To Shayera the following days and weeks that went by felt like months. Time just seemed to have slowed around her. Each day blurred together with the next. The longer she went without any type of contact with another living being, the more despondent she became. So far Shayera had avoided all human contact since that night in the convenience store. With no one to talk to, Shayera had become sucked into her own thoughts. The longer she allowed herself to get consumed in her thoughts, the more guilt-ridden she became. She also had completely fallen into a spiral of deeper self-loathing. Shayera no longer believed she had a place on Earth yet she had no way to leave. Even if she was able to get off of the planet, she had nowhere to go.

Shayera also noticed that her wounds were healing very slowly which was not typical for a Thanagarian. She knew her current diet was to be the blame. While she was by no means starving, she only ate enough to give herself enough energy to continue to fly. That and she could only eat what she could steal which tended to be small amounts of junk food.

She also still couldn't get a sense of where she was. All she knew was that she was passing by various towns, cities, and forests as she flew high overhead. Nothing looked familiar to her. She couldn't give a name to any location that she had passed so far.

Shayera was at least thankful that tonight's weather seemed to be holding up despite being very cloudy. The past few days there had been spotty thundershowers which made flying difficult for her. Trying to fly with wet, weighted down wings was not only a hassle but a waste of energy that she needed to conserve as much as possible. The lightning was also a source of danger and Shayera had been forced to ground herself quite a few times throughout the storms.

Currently, Shayera had every intention on flying as far as she could this night to make up for lost time. After that she knew she was going to have to rest. She had been going nonstop for the past four days with no sleep. She knew she couldn't go another day without sleep. She didn't have the energy to do much more that night.

So when she saw the billowing clouds of smoke off in the distance everything in her told Shayera to fly in the opposite direction, to not go towards the smoke. Smoke meant fire. Fire meant danger. Yet something in Shayera still recognized that danger meant that innocent humans could be in trouble. Even if she wasn't a superhero anymore, even if she wasn't in the Justice League anymore, Shayera still wouldn't allow anything to happen to them.

Shayera frowned as she banked towards the smoke and began to fly faster. With any luck perhaps it was something that the humans could handle themselves so that she wouldn't have to involve herself. Though the closer Shayera got the darker she could see the smoke was. She knew this wasn't a small fire just by judging from the smoke alone. Even from the distance she was at, she could smell the smoke.

She felt her heart drop and her stomach twist as she saw that it was an apartment building that was on fire. The fire department was there and she could tell that they were struggling to control the flames. This wasn't something she could handle on her own. She didn't have her mace to bust down doors and she didn't know how many, if any, people were still trapped inside the burning building. Though she still had her brute strength. She could easily tackle doors if need be.

Shayera alighted not far from one of the fire trucks. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Shayera proceeded towards the building.

Noticing her approach, one of the firefighters scowled as he stepped into her path towards the building, "What do you want?"

Taken a back for moment, Shayera swallowed before answering, "I'm just here to help. That's all."

"We don't need or want any help from you!" The firefighter snapped at her.

"Yes you do," she quietly retorted with a light frown. "Is there anyone else still trapped inside?"

"Only one on the top floor and we have it handled so you can leave." This time he glared at her before muttering, "Goddamn filthy hawk."

Shayera's eyes widened for moment as she easily caught what he said with her enhanced hearing. Never before had she been addressed as that. Shayera let out a sigh and turned her attention towards the building. She knew she didn't have time to dwell on it. Judging how the rest of the firefighters were barely able to get near the building, she knew they didn't in fact have it handled. If anything whoever was trapped was going to die at this rate unless someone managed to get inside.

Shayera took to the air and aligned herself with one of the balconies on the top floor of the apartment building. She knew this was going to be one of the worst ideas she had but she had no other way of getting in. She deeply inhaled before she flew straight towards the sliding glass doors, covering her face with her arms as she crashed through them.

The first thing Shayera could feel was the unrelenting heat. The room temperature felt as if it were two thousand degrees and it was very overwhelming and claustrophobic for her. She couldn't see anything, save for the flames, as the smoke was too thick for even her to see through. It irritated her eyes and she blinked heavily as they involuntarily watered.

The fire caused destruction everywhere in the apartment building, destroying and melting everything in its path. It was extremely difficult for her to maneuver around the fallen debris of the ceiling and walls. That and the flames just seemed to be intensifying with each passing second.

Then she heard a weak cough from behind her and she whipped around. She found a young boy trapped under a piece of ceiling that had fallen on top of him, blood stained the side of his left temple. For a moment she was rendered immobile as an overwhelming sense of panic filled her. She immediately got ahold of herself and brought herself into action. She had to get him out before the fire worsened any further and he became a casualty to the flames. Problem was that he appeared unconscious, his entire face and neck glowed in a sheen of sweat. Shayera raced over to him, falling to her knees in front of him.

"Kid?" She touched his shoulder, asserting pressure with her hand to arouse him, giving him a shake. "Kid, come on, wake up. You have to get out of here and I don't think I can do it on my own. You need to help me."

His eyes barely opened halfway at the sound of her voice and his breathes came out wheezing and uneven. "Hawkgirl?" His voice was rough as sandpaper but, despite how terrible he looked and sounded, Shayera couldn't deny that she was relieved.

"Yeah that's me. Come on kid, help me get you out of here."

He looked disorientated and confused as he blinked heavily and turned his head, searching their surroundings. "What are you doing here Hawkgirl?"

"Look we don't have time for twenty questions right now. Just come on," Shayera replied, placing both hands under the fallen debris as she then lifted it. The heated mess of concrete and floorboards were burning her palms and the Thanagarian didn't know how much longer she could hold everything up. She could tell this was going to be a challenge as the boy didn't seem to want to move anytime soon. "Kid, come on, help me out here," she begged him. "You have to pull yourself out from under there."

Seeing the boy wasn't going to move still, Shayera moved herself so that the debris was being held up by her right shoulder and wing. Grabbing onto his arms, she managed to slide him out and moved herself out from under the debris herself, causing it to crash against the floor.

Suddenly Shayera herself was coughing hard from all the smoke. Even her lungs could only endure so much. Shayera shook her head as she tried to keep herself focused at the task at hand.

"Move it," she said in a hoarse voice. "I can't let you die in here. Now move!"

"Hawkgirl, I don't think I can..." the boy mumbled as he was on his hands and knees.

"Yes you can and you will. We have to move it, kid. Now!"

"I can't."

Shayera scowled to herself as she took charge, grabbing the boy as she expanded her wings to fly out of the building and could feel the tips get singed by the flames in the process. Shayera ignored this as she flew them both out of the building.

Landing on the ground below, Shayera took a few deep breaths as her throat and lungs burned from inhaling so much smoke. The next thing Shayera knew the boy was yanked out of her arms by a paramedic.

She lightly frowned as she followed the paramedic towards the ambulance, "Is he okay at least?"

"That's none of your concern," the paramedic curtly responded, not even turning to look at her.

Then a man and woman, who Shayera assumed were the boy's parents, were standing not too far from the paramedic and glared at her.

"Stay away from our son!" The woman snarled at her.

Shayera blinked dumbfoundedly for a few seconds before she spoke, "I...I was only trying to help."

"What by enforcing some more martial law?" The man retorted. "And here I thought all of you filthy Thanagarians were gone."

"No I...I'm not..." Shayera looked away as she let out a sigh. Instead of even attempting to properly reply, she turned away and took to the sky.

Shayera blinked back the tears forming in her eyes as she flew. She wasn't a hero anymore. It didn't matter who she saved or what she did. That much was clear to Shayera. The humans no longer respected her. They no longer revered her. They wanted nothing to do with her. It shouldn't have surprised or hurt Shayera as much as it had. She knew she should have expected this.

Now that her adrenaline was also wearing off, Shayera could feel the immense pain coming from her right shoulder, arm, and wing. She clenched her teeth together as she looked to see that the entire area of her shoulder had been burned, along with her upper right arm and the top of her right wing. She could see her shoulder and arm were bright red and that they were already blistering. She knew that wasn't a good sign as she most likely had second degree burns. She also noticed that she had light burns to her hands and left arm. She had also received small cuts to both arms from flying through the glass doors earlier.

Shayera didn't know why she had bothered. Fires were not something she typically helped out with even when she was in the Justice League. That had always been Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern who handled those. They always performed the evacuations. Even when she was just in Midway City she never came out in one piece whenever she helped with fires. She didn't have the maneuverability or invulnerability to make it out unscathed or close to it. Tonight was a reminder of that.

Then she heard the rumble of thunder as a bolt of lightning flashed in the sky and a downpour began to drop from the clouds above her. Despite the rain feeling cool against her burns it also stung quite a bit, making it very uncomfortable for her to attempt to continue. Shayera deeply scowled as she landed on the ground and leaned her left side against a tree. This was the last thing she needed to happen tonight.