry it off her finger. The ring was not letting go easily, and she found herself pulling intensely to try and remove it. Yelling loudly and battling against the ring and its oppressive influence, the adamant Amazon strained with all her might to dislodge the crooked chrome band. Oddly, it was not actually stuck physically to her finger; rather it was gripping her soul.
When the ring released her, the chrome, the mask, the glow and the anger immediately vanished from Wonder Woman. Although severely drained from her struggle with the conniving chrome power ring, the Amazon Princess was back to her normal self.
Throwing the shiny ring onto the limestone, Diana unhooked her lasso and ran exhausted to the edge of the pit. ‘Kara!’ cried the panting Princess, lobbing a lifeline to her nearly sunken super friend, ‘I’m here Kara! Grab on!’
With tears of both joy and terror in her eyes, Supergirl fought with all her remaining strength to free her arms from the slurping slime and grab the looped end of the lasso.
Sister Elora dashed greedily for the ring, pushing her fellow Sisters out of the way in the process. Her aggressive lunge even sent one of them plunging into the pit, where the gluttonous, gluey goo gladly began to gulp the screaming priestess down to her doom.
The ring had other plans, however. Vibrating and spinning, the band began to roll, wheeling by Elora and the remaining Sisters, bouncing twice on the solid stone and landing in the purple stained open palm of none other than the previously sunken sorceress, Circe.
Laughter erupted from the slime drenched witch as she placed the ring on her finger. Glowing energy shrouded Circe, granting her unbridled power and the sleek, reflective appearance of a Chrome Lantern. Her eyes were burning white orbs, her robes were like mirrored auroras.
‘Now,’ the empowered agent of evil proclaimed to the horror of the Sapphire Sisterhood, ‘Feel my wrath!’
Circe’s arm jolted as the ring shot out multiple manifested chrome tentacles. Each slithering silver arm found a target; three stunned, scared Sisters were snatched up by the sorceress’s serpents. Maniacal roaring bellowed from the wicked witch as she cast each of the priestesses into the deadly amethyst slime pit.
A fourth panic stricken Sister ran for her life before one of Circe’s chrome creepers caught her. Lifting her high above the pit, it dropped her head first into the purple goo. Her legs kicked and thrusted hysterically as her incapacitated body was swallowed alive.
‘Mercy!’ begged Sister Elora, on her knees with her hands clasped in prayer, ‘I beg you, kind and gentle sorceress for your gift of Mercy!’
‘Kind and gentle,’ mocked Circe, commanding a ring’s tentacle to coil around Elora’s throat and lift her off the limestone. The choking elder Sister’s eyes bulged and her face went blue as her nemesis squeezed the life from her. As Sister Elora’s neck eventually snapped, Circe dropped her lifeless body into the sucking pit with the other frantically flailing Sisters sinking to their deaths.
As Wonder Woman rescued Supergirl from the slime, they could do nothing but watch the grizzly, diabolical demise of the Sisterhood. One by one, each struggling, screaming priestess slowly disappeared forever into a slurping, sucking grave of goo.
‘I’ve saved the best for last,’ bragged Circe, ogling the pair of pretty heroines being corralled by her collective of chrome crawlers. Silvery snakes began to wrap around the lovely ladies’ legs before they could escape. Creepy coilers spiraled tightly around their arms as they protested uselessly.
‘Being the “kind and gentle” sorceress that I am, I’m going to give you ladies a choice,’ began Circe, standing at the altar, licking her silver lips and relishing the feeling of her tentacles squirming and sliding all over the sexy, captured bodies of Wonder Woman and Supergirl. ‘You get to decide which one of you will be the first to drown in the slime,’ bargained the witch as she patted the smooth, marble altar top, ‘…and who will watch with me from up here, as my pretty plaything.’
Circe slinked provocatively onto the altar and opened her robe to reveal the shimmering silver pantyhose on her long, sensual legs. ‘Oh, and the more pleasure I get from one of you delicious girls,’ the sex-hungry sorceress offered in her final ultimatum, spreading her nylon wrapped legs invitingly, ‘…the longer I will let the both of you live.’
The weakened warriors Diana and Kara stared at each other with fear and defeat in their eyes; their conquered bodies squirming desperately in the clutches of the conjured coiling chrome. They knew the chances of them escaping this squishy situation weren’t good.
‘Well now,’ a devilish sounding voice echoed from somewhere in the temple, ‘I’d ALMOST be willing to forget why I came here for a front row seat to THAT performance.’
Emerging from the shadows crept a man in hooded cloak as black as night and a creepy-as-fuck grinning, Thalia theatre mask. Jinn Zou admired the sight of the captured heroines before slowly turning his head to Circe, who was watching nervously.
With a puff of black smoke, Jinn dissolved into thin air, only to reappear behind the startled sorceress.
‘Almost,’ he whispered into her ear. And with that, the insanely sharp blade of a katana came down mercilessly and methodically onto the outstretched arm of the sorceress, severing her ring hand from her body.
‘NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa!!!’
the witch screamed in absolute despair and agony as her hand with the ring still on her finger went flying into the air, discontinuing the Chrome Lantern persona and all of her torturous tentacles.
Grabbing the wild eyed witch by the scruff, Jinn pulled Circe close and once again whispered into her ear, ‘This is for my girlfriend, Sister Xiola.’ Pulling her neck back, Jinn slid the katana agonizingly slow and surgically into Circe’s back, through her heart and out her sternum. The stricken sorceress gasped and choked, as blood spurted out of her mouth.
‘And this is for me,’ added the shadowy assassin, as he removed the blade from the fatally wounded witch. In the blink of an eye Jinn spun a 540 degree horizontal spiral swipe of his sword along Circe’s neck. A long sigh breathed out of the stunned spell caster, fading to silence before her skull rolled off her shoulders, down the altar steps and into the bubbling slime below. Her headless corpse followed, splashing into the purple pit, and slowly sinking into the amethyst abyss.
On the way down the blood soaked altar steps, Jinn picked up the severed ring hand and placed it into a black velvet pouch before tucking it away in his cloak.
‘Why are you here?’ demanded Diana, sitting spent on the walkway, completely appalled by what she just witnessed.
‘The ring sought me. Xiola’s ring. It beckoned me to follow it here,’ admitted the cut-throat killer, ‘Right before it turned you into a Loony Lantern.’
‘Where are you taking it?’ probed Kara, sitting close to Diana as they wiped purple goo from her legs.
‘Don’t you worry about that, sweetheart,’ Jinn instructed, ‘As much as I would love to stay and chit-chat or force you girls into that purple sinky shit for my own enjoyment, I have to fly.’
‘The ring,’ added Supergirl, ‘it’s corrupt, Jinn.’
‘It’s not corrupt, honey,’ debated Jinn, lifting up his grinning mask to reveal the sad frown of a Melpomene theatre mask underneath, ‘It’s haunted.’
And with that, Jinn Zou vanished with his masks, his sword, the ring and a witch’s severed hand into a puff of black smoke.
When every last bit of Circe’s body was consumed, the purple goo reverted back into its solid state. Once again the Amethyst Temple floor was a glossy and flat purple gemstone surface, blemish free, as clear and smooth as glass.
The heroines helped each other to their feet, and spent a long while in a quiet, hugging embrace before putting the temple, with its terror and trauma behind them. Their mental recovery would take much more time than their physical rebound.
Although the amethyst floor was once again solid and safe, Wonder Woman and Supergirl took the longer, narrower limestone walkway around the open space and out of the temple.
Holding hands, neither girl uttered a word; neither of them dared turn to look behind them…