Lieutenant Jordan spun his car sharply to the left. Hawkgirl was up ahead, skimming over the cars on the street. Less than seventy-two hours on Earth and Shayera had already mapped out a large portion of the Midway roads. At least it was easy to spot her. Between the crash and the chase from the other night, Shayera's flight uniform had taken a beating. The dark navy blue had faded from the dirt and there were several spots where the fabric had torn. So she was quite glad to hear that Alice Emmett, the commissioner's wife, would be proud to design a new uniform for the winged avenger. Jordan thought that Mrs. Emmett had been reading too much about Gotham, because the uniform had the same colors as Robin. Or a traffic light. Yellow strapless top, dark green pants, and red boots with a yellow stripe down the middle.
Shayera had received the gift quite graciously. It was lighter in weight than her old uniform—which in turn made it easier to fly in. She took her old belt—it had a hawk-emblem in the center—and her mask and flew off to patrol the skies. Emmett had fixed a radio in the belt so she could hear the dispatch below. A few hours in the air, she could hear Jordan shouting to his men. "Seven Hells, what is with this town and thieves? Oh well." Shayera listened to the radio. The robber had been cornered in an old warehouse, but it could be hours before the police could search everywhere. "With my eyes, I might be able to see something different." She adjusted her wings and flew towards the warehouse, mace gripped in her hand.
* * *
Hawkgirl had an advantage the police didn't. Jordan and his men could only see from the ground up. Oh, they had a police helicopter, but it was controlled by a human that didn't think the way a bird could. Humans tend to spot moving objects or bright colors when looking down. Hawkgirl's eyes were trained to detect more subtle hints—an open door, a light in a window, even the faint waves of heat coming from a car's engine.
So it was no surprise when Hawkgirl spotted these things that she was able to pin down the thief's location. Jordan and his men were in the wrong wing of the building! They'd never find him. "I could fly down and tell Jordan…"
Shayera dismissed the idea. Why share credit with Jordan? He didn't even like her.
Hawkgirl lifted a window in the skylight and quietly flew down to land on some crates. She could hear the thief and smell the thief, but she could not see the thief. Where was he?
BANG!
"Whose there?"
The man was shooting randomly. He must have seen the open skylight and was paranoid. "The angle of those bullets…he's to my left, but there's no way I can get to him without getting shot at." She looked back at the skylight. A crowd of pigeons and sparrows had settled on the edge of window. They were looking in her direction…
BANG!
"I know you're here!"
"Seven Hells!" spat Hawkgirl. She had reverted to speaking in Thanagarian. "I need some sort of distraction—"
Her voice was drowned by the cries of two-dozen birds diving at the robber. He raised his arms upward to shield his face—which meant his gun was pointed away from Hawkgirl! She didn't waste a moment. The mace hit the robber, sending him falling onto the crates on a lower level of the warehouse.
Hawkgirl turned to a sparrow perched on a handlebar. "You can understand me?" she said in Thanagarian.
The bird said nothing. Hawkgirl tried again. She held out her hand. "Perch on my finger." The sparrow did so immediately. "Ah. You don't have a language but you can understand my commands. This could be useful." She looked at the motley flock. They were perched on the pipes above her, waiting for a new command. "Follow me."
Hawkgirl jumped over the handlebar and landed on the crates. She stepped on the gun—its cartridge was empty and was no use to its owner anymore. He was running up a head, carrying a black bag and rushing towards the exit. "Stop him!" she shouted.
Her flock—it was her flock—surrounded the thief and taunted them. They rushed at him and grazed his body. They flapped their wings in his face. They picked at his clothes and hair. "Ah! Get off me!" He dropped the bag and began waving his arms, trying to hit the birds as they flew by.
Hawkgirl rushed at him. She slammed her mace into his shoulder. That may have been a mistake. The thief grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her to the ground. She was so surprised that her mace fell out of her hands and rolled away from her. Behind her mask, Shayera was alarmed. With no updrafts or anything to fly off of, she couldn't get any lift. She would have to fight this on foot.
WHAM!
Hawkgirl wobbled back a few steps. This human outweighed her twofold and was in a rage. He punched her two more times, once in the gut and then upward at the chin. She found herself bleeding from the mouth. The birds, without any new commands, were sitting up in the rafters, watching. In less than thirty seconds, Hawkgirl found herself on the ground, bruised and bleeding. Down below, she could hear Jordan and him men racing up towards them. "Hang on Hawkgirl! We're coming!"
The robber turned his head at the direction of the shouting. Hawkgirl jumped on that opportunity. One solid punch into his jaw, another into the lower back. She kicked at his chest, knocking the wind of the burglar. Another kick hit his temple. She kicked and she punch and she screamed. The scream didn't sound human. But the birds in the rafters understood it and shuddered. It was the sound they all heard right before some great raptor wrapped talons over their necks.
It was a hawk's kill-cry.
Jordan and his team heard it. All of them but Jordan stopped dead in their tracks. He rushed forward and opened the door separating himself from Hawkgirl and her prey. He was shocked to find what he saw.
Hawkgirl had gone berserk. Both she and the robber were bleeding. But Hawkgirl had gone too far. Jordan saw why the thief was on the ground, whimpering. He was crutched in a fetal position, but his arms were held out at awkward angles. Jordan lowered his gun, to disgusted to do anything else.
Hawkgirl had broken his two arms.
* * *
"What did you do to him?" shouted Jordan as the robber was carried into an ambulance.
"Thanagarian justice," was her only reply.