“WUNGH!”
The dark skinned fist was buried in my belly lifting my boots into the air. Before I could touch the ground, Aluna grabbed the back of my golden belt and my red bustier and hurled me through the air. With a crash of shattering plexiglass, I crashed through the bus stop shelter and bounced across the street. I rolled over three or four times with glass landing all around me until I came to a stop against a derelict car.
I pushed the blonde hair from my face in time to see Aluna rushing towards me. Instinctively I thrust out a foot and my red and blue boot struck her in the knee. Losing her balance, Aluna slammed chest first into the side panel of the car with a grunt of pain. Finally I had the advantage and leaped on top of her as she fell back to the pavement.
My knee plowed into her belly while my hands hit her shoulders and pinned her to the street. “Aluna! Stop this madness!” I shouted at her.
Aluna is an Amazon, one of my sisters from back home. Dark skinned, her mother had found a mate in Africa and she reflected that. My mother had found a mate in Sweden and I reflected that as well. Aluna was a general on the island, a military leader of great skill. Three times she had narrowly missed being chosen as Champion. The first three times she had lost in the contest to superior warriors, namely Deanna, Melania, and Atalanta. Each of them had fallen, so when I came in fourth in the last contest, the Queen chose me over the three more talented warrior because she felt I was more flexible and could handle the intricacies of a world of men. Aluna was cut from the same cloth as Melania and Atalanta, namely single minded warriors. She would have probably suffered a similar fate if she had become Ultra Woman.
Aluna had never forgiven me though for becoming Ultra Woman. She felt that the title of Champion belonged to her. She had snuck off the island in an Ultra Woman uniform fit to her more muscular build and had attacked me. It had been a draw, although I had probably taken the worst of the punishment but I was too hard headed to fall. Some friends of mine had arrived and Aluna had retreated.
Now she was attacking me again. I had been on the trail of a supervillain when she had assaulted me here in the old industrial section of Megapolis. Rusting cars and buildings surrounded us with brown weeds growing around dilapidated sidewalks and bus stops. I had to try and reason with her, otherwise Aluna would never stop attacking me.
“This is insane, you must stop this!” I pleaded with her. I was straddling her hips on my knees and had one arm across her throat and my other pinning one of her arms. She was stronger than me, but with my bracelet on her neck she would have trouble moving.
“That tiara is mine!” she spat at me. Her black hair was braided in rows and held back by a red band. Her brown skin was glazed in sweat, as was mine. We had been fighting for only a minute but the intensity of our battledshowed on our bodies. “I won the tournament and you stole it!”
“No Aluna!” I told her. My blonde hair trailed down over my shoulders and fell across her heaving chest. “It was the Queen’s decision! You must respect what she had ordered. We have all sworn to obey her!”
Aluna’s auburn eyes flared with rage. “I break my oath! I trained you and I am the greater warrior!” She lurched up but my arm on her throat pushed her back down. “That tiara is mine and I’ll kill you to get it, Tania. Give it to me!”
I started to reply when her leg shot upwards. “AAAANNGHH!!” I screamed as her kneecap hammered into my sex. My entire body lurched forward from the impact and my knees were lifted off the ground. The shock ran from my pubic bone through my body like a wave of weakness.
My grip on her failed. “AAGGH!” I cried out as she brought both fists up. They drove into the outsides of my breasts and slammed them together. With one hand on my side, she shoved me off of her.
I tumbled across the street and came to a stop at the base of a streetlight. I put a hand on it and tried to get to my feet. I was gasping for air and a numbness was still in my body from the blow to my sex. My brain ordered my body to move but it was like moving in slow motion.
Aluna reached me as I got to one knee and grabbed the back of my head. Instantly I was driven forward into the metal pole. With a loud clang of my tiara on the pole, my face smashed into the pole. She pulled me back by my hair and again my face struck the pole.
The dark street was spinning now. My foot lost traction and I stumbled back to my knees. I had already been fighting her and these last few blows were about all I could take.
She pushed my hair over my shoulder and put a finger to one side of the base of my neck. I knew what that meant and brought my hands up and tried to turn around but I could not make my body move. There on my knees with my face pressed against the bent light pole I was an easy target.
Aluna stiffened her fingers and speared them into my neck. There was a loud pop.
“Ah!” I gasped and instantly felt every part of my body from the neck down go completely insensible. My arms flopped down and hung limply at my sides. The entire weight of my body suddenly transferred to my hair and into Aluna’s fist.
The Amazons know of certain pressure points in the body. Aluna was an expert in using them but it was very difficult to strike such a precise spot in battle. I knew I would get the feeling back in my body in a few hours, but that did not help now.
“You know I am the superior warrior, Tania,” Aluna said as she bent my head back to face her.
“Don’t do this...Aluna...” I whispered to her. “An evil...evil being...must be...stopped...tonight...”
“Who is this feeble male?” Aluna asked.
“No Aluna...you..cannot...”
“Who!?” she demanded and shook me by the hair.
I remained silent.
“Very well Tania,” Aluna said. She let me go and I fell forward. I deflected off the streetlight and rolled onto my back spread eagle on the cold pavement. I could move my eyes to watch her, but my body could only lay there like a corpse. Aluna reached down to my hip and tore the golden coil of rope from my hip. She knelt down to my neck and tied the glowing rope around me.
“Now answer! Who are you hunting, where is he, and why do you seek him?!” she ordered.
I had no choice but to answer. “Th...the Wraithlord. He...he is summoning a demon...to...to destroy the city...” The power of the magic rope compelled me. I told her Aluna where to find him.
“Then I will defeat him,” Aluna announced. “I know of your many defeats here and the many times men here have used your body both willingly and unwillingly. I am stronger than you,” she sneered. “No man will touch my body.”
She stood up and threw the end of the rope around the top of the light on the pole. Aluna pulled it down and I was lifted into the air by my throat. I had enough strength in my neck to keep from strangling, but Aluna kept lifting me into the air. Once my boots were off the ground, she stopped.
“You have something of mine, Tania,” she said. Aluna reached for my tiara and slipped it off my forehead. Hair fell forward over the edges of my face but I still felt a moment of despair when Aluna put the Champion’s symbol on her own forehead.
“Aluna,” I said in a hoarse whisper. It was difficult to keep my neck tensed and speak. “Do not...seek him out...he will k..kill you..”
Aluna sneered at me. “I am not weak like you.” With that she lifted up on the lasso and I was jerked into the air. She tied off the rope. “Goodbye, sister.”
In a moment Aluna was gone. The street was silent again except for the sounds of the lasso quietly creaking as I slowly spun in place at the end of my own rope. My head hung down to my chest and I could see the street through the strands of hair across my face and past my breasts and toes.
I ended up hanging there for hours until the nerves in my neck recovered from Aluna’s blow. It was an awful feeling to hang like that. Unable to move and slowly turning in a circle or from side to side as the cool night breeze blew across my limp body, I could only worry about the sister that had done this to me.
Aluna was later killed by the Wraithlord, sacrificed by the evil, undead sorcerer to help summon his demon. We stopped his plot, but Aluna was gone. The Queen had actually been correct; Aluna had suffered the same fate as the others. I am still Champion. I am still Ultra Woman.