Ah, JSA HQ IV in Battery Park. There's nothing like it...except the Watchtower...which doesn't come until MUCH later.
Inside, there are training arenas. Today, Hawkman has booked one...for the purpose of training the new Big Sir.
Hawkman leaps, and swings his mace. He spreads his wings and shrieks like hell. Some JSA men tell him that his shriek is more terrifying than his mate's. But then, the same people probably say that Superman is a god.
On the ground, Big Sir stands, in a spiked exosuit, defending himself. From his exo-gauntlet, a ball-and-chain flail swings. He tries to take a few swings at Hawkman, between getting his armor attacked.
This sure is nice armor, he thinks. He hates to think that the JSA would rather splinter it in open combat with wizards so dangerous, they make Gellert Grendelwald look like a cheap lady's toy.
At last, Big Sir swings his flail. Hawkman catches it, by the chain, in midair. He beats his wings, lifting Big Sir off the floor. Like a lasso, he swings Big Sir around in circles, and throws him against the wall. Big Sir leaves a dent in it, of course.
He pulls himself out of the wall, and goes back for more. Behind him, a massive crew of the Atom's nanites get to work, repairing the wall...
Here, the two take a break. Hawkman takes off his mask, revealing the face of Carter Hall...a cofounder of the JSA, and a reincarnated royal from the planet Thanagar.
Big Sir's visor vanishes, revealing the face of Jacob Kowalski, a local canner who dreams of bakery. His lover, Queenie, has somehow convinced him to apply for membership into the JSA.
"So this," Kowalski asks, "is how aurors fight dark wizards in your world?!"
Hall shakes his head. "The real thing is MUCH worse. Most of our enemies don't know the meaning of the word 'mercy.' We, in the JSA, are required by bylaws to know BOTH meanings of it." He almost laughs; can't, because he's panting. "Huntress once got kicked off the team because she didn't."
"Well I'm sure glad to hear that. When I first fell for Queenie, I confess I had nightmares about her becoming a dark witch. So you can imagine how freaked out I was, when Grendelwald subdued her. Thankfully, I still had good ole Newt and Tina to rely on...and Newt's 'Fantastic Beasts.' Much, I adore over half of them. Some are also, scary, but... Yeah, after that, I could tell that Newt and Tina weren't the same. Nobody was. Grendelwald was a terror, for sure."
"I'm worried you're not putting enough effort into this," Hall laments. "Most men aren't this hyperverbal after a fight."
"I thought you said you were from another world!"
Hall gapes, and gestures towards his chest muscles, and six-pack abs. "Do I look gender-neutral to you?!"
Kowalski shakes his head. "Never mind. It's just that... Fighting is SO much different from baking."
"Well in that case, I encourage you to try to find ways to integrate your baking ambition into your fighting technique. You never know." He winks. "You might slay more Dominators that way."
Kowalski raises his brows. "D-Dominators?!"
Hall shakes his head, and gets up. "Forget it." He puts his mask back on. "Let's go again. You're clearly more ready for another round than I am."
Hall takes up his mace. Kowalski lowers his visor, and swings his flail. Before long, they're at it again. At some point, Big Sir even punches Hawkman into the other wall, same as he did him last time.
In a kitchen, through a glass wall, Queenie Goldstein watches the two fight, as she cooks. She smiles, deviously reads their thoughts...when she can, and fixes food the way she knows her Jacob likes it. Carter, OTOH, is going to be a bigger challenge, seeing as Queenie doesn't know him as well...although she does subtly confess attraction to him.
In that case, it's just a good thing that QUEENIE'S the legilimens in this outfit. Alas, she's got a creepy feeling that that creepy JSA member, with the bug eyes and green skin, the one they call "Martian Manhunter," already knows her deepest darkest secrets better than Tina never found out, back when they were little witches being raised by the simple New Yorker domestic life...as good as it gets for New Yorker wizardry.
For some reason, Queenie's had trouble reading the men's thoughts, as they fight. She's starting to think that men don't think much, when they fight... That makes sense. They sure don't TALK much...
Cooking with her, Kendra Saunders loses control, as she continually makes noise, by chopping things with knives and cleavers. Queenie can tell that she'd rather be fighting. But of course, Queenie KNOWS. She tries not to read Kendra's thoughts, but...sometimes she just can't help herself.
"You can go and fight them," Queenie offers, "if you're..."
"I'm fine," Kendra spits, shortly. She lifts the cutting board, and swipes what she's diced into a stainless steel pot. "I'm just out of practice. On Thanagar, we have pubs for this sort of shit."
"I take it that they don't cook much, in your world?"
"I wouldn't know. My ancestors lived on Thanagar; not me. They were dead long before they could tell me about it. And I do mean that. My predecessor was dead before I came along. That's...kind of how I did."
"Sounds horrible."
Kendra scoffs. "I've seen bimbos get raised by their parents. I've seen how traumatic it can be for some of them. Personally, I prefer trauma where I'm treated as an equal...and not some inferior creature under a scary man's boot."
"I shrunk a boy once, when I was a girl. He never spoke to me again after that. But then, he couldn't afterwards. The Ministry found him, and modified his memory."
"Here, we've got a hero who can shrink himself. His name's Al Pratt. We call him the Atom. I've slept with him...ten times."
Queenie studies her, with a critical eye.
Kendra takes a break, and sighs. "We both thought that Carter was dead at the time." She swipes some more chopped goods into the same pot.
"Sounds horrible. My Jacob must've thought the same thing about me, back when Grendelwald had me under his control."
"I was under a Dominator's control, once. It was a shitty experience. And I do mean that."
Outside, the men keep fighting. Big Sir just might be getting the hang of this...
Queenie giggles. "You know, I like my no-maj man a lot. But sadly, EVERY wizard knows that the greatest wizard of all time is Albus Dumbledore."
"Oh yeah?" Kendra swipes more chopped goods into the pot. "Well... The greatest HERO in the universe...is my Hawkman."
Queenie turns her head...and stares at Kendra. "HAWKWASH!" She giggles.
Kendra sighs. She turns around, and starts to walk away...
Alas, she shrieks, conjures her mace, spreads her wings, and swings her mace...decapitating Queenie.
In the arena, both Hawkman and Big Sir stop fighting, and look. Carter removes his mask, and Jacob removes his visor. They're gaping.
Queenie's body stands for a bit. Her neck hole is like a red-gushing geyser. Her body falls down, like a tree trunk.
Hawkgirl closes her eyes, and tries to rest. This is hard for her...but sometimes, Hawkgirl MUST act.
"Ah," she sighs, scratching her nose with her bare arm. "NOBODY slanders my Hawkman!"
Around her, a strange wind blows. Hawkgirl opens her eyes, and looks around.
She's standing on a vacant basketball court. The kitchen is nowhere to be seen. Neither is the arena. Jacob and Carter are standing nearby, dressed in no-maj clothes.
Queenie's there, too...still alive. She giggles.
"You're still alive?! How...?!"
Queenie raises her finger, and points at her own head. She winks, and giggles.
Kendra sighs. "Right. You're a legilimens. You can read minds AND cast illusions."
"As I said," Queenie smiles, "HAWKWASH."
Kendra loses control again, shrieks, spreads her wings, raises her mace, and attacks Queenie again. Queenie teleports out of range, each and every time. For many hours that follow, Queenie repeats this behavior...but only because Carter's badly-behaved mate can't keep her own maternal instinct tucked in.
Nearby, Jacob seems concerned. "Should we do something? Your mate seems dangerous, when she's like that."
Carter shakes his head. "She's always doing that. That's the first time someone's ever duped her into thinking she's decapitated somebody, though. J'onn J'onzz sometimes jokes about it...if you can imagine that...but he's never actually done it." He chuckles. "J'onzz might actually trust her more than he does me!"
Jacob gives Carter a worried look.
"But don't worry about it, bro." Carter slaps him on the back. "I can tell that you're a good guy. No hard feelings."
Jacob shakes his head. "I just hope Big Sir is ready, the next time the world needs defending."
"It always needs defending. And we're never ready. But hopefully, as soon as your membership into the JSA is approved, you'll get used to that."
In the court, Kendra keeps chasing Queenie. As bimbo-like as Queenie is, she sure seems to maintain a sore advantage over Kendra...which is only merited by Kendra's mindlessness...and not to mention the number of deadly spikes on that mace.
"Before Newt came along," Jacob recounts, "I never thought I would. Although I'd be partly lying, if I said I never dreamed of it."