Summary: To save the lives of several children, non-super G.O.L.D. heroine Mei Wong must journey to a hidden valley in Africa to find the 'Talisman of Light'. The temple is guarded by Malika, the Queen of the Zulu Amazons, a lost tribe of amazon's who left Paradise Island 1000 years ago. Not knowing of Mei Wong's good intentions, and the fact that she has every intention of bringing it back, leads to Malika mistaking Mei Wong for a Temple Raider.

This story is dedicated to the catfighting jungle girls of GW, as well as my homage to Sheena, Shanna, and other jungle girls.

It was the worst possible situation imaginable. Three supervillains - Vector, Desperado, and Black Heart - had taken the hospital, filled with hundreds of innocent and sick children hostage after a bungled robbery attempt. To make matters worse, calls to the few groups of superheroes on the West Coast had proved futile.

The police in New York had special S.W.A.T. teams and in-house superheroes to deal with costumed villains, but the L.A.P.D. was still unused to dealing with meta-humans. The threat of dealing with G.O.L.D. kept all the famous supervillains out of California. Villains who ran into G.O.L.D. tended to have shortened life spans.

G.O.L.D. - short for Global Order of Law and Defense - weren't murderers, but they saw villains like the Joker, Dr. Octopus, and many others kill, get captured, and then either be released on technicalities or escape as soon as they were incarcerated and kill again.

"How many innocents have died because Batman won't finish the Joker? How many people have died because Captain America won't take out the Red Skull or Zemo?" China Dragon had stated when he'd applied for and received an international license to kill from the U.N.  The current President of the U.S., a puppet tool of the Chaos Lords, secret crime and terrorist organizations, and Mephisto, kept trying to reverse it. G.O.L.D. rarely killed. They didn't have to.

"Right now I wish some of those freaks were here," Sgt. Ted 'Teddy Bear' Baer said aloud.

The only other people within earshot of Sgt. Baer were Off. Pamela Fisher and Off. Joe Lawrence.  Ironically, both of them owed their lives to G.O.L.D. heroes on numerous occasions.

"Looks like you're about to get your wish, Sarge," Off. Lawrence said, pointing to the sky.  A sleek G.O.L.D. flying car, superior to those used by S.H.I.E.L.D., came into view. Hovering for just a moment it then descended in VTOL mode. The lone occupant stepped out and Sgt. Baer groaned.

"This is just fucking great!" Sgt. Baer cursed loud enough that all 123 cops around the hospital could hear.  "We've got three dangerous super-freaks holed up with at least 500 sick kids. We need China Dragon, or Questar, or Arsenal, or Lady Blue to take 'em out and we get the runt of the litter!"

The 'runt' was Mei Wong, mistress of the martial arts. The only non-super member of G.O.L.D. since China Dragon had became the Chinese 'God of the Martial Arts.'  At 5' 5" tall and 110 pounds soaking wet, Mei was also the smallest heroine of G.O.L.D. next to her friend Tina/Kamikaze, who was the same size.

The message had arrived at G.O.L.D. HQ, when the crises had first began, but all the other members were off on a mission to the planet Stalerion 3, home of a group of G.O.L.D.'s allies, a hero group called the Rockers* who were being menaced by a creature called 'The Star Serpent.'
Mei had lost the draw and had been stuck on monitor duty, but the thought of all those frightened innocent children angered her far beyond her orders to stay put.

Eyes still flashing in anger at the thought of villains low enough to take sick children hostage, Mei Wong walked towards Off. Fisher and Off. Lawrence who she had met before.  "Pam, Joe, who's in charge right now?" Mei asked.

"Sgt. Baer is at the moment," Off. Fisher answered.  "Lt. Hayes and Lt. Cross got hurt in the initial attempt to free the kids."

"Sgt. Baer! What's the current situation?" Mei asked, turning towards him.  The steely glare from the beautiful, but frail looking girl caused a chill to run up the spine of the 16 year veteran.  No way, Sgt. Baer thought, regaining his composure.  I've got socks older than she is.

"Look, little girl, we've got a hostage situation with 3 hard core villain's with super-powers. You may be hell on wheels against normal toughs - hell, you could probably whup my ass - but these guys are freaks!  I think you ought to just sit down and call in your big guns," Sgt. Baer scoffed.  "That crane kick, tiger claw, and chicken wing ain't gonna be any use against guys using electric rays, death beams, and dark force."

"If there's one thing I've learned from being in G.O.L.D. it's that everyone has a weakness. Except maybe China Dragon," Mei said.  "Listen, Sergeant, just tell me who I'm up against. I can take it from there."

"Your funeral," Sgt. Baer sneered.  "You got Vector, Desperado, and Black Heart holed up in there. Sure you don't want to wait for the cavalry?"

"No thanks, Sgt. Baer. Pam, can I borrow your uniform?" Mei asked.

"Uh, sure," Off. Fisher replied.  "It'll be a bit big on you though."

"That's even better.  That way, they'll underestimate me, take me for a rookie," Mei said.  "Let's grab a secluded spot so we won't give these perverts a floor show."

Off. Fisher reluctantly nodded. Reluctantly, because Mei Wong, like almost all superheroines, was known to be very into other women sexually. The only exceptions to Mei's lesbianism seemed to be the G.O.L.D. men. It was well known that Mei was particularly fond of Questar, a definite alpha male if there ever was one.

It wasn't hard to switch clothes once they found a ladies room in a nearby 'outpatient clinic.'  Pamela was a bit nervous, because she was very attractive herself and knew that Mei liked women. Sex was the last thing on Mei's mind at this moment though. The cries of innocent children, indeed, the most helpless of children were in her ears. Mei had never been angrier in her life.

G.O.L.D. kept up to date records of all known villains and heroes and each hero and heroine in G.O.L.D. studied the files during down times. The trio inside the hospital had tangled with G.O.L.D. before as members of various groups. They were still breathing because they were not killers. Mei quickly reviewed them in her head.

Vector could fly and shoot force beams from his hands, but he wasn't invulnerable, couldn't punch his way out a wet paper bag, and had a glass jaw on top of that. Desperado was simply a skilled athlete, well versed in various cowboy weapons. Using modified 6-shooters that fired stun rays and an electrified lariat as well as being an experienced street fighter / barroom brawler, he was nonetheless a formidable opponent. He was also, basically, a scared kid that was always being used by various other criminals who used his criminal record to convince him that he had nowhere else to go. That left Black Heart.

Black Heart was the only one of the 3 with a mean streak. While not a murderer, Black Heart had the potential as well as a sadistic streak.  Black Heart was a rare bully that liked to fight and he enjoyed hurting people. Black heart had super strength of a 10 ton limit and also possessed limited control of the enigmatic force of energy that was the 'dark force.'

Mei finished dressing in Off. Fisher's uniform but shook her head when Pam held out her gun belt.

"Mei, take it, you might need it," Off. Fisher said, concerned.

"I'm more likely to shoot my foot off," Mei smiled.  "Besides, I couldn't hit the side of barn with one of those. If I go in unarmed, I can catch them by surprise. They'll think I'm a negotiator or a zealous meter maid, or something. How do I look?"

"Like a 10 year old playing dress up in her mother's clothes that are 10 sizes too big," Off. Fisher barely kept from giggling.

"Good, that's what I want them to think too," Mei said.

Minutes later, a foolish looking unarmed female officer walked unopposed into the front door of the 'L.A. Children's Hospital.'

"Who the hell does that broad think she is?" Black Heart growled, 6 stories up.  "Vector! Go check her out! She's got to be really stupid to come in here all by herself."

"She's not even wearing a gun," Vector sneered.  "Why waste my time? Send the kid down."

"Yeah, I'll take care of that chick," Desperado said, with false bravado.

"Okay, kid, you're on," Black Heart wickedly grinned.  "If she's packing heat, make the bitch pay for it."

"You got it," Desperado said, bolstered by Black Heart's confidence in him.    Desperado ran down the hall and stopped when he noticed the elevator was coming up.

I thought Vector disabled the elevators, Desperado thought. In truth his heart wasn't into this.  Robbing banks was one thing, holding sick kids hostage was another. The elevator door opened and Desperado, gun drawn entered. The only thing in there was a empty police uniform.

"Surprise!" Mei said from behind.

Desperado tried to turn around. Mei kicked the gun from his hand, followed by a kick to the stomach and a spinning back fist. A chop to the side of the neck, followed by a spinning heel kick sent Desperado into dreamland for at least 6 hours.

"Blame Vector when you wake up, kid. All that idiot did was flip the off switch and yank a couple of wires," Mei said to the unconscious would be thug.

Mei had switched clothes with a young nurse who had slipped by the villains. It was a big hospital and there were only three of them holed up on the upper floors. After jury-rigging the elevator, Mei had run up the 6 flights of stairs. Mei was in such good condition that even after taking Desperado out she wasn't even breathing hard. Taking out a note pad in the nurse's uniform, she wrote, "A present for Sgt. Baer."  That ought to show that chauvinist what a 'little girlie' can do, Mei thought.

Stuffing Desperado into the elevator and hitting the down button, Mei looked around her trying to come up with a plan to take out Vector.  Moving cautiously along the many halls Mei came across one of the food carts that the nurses used to feed the kids. Mei carefully selected one that had a still steaming hot pitcher of coffee for the doctors, took one of the trays, and, pretending to be a scared frightened nurse shakily began searching the rooms.

Vector was in one room with two young candy stripers, neither of them could have been a day over 16. Vector was playing a radio loud and had ordered the 2 girls to do a striptease for him. After blasting a hole into the next room, the scared teenagers were slowly complying.

Head down submissively, and in the nurse outfit, Vector didn't recognize Mei as she passed by the room.

"Hey, sweet thing! Get your ass in here and join the fun!" Vector yelled, grinning.  Vector stopped grinning when Mei threw the pitcher of steaming coffee right into his face.

"Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!! You bitch! You fucking bitch!" Vector screamed.  Vector managed to clear his eyes for a moment and his blood ran cold as he saw just who it was that had just scalded his face. That was the last thing he would see for several hours as Mei decked him with a devastating side kick. Just for good measure, Mei stomped him a couple of times.

"Filthy pig!" Mei spat.

The two half-dressed teenagers ran for the stairs as fast as they could. Now only Black Heart was left. Stuffing Vector into a cleaning closet, Mei broke the end off a mop, then breaking that in half making it into twin sticks. It wasn't hard to find Black Heart. Black heart was yelling and cursing at a doctor who was trying to calm a group of frightened crying children, none over the age of 4. Mei was seething with rage on the inside, but outside, she again went into the 'submissive little nurse act' with the sticks held behind her back.

"M-M-M-Mr. Black Heart, sir," Mei said in her best 'frightened female' voice.

"What the hell do you want bitch?" Black Heart roared, barely noticing her.

Mei caught him with both sticks, spun around and planted a kick right into his stomach, before planting another shot with a stick right under the villain's chin. Black heart grunted in pain, but he was tougher than the others and remained on his feet even as Mei landed another stick shot to his gut and a roundhouse kick on his jaw.

Black Heart threw two punches that Mei easily dodged. Mei caught Black Heart with a shot right to the throat that left Black Heart gasping for breath and clutching his throat. Mei had lots of experience fighting foes with super strength, many far stronger than Black Heart. Mei could even beat Questar in practice, although he would cream her in a real fight.  Compared to Questar, Black Heart was a wuss.

Black Heart managed to catch Mei's next stick blow. Mei released the makeshift weapon, hitting him with the other one across the side of his neck, followed by two quick kicks that knocked Black Heart backwards. With a roar of pain and frustration Black Heart charged at the small Chinese girl.

"No dirty little chink bitch is gonna make a fool outta me," Black Heart croaked from his sore throat.  Mei effortlessly sidestepped and threw Black Heart hard into the wall. Even Black Heart knew that he was hurt at this point. Black Heart rose quickly, but he was shaky on his feet.

"You asked for this, bitch," Black Heart croaked.  A hole seemed to appear in the middle of the villain's chest as he tried his ultimate power, the Black Heart Blast! A beam of solid darkforce the size of a heart fired straight at Mei Wong. But Mei Wong was no longer there. The blast went awry, splattering against the opposite wall. Gobs of a sticky black substance coated at least 2 dozen children, who screamed, but seemed unhurt.

"No!" Mei cried, as she leaped and kicked Black Heart with everything she had.    Black Heart was sent crashing back into and then through the wall, out cold, his jaw broken.

"Is everyone all right?" Mei asked, concerned, as she spun around.  Several other doctors and a few nurses had already run into the room.

"I'm afraid not," the first doctor said as several of the black slime covered children went into a coma.  "Dark force poisoning.  I saw it in New York once after some guy who also used dark force got his clock cleaned by Daredevil and Nightwing. That's one of the reasons I moved to L.A."

"You slime!" Mei screamed as she jerked the unconscious Black Heart up and threw him into another wall.

"Whoa, whoa," another doctor said.  "The people in New York got cured so there must be a cure out there."

"You're right," Mei sighed, as her anger vanished replaced by her concern for the children.  "G.O.L.D. has the best computers in the world. I'm going to find out how others have survived dark force poisoning and God help anyone who gets in my way."

Hours later a weary Mei Wong stared almost blankly at the G.O.L.D. computer screen. The key seemed to be a type of 'Light Force,' but there only seemed to be two known sources of this 'light force.'  One was the crime fighter known as Dagger, but calls and inquiries to the New Warriors had turned up nothing. The Warriors were trying to look for her and her partner Cloak, but it could be day's before they were found.

The other source was even more shaky. A legend about a 'Medallion of Light' located somewhere in a hidden temple in Africa. According to legend, the medallion was guarded by a tribe of fierce amazon warriors.  A call to the JLA had confirmed the legend as Mei had gotten extremely lucky that Wonder Woman had been on duty. Wonder Woman had told her that a group of amazons had split off from Themyscira, better known as Paradise Island, about 1000 years ago and had settled in what was now the northern part of South Africa.

The amazons had fought the fierce Zulus and had later came to mutually respect each other. After only a few years of fighting they had formed a lasting peace and shared a portion of land. Out of respect for the prowess of their former enemies they renamed themselves the Zulu Amazons. Wonder Woman was quite excited about the possibility that there was another tribe of amazons. Ever since the return of the amazons of Antiope and her own love affair with Artemis, Wonder Woman wanted to eventually reunite all the lost tribes of the amazons.

Mei downloaded a crude ancient map that Wonder Woman had sent her.  Mei had then taken a shower and prepared for her journey to Africa. Mei could have taken any weapon she wanted from G.O.L.D.'s arsenal. Mei could have requested and received machine guns after landing in South
Africa. But Mei was not a hunter or a poacher, and couldn't shoot worth a damn anyway so she didn't even think about firearms.

Mei used the G.O.L.D. computers to super-impose the ancient map that Wonder Woman had given her onto a modern map of that part of Africa. Mei now had an approximate destination. Since that part of Africa was one of the few places on the entire continent that was unexplored even in 1999, Mei packed up every type of survival gear she could think of.

Mei took only a few martial arts weapons, wristbands with 12 small throwing daggers, a pair of as, and a utility belt with shurikens, a Rambo knife, a tonfa, tear gas pellets, and 5 mini smoke bombs. Mei then activated the security robots that Shiro had developed just for emergency's when the HQ would be empty. The robots and the hi-tech holographic devices gave G.O.L.D. HQ a formidable security even when unoccupied.

It had taken some arm twisting for Mei to get a cargo plane to carry her and a flying car to South Africa. Between a meditative rest, and several hours of sleep, Mei woke up refreshed, if slightly hungry when the plane landed in Johannesburg, South Africa hours later. According to the doctors Mei had 5 days before the dark force poisoning would be incurable, but Mei wasn't about to waste any more time than she had to.  Mei took enough time only to eat a good meal before she activated the VTOL on her flying car and headed north, towards the hidden valley of the Zulu Amazons.