Part one

Carter Hall ran his hand over the hieroglyphics on the walls inside the pyramid. They seemed authentic enough. He passed his flashlight over the ancient writing, trying to decipher what it meant. His hand bumped against something. His heart leapt. Could this be something? He placed his hand over a smooth slab of rock on the wall and pushed.

The wall started shaking and he directed the light of his flashlight to the wall, searching for something out the place…something…unusual. There! A doorway that had definitely not been there before stood before him. He cautiously stepped inside.

He clicked off his flashlight. There was no need for it here when there was enough light coming in from the skylight above. His eyes stared at the item that stood before him, attached to a stone column.

He stepped towards it and stopped. Nothing happened. He breathed a sigh of relief. No booby traps. His body ached with pain and hurt from the past traps and Carter wasn't sure if he could survive any more.

Feeling slightly braver, he took another step and another, until he reached the item. Somehow it looked familiar. He touched it and suddenly it glowed with such bright light, he felt something prying at his mind. Brain hurting like it was on fire, he stepped back and fell over.

But he wasn't aware of what he was doing. Right now, he wasn't in the pyramid anymore. He was in the past, in ancient Egypt, during the reign of Katar and Chayera, two Thanagarians who had crash-landed on Earth when their ship ran out of fuel in an uncharted sector of the universe.

Little did he know, as he watched the past that something else had happened when he touched the old Thanagarian technology. A part of him split itself from its body and went up into the shadows, away from the light coming down on it from the skylight. It watched Carter on the floor, dazed, his consciousness still in Egypt and waited for his liege's heart's desires. It would grant them. After all, it was a part of him, was it not?

A black-haired girl, her hair pulled back into a low ponytail and tied at the nape of the neck, withblue eyes stared up and where the Watchtower was supposed to be. "So…that's the famous watchtower? Doesn't look too special."

A boy, silver-haired and one year older than her, shot her a look with his stern yellow eyes. "Don't judge a book by its cover. The same applies here. Even though the outlook does not look like much, inside, there is something that is special and is waiting for someone to find it."

Another boy, brown haired with one orange and one yellow eye snickered. "Do you always quote from books?"

"You think you're so smart, don't you?" The older boy growled menacingly.

The younger boy just smirked, unfazed. "Compared to you? Of course." He looked at the Watchtower. "You know what? Jayna's right. Doesn't look too special."

"Griff? Shut up."

"Ooh. The great Silverbeak is angry. Better watch my step. 'Shut up.' He says." Griff said mockingly. Silverbeak advanced upon Griff.

"You asking for a fist in your stomach?" he growled.

"That's enough." Jayna snarled, stepping between them. She glared at both of them so furiously that even Batman would have qualied under it.

They both quailed under her glare and stepped back. "Um…uh…uh…eh…eheh….um…" Griff tried to think of what do say to avoid punishment. When Jayna gave a punishment, you could bet it was brutal...especially when the girl was almost ALWAYS peace-loving. And he was not too keen to get the 168th broken spleen this year.

Silverbeak was obviously thinking the same thing. "Jayna, we really should change my name to something else."

"What do you mean? Your name is perfectly fine." She replied, her hard facial features softening back to their normal happy, bubbly outlook.

"No." Silverbeak shook his head. "We can't call me Silverbeak when humans are around. They'll think we're crazy. This isn't like at home. I have to have a normal name so that they won't suspect we're from out of this world."

"I know, let's call you Big Idiot, big idiot!" piped up Griff. A glare from both Jayna and Silverbeak made him stop saying any more disrespectful comments.

"What do you want your name to mean, Silverbeak? You have a choice, after all." Jayna said, looking back up at the Watchtower. Silverbeak followed her gaze. After a while, so did Griff. They watched the events happening in the Watchtower, their sharp eyes picking up any detail needed.

"How about...Alexander?" Jayna said.

"Good name."

"Yeah," Griff snickered again. "If you want to sound like a nerd in glasses."

"Then, how about Alex?" Jayna inquired.

"Dudes! Wazzup?" They looked to their left to see a blur speeding towards them and then a redheaded boy with blue eyes, wearing a cap backwards on his head. An auburn-haired girl, the same age as Silverbeak, appeared next to him. She stomped on his foot and his eyes bugged out. Sheepishly, he returned the retractable Thanagarian spear he had 'borrowed'.

"Whatcha guys doing?" she asked, bonking the boy on the head. He rubbed at the spot where she hit gingerly, eyeing her cautiously and edging away from her.

"Just watching the Watchtower, Hawkeye." Jayna turned her gaze back up. Hawkeye, Silverbeak and Griff followed her gaze.

"Aww… That's a- soooo not fair, dudes. I don't have the eyes you four have." Brook tapped Griff's shoulder and offered his knuckles to his best friend.

"Dude." Griff rapped his knuckles against Brook's. "Don't sweat it out. Nothing interesting is hip and happening anyway, so why don't we go surfing?"

"That, dude, is nothing compared to skateboarding. You really should try it sometime." Brook grinned. "So, what did you four see up there?"

"Well, the Flash was getting grilled by Batman for messing up important papers…" Griff grinned back.

"The Martian Manhunter was eating Oreos straight out of a package…" smirked Silverbeak.

"Hawkgirl- er, I mean, Shayera, is training in the training room." Jayna commented.

"Vixen kissed GL on the cheek." Muttered Hawkeye, shooting Vixen a dangerous look. Vixen didn't know she was being watched, but she had a bad feeling and a chill up her spine.

"Oh… I'm sorry Hawkeye. I know how much you despise her." Brook said softly.

"It's ok." She sighed. "It's just that I'm really ticked off about the Green Lantern picking Vixen instead of Shayera."

"Love triangles. Who needs 'em?" Brook scowled. At his friend's confused looks, he added, "Because there's always bound to be someone unhappy at the end. For example, if GL picked Vixen, Shayera would be unhappy and so would GL, cuz he knows he won't get that son of his. He was your brother, right, Hawkeye?"

Hawkeye stiffened visibly. "I'd rather not talk about Rex at the moment, Brook." She whispered, her eyes cast down. "We haven't spoken to each other in years, and he was on Earth, and I was on Thanagar. I don't even remember what he's like anymore…"

"Sorry, my bad." Brook apologized. He couldn't STAND seeing people being upset about something and Hawkeye was no exception, even if she was a girl. And eevn if she was a tough talking first lieutenant with major need of an attitude adjustment.

"I think…you're right about that. But I think it's more of a love rectangle if you ask me or a- Silverbeak, what's a 5-sided-shape's name again?" Griff shot a questioning look at Silverbeak.

"You're either talking about an irregular pentagon or a regular pentagon." Replied the silver-haired boy, nonchalantly as you please.

"Thanks, Mr.-I-think-I'm-soooo-smart-just-because-I-answered-a-silly-math-question-for-my-stupid-little-brother." Griff stuck out his tongue at the offending big brother. "Anyway, if GL picks Shayera, Vixen will be a sore loser, to expand on Brook's idea. Anyway, on mine, in the love pentagon, it's Shayera, GL, Vixen, Flash and Carter Hall." Said Griff.

"Carter Hall? Who's that, dude?" Brook asked. Silverbeak snorted. Jayna's eyes twinkled and her mouth's corners turned upright into a smile and she giggled at Brook's ignorance.

"You can bet he's one of Shayera's many 'admirers'."Griff said. Silverbeak rolled his eyes, showing that it was obvious. "I heard Batman last week about Hall being a stalker." Jayna immediately frowned.

"He is not a stalker!" she hissed. Griff, Brook and Silverbeak chose that moment to ignore her and pretend she hadn't spoken at all. Hawkeye just scowled at the fact that Jayna was glaring at her.

'What?' She mouthed. 'You can't expect me to keep their thoughts and opinions under lock and key. You never know when it might ACTUALLY be useful.' Jayna giggled again.

"Yeah, but Flash isn't interested in Vixen is he? Well, according to what I saw up there, he was flirting with females of the JL, so that doesn't really matter as a part in that theory of yours, Griff, because he doesn't seem to have his heart set on just Shayera." Brook pointed out, not paying attention to the two girls.

"Not to mention I highly doubt that Carter is a fan of Vixen." Said Silverbeak.

"So there are, in reality, actually two love triangles. One for Green Lantern, Vixen and Shayera and another for Shayera, Carter and Green Lantern." Griff said.

"You can bet at least one person is going to be quite unhappy at the end." Silverbeak said darkly.

"Talk about major decision for the Green Lantern, dudes. I mean, Vixen and Shayera aren't actually pushovers. I mean, if he chooses Vixen, she'd understand well, but boy is Shayera going to be ticked off and I think GL wants still wants Rex as his son." Brook said, taking off his cap and playing around with it. He was getting bored.

"I totally agree." Griff agreed. "I mean, if he chooses Shayera over Vixen, she'll be like, 'What took you so long to realize that?' and Vixen will be totally angry and storm out of his life. And…vice versa, except Vixen won't be like, 'What took you so long?' like Shay would. So…who do you think GL is going to pick, Hawkeye?"

He turned to where she had been standing to hear her reply, 'It's obvious, isn't it? He's going to choose Shayera. How else would I have been born?' but the older girl was nowhere to be seen. Only Jayna stood, reading a book, oblivious to the world around her.

"Hawkeye?" Silverbeak looked around for her.

"Dudette? This is like, totally uncool. Could you not keep on walking away whenever we have a discussion on who GL is going to pick and who Shayera will pick?" Brook called out, hoping to get an answer. Nothing. Not even a giggle from Jayna.

'Darn it!' Griff thought. 'Even Jayna's not giggling! That MUST be a good book! Note to self: Burn ALL the books that Jayna likes. No kidding. Extra: Must trick Hawkeye into using her fire.'

Griff sighed. "Come on, guys. Let's go find her. She might be having lunch."

"Bet she has her nose stuck in one of those Earth 'books' that Jayna's reading right now."

"Knowing her, that's definitely a 'maybe', but Jayna's more of the bookworm for fiction. Hawkeye's what you'd call a non-fiction reader, like me. And it's a bit more likely than Junior's guess that she's having lunch. 1200 hours was 330 hours ago." Smirked Silverbeak.

"I can't help it. I'm starving." Griff's stomach growled, as if on cue.

"So am I, dude. So am I. So," the redhead brightened. "What kind of food you want? Fast? Candy bar? Chinese? Sushi?"

"I want fast. Dude, do you think you can get McDonalds? I want hamburger, large fries and EXTRA ketchup bags, 'kay?" grinned Griff.

"I'm getting sushi." Brook licked his lips hungrily. "Dudes, you wouldn't BELIEVE how tasty sushi is with that soy sauce." Griff passed Brook a five and the redhead pocketed it. "Anything I can get you, Silverbeak?"

"No." The older boy's voice was cold. "I'll be at the main library, doing some research on blood genes, mythology and history of the JL instead of wasting precious time on thinking and eating Earth food." With that, he walked off. The two boys stared at his departing back.

"Dude. What'sup with hisattitude?I think Silverbeak needs to, like, chill out. If he did and became like us, we'll have, like, way awesome fun." Commented Brook.

"Not even in eternity." Scoffed Griff. His stomach growled again. "Uh…my stomach isn't getting less hungrier here. You know that…right, dude?" He glanced at Jayna, unsure why he chose that moment to do so. She wasn't there.

"Right!" the redhead ran off, in a blur so fast that the trees' leaves rustled and some of them fell off and their trunks nearly uprooted.

"Trees, no offense, but you got to become less flimsier and more stronger." Griff told them. To prove his point, he gently pushed one tree's trunk with a finger. It fell over all the way. "See?"

The trees didn't answer. Why would they? They were busy trying to straighten their trunks up and re-root to the ground.

Griff sighed and looked up at the Watchtower, almost wistfully. "I wish I was a JL member. Maybe then, Silverbeak would respect me." With the 'Not even in eternity' in his mind, he sighed and sat down on the wet green grass, his fingers being tickled by the blades. "I wish we didn't have to do all this." He muttered, before lying down on the grass, hands behind his head, closing his eyes and going to sleep.

An explosion took place. Jayna only looked up from her book for a glance and then looked back down into the book, reading intensely. She was both walking and reading at the same time so she didn't know what was happening before her.

Pretty soon, a laser beam aimed and fired at her. She bent down to place her book down and tied her loose shoelace, unaware of the gaping whole in the store window above her. She grabbed her book and continued to multitask.

"Gah! Stop moving, will ya, ye little pipsqueak!" It was true. Jayna was indeed short for her age and was very touchy when it came to her height. She looked up sharply, practically shoved the book in her bag and zipped it back up again and ran. She ran towards him before doing a handspring to avoid another laser beam and landed, sticking her face close to the mentally insane man's face, her nose almost touching his.

"Pipsqueak? Did you just call me a pipsqueak? Did you? Let me tell you, I am NOT a pipsqueak, I'm NOT a little person, I'm NOT a little girl and I most certainly am NOT a midget and I'm NOT a runt! YOU GOT THAT, MISTER!" She grabbed him by the collar and started shaking him.

Pretty soon, her violent shaking had caused him to drop his laser gun. Finally, when she saw that he had fainted, she dropped him, and walked off, taking her book out of her bag to read.

A member of the Justice League watched her departing back, his eyes wide. She had just defeated (this is an original character and a stupid character, kay?) Dr. Insanity, the League's most insane enemy. And she wasn't even a superhero!

Little did he know that his last thought wasn't entirely true.

Silverbeak was pouring his heart and soul researching and searching for information. He was doing the 'speed-reading' technique, only known by anyone who is dead serious about reading, which were Jayna and Hawkeye.

But Jayna preferred to 'enjoy' her books at a slower pace and Hawkeye found it easier to absorb large amounts of data if she took her time, so Silverbeak was the only one around his age who did it regularly.

Finally, finding what he was looking for, he checked out that books and walked out of the library, a pile of books in his arms. He smiled. He had found what he was looking for, and in just 005 hours flat! A new record! He looked around, left and right, and walked away from the library, trying not to appear out of the crowd and draw unwanted attention to himself.

It didn't work because he was getting a lot of stares from people who apparently had never seen silver hair and yellow eyes before. He gritted his teeth impatiently, but cooled himself down at the thought of how many stares Griff would get and how uncomfortable the younger boy would feel.

A smile found itself on his lips, and somehow, to the amazement of the people who were staring at him, he disappeared into the crowd. He weaved his way through the cluster of people (it was easy, he had more strength than THEY could ever have) and found his way to an abandoned alley. He realized he was smiling and quickly put on a frown.

Looking back to make sure no one was watching, he muttered some ancient words of magic and the books in his arms disappeared. He smiled again at the thought of how difficult this simple spell would be for Griff.

Realizing he was smiling outwardly for the third time, he inwardly cursed. Smiling like a demented freak? This was most unlike him. Pretty soon he would be doing cartwheels while wearing a clown and selling cookies for these 'Girl Scouts'.

He shuddered at the thought, but walked into the shadows so that nothing but his yellow eyes could be seen. If a person happened to glance at the shadows in the alley while Silverbeak was in the shadows, they would have seen yellow eyes staring back at them and quickly go away, out of fear.

Because, inside the shadows, Silverbeak was changing…in the most unimaginable way ever, to the thing that was both feared and admired, both real and a myth to humans. The young boy had changed himself back into…himself.

Griff grinned at Brook while chewing on the remains of his hamburger. He had stuffed the whole thing in his mouth, being terribly hungry as he was and Brook was stuffing as many sushi as his mouth could carry into his mouth.

The two boys grinned at each other, and swallowed in unison. They both grabbed their own soda cans, gulped some soda down, waited for the soda to force its way down their throats and clear up the blockage and breathed in relief.

They grinned at each other yet again. Griff smiled, looking up into the clear blue sky and said, "This is the life."

"Dude, I totally agreed." Brook nodded in agreement. "I mean, like, no bad guys to ruin our day."

Suddenly, a few gunshots sounded. They were not heard by anyone else, but Griff had supersonic hearing. Griff sighed. "You had to jinx it, didn't you, dude?"

"How was I supposed to know I was a jinx?" argued the redhead, knowing fully well that his friend was right. Hestuffed all his garbage into a brown paper bag, Griff doing likewise. In the act of impatience, Brook snatched the bag away from Griff and filled it up for him. He disappeared in a blur to dump the garbage away into a garbage can (hey, he respects the earth, you know, unlike SOME people…) and appeared by his best friend's side after a few milliseconds.

"I hear…more gunshots…" Griff commented, cocking his head to the side so he could hear better. "Shouts. Angry ones. Ooo, now I know what's going on!" He grinned at his best friend. "It's a lame old robbery, attempted by lame-o thieves who couldn't count their toes or sing the ABC's."

Brook rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Excellent! Time to put those powers of ours to the test! Come on!" He offered his hand. "I'll pull you."

"No way…" smiled Griff. "Remember LAST time?"

"Oh come on," the orange-haired boy argued. "How was Isupposed to know you weren't used to very fast speeds without passing out?"

"Any other human would tell you that they'd pass out at a very fast speed which you would call snail slow." Griff muttered. "But I'm not human, am I? Nooo...I'm just a creature you couldn't care less of because you're a human boy who doesn't--"

"What was that?"

"Nothing." He grinned sheepsihly. "I get a 020 hours head-start. The robbery is all the way across town, at the end, near the dog pound. Got it?"

"020 hours?" Brook scoffed. "Hah! I bet I could beat you with my legs tied together while hopping!" Griff muttered some words of ancient magic and snapped his fingers. Ropes bound the redhead's legs together. "HEY!"

"I'll take you on like that," Then, he noticed the look and gulped. "Then again, maybe not." He clapped his hands together and the ropes disappeared, leaving no trace except for the fact that Brook's pants were now wrinkled.

"Go already." Brook snorted, crossing his arms. "Time's already started ticking." Griff nodded and rushed off, hoping that for once, just this once, he could beat the universe's fastest runner. Yeah right, and he and his brother were actual humans. Oh well, at least he could try.

Tang!

Hawkeye smirked at the limp figure in the distance, a Thanagarian spear protruding out of his body. "See? Told you I have good marksmanship." She smirked.

"Hawkeye very good at spear. Hawkeye teach Red Crow?" the Indian asked hopefully. Hawkeye stretched out her left hand, even though she was right handed, and the spear came back, into her hand. Retracting it, she put it away in one of her many pockets.

"Sorry, Red Crow, but maybe later. I have to find GL and give him the message." Her green eyes narrowed in hatred. Red Crow realized that the girl was not in the mood.

"Red Crow understands. I will wait. How long will Hawkeye be gone?" She thought about it.

"Probably until I get some time off. You should go back to your tribe. Here." She tossed the astonished Indian a communicator. "It's a communicator. Know how it works?"

"Red Crow will guess. I press this and keep pressing when talking and then let go when listening to Hawkeye?" The Indian asked.

"Bull's-eye." She smiled. "Bye." She waved and muttered a spell.

"Bye." Red Crow whispered as she disappeared. He gazed at the communicator in his hand and ran to where the totem pole stood tall. "Oh, Great Spirit," He dug in the earth in front of the totem pole. "I give you, to care for, until day I need. Please guide Hawkeye, Red Crow respect. Thank you." The Indian buried the machinery and soon, the hole he dug up was a hole no longer. It looked like it originally had before Red Crow had dug.

He bowed many times, before sending up a smoke signal for his father, the chieftain, and the rest of the Turtle Clan, to let them know that he was going to be away for a few days. "Goodbye." He whispered, and he left.