Diana of Themyscira (cannotstandby) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-09-28 19:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, diana prince (wonder woman), kitty pryde (shadowcat) |
Who: Kitty and Diana
What: Diana and Kitty face their fears in the Jungle Temple.
When: Today
Where: Jungle Temple, mostly
Warnings: Violence, images of a concentration camp and branding
Diana was wearing the gauntlets she’d received from her dreams, using them now and then to help her fight the mercenaries that were attacking. These invasions seemed to be a very regular occurrence in Orange County, something that upset her a bit because of the sheer number of innocent people that lived here.
She came around a corner and saw some signs that there’d been mercenaries around here. “This is complete chaos,” Diana said. She’d been sticking close to Kitty, partly out of worry of her girlfriend getting hurt, and partly because there was strength in numbers. “What is the point of these people being here? What is their goal?” At least the demons’ motive and goal had been clear. But when it was humans that were doing this, it didn’t make sense to Diana, and she was trying to understand why they were doing this.
Kitty had opted to wear what she jokingly called her catsuit. Bared shoulders and back, a front that tied around her neck like a collar, and a flexible leather pair of pants. Her mask had little cat ears. She also had a gauntlet of her own on her left arm. It was the first costume she’d designed for herself in the OC and it was a hybrid of several of her dream ones. And probably one of the few times her design hadn’t been terrible.
She’d probably surprised Diana the first time she’d popped the three claws on the gauntlet, though she already had the one built into her right arm she’d shown her.
“I don’t know. They must have had a goal in the dreams, but this isn’t the dreams. They just want destruction.” Kitty had appreciated the help. She couldn’t see something coming behind her to phase, and sometimes she got a little distracted watching Diana fight. Was this what Wisdom had gone through when dating her?
Diana had admired Kitty’s catsuit. She looked positively amazing in it. She could have worn the Amazon armor she’d gotten, but she’d gone simple on her outfit, wearing a red tanktop and jogging pants. Her hair was in a French braid to keep it out of her face currently. Luckily her dreams had given her some fighting skills, but Diana was afraid of her powers. She still didn’t completely trust her gauntlets, but they were the only weapons she had so far.
“They seem to never end. Their numbers always growing regardless of how many are taken out.” Diana looked around, her brow furrowed in discontentment.
Kitty had tried to be encouraging, but in a subtle way while fighting. She figured that just being a kickass ninja might be inspiring, and she made sure Diana got to hit people too. “Usually how this works.. Hold on.”
She swung her foot out around another corner and kicked a merc they’d missed. The woman doubled over and Kitty kneed her in the face. “Usually how this works, is whoever is dreaming this mess has to fight something from their dreams, or shut down a portal or something. Or they’ll have the key to stopping it. When we had the skyscaper sized spider, Luthien lured it away because it wanted a relic she had. Then we hit it with everything we had until it exploded.”
Diana’s nose wrinkled. “A spider that large would make quite the mess upon being exploded.” That was not a picture Diana found appetizing. “I hope that whoever dreams of this is able to put an end to it.” It had certainly been a crazy week with odd things happening each day. Different odd things.
Then, suddenly, they were teleported somewhere, and Diana turned around in a circle. She may have cursed in Greek. “This is different,” she commented.
And then she heard footsteps. Diana turned and saw...herself. Dressed as she had been on Themyscira. Diana’s eyes widened in shock and some fear. This was not something she’d anticipated meeting today.
Kitty’s claws all popped with that distinctive snikt and she looked where Diana was staring. That … probably wasn’t a good thing. A sound brought her attention to the other direction. Instead of a single person, she saw something else. A camp. Tall towers at each corner, and massive purple robots guarding it. People moved in two lines inside. Some were marked with the letter M over their left eye. Others had the Star of David tattoo’d on their arms, or the star and crescent of Islam or a pink triangle. Kitty could feel symbols burning into her face and arms as though they were being tattoo’d in real time.
“No… god no this can’t be real!” She blinked her eyes and the vision faded, leaving only a sentinel standing where the camp had been. The nightmare of her dreams and the threat in her reality all condensed into a symbol of mutant oppression. It was suddenly a lot easier to breathe, but she’d never forget that sight. She’d already been trying to find a balance between what she knew she needed to do, and the way the world was. The camp, and now the sentinel, were if she failed.
Diana didn’t see what Kitty had seen, mostly because she couldn’t pull her gaze away from the warrior in front of her. It was frightening, and she didn’t know how to get out of it. She may have been a warrior in her dreams, but in this world, she wasn’t. Even if she had some powers, it still didn’t make complete sense to her.
The Mirror Diana struck first, rushing forward with her sword. Diana didn’t even make much of a noise, aside from one of surprise. Being unarmed, all she had were her gauntlets to deflect the blows. She lifted one and the sword glanced off of it, throwing a few sparks. The sword then came slashing for her stomach and Diana tried to move out of the reach of the blade, but didn’t quite make it. The blade made a shallow cut just below her diaphragm, and she yelped a bit, jumping back as she stared at herself. It almost felt like Antiope was attacking her.
She heard the sounds of combat behind her, but she couldn’t dare look back, not with a Sentinel bearing down on her. The ground shook as it approached, and at the last moment Kitty darted forward. It turned to chase her, but she was too busy trying to scrub one of the tattoos on her arm. This couldn’t be real, it couldn’t. It felt like fighting the slide into fascism was as impossible as defeating a giant robot all by herself. Which is why one shouldn’t fight either alone, but she wasn’t thinking clearly just yet.
Diana felt the shaking of the ground, but she didn’t dare take her gaze away from her mirror self. Not with that sword swinging at her. She managed to duck and use her gauntlets to deflect the blade again. However, she took a kick to her chest, sending her backwards.
“Stop!” Diana pleaded as she hit the ground. But the plea fell on deaf ears. And that’s when her mirror self dropped her sword, and that’s when she smirked and let out a cry as she lifted her arms, then brought them in, hitting her gauntlets together which caused a huge energy blast to erupt outwards from her. Diana herself was blasted backwards. Kitty and the Sentinel were also in the path.
The blast sent Kitty flying, slamming hard into the temple wall, pain shooting up her arm. The sentinel crashed to the ground nearby, but wasn’t stunned for long.
Kitty tried to push herself up, her hand in a puddle of water. She looked down at her reflection, the M over her eye a stark reminder that she was a mutant. She was hunted and feared. She was Jewish too, a long bloody history weighing on her shoulders. A woman, and queer and that bloody history too.
She popped her arm back into the socket, crying out as she did so. The sentinel rumbled, and she got to her feet. Diana was battling with her own demons, demons that Kitty knew she had to face herself. But Kitty’s nightmare didn’t have to be faced alone. And it could never be faced alone. She bolted towards Diana (her Diana), calling out. “Diana! Hit my robot with your gauntlets, and then throw me at it!”
And then hopefully Diana could punch herself in the face.
Diana slammed into the wall of the temple back first. She thought she felt and heard something crack. She didn’t know if it was her bones or the wall itself, her ears were too busy ringing and she slumped to the floor. She tried to breathe, but the wind had been knocked out of her. She had a couple moments of panic before she coughed and gasped a couple times, then flinched in pain.
Looking up, she saw Kitty running towards her. She also saw the Sentinel and then her mirror coming as well. She shifted so that she was crouched on one knee and one foot. She looked at Kitty, well knowing that her gauntlets could hurt her. But she didn’t really have any other choice. Her mirror was closing in, sword in hand, and there was the danger that the Sentinel posed.
This time, it was Diana who let out a cry as she drew her gauntlets in and clashed them together, another energy blast erupting from them. Her mirror was thrown backwards, dropping her sword as she was flung into the opposite wall.
Kitty phased, the blast passing through her. It did a funny thing to her insides, like her molecules were wobbling around, but it didn't hurt her. She heard the sentinel screech as metal was rent and torn, and reached her hand out for Diana's. "Throw me! We've got this!"
Diana breathed in relief, flinching a bit. She felt that she had a couple cracked ribs at the least. At Kitty’s encouragement, Diana briefly hesitated, uncertain of her own strength and if she’d overthrow Kitty. But she took a breath, grabbed Kitty’s hand, clasping her around the wrist, then grabbing the other side of Kitty’s wrist with her other hand. Diana then spun around, using the momentum to launch Kitty into the air and towards the Sentinel.
Meanwhile, her mirror picked herself up, shaking her head a bit. Once Kitty was in the air, Diana’s gaze flicked over to her mirror.
“You will not win this!” Diana exclaimed before she launched herself into the air, flying towards her mirror, right fist clenched and drawn back. It was the epitome of the superhero leap into battle.
For a second Kitty thought her arm would be wrenched out of her socket, and she resolved to teach Diana the Fastball Special. But this worked for now, and she flew through the air like she'd done this before. "Okay you bastard, I've got you now!"
She phased into it's head, and then out the back, trailing wiring in her fists. Hitting the ground, she rolled out of the way as the sentinel toppled over. She lifted her hand to cheer Diana on as the tattoos dissolved away, but before she could see Diana make contact with the mirror image, she vanished.
Diana landed the punch squarely and her mirror went through the wall. She climbed through the hole and started a fist fight with her mirror. Diana, however, was eventually kicked through the wall and she skidded to a stop near the dropped sword. Diana, however, was in quite a bit of pain. A couple of her ribs were definitely broken now. However, she didn’t have much recovery time because her mirror came charging towards her. She saw the sword, and grabbed it, bringing it up in time for her mirror to get run through. Diana pushed her off and the mirror collapsed.
Then a moment later, a booming voice echoed through the temple, announcing that she had passed. She was then teleported back to where she and Kitty had been taken from, and suddenly her body wasn’t hurting. She pressed a hand to her stomach and looked down. Her wound was no longer there, and she could breathe.
“What...just happened…” She asked, completely confused.
Kitty threw her arms around Diana’s shoulder and kissed her. She was still heavily shaken, but none the worse for wear. “I think we got tested. To overcome some of our fears.”
Diana kissed her back, wrapping her arms around her tightly. “There was this booming voice that announced I had passed once I killed my mirror image.” It hadn’t been her intent of course, but it was one of those split second decisions and she couldn’t do anything about it now.
“You’re afraid of yourself,” Kitty guessed. She let out a long, shakey breath. “And the sentinel is… all my fears about what happens if we roll over and do nothing when evil takes over.”
Resting her head on Diana’s shoulder, Kitty added. “I knew you could do it. You just needed faith in yourself, and to trust yourself.”
When Kitty rested her head on her shoulder, Diana gently stroked her hair and held her close. “It was because you gave me the push to trust myself. I was a little fearful that I was going to throw you through the wall instead of at the sentinel. But I am glad that we both came out of it. Anything can be conquered, it is simply a matter of finding the way to do it.”
“Dating a ghost girl has its perks. I’m glad you were there, I couldn’t have faced that alone.” which was the lesson, she realized. Trying to take it all on alone wasn’t the way to go. And Diana’s words only reaffirmed that. “And we don’t always have to fight alone.”
Maybe later she’d tell Diana what she’d seen before the Sentinel. But right now, she didn’t want to ruin the moment. “Your doppleganger was kind of hot.”
“I’m glad you were there as well. Otherwise we both may still be trapped in there.” At the comment about her doppleganger, Diana raised her eyebrows and gave a light little bop to Kitty’s shoulder, but she still kept her other arm wrapped around her. “I hope I was still hotter.”
“Very. Just you know. Legs.” Kitty winked at Diana, the brought her hand to her cheek. “You okay? Really? I know you’ve got a lot of power, and that can be scary.”
Diana leaned into Kitty’s touch. “Not completely. It was frightening, and I am afraid of my powers. I don’t even know what all I am capable of. I am afraid of hurting you or any other innocents. But maybe it won’t be so bad eventually, once I can adjust to what I am capable of doing.”
“You’re a wonder. There’s always the risk of someone getting hurt, but sometimes the risk is worth it.” Kitty pulled away, but took Diana’s hands. “I don’t know about you, but I feel really kind of … free. “
“True, there is. I just am relieved that you can phase through things so I do not hurt you.” Diana never wanted to hurt Kitty if she could help it. She squeezed Kitty’s hands, smiling at her. “I agree with you, I certainly feel lighter.”
She looked up at Diana, biting back the words that were what she really felt about her. It was too soon for that, and besides emotions were riding high still. “There are still mercs to mangle, you know.”
“I know. At least mercs are easier to handle.” Diana said with a smile. They were definitely easier to fight than someone’s fears. “Shall we get back to it?”
“Lets!” Kitty squeezed Diana’s hand.