Chapter 2
Shayera felt as though she was weighed down by cotton and attempted to sit up, only to give a small groan when her entire body lit up with pain. She laid back down quickly and opened her eyes and just as quickly closed them when light hit her eyes, blinding Shayera. She gave a growl of frustration and decided to gather her bearings. The last conscious thought she had before passing out was wondering what the strange noise was, the pain, and the gentle hands and voice that lulled her to sleep. Shayera theorized that perhaps a predator who took advantage of her weakened state had ambushed her, but then why offer her comfort and not eat her? She flexed her fingers and toes before trying to flex her wings, trying being the operative word. Shayera opened her eyes and bit back the groan that she felt raising within her. Her sensitive vision took a very long time to get used to the light, but when it did Shayera looked around her environment.
Judging from the walls, she was in a cave made to look like a crime-scene lab. The equipment was primitive at best but Shayera wouldn't doubt its usefulness. She looked down at herself to see that she was laying down on a table and judging by the tools and cloth wraps next to her it was a medical table. Shayera carefully sat up, wincing at the dulled pain in her wings, and looked moved so she was sitting comfortably on the table. Shayera took her time to carefully inspect herself before doing anything strenuous. Whoever helped her was generous enough to bandage all her wounds and even fold her wings carefully so as not to disturb the strange hard-like bandage that set her wing's tendons and humerus.
Shayera carefully stretched her legs down to stand up and after a few minutes of dizziness Shayera was able to walk around.
This cave was truly something to marvel about. Despite the primitive technology that adorned the walls, Shayera was amazed at how much effort was put into this cave in order to mimic a training room, a lab room, and a monitoring room in one. Shayera recognized several ancient instruments used in archeological digs in Thanagar: such as the powders and brushes Shayera sees. A quick sniff on some of the canisters near the powders and Shayera could smell bicarbonate, chlorate, and lactose: a smokescreens. Shayera investigated more around the cave and found several projectiles in the shape of some creature, mines, an EMP, and an assortment of clever equipments used to either incapacitate or make a quick getaway. The only question remaining in Shayera's head was whether or not the alien was friend or foe.
Just as Shayera had that thought, she heard footsteps echoing from the distance and quickly hid behind a chair close to monitors. Shayera took note that she was across from a set of stairs so in case of any sign of hostility, she might have a way out. She peeked around the corner of the chair in order to size up any potential threats but shock spread through her when four aliens entered the cave. Shayera was shocked to discover that, aside from lack of wings, they looked just like her.
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20 minutes earlier
Tim woke up from the chair to blearily see Alfred still reading the paper and sipping a cup of tea. He jolted up from his sleep stupor when the event so the early morning came back to him. He looked around the room to see if the woman was still asleep and to his relief she was. He wanted to be the first to greet her when she woke up so he quickly got up from his uncomfortable position on the computer chair and made his way towards Alfred.
"Has she moved at all?" asked Tim.
"Not at all Master Tim. She has been sleeping quite peacefully compared to your fitful sleep-state." said Alfred, not glancing up from his readings.
"Do you think she would want something when she wakes up?" asked Tim, sitting down next to Alfred.
"I can't imagine what. She might probably wants her armor, mask, and mace back. Other than that I wouldn't know exactly what she would want." said Alfred, sipping his tea.
Tim couldn't think of what she would want either until a morbid thought passed his head.
"Do you think she might have been the one to cause the murders?" asked Tim, suddenly feeling wary of the sleeping body close by them.
"I wouldn't think so. Based on the appearance of the ship on Miller's Harbor, I would think she had one interesting landing on Earth last night." said Alfred, getting up from his chair and walking over to the sleeping alien. He studied the woman in order to find anything on her bandages and once he was sure that she was alright, he motioned to Tim to follow him.
"Come Master Tim, I believe our guest will be quite ravenous once she wakes up and I fear that the soup has gone terribly cold." said Alfred.
As they both left the Batcave, Tim looked back one last time to ensure that the woman was still asleep before climbing up the stairs and closing the entrance behind him. Tim followed Alfred to the kitchen where he began to heat up the soup and water, intent on having another cup of tea.
"Do you think we should tell Dick and Barbara, Alfred?" asked Tim, wondering if perhaps he should inform his bond-brother and sister.
"Inform us of what?" said a voice. Tim turned in surprise to see Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson leaning against the doorframes.
"BARBARA! DICK!" yelled Tim in happiness. He ran towards them and gave Barbara a hug and Dick a high five.
"Nice to see you too, kiddo. So tell us, what does Bruce have hiding in the cave?" asked Barbara, accepting the cup of tea from Alfred.
"Master Tim, perhaps it would be better to show them. The soup is nice and heated and I'm sure our guest will awaken at any moment." said Alfred as he led the way.
"WAIT! I wanna go first!" said Tim as he charged ahead of Alfred. Barbara and Dick exchanged amused glances before following Alfred and Tim to the cave.
"So what did Bruce find this time?" asked Dick, as Tim pulled on the statue that triggered the secret entrance.
"Just wait! She's really pretty!" said Tim as he led the inside. Dick raised an eyebrow at the word she and looked at Barbara, now looking very curious at the possibility. There was no way Bruce would allow Selina in the cave again without his supervision. Batman would never let Talia al Ghul enter Gotham without his knowledge or any other member of the League of Shadows. Who was in the cave?
"Where's Bruce?" asked Dick.
"Master Bruce is out investigating the ship wreckage that washed up on Miller's Harbor." informed Alfred.
"What? Really? I told you we should have gone through Gotham first Dick." said Barbara.
"So I take it then the mission in Bludhaven was a success?" asked Alfred.
"Yeah, we managed to stop this Dark Arrow from implanting one his devices underneath the city. Whatever it was seemed to be a prototype, though. Barbara and I are still running tests." said Dick as they walked down the stairs.
"SHE'S GONE! ALFRED SHE'S NOT HERE!" cried out Tim. The three adults followed Tim down to the cave. Tim pointed at the empty medical bed while Alfred calmly walked to it.
"Who are we looking for exactly?" asked Dick as the spread out across the cave.
"I believe she is who we are looking for." said Barbara, pointing at the hidden figure behind the chair. Dick turned to look at the woman and watched as she rose from her crouched position. His eyes widened when he saw the bandaged wings protruding from her back, the bandaged wounds on her body and the piercing green eyes that warily watched them.
"Oh… wow." was all Dick could manage to say. The winged woman studied each of them with unwavering eyes, only flinching when Tim suddenly stepped forward.
"Hey! We're friends! We're not here to hurt you!" he said.
"Tim," whispered Dick, "Back off."
Tim ignored Dick and continued to address the woman, "I'm sorry you got hurt! Our car had a malfunctioning system that didn't warn us!"
Barbara and Dick had no idea what to do as Tim continued to walk towards the woman, hands raised in the air as though to show her that he means no harm. To their luck, the woman didn't seem threatened by Tim's advancement and instead cautiously sat down on the computer chair, studying Tim. She seemed to be intrigued by his face… by all their faces actually. Dick thought she looked confused until she reached up to touch her face and suddenly she was panicking.
"******)**)*****!" she cried out.
"Do you understand her?" asked Barbara. Dick and Alfred shook their heads, unfamiliar with the alien language, but Tim somehow seemed to understand her panic.
"Your stuff? We have it stored away so it doesn't get dusty, wait here!" said Tim, gesturing for her to remain where she was.
To the surprise of Dick and Barbara the woman remained seated, but kept her eyes on Tim who ran towards a chest. He struggled for a second before yelling, "HEY DICK! A little help?"
Dick just shook his head and went on to help Tim push the chest towards the woman. She looked confused when Tim gestured to her to open the chest, but when she did Dick notices the look of relief and calm that spread throughout her face.
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Shayera had never felt a rush of emotions pass through her entire body until today. When she first caught a glimpse of the aliens, she was curious. What are they capable of if they have no wings? They walk around with no armor or mask, what is this culture? When Shayera was spotted, she knew that she needed to try and make contact so she got up from her crouched position and made herself more visible. She could see that her appearance made their eyes slightly wide: whether it was from her wings or bandages she has yet to determine. Shayera watched as the younger boy approached her, attempting to communicate with her.
"***! ****)*****)****)***)****)**)****)***!" said the young boy. Shayera could hear the older boy whisper something to him but Shayera had to admit that this young boy had a lot of nerve. She glanced at his face and the others' faces trying to understand them. Where are their masks? Were they perhaps family? That would be the only logical conclusion she can come up with. With that thought though Shayera brought a hand up to her face, only for horror to spread as she realized that her own mask was off. She had no armor, no mask, no mace! She was exposed to a group of strangers that were not family!
"WHERE'S MY ARMOR!" she cried out, forgetting that there was a language barrier between her and the aliens. The three older aliens seemed confused by her exclamation, but the younger boy surprised her again when he spoke to her. He gestured for her to stay sitting down and she watched as he ran across the room. He ran across the room and began to push a chest towards her, he motioned for the older boy to help and once the chest was in front of her she opened it.
She was very relieved to find her armor, her mask and mace laid in the chest. She reached a hand in lifted her mask. She looked at it with a sense of forlorn, her family's faces flashing before her eyes.
"*****)*****?" Shayera heard the boy speak. She realized that she was displaying open emotion in front of a group of strangers and immediately reached in for her mask. She winced when she remembered the bandages on her body. She looked down at the one wrapped around her arm and began to unravel it. To her immediate surprise the elder was the one to walk up to her and pointed at her bandages while shaking his head, a sign to tell her not to remove them. Shayera tried to comprehend why she couldn't remove her bandages. She could already feel that her wounds were closed and that the bones in her wings were set, a little tender perhaps but she decided to ignore the elder in order to show him that she was fine.
She reached into the chest, ignoring the pain on her wings as she bent down to bring up her arm brace armor. This specific arm brace is law enforcement issued armor, meaning that the military doesn't have it yet. Shayera was quite proud that to be one of the first to use such an arm brace. It was on the outer surface of the brace with retractable talons on the carpal area of the brace. All Shayera had to do was flex her arm a bit to trigger the release and flex again for it to retract. She put the arm brace on and retracted the talons. The four aliens immediately shifted into a defensive position but Shayera quickly raised her hand up to show that she meant no harm. When they relaxed slightly, Shayera quickly began to slice through the bandages on her hand and once it was off, Shayera raised her healed hand to the elder in order to show him her healed cuts. The elder took the offered hand and she smiled at his raised eyebrows when he turned her hand over to see the healed injuries.
"***)***)*********)***)**)****)*****)*****?" asked the female of the group. Shayera just stared at him blankly, not understanding the girl. The girl blushed when she remembered the language barrier and instead approached her, hands raised and pointing to Shayera's other bandages. Shayera raised an eyebrow but raised her bandaged arm to the girl and realized the peace gesture when the girl began to help her remove her bandages. Once all the bandages were removed, Shayera stood across from them in her normally proud and confident stature.
"******? **)***)*****)***)*****)****)**)****)***)************?" said the young boy to the elder. Shayera had no time to decipher what was being said when a red alert sound signalled throughout the cave.
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"That's Bruce!" yelled Barbara. She ran towards the computers and immediately began to search for him.
Dick and Tim followed behind her and watched the screens to find Bruce's signal in Miller's Harbor.
"Do you think he's in trouble?" asked Tim, running towards his displayed costume away from the computer room.
"For him to signal his distress signal? Yes." said Dick as he quickly changed into his Nightwing costume. Dick and Tim ran back to the computer room where Barbara was already in full Batgirl suit and to their shock, the woman was dressed in her armor and mask with the mace attached to her hip.
"She's coming?" asked Dick as he and Barbara mounted on Dick's motorbike.
"How else am I getting there?" asked Tim, joking when he said it but then reconsidered it when he realized that he had no way to get to Bruce. He turned towards the woman and tried not to feel intimidated by her dangerous appearance. The gold, black, and red armor made her appear lethal while the white lenses of her mask made her appear daunting. Even her wings were armored which added her lethal appearance to another level.
"Please? Can I come with you?" asked Tim, gesturing while he was speaking. He first pointed at himself and then at her, before making a flying gesture with his arms. The woman looked at him and Tim worried that perhaps he might have insulted her with his flying gesture until the woman crouched down and lowered her wings a bit, pointing to her back which Tim took to mean as "hop on".
He ran towards her back and lifted himself by grabbing onto to the humerus part of the wings and by wrapping his arms around her neck. The woman then stood up and Tim could hear Dick mutter, "daredevil" before zooming away with Barbara. The woman began to make a run before launching herself in the air and spreading her wings. Tim has been on many exhilarating rides before in the Batmobile, the Batwing and even on Dick's motorbike, but nothing compared to the feeling he was experiencing when the woman began to fly at impossible speeds and caught up to Dick and Barbara.
Tim laughed when they saw him up above them and watched as they left the cave and straight up into the night sky. He held on tight for dear life as they began to rise up above the clouds before the woman suddenly did a freefall. Tim wrapped his legs around the woman's torso and watched as the ground below them appeared to be advancing towards them. Tim almost screamed in terror until the woman spread her wings full span and they were gliding over the tree tops at full speed. Tim was confused when the woman slowed down a little until he saw Dick and Barbara zoomed by below them. He realized that the woman was letting them take lead when she began to follow them from up high.
Tim took the time to see Gotham from an aerial perspective and despite the gothic and scary outer look that Gotham is infamous for, he will admit that nothing beats seeing the city lights illuminate the city. The woman kept close to the skylights of the buildings, avoiding lit windows and often at times soaring high above the city to avoid detection. Tim had no doubt that this woman had supervision since she always kept track of Dick and Barbara.
Tim?
Barbara? How close are we?
Close, my dad is on the scene with the whole police force and SWAT division.
What's going on?
Bruce is fighting the heart-eater, but… reports are talking about a four-winged individual.
Tim looked below to see Miller's Harbor approaching. He could make out a black-silhouetted figure fighting against a large four-winged individual. It was when the woman gave a small gasp that Tim figured that perhaps the woman did know who the individual was.
Dick and Barbara zoomed over the police line and made their way towards Bruce fighting as Batman against the monster-looking figure. The woman stopped flying and hovered in midair so Tim quickly tapped her shoulder and pointed towards a rooftop close to the fight. When she landed, Tim jumped off and began to climb down towards the fight, intent on helping his adopted father and brother.
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Shayera couldn't believe Byth was still alive and fighting. Last time she saw him, he was in a burning ship in warp space. Despite his grotesque new features, Shayera knew it was Byth by the Thanagarian prison tattoos on his biceps. It seemed a bit old school but Byth was a repeated offender and it got to the point that his many prison breaks required the law to hold him for life: thus the tattoos are a sign of his life sentence. Shayera had been surprised at first at how efficient the three youths moved when the red alarm had blared. The youth had quickly put on their own form of armor and masks before moving into action.
Shayera was confused at first when the two boys left the area but once she spotted the girl dressing up for what looked like combat, Shayera decided to lend a helping hand. She quickly donned her armor and mask and waited with the girl until the two boys returned. She could tell that her armor and mask intimidated them (the younger boy especially) but they quickly got over it. The older boy and the girl jumped on a bi-wheeled vehicle, something Shayera has never seen before. She was interrupted from her thoughts though when the young boy had gestured to Shayera if he could climb on her back. His gesture to fly was rather humorous though but she refrained from laughing to keep things professional. She saw his fallen look and thought perhaps she should have laughed to lighten his spirit before battle, but instead she crouched down and gestured for him to hop on her back.
When she felt him tighten his arms around her neck, Shayera began to run and stretched her wings. It has been more than forty hours since Shayera had actually flown with her own wings so wherever they were headed was a good opportunity to actually fly. Shayera launched herself into the air and began the fly after the older youths. She could feel the younger boy slightly tighten his hold on her and she smiled a little, feeling exhilarated when she felt the wind beneath her wings and the lightweight feeling she gets that can get joy come from flying.
Once outside, Shayera couldn't help but fly high up into the air and get a feeling of the air this planet has to offer. She was feeling so much freedom and excitement after her brief struggle against death earlier that it made her forget her current passenger on her back. She began to free fall and was enjoying the wind rushing past her face when she felt arms tighten around her neck in fear along with a pair of legs around her torso. She felt guilty when she could hear the young boy take in short breaths of fear. She spread her wings and glided over the treetops and stopped. She realized that she had flown ahead of older boy and girl and flew slowly to allow them to catch up. Once they did though, Shayera flew above them slowly, trying not to lose sight of them. It was when they reached the city limits that Shayera was soon experiencing culture shock.
This city was gigantic. Unlike the treetop cities of Thanagar, whatever species this is made phenomenal structures from the ground up. Strange statues decorated every edge of a building. Shayera couldn't help but notice how some of the more grotesque statues had wings. Did this planet view wings as evil? Was it a stroke of luck that she was found by friendly inhabitants in this whole planet? Shayera had no time to ponder though as the two riders rode around the line of metal boxes on the ground below. Shayera decided that discretion was the best option and flew up above the buildings, not wanting to draw any attention to herself.
When they arrived at the docks, the young boy had patted on her shoulder to land on top of a roof. When she did, she watched with amazement at his grace and agility as he jumped down to help fight alongside the two older youths and a man donning his own mask in black.
Shayera watched as they fought effortlessly side by side in taking down Byth and she had to give these aliens some credit: they knew how to fight. Shayera watched Byth carefully and noticed several grotesque new features of his: from his scaly arms and torso, his squashed in face, and his four wings not being able to flap in synchronization. Shayera flew around the fight and positioned herself behind a large container. It was when the young boy cried out that Shayera leapt into action.
Hello readers, thank you for reviewing, favoriting, and following the story. I worked extra hard to get this chapter finished while working so thanks again :)