Shayera had no plan whatsoever when she began to fly towards Byth. The only clear thought she had was to protect the young boy. Despite not being able to understand him the young boy reminded her a lot of her little brother, Hektar. Perhaps these aliens might be able to help her get home, but first she must deal with Byth, permanently.
With a war cry, Shayera charged up her mace and slammed it into the side of Byth, knocking him aside before he would even dare lay a hand on the boy. Now that she was closer to Byth, Shayera could several anomalies attached to Byth. Aside from his new grotesque appearance, Byth had several interesting equipments attached to his body. One contraption seemed to be sown into his chest and Shayera could see that it was not working properly. Another contraption stood, one that she recognized: the Absorbascon. Shayera had read several articles about the newly upgraded Absorbascon, a technological achievement on its own during its time. The newly upgraded information storage system can now download information from other computers without needing an outside source to do it. The scientists have developed this upgraded system to be able to be worn under a helmet, but on Byth it looked as though he was wearing a skeletal frame around his head.
Speaking of Byth, he was running at her with incredible speed and she only had time to swing her mace straight at his head. Byth was knocked down, but during Shayera's slight distraction from her swing he swiped his clawed hand at her leg, piercing through the armor. Shayera cried out in pain as Byth gripped her leg and began to slam her against the ground before lifting her up and slamming her down again. He repeated this twice before whirling around and throwing her against the wall.
Shayera huffed to catch her breath but quickly stood up, ignoring the blood running down her leg. She needed to stop this quickly before he gained the upper hand and overpowered her. Shayera flew up high to avoid his incoming charge and quickly turned midair to slam her electrified mace straight down on his head.
She jumped out of the way quickly when he reached out to grab her leg again. Shayera could see the other fighters running towards them and she quickly dive bombed for another hit. Byth swung his arm around though at the sight of her and slammed slammed against her abdomen, knocking the air right out of her. Shayera was kneeling on the ground gripping her stomach in order to stop the reflex that was repeatedly trying to exhale air that was no longer in her lungs. She tried to recover quickly but her vision was slowly blacking out, proving that perhaps she hadn't healed after all. She was too distracted by her near unconsciousness that she didn't see Byth bring his clawed hand up, intending to fully pierce through her mask and into her skull.
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Tim and Dick had tried unsuccessfully to come around the monster from behind. They were shoved to the side by his wings that flapped around sporadically. Dick landed gracefully on his feet but Tim ended up rolling around until he hit the side of the wall. He grumbled a little before getting back into action. One day he'll be able to move around like Dick, for now he was doing his best not to get his heart ripped out by the beast. Tim threw a couple of flash bombs in the direction of the beast. It did nothing to it as it it swung its arm around and knocked Bruce and Barbara to the side and into some crates. Dick had no chance whatsoever to dodge the unexpected headbutt and then it was just Tim. He looked around hoping for a way to get away but as the beast jumped he took out his bo staff and twirled it around to look menacing. The beast landed in front of Tim and with only a flimsy swipe of his hand the bo staff was knocked out of Tim's hand. Tim backed away slowly as the monster slowly crept up to him and thought to himself that this might be the end for him. Just as the monster lifted its hand to swipe at Tim, Tim heard a war cry coming from the sky and the monster was suddenly knocked to the side. Tim looked up in awe as the winged woman carried the electric-charged mace in hand and was in a defensive position in front of Tim.
The woman looked like a warrior from ancient times as her wings flared a little but folded back quickly, possibly to give the woman more maneuverability over the beast. Despite not being able to see her full face, Tim could almost see the intimidating glare she was aiming at the beast. When the creature began to charge towards her, the woman leapt into action at unbelievable speed. She swung her mace again and caught the top of his head, bringing him down. Tim didn't anticipate the beast to grab her leg and pierce through the armor, making her give a short cry of pain. He began to beat the woman around as though she were a rag doll but she was taking the beating as though it was nothing to her. She only took about a second to catch her breath before she was back in action, her wings often proving to be her saving grace when she needed a quick dodge.
"ROBIN!" he heard Barbara cry from behind him. He looked back to see Bruce and Barbara tending to an injured Dick, who was bleeding from his head wound. He rushed over and asked, "Is he ok?"
Barbara had taken bandages out of her belt while Bruce responded, "He'll be alright. His hard head is what saved him in the first place."
"Really Br-Batman? This is no time to joke." admonished Barbara when Tim smiled at his joke. A cry from the distance caught his attention and he was horrified to see the woman kneeling on the floor attempting to her breath. The beast had his hand raised similar to the kill strike he was about to do on Tim and just as fast, Bruce leapt into action.
Bruce threw a couple of Batarangs at the monster and it backed off, shielding itself with its arms trying to block the explosions from hitting its face. Bruce then delivered a swift upper kick underneath the jaws and a jab to the exposed skin on its leg in order to paralyze it. He didn't quite paralyzed the monster, but he did daze it for a while. Long enough for him to run towards the woman and help her sit back against the wall and control her breathing.
"How are you feeling?" asked Bruce, as the woman regained control and stood up. She didn't answer but she only looked at him.
"She doesn't understand us Batman. Robin's been using his own sign language to communicate with her." explained Barbara as she and Tim helped Dick sit down against the wall. A screech distracted them from their conversations as the monster rose from his dazed position on the ground. Bruce and his partners got into the defensive position while the woman charged her mace up, but to their surprise the monster began to speak.
"Pathetic. All of you." he said, wiping away the blood trickling down his face.
"Oh yeah? Who was the one knocked down to the ground?" challenged Tim, ignoring the glare he was getting from Batman.
"I underestimated you, honestly. It won't happen again. Your tactics and techniques are positively droll. The only real interesting outlier brought in this fight is the cop." sneered the monster.
"Cop?" asked Barbara. She looked around to see if anybody from the Gotham City Police Department had tried to attempt to help them fight the beast.
"Hello, small weakling? I'm talking about the ever famous Captain Shayera Hol standing next to you. Gave me quite the scare when she attempted to stop the hyper-space jump I was making after my escape," said the monster as he stalked over a few feet in front of them, eyes never leaving the woman's face and said, "***)****)****)****)********)*******?"
"*****)****)***)**)****)****!" snarled the woman, surprising Barbara and Tim at her ferocity. Barbara could see her fist flexing around the handle of the mace, as though she really wanted to start hitting him with it.
"Hmm, typical cop. Oh where are my manners? My name is Byth Rok, the greatest Thanagarian pirate to ever live!" said Byth as he gave a mock bow.
"You could be Davy Jones for all I care, but right now you're going down!" said Tim. Byth gave small laugh and charged at them. Everyone met his charge and a battle has begun, one that could be heard and felt from all over Gotham as shakes from Shayera's mace and Byth's strength vibrated through the city.
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Shayera had been surprised when Byth began to speak in the alien's language, but the surprise left when she recalled the Absorbascon that he was still wearing. She swung her mace at his head, attempting to knock it off but he quickly blocked her blow and met her with his own. She was knocked up into the air but she quickly righted herself with her wings and flew around, attempting to find his blind spot. It was when she saw the young boy make a foolish attempt at sneak attack that Shayera dove straight down with a charged mace and began her descent to rescue the boy again.
She flew straight down in a vertical line and hit Byth on his right shoulder, when he had turned to catch the boy in midair. Her mace went right through his shoulder and severed his arm off. He gave a roar in pain and attempted to catch Shayera with his left arm but she took another swing with her mace and severed it off too. He roared in agony and tried to charge at her with his body, but she punched him in the face and knocked him down where he gave a chilling snarl. He rose again only to meet the mace face to face.
Shayera had no control over her emotions as she began to beat him repeatedly with her mace. She grabbed the Absorbascon and threw it over her shoulder as she began to beat him. When he stopped moving Shayera flew off of him and watched as he took in ragged breaths and low moans escaped his body.
She turned around to see the youths and the man looking at her with apprehension. She looked away to the Absorbascon and walked to it, finally intending to learn about these aliens who were clearly warriors.
Shayera walked over to the Absorbascon and took her mask off. She could hear the young boy calling something out but she had no idea what it was. She grabbed the Absorbascon and placed it on her head. It was when she felt the stings go straight through her head that Shayera realized that perhaps she should have waited until she was somewhere secure. Her vision immediately blacked out and the last thought she had was of the new information that was being 'downloaded' into her brain: humans.
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Tim had no idea what to do when he watched the woman-no, Shayera fall as soon as she placed the weird wire-headset on her head. He ran towards her body and watched in amazement as the headset began to glow in rhythm.
"What's going on?" he asked as he looked behind to see Bruce walking up to him.
"It looks as though she is responding the headset. As though they are both communicating." theorized Bruce as he watched the woman give small flinches and flexes in response to every pulse the headset was giving.
"It's not hurting her?" asked Tim.
"No, if Byth could handle it then so can she. She's probably trying to control it." reasoned Bruce, not wanting to scare Tim. After calling in the jet, Barbara and Tim helped carry the unconscious Dick and Shayera into the jet and fly away while Bruce handled things with the police.
"This is going to be some trial, I'll tell ya." said Commissioner Gordon as he watched the boys place the large monster in lock and key in the armored van.
"A trial should be the least of your worries." said Batman as he and Gordon walked away from the scene.
"What do you mean?" asked Gordon.
"That man you have locked up? Not of this world." explained Batman.
"Not-what do you mean? We have an alien locked up in our custody?" asked Gordon, not believing that of all things to happen it had to be extraterrestrial.
"I wouldn't worry. His missing limbs should cripple him should he attempt anything. Although I doubt he'll be able to function properly while in Arkham." said Batman as they made their way towards the jet.
"Yeah, about those missing limbs, trying on a new tactic?" asked Gordon.
"No, just received a little help from an outside source who went a little spastic. Stopped in time though for me to analyze the machines on the heart eater's body." said Batman.
"What do you mean?" asked Gordon, feeling like a record player.
"I had time to study the machine attached to his chest and our resident heart eater turns out needed to replace his every single time. It looks as though it was a failed invention to do what? I don't know. All I could study on time was that it meant to boost heart function but instead causes heart implosion." explained Bruce.
"So what? We feed him a heart everytime it explodes?" asked Gordon, wondering if the Batman had finally snapped.
"No, don't do anything that might empower him. I think he'll be fine in the long run, but how long is the question that still needs to be answered. He has about twenty hearts stored in that machine." said Batman as he jumped into the hidden Batmobile and flew away.
It was a while until he reached the batcave and during that time he began to reflect on his turbulent day. After finding the woman, Shayera, out in the woods he didn't expect to have to deal with incoming aliens bent on having people's hearts. Bruce had only time to analyse on the supposed corpse when it came alive and began to attack him in Millers Harbor. The wrecked ship found on the coast might have belonged to Byth or Shayera but Bruce can only speculate when Byth had detonated it to go off, intending to kill the commercial fishermen that were out and about. Bruce only had time to give a quick warning to the fishermen who sailed away in time to avoid the underwater explosion. When Byth began to fight against Bruce, Bruce called in the red alert to get back up.
When the police arrived Tim, Dick, and Barbara had arrived and they began to fight against Byth. It was when the woman swooped down to help that Bruce was finally able to see what type of aliens they were dealing with. Since they weren't metahumans Bruce had no idea how Arkham might be able to hold a creature such as Byth until he saw that he was not invulnerable against the electricity from the mace. He needed to develop some schematics to build a cell for Byth for the engineers at Arkham, for now though he needed more answers to his questions. For that, he needed the woman to wake up.
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Shayera groaned as she woke up from her forced unconsciousness. So much information had been 'downloaded' into her head that Shayera was honestly amazed at the different languages, cultures, traditions, species, and even practices that made up Earth. Shayera now had a name for everything that she wasn't sure about. One of the things Shayera had discovered while she was processing the information was that this new Absorbascon can actually take information from nearby computers and implant them in her head. Shayera now knew everything there was to know about Bruce Wayne and his sidekicks Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, and Dick Grayson or better known to the public as Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and Nightwing. She had also received information about the many heroes that populate the Earth from the known such as this Superman to the not so very known such as the Vibe.
She slowly stood up from her medical bed to see that she was alone in a spacious room. Her mask was put on the bedside table of her bed and she still wore her armor. She sat up and removed the Absorbascon from her head. She stretched a little from the strain she had to pull in fighting Byth and the weakness that was entering her body. She hasn't eaten in more than three sleep cycles, skipping her midday lunch on Thanagar so she could have room to eat during her brother's ceremony and not having anything to eat during her unconscious time on Earth. The battle with Byth had drained every energy she had so she was on the hunt for food as she walked out the room. Shayera took a deep sniff of the air to smell a delicious aroma. She followed the scent to the downstairs of the mansion where she heard voices. She flew down the stairs and cautiously walked towards the door. Despite understanding Earth customs, Shayera felt a little nervous about meeting these strangers with a new understanding of their language and culture but she plucked up her courage and knocked on the door before opening it.
The talking had stop and Shayera was now the center of attention of five pairs of eyes. She gave a small wave and a weak smile, suddenly nervous and afraid that perhaps she had broken a custom or a culture rule with these people. She quickly shifted through the new information but had found no rule or custom to be broken. The young boy, Tim, stood up from his seat and walked up to her. She looked at him in anticipation, wanting him to make the first move.
"Hey Bruce, do you think maybe you should try communicating with her? If Tim can do it, then maybe you can try to communicate what her business is on Earth." asked the girl, Barbara, to the man.
"My business on Earth was to capture Byth and take him back to prison on Thanagar." responded Shayera, surprising herself and the others at her fluent english.
"You can talk now?" asked Tim.
"I have always been able to talk. I wasn't however capable of speaking your languages." said Shayera.
"Languages? You can speak more than one you mean?" asked the older boy, Dick.
"Yes… can you not speak more than one of your planet's languages?" asked Shayera, wondering if perhaps she had overdone it by learning all of the planet's languages.
"Well… sort of. I'm kinda good at French and Japanese." explained Barbara.
"Bruce here can speak more than ten languages!" said Tim, feeling a little left out of the conversation and wanting to participate.
"You are Shayera Hol, Captain of the Thanagarian forces" asked the man, Bruce. Feeling a bit out of the loop Shayera decided to respond in kind, "You are Bruce Wayne: last heir to the Wayne fortune, playboy philanthropist, current CEO of Wayne Industries, and the Batman."
The youths seemed to look surprised at her knowledge but Bruce and the elder, Alfred Pennyworth, were nonchalant about it.
"You seem to have gathered information in your unconscious state. How?" asked Bruce. Shayera could see that perhaps she had touched a nerve somewhere.
"The Absorbascon." said Shayera.
"The Abso-what?" asked Tim.
"The Absorbascon. The… living brain I guess you can say. It gathers nearby information and uploads it into my brain." said Shayera.
"Nearby? So all the computers that is within this vicinity, you were able to hack into it without our knowledge?" asked Bruce.
"Correct," said Shayera, "Your computers are down in the cave are possibly quite the most advanced I have seen this planet offers aside from your military. However I do caution adding more firewalls and a lash-back in the event of someone trying to hack into your accounts."
"A lash-back?" asked Dick.
"Yes, I have no other name for it in your language. It's a Thanagarian term where your computer AI will immediately attack back against the invader and depending on how advanced your AI is, it could even hack into the hacker's accounts and implant viruses. Your line of offense for your computer, we can say." explained Shayera.
"Sounds brutal." said Barbara as she accepted a bowl of soup from Alfred. To Shayera's embarrassment she felt her stomach give a grumble, reminding her that she has yet to eat.
"Where are my manners? You must be starving miss." said Alfred as he presented to her a bowl of soup and gestured for her to sit down with the others. Shayera felt another wave of shyness creep into her but she quickly squashed it down and sat down to the offered chair, next to Tim.
"How did you get here?" asked Tim. Shayera had already gulped down her soup much to the bemusement of Alfred and the other two youths. As Alfred filled her bowl again with the delicious food, Shayera contemplated how to tell her story. When she drunk her second bowl again she began her tale.
Hey readers! A special thanks to Jexa, magitech, AC333, and lostmoonspell for leaving reviews. They mean a lot to me as a writer to hear different views and opinions. Next chapter hopefully will be up this week. Thanks again :)
