January 1st, 7.45 PM
Midtown Metropolis
The voices echoed in her head.
“My daughter, you will be the bridge between worlds.” “War will come." “You are an Amazon. Never forget.” “I will watch them exhaust you. Drain the life out of you, as you save them over and over." “Mankind has become an honorless, egotistical and bitter little race.” “I will let Man’s world tear you apart.”
“Ron Troupe, Daily Planet. Big fan, big fan, miss Wonder Woman,” the reporter said and brought Diana back to reality.
Someone had mustered the courage to approach her. If there was one thing, she was bad at, it was communicating with the press. And after the world ending disaster that was her last interview, reporters were generally cautious when approaching her.
“Could you tell the people of Metropolis what’s written on that thing?”
He followed up by signalling his cameraman.
Diana looked at the container once again. Without signs or warnings, the thing had simply dug itself up. Through dirt, through the road. In order to know how far down the stone cylinder went, it would seem that one would have to dig around it for a very long time. Standing in the middle of the street, she could only see the top, as only the lid on the container had surfaced. When trouble arrived in Madison Square Garden Diana had remained here, and this was the reason. There was no question this was a relic from her world or older.
“It shall spread until the surface is but teeth,” Diana read out loud from the ancient Greek writing on the thing. “As Uroboros begins, this demon shall be all. And then there is a part that loosely translates to an increase in the reptile population.”
“Uroboros, that’s Egyptian, right? A snake eating its own tail or somethin',” Ron asked.
She rested her hands against the stone-grey relic and something moved inside.
“The Egyptians seem to think so today. The Amazons think that it is a warning so fearsome that the people of Egypt chose to translate it into something more comprehensible. The warning is older than the symbol, and is directed at all nations”
Understandably the capsule had drawn quite a crowd and a few news stations. The atmosphere was thick with distant talk. Citizens seemed excited about the strange phenomenon - a stone cylinder digging itself up through the asphalt road - and seeing Wonder Woman at street level. She realized that even if police had created a perimeter, it was far from enough. What she had assumed to be a simple message from Ares had turned out to be something a lot worse. The timing had Ares' signature written all over it, yet it was no mere message.
“You all have to move,” she said.
The noise from the spectators was too much, her voice didn’t reach through.
“MOVE!”
She accompanied the outcry with drawing her sword and shield, and suddenly people got the message. For once her unnerving persona was an advantage. The taste of success was short-lived though, as she realized she had left her communicator back at Justice Station.
“Hold on, Ron Troupe from the Planet, I have need of your camera and also your cameraman.” she said.
On just about any channel…
Wonder Woman, the Amazonian with a figure few individuals could accomplish, appeared. Her posture was strait as always and her body pumping with vigor.
“Something has appeared. An ancient evil beyond most people’s understanding. Something so foul that legends have had to water it down,” she warned.
Somehow a gentle wind always moved through her hair when she addressed the people of Metropolis. There was always something to make her look larger than life.
She continued. “There is no question that the seal will break, and once it does there will be a fight that is not meant for mortal eyes. And yet it has been forced on us like a plague. I call upon my friends in the Justice League. If you can come, please do so. But I also call upon others: I implore every strong arm and sharp sword to stand with me. Those who can fight do so. Those who cannot … run. If you live in midtown Metropolis, do not hesitate. You take your love ones and go. Do not look back. Run for your life.”
There the warning ended, leaving stations to unravel her words.
