Disclaimer: The Characters Batman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Superman & Flash are all owned by DC Comics. This story is intended for my own pleasure and is not for profit. It has been posted to this site for others to read. Places and characters not own by DC Comics are my own creation. Thanks to Merlin Missy for the beta.

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Shadow Chaser

Rating: (PG-13)

Synopsis: Hawkgirl and the Martian Manhunter travel to another world to accept an award for the League and are delayed. This story occurs before "Wild Cards."

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CHAPTER ONE –"No problem is so formidable…"

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A Thanagarian would never build a ship this freakin' narrow. You can't spread your wings unless you stand in the middle of the ship - sideways. I'm the shortest one in the group but did they design this ship knowing I needed the most room? No! I bet they said I would have to make do but I bet if the Princess needed something…. Okay, let it go, Hol, let it go and focus. Focus.

Bored by the inaction and angry that she had to stand sideways mid-ship in the Javelin-7 to fully stretch her wings, she methodically flexed and stretched her shoulders and arms as well as her wings, grunting with each movement. Ten hours. Ten hours is too long for me to be cramped aboard this small ship. I can't stand confined spaces. I am not going to do this again.

"J'onn, do you want me to pilot the craft for a while?" she asked.

"Not now, Hawkgirl, but you can relieve me in an hour," J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter said from the pilot's seat of the Javelin.

Finished with her stretching, she walked to the back of the craft and opened the locker where she had stowed her travel bag. A smile creased her lips as she removed a small plastic baggie from the larger bag.

"Okay, but I don't still understand how you and I got selected to represent the League at this function," she called back to J'onn as she closed the locker and headed for the co-pilot's chair.

J'onn watched her sit in the chair on the right-hand side as he said, "The Government of Rigel Nine wanted to thank the League for saving them from that planet destroying comet last year. They asked that we accept their medal at a public ceremony."

She leaned back in the chair and continued to slowly move her head from side to side. "No, I understand that. I don't understand why us? Why did you and I get picked for this 'honor'?"

"Because we didn't say 'not us' fast enough."

J'onn's sense of humor was so subtle sometimes it would be easy to think it didn't exist at all, and then he would come out with a keen remark and she'd catch herself smiling, surprised all over again.

"The others were busy on missions," J'onn continued looking out the front of the ship apparently indifferent as to whether she understood his joke. "This mission should only take us three days. We should be within radar range of Rigel Nine within another hour."

"J'onn?" she said pausing and waiting for him to look at her. When he turned to face her, she held up the plastic baggie she had retrieved from locker. "I have Oreos," she said in a singsong voice waving the bag in front of him.

J'onn's eyes glowed and he momentarily released the hand controls of the ship. "Hawkgirl, would you like to pilot the ship for a while?"

"Why, J'onn this is so sudden…but if you insist," she said demurely as she gave him the baggie.

He set the ship on autopilot, took the bag of cookies from her and sat down in the seat behind the pilot's chair. As she took his place she could hear the package being ripped open behind her and the greedy crunch of cookies. She wasn't sure but she thought she even heard the Martian hum.

She examined the controls and gauges of the craft but kept the ship on automatic pilot as he had left it. Looking out at the stars, she sighed and looked back at the ship's radar display.

Suddenly she sat up in her seat, looked at the radar display again and then looked out the front right-hand side of the ship. "J'onn! Two ships approaching fast off the starboard bow. A very large ship and a craft smaller than the Javelin."

J'onn's eyes glowed red as he growled and set the partially eaten bag of cookies in his chair. He moved to the co-pilot's seat and looked out to where she indicated.

"The larger ship is firing on us," she said calmly as she armed the Javelin's weapons system. The Javelin's defensive systems calculated the position of the large ship and an indicator light signaled that the weapons had a lock on the firing vessel. She launched the first volley of the ship's weapons. Returning laser fire from the Javelin's starboard side lit the darkness of space.

"No Hawkgirl. Wait," J'onn said as he reached over and turned off the weapon targeting system. "They are firing on the smaller ship they are chasing, not at us. We should not interfere. Give them a wide berth."

However, the larger ship returned fire on the Javelin as it steered to keep the Leaguers' ship to its front. The smaller ship it had been chasing maneuvered to keep the Javelin between it and the pursuing ship so that the Javelin now took the blunt of the rounds directed at the smaller ship being chased.

"Interference is not an option now, J'onn. You handle tactical. I'll pilot," she said as she rotated the Javelin in position to take a flanking shot on the much larger craft.

"There is no tactical. That last shot took out lasers starboard and aft. We also lost the starboard engine. Rotate the ship so I can fire portside weapons at them. Meanwhile, look for a place to set down." J'onn frowned and re-engaged the Javelin's weapon system. He set the system to manual control and returned fire concentrating his shots on the flank side of the large ship. He tapped her shoulder and directed her attention out the left side of the Javelin. "That moon over there. Head for it. Keep the port side toward them so I can return fire."

She banked the ship hard to port, completely flipping the Javelin over so that their remaining weapons faced the attacking ship. "J'onn, we're not going to make it…too far away. Damn! We just lost the port engine." The Javelin started drifting with the loss of power.

The bigger ship broke off the attack and positioned itself between the crippled Javelin and the moon J'onn had spotted. J'onn stopped firing. Keeping his eyes focused on the ship to their direct front and without looking at her, he called out, "Status check."

She took a deep breath and sighed loudly. Scanning the instruments in front of her, she called out, "Both engines are off-line. Most weapons systems are off-line. Torpedoes and mines are still available. Life support is still good. Gravity generator is still functional. We appear to be held in a tractor beam or stasis field of some sort."

As she looked up from the instrument gauges, a flash of bright light suddenly surrounded J'onn, temporarily blinding her. When her vision returned, the Martian Manhunter was gone.

"J'onn!!" she screamed as she quickly leaped up, unclipped her mace from her belt and energized the weapon. As she looked toward the rear of the Javelin, another flash of bright light occurred mid-ship. As her vision cleared, she found herself standing with her back to the pilot console and face to face with five silver-skinned beings in green robes.

The five beings looked at each other in obvious confusion when they heard her growl.

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J'onn found himself sitting on the floor in the middle of a small 8X8 room that was apparently designed to be a temporary holding cell. The windowless room faced an open hallway but J'onn could see that the opening was guarded by a bluish-tinged force field of some sort and he could hear the faint buzz of an electric motor. The only light in the room came from the hallway. He stood up.

On the other side of the force field stood a being, humanoid in appearance with bright red skin, dressed in a long green floor-length robe. The being was looking at what appeared to be a clipboard or a tablet. Looking up from the clipboard, he momentarily glanced at J'onn with dark eyes and then silently looked back down at his clipboard again.

After examining the device for several long seconds, he looked up and folded his arms across his chest. "Why did you interfere with my capture of that ship?" He glared at J'onn angrily.

J'onn didn't change his expression. He quickly tried to read the being's mind but was unable. Must be the force field blocking me.

"We misinterpreted your actions," J'onn said. "We thought you were firing at us. We did not intend to interfere. We were only defending ourselves. Who are you?"

The being on the other side of the force field studied J'onn for a moment before replying. "My name is Zevon. I am captain of this ship, the Shadow Chaser. My crew and I are all that remain of a race known as Satzorians. The ship you allowed to escape has all of our incubators…our females on it. Your interference has sentenced our race to certain death if we cannot find our incubators."

J'onn tried to study Zevon's body language as the alien spoke, but was unable to come to any clear conclusions regarding Zevon's truthfulness. "If you can help us repair our ship we can assist you in finding them," J'onn offered. "Where is Hawkgirl…the other being on the ship with me?"

Zevon's eyes widened as he spoke, "The female. Is she your incubator?"

J'onn stood a little straighter and enlarged himself slightly. "She is my teammate." Narrowing his eyes he said firmly, "Where is she?"

Glancing at his clipboard, Zevon smiled. "She remains on your ship. Does she carry your future?"

J'onn did not return the smile and his tone did not change. "I don't understand your question? What do you mean?"

Zevon rolled his shoulder and appeared agitated. He spoke rapidly and in a manner conveying impatience as he pointed his finger at J'onn. "I do not have the time to explain reproduction to you. I mean does she carry your future? Is she fertilized? Does she carry your child?"

He paused and spoke slower. "We were unable to determine her status from our bio-scans. She will be quarantined on your ship until we can determine whether or not she is fertilized." He smiled as he added, "I expect to have that answer shortly."

J'onn growled and his red eyes glowed. This ends now. I'm going to try to phase through that force field. But before J'onn could act, Zevon's attention was suddenly drawn back to his clipboard. He frowned and then looked back up at J'onn.

Shaking his head, Zevon continued as his frown grew deeper, "It appears she did not wish to cooperate when several of my robots tried to examine her on your ship a few minutes ago. These robots were part of my crew and are not easily replaced." He sighed. "She has damaged all of them beyond repair. We were unable to examine her."

A smile briefly flew across J'onn's face at the thought of Hawkgirl smashing robot intruders. He cleared his throat, walked up to the force field until he was inches away from it and looked Zevon in the eyes. "She is my…mate and I do not wish her examined or harmed. Is that understood? Can you help us repair our ship so that we can either assist you in capturing the other ship or so that we may continue our journey?"

Zevon stepped back from the force field without answering. He looked at his clipboard again and then folded his arms across his chest. "I will have the crew assist you in the repair of your ship but we do not require your help in capturing the escaped ship. We believe we know where they are going. As for your mate, it is best she remain on your ship." He paused and arched an eyebrow. "Do you know if she currently fertilized? Is she available for fertilization?"

J'onn demonstrated no outward emotion but did not like Zevon's persistent inquiry into Hawkgirl's medical status. His answer was firm as he glared at Zevon. "I do not know if she is fertilized or not but that information is none of your business. Is that understood?" J'onn stepped back from the force field. "Quarantine on our ship is satisfactory – for both of us. Transport me back to my ship now."

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Duty at the Watchtower had been quiet and that was just the way the Flash liked it. It was good duty when nothing was going on and he could sit in the crow's nest eating ice cream with his legs kicked up on the console. This is the good life.

Suddenly the audio indicator light came on, signaling an incoming audio transmission. All good things must…. The Flash flipped the signal switch and spoke into the microphone.

"This is the Watchtower."

"Watchtower, this is the office of the Chief Administrator of Rigel Nine. We are extremely disappointed that you elected not to attend our ceremony. Do you disrespect all worlds like this?"

The Flash frowned as he stood up. "Hey, we sent two members there to accept your prize. They're not there yet?"

There was silence at the other end for a moment. "No one has shown up. The ceremony begins in three hours."

Flash consulted the roster schedule to re-confirm what he already knew: the missing members were J'onn and Hawkgirl. "Okay, would you let me know when they get there? But if they're not there when the ceremony starts, would you help us look for them?"

In interplanetary communications, it was normal that there would be lag time between responses but the lag time to the Flash seemed extraordinarily long and painful because of his concern for his friends. Where could they be? I mean they don't have a thing for each other and stopped off some place, did they? Nope. Slap that thought out your head. Knowing J'onn, if they ain't where they're supposed to be, it's only because they're in trouble. Bad trouble.

"We will assist you to the level we can," the voice from Rigel Nine finally answered. "Good luck on finding your comrades. End transmission."

Plopping down in his chair Flash took a deep breath and let it out sharply. He pulled down the frequency book, consulted it and tuned the Watchtower radio transmitter to the private frequency of the Green Lantern's commlink.

"John. Flash here."

"John here. Go."

"Where are you?"

"Coming back from Oa. I should be back to Earth by tonight."

"John, we have a situation."

"Go ahead."

"J'onn and Hawkgirl are missing. They were heading to Rigel Nine. Says here they filed a standard flight plan, but the Rigel guys say they're overdue. I think they're in trouble."

"Got it. Heading to Rigel Nine to backtrack. Lantern Out."

The Flash sat down in his chair and picked up the bowl of ice cream he was eating before the radio transmission. He looked at it and sat the bowl back down on the console. Suddenly he didn't feel very hungry anymore.

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Zevon's transporter materialized J'onn in front of Hawkgirl and he instantly phased himself. He was glad that he did because at that moment a Thanagarian mace passed right through his head traveling at a high rate of speed.

A very agitated, but visibly relieved Hawkgirl asked, "Are you okay? And where in blazes were you?"

"I am unharmed," J'onn answered smiling slightly because she did not appear harmed either. "I was transported aboard the ship that incapacitated us. The ones who stopped us are called Satzorians and the ship's captain is named Zevon. They will assist us in repairing our ship however our actions permitted their females…their females…." Zevon never said the females were abducted. He said escaped.

He paused for a moment and tilted his head as he looked at her, "Are you all right? They seemed…most interested in you."

She held the mace at her side and frowned. "Right after you disappeared, five of them materialized aboard the ship. They were robots. Anyway, I made taking the ship an expensive proposition for them. After I destroyed them all, they must have been transported back to their ship because they are not here now." She paused, pointed her finger at J'onn and yelled, "There is no cha'nas room on this ship for me to fight and damn it, we've got to fix that. They could have taken this ship."

J'onn sat in the pilot's chair and spun around to face her. He hadn't heard her say the word 'cha'nas' before but assumed it to be a Thanagarian obscenity of some sort based upon her usage. "They were not here for the ship," J'onn said. "They were here to see if you were…fertilized."

Her jaw dropped. She cleared her throat and stared coldly at J'onn. J'onn continued, "Apparently the status of your condition is very important to them, so important in fact that they wanted to know if you were available for fertilization. I told them you were my mate and that I did not want you examined or harmed." J'onn spun around in his chair and faced the front of ship as he started checking the ship's system gauges.

He was violently forced right back around to be face to face with a very irate winged woman. She repeatedly and angrily poked her finger in his chest as she spoke, "I am not available. I am definitely not available. And now that I think about it, they are the ones who need to worry about being harmed."

J'onn didn't say anything but looked down at her finger still poking his chest. She apparently noticed his eyes on her hand. She took a deep breath and dropped the offending hand to tap nervously against her leg.

"Can we trust them to make the repairs?" she asked. Her tone was a little calmer than it had been just moments ago.

"I don't know," J'onn answered. "I wasn't able to read the Satzorian's mind. Does the radio still work? Can we contact Rigel Nine or the Watchtower?"

"I haven't had a chance to try." A wry smile crossed her lips as she continued. "I was a little busy…apparently defending my honor."

It was J'onn turn to smile as he stood up and started to reach for the bag of Oreos that were still sitting where he left them – on the seat behind the pilot's chair. He stopped. Not now, he thought to himself as he sat back down in his seat. He looked back at Hawkgirl and said, "I'll try the radio. You determine what needs to be repaired so we can be underway as soon as possible."

"I'm on it," she said as she walked down the corridor of the ship. She then stopped, turned around, smiled slightly and added, "Mate."