Published: June 10th 2023, 12:00:02 pm
"Oh, poor thing," Wonder Woman shook her head, squatting down in front of the little boy, squirming and sniffling as the wet spot on the front of his pants grew, despite his best efforts.
"I-I didn't mean to!" he whined, staring up at her, teary-eyed.
She smiled, nodded. "I know you didn't," she assured him. It must be tough for him here, she thought, looking around at the other kids. He seemed a bit older than the other kids she saw nearby at the daycare she was visiting, which surely made it all the more humiliating for him to be having an accident, especially while a superhero was visiting.
"I know how to use the potty!" he insisted with a pout. "I do!"
She bobbed her head again, growing uncomfortable at how upset he was, trying to will the daycare workers to come take care of this. "Of course."
"Nuh-uh!" one of the little girls nearby giggled. "Just look at his chart!" The boy's expression turned horrified as Diana's glanced over to follow the girl's jabbing finger, seeing rows and rows of frowning clouds.
"It's okay!" she promised him, yet he didn't appear to be soothed by that at all; they were, to be fair, pretty empty words, coming from someone who couldn't do much about it, other than talk to the daycare workers, perhaps, but they would still most likely record the accident. "Everyone has accidents sometimes."
"I don't!" the little girl folded her arms over her chest proudly. "I only have smiley faces on my calendar."
Diana gave the girl a withering glare that the child didn't seem to notice. "Sometimes," she reiterated. "You probably had one on your last chart, or the one before, or you'll end up having one on your next one... It happens to everybody from time to time. Even adults!"
She stood up, walking over to where the charts were posted on the wall, finding the spare ones on a shelf nearby and pulling one out. She wrote her name across the top, having to stop herself from writing 'Diana' automatically to more closely match the rest. 'Wonder Woman' definitely stood out more when all the others had just one word on them, perhaps a last initial if the kid had a popular first name.
The stickers were right there, too, on a higher shelf the students wouldn't be able to reach, but she had no problem with. The charts were laid out in a calendar for that month, so it took her a moment to find the current day, putting a couple of the less positive looking stickers on previous dates, then hanging the chart on the wall with the rest.
"Wow," the little boy wiped his eyes, walking over to get a better look. "You had a poopy accident last week?"
Wonder Woman felt her cheeks warm as she nodded. It was a lie, yes; it was also the least she could do. It was a harmless fib, one for the benefit of somebody else. Nobody would ever look at that chart and think it was serious...
It did send a bit of a shiver down her spine, seeing it herself, among the others, by far not the worst, but definitely not the best, either. She'd debated, for a second, adding a few more stickers before revealing the chart, though she hadn't wanted to waste them... Now, she was glad she had resisted, since she felt strange enough with those couple she had used.
She had planned on taking the chart down when she left. It did seem to cheer the little boy up, however, and, once the daycare workers approached, she was too self-conscious to draw attention to her chart. They'd notice eventually, of course. and hopefully take it down for her... She didn't want anyone else who visited the daycare to see that Wonder Woman had, apparently, not been making it to the potty on time.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"What is this?" Ms. Grace chuckled, eyeing the new chart on the wall.
"Oh, Wonder Woman made that when she was here," Ms. Emily told her. "Isn't it nice? I thought we could leave it up as a souvenir of the visit."
Ms. Grace nodded. "Was she cool?" she asked. "She always looks so cool on TV..."
"She was great with the kids," Ms. Emily said, gesturing at the charts. "I mean..."
"What, did she pee her pants in front of them?" Ms. Grace joked.
They both giggled at that image. "No, but Jack was upset, and he told me..." Ms. Emily explained as the two workers walked away, the kids watching them go.
Cara was the first one to get up, to shuffle over to her chart, her friend Raven trailing after her. "You're not s'posed to mess with your chart," Raven warned, looking nervous.
"But my Mommy's gonna be mad at me if she sees I had another accident," Cara replied. "She might make me go back to Pull-Ups! And Wonder Woman's Mommy is never gonna check, so..."
"No!" Raven whined, wiggling in place, tears filling her eyes. "You're gonna get sent to time-out, and then there will be nobody to play with me!"
Raven was a crybaby - one whose outburst was more likely to get Cara caught than her actual crime - so Cara shot her a dirty look, raising a finger to her mouth to shush her, then ignored all her fuss as she got up on her tip-toes, peeling the frowny face sticker off her chart, sticking it to that day on Wonder Woman's chart instead.
"There!" she beamed, turning smugly back towards her friend. "Raven!"
Raven followed her gaze, peering down at her shorts in time to see a wet spot forming there. "You scared me!" she sniffled. "I thought you were gonna get caught!"
"Is your Daddy going to be happy if he finds out about this?" Cara asked, Raven's eyes widening as she shook her head. "If you don't wanna wear Pull-Ups, you're gonna do the same thing after you get cleaned up," she ordered, knowing Raven was too meek to say no, even if she cried about it the whole time.
If Raven hadn't made such a big deal, the other kids might not have noticed, or realized what was going on. Since she did, they did, and it wasn't long before they were all being copy-cats, sneaking their stickers off, putting them on Wonder Woman's, quickly having to move on to other days when the current one filled up, until Wonder Woman looked like the biggest potty training failure in the entire daycare.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Wonder Woman, of course, was none the wiser... Which made it all the more confusing when, out of nowhere that day, she felt a trickle on her thighs. It took her a few moments to recognize it, and even then, if it hadn't been for her trip to the daycare, she might not have had that in mind, might not have made the connection as rapidly. It had, after all, been a very long time since she'd had to worry about this, despite what she'd told the kids.
There was no denying the yellow liquid dribbling down her legs, nor the growing stain on her star-dotted shorts, however. She blushed bright red, grateful she hadn't been in the middle of fighting, yet still mystified that it had happened at all. It served her right, she supposed, for lying to all those children, even if it had been to soothe their own egos. It was true that adults had accidents sometimes, but she hadn't, not in as long as she could remember... Until now.
She wasn't nearly as lucky the next time. She got herself cleaned up, back out on patrol, only to stumble across a bank robbery in progress. She marched herself right in, watching bemusedly as one of the lookouts spotted her, dropping his gun instantly, holding up his hands in surrender, while the other took a second to see her, his grimace clear regardless of the mask on his face. His grip tightened on his weapon, but they all knew how this would end.
"You might as well tell the others to give up and come out here now, too," she informed them. Why did anybody try this anymore, if they didn't have powers themselves? If it wasn't her, any one of a hundred other superheroes could be called in to dispatch them in no time flat. If they were lucky, perhaps they'd get a slower one, one who wouldn't give them time to grab a hostage, yet even then, they were just delaying the inevitable.
She felt an odd sensation then, had to shift in her heroic stance, although she couldn't quite work out why, what was happening until she saw the robbers turn to one another, start to snicker. Diana opened her mouth to reprimand them, and only a grunt came out.
At least, that's all that came out of her mouth. Her knees bent on their own, and something else altogether began to ooze its way out of her backside, along with a very rude, very loud sound. Her cheeks burned in shame as the smell hit her, bringing with it the realization of what she was doing.
"You're right," the second one commented. "The others should come see this."
She fought to stop it, if just so she could get moving again, do what she'd come in here to do, but she was helpless to stop herself from squatting deeper and deeper, messing her pants as the robbers filed out past her, taking their ill-gotten gains with them before she finally finished up, standing back up with a squelch, looking around at the tellers and customers slowly getting to their feet, staring at her.
"I-I..." she stammered, shifting in place, confused and humiliated. "I-I gotta go..."
"Looks like you already did!" she heard one of them call out from behind her as she waddled away, very different from the usual thanks that tended to follow her visit to a crime in progress. She had failed at stopping the crime before, though not for a long time, and never so dramatically.
It was no big surprise that at least one person got a video of the spectacle, nor that it was all over the news that night. In fact, as Diana flipped through the channels, she saw several different angles of it, none of which left any doubt about what she was doing instead of putting a stop to the robbers walking out past her, carrying their ill-gotten goods while she filled her pants.
It was also not a shock that the Justice League wanted to have a talk about it the next day. "Is this something we should be concerned about?" Batman asked.
"I-It was a stomach bug," Diana lied. "I'll be out of commission for a day or two, and then..."
But, even as she said it, she could feel herself starting to wet again. "Stomach bug, huh?" Batman said skeptically.
"I-I'll be out of commission for a day or two," Diana repeated quietly, staring down at her feet. "A-And I'll figure it out..."
The main thing she figured out in that time, however, was that her potty training had, somehow, vanished completely, no matter how hard she tried to concentrate on making it to the toilet on time. She always wound up going in her pants, until she had no choice other than to buy herself some diapers to protect them. It didn't solve the problem, though, just kept it from being quite as obvious... Or would have, if not for the clear bulge beneath her tiny, blue shorts.
She looked up potty training tips, but none of them helped in the slightest. Finally, she turned to the people she knew were experts on this, going to the daycare again, this time as Diana, too ashamed to show her face there as Wonder Woman, arriving after hours, meekly knocking on the door.
"I-I know this is a strange request," she told the women working there, the fact that they were all women only adding insult to injury, "but I really need help with potty training."
"That's all right," Ms. Emily assured her, Diana blushing, remembering her from her visit, recognizing the tone she was using as the same one she'd heard the girl speaking to her students in. "We can get your son or daughter enrolled, and..."
"No," Diana shook her head, biting her bottom lip. "I-It's me..."
"Oh." Ms. Emily did her best to hide her shock, her eyes lowering to the hem of Diana's dress before nodding. "I see." Diana squirmed, tugging at her skirt. "I'm afraid we don't offer after-hours potty training help... For kids or adults..."
"But I don't know what to do!" Diana sniffed. "I-I keep having accidents, and..."
"It's okay," Ms. Emily gave her a hug. "I'll tell you what, sweetie... You're a little old to enroll, but maybe you could come in as a special helper... You could assist with diaper changes and stuff, and the other workers can help keep an eye on you at the same time. How about that?"
From a superhero to a daycare worker, and not even a full-fledged one at that, an assistant at best... Diana's cheeks burned, yet she found herself nodding. Surely it wouldn't take long... If toddlers could learn it, so could she!
Or so she assumed, until Ms. Emily reached under her skirt, gave her diaper a pat. "I thought so... Would you like a dry diaper before you leave, dear?"
"Y-Yes, please," Diana blushed, letting herself be led over to the changing tables where she saw the charts hanging up... Including the one she'd made, and the sorry state of it. "Wh-What is that?" she couldn't help asking.
"Oh, Wonder Woman came to see us the other day and made that," Ms. Emily chirped pleasantly. "The kids don't realize we keep a digital copy of their charts, too, to send to their parents, so it makes them feel better to put their stickers on her chart. They love it so much, I think we're going to make Wonder Woman another chart for next month! That might be a good task to put you in charge of. And speaking of... We're going to have to make you a chart, too, I think."
Diana stared over at the chart as Ms. Emily began to clean her up, tape her into her new diaper, thinking back to all of her previous accidents, her stomach churning as she became more and more certain they all lined up with the ones on the calendar. That couldn't be the cause... Could it?! She wanted nothing more than to tear the chart down, rip it up, but how could she do that without making Ms. Emily suspicious? Even if she could, if the kids liked it as much as Ms. Emily claimed, surely they'd just make another...
She could only hope whatever had made this happen, whatever connection had been made between her and the chart, would be broken when the one for next month was made. If she was given the task to make that one herself, too, however, as the assistant... She squirmed on the table, wondering if, perhaps, she should be more concerned about somebody seeing both her charts, the one for Wonder Woman and Diana, and noticing that they had the same accidents marked on them... If there was a more humiliating way for her secret identity to be revealed, she definitely couldn't think of it.
It was almost enough to make her wonder if she should see about visiting another daycare instead, seeing if they would help, or finding another way altogether, at least until Ms. Emily sealed the last tape on her diaper with a triumphant pat. "Perfect!" she declared. "You're going to be a good girl and come help us out tomorrow, aren't you?"
"Y-Yes, ma'am," Diana heard herself answering obediently. She didn't have to, wasn't being forced to agree... But now that the girl had changed her diaper, she felt indebted to her in some way. If nothing else, she wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of having to toddle up at some completely unfamiliar daycare and explain her predicament to them, trust some other complete stranger there to be as nice with her as Ms. Emily had been.
"Good girl," Ms. Emily smiled down at her, kissing her on the forehead. "Now, if you have a minute, you could start being a good little helper by picking up some of these toys and putting them in the toybox over there, okay?"
Diana nodded eagerly, hopping off the changing table and waddling over to begin cleaning up. What else did she have to do? She couldn't be a superhero again until she knew how to use the potty... She just had to hope that happened sooner, rather than later....
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
"Do we know her?" Cassandra had wondered aloud, watching Wonder Woman so naturally submitting to Ms. Emily. It was certainly strange to see Wonder Woman winding up in a situation so familiar, so similar to what had happened in the first universe they'd checked, but she had to assume that, like that first time, she was being manipulated into it, hypnotized in some way.
As far as she could tell, however, this universe's version of Ms. Emily had no criminal history, no indication of any metahuman abilities. Running a quantum search into that universe's records didn't reveal anything either, although that could be quite tricky. Cassandra didn't know what had happened with the chart, but Ms. Emily didn't seem to be behind it, nor Diana's meek acceptance of her new role.
Or... She wasn't behind it in any sort of nefarious manner. Her sweet, calm demeanor, on the other hand, the way she exuded a vibe of any child's favorite babysitter, the soothing way she'd executed Diana's diaper change, might just explain it, all of that making Wonder Woman realize, consciously or not, that she belonged in diapers, in daycare.
Either way, running into such a similar fate for Wonder Woman in two completely separate universes, one right after the other, had been enough to make Cassandra ponder on what it could mean. She was going to have to look into this more deeply, run some calculations... And she'd known then that she would have to let this universe's Wonder Woman know as well.