"Who are dey?" a large, burly man with long unkempt hair and a blaster
rifle in one hand asked the bartender, who was himself holding a pistol
trained on the two.
"Never seen 'em before."
"Look, we were just asking if anyone knew how to contact him," said Green Lantern smoothly. He decided to go on a hunch. "Look, we just got nailed on a dozen different terrorist charges and Mr. Lucas bailed us outta the slammer. We just wanna thank the guy, maybe ask for a tour of this place. I mean, this whole island or whatever is a real smooth operation."
The burly man looked at him suspiciously. "A terrorist, huh?"
"Yep."
Suddenly, the radio under the bartender's counter squawked. "This is Lucas, and I want everyone to be on the lookout for two persons, a male and a female who have broken into the island. They may be posing as citizens, but we believe them to be spies who-"
He didn't have time to finish before all hell broke loose. The man with the shotgun raised it to fire at Hawkgirl, who ducked out the way just in time. The round streaked over her forehead and right into the bartender's neck. He was dead before he started falling.
Hawkgirl had no intention of giving Mr. Shotgun another chance to shoot. She easily leapt the five or so feet between them and lashed out with her foot in midair, catching him on the temple. She landed on her left foot and twirled to the side and out of the shotgun's path before applying a quick, yet effective elbow strike to the back of his neck. He went down and, wisely, so did she in order to avoid the hailstorm of bullets that chopped up the air where her head had been.
One of the chairs began to glow a bright green and then as if hurled by an invisible hand, it slammed right into three of the gunmen, pinning them against the wall and knocking them out. John turned to give Hawkgirl a wink before delivering a swift side kick/uppercut combo to a reptilian creature who was trying to sneak up behind him. Hawkgirl whipped out her mace and plunged headfirst in the melee. One attacker went down with her first swing and two more with her second. A fourth, one with brown fur and large fangs, managed to avoid the mace but only to be caught right in the face by a waiting roundhouse kick. With the sound of crunching cartilage and bone, he too hit the ground.
There was a noise behind her. Hawkgirl whirled around, ready to fight some more.
"Whoa! It's just me," said John, throwing up his hands. "I think that was the last of them, the rest ran."
"Sorry," said Hawkgirl sheepishly, sheathing her mace.
"No problem." John turned to her as they walked out of the back door. "You're a pretty good fighter. I suppose I should already know that what with all the missions we've been on, but I guess I hadn't really noticed until now."
Of all the compliments Hawkgirl wished John would give, that certainly wasn't at the top of the list. She didn't want him to think of her as a wild, battle crazed woman who was addicted to combat or something. "We had to take extensive martial arts training in the Thanagarian Police Corps.," she explained. "You don't fight so bad yourself, by the way."
"It's just the ring," said John modestly.
The Thanagarian woman regarded him for a moment. "There's a lot more to your skills-to you-than a power ring, John. I've known that for a long time. Never tell yourself anything different."
They were encouraging words, perhaps just what he needed to hear right then. He patted her arm. "We'd better find some place to hide. Lucas will probably want to find us now more than ever." He saw her start to flap her wings and shook his head. "Uh-uh, that'll just be asking for attention, and it's the first thing everybody here will expect."
"But what about Lucas? Didn't we come here specifically to deal with him?"
John nodded. "Yeah, but this island is chock-full of super-villains with advanced technology. As strong as we are, it would be us against dozens, maybe hundreds of other metas. Lets just get out so we can come back later with a force capable of taking on a whole nation."
That's when the sirens sounded. Hawkgirl bristled and would have whirled around were it not for the fact that a trio of heavily armed hovercars appeared in front of her. "Surrender, fugitives," said a voice over a loudspeaker, "or your lives are forfeit."
"How original," muttered Hawkgirl.
"There's six of them, three in front and two behind," whispered John. He turned a bit to the side so that he was facing the hovercars that Hawkgirl wasn't.
"You have until the count of five to surrender. ONE . . .TWO . . .-HEY!!"
The two superheroes did not give him time to get to the count of three. Arming his power ring's beam to the highest possible intensity, John bisected the lead armored hovercar, sending the occupants flying in the resulting explosion. He took to the air to avoid the laserfire from the other two on that side and dived after the one on the right. He dodged quickly in a peerless display of aerial prowess, but even so, the beams of destructive energy were just barely missing him.
That is, until he managed to get ahold of the laser cannon with his power ring. He then was able to turn the lethal hail of energy on the soldiers inside, including the pilot. The controls were slagged too, and the armored hovercar crashed into the ground.
Hawkgirl surprised the pilot of one of the vehicle by flying straight into his line of fire . . .and then doing the unexpected, diving under the hovercar where none of its weapons could touch her. She wasted no time in making scrap metal out of the engine and thrusters, diving away just in time not be caught up in the explosion that followed. She soared high and the other two hovercars followed in pursuit. They were faster than she, no doubt about it. However, They did not have as much maneuverability, a fact which Hawkgirl used to her advantage. After making sure they were following her at top speed, she braked in midair and started flying the opposite direction, right towards the lead pursuer. The pilot realized his problem, but was not able to respond anywhere near fast enough. Hawkgirl swooped under the aircraft, mace held up. The mace tore a line through the underbelly of the craft in only tenths of a second, given the speed at which the hovercar was moving. Its own momentum carried it about twenty yards through the air before the ruined thrusters gave out, the damaged engine drive jammed and exploded, and the chain reaction destroyed the entire hovercraft in a spectacular fireball.
She glanced over at John. Like her, he had dispatched two hovercars, leaving two more in all. She wondered why Lucas would send such outclassed forces to stop the two.
Unless stopping them hadn't been the purpose. Hawkgirl tightened her grip on her mace as the two remaining hovercars retreated down the alley.
She felt uneasy now.
Flying figures suddenly appeared in the sky, swooping down towards Hawkgirl and GL. There were dozens of them, and they landed without a sound.
The maneuver was so well executed it had to have been rehearsed. They landed like clockwork, all of the females, as far as Hawkgirl could tell. They wore large blasters holstered at their sides, but they made no move for them, sign that they were confident enough to think they wouldn't need them. Hawkgirl counted twenty-five in all.
"You are members of the Justice League," said the closest one matter-of- factly. "Hawkgirl and Green Lantern: your professional names."
"Two for two," said John.
"To tell the truth, I would enjoy to pit my power against yours," said the woman, "and so would my fellow Adepts. First, however, I must give you both the opportunity to surrender peacefully. If you wish to accept, you may do so now."
Hawkgirl told her just what she could do with her offer using a veritable rainbow of colorful language and suggestions. Tact, apparently, was not her strong point.
The lead Adept simply responded by raising one perfect eyebrow. "Very well, you will have to be apprehended by force."
Hawkgirl shifted her weight, sliding into a Thanagarian fighting stance. These Adepts were capable of flight. What else, she did not know, but experience had taught her to expect the worse.
Beside her, John similarly readied for battle. It would be his third in the same day, although he knew that the former conflicts had really only been to test them. In fact, it wouldn't surprise him to know that the Adepts had been observing he and Hawkgirl ever since the bar fight. They now had a pretty good idea of their powers and strengths. Maybe even weaknesses. And knowing how powerful John and Hawkgirl were, the Adepts were still supremely confident that they would be the victors.
John and Hawkgirl, on the other hand, knew nothing about their new opponents, save that they were severely outnumbered by them.
"Our goal is not to engage them," John reminded his teammate.
"Yeah? Well it looks like they're gonna 'engage' us," snapped Hawkgirl. "Lets just cream these amateurs and get off the planet, like you-"
Unfortunately, she didn't have time to finish the sentence, compliments of an energy beam from behind that hurled her a good five yards forward, pitching her body to the ground.
They had attacked, and predictable, all hell broke loose.
AN: next chapter, I'll cut back to Bats, Wondy, and the other members. Tell me what you think!
"Never seen 'em before."
"Look, we were just asking if anyone knew how to contact him," said Green Lantern smoothly. He decided to go on a hunch. "Look, we just got nailed on a dozen different terrorist charges and Mr. Lucas bailed us outta the slammer. We just wanna thank the guy, maybe ask for a tour of this place. I mean, this whole island or whatever is a real smooth operation."
The burly man looked at him suspiciously. "A terrorist, huh?"
"Yep."
Suddenly, the radio under the bartender's counter squawked. "This is Lucas, and I want everyone to be on the lookout for two persons, a male and a female who have broken into the island. They may be posing as citizens, but we believe them to be spies who-"
He didn't have time to finish before all hell broke loose. The man with the shotgun raised it to fire at Hawkgirl, who ducked out the way just in time. The round streaked over her forehead and right into the bartender's neck. He was dead before he started falling.
Hawkgirl had no intention of giving Mr. Shotgun another chance to shoot. She easily leapt the five or so feet between them and lashed out with her foot in midair, catching him on the temple. She landed on her left foot and twirled to the side and out of the shotgun's path before applying a quick, yet effective elbow strike to the back of his neck. He went down and, wisely, so did she in order to avoid the hailstorm of bullets that chopped up the air where her head had been.
One of the chairs began to glow a bright green and then as if hurled by an invisible hand, it slammed right into three of the gunmen, pinning them against the wall and knocking them out. John turned to give Hawkgirl a wink before delivering a swift side kick/uppercut combo to a reptilian creature who was trying to sneak up behind him. Hawkgirl whipped out her mace and plunged headfirst in the melee. One attacker went down with her first swing and two more with her second. A fourth, one with brown fur and large fangs, managed to avoid the mace but only to be caught right in the face by a waiting roundhouse kick. With the sound of crunching cartilage and bone, he too hit the ground.
There was a noise behind her. Hawkgirl whirled around, ready to fight some more.
"Whoa! It's just me," said John, throwing up his hands. "I think that was the last of them, the rest ran."
"Sorry," said Hawkgirl sheepishly, sheathing her mace.
"No problem." John turned to her as they walked out of the back door. "You're a pretty good fighter. I suppose I should already know that what with all the missions we've been on, but I guess I hadn't really noticed until now."
Of all the compliments Hawkgirl wished John would give, that certainly wasn't at the top of the list. She didn't want him to think of her as a wild, battle crazed woman who was addicted to combat or something. "We had to take extensive martial arts training in the Thanagarian Police Corps.," she explained. "You don't fight so bad yourself, by the way."
"It's just the ring," said John modestly.
The Thanagarian woman regarded him for a moment. "There's a lot more to your skills-to you-than a power ring, John. I've known that for a long time. Never tell yourself anything different."
They were encouraging words, perhaps just what he needed to hear right then. He patted her arm. "We'd better find some place to hide. Lucas will probably want to find us now more than ever." He saw her start to flap her wings and shook his head. "Uh-uh, that'll just be asking for attention, and it's the first thing everybody here will expect."
"But what about Lucas? Didn't we come here specifically to deal with him?"
John nodded. "Yeah, but this island is chock-full of super-villains with advanced technology. As strong as we are, it would be us against dozens, maybe hundreds of other metas. Lets just get out so we can come back later with a force capable of taking on a whole nation."
That's when the sirens sounded. Hawkgirl bristled and would have whirled around were it not for the fact that a trio of heavily armed hovercars appeared in front of her. "Surrender, fugitives," said a voice over a loudspeaker, "or your lives are forfeit."
"How original," muttered Hawkgirl.
"There's six of them, three in front and two behind," whispered John. He turned a bit to the side so that he was facing the hovercars that Hawkgirl wasn't.
"You have until the count of five to surrender. ONE . . .TWO . . .-HEY!!"
The two superheroes did not give him time to get to the count of three. Arming his power ring's beam to the highest possible intensity, John bisected the lead armored hovercar, sending the occupants flying in the resulting explosion. He took to the air to avoid the laserfire from the other two on that side and dived after the one on the right. He dodged quickly in a peerless display of aerial prowess, but even so, the beams of destructive energy were just barely missing him.
That is, until he managed to get ahold of the laser cannon with his power ring. He then was able to turn the lethal hail of energy on the soldiers inside, including the pilot. The controls were slagged too, and the armored hovercar crashed into the ground.
Hawkgirl surprised the pilot of one of the vehicle by flying straight into his line of fire . . .and then doing the unexpected, diving under the hovercar where none of its weapons could touch her. She wasted no time in making scrap metal out of the engine and thrusters, diving away just in time not be caught up in the explosion that followed. She soared high and the other two hovercars followed in pursuit. They were faster than she, no doubt about it. However, They did not have as much maneuverability, a fact which Hawkgirl used to her advantage. After making sure they were following her at top speed, she braked in midair and started flying the opposite direction, right towards the lead pursuer. The pilot realized his problem, but was not able to respond anywhere near fast enough. Hawkgirl swooped under the aircraft, mace held up. The mace tore a line through the underbelly of the craft in only tenths of a second, given the speed at which the hovercar was moving. Its own momentum carried it about twenty yards through the air before the ruined thrusters gave out, the damaged engine drive jammed and exploded, and the chain reaction destroyed the entire hovercraft in a spectacular fireball.
She glanced over at John. Like her, he had dispatched two hovercars, leaving two more in all. She wondered why Lucas would send such outclassed forces to stop the two.
Unless stopping them hadn't been the purpose. Hawkgirl tightened her grip on her mace as the two remaining hovercars retreated down the alley.
She felt uneasy now.
Flying figures suddenly appeared in the sky, swooping down towards Hawkgirl and GL. There were dozens of them, and they landed without a sound.
The maneuver was so well executed it had to have been rehearsed. They landed like clockwork, all of the females, as far as Hawkgirl could tell. They wore large blasters holstered at their sides, but they made no move for them, sign that they were confident enough to think they wouldn't need them. Hawkgirl counted twenty-five in all.
"You are members of the Justice League," said the closest one matter-of- factly. "Hawkgirl and Green Lantern: your professional names."
"Two for two," said John.
"To tell the truth, I would enjoy to pit my power against yours," said the woman, "and so would my fellow Adepts. First, however, I must give you both the opportunity to surrender peacefully. If you wish to accept, you may do so now."
Hawkgirl told her just what she could do with her offer using a veritable rainbow of colorful language and suggestions. Tact, apparently, was not her strong point.
The lead Adept simply responded by raising one perfect eyebrow. "Very well, you will have to be apprehended by force."
Hawkgirl shifted her weight, sliding into a Thanagarian fighting stance. These Adepts were capable of flight. What else, she did not know, but experience had taught her to expect the worse.
Beside her, John similarly readied for battle. It would be his third in the same day, although he knew that the former conflicts had really only been to test them. In fact, it wouldn't surprise him to know that the Adepts had been observing he and Hawkgirl ever since the bar fight. They now had a pretty good idea of their powers and strengths. Maybe even weaknesses. And knowing how powerful John and Hawkgirl were, the Adepts were still supremely confident that they would be the victors.
John and Hawkgirl, on the other hand, knew nothing about their new opponents, save that they were severely outnumbered by them.
"Our goal is not to engage them," John reminded his teammate.
"Yeah? Well it looks like they're gonna 'engage' us," snapped Hawkgirl. "Lets just cream these amateurs and get off the planet, like you-"
Unfortunately, she didn't have time to finish the sentence, compliments of an energy beam from behind that hurled her a good five yards forward, pitching her body to the ground.
They had attacked, and predictable, all hell broke loose.
AN: next chapter, I'll cut back to Bats, Wondy, and the other members. Tell me what you think!