Shayera growled in frustration as she picked herself off of the ground. She winced and placed her hand over her right side. Shayera's side was burning. She looked down to see the blood trickling down from the gash left behind from Silver Swan's claws. She looked over to see that Elongated Man was barely holding his own against Giganta, Black Canary and Green Arrow were having some difficulties with Black Mass, and Abra Kadabra was seemingly causing Booster Gold a headache. Shayera scowled as she knew that she wasn't faring much better either.
And Shayera knew she had no one to blame but herself. She knew that she should have been the one to go after Abra Kadabra and left Booster with Silver Swan. Her mind had been so preoccupied that she had idiotically told them to take on whoever crossed their paths first. There had been no semblance of a plan behind her orders.
Silver Swan snickered as she sauntered towards her, "Well, well Hawkgirl you certainly are a bit sluggish it seems. Didn't get your morning coffee yet? When's the last time we even fought? Eight or nine months?"
"Try two years," Shayera replied with a frown. "I see you got better with that nanotech of yours."
"Oh doesn't time just fly when you're in prison and plotting your revenge?" Silver Swan stopped in her tracks and smirked as she placed her hands on her hips, "Of course, it's only natural I would after all. The more I acquire, the stronger I become."
Shayera raised an eyebrow, "Do I even want to know where you got that nanotech from?"
"It doesn't matter," the villainess said as she unsheathed six inch claws from each hand. "Now stay still so I can gut you properly."
Shayera rolled her eyes as she took to the air, "Yeah sorry but that's not happening."
Silver Swan quickly followed after her, "You're just delaying your death Hawkgirl!"
"I have no intentions of dying," Shayera mumbled as she banked hard, turning around in midair and flew straight towards Silver Swan. She swung her mace only for Silver Swan to duck under the swing.
Silver Swan lashed out with her claws and Shayera was barely able to move out of the way in time. She winced as she felt the nanotech claws graze across and cut open her skin.
Silver Swan chuckled as blood dripped from the tips of her claws on her right hand, "I'm going to slice you to pieces."
Shayera grimaced as she looked down at the three horizontal cuts across her stomach. Then an unexpected feeling took over Shayera at that moment, panic. Shayera quickly realized, had she not have been able to move out of the way of that attack, Silver Swan would have impaled her right through the abdomen.
Silver Swan sneered as she noticed the look on the Thanagarian's face, "Are we scared?"
Shayera scowled, "Not in your dreams."
"Pity," she simply replied as she flew at the Thanagarian at full speed. "You should be."
Shayera grunted as Silver Swan tackled her. Silver Swan took a deep breath as she moved her face only inches away from hers. Shayera's eyes widened when she realized what Silver Swan was about to do.
John sighed as he walked down the hallway of the Watchtower. Stopping in front of a door, the Green Lantern took a deep breath and composed himself before knocking. Predictably he didn't receive an answer so he knocked once more, "Shayera? Listen Shayera we need to talk."
Still not receiving a response, John frowned as he put a finger to the commlink in his ear, "User code 005."
"User identity John Stewart confirmed," the commlink responded.
"Unlock this door," he curtly commanded.
The security panel pinged and the door then slid open. John once again sighed before stepping in. He saw that Shayera wasn't in the room but noticed the hole in the wall. She had been there and she was angry.
John knew the only other place she could have went was back to Detroit if she didn't leave the Watchtower itself. He turned on his heels and quickly exited the room.
"I don't see what the problem is," John could hear Mister Terrific indignantly state as soon as he stepped out of the elevator and onto the control deck. He saw that Batman was also on the control deck and he did not look particularly pleased. "She's an able-bodied Justice League member. She's fought Silver Swan plenty of times and you have right here on file that Nth metal is effective against magic. It was an easy choice to make her mission leader," Terrific retorted and John immediately swallowed.
"Where did you send Shayera?" Batman asked.
"Gulf of Mexico, the Legion is holding a cargo shipping dock hostage. Apparently a shipment of weapons were going through there and they were trying to intercept it," Terrific stated as he began to type. He then placed a finger up to his own commlink, "Shayera do you read me? Shayera it's Terrific, do you copy?"
"Dammit," John muttered as he scowled as there was no response.
"Hold on a second," Terrific began to type again. "Canary, this is Terrific, do you copy?"
"Yeah I hear you," Dinah's breathless response came over the control panel.
"What's going on?" Batman interjected.
"We're getting our asses handed to us, that's what's going on," she replied with a grunt.
"What's the situation? Any injuries?" Terrific asked.
"You could say that. Silver Swan blasted Shayera with her sonic scream at close range and she can't hear anything. Ralph is holding off Giganta but he's pretty banged up. Booster isn't managing too well against Abra Kadabra. Arrow and I are barely holding back Black Mass."
John glanced over to Batman, who nodded at him. The Green Lantern looked over to Terrific, "Send us down there."
Terrific gave a curt nodded, "We're sending GL and Batman as backup."
"Roger tha-" Dinah was cutoff by a pained yell as the commline went silent.
The scene John and Batman had been teleported into was complete chaos.
Black Mass had manipulated the gravity field, making it impossible for Green Arrow and Black Canary to move. Even Batman was unable to move once on scene and was forced to his knees. Fortunately, John didn't have this issue as his power ring allowed him to fly through any gravity field.
John saw Black Mass was cracking his knuckles as he walked over to the prone forms of Black Canary and Green Arrow. He quickly blasted the villain from behind and sent him into the side of a cargo container.
That was when John then heard the clank of metal against metal. He looked above him to see Silver Swan dueling it out with Shayera in midair. He quickly took in her injuries. Shayera had multiple cuts across her body. She had three gashes across her right cheek followed by cuts on her left bicep, right forearm, across her stomach, her right side, over her left ribs, her right thigh, the back of her lower left leg, and three deep ones right between her wings. She also had a deep cut over her left temple. The blood was sliding down the side of her face and dripped from her jaw. John then heard Silver Swan unleash her sonic scream and saw Shayera get thrown back in the air.
John looked back over to see that Black Mass was getting back up to his feet. He quickly made a hand construct to grab Black Mass and chucked him directly into Silver Swan.
Shayera immediately looked over when she saw the two villains collide with each other. John and Shayera simply stared at each other for a few seconds before Shayera frowned and narrowed her eyes as she took off towards Giganta. John frowned himself and quickly went after her.
He saw Shayera strike Giganta on the side of the head with her mace, causing her to stumble backwards from the blow.
Giganta scowled and turned her head towards the Thanagarian, "That hurt!"
Shayera flew in to hit her once more, dodging a punch thrown by the supersized villainess. Elongated Man wrapped himself around Giganta's legs to impede her movement. Shayera took this opportunity to hit Giganta on the back of the head and Giganta fell to her knees.
Just as Shayera went in for a third strike, Giganta grabbed her out of the air and began to squeeze her. John created a fist construct and struck Giganta on the bridge of her nose. Giganta fell onto her back and dropped the Thanagarian.
When he looked over, Shayera was already getting back on her feet, mace ready in her hands. John could see the grimace tightening her features, the sharpness of her emerald eyes. Just as she stretched out her wings to take to the air again, John created a bubble construct around her. Shayera immediately glared at him and scowled. John was about to say something to her but then remembered that Dinah had said Shayera couldn't hear anything courtesy of Silver Swan.
John landed on the ground in front of her and released the bubble construct. Shayera seemingly got the message to not move. Though John figured Shayera most likely knew that he would put her in another bubble construct should she attempt to fly off.
John looked her over again and mumbled, "You're definitely going to need stitches."
Shayera frowned as she pointed to her ear, "I can't hear you. Silver Swan blasted my ears with that damn scream of hers."
"I know that," he snapped at her, despite knowing she wouldn't be able to hear him. "You could have gotten killed Shayera."
Shayera's frown deepened as she was able to read his lips, "I didn't need your help."
"Yes, you did," he countered as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Shayera glared at him again, "Why do you even care? I'm nothing more than just some filthy hawk after all."
John momentarily paused before he swallowed. Before he had the chance to say or do anything else, Shayera roughly brushed past, shoulder checking him in the process, as she made her way over to Batman and the others.
"Most of the injuries are superficial cuts, some required stitches," J'onn said to John as he was bandaging Shayera's arm. "There were a few bruises as well."
John lightly nodded, "And her hearing?"
"She should regain some back within twenty-four hours. It will most likely take another day or two for her to hear at 100% again. The vertigo should completely subside by tomorrow."
John sighed, "At least it wasn't serious."
"Luckily," Batman dryly stated as he walked into the Medbay.
Shayera immediately glared at him when she noticed he entered the room in her peripheral vision, "Get the hell out of here Bruce!"
Batman simply ignored her as he continued, "It should be a given that we're taking her off of active duty at this point. For now she stays on the injure reserve until we decide what to do with her."
"We have our proposed idea," J'onn stated.
"Which I don't agree with," Batman replied with a light frown.
John frowned, "Shouldn't Shayera and I have a say in this?"
Batman looked over at him, "Crowd control and monitor duty. To me, crowd control is too dangerous still."
John shrugged, "I partially agree. She'd be able to handle crowd control but I rather not have her near any chance of her needing to fight."
Shayera frowned as she watched the three talk. She stood from the bed only to have J'onn place a hand on her shoulder to stop her from moving any further. The Martian gave her a stern look and pointed back towards the bed. Shayera in turn scowled and placed her hands in her hips, "I don't need to stay in the Medbay for a few, simple cuts. I'm fine."
J'onn remained silent as he narrowed his eyes at her and lightly frowned. The two had a silent standoff between each other for a few minutes before Shayera let out an exasperated sigh and sat back down on the bed. She immediately crossed her arms over her chest as she defiantly looked away.
J'onn looked back over to Batman and John, "I rather keep her here for the rest of the day for observation. With the vertigo alone, she shouldn't be up and about."
"I have no objections," Batman replied as he turned to leave.
John looked over to Shayera. She looked back at him and glared. He sighed, "I don't either. Keep her here."