As queens cried and ladies earned their crowns a man smile a polite if very fake smile.
“So Mister Wayne,” the reporter asked as Bruce smiled back at her, “How does it feel to have a queen in Wayne Manor?”
“Not sure,” Bruce said, “But my butler is going on about ‘being back at Buckingham palace!’ what ever that means. As far as Castaspella goes, she keeps telling me to call up the Batman for her.”
“Oh,” the report said a little too dramatically, “So you aren’t planning a royal wedding?”
Bruce chuckled.
“Wasn’t it Gossip Gerty that reported on Bruce Wayne becoming king of the Amazons?” Bruce shot back.
“The Princess was spending a lot of time in Wayne manor,” Gerty responded.
“She was slumming to annoy her mother while the Queen was staying at their embassy in DC,” Bruce deflected with a naughty smile.
“So what does the Batman think about all this?” Gerty went back to the present situation.
“Well he dropped by a few nights ago and made sure to tell me how unimpressed he was with the security and made a special point to make fun of my hair cut!” Bruce said.
“How Rude!” Gerty acted shocked.
“I know!” Bruce played the part of the vain rich man.
*
Carol, Sam and Wanda’s Timmies were keeping track and feeding readings back to Tony about the blockaded cave and the children inside. Carol’s robotic puppet stood in front of the entrance and looked at the corpse of it’s guardian. Who ever this “Red Knight” had been, he had traded his life to protect the kids further back inside… And to Carol that made him a hero.
“DAMN IT!” Tony’s shout shook Carol out of her moment.
“What’s wrong Tony?” Sam shouted the question.
“Not you,” Tony shouted, “That muscle bound goon! Why I should… Paging doctor Banner!”
“How do you think we should let the kids know we are going to get them out?” Sam asked.
“We are going to have clear this entrance and find a way to let them know,” Carol shrugged.
“Think he left booby traps?” Wanda asked.
“I am sure of it,” Sam said.
*
The job was as absurd as you could get, but the Justice League contract panned out the Wayne checks were clearing so Anne was hard at work. Besides, how many fetish couture designers could say were Royal Latex makers? The butler was a stogie old guy who was treating the fittings and wardrobe selection with a board but disapproving tone. He seemed utterly unfazed when he delivered afternoon tea to the sight of the Queen trying on a catsuit with a built-in strap-on. The Wayne wards and their girlfriends were much more fun Anne decided.
“Come out Tim!” the blonde taunted the young man behind the changing curtain.
“It is a royal order for you to model,” Castaspella pronounced.
“When I said, a little black dress would look great,” Tim shouted back from behind the curtain, “This isn’t what I meant.”
“You should have specified you wanted something outside of the drag range then darling,” Anne poked, “I can make anything you want or your girlfriend wants…”
“But you are wearing it Tim!” Steph shouted.
“Up-si-dasie!” Ariel called before the curtain flew up.
The young man had his arms crossed as he stood there scowling in the black rubber mini-dress. He didn’t move since it was an open bottom spanking dress.
“That is awesome,” Steph said, “But think you could make him a cowboy outfit with open crotch chaps?”
“Wayne is paying for me to make what ever the queen askes for,” Anne Shrugged.
“Then I ask for it,” Queen Castaspella licked her lips.
“Excuse me,” Steph said, “I got a hinney to touch!”
“Steph!” Tim said seeing his girlfriend’s naughty grin.
“Tea is served,” the butler announced rolling in the tea cart.
The butler saw the boy in a dress starting to be chased by his girlfriend and didn’t even arch an eyebrow before turning and leaving. Anne was enjoying working for Wayne Manor and Queen Castaspella!
*
At the headquarters of the Gotham City Police Hank was deep in a conversation with Bullock.
“We call our evil industrialist Lex Luthor,” Bullock said before downing another diet coke.
“No alias?” Hank asked.
“No,” Bullock said, “Just makes the killer robots and turns them lose on the superheroes.”
“Justice League as you call them?” Hank said.
“Yep,” Bullock said.
“I mean the amount of synchronicity is astounding,” Hank said, “But what is mind blowing is the convergent divergences.”
“Say what?” one of the junior patrol men gathered in the break room asked.
“He is drinking a diet coke,” Hank said, “My wife on my version of Earth drinks the same thing, same can and art too. Those things are the same, but more interesting than that is how so many things are so close but so different. All the superhero stuff is just so close but yet different! What Jan? No, I didn’t say anything bad about drinking diet coke… I was making an observation! Jan!”
“Sounds like some things never change,” the Patrolman said to his partner.
“Is this what it sounds like when I piss off my girlfriend?” the partner asked as she took a drink herself.
*
Natasha stood in the door way to the lounge. The angel winged woman was heaped over the end of a couch crying.
“Your Magesty… Angella,” Nat spoke with a deliberate even tone.
“Durring the occupation…” Angella said with a quivering voice, “I was imprisoned by the Harpy Queen… I had lost my throne, my daughter was running for her life, I didn’t know what happened to my king… When the Eternian, Adam, came with the hero He-Man, they knighted the hero She-Ra and convinced the woman Adora to abandon the Horde and join the Rebellion… I was reunited with my daughter and freed.”
Angella started crying again. Natasha went to the queen and handed her a box of tissues.
“I hid like a coward in Castle Brightmoon and let Adora, Bow and Glimmer take the fight to the horde… All the while the love of my life was fighting the same fight and not hiding!”
Natasha waited as the winged woman blew her nose.
“He might as well not even worn the helmet! I saw right past that Red Knight disguise when he came to the Rebel Fair! But I was too much of a coward to say anything or join him! No, I went back to hiding in my castle!”
“We call it survivor’s guilt…” Natasha said taking a seat on the coffee table, “I have seen this from others before you.”
“Should it be any less painful now that you told me the name for it?” Angella looked over with pleading eyes.
“No,” Natasha looked down.
*
“What’s going on?” Bruce Banner asked as he entered the spare room turned remote control operations room, “Have the explorer teams found anything?”
“Aye, are we successful?” Thor’s voice boomed from behind Banner.
“Good news,” Tony started not looking up from his terminal, “Team science over there found an alternate earth and some more of the Etherian Exiles. Team Sci-fi found Etheria and some survivors…”
“What of the Warrior Three?” Thor shouted, “What did they find?”
“Eternia and my signs my people are there,” Tony said.
“Now tell me the bad news,” Banner said, “I know there is bad news here.”
“Queen Angella just listened to her husband die and if we don’t act quickly there are a group of kids on Etheria that are going to die very painful deaths as well. Pepper… and my people are facing off against powerful enemies on Eternia. In fact, we just watched one tear apart a remote operated Skar-Buster armor.”
“Ha. Ha I say,” Thor smiled then slapped banner lightly, “Your troll side would have no trouble destroying the Skar-Buster. We will go to this Eternia and break the siege of Stark Tower! The Warrior Three would love such an adventure. Should I call them Friend Tony? Or should we call out The Troll and his son to crush those that threaten fair Pepper!”
“Not helping Thor,” Banner took a deep breath, “What time frames do we have to effectively conduct operations?”
“Thor I will need power in about an hour and forty-five minutes,” Tony said, “And we need to adjust where the portal opens on Etheria so we can get the kids out. One more thing, the goon that took out the Skar-Buster shaved twenty seconds off Hulks best time…”
“A challenge?” Thor said before turning to Banner, “Friend Tony, does friend Banner look a bit green to you?”
“I am calm and happy,” Bruce Banner growled.
“Thor, take Bruce up to the kitchen and make sure he eats a few ‘Bruce Brownies’ out of the fridge. You can’t miss them, they are green,” Tony said in a hurried voice.
“I am calm and happy,” Bruce Banner growled again.
“Tony,” Steve came over, “What was that about underwear earlier?”
“I think we have an Earthing on Eternia since the eighties…” Tony said before bringing up a screen grab.
“What?” Steve asked.
“These are very close copies of Victoria Secret’s Panties from 1981,” Tony said, “Right down to the painted label you can see there.”
“Tony,” Steve started before shaking his head, “I don’t know what’s the worst part about this.”
“Trust me,” Tony said, “I did a lot of things as a kid that my mother wasn’t proud of but I learned a lot of things in return and some things are best left without telling the story behind them.”
“That I will agree with Stark!” Steve nodded.
“We have a earthling wearing a crown having a quickie with a guard in a closet of the palace,” Tony said rubbing his chin… "Maybe we can use this to our advantage…”
“Blackmail didn’t work out too well for Guinevere and Lancelot or Mordred,” Steve thought of King Arthur.
“No, we just need a drunken midget to broker the deals,” Tony said thinking of Game of Thrones.