Ch. 123 – Amazon Games and a Powerful Awakening
On the south side of Themyscira is a beach surrounded by a small forest. Beyond the forest, a tall cliffside towers above the trees.
On the beach, there's a pier with a beach bungalow standing over the water. White curtains are all that seperate the inhabitants from the outside as there are no walls.
Inside, Alice is sleeping next to Fenrir, whose body is in a state of suspended animation while it adapts properly to the Kryptonian physiology.
The sun slowly creeps over the horizon and Alice opens her eyes as she yawns.
She rolls on her side and watches Fenris breathing very slowly. Barely a breath a minute.
She leans forward and kisses his cheek. "Morning honey. Today I'm going to see the girls because apparently they've got some kind of surprise for me. They're really curious about the god that made their island, though. They've been asking about you."
There's no response from Fenris as he continues his deep slumber.
Alice heaves a deep sigh. "Please wake up soon, it's been almost a year."
She gets up and gets dressed before walking outside. Past the beach, into the forest and up the cliff.
Once she's on top, a beautiful view awaits her. A large open valley with some small mountains in the distance. Close by, a temple is being built to house and protect the Motherbox Fenris gave the Amazons after the war with Darkseid.
A few of the Amazons notice her and wave at her, smiling. She returns their greeting, steps forward and jumps up, turning into a large falcon. She flies across the valley and enters a mountain pass.
Flying between the mountains at high speed, she narrowly avoids the sharp rock edges until she's through the mountain pass and levels out.
As she glides peacefully, she enjoys the view below, where she sees a beautiful town.
She spots Hippolyta and her entourage riding their horses. Alice tucks in her wings and dives down towards them.
Getting close, she spreads her wings, slowing her descent. As she's about to crash on the ground, she flaps her wings, transforms back into her regular appearance and lands gracefully.
"Hippolyta, Antiope." Alice says, greeting the queen and her general.
Antiope and the rest of the entourage all kneel seeing Alice.
"Lady Alice, good to see you." Hippolyta says. "Please join us, we're riding for the new coliseum."
"Very well," Alice says before her shadow grows larger and darker and a large pitch-black horse with glowing red eyes arises from it.
After a pleasant twenty minute horseback ride, they arrive at the Amazonian Coliseum. It was built on a cliff's edge, overlooking the ocean.
As the ladies enter, the first thing Alice notices is a huge construction in the center of the coliseum, covered in cloth.
"Lady Alice, this is your surprise." Hippolyta says before she turns to her general. "Antiope."
The Amazonian General nods to her queen before she turns to the Amazons at the base of the structure, holding ropes, and yells out, "Pull!"
Immediately the cloth covering the construct drops, revealing a twenty meter tall golden statue of Alice.
"Wow... that's a big, shiny golden statue of me." Alice answers, slack-jawed.
"Yes, it took two months and it's made of solid gold. Do you like it?" One of the Queen's entourage asks.
"Do I like it?" Alice asks, buying herself a second or two. 'It's a big, ostentatious golden statue. Absolutely not my style. No, can't say that, be polite. It took'em a lot of effort.' She thinks to herself. "Yes, I like it," she responds.
Satisfied with her answer, they make their way towards the Queen's personal viewing box as Amazons start flooding the stadium.
After about fifteen minutes, the women have all taken their seats and nine of them are standing ready, wearing leotards. Hippolyta stands up and addresses the crowd. "Welcome sisters! To the first annual Amazon Games! Held in honor of Lady Alice, who fought by our side and protected and freed us from the tyranny of mankind!" Hippolyta says before she turns to Alice. "Lady Alice, to you the honours."
Alice stands up and walks towards the edge before she raises her index finger to the skies and fires a bright red bolt of magic. "Let the games begin!" she yells before the magical bolt explodes in a beautiful red glow.
Immediately, the nine participants in leotards spring to action and run towards an elaborate obstacle course.
Alice and Hippolyta watch them side by side, until the Queen notices Alice quickly turning around and looking up with wide eyes and shock on her face. "Oh no." The goddess mutters as she unleashes a wave of crimson energy, forming a barrier around the Amazons in the coliseum.
Hippolyta turns immediately and sees a large dome of blue energy expanding in the distance, closing in fast.
As the expanding dome of energy collides with Alice's barrier, purple sparks fly everywhere and an enormous shockwave pushes most Amazons to the ground and levels part of the coliseum.
Immediately cracks appear on the barrier and an enormous pressure pushes the women left standing firmly to the ground, even rendering most of them unconscious.
Within a second the cold steel blue colored energy retracts and vanishes almost instantly.
Alice, the only person in the coliseum left standing, looks around and seeing no one is critically injured she vanishes in a flash of red light.
Reappearing on the beach, near the now destroyed bungalow, Alice sees her husband awake for the first time in a year, standing in the sea.
She rushes at him and tries to embrace him and tackle him into the water but he doesn't budge at all. It's like she tackled an unbreakable wall.
"Ow! that hurt." Alice says as she rubs her collarbone.
Fenris snaps his head towards her and immediately looks apologetic. "Sorry, honey. I was lost in thought. How long have I been out?"
"It's been a year!" Alice practically yells at him as she throws herself at him again, this time carefully, she wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him.
After a while, they both lean back and look into each other's eyes lovingly before a more serious expression befalls Fenris' face.
"I should probably fix what I just did."
"Yeah, about that, what DID you just do?" Alice asks, now looking concerned.
Fenris smiles and caresses her face. "Don't worry, it was just a mistake. Apparently I've become more powerful than I anticipated. I simply tried to spread my aura to find out what had happened in my absence."
Fenris steps away from her towards the beach. Holding his hands out in front, he summons some aura between his palms forming a ball. He increases and decreases the amount of aura over the next few seconds, getting an almost immediate grasp of his new power output.
He then spreads his arms wide and the ball increases in size as it soon covers the whole island. All damage is immediately repaired as the bungalow reforms on the beach, buildings reform as they were, uprooted trees get back exactly where they belong and all living creatures regain their consciousness.
Within seconds, it no longer looks as though Fenris just unleashed the equivalent of a nuclear bomb upon the island.
Getting back into the bungalow together Fenris and Alice sit next to each other on their bed, legs crossed facing each other. "So how come you didn't know you would become so much more powerful? From what I know, you were already superior to Kryptonians, no?"
Wondering as much himself, Fenris holds his hand out in front of him and looks at his palm as he balls his fist a few times. After a few seconds a smile forms across his face. "I see. That's incredible."
"What? What's incredible? Don't keep me in suspense." Alice says, playfully slapping his shoulder only to get a reminder of his new absurd sturdiness. "Ow!" she yelps out as she rubs her hand.
"Haha, alright, alright I'll explain." Fenris says before he conjures a drawing board. He draws a stick figure. Next to the the stick figure he draws a battery and next to the battery he then draws a muscular looking human being.
"Take a Kryptonian as a normal baseline human. Except, their bodies have this incredible ability to absorb solar radiation from more potent stars than the one from their home system. Basically, they're hyperefficient solar batteries. This turns them from baseline humans," Fenris says, pointing to the stick figure," into Supermen wielding the power of Gods," Fenris says, pointing to the muscular figure.
He then draws a figure resembling the Hulk, next to it a nuclear reactor and then a question mark.
"Now as for me, I was already quite powerful to start with," Fenris says, pointing at the Hulking figure. "But now, my body doesn't just absorb solar radiation, it takes in EVERYTHING.
And aside from that, my body was already an energy generator for every type of energy I've ever come into contact with. And then there's the part where I'm a God of the Sun, which means I can generate my own solar radiation.
So, all in all, I'd say I'm pretty darn powerful now." Fenris says with a maniacal grin on his face as the drawing board disappears.
"Good, then you can relax for a while." Alice says as she wraps her arms around him again. "We can cuddle up, watch sunrises and sunsets and make love all day."
"You know what? That doesn't sound too bad."