The Natural’s words buzzed out at faster than normal speed. His entire green and brown costumed body seemed coiled with tension. The focus of his rage stood across the room in a pair of red, white, and blue bellbottoms and a hemp halter top. A large round button just over her right breast featured the image of the American flag with a large peace sign printed over it. Her own anger was partially obscured by the round, rose-colored sunglasses she wore even though they were inside the team’s conference room.

“You’re just an ignorant mark for the establishment,” Lady Liberty spit out in response. “A damn fool too blind to see what’s really going on in the world!”

Titanic sat in a chair at the far end of the conference room. He shook his head at the continued blasts of rage between his two teammates. The stocky man in the skintight blue bodysuit was once a Navy man before he gained his powers. He knew where Natural was coming from. They both grew up in a time when you were taught to respect authority and to trust that your country knew what was best. But he also saw the younger woman’s point of view. At only eighteen, Lady Liberty grew up looking at her leader’s differently, and an ever expanding, ever less popular war framed her worldview. He didn’t much care for the conflict in Vietnam either, but he knew it was his job as a member of the Defenders of Democracy to do what President Johnson asked of them.

His brain sided with Natural, but the sexy, under-clothed figure before him made him want to agree to her every word.

“I’m not saying our leaders are perfect, but it is our job to respect them and follow orders,” Natural said. “Otherwise, there is no need for the Defenders of Democracy!”

“You’re right! There isn’t a need for the Defenders of Democracy!” She laughed a humorless laugh. “Even the name is a joke. Tell all the young men in Southeast Asia that this is a damned democracy! See what they say.”

“They’re serving their country! They did what their government asked them to do. They should be respected for the sacrifices they make!” She laughed. “Sacrifices? They’re just another bunch of stooges like you, Natural! You know what? I think everyone who isn’t wise enough to head north when the draft comes calling deserves what they have coming! I hope the Viet Cong cuts down more of those G.I. pigs.”

Titanic rose from his seat as his vision turned red. He was willing to listen to a lot. Take a lot even. But he wouldn’t listen to someone wish death on the men and women of the armed services.

He doubled in mass and size before he reached his feet. One giant hand reached out and grabbed Lady Liberty by the upper arm. “Take it back!”

Lady Liberty’s glare turned his way. “I meant every word I said!”

Titanic roared as he lifted her off her feet and hurled her across the room. She crashed in to one of the room’s radio towers. Sparks flew as she crumpled to the floor.

But she didn’t remain their long. Liberty leaped to her feet, sprung up in to the air, and brought her heel down hard on Titanic’s forehead. She rolled away as Titanic struggled to recover his vision.

“Bitch, come back here!”

The Natural stood to the wayside, unsure what to do. Part of him wanted to join the fight, to channel some of his rage and frustration. But he knew that a fit of rage didn’t become any of them. So he stood his ground and let the two of them duke it out.

Titanic struck a glancing blow that sent Lady Liberty sliding across the room and towards the door. A door that suddenly opened behind her.

Inch had only a moment to shrink small enough to slip to one side and avoid a nasty impact. His lab-coat like costume was unzipped and his white domino mask was gone, which only served to show just how shocked he was at the sight of the battle before him.

“What the hell is going on here?” he said.

“None of your business!” Lady Liberty hurtled herself back in to the fray.

Inch moved to stop them. The Natural shifted his body laterally around the room. He appeared right next to Inch. He caught Inch by the shoulder and held the team leader back.

“Let them fight. They need this.”

Inch pushed the Natural’s arm away. “Really? Or do you just need to watch this?”

“Don’t blame me for this!”

“You were a troublemaker even before we got hotheads like these two on the team! Why shouldn’t I blame you?”

The Natural shoved Inch to the floor. “Don’t push me, little man.”

Inch shook his head. “You’re always the same, Mike. Always concerned about yourself and damn everyone else.”

Inch shrunk down and disappeared from the room.

The words stung Natural, but not enough to stop him from watching the melee before him. He leaned against the wall as Liberty and Titanic continued to trade blows.

*****

Siren bristled as she forced a smile to her face. Cameron Miller, the young baby-faced reporter from some new magazine she knew nothing about, smiled back.

Leave the colored girl to do the tours, she thought. Isn’t that how it always is? Why did I ever agree to join a team filled with the same old white folks that harassed me all my life?

They stood inside the trophy room, where dozens of items from three years of cases jutted up from the floor in hermetically sealed glass containers. Miller reached out and rested his hand on a case containing a gold-plated handgun right out of Flash Gordon. “And this is?”

“Galaxo’s death ray. He used it in a bid to kill several world leaders shortly after the team formed in early sixty-four. He probably would have succeeded if Hero hadn’t been called in off of his reserve status.”

“And this?” Miller pointed to a shining crystalline orb. It sparkled through hundreds of colors.

“That is Optic Man’s light crystal. He could create deadly solid light holograms with that device.”

Miller scratched his scruffy attempt at a goatee. Siren doubted he even matched her own twenty-five years. She wondered if he was even out of college.

“It seems to me like there is an awful lot of weaponry in here. Don’t you consider that dangerous?”

Siren shook her head. “Inch disables everything before it’s allowed in the trophy room. And the most dangerous artifacts are actually stored in the vault below us. We place replicas in their place here.”

Miller nodded. “All fascinating. But I really didn’t come here just to write another puff piece about how grand the Hall of Freedom is. I came because people want to know what the Defenders of Democracy think about the world today. A lot has changed in the past four years, and I want to uncover the team’s thoughts on it.”

With her empathic abilities, Siren could detect his honest, straight-forward nature, but she knew she couldn’t give him what he wanted. “The Defenders of Democracy’s official stance is that of the United States government and the Pentagon. I can’t give you anymore than that.”

Miller smirked and acted out his mock surprise. “Riveting, but honestly. You and I both know there is more to you than that. You’re a young black woman in the era of civil rights for both African American and women, and you are the sole representative of your race on a team of whites. You especially must have a unique take on current events.”

She pulled her billowing white cloak down around her. This man was touching uncomfortable points. Points she did feel strongly about. Points she thought everyone should feel strongly about. “You know our charter doesn’t allow me to say anything in regards to current events.”

“I know what your charter says, but what do you think. What about the peace movement in San Francisco? Or the riots going on in New Jersey? How does it make you feel knowing that police brutality towards people of color can still be so condoned, even in the north?”

Siren could feel his anticipation, his hope that his needling was getting him closer to an answer.

“No person of color can respect the events that caused these riots.”

“Don’t you think it’s your responsibility as one of the few black metahumans of note to do something about it?”

Siren didn’t answer. She could feel her own anger, her own sense of outrage, boiling up beneath her skin. Even as an empath, she didn’t think she ever read someone as quickly or effectively as Miller did to her.

“I—I can’t answer that.”

“But—”

“Enough!” Her amplified voice shook the room. She turned to him, her cape billowed open. Beneath it was only the outline of a human form. The outline vibrated with sonic energy.

Miller stumbled back and tripped over his own foot. He sprawled on to his back on the floor. She could see and feel the fear radiating from every pore of his body.

“You don’t have to hurt him.” The voice came from behind her. Soft and smooth, the words still burned with a hidden passage. The speaker seemed to be covered in light.

Her skin was jet black, her hair long and braided with dozens of ceremonial beads. She wore only a loose toga and even that was so ephemeral as to be nearly see-thru. She seemed utterly familiar to Siren even though she knew she never met this woman before in her life.

“Who?”

The woman walked towards her. Not walked exactly, her movement almost seemed like floating. She brushed one hand gently across Siren’s right shoulder. Siren couldn’t hold in the relaxed sigh at her very touch.

“Be calm, sister. Let your anxieties flow away. Let the tension you put yourself in because of your appearance and your gender wash away. Focus on the purity of being. Let the waters of life flow over you.”

At every word, Siren felt her body relax more and more. She didn’t know what spell this woman cast on her. She only knew she wanted it to continue. Her muscles slackened in her body. Her skin tingled at the touch of the air.

The woman floated away. Siren could only watch in envy as the woman slowly reached out a hand and helped Miller to his feet. Miller stared blankly at the woman. A confused smile filled his face as she casually brushed a hand across his cheek.

“Go to her.”

Miller’s eyes never left the woman as he walked away from her and to Siren. He reached out and ran a hand across Siren’s shoulder length hair. She reached out and grabbed him by the shirt. She pulled him in close and their lips met. Siren could feel her body burning with need as her tongue snaked in to his mouth.

His hands tore the cloak from her shoulders as she ripped the buttons of his shirt. Her dark skin emerged from the shadows as the cloak fell away. Miller pushed her to the floor. She quickly rolled him over, climbed on top, and lowered herself on to him.

Her vision blurred as she fell in to the ecstasy of his touch.

Neither noticed the mystery woman disappear from the room.

*****

Aviator sat in his street clothes, hunched over the bed in the infirmary. After twenty years, his body constantly hurt from the team’s day to day operations. But that pain paled in comparison to the agony in his heart.

Sea Sorceress lay in the bed before him. IVs, breathing tubes, heart monitors, and numerous other wires and tubes kept her alive. But not even Inch could figure out how to save her. No one quite knew the nature of her ailment; let alone how to fix it.

Damn you, Multivac. I’ll see you pay for this. Aviator knew he could silently curse the Defenders of Democracy’s greatest foe, but the sentient computer wouldn’t come out of hiding for months. Not until its next master plan was ready. And Sorceress didn’t have months. She may not even have days.

I’m sorry, Portia. I wish it was me instead.

A hand gently brushed the back of his shoulder. He looked up and started when he saw a strangely familiar female. Her hair was dark, but sparkled even in the washed out light of the infirmary. She wore nurse’s scrubs, but they clung tightly around her shapely figure.

“Who—?”

“Be calm, Aviator. I came to help.” She brushed past him. She stood over Sea Sorceress. She rested one hand on the unconscious woman’s cheek. She slowly stroked it while she smiled down on Sorceress. After several moments, she leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on Sea Sorceress’s forehead.

She turned away from her patient and smiled at Aviator. “She will be fine.”

Aviator found he could not take his eyes off the nurse as she walked towards the door. He wanted to say something, but his words caught in his throat.

The nurse disappeared through the closed door. Aviator found himself still staring at the closed door for several moments.

“Aviator?”

He turned to see Portia, her eyes open. He rushed back to her side. She smiled at him as she sat up in the bed. She yanked the air tubes from her nose as she reached out to answer his lust with her own.

She pulled him down and kissed him hard.

“I’m so sorry,” Aviator said as they broke the kiss. “Multivac—”

Sea Sorceress rested a finger across his lips. “We have time for that in the future. Right now, I wish for you to kiss me again.”

She grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him down on top of her. Aviator could only close his eyes and lose himself in her embrace.

*****

The Natural flashed from one end of the room to the other as Titanic’s body fell like a ton of bricks in to the monitor display. Lady Liberty laughed as she pounced on her downed foe.

The main door again slid open and all eyes went to see if Inch had returned. It wasn’t Inch.

It was just the most beautiful woman in the world.

To Titanic, she carried an uncanny resemblance to a young Filipino prostitute he used to frequent in Manila, before the accident that gave him powers.

To the Natural, she had the brown bobbed hair and soft green eyes of Violet Graham. He hadn’t seen her face since her kidnapping by the Unnatural. But this woman could be her twin sister.

To Lady Liberty, she was Ursula Andress, her hair and bikini wet, just like she looked in Dr. No.

Titanic was the first to speak. “Who are you?”

She only smiled.

None of them could resist her grin.

“I am here to bring peace through love. Because love is the only thing that can bring the world together. Don’t you agree?”

They could only nod.

“I thought you would see things my way. You are all such beautiful individuals. But as individuals, we all fail. But if we all came together, shared our intimacy with one another, there would be no more war. No more conflict. The world could join together. Don’t you all wish to join together?”

Lady Liberty looked first to Natural, and then to Titanic. The two men shared a glance before their focus turned to Lady Liberty. The Natural righted the conference table, thrown from its position during the battle, and placed it back in the center of the room. Titanic easily lifted Lady Liberty up in to his arms. He dropped her back first on to the table. She licked her lips and lewdly spread her legs.

Titanic tore the spandex bodysuit off his chest as the lust overwhelmed him. The Natural’s clothes shriveled and fell away.

The woman watched in delight as both men moved towards Lady Liberty.

“Stop this now!”

Sea Sorceress and Aviator stood in the doorway. Aviator’s full armor was active, and he stood poised to strike. Sorceress, though still in her hospital gown, held her trident at the ready. She swiped the trident forward, towards the mystery woman.

“Aphrodite, drop your hold on them now or I will cut you down where you stand!”

Aphrodite frowned at Sea Sorceress’s words. “You were always a sourpuss, girl. I’m just playing, having a little fun with your friends. I mean, I healed your injuries. I think you can at least let me do my work.”

“Your revels are at an end. Goddess or no, I will fight you.”

“You can’t hurt me. I’ve lived on this earth for two thousand years! You don’t have a prayer!”

Sea Sorceress swung the trident down closer to Aphrodite. The goddess stepped back to avoid being sliced open. “I slayed Poseidon with this weapon,” Sorceress said. “I have little doubt it can do the same against you.”

Aphrodite glared at Sea Sorceress. “Why couldn’t you just give in to the delight I tried to give you? I know you and the armored man have feelings for one another. Why are you afraid to let them show, Portia?”

“I do not fear love, goddess. But I learned in the many years I have lived in this world that love is not something to be forced. It will have its time, when we choose. Not you.”

Aphrodite waved her hand towards the conference table. Natural, Titanic, and Lady Liberty immediately stopped their actions. Natural disappeared from the room. Titanic, aghast at his own actions, fell to the floor and stumbled away.

“Why did you come here?” Sea Sorceress said.

“We all just want to have a little fun,” Aphrodite said. “Besides it’s the summer of love, isn’t it?”

Sea Sorceress stabbed the trident in to Aphrodite’s breastbone. “Get out! Get out before I cut you down!”

Aphrodite frowned. “You still are such a party pooper!”

She disappeared from the room in a puff of smoke.

Sea Sorceress slumped towards the floor. Aviator rushed to help her to her feet. He helped Sea Sorceress to the nearest chair. After making sure she was comfortable, he turned to the others.

“Where’s Inch?”

Sea Sorceress pointed to a speck on the table. It grew only slightly larger. Even at only a few centimeters in height, Inch was very clearly naked.

“I would assume our leader fell under the same spell as we all did.”

Inch’s voice was tiny, but the micro-speakers built in to his cowl amplified it thereby allowing everyone to hear him. “Can someone find me a Kleenex or something?”

*****

Nestled beneath a skeleton of a pterodactyl, in a soft bed of artificial grass, Siren felt Cameron Miller stir behind her. Their naked flesh had cooled following their goddess-induced escapades, and she felt the stickiness of dried sweat as he pulled away.

“Where—?”

“You’re still in our trophies room, Mister Miller.” She sat up and pointed to a line from the trophy cases all the way back to the larger items. “Your clothes are over there.”

“How—?”

“I don’t know. It was a mistake. Don’t worry about it.”

Cameron shook his head. “No. I’m remembering now. And what we did last night certainly was not a mistake.”

“Not for me. I don’t exactly do that kind of thing with white folks. It’s dangerous for people like me.”

Miller rose up off the floor and scurried over to retrieve his boxer shorts. “It’s just as dangerous for me. When you’re already pegged as a liberal journalist and you’re from Alabama on top of it, well… yeah.”

Siren smirked. “We sure are a couple pieces of work, aren’t we?”

Miller nodded. He started to look for his shirt and trousers. He slipped on his pants. “What are you going to do? I can tell the riots are eating you up in side.”

Siren looked down at the floor, still naked. “I don’t think I can just stand by and let this happen anymore. I—I think I need to help.”

“What about your government handlers? What do you think they will do?”

Siren looked at Miller. “I don’t care. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I don’t care. I know that I’m needed. And I can’t just do nothing anymore.”

“If it’s any help, I think you’re doing the right thing.”

“That actually means a lot. More than I would think from some white boy I just met.” Siren gestured towards her cloak. It slowly rose from the ground and floated in to her hands.

Miller laughed. “You know I’m going to follow you, cover this story, right?”

Siren floated over to Miller. She grabbed him by the back of the head and pulled him in to a passionate kiss.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”