Chapter 55: Departure
[Arnold POV]
In a flash, I found myself back inside the massive halls of Superman's 'home away from home'. Honestly speaking, this makes me wanna get a secret base as well. It sure as hell would be cool. Anyways, I was greeted by Superman, Batman as well as another person that was not previously present.
Wonder Woman was present as well, and I started to greet them. "How are all of you?"
"We've been well. Have you done what you needed to do?" asked Superman.
"Yes. It should be fine now. How have things been going with the kid?" I asked Superman.
Furthermore, Superman stated "She has been well. I've started teaching her some English. It's been going well for her, she's already memorised all the letters in the alphabet. We are thinking of taking her somewhere else to make her learn more about Earth and the role she might have here, and that's why Wonder Woman is here as well. As you were the one who helped save her, we would like to consult you as well."
I wondered what he meant by this statement, so I questioned "What do you mean?"
At this point, Wonder Woman spoke up "We want you to accompany us to my home, Themyscira, the Isle of warriors. We are taking the girl with us, so that she can train and learn to protect herself in the world of man."
'Oh shit, these guys are actually inviting me? Isn't it supposed to be illegal for men to go there?' I thought to myself. I wondered how exactly they planned to take me there despite the rules clearly banning the entry of all men. Then again, I'm pretty sure both Batman and Superman have been to the island over a dozen times throughout fiction.
As I was thinking this, Wonder Woman spoke up again "Before you answer us, be warned. You will have to pass the Trials of Hera in order to earn the right to remain."
I asked "What exactly is that?"
Wonder Woman explained "The 'Trials of Hera' give men a temporary right to visit Themyscira. Batman and Superman have both already, but you shall have to pass them as well if you wish to go along with us. What exactly the trials are will be explained on Themyscira. Do you have any questions?"
My first question was "How long do we have to stay?"
Superman replied "It will take one month."
My next question was "When are we leaving?"
Batman replied "In an hour."
I thought to myself 'Well this is unexpected. And I don't recall these 'Trials of Hera' being a part of DC lore either. But if I think about it, this isn't such a bad thing. I'll get to go to a place where no men can go. I mean, it's basically a vacation, how cool is that! I expected to be busy for a while with this problem anyways, so I've already told Jen that my younger brother had an accident and I would be out of Metropolis for a while. So this is totally alright for me.'
With this in mind, I answered "All right, I will go with you guys. Is the girl ready to leave?'
Superman responds "I've informed her that we'll be leaving shortly, and she's agreed to come as well. She says that she wants to meet new people.
Batman asks "Do you have clothes for the trip?"
I replied "Yeah, I expected something like this to happen, so I packed in advance."
Batman responded with a simple "Good."
As we were having this discussion, someone suddenly barged into the room. It was Kara Zor-El, the girl responsible for this entire mess in the first place. She was being followed by a dog with pure white fur and a cape tied to his collar.
"Kal-El, stop him!" she yelled. (A/N: Again he doesn't understand what is being said, as it is in kryptonian, but it's been translated for your convenience.)
As she said this, the dog climbed on top of the poor girl and began aggressively licking her face much to her displeasure. This made Superman go over and take Krypto away from the helpless teenager.
"Krypto, Bad Dog. Don't trouble Kara like that without her permission!" he scolded the mutt. This made the canine whimper as he dejectedly moved away from Kara.
This expression didn't last for long however, because as soon as Krypto saw my face, he got extremely aggressive and started to growl at me.
'Ah, so he can sense Rika? Well, I should've expected that.' I thought to myself. The dog is probably not taking kindly to the 10 ft tall mass of negativity that follows me at all times. But well, what can I do about it?
In an instant, Krypto leapt at me, aiming to bite my arm off, only to get stopped just inches away from me, only to be dragged away by Superman.
"Im sorry about that, he's normally rather calm but I don't know what happened to him" explained Superman.
I tried to pass it off by saying "Its alright, animals don't really like me in general. Let's just prepare for our departure."
And with that, in an hour we were on an invisible jet and en route to Themyscira.
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[3rd Person POV]
A bit before departure.
As Superman was reviewing the defence systems inside the fortress of solitude before leaving, Batman approached him.
Batman began "We need to talk about Nostradamus."
Superman replied "What is it?"
Batman answered "We need to be careful of him. His abilities exceed what we had previously estimated, and that too by a large margin."
Superman argues "You're overreacting, he hasn't acted hostile without reason once."
Batman said "I consider Krypto a good judge of character and he didn't seem too stoked to meet him."
Superman explained "It proves nothing. Look… I know that we can never be too careful, but you have to give him a chance first. If he has some sort of hidden agenda, then we'll deal with it. But for now, let's just get our flight ready,all right?"
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