CHAPTER 3 of 7
The night was spent flying. It was the only time she felt somewhat safe above the tree line. When dawn broke on the horizon, Shayera landed. By her estimation, she was a few miles outside of Central City.
She knelt next to a small stream and splashed water on her face. The area seemed secluded enough that she could spend the day undetected. She would continue south in the evening.
Cupping her hands, she took a drink from the clear water, enjoying the coolness of it as it trickled down her throat. Flying for extended periods of time took a lot out of her, especially since she was no longer in the habit of regularly replenishing her energy reserves. Her heart still pounded from the excessive speed she pushed herself to and her wings ached from prolonged use.
And, damn, but did she wish for a shower. She looked down at her clothes and decided she also needed a laundromat. Unfortunately, both were luxuries she no longer had. Perhaps a waterfall could be found downstream after a quick nap. It would suffice as both shower and washing machine.
Rocking back on her heels, Shayera yawned. Sleep definitely was calling first. She crawled a few feet away from the stream and flopped on her stomach. Adjusting her arms and wings to serve as pillows and blankets, she settled in for some shut-eye.
The silence of the forest was shattered seconds later by distant screams.
Shayera's head snapped up as she listened for the shouts again. A gentle breeze carried the sounds of human cries and heavy, clanking thuds.
Without conscious thought, Shayera took to the air and caught an updraft. She hung high above the treetops, her sharp eyesight zeroing in on the affected area. A construction site on the outskirts of Central City was her target. Something large and silver was moving around fast, sending people scattering before it.
Her mind screamed "trouble," and she took off, not bothering to think about the implications of her actions.
In seconds, she arrived on the scene, landing amidst the fleeing workers. She was shoved aside unnoticed as the frantic people attempted to escape their follower.
Behind them a fifty-foot robot rampaged closer, the hydraulics in its limbs hissing angrily. Its arms flailed, crashing through metal as though it was balsa wood. With reflexes that seemed cat-like, the robot picked up objects and splintered them in its claws.
Without her mace Shayera was little more than determination and flight. So she did something she almost never did. Shayera assessed the situation.
Surrounding the area was a fifteen-foot tall metal fence topped with barbed wire. The only gate was across the yard, behind the robot. To get past the robot would be impossible for someone on the ground. The machine's arms were too quick and random in movement to time an escape.
A glance backward to count the number of workers and she realized there'd be no way she could fly them out one by one. Over thirty workers were bunched behind her, screaming for help, trying unsuccessfully to scale the wall.
Shayera watched as the berserk robot approached, then stopped. The monster turned its head from one side to the other, almost as though it was confused.
Realization dawned and Shayera instantly understood how the robot worked. It was attracted to movement, and the crowd was giving it too many targets to focus on. The distraction could work to her advantage, she decided.
She could be the bait to draw the robot away.
Crouching, she prepared to take off. Her wings weren't even unfolded when a desperate worker shoved her to the ground as he made a run for the gate.
"No!" she yelled, grabbing unsuccessfully for him.
Immediately he was snapped up in the robot's clamp-like hand. It didn't take super-powers to hear the crushing of the worker's body. He was unceremoniously dropped to the ground and the monster again turned its attention back in the direction of the remaining workers.
Again, the robot's head turned from side to side.
Only this time, Shayera surmised, it was searching for motion. The inaction of the group momentarily puzzled the menace. She quickly rose to her feet and leapt into the air.
Unfortunately, the frightened crowd, having been shocked by the death of their friend, refused to remain still. The men and women took up arms, pitching anything they could find at the metal monster.
"Stop moving!" she hollered uselessly to the crowd. "Damn," she hissed to herself as the robot easily repelled the attack.
She grabbed the nearest worker by the arms and lifted her from the ground. If she was pressed to save them one at a time, she would. Depositing the worker a block away, she swooped back to the construction site and repeated the action.
With each subsequent trip the scene grew worse. She'd only managed to snag five workers, but many more remained; many of them injured by flying debris.
Shaking her head at the dismal panorama, Shayera reached for another worker.
"Hawkgirl!" a familiar and welcome voice called.
Her head snapped up to see the Flash smiling crookedly at her.
"Need some help?" he questioned, taking the nearest person in his arms, dashing away and returning empty handed before she could answer.
"Yes, actually, I do," she said seriously, lifting another man from the ground to safety.
"I've got back-up on the way," Flash announced happily.
The two former teammates then set to work in tandem removing people as the robot tried to chase them down with each action.
Only one worker remained when the monster got a lucky blow in, sending a pile of I-beams flying. One of the beams crashed into Flash from behind, knocking him violently into a stack of two-by-fours. The speedster attempted to stand, but immediately fell back over, his head in his hands.
"Flash!" Shayera yelled from the air. She started downward toward her friend, but pulled up short, spotting the final worker trapped under a fallen I-beam.
Since Flash wasn't moving and the construction worker was shoving desperately at the immobile beam across his shins, Shayera knew which person the robot would be attracted to. She changed directions immediately.
The worker yanked at his useless legs, screaming in pain as his crushed bones moved under the weight of the beam. He started digging at the ground next to his knees, tears streaking his cheeks.
The robot, drawn to his flailing movements, stepped toward him.
Shayera landed between the metal monster and the man. "Stop moving!" she ordered. "It reacts to motion!"
The worker looked up. As she approached his eyes widened in horror. "Noooooo!" he cried, frantically returning to his digging.
Shayera crouched next to the worker's legs. "Hold still," she ordered again, her green eyes boring into his brown ones.
The man's jaw quivered and she easily read the terror in his expression. Quickly, she checked behind her, thinking the robot was closer than she thought. No, it was still a few yards away. She turned back to the worker, who again had returned to his struggle for freedom.
She reached out and gripped his shoulder, hard. "I said, stop moving."
The man yelped as her talon-like fingers clamped him. He raised both hands in surrender and bowed his head, not looking at her. "Don't hurt me," he begged, his voice cracking. "Please...don't hurt me."
Shayera's grip relaxed in confusion. "What? Why would I...?"
"You're one of them," he cried. "One of those monsters that killed my brother!"
Shayera's frozen heart shattered into jagged shards and she could only stare at the man.
The nameless masses suddenly had a face.
Every person -- be it Earthling or Thanagarian -- who was or would be injured or killed, every family that had suffered or would suffer a loss was singularly her fault.
"Leave me alone!" the man again begged. "Please!"
Her fingers slid from his shoulder and she lowered her head. "I'm sorry," she whispered, knowing nothing she could ever say would be good enough.
The man stopped his struggle for only a second to actually look her in the eyes. She noted his confusion and apprehension with a feeling of true regret.
"I'll get you out of here," she said, her hand coming to rest on the I-beam crushing the man's legs. She shifted position and heaved the huge iron beam a few feet away.
Freed, the man stared at her in disbelief. She grabbed his shoulders and moved to pick him up.
"Look out!" he yelled, pointing behind her.
Shayera turned only to find herself swiftly engulfed in the robot's contracting claw.
"Flash!" she yelled, her feet involuntarily rising from the ground. "Get him out of here!"
Across the construction yard, Flash shook his head.
As Shayera was hoisted upward, the injured worker pulled himself away from the scene as fast as he could. Suddenly, Flash was there, scooping the man into his arms.
"I'll be right back!" he called up to her. "Hang on!"
Shayera instinctively fought against the robot's iron grip. She shoved her hands between the two collapsing sides and used all her strength to try to leaver the claw back open just enough to slip through the ever-tightening hold.
The first snapping sound seemed distant, as though it was behind her somewhere. The second and third were louder, only they were accompanied by shooting pain in both of her wings.
Cracking mingled with crunching as the pain in her wings turned to shocking agony throughout her entire torso. Her grip on the robot faltered, releasing the meager resistance the she posed.
Flash returned to the construction site just as Shayera screamed.
"No!" Flash yelled, running at top speed to the robot's leg.
Battling for consciousness against the unending tightening, Shayera could only watch as Flash desperately searched for anything he could to stop the metal monster. She noted in an oddly distracted way that pieces of the robot were flying through the air. Access panels, wires and various bits of metal clattered against the ground.
As she hung limply in the robot's grip, she noticed the crushing pressure finally relaxed a bit and that the monster's once-efficient movements were now sluggish. A shower of sparks came from above her, and unexpectedly the grip around her chest released.
She collapsed with a dull thud against the dirt.
"Hawkgirl!" Flash shouted.
Dazed, Shayera cracked her eyes open to find Flash staring down at her from the shoulder of the partially immobilized robot. She attempted to draw a breath only to feel pain stabbing through her. She coughed, winced, then tasted blood in her mouth. "Shit," she exhaled.
Flash was suddenly at her side. "We've gotta get out of here. I slowed it down, but I can't stop it," he explained, his attention obviously divided between the slowly approaching robot and his unmoving friend. "Can you get up at all?" he questioned, the worry in his voice clear.
It wasn't right, she thought, for someone to be concerned for her when she'd betrayed so many. The construction worker was correct. She was to be feared, not helped.
Flash gingerly placed his hand on her shoulder. "Hawkg--"
Metal impacted flesh and Flash was tossed through the air into the same pile of lumber he'd crashed into earlier. This time the unexpected impact rendered him unconscious.
The robot followed the path of the last movement it saw and lumbered past Shayera toward Flash.
"No," she whispered, "leave him alone." Her eyes slipped shut as haziness clouded her vision.
Shayera knew the world hated her. She'd read plenty of articles and met enough angry people to know that. She also knew within a matter of minutes she'd be getting the end she so justly deserved, an end that millions of people on two different planets wished upon her.
She wouldn't fight it.
But she would fight to save one more person. A person she once called friend. She'd take care of that damn robot once and for all.
With determination, she gulped in air, pushing her agony away. Wrapping her left arm around her crushed ribs, she forced herself to her knees. Breathless, she scanned the area with blurry eyes. If she'd only had her mace she could short circuit the hulking monster in one strike. But that wasn't an option. Nor was using force given her current condition. So she'd have to get creative.
Looking to the left, she saw a gasoline truck. Would fire be enough? Could she get the robot close enough to melt it?
Glancing upward, Shayera found her salvation. About thirty feet in the air a single high-tension power line ran across the construction site from a nearby sub-station to the unfinished building. It would be perfect. For the first time in months, she smiled.
Fighting against lack of oxygen and murderous pain, Shayera rose to her feet. Dragging her broken wings behind her, she slowly made her way to the valves on the gasoline truck. Normally, she would have simply bashed a hole in the side of tanker; but with her injuries, it was all she could manage to turn the spigot.
Finally, gasoline gushed from the tanker, spreading over the ground, pooling beneath her feet. She smiled and gulped for air again. Her eyes traveled upward to the power line. The robot lumbered closer to Flash, clearly trying to locate its prey.
"Hey, scrap yard!" Shayera yelled, causing herself to cough. Spitting away the resulting blood, she continued to taunt the robot. "Over here!" She waved in the air, trying to make as much motion as possible to catch the robot's attention. Each motion pulled on her ribs and sent shocks of pain throughout her whole body. But it didn't matter how much it hurt, she reasoned. It would soon be over.
The robot's head slowly turned toward her. It paused then turned its body in the same direction. She could see it was now focused only on her.
"That's it, you waste of metal," Shayera wheezed, "come get me." She stood her ground, two inches deep in gasoline. Her eyes darted up to the power line once again. It had to work.
The robot's only working arm raised and its clamp-like hand spread open. It stepped into the puddle of fuel, splashing its way forward.
Shayera spit another mouthful of blood to the ground. "Come on! You're almost there." This time her breath was nearly impossible to catch.
The robot's arm lowered toward her. Inch by slow inch, it approached the power line.
Metal made contact, the circuit was completed and sparks flew. Electrical current surged through the robot.
Shayera Hol drew as deep a breath as her crushed ribs would allow and yelled a final battle cry as the sparks ignited the gasoline.
Flames spread.
The robot fell with a thundering crash to the ground.
The tanker exploded.
Shayera blew backwards and smashed through the metal fence. Her limp, useless body skidded across the pavement, slamming to an abrupt halt against a brick building across the street.
To Be Continued...
The night was spent flying. It was the only time she felt somewhat safe above the tree line. When dawn broke on the horizon, Shayera landed. By her estimation, she was a few miles outside of Central City.
She knelt next to a small stream and splashed water on her face. The area seemed secluded enough that she could spend the day undetected. She would continue south in the evening.
Cupping her hands, she took a drink from the clear water, enjoying the coolness of it as it trickled down her throat. Flying for extended periods of time took a lot out of her, especially since she was no longer in the habit of regularly replenishing her energy reserves. Her heart still pounded from the excessive speed she pushed herself to and her wings ached from prolonged use.
And, damn, but did she wish for a shower. She looked down at her clothes and decided she also needed a laundromat. Unfortunately, both were luxuries she no longer had. Perhaps a waterfall could be found downstream after a quick nap. It would suffice as both shower and washing machine.
Rocking back on her heels, Shayera yawned. Sleep definitely was calling first. She crawled a few feet away from the stream and flopped on her stomach. Adjusting her arms and wings to serve as pillows and blankets, she settled in for some shut-eye.
The silence of the forest was shattered seconds later by distant screams.
Shayera's head snapped up as she listened for the shouts again. A gentle breeze carried the sounds of human cries and heavy, clanking thuds.
Without conscious thought, Shayera took to the air and caught an updraft. She hung high above the treetops, her sharp eyesight zeroing in on the affected area. A construction site on the outskirts of Central City was her target. Something large and silver was moving around fast, sending people scattering before it.
Her mind screamed "trouble," and she took off, not bothering to think about the implications of her actions.
In seconds, she arrived on the scene, landing amidst the fleeing workers. She was shoved aside unnoticed as the frantic people attempted to escape their follower.
Behind them a fifty-foot robot rampaged closer, the hydraulics in its limbs hissing angrily. Its arms flailed, crashing through metal as though it was balsa wood. With reflexes that seemed cat-like, the robot picked up objects and splintered them in its claws.
Without her mace Shayera was little more than determination and flight. So she did something she almost never did. Shayera assessed the situation.
Surrounding the area was a fifteen-foot tall metal fence topped with barbed wire. The only gate was across the yard, behind the robot. To get past the robot would be impossible for someone on the ground. The machine's arms were too quick and random in movement to time an escape.
A glance backward to count the number of workers and she realized there'd be no way she could fly them out one by one. Over thirty workers were bunched behind her, screaming for help, trying unsuccessfully to scale the wall.
Shayera watched as the berserk robot approached, then stopped. The monster turned its head from one side to the other, almost as though it was confused.
Realization dawned and Shayera instantly understood how the robot worked. It was attracted to movement, and the crowd was giving it too many targets to focus on. The distraction could work to her advantage, she decided.
She could be the bait to draw the robot away.
Crouching, she prepared to take off. Her wings weren't even unfolded when a desperate worker shoved her to the ground as he made a run for the gate.
"No!" she yelled, grabbing unsuccessfully for him.
Immediately he was snapped up in the robot's clamp-like hand. It didn't take super-powers to hear the crushing of the worker's body. He was unceremoniously dropped to the ground and the monster again turned its attention back in the direction of the remaining workers.
Again, the robot's head turned from side to side.
Only this time, Shayera surmised, it was searching for motion. The inaction of the group momentarily puzzled the menace. She quickly rose to her feet and leapt into the air.
Unfortunately, the frightened crowd, having been shocked by the death of their friend, refused to remain still. The men and women took up arms, pitching anything they could find at the metal monster.
"Stop moving!" she hollered uselessly to the crowd. "Damn," she hissed to herself as the robot easily repelled the attack.
She grabbed the nearest worker by the arms and lifted her from the ground. If she was pressed to save them one at a time, she would. Depositing the worker a block away, she swooped back to the construction site and repeated the action.
With each subsequent trip the scene grew worse. She'd only managed to snag five workers, but many more remained; many of them injured by flying debris.
Shaking her head at the dismal panorama, Shayera reached for another worker.
"Hawkgirl!" a familiar and welcome voice called.
Her head snapped up to see the Flash smiling crookedly at her.
"Need some help?" he questioned, taking the nearest person in his arms, dashing away and returning empty handed before she could answer.
"Yes, actually, I do," she said seriously, lifting another man from the ground to safety.
"I've got back-up on the way," Flash announced happily.
The two former teammates then set to work in tandem removing people as the robot tried to chase them down with each action.
Only one worker remained when the monster got a lucky blow in, sending a pile of I-beams flying. One of the beams crashed into Flash from behind, knocking him violently into a stack of two-by-fours. The speedster attempted to stand, but immediately fell back over, his head in his hands.
"Flash!" Shayera yelled from the air. She started downward toward her friend, but pulled up short, spotting the final worker trapped under a fallen I-beam.
Since Flash wasn't moving and the construction worker was shoving desperately at the immobile beam across his shins, Shayera knew which person the robot would be attracted to. She changed directions immediately.
The worker yanked at his useless legs, screaming in pain as his crushed bones moved under the weight of the beam. He started digging at the ground next to his knees, tears streaking his cheeks.
The robot, drawn to his flailing movements, stepped toward him.
Shayera landed between the metal monster and the man. "Stop moving!" she ordered. "It reacts to motion!"
The worker looked up. As she approached his eyes widened in horror. "Noooooo!" he cried, frantically returning to his digging.
Shayera crouched next to the worker's legs. "Hold still," she ordered again, her green eyes boring into his brown ones.
The man's jaw quivered and she easily read the terror in his expression. Quickly, she checked behind her, thinking the robot was closer than she thought. No, it was still a few yards away. She turned back to the worker, who again had returned to his struggle for freedom.
She reached out and gripped his shoulder, hard. "I said, stop moving."
The man yelped as her talon-like fingers clamped him. He raised both hands in surrender and bowed his head, not looking at her. "Don't hurt me," he begged, his voice cracking. "Please...don't hurt me."
Shayera's grip relaxed in confusion. "What? Why would I...?"
"You're one of them," he cried. "One of those monsters that killed my brother!"
Shayera's frozen heart shattered into jagged shards and she could only stare at the man.
The nameless masses suddenly had a face.
Every person -- be it Earthling or Thanagarian -- who was or would be injured or killed, every family that had suffered or would suffer a loss was singularly her fault.
"Leave me alone!" the man again begged. "Please!"
Her fingers slid from his shoulder and she lowered her head. "I'm sorry," she whispered, knowing nothing she could ever say would be good enough.
The man stopped his struggle for only a second to actually look her in the eyes. She noted his confusion and apprehension with a feeling of true regret.
"I'll get you out of here," she said, her hand coming to rest on the I-beam crushing the man's legs. She shifted position and heaved the huge iron beam a few feet away.
Freed, the man stared at her in disbelief. She grabbed his shoulders and moved to pick him up.
"Look out!" he yelled, pointing behind her.
Shayera turned only to find herself swiftly engulfed in the robot's contracting claw.
"Flash!" she yelled, her feet involuntarily rising from the ground. "Get him out of here!"
Across the construction yard, Flash shook his head.
As Shayera was hoisted upward, the injured worker pulled himself away from the scene as fast as he could. Suddenly, Flash was there, scooping the man into his arms.
"I'll be right back!" he called up to her. "Hang on!"
Shayera instinctively fought against the robot's iron grip. She shoved her hands between the two collapsing sides and used all her strength to try to leaver the claw back open just enough to slip through the ever-tightening hold.
The first snapping sound seemed distant, as though it was behind her somewhere. The second and third were louder, only they were accompanied by shooting pain in both of her wings.
Cracking mingled with crunching as the pain in her wings turned to shocking agony throughout her entire torso. Her grip on the robot faltered, releasing the meager resistance the she posed.
Flash returned to the construction site just as Shayera screamed.
"No!" Flash yelled, running at top speed to the robot's leg.
Battling for consciousness against the unending tightening, Shayera could only watch as Flash desperately searched for anything he could to stop the metal monster. She noted in an oddly distracted way that pieces of the robot were flying through the air. Access panels, wires and various bits of metal clattered against the ground.
As she hung limply in the robot's grip, she noticed the crushing pressure finally relaxed a bit and that the monster's once-efficient movements were now sluggish. A shower of sparks came from above her, and unexpectedly the grip around her chest released.
She collapsed with a dull thud against the dirt.
"Hawkgirl!" Flash shouted.
Dazed, Shayera cracked her eyes open to find Flash staring down at her from the shoulder of the partially immobilized robot. She attempted to draw a breath only to feel pain stabbing through her. She coughed, winced, then tasted blood in her mouth. "Shit," she exhaled.
Flash was suddenly at her side. "We've gotta get out of here. I slowed it down, but I can't stop it," he explained, his attention obviously divided between the slowly approaching robot and his unmoving friend. "Can you get up at all?" he questioned, the worry in his voice clear.
It wasn't right, she thought, for someone to be concerned for her when she'd betrayed so many. The construction worker was correct. She was to be feared, not helped.
Flash gingerly placed his hand on her shoulder. "Hawkg--"
Metal impacted flesh and Flash was tossed through the air into the same pile of lumber he'd crashed into earlier. This time the unexpected impact rendered him unconscious.
The robot followed the path of the last movement it saw and lumbered past Shayera toward Flash.
"No," she whispered, "leave him alone." Her eyes slipped shut as haziness clouded her vision.
Shayera knew the world hated her. She'd read plenty of articles and met enough angry people to know that. She also knew within a matter of minutes she'd be getting the end she so justly deserved, an end that millions of people on two different planets wished upon her.
She wouldn't fight it.
But she would fight to save one more person. A person she once called friend. She'd take care of that damn robot once and for all.
With determination, she gulped in air, pushing her agony away. Wrapping her left arm around her crushed ribs, she forced herself to her knees. Breathless, she scanned the area with blurry eyes. If she'd only had her mace she could short circuit the hulking monster in one strike. But that wasn't an option. Nor was using force given her current condition. So she'd have to get creative.
Looking to the left, she saw a gasoline truck. Would fire be enough? Could she get the robot close enough to melt it?
Glancing upward, Shayera found her salvation. About thirty feet in the air a single high-tension power line ran across the construction site from a nearby sub-station to the unfinished building. It would be perfect. For the first time in months, she smiled.
Fighting against lack of oxygen and murderous pain, Shayera rose to her feet. Dragging her broken wings behind her, she slowly made her way to the valves on the gasoline truck. Normally, she would have simply bashed a hole in the side of tanker; but with her injuries, it was all she could manage to turn the spigot.
Finally, gasoline gushed from the tanker, spreading over the ground, pooling beneath her feet. She smiled and gulped for air again. Her eyes traveled upward to the power line. The robot lumbered closer to Flash, clearly trying to locate its prey.
"Hey, scrap yard!" Shayera yelled, causing herself to cough. Spitting away the resulting blood, she continued to taunt the robot. "Over here!" She waved in the air, trying to make as much motion as possible to catch the robot's attention. Each motion pulled on her ribs and sent shocks of pain throughout her whole body. But it didn't matter how much it hurt, she reasoned. It would soon be over.
The robot's head slowly turned toward her. It paused then turned its body in the same direction. She could see it was now focused only on her.
"That's it, you waste of metal," Shayera wheezed, "come get me." She stood her ground, two inches deep in gasoline. Her eyes darted up to the power line once again. It had to work.
The robot's only working arm raised and its clamp-like hand spread open. It stepped into the puddle of fuel, splashing its way forward.
Shayera spit another mouthful of blood to the ground. "Come on! You're almost there." This time her breath was nearly impossible to catch.
The robot's arm lowered toward her. Inch by slow inch, it approached the power line.
Metal made contact, the circuit was completed and sparks flew. Electrical current surged through the robot.
Shayera Hol drew as deep a breath as her crushed ribs would allow and yelled a final battle cry as the sparks ignited the gasoline.
Flames spread.
The robot fell with a thundering crash to the ground.
The tanker exploded.
Shayera blew backwards and smashed through the metal fence. Her limp, useless body skidded across the pavement, slamming to an abrupt halt against a brick building across the street.
To Be Continued...