Every superhero and superheroine has to be ready to make sacrifices. Sometimes it's a simple thing like plans for an evening or a possession. I've already lost two cars in this way after being forced to leave them too near a rampaging villain.
Sometimes it is more complicated. Sometimes a superheroine has to sacrifice herself. I don't mean sacrifice her life, but sacrifice her body. I've had to do that a few times in my ten years in this world of men. If you are willing to accept the powers and responsibilities, it's something that will come up.
I wanted to share an example of what I mean. About three years ago I had to sacrifice myself for the greater good. Here's what happened:
About three years ago or so I was in my secret identity. I was in downtown Megapolis near the museum I work at when I heard a very loud crash in the distance. Like everyone else in the store, I ran to the window and saw people running down the street.
Once I was outside, unlike everyone else, I ran towards the crashing sounds. When I saw AntiMan hurl a truck through a building, a chill ran through me. I instantly reached into my purse, grabbed the special pager of mine, and sent an emergency signal to the other heroes and heroines that had a pager like it. I knew I'd have backup soon.
I also knew I would need it. For those that have not met AntiMan, I'll explain. He comes from a parallel world, where heroes here are villains there. He is his world's version of Ultra Man. But where Ultra Man is caring and heroic, AntiMan is vicious and evil. And like Ultra Man he is incredibly powerful. I have all the gifts of an Amazon, but other than my superior quickness, AntiMan is my physical better. As much as I used to hate saying that about any man. At that time I had met him twice before. The first time I had faced him alone and he had beaten me down then nearly raped me to death. Only the mysterious Argonite fragment that had fallen through the rift allowed me to stop him since he was allergic to the radiation it emitted. The second time was with Megagirl and he had beaten me into a bloody pulp and had nearly killed us both before we could get the upper hand using my lasso.
So now facing him again, I knew the odds were low that I could defeat him by myself. There was a chance that if I got the lasso around him, I could get him under control. But there was one other downside. When AntiMan first comes over from his dimension, he is full of its energy. He slowly weakens the longer he is here, and the more energy he uses.
He looked pretty fresh still that day.
I really had no choice. He was destroying everything he put his hands on. People were screaming, people were hurt. And more were getting hurt every second I waited for backup. There was no choice really.
I quickly ducked into an alley and changed. It was strange, you could hear the cries of joy when the people saw me fly out. Unfortunately all the people pointing at me told AntiMan that I was there. That meant the lasso option was out, at least for now.
When he saw me, I could see the insane rage in his face. "Ultra Woman!" he roared. Like a shot he charged at me. He may be stronger and tougher, but I'm an amazon. If I can deflect bullets, I could dodge him. I flew to the side at the last moment and let him crash into the pavement. Huge chunks of concrete flew up but it hardly slowed him down. He rocketed up at me again and I again avoided him, this time by flying up and letting him shoot by below me.
We played Dodge a few more times. It was a stalemate. I couldn't overpower him, and he couldn't catch me. He tried his blast vision, but I easily deflected it using my bracelets. All I was doing was playing for time, until others arrived.
Then he got a bright idea. He picked up a hunk of shattered concrete and hurled it at me. I flew to the side but it exploded into a building. He picked up more and hurled it at a bus.
Both of us knew that I could not stand aside and let him throw things around and hurt more people. The next piece of pavement went hurtling from him. I flew at it, struck it with my bracelets, and sent it towards the ground in pieces. Next I charged him.
He might have been able to move aside but I doubt it. My right shoulder struck him in his rippled belly. I drove him into the sky but it felt like my shoulder was almost yanked out of the socket.
His right arm wrapped around my head and his left fist slammed into the side of my ribcage. Three blows in a row, all hammering into my side. I know I cried out in pain and later found out he actually struck me so hard he broke a rib. I'm tough, I can take a lot of damage, but as an evil version of Ultra Man, he was probably the toughest man alive. With his last punch he grabbed the side of my bustier and tore out a section of it. Then he spun me around and hurled me bodily into the ruins of an old brick church he had destroyed. I crashed though the ruins and he was right behind me. Before I could catch my breath, his boot hit the back of my head driving my face into the rubble.
This is what I meant by sacrifice. I had to keep him busy until other heroes and heroines arrived. I knew I didn't have a chance in a fight against him, but I had to keep him from hurting innocent people. Unfortunately, that meant sacrificing my body.
I was still dazed when he pulled my out of the rubble by the hair. As he threw violent punches into my face and body, I barely heard him taunting me. "You don't have any Argonite now, do you bitch!" he roared.
His punches rained down on me. My head would snap to the side. With the taste of my blood in my mouth, I could do nothing. With each punch to my body he would tear away a piece of my costume. With one hand in my hair, the other hand hammered at me. I blocked a few punches, but for the most part I was putty in his hands.
When he finally released my hair, I was so numbed that I simply tumbled forward. "Nice view," I heard him say. Then he grabbed the back of my golden belt and sent a punch up between my legs. I think I screamed out in pain. I felt my legs go limp, followed by cool air as he ripped away a section of my star spangled tights.
I tried to crawl away, to do anything to get some time. Others were coming, I kept telling myself. All I had to do was stay conscious and alive, keep AntiMan busy so he wouldn't go hurt more innocents.
Instead he grabbed one of my boots. He spun around and hurled me pinwheeling through another wall. I was nearly out but I kept fighting. I never give up. I got to my knees and threw a stone block at him but it harmlessly bounced off his chest.
My reward was a vicious punch to the face that spun my head around like a top with blood spraying from my lips. On my knees before him seemed to suit AntiMan. Another punch to my face splattered blood across my bare chest. A third sent my head spinning to the other side. His crimson stained knuckles crashed into my other cheek again sending my head snapping violently to the side. I started to fall forward limply when he grabbed my blonde hair. His knuckles smashed into my face, then the back of his hand twisted me the other way. Back and forth he went, his blows capable of mangling steel. Instead, he mangled me. But, I thought in the back of my head as I fought to remain conscious, at least he wasn't hurting somebody's loved one.
Apparently he was tired of my face, so he grabbed me by my upper arms. He stood me up then yanked me forward as he brought his knee up into my crotch. I shrieked as pain and numbness both somehow exploded from my sex.
He released me and I fell forward like a freshly cut tree. My arms wouldn't move so I rolled forward over my breasts and my head thumped off a stone brick. My boots flopped into the air then fell limply into the debris spread apart.
I wanted to get up, to at least keep him busy, but my body wouldn't react. I felt my blood oozing from my mouth and nose. As it seeped into my hair, he put a black boot on the shredded tights covering my behind. He moved the boot and nudged the toe against my naked sex, parting the lips slightly. With the city spinning around me and my body devastated, there was nothing I could do.
"I should rape you to death like I promised to do the last time we met," I vaguely heard him say. "But you've already made me use too much energy destroying you, Ultra Woman." He pulled the toe of his boot away. There was silence for a moment as I lay there in the rubble, barely staving off the darkness.
He pulled my head up by my hair and glared into my face. I was covered in dust from the destroyed building, mixing with the blood. "You still deserve death, bitch!" he barked.
Suddenly I was lifted into the sky by the hair. Like a doll I was yanked behind him. He flew over the center of the damage city below. He wrapped a hand around my neck and gripped one side of my face. His other arm reached over my chest and gripped my shoulder.
He was going to snap my neck. One arm was completely numb but I lifted one hand up to weakly push at him. I had to keep fighting, never surrender.
"Too bad I never could rape you to death, Ultra Woman. Maybe I'll get to kill your successor like that one day," he said as he started to twist my head to the side. When my chin passed over my shoulder I figured I was finished.
"LET GO OF HER!" I heard a voice yell. A blur of red and blue shot past me and I fell out of AntiMan's hands.
It was Ultra Man.
I floated towards the ground, unable to stop myself. A pair of arms scooped me up. "Don't worry Ultra Woman," I heard Shamrock of the Global Protectors say. "You're okay now."
As she flew down, I saw AntiMan surrounded by Ultra Man and Maple Leaf. Shamrock set me down in a triage area where injured people were being taken care of.
"Don't worry Ultra Woman," one of the EMTs said as he put a rolled up blanket under my head. "They can handle him now. In case you want to know, so far we haven't found any dead."
I gave him a weak smile and let the darkness take me. This time at least, my sacrifice had not been in vain.