Episode 02
Earth
Chapter Five
The night air was still and cool, which made her flight quite pleasant, a little too pleasant in fact. After ten minutes into the patrol, she struggled to keep her mind focused. It was a rather mundane night, with absolutely nothing of interest below. In fact, she would call it boring and pointless.
Her eyes scoured the streets and rooftops. There was a lot of traffic and as she went deeper into the city, the smell of pollution became disgustingly clear in the air. It was almost enough to ruin her night. Almost.
Right now, she was heading towards the inner city. From there she would fly over Slumville, before heading to the industrial district. Then her route doubled back and took her over the inner city once again.
The inner city was bristling with lights, which made it both easier and harder for her to see at the same time. Seeing what was on street-level was easy, seeing the rooftops was harder, due to all the light pollution.
Shayera passed over the inner city and didn't notice anything of worth. She did see a small group of men harassing another man, but she wasn't interested in getting involved with such mundane things. She wanted a real threat, a real challenge.
Slumville was a different matter altogether. Even while still in the downtown district, she could hear the sounds of weapons fire.
She altered course, heading towards the source of the sounds. As she flew over she saw it. Men in a dark sedan were being chased by a yellow car and they were shooting behind them.
The car in front swerved as a blue car came speeding out of a junction and the black car left the road and hit a brick wall. The men in the blue car ignored the dark sedan and opened fire on the yellow car. Then from behind, two more yellow cars showed up, men jumping out with bats and guns.
It looked dangerous, and Shayera knew that if she got involved, that she could easily be risking her life. Yet this was exactly what she had been waiting for, what she needed to make her feel alive.
From her vantage point, she could see the two groups on opposing sides of the road. On one side there were men dressed in blue like their cars, on the other were men and women dressed in yellow and purple like their vehicles.
The ones in the neutral dark clothes that had crashed their car had better weapons, but they quickly retreated. The ones in the brighter colours seemed to only be interested in each other. At first glance, it almost seemed like the dark clothed men had led those in yellow and purple here in order to get them to fight with the ones in blue. But for what reason would they do that?
She circled overhead, thinking through her method of attack. Then on the wind, she heard police sirens and they were getting closer.
Both sides dived for cover as they began to open fire on each other. Shayera wondered if she should intervene or simply let them take each other out.
That decision became much easier when the police vans started to arrive, and the heavily armed and armoured SWAT began streaming out, along with riot police.
Both sides began to disperse, focusing on escaping the cops, rather than continuing their gun battle. That's when Shayera made her move. She folded her wings back and swooped in, focusing on a group of the blue-dressed men, who were running to a getaway car.
Before they knew what was happening, she had caved in the front of the car they'd hoped to escape in. She landed on its roof, mace firmly in hand.
"What's that!?" one of them shouted, as they all halted in their tracks.
"Just shoot it."
They raised their weapons and began to fire. Unfortunately for them, she had already launched herself into the air and had flown behind them.
She kicked one in the back of the head, knocking him down before she swung her uncharged mace at another's head. Even though she hadn't put much power into the swing, it was enough to knock him into the man standing next to him, sending both crashing to the ground. Bullets continued to fly from their automatic weapons as they fell, the thought of cushioning their fall was seemingly more important to them, than releasing the triggers.
The fourth decided not to take any chances of accidental being struck by his comrades, as the car and wall were chewed up by their uncontrolled gunfire. He also decided that he didn't want any further confrontation with their attacker, so he bolted.
After a moment on the ground, the bullets stopped coming. Shayera easily pulled their weapons free of their grips, before taking off into the sky in pursuit of the runner, the two rifles tucked under her left arm.
She discarded them onto the flat roof of a two-story building, before swooping in and knocking down the fourth blue man, taking his weapon off of him also.
After discarding the weapon in the same place, she smashed them with her mace. Taking to the skies once more, she saw that the police were not only pushing forward but had started to arrest those that had laid down their weapons. Others were trying to flee, but Shayera decided to put a stop to that.
Unfortunately, the police had also noticed her and calls for her to stop were issued out over a loud speaker. The Thanagarian chose to ignore it and continued her pursuit of the fleeing criminals in yellow and purple.
By now, helicopters were swirling around in the air. Spotlights kept falling on her, often obscuring her sight, which was annoying and frustrating.
As she swooped low, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. A police officer had been separated from the others and three men had him surrounded in an area behind a cluster of abandoned buildings. They weren't shooting him, but rather beating him into submission.
Shayera felt disgusted. More at the cop for being overrun and allowing himself to get into such a predicament, than the criminals for dishing out the punishment. She put her feelings aside, as she altered her approach. She landed behind the three, who now had the officer on the floor, their fists and feet continuing to both punch and kick him.
After holstering her mace, she grabbed the one in the middle, by the back of his yellow t-shirt. She then literally threw him to the side, right into a pile of discarded garbage.
The other two rose up instantly. They had been expecting her to be another cop. They were sorely mistaken.
"What are you!?"
She punched the one who'd spoken in the face and he went down without even a whimper. It had been an instant knockout. The other one was a little more dexterous. He dodged her attack and delivered one of his own, which she easily blocked. Gripping his forearm, she twisted. There was a crack and he screamed out.
The one she had thrown to the side was back up on his feet at that point. He swung his pistol at her in order to club her with it, which meant that he was either out of bullets, or the guy didn't want to murder someone in front of a cop. She stepped back avoiding his swipes, before kicking his legs out from under him.
He cracked his head against the hard ground and cried out, holding the side of his face. The other one scrambled to his feet, raising his pistol at her.
Her mace was in her hand in an instant. She swung her weapon up under his right armpit, which held the gun and dislocated his shoulder. The gun flew out of his hand, but not before letting off a shot, which went wide. He cried out in pain, clutching his right shoulder.
By now, the cop had slowly risen to his feet. Shayera looked at the three before her. The one with the dislocated arm tried to flee, but she grabbed a-hold of his right arm, causing him to stop and cry out in pain.
Shayera turned around to face the cop, pulling the whimpering man around with her. "You have handcuffs?"
He stared at her for a few moments. "Yeah, a few," he said with a nod.
"Then stop being idle and use them."
"On them?" he asked.
She glared at him from behind her mask. "Do you have brain damage?"
Without further discussion, he cuffed the two that were unconscious, before slowly approaching the one Shayera had hold of.
That's when more cops came around the corner from behind the building. Without further thought, Shayera threw the man she was holding to the ground and took to the skies, avoiding probable arrest herself. Or rather attempted arrest. There was no way these incompetent idiots would be able to subdue her.
The law seemed to have the situation mostly in hand now and with more police arriving in the area, she decided it was time to for her to depart, lest they turn more of their attention on to her.
She focused on the helicopters for a moment. There were two. One had the markings of the police department, the other had the letters MCN strewn across it and someone with what looked like a large recording device on his shoulder, was sat there strapped in a seat, pointing it at her. She guessed MCN meant Midway City News.
Deciding to ignore them, she flew on, continuing north on her patrol route into the industrial district. It was then that she noticed that the police helicopter was following her, the news one not too far behind.
Shayera swept her wings back and dropped altitude, while also gaining speed. She went between two tall thin chimneys. Her lungs were assaulted by the toxic smoke and she began to cough.
"Disgusting," she muttered under her breath, once she had cleared her lungs.
Deciding that she didn't want to venture any further into the pollution ridden area of the city, she turned around and flew the opposite direction.
The helicopters banked as she went past them, on her flight back towards the inner city. It was her hope, that if she was fast enough and low enough, then she'd be able to lose them between the tall buildings.
The plan worked. By staying low and weaving in and out of the skyscrapers, she lost them. Trained as she was, she didn't head straight back to her safehouse. Instead, she headed west, before heading north. She then slowly turned in a giant arch, till she was heading south, back to Alison's house.
As she flew she had a feeling that something about that black car that led the yellow cars to Slumville was not quite right. Had they led them there on purpose? If so, for what reason? She hadn't seen where the men in the dark suits had gone, but they had left pretty quickly after crashing their vehicle.
Maybe she was seeing things that weren't there. It could have been as simple as those in the black car knew that those in yellow were enemies of those in blue and had simply led them there in order to evade them.
She put the thoughts out of her mind as she approached Hawk Valley.
Alison Kramer was exhausted. The long hours over the last few days was really starting to wear her down now, but there was light at the end of the tunnel.
The main cause was the sheer amount of civilians who had been caught in the crossfire when the Bandino and Panessa families had had a shootout. Of course, officially it wasn't them as there was little to no evidence that those involved were associated with either.
Everyone knew they were members of those two crime organisations, but without the evidence, there was little they could do. Bandino had been on the watch-list for years, decades even. Before her husband died, he had been the boss, but now Janice Bandino was and she was far more discreet and careful. Or she had been before the Panessa family had turned up in the city.
That had changed everything. No longer was Bandino the obvious hierarchy of crime. After all, the two Slumville gangs had no way of competing. They just didn't have the resources.
One of Alison's many patients, a young woman of about eighteen, sat on the bed while Alison watched the nurse take her blood pressure. She didn't need to be here for that, but the woman was due to be released.
The nurse removed the band from the woman's arm and nodded to the doctor before moving off. Alison smiled.
"We've been in contact with your parents and informed them that you're being released," she told her.
The girl's eyes lit up. "I am."
"Yes, they said they should be here in the next thirty minutes."
"That's great."
"The nurse should be back shortly," Alison told her. "She'll see to everything."
Alison moved off out into the corridor and continued on to the next patient on her list, which was just down the corridor. As she went around a corner, she saw something unexpected. A nurse was lying on the floor. She rushed over and knelt down. The woman had a pulse but was unconscious. That meant one of two things could have happened. Either she tripped and fell, or.
Something cold and hard pressed against the back of her neck.
A voice spoke. "Alright, doc, no sudden movements."
Slowly she raised her hands.
"Stand up."
She did so, her legs shaking beneath her.
"Hold it!" another voice called out.
Suddenly she was grabbed roughly and spun around, the gun pressed hard against the side of her head. Stood in front was a cop, pointing his gun.
"Stay back, or she dies."
"Let the girl go."
Alison began to feel dizzy. The whole situation was surreal to her. Was this really happening? She felt numb, distant as if she was watching the events unfold on TV.
"Let the girl go," the cop repeated.
Alison gasped as the gun dug painfully into the side of her head. "I'll drop her if ya don't step back."
The cop flexed his trigger finger. "That's not an option. Give it up."
She watched as a man in a dark suit stepped up behind the cop and raised his pistol. He struck the officer hard in the back of his head, knocking the man to the floor unconscious.
The newcomer glared at the man holding her. "The cops 'ave been alerted, we're having to seal off the floor."
"Whatta we do?"
"We take these two and put 'em with the others an' hold 'em there till we find a way outta this mess."
Alison found herself being pushed forward. "Walk."
She did so, terrified about what was going to happen to her.
Not a moment after she returned had she turned on the television to see what the news had to say about tonight's gang war and her involvement.
Much to her surprise it didn't. Instead, it was saying something quite different.
"Hostage situation at the Midway City General Hospital," the man on the television said. "We have received news that there has been an incident at the hospital. We're as of yet unsure what has occurred, but the police have surrounded the building."
Shayera leant forwards on the sofa with interest. Alison worked at the hospital as a doctor. Or at least that's what the human woman had told her.
The news anchor continued. "From what little information we have been able to gather, it appears that some hospital staff is being held hostage. Police are still dealing with a gang war that erupted between the east and west side of Slumville earlier this evening, which means police resources are stretched thin."
Shayera turned off the television. The question was what did she do? There was no doubt that Alison had helped her when she could have just left her. She had allowed her to stay in her home when she could have demanded she left once she had awoken and especially after her initial hostility. Alison could have also called the authorities on her, but she hadn't.
Whether she liked it or not, she owed Alison a lot and if she was in danger, then she had to help her.
Shayera stood up and left the living room and headed to the base of the stairs.
"Lolita!" she called up loudly.
She waited while the young human stepped up to the landing at the top of the stairs.
"What?" the timid voice of the human girl asked.
"I need to head out, lock the back door behind me."
Lolita came down the stairs without saying anything. Shayera thought about telling her about what had happened at the hospital but decided against it.
The two of them moved over to the back door and Shayera stepped out into the night. With the door locked behind her, she took to the sky and headed towards the city.
If Alison was in danger then it was her duty to help her. She didn't like owing people anything and this was her chance to pay it back.
