Chapter 8: Wonder Woman & Zatanna

There were a couple delays to be dealt with before our next women were to be brought to life, but the decision on who to animate was made well before Rogue arrived: Wonder Woman and Zatanna!

The decision was made partly because we had a built-in method to bring them in due to the backstory we wrote for Power Girl. The story was that Kara was on her way to meet the other two ladies for a girls' night out when she was transported here for her "vacation". From there, it's a tiny step to have Zatanna transport the two of them between dimensions chasing after a missing Kara.

As soon as the decision had been made, I got together with Kara and we prepared 'just in case' any of her friends follow her here. (More on that later.)

Anyway, about the delays I mentioned. First, due to recent market "corrections" our portfolio needed some work.

(As an interesting side-note, Alpha says there are now at least a dozen major investors who keep a close eye on her investment strategies, often mimicking our market adjustments themselves. Alpha has started taking this into consideration, using this ability to start small market shifts to her advantage. I'm not sure how legal their tracking of our stock movements was, but I don't really care much. Alpha can handle it.)

Alpha needs at least half of her processing power to do her market planning properly, which she is unable to do when she's growing bodies with her nanites, since the nanites use from half up to 95% of her processing power.

Now lest someone protest that I could just add more and/or better systems to make up the difference, I do still regularly upgrade Alpha's existing systems, but we've found that after we go beyond 32 systems, the overall processing improvement provided by each additional system drops off significantly. I think it's probably a programming limitation somewhere, but I'm not sure how to overcome it yet.

The second delay was creating Wonder Woman's lasso. We certainly couldn't create a lasso that compels truthful answers from anyone held within its coils, but we could create a golden-colored rope of amazing tensile strength. Alpha was going to use a mix of nano-tubes and other materials woven to form rope strands, and braid the strands together to a degree that only nanites could. At 3/4 inch thick, 57 ft long, and with the appearance of a braided silk rope, it should have a breaking point somewhere in the 80-90,000 lb range and be VERY hard to cut.

Creating this was much, MUCH easier than creating a person, but it was still a new procedure to be developed and executed. It worked out well enough that we used the same method to grow/weave Wonder Woman's outfit too.

For her other equipment -- tiara, belt, and bracelets -- we bought the tiara and belt online as part of a Wonder Woman costume. The bracelets I had made custom with titanium. Since Diana actually had the reflexes and hand-eye coordination to be able to deflect bullets (with a variety of ifs and provisos), I wanted her to have bracelets which might survive such an encounter.

For Princess Diana herself, we gave her the same musculature and toughness as Kara, but not her vision or hearing. She had eye-hand coordination as perfect as Alpha could build it. We gave her excellent fighting skills, including weapons, armor training and, of course, the roping skills.

For her personality and personal history, we had a wide range of choices. We ended up just cherry-picking the elements from the comics that worked best for our situation. We decided that our version would have had plenty of lesbian history, but not be anti-men or a virgin. She'd be intelligent and thoughtful, willing to be a leader but also willing to let others lead depending on the situation. She's had boyfriends before -- most notably Steve Trevor -- but no solid long-term relationships with men or women.

For Zatanna Zatara, her powers were completely unworkable in the the real world. Magically reshaping reality through reversed voice commands is not something that Alpha could build into her DNA or physical structure. We did at least give her all the skills and knowledge we could for magic tricks and escape artistry, along with the physical reflexes and double-jointed-ness to pull it all off.

We kept her background simple too. Zatanna has gone through a few different attempts to change her, both visually and power-wise, including an old miniseries that saw her abandon her trademark outfit and alter how her powers work. She's one of the characters who frequently crossed over into the Vertigo line, known for adult weirdness and literary pretensions (and yes, it's true that not all of the Vertigo titles were 'pretensions' ... some actually were excellent literary works).

Fortunately whatever any writer or artist did to her, she always eventually shifted back to her traditional appearance and powers, which is how I wanted her anyway. She normally dresses in a very sexy version of a tuxedo, with top hat and fishnet stockings. Oh, so beautiful.

We kept her simple. Our version was a magical super-hero when needed, an entertainer when she wasn't needed. We left out her apprentice as an unnecessary complication. Her personality would be friendly and determined, playful and a showman. Not a virgin with men, but never kissed a girl.

So with the delays and growth time, my two new raven-haired beauties weren't ready to appear until a little over 4 months after Rogue arrived. And they would probably be my last super-heroes for the time being.

Alpha and I were now old hands at secret character activations, and this one followed much the same plan as we did when we activated Kara.

Since they were following Kara, Alpha and I decided it would work best if they showed up where she did, outside my lake cabin.

Once this had been decided, I had raised the question with Kara of what we should do if any of her friends came looking for her. Most likely, they would suddenly find themselves without their normal powers in a strange version of the United States.

At my encouragement, Kara wrote a note to "Friends of Kara" and we tacked it onto the door of the cabin. The note basically said that she was fine and gave a phone number to call to contact her. I reactivated the phoneline at the cabin, and we reburied the key under the PG marker on the tree.

Months later, when the new ladies were ready to be born, I cleaned and dressed them in their costumes and drove them out to the cabin in the middle of the night, storing them safely inside the cabin for the time being. I also left Alpha's disguised transmitter.

The next morning, I drove off to get a haircut and run a couple errands alone. After a quick haircut, I drove out to the cabin and moved them near Kara's tree marker, making sure they were not within view of the lake or road.

While driving back to the house, I called Alpha and had her activate the new ladies. The end result was that Kara called me excitedly as I was approaching my driveway.

"Hello?"

"Hi, honey."

"Hi, Kara. What's up?"

In the background, I heard her say, "Yes, I'm talking to him now. Stay on the line. I'll be out to pick you up in a few minutes, but it's at least a 45 minute drive. Yes, I'll explain in a minute. Hold on."

"Sorry, I'm on my cell right now too. Honey, you know how after Rogue arrived, you were worried that someone might come looking for me and get lost or stranded?"

"Yeeeessss..." I drew the word out as if it had multiple syllables.

"Well, congratulations! You were right. I'm about to drive out to the cabin to pick them up."

"Them? How many? Not the whole Justice League or JSA, I hope."

"No, just two."

"Well, I'm about to pull into the driveway. Hold on and I'll drive you to the cabin. Is Kasumi there? Have her prep a couple more rooms just in case."

"Just in case?"

"In case their powers don't work either. In case they're stuck here for now."

"Oh, yeah. It definitely sounds like that's the case. Kasumi!" Fortunately she held the phone away from her ear before she yelled.

While she was talking to Kasumi, I parked and hung up my cell phone.

I found Kara in the kitchen, talking to Kasumi, holding her cell phone in one hand and the house phone in the other.

I took the house phone from her hand (making her jump a bit in surprise) and hung it up. I gently herded Kara to the minivan, telling Kasumi we'd be back in a couple of hours.

"So, who followed you?" I asked as I pulled out of the driveway.

"Diana and Zatanna."

"Diana ... Wonder Woman?"

"Yes." She suddenly seemed to remember that she had a cell phone in her hand. "Diana? Oh, good. Sorry about the delay. We're on our way."

I interrupted her conversation. "There should be dried granola-type food in the pantry." She looked blankly at me. "You're always really hungry when you arrive, maybe they are too."

"Oh, right. Di, if you and Zana are hungry, Frank says there should be dried foods in the pantry ... Good ... Okay, we're on the road, so we'll probably see you in 45 minutes to an hour ... Okay ... Okay ... We'll see you soon ... Bye."

Kara closed her phone, but looked a bit uneasy.

"What's wrong?"

"I ... I don't know how they're going to react to all this. What they're going to think about me ... us ... all of us."

"You mean about our ... umm ... loving household?"

"Yeah, pretty much. And about me not being a superhero here. And ... well..."

"I think I understand. This is your private vacation spot, separate from your other life. And now your other life is intruding."

"It sounds terrible, doesn't it? I suddenly feel so selfish and ... and greedy ... and ungrateful. I mean, they came planning to rescue me, to help me, and I just want them not to be here."

"Don't worry about it. It's a natural reaction. After all, you're only huma ... uhhh ... Kryptonian. Maybe you can view it as ... you're the host and they're the visiting guests from your old hometown."

She laughed a little at this. "And what about our ... what did you call it? ... our 'loving household'? I'm pretty sure they'd be fine with it if it was just you and me, but with the harem-like atmosphere we have ... I don't know."

This time I laughed a little. "Well, if they have a problem with us, then they can't join in."

"Hey, lover, I'm not sure I'm willing to share you with them."

"Actually, from what you've told me about Wonder Woman, I have to think about whether or not I want to share you with her, hmmmm?"

She grinned. "Come on. I know you want to see me make out with the Princess."

"True," I admitted. "But do you think she'd be willing to allow an audience?"

"Well, maybe if you turn on your charm."

"Charm? Check. But seriously, are you going to be okay?"

"Yes. Well, I don't know, but I think I'll be fine." She sighed deeply. "You know, back home, there's no one I would be willing to talk to like this. Thank you."

"Hey, just remember, if there are any problems with them, you are much more important. If worse comes to worse, I'll give them a wad of cash and they can go off by themselves. But I doubt it'll come to that. You, my dear, are going to be their lifeline.

"First of all, they're probably going to a bit messed up without their powers, so they'll need to adjust to that. Second, you're their ticket home. When you eventually go back, you can tell your super-scientist friends and they'll retrieve Diana and Zatanna remotely or something. Y'know, using the super-science from your world to pluck them out of this one."

We had actually discussed this before. She was fairly sure someone from her world would be able to grab people from other dimensions without actually having to visit the other dimensions.

She stayed silent.

"I think they'll actually end up being jealous. You get to visit here regularly, get to unwind and relax and have fun. They'll only get this one visit. Probably. Can't imagine they'll want to come back if they can't guarantee a return trip."

"Jealous? You certainly have a high opinion of your world."

I reached over and put my hand on her leg. "Kara, I'm judging by you yourself. I can see you miss your home sometimes, but I'm pretty certain you're happy here most of the time."

She put her hands over mine, squeezing me affectionately before returning it to me so I could concentrated on driving.

"You're right. I wish I could switch back and forth between worlds whenever I wanted to."

I moved the conversation to inconsequentials for the rest of the drive out to the cabin.

As we pulled up in my minivan, two women stepped out to meet us. Despite it being late July, middle of the day, in Texas (i.e. slightly over 100 degrees), both were wearing trench coats.

I had included them as part of their outfits, given they were supposedly coming from an evening out (and needed to hide their costumes ... seriously, a lot of comic book characters hide their costumes with trench coats, as if that ever actually worked), but why in the world were they wearing them in this heat? It's not like they're in the middle of a crowd.

Regardless, the two of them looked beautiful.

Princess Diana had long beautiful raven-black hair hiding most of her tiara. I'm no stylist, but it had a natural curving sweep to it. Her figure was well hidden by the coat, but I knew it was slim and powerful with D cups held up by the golden eagle of her costume's neckline.

Zatanna's legs showed under her slightly shorter coat, encased in her trademark fishnet stockings. She wore a classic black top hat, which was actually fairly expensive since I had ordered the best magician's hat I could find (no rabbit included). Under the coat, she had on a cross between a classic tuxedo and a Vegas showgirl outfit. Her figure was approximately the same as Wonder Woman's. Her breasts were slightly smaller and her legs and neck slightly longer.

Kara hopped out of the van and headed straight to the raven-haired duo.

"Di, Zana, welcome to my vacation world," she said as she gestured around her with her hands.

"Kara, are you all right?" Wonder Woman asked.

"Yes, I'm fine." She hugged them both at the same time. "How long have I been gone?"

"About half an hour," Zatanna responded. "We only noticed so quickly because Diana was sure you should have arrived early or on-time to the club. I did a quick tracking spell and found you weren't in our dimension, so we followed."

Kara grinned ruefully. "You should have checked in with the League or JSA first."

Diana replied, "We did. We radioed in. Arrow was on duty, and we told him that you had left the dimension and we were tracking you."

"But you didn't wait for him to check my file, did you? It's a long story, but this happens regularly. I randomly come here every so often and then return. The good news is that I'm only gone for a few minutes or hours. The bad news ... well, there are a couple points of bad news for you.

"First, as I'm sure you noticed, the laws of physics are slightly different here and most superpowers don't work. Second, time flows differently between the two worlds. The 30 minutes back home has lasted almost a year here."

"A year?" they said simultaneously.

"Over 11 months, to be more precise."

"When will you go back? And how?"

"Like I said, it's random. But it's longer every time. My first visit, I was here less than five minutes and disappeared back home for a few seconds. My last visit, I was here about 8 or 9 months and disappeared back home for a couple hours.

"The time spent here and time lost there is inconsistent, but it has significantly increased each time."

I joined in at this point. "Our best guess is that she'll probably remain here for a few more years. I hope."

They both looked at me directly for the first time.

Kara gestured between us. "Diana Prince, Zatanna Zatara, may I present my best friend in this world, Frank. Frank, may I present Wonder Woman and Zatanna."

Diana jumped a bit at Kara's use of her psuedonym.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both." I extended my hand. "Kara's told me so much about you."

Zatanna never really had a secret identity. Or maybe more accurately, she's not as public a super-hero as Wonder Woman. Diana did not rely much on her civilian identity, but still apparently didn't like it being thrown about so freely.

As I shook each hand, I noticed a small shiver run through each of them at my touch. So it begins, I thought, grinning to myself. But I think I was able to keep my smile pleasant, free of plotting lust.

"If Kara trusts you, we'll give you the benefit of the doubt, right Di?" said Zatanna warmly.

"Of course," said Diana, obviously not entirely convinced. "Now, what are the chances of us getting home?"

Kara and I put on our serious faces. "Not good."

"I'm sorry, but their science is ... Their laws of physics don't allow the same things ours do, and..." Kara looked at me helplessly.

"The super-science you seem to have in your world doesn't exist here. I like to think we're a technologically modern world, but we've never been visited by aliens ... at least as far as I know. We haven't visited any planets other than our own moon, though we have sent a few probes out to land on Mars and Venus. We don't have any working theories about dimensional travel."

Turning to face Zatanna directly, I continued. "Magic almost entirely consists of stage magicians doing tricks. Some people believe in real magic, but the existence of anything real has never been proven."

"I've already tried a few basic spells to no effect." She cleared her throat. "Nruter su ot ruo emoh noisnemid. See nothing."

I had a thought. "Here, let's do a quick experiment ... ummmm ... Princess, could you bring out your lasso? Here, loop it around me. I bet it's still super strong, because that would be intrinsic to its physical existence. But I doubt its magic truth-telling ability still works."

She put the loop around me and tightened it slightly.

"Ok, tell me the truth. Can we go home?"

"Yes, but not with anything we have here. But that question actually doesn't help prove things either way. Here, if I may. I love ice cream. I hate ice cream. I'm a black teenage girl. I'm an old Chinese Kung Fu master. See?"

They were silent for a moment as I pulled off the golden lariat. Then Diana spoke up. "So, we're stuck here?"

Kara jumped in. "Not forever. From my conversations with Dr. Hamilton at STAR Labs, they can probably pull you back home from our world once they know you're gone. There's even a chance that your call to the League triggered a call to Dr. Hamilton who'll start setting up to do that. And if not, then once I get back, I can tell him."

"Why don't we continue this in the minivan with air conditioning?" I suggested. I locked up the cabin, and we all piled in the van.

"Are you hungry?"

They both perked up at this and responded strongly in the affirmative. I took suggestions for fast food and drove us through a Wendy's on the way home.

But before we got home, I had to stop for a gas refill. "Hey, we haven't gotten to the best part!" I cackled gleefully. "Kara, while I pump the gas, why don't you take them into the station and take a look at the magazine rack?"

She immediately caught on to my idea and escorted them inside. When I finished filling up, I went inside to find them stunned and sorting through the comics.

"Grab as many as you'd like, my treat. We have more back at the house."

They left with half a dozen comics each.

Back in the van, Diana said, "I know Kal talked about a world like this, but I ... it just never seemed real."

"As far as I can tell, this isn't that world. But yes. Here in this world, you're both comic book characters. Oh, and I should point out that there are no supervillains here either. And while the police are usually happy to accept community support, they tend to send vigilantes to prison."

Kara joined in. "If I may, I recommend trying to view your stay here as a vacation. Or maybe a chance to learn any mundane skills you want to as a private citizen.

Zatanna said, "It sounds like we're going to need to get jobs while we're here. Do they require ID or birth certificates or anything like that?"

"Yes, but I can get you workable IDs while you're here. They probably won't be good enough to let you get passports or high publicity jobs or high security positions, but they should be sufficient for most anything else.

"But at the same time, you don't have to work. You're friends of Kara, so I'll be more than happy to put you up."

"Thank you, but if we're going to be here for years, I wouldn't want to impose..."

Kara interrupted. "Wait until you see his new house before you turn him down. Frank here is loaded."

"So how did you two meet?"

"I met Frank on my very first visit. He was the cutest little 10 year old kid you've ever seen." And she launched into the story (see Chapter 5).

I had never heard her tell the story all at one time before, and it was interesting to hear it from her perspective. She gave hints that we were in a relationship but only hints. She also left out any mention of Alpha, which I appreciated.

She had covered all the basics of our story by the time we arrived home. I parked out front so they get a good view.

"Welcome! It's no Wayne Manor, but it's home."

Zatanna said, "Very nice." Diana was silent, but gave a nod.

"We'll go shopping..." I looked at my watch. It was already mid- afternoon, and I really hated driving in and out of the metroplex area during rush hour. " ... Probably tomorrow and get you each a wardrobe to use while you're here. I'm sure Kara and Anna can loan you clothes for tonight."

"Anna?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm also hosting a friend from Japan who lost her home, a pilot and engineering student, a couple of college students and another lady tossed adrift through the dimensions. Anna Marie was a mutant super-hero in her home dimension. She made a wish with a genie's lamp and ended up here."

I paused. "Actually, have either of you ever met the X-Men? They're a mutant super-hero team from a dimension similar to yours."

They looked at each other.

Diana said, "I have. There was a young man who could travel between dimensions and there was something strange that happened with Doctor Fate. It's all a bit fuzzy, to tell the truth."

"Well, then there's a chance you've met Anna before. Her super-hero name was Rogue, if that helps."

She shrugged.

Actually, they had no memory of each other. I was pretty sure they didn't actually meet in the comics in question, but I wasn't positive. Regardless, their memories did not include any meeting between them. On the other hand, they definitely knew some of the same characters. In particular, Storm and Wonder Woman had been merged into a single person for the storyline in question. [There are a variety of crossover comics between DC and Marvel, but here I'm mostly referring to the DC vs Marvel/Amalgam comics.]

"Come on, take off your coats and come inside. You must be close to a heatstroke in those things."

We went inside and I introduced them to Kasumi and Rei. Anna was outside sunbathing, so she didn't meet them until I gave the house tour.

They seemed a bit in shock, and I tried to be as accommodating as possible. I set them each up with a debit card to one of my accounts and had basic ID to go with them by morning. (Or rather, Alpha did.)

Rogue bonded with the newcomers much more easily than she had with Kara, and they quickly figured out Diana's link with Storm. By this time, Anna had decided she preferred life here where she could touch and be touched freely, though she still missed her friends and colleagues. The unexpected link to Ororo made her misty-eyed and sad, so much so that I spent the night with her to try to cheer her up.

I offered to let them borrow a car to drive wherever they needed to go, knowing that they had nowhere else to go. Diana briefly jumped at the chance, but rapidly deflated once she realized her situation.

Diana also started talking about going to see if Themyscira (Paradise Island) existed on my world too. Since our world has the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle as well -- where Themyscira was located apparently -- she felt that it might actually exist here too.

I wasn't moving in on them as quickly as I had the previous ladies in the house, but I made sure I paid close attention to them and made skin-to-skin contact as often as possible. When we were close, I could see their eyes dilating, focusing on me. They would stumble over their sentences as they talked to me.

When I took them shopping the next day, I did my old trick of asking them to put on a fashion show for me for fun, and I could see their faces blushing and skin flushing as they did so. I thought Diana might balk at this, but she agreed. (Zatanna was a natural showman and very flirty.)

Diana bought conservative but stylish clothes ... and everything she bought had a relatively low neckline. Plus she selected a number of large purses and handbags so she could continue to keep her lasso with her.

Zatanna bought a wider variety of clothes, but made sure everything showed off her legs. We made a separate trip to a magic shop for her, but it turns out that the quality of most materials there just wasn't up to her standards. Eventually she was able to find some good magic resources online. When she looked into materials for "real" magic, she found very little that was familiar to her.

Kara had more than one private conversation with Diana and Zatanna, all of which Alpha monitored.

The conversation on their third day turned out to be the most interesting one. Here is part of it:

Zatanna: That reminds me, Kara. Am I misreading the situation or has Frank slept with almost everyone in the house?

Kara: Ummm ... that's a complex subject.

Diana: How so? It sounds like a simple Yes or No question to me.

Kara: The short answer is Yes.

Zatanna: Including you?

Kara: Yes. I started sleeping with him a few years ago, when he turned 21.

Diana: 21?

Kara: I know how it sounds. At first I thought it was a mistake, but then I realized how much he meant to me. He was the first man I was friends with before ... Look, I make no apologies for my costume. But when I wear it, men tend to see it, not me. Frank was the first person who was friends with me before he noticed the costume. And he's an amazing lover. If I could do it and keep him safe, I'd bring him back with me and marry him. But we don't know what would happen to him if he came back, let alone whether or not it's even possible.

Zatanna: And the other women?

Kara: Since I can't stay here permanently or take him with me, I can't expect him to be exclusive to me. Besides, I don't mind ... or rather, I LIKE sleeping with women almost as much as sleeping with Frank. And most of them are my friends too.

Diana: "Almost as much"? You prefer sleeping with men?

Kara: Yes, I do. Or at least I prefer sleeping with Frank. You probably would too if you tried it.

Diana: Is that an invitation?

Kara: Maybe. Maybe for both of you. I just ... Look, I'm not always as emotionally secure as I should be. I don't mind sharing him, but you're the first people I might share with who I already know. You're the first ones I'll have to continue to work with on an ongoing basis. I would have to be sure that we could continue to work together just fine."

Zatanna: And that we wouldn't go telling stories, right?

Kara: That too. The way I think of it is ... Okay, their version of Las Vegas has this slogan. 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.' That's how I think of this world. I don't do anything I would be ashamed of, but still...

Zatanna: That doesn't mean you want it in the papers, huh?

Kara: Right.

Zatanna: Is he really that good of a lover?

Kara: Oh god, yes. I think all of the girls have come so much we passed out.

Zatanna: Really...

Kara: He's not super-human, but he is in great shape. And he treats each one of us differently. He always makes sure we come more than once and he seems to understand us at some basic, primal level. He can do things simply or break out the Kama Sutra.

Diana: Cunnilingus?

Kara: Definitely. Sometimes I think he enjoys it as much as actual fucking.

Diana: Well, that's a pleasant surprise at least. So are all of the women here bi-sexual?

Kara: To one degree or another. Jane is the most enthusiastically bi, but I've spent the night alone in bed with each of them. Rei and Daria are probably the most hetero of the group, but they still enjoy a night of lady-lovin on occasion. I think Daria is equally in love with Frank and Jane, and any night spent with someone else is just for fun.