Training Day

Chapter 4 – Survival of the Fittest

Katma twisted away from Hawkgirl like an insane tornado.

"Would you like a clean shot at me?" Katma offered suddenly as she stopped.

"What?" Hawkgirl was beyond incredulous. Of course she wanted a clean shot at Katma. It was all she needed to win, but it had to be a trap. There was no way Katma would allow her to hit her cleanly unless there was a trick to it.

"Come on you dirty bird. If you're so tough. Let's exchange blows. Your single best punch against mine. No ducking, no evading, no blocking. Anywhere you like." Katma said slowly, almost seductively. "That's what I propose."

"What's the catch, Katma?" Shayera kept her guard up suspecting the worse. She used these moments to try to catch her much elusive breath.

"No catch," said Katma also holding her fists up protectively. "Except, I go first."

Ahhh...so that's it, Hawkgirl thought to herself. It was a sucker's deal for sure, but for who? Shayera knew she could take a punch, just about any singular punch, but she was weakened and never in her entirely life had a fight lasted this long. She was used to knocking her opponents out, but dragging a slugfest out like this was tiring her beyond all calculation. Besides there were the added distractions. With her years of experience in fighting, Shayera was almost certain she could knock out Katma with a head shot. She just had to get that shot in.

Katma could see Hawkgirl was ambivalent about the idea so she decided to help Shayera choose. Katma snapped out a quick left jab and quickly brought her hand back in to cover her head in the textbook form that a jab should be thrown. The jab tagged Hawkgirl's tired forehead and her return jab was absorbed by Katma's right hand. Katma's speed and relative lack of fatigue proved the point. An even exchange was Hawkgirl's only hope.

"What do you say, dirty birdie?" Katma goaded.

"Okay. Fine," Hawkgirl said finally.

Shayera took a step back from Katma and began to bring her arms down but did not completely go off guard. Katma did the same. Batman could not believe it.

"Don't trade punches with her, Katma." Batman said from the corner.

Katma just waved Batman off and turned to Diana.

"Okay, you'll be the judge," Katma said to the Amazon princess. "I get one shot. No block from her. No flinch."

"And then she goes?" Diana asked looking to her Justice League teammate. Diana knew full well that Hawkgirl could knock Katma out if given a chance. She had seen Shayera deliver incapacitating blows to villains many times, with and without the mace. It was strange, but never before had Diana wished so hard for Hawkgirl to be victorious, but Diana had to retain the veneer of impartiality.

"And then the fight resumes, right?" Shayera asked leadingly. She knew that even if by wild chance her flagging strength didn't allow her to put Katma out with one punch, a correctly placed follow up blow to the stunned Green Lantern would finish her off. It was the one advantage to going second. No recovery time for the first puncher.

"Of course," said Katma slyly as if she didn't expect there to be even a second punch much less a resumption of the fight. "Are you ready, little squab?"

Shayera nodded, but put her hand up and looked back to her corner. John was looking worried but quickly tried to look confident when Shayera turned to him. He gave Shayera a quick thumbs up and a smile even as his eyes were wide with concern for her. He then seemed to come to a decision about something.

He held up one and then four fingers. Hawkgirl got the message and nodded. They were both thinking the same way: take Katma out with a two blows. The numbers indicated punch combinations, and though they varied from martial art to martial art, she knew where he was headed. Yeah...a primary strike to that peaked forehead... to tilt her head back and then an upper cut to the chin. Send her head all the way back and give her rotational acceleration of the brain. Knock-out city. Population: Katma. I win! Shayera turned back.

"Ready," said Hawkgirl confidently. She took a deep breath and prepared to stiffen her neck muscles in anticipation of the soon on-coming punch. She had to be ready to take the most important incoming blow of her life.

Katma stepped a little closer to Hawkgirl in almost tiny quarter steps; measuring the exact distance to the perfect punch for her reach. She concentrated her eyes on Shayera's head as if she were going to take it off her shoulders. She took deep breaths while opening her hand wide and then squeezing it into a tight fist a couple of times.

"You ready?" Katma repeated, smiling confidently to herself. She then nodded her head in just a little bit and slightly softened strengthened her voice. "I am Katma Tui of Korugar. Green Lantern. This is the 'Kung-sie fist'."

With that Katma drew her fisted hand back to her waist. She took a deep breath and maintained eye contact with Shayera until the last second. Katma then dropped her eyes and then with a sudden rush bent her knees and leaned forward in the same fluid motion. Her right arm launched up and forward from her side and aimed itself at Hawkgirl's midsection. Katma exhaled all the way with a violent scream of, "Eeee-yah!" shouted from her lungs. And with that, the full accumulation of Katma's energy, strength, and will-power were concentrated to a single straightline force into Hawkgirl's rib cage.

A sickening, audible crack was heard throughout the room. Shayera's eighteenth rib snapped. Katma had made a perfect body punch.

The impact threw Hawkgirl backwards into the ropes and onto the canvas floor in a lump. She was not moving.

"You knew her anatomy well," Batman said when Katma returned to her corner. "You concentrated your force perfectly."

"Yeah," said Katma simply turning to lean on the ropes, pain and exhaustion resonating in her voice. Batman noted that Katma's fist was now drooping at an angle.

"Did you shatter your wrist?" he asked. "Well J'onn can bone stitch it after."

On the floor Shayera reeled in pain on the edge of consciousness. Through a blur of misery her mind detected the fuzzy words coming from Diana. She was counting.

"One..." there was a pause "...Two..."

Diana was deliberately counting slowly. She was overemphasizing each counted number with an elaborate stroke of her arm. Diana looked over to Katma's corner to see if there was any reason for her to pause because of Katma fouling the count by not retiring to a neutral corner, but no such interference was forthcoming from the woman. Katma had disdainfully turned away from her fallen opponent, confident in the inevitability of the outcome.

"...Three..."

"Hawkgirl!" J'onn said her name from just outside the ropes. "Do you wish for me to concede the fight?"

"...Four..."

"John...oooooooh," Hawkgirl gasped through gritted teeth. It hurt to breathe "Need...John."

"I'm here Shayera...I'm here." His voice came from the other side of her head from where J'onn was. She twisted her head to see his eyes pooling up with pain as if it were his own.

"...Five..."

"Promise me," she grunted. "Promise me that, if I pass out, you won't talk to Katma before you talk to me."

"Huh?" John was confused, but his own anguish at seeing Shayera hurt like this (over him no less) was devastating him.

"...Six..." Diana was finishing out the ten-count that would spell Hawkgirl's defeat.

"Promise me," she insisted with a noticeably forced effort.

"Okay," John said sorrowfully. "I promise. Please...just stop now."

"...Seven..."

Shayera reached up to grab a rope to pull herself up with. The motion caused almost catastrophic pain. She had to admit the brilliance of Katma's plan. Having faked Shayera into believing a headshot was coming Katma had delivered a withering body blow. Specifically targeting a rib can never guarantee a knock out but a broken rib will deliver unrelenting, debilitating pain. With her rib gone it would be impossible to move, much less throw a punch, without the devastating agony.

"...Eight..."

Diana felt as desperate as the situation Hawkgirl was in. She didn't want to see Shayera lose like this...not now...but what could she do? Diana looked over and could see that Katma was hurting from the exchange. Diana was still bent down in rhythm with the count and she whispered to Shayera.

"Come on Shayera. You can still beat her..." Diana said softly and then in even more of a hushed whisper she gave a more desperate plea. "...Hera, please give her strength." Diana then stood to give the penultimate count.

"...Nine..."

Maybe it was the look on Batman's face that told Katma something was amiss. Maybe it was the halt in Diana's counting. Katma turned around.

If Katma had never felt fear in her life, she was now recognizing the grip of trepidation on her heart. Hawkgirl was standing up. Her left hand covered her fractured rib. With her right she wiped away a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. In the black recesses of the hawk mask, Shayera's eyes were squinted in a fury of dark hatred. There was nothing but revenge set in those orbs. She advanced in short but steady steps. The pain had to be excruciating. Each breath had to be a new adventure in throbbing agony, and yet she kept coming.

Katma gripped at her own stomach. The look in Hawkgirl's eyes was that unnerving. Katma brought her left hand up in a defense posture, but was reminded by a warning glance by Diana that the next shot was all Hawkgirl's. Katma forced herself to leave the sanctuary of her corner and meet Hawkgirl in the middle of the ring. Shayera spoke first.

"Good punch, Katma," Shayera grunted through tightly clenched teeth. "Very good. Have you been practicing that long? 'Kung-Sie Fist' was it?"

Katma said nothing in reply. Hoping that Hawkgirl would hurry up and get it over with, she braced herself for what was to come.

"Nothing to say, Katma?" Shayera snarled letting her fury control her pain. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

"Hahaha..." Katma forced herself to laugh, hoping the sarcasm in her chuckle would mask her growing panic. "Yes, the 'Kung-sie fist' technique. I learned it from John. Didn't he teach you that? He is the one who showed me."

"Really?" Hawkgirl said matter-of-factly, the pain allowing her to breath only in short gasps. "Did he ever teach you..." she paused here not just for a strained breath but for dramatic effect. "...the 'Talons of the Hawk' technique?"

Katma did not reply to this rhetorical question. She just stood there transfixed.

"No?" asked Shayera almost coyly, slightly shaking her head as if it was a pity. "I am Shayera Hol. From Thanagar. Hawkgirl. Member of the Justice League."

Now, with a fluid motion and all at once Hawkgirl swung her arm in a full circle. From a rest at her side, her right hand went back behind her, up and over her head and then back down in front of her and came down onto Katma's left shoulder.

In the same instance Hawkgirl let out her sharpest, loudest, shrillest Hawkgirl scream, "Eeeeeeeeeeyahhhhh!"

Upon impact at the point where Katma's shoulder met her neck Hawkgirl's fingers at the tips penetrated her gloves, penetrated Katma's costume and pierced Katma's skin until her they were pinching the base of the very nerves that ran down the side of Katma's body. Katma screamed.

Shayera withdrew her fingers, and held up her hand in display. Three fingers stood naked out of the glove and were dripping Katma's dark red blood. Shayera bared her teeth coldly.

"'Talons of the Hawk.'"

"Fight on!" shouted Diana, indicating the resumption of the contest.

Katma struggled with the pain, with the sight of her own blood, with her inability to use her left arm, and the numbness throughout the left side of her body. She fell back into the ropes. Behind her John stood motioning to Shayera. He had his fist to his forehead as if indicating that was where Hawkgirl should strike. It made little sense to Hawkgirl but she had to trust him. Katma was severely wounded, but Shayera was only slightly better off with a busted rib, a probable punctured lung, and God knows what else.

Hawkgirl circled for the kill. She edged closer to Katma who looked prepared to defend herself with her right leg or parry with her right hand now held up to jab/block. She was dazed, wary, hurting, and in trouble. While balancing on the top rope Katma swept out her right leg in a clearing kick. "Back off, chickenhawk!" she warned.

"What's my name?" Shayera asked in a deceptively patient voice.

Whether it was an attempt at a sarcastic insult or from dizziness from the pain, Katma gave the wrong answer.

"'Something-or-other' Hol...HawkSquirrel," Katma sneered. It was the last mistake she would make of this fight.

Hawkgirl gave her all into a quick lunge that propelled a fluid overhand right. The punch connected solidly with the center of Katma's smooth pink-red forehead. Katma was propelled backwards into the ropes and then recoiled forward by the elastic rebound. Because she was already unconscious the motion began to throw her face down to the mat, but Shayera, not realizing her opponent was already out cold, was quickly behind her and followed her down to finish her off. Grabbing Katma by the back of her jet black hair Shayera began to repeatedly slam Katma's head into the canvas, all the while yelling the same question over and over.

"What..." SLAM "...is..." SLAM "...my..." SLAM "...name!" SLAM

Batman, realizing his fighter was unresponsive, threw in a white towel from the corner.

"We concede," he said over the concussive sounds of Katma's head hitting the ring floor. Diana was already trying to peel Shayera off.

Hawkgirl found herself flying backwards off Katma's prostrate form and could see J'onn kneeling quickly to help the unconscious woman. Shayera whirled in a painful daze and stopped on the eyes of John as he steadied her.

"Did I...?" she began to ask as her eyes rolled up into the back of her head.

"You won!" John finished for her as she fainted dead away from completely realized pain and sheer exhaustion. John bent his knees and let her fall into his arms gently. He scooped her up and held her closely to his chest as he carried her to the sick bay.

- end Chapt 4