[The Daily Planet] The Queen’s Challenge

From: Moria McEntire <bansheec@xxxxxxx>
To: The Daily Planet <thedailyplanet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 22:47:04 -0400

The Queen’s Challenge
Amazons

There was an excitement in the air that Diana could actually feel as she made her way out of the palace and towards the coliseum. It seemed as if the only thing people were talking about was The Queen’s Challenge. The biggest question of course was who had requested the challenge, which always made the buzz around the contest even greater. The identity of the challenger is never known until the end of the match, which was standard for most contests. It was easier to do you’re best when you didn’t know who it is your fighting. But in the case of the Queen’s Challenge, the challenger knows who she’s about to take on which makes the event even more remarkable. Whoever this woman was she was willing to fight their Queen in a full one on one battle.

“Did you talk to Mother this morning?” Donna asked as she made her way to the royal box with Diana. With the Queen competing it would be up to Diana to rule over the proceedings since she was the next in line.

“Not since breakfast. Even for a contest such as this she likes to prepare alone.” Diana replied. The Amazonian coliseum was nearly full as the two princesses took their places. Diana, dressed in very pale purple robes to signify her rule until after the contest, sat in her mother’s place. Donna sat to Diana’s right where Diana herself normally sat, leaving her seat to the left of the throne empty and waiting for Selene.

The two sisters chatted with Philippus who stood in her place behind the Queen’s chair until the mummers of the crowd were so loud they could barely hear one another over the roar. Diana frowned when she noticed the seat beside her was still empty. “Where’s Selene?”

“I saw her this morning with Shahira and Artemis.” Donna replied.

“Shahira?” Diana asked as she watched for the sign that the she should start the contest.

Donna nodded. “A young Bana-Mighdallian, Io’s apprentice.”

Diana frowned a little more. “She knows she’s suppose to sit up here. Come to think of it, Artemis should be up here as well.”

“I’m right here.” The redhead said as she came into the box to stand with Philippus and Menalippe.

Diana looked over her shoulder and frowned more when Artemis was alone. “Where’s Selene?”

“She said she was coming up here.” Artemis replied.

Before Diana could reply Donna put her hand on her sister’s arm. “They’re ready, Diana. You’ve got to start the challenge.”

Something didn’t feel right to Diana, but she stood and stepped to the edge of the box. “In the spirit of competition on this day the day we honor the goddess Athena, I bid you my sisters welcome.” She called out, her voice as strong and as sure as her mother’s. “The Queen’s Challenge has been requested and the request accepted.”

From a door at the far end of the arena Hippolyte stepped onto the sand in full Amazon armor. Gold plated breast and back plates, shoulder greaves, and a white leather armor belt which she wore over a tunic of black with royal purple trim. Her boots were soft knee length leather, soled for battle, and covered with gold plated greaves. She wore battle gauntlets over her Amazon bracelets, and a golden open faced helmet who’s plume matched the royal purple of her tunic and cape. On her left arm she wore her shield, and even though the Queen preferred her battle axe, her long sword hung at her right side, her dagger from her left. She looked as regal a warrior as she did the day she’d defeated Hercules and her Amazons cheered for her until Diana raised a hand for silence.

Across from the Queen on the other side of the arena another fully armored warrior stepped onto the sand. Her armor was much more simple. It‘s plating was bronze, as was the Queen’s, but not plated in gold, her armor belt was brown, her tunic white, she wore no cape, and her fully masked helmet held no plume. There was no color, no markings on her armor that would in any way give away who she was. Even her hair was concealed beneath her helmet. She too wore an Athenian shield on her left arm, but again it was simple and unmarked, as was the dagger sheathed and hung on her left side.

“Challenger, you have asked for a contest against the Queen, our nation’s greatest swordswoman, and one of our greatest warriors. Do you still wish to proceed?” At the challenger’s nod Diana raised her mother’s scepter staff and brought it down with a thump as she proclaimed, “Let The Queen’s Challenge begin!”

There was a pause before both Queen and challenger drew their swords. It was in that moment that the Queen knew her guess had been right. In everything else her challenger had been careful to conceal herself, but a warrior always uses her own sword. Yet this knowledge did not deter the Queen, and when her challenger realized she had been found out, nor did it deter her.

The two Amazons came together in a clash of swords and shields. Back and forth, steel meeting steel in a warriors dance. There was no holding back as Hippolyte charged her opponent driving her back and knocking away her shield. There was no holding back as her opponent gripped the handle of her sword with both hands and hammered forward. Once both shields were cast away not only did steel meet steel, but bodies crashed together, arms blocked punches, leaps dodged kicks. Not even knocking the sword from her hand stopped the Queen’s opponent, she blocked with gauntlets and bracelets until she managed to do something no other had been able to do, she took the Queen’s sword and turned it against her. Hippolyte, with a smirk on her face, contoured knocking her own sword from the other Amazon’s hands.

With a surge of strength and speed her opponent charged at Hippolyte. With an ease that only experience can bring, Hippolyte used her opponent’s charge against her. As if the other Amazon were merely a doll the Queen lifted her off her feet, throwing her clear across the arena and into a wall.

Diana gasped when the wall cracked from the force of the throw. Her mother nearly equaled her in strength and not since the Goddesses had blessed her mother with that strength had Diana ever seen her use it on another Amazon. When the other Amazon staggered to her feet, took a breath, then dived for her sword once more Diana jumped to her feet. “Great Gaea!”

“She took that blow as if it were nothing!” Donna added as she too got to her feet.

Artemis watched closely as the two Amazons went back into battle. The challenger did not fight as a Themyscirian, nor did she fight as a Bana-Mighdallian, but as a complex mix of the two styles.

Back on the sand of the arena both combatants were breathing heavily, their exposed skin was covered in a mix of sweat and blood from the minor wounds each had received. Everything outside the sphere of themselves no longer existed as one fought to prove a point, and the other to teach a lesson. They fought until Hippolyte decided to end it. She had been given a good fight, a fair fight with equal strength, but she had the experience in the art of battle that made her the superior fighter, at least for now. With a final offensive strike Hippolyte disarmed her opponent, sent her crashing to the ground, then pinned her with the tip of her sword to her throat. “Do you yield and admit honorable defeat?”

There was a long pause before the reply came. “I yield to your mercy my Queen.”

The cheering of the crowd suddenly stopped at the sound of voices coming from the arena floor.

If Diana had pressed against the rail of the box any more she’d fall over it. She watched unblinking as the defeated Amazon slowly got up into a kneeling position in front of her mother. It felt as if every Amazon in attendance suddenly took in a breath and held it.

“You have fought valiantly this day young one.” Hippolyte said so all could hear. She sheathed her own sword and then retrieved the girl’s. “You have shown all present that the spirit of the Amazons lives well and is in good hands. I bid thee remove thy helmet so that all may see what our nation’s future holds.”

“She knew.” Diana gasped.

Slowly the masked helmet was removed. Raven hair soaked in sweat feel into Selene’s sand and sweat covered face as she looked up at her grandmother. Two pairs of blue eyes held each other for a moment before Hippolyte smiled brightly and offered her hand to Selene to help her to her feet. Once on her feet Selene was given her sword back, which she sheathed, and then suddenly felt herself being pulled into her grandmother’s arms and embraced. “You fill my heart with pride more and more with each new day my darling Granddaughter.”

Selene held her grandmother tightly right there in the middle of the Amazonian coliseum. When her grandmother let go of her she turned to look up at the royal box, heart pounding with fear as she sought out her mother’s eyes. Two pairs of blue eyes once again held each other’s gaze. Selene actually stopped breathing until she finally saw her mother’s pride, if not quiet her approval. For that look, that glimmer, this had all been well worth it.

[The Daily Planet] The Queen’s Challenge

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