Streams of stinging black smoke raked Diana's lungs, causing her to stir awake coughing. She felt a great weight pressing on top of her that was driving her into the ground, painfully pressing hard bits of broken pavement into her back. A moment later her eyes began to focus and by instinct she pushed the heavy object off of her chest. Lighting shot up through her shoulder that made Diana open her mouth in a silent scream. She took a moment to gather her focus and pushed off the unknown weight off her as it groaned and screeched with metallic protest..

Diana felt worn and sore but nothing felt broken as she moved out of range of the acrid smoke surrounding her. Once in the clear, bits and pieces of her memory began to return. She recalled an alarm going off in the Batplane. Then an explosion followed by the feeling of a hard impact.

"We found her!" yelled a man's voice.

Wonder Woman turned to see large soldier dressed in all black military garb and brandishing an assault rifle. Behind him quickly came a shorter man dressed in the same manner. In his hands was an empty rocket launcher, causing the memory of the past several minutes to come flooding back.

Ten minutes ago:

Diana took point in flying as the wind whipped past her face and tossed her hair wildly about behind her. She could hear of the Bat plane's engines distinctive roar behind her as she surveyed the chaos of that enveloped her adopted city, turning it to fire and cinder below her. Her heart ached as she watched a gang of men running out of an electronics store with bundles of stolen goods in their arms. Another group sought to add to the destruction as they threw Molotov's into an apartment building as its residents ran out in terror. She wondered if this was what her mother felt when Ares betrayed her and ravaged Themyscria eons ago.

She clenched her hands into fists as Batman's voice rang out in her ear.

"Diana, we have to stay focused. D.C.P.D. is coming out in force and the National Guard has mobilized."

She didn't respond as she forced her eyes away from the terrible morality play on the nature of man below her. Diana steeled her resolve as she took in deep controlled breaths and readied herself to take her fury upon those who had orchestrated the riot as the tall pale building of Raymond Plaza came into view.

"Everything's quiet inside. I've tried radioing ahead to the security detail but still no answer." Buzzed Batman's voice through the communicator in Diana's ear.

"What about the local authorities?" asked Diana as she pressed the communicator closer to her ear.

"I'm trying right now but it seems that they're spread too thin dealing with the fire and riots. ETA on backup is about twenty minutes."

"Give or take any unforeseen disasters. Radio our situation to the Watchtower. I'm going in."

"Diana wait!" yelled Batman. "We don't even know what we're dealing with!"

"We don't have time for stealth or reconnaissance! Lives are at stake here and…" she responded angrily without looking back.

"…getting yourself killed in the process isn't doing the situation any good! Stop being so bull headed and…"

Before Batman could finish the sentence, Diana could hear an alarm go off in her ear from the Bat planes onboard systems.

"Batma…?" asked Diana as she looked back over her shoulder

Her sentence was cut short by a powerful explosion of fire and metal. Diana unconsciously slowed down only to feel the Bat plane slam into her and send her tumbling back in midair. When she regained control of her momentum, she could see the Bat plane was now a fireball as it hurtled towards a tall high rise apartment building.

"Batman, are you alirght!?" asked Diana as she flew to catch up

"Stabilizers are shot!"

Diana darted to the front of the plane and pushed up against its nose in hopes to change the planes direction. A thousand hot swords pierced her shoulder from where the Bat plane slammed against it as she let out a yelp.

"Hera. Give me strength." She muttered through gritted teeth and closed eyes of concentration.

She felt the vibrating impact shake through her bones and the high shrieking of metal scraping against concrete. For a moment she thought she had failed in her task but the moment passed as she felt nothing but rushing wind against her back. Diana knew that they had barely missed the building but the threat of crashing into the civilian population below still loomed.

"BATMAN! EJECT!" she yelled through the wind sheer

"Negative! I still have some control left!"

Diana cursed him as she could feel the Bat plane slow its descent but it wasn't nearly enough to guarantee a safe landing below. She knew she was close to the ground as she heard the screams of the bystanders below and braced herself for the impact

Ten minutes later.

"Get your camera ready." said one of the soldiers as he leveled his weapon. I wanna post this on my facequote!

By the second nature of repetition, Diana's muscles relaxed as her mind entered an enhanced state of focus. To many outside observers it seemed that Wonder Woman was in a state of fierce concentration when she deflected bullets off her bracelets. The opposite was true. Diana could only compare it the state of Zen or what Flash called "speed mode," where his reactions are so fast that everything else moves in slow motion. Diana's focused reactions weren't quite as fast as Wally's but it functioned on the same principles.

Her breathing was calm and steady as she felt the familiar calmness drape over practiced muscles. Clearing her mind, she remembered that her attackers were trained soldiers and like any trained solider their aim was for the largest target area, the center mass. The assault rifles were a series of letters and numbers that she could not remember but through experience she knew assault rifles would empty themselves within four seconds.

"One Mississippi" she counted to herself while narrowing her eyes in an effort to see the faint line of bullets as they shot towards. She waved her arms smoothly and quickly into position feeling the familiar impact against her forearms. "Two Mississippi."

The smaller man dropped the rocket launcher and reached for his pistol. Diana pivoted her body slightly and sent several of the bullets right into the bulky Kevlar vest he wore and sent him careening backwards to the ground. His partner didn't notice, lost in the thrill of gunfire as he yelled an obscenity that she couldn't quite make out over the bursts of his rifle.

"Four Mississippi." She said to herself as the rifle cut itself into silence. She smiled and rushed forward as the soldier tried to reach for his sidearm. The look of panic gave Diana a minor rush while she dispatched her assailant with ease.

Now she could concentrate on the matter at hand.

"Bruce" she thought to herself as she rushed to the cockpit that was once pinning her to the ground. The Bat planes canopy was already removed but the seat still sat inside of the cockpit, showing that he hadn't ejected to safety as she had hoped. But if he didn't eject, where was he? Batman wouldn't leave her trapped under the rubble of his own plane and would've certainly made short work of the two soldiers that she just subdued. Without any clues to the matter, she turned her attention to the smaller soldier with the rocket launcher who was trying to make a getaway.

She had caught up to him easily enough, knocking the radio out of his hand and raising him several feet off the ground by his neck. Diana knew holding anyone by their neck this way was a dangerous maneuver due to the fragile nature of that particular part of human anatomy. A wrong move or a slip in grip, even the struggle of the victim could potentially cause permanent injury or worse. Remembering all the tips that Superman had given her about using a deadly action, she began her interrogation.

"Inside. They took Batman inside." Wheezed the soldier

"How many of men do you have?"

The soldier coughed out the word thirty.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"We…are…Kung. We are excellence. You cannot…."

Diana dropped the man to the ground as he landed unceremoniously onto his butt. She wasn't in the mood to hear the ranting of another fanatic, which had become an occupational annoyance. After leaving both men hanging by their web duty belts on one of the high flagpoles, she quickly entered inside through the darkened front of the plaza.

The inside of Raymond Plaza was a monument between the fusion of modern art and politics. It was a strange marriage but resulted in one of the most beautiful places of peace and diplomacy the world had laid eyes upon. The four story building became the site of many historic treaties and peace declarations throughout its inception. World leaders and architects marveled at the mix of Gothic and ancient Greek styles with some even claiming that the interior was designed with the brilliant intent on creating soothing and a sense of relaxation to anyone who was graced with a visit within.

Diana hated it. Raymond Plaza seemed too familiar and alien all at once. Parts of it reminded her native home, yet seemed vaguely and unsettlingly alien as if she were visiting Themscriya through a distorted and colored lenses. The aesthetics only served to add to her already heightened sense of vigilance as she made her way through the darkened front lobby. The only light was the faint pale glow of the security monitors behind the front desk that matched the glow of the moonlight that shone from the large front windows. She was surprised to see that there were no soldiers to greet her with a volley of gunfire upon entering but she chalked it up to the attacker's confidence that she had perished upon landing.

There were however several bodies of the buildings security officers as they lay prone on the ground. She already knew the fate of the guards as the first line of defense that was breached but Diana had to check in the off chance of any survivors.

It always took her by surprise how warm dead bodies were. She had sadly been privy to many corpses in her adventures. It almost seemed like some sort of cruel joke that was being played on her, that the men would simply stand up and return to their lives and loved ones as if waking from a restful sleep.

Frustration saddled heavy on her with each confirmed dead, giving way to an unnatural panic that the corpse of Bruce would be the next one she would find. She closed her eyes and forced herself to focus, push out all the imaginings of Bruce's fate, of his scent at dinner.

"As a rock on the seashore he standeth firm, and the dashing of the waves disturbeth him not. As a rock on the seashore he standeth firm…." She whispered to herself as she made her way down deeper into the plaza.

Diana leaned against a wall with her eyes closed and ears intensely concentrating for the trotting of combat boots. The hallway she had come through was now littered with shell casings, bullet holes and the unconscious bodies of three soldiers she had dispatched with ease despite her injured shoulder that now throbbed with each passing heartbeat.

Restraint was becoming more and more difficult as her impatience grew with each squad she disabled. As much as she desired to crash through the walls of the building to bring a quick end to the situation, she knew the distinct disadvantages of doing so would lead to her death or worse, the death of an innocent or Batman. Although far from powerless, she had her limitations. It was a frustration of Diana's that she could endure going toe to toe with Superman, yet be disabled by piercing weapons. Her skin could take more punishment then the average human but was far from bulletproof and in order to deflect bullets she had to see them coming and lacked x-ray vision to do so. In short, she wasn't Supergirl.

But she is an Amazon. She is Wonder Woman.

Earlier she had allowed one of the guards to radio for backup before knocking him unconscious. Warfare was always a topic of study for Diana. It was essential for the dangers she encountered and the study of modern warfare had saved Diana countless times.

The familiar trotting of boots echoed faintly through the thick plaster and came to a stop near her. She already Diana knew the incoming soldiers would be stacked in a tight line, "nut to butt" as it was called, against a wall. It was standard breaching protocol among soldiers and soldiers no matter what era were predictable. The sound of their footsteps told Diana that they were leaning against the same wall at opposite sides. Turning to face the wall, Diana marked a mental "X" on the wall in front of her and punched through it.

Her fist felt a rush of open air on the other side. She turned her arm inwards and felt the thickness of military cloth and Kevlar against her forearm as she pulled one of the soldiers through the wall to her. A smile crossed her face as she tossed the unconscious black clad gunmen aside and crashed through the wall and used the ensuing chaos of her entrance to subdue the rest of squad.

The tactic was repeated again that allowed her to quickly move up several floors of soldiers. She managed to save the representatives of Kazakhstan and Georgia along with any surviving members of their staff. But she wasn't fast enough to save the diplomats from Armenia and only able to see their mangled and mauled bodies. They didn't look as if they had been shot so much as torn apart by a bear. She had seen other corpses of bodyguards turn apart in an equally fearsome manner. Some were missing chunks out of their torsos, leaving only bloody holes where there should be flesh. The truly unlucky ones were the ones were torn in half, their legs separated from their torso like and laid like broken dolls. That alone raised more questions for her but she didn't have much time to indulge them.

Most confoundedly was the lack of any sign of Batman yet. An image of his torn up corpse, like those of the Armenians, flashed inside her mind and gave speed and anxiety to her actions.

""As a rock on the seashore…" she whispered to herself like a prayer.

She couldn't afford to the luxury of her anxieties running wild. If left unchecked, they would make her fast, sloppy and distracted. If left unchecked, they could mean her bloody death at whatever tore the men and women apart.

Making her way up to the third floor, Diana heard the distant shots of gunfire and the sharp barking of orders between soldiers and bodyguards and personnel. Allowing the sounds to guide her, she rushed towards the source of the action and nearly ran into Queen Audrey of Kaznia.

"Diana! Thank God! Thank God!" she exclaimed as she embraced Diana with tears running down her cheeks

"It's going to be alright Audrey."

Diana first met Audrey when she was a bratty party girl princess during her early days with the League. From their first meeting, Diana proudly watched her grow quickly into a respected leader of her country after the death of her father and helped to turn her country from a poor war torn nation to an upcoming and unified democratic country.

She pulled her quickly into the nearest office out of any potential attackers. Audrey was dressed some of the finest business attire Diana had lay eyes upon. Even as a mature world leader, Audrey still had expensive yet very good tastes. However crisp lines and cool colors were now mired with splatters of blood and sweat. Diana checked the smaller woman for any injuries but was relieved that none of the blood was Audrey's.

"You have to call the League. Call the police. The…the army. Please Diana!" yelled Audrey frantically.

"Calm down. It's going to be ok now. I can handle some men with guns and I've handled meta-humans before."

"Not like this Diana. Not like this. He was so fast…and…strong. My guards were ripped apart like tissues. He was just…you have to call Superman and Flash."

Diana pushed back the urge to ask if she saw Batman among the men.

"Let's just get you to safety Audrey. The police…"

Diana stopped when she witnessed the blood drain suddenly from Audrey's face. At once she felt the presence of someone behind her.

She turned just in time to see a black blur of motion and was sent flying through several walls before crashing to a stop unceremoniously against something hard and unforgiving. It took several second for her senses to return. Her lower right jaw began to throb fiercely as the wet metallic taste of blood began to fill her mouth. Several beats passed as her eyes went in and out of focus. Diana knew she was slumped against a heavy wooden desk. With effort she picked her head up and looked at the holes in the walls that her flying body tore through, leaving almost a comical looking series of maws.

Never had she been hit so hard in her life, only Superman had hit her as hard and Superman was nowhere on earth. Fear coursed through her as she drew in ragged breathes furrowed her brow in a concentrated effort to focus her eyes on the broken pieces of plaster and wood on the floor around her.

"Audrey." She said softly as she rose to her feet.

"Don't worry about the Queen." Said the voice in a calm, male voice that held an almost strangely peaceful tone

A sense of shock drove through Diana's spine. Diana estimated that she was at least knocked almost twenty feet away from where she and Audrey stood.

She wondered how fast this man could be.

The figure was of the black clad thief from the robbery in Japan standing before her. Diana could now make out the details of the faint, honeycombed pattern that covered the suit that gave him an other worldly reptilian look. Her assailant looked even taller now somehow. His shoulders were broad, almost as broad as Superman's but he had the same presence of calm superiority that powerful being carried when they held the upper hand (although could detect no emotions under the his mask or through the black goggles he wore).

"Who are you?"

"My name is sergeant James Morita." He said as he took off his mask. "But I am now known as Kung. And I'd like you to join me."