I Zeta'd to Washington D.C. for my training the next morning, without my necklace but plus my hero gear. Both Hawks thought it would be beneficial to train with the added weight and more limited movement, and I agreed.

As I made the way to the gym as I had done many times before, I thought back to the first time I had been there. It was hard to imagine now that I had gotten lost in the hallways that seemed so familiar now, or that I had passed out after a training day that seemed so routine now.

"Morning, Hawkgirl," Hawkwoman greeted as I opened the door. I smiled at her in return.

"Oh, I have something to show you." I remembered my new weapon, and was itching to test it out. "Look," I produced the dagger. Both Hawks looked a little surprised to see the weapon.

"I got it from an assassin that I fought against after she stabbed me in the wing with it and left me pinned against the wall." I explained like I had taken an afternoon stroll.

Hawkwoman was the first to speak. "It's...unconventional."

"But acceptable." Hawkman added about the weapon. I knew they knew that the hero life was dangerous business, so they didn't ask about how I got the dagger.

Hawkwoman readied herself and Hawkman stepped back to give us room as we began sparring. We started with hand-to-hand like always.

I still threw the first punch, as I dug my heels and stopped Hawkwoman from throwing me to the ground as she grabbed my fist. I pulled my hand back and used that motion to go into a spinning kick, which my opponent ducked under.

I jumped above her leg sweep, but I forgot about my bandaged wing and fell back to the ground as I tried to fly higher. I didn't think I'd ever made myself fall to the ground during training before.

I was barely breaking a sweat, though, as we continued to spar. I was knocked to the ground once from being thrown, twice from Hawkwoman getting a hit in, and once from a leg sweep.

Hawkwoman offered a hand when I once again hit the ground, which I gladly took. She produced two practice maces, but I denied mine and instead brandished my new dagger. She dropped her own weapon then taught me some basic moves with mine. I learned to jab, block, and parry, and some moves I can mix with regular hand-to-hand.

Hawkwoman and I sparred some more, with weapons this time, as I practiced with both my dagger, which was apparently called a sai, and a practice mace. The sai was exceptionally cool, but I had always wanted a mace like the Hawks had.

I was panting slightly and sweating but he end of our session, with Hawkman letting me skip flying practice until my wing healed.

I walked back to the Zeta tube, but instead of going to the Cave, I went to the place I was sure Dr. Richards would be: Central City.

As I stepped out into the lab room, I found my way to the small room that served as Dr. Richards' office. I knocked on the door and slowly opened it without listening for a reply.

I wished I had listened. Xavier was sitting on the table-mat with no Dr. Richards in the room, with a rag pressed over his right eye. I stared from the doorway, not sure what had happened.

"Tabitha?" He seemed surprised to see me. His uncovered eye opened wide upon seeing me. "Uh, w-wh-what are you doing here?" He threw the rag at the desk and shielded whatever happened to his eye with his bangs.

I looked on in shock. "Xavier...what happened?" I asked softly. He turned away from me to better hide his face.

"Nothing, really. You-you should get going." He hopped down and turned to the desk, standing in front of it.

I stepped toward him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "What happened?" I asked again, with a little more force in my voice than before.

He sighed in defeat, lowering his tense shoulders and faced me. He pulled his hair back so I could see his injury. The area around his right eye was a sickly black, purple, and red mixture, and it looked swollen. My own eyes widened in surprise as he picked the rag back up.

"Xavier, who did this to you?" I asked, taking the wet, cold rag from his hand and pressed it against his eye. He winced at the pressure, so I pulled it away.

He exhaled and gave a small smile, but refused to answer my question. He put his hand over mine and helped me apply the right amount of pressure to his wound.

"...thank you." He said quietly. I smiled, which he returned.

"You're welcome." I replied. I saw him look behind me at my wings.

"It's a...long story." I said as he raised his eyebrow, silently asking about my bandaged wing.

"Well, we have time, I think." He glanced at the clock on the wall.

It was my turn to sigh. "Well, it all started when a new teammate showed up…" I began, going into the story of the assassin, the doctor, and our mission. I left out the Red Arrow part, saying it was Batman who gave us the mission. I'm not entirely sure why, though.

"...so then Aqualad was down, and I had to fend off this masked assassin by myself. I didn't do so well." I explained. "It was going well for a while, but then she threw me against the wall and stuck this in my wing, pinning me down." I showed him the sai. He seemed shocked that I had made it through that.

"So then…"

"Yep. Right through my wing. Still hurts." I moved the shoulder joint up and down so he could see the bandages.

"But the assassin didn't kill the doctor because she had uploaded the virus at that moment, so she left. Just like that." I finished.

Xavier didn't seem like he knew how to react. "Woah…" he breathed after a moment. "So you defeated an assassin?"

I shook my head. "Oh no, I completely lost to her. But I'm getting better. And now I have her sai."

"Sounds pretty dangerous."

"Yeah, but it comes with the job. Plus, I'm fine now," I started to unwrap my wing to see how it had healed. "Well, mostly."

Xavier offered his hand. "Here, let me." I turned around so he could unwrap the messy bandages. It was a little weird-feeling at first as his hand trailed my feathers, he was done pretty fast. I stretched my wing to see how far it could go, as I got it about halfway before it started hurting again.

I inspected where the home used to be, and found that it had closed up on its own in the night. I wasn't about to do much physical activity with my wings, so that was a good sign.

"Well, you still need to prevent infection." Xavier said when I voiced my thoughts. He got down from the table-mat and got some clear liquid, a cotton pad, some sort of paste-stuff, and some more bandages.

He first put the liquid on the wound, which stung badly, but he said it helped with infection. I nearly broke the edge of the table-mat holding on so hard.

He then put the paste-stuff on the cotton pad and pressed it against the now-clean wound, and held it in place with the bandages.

"Thank you," I said after he was done.

"It's nothing, really. Just a simple bandage." He dismissed my thanks as he pressed the rag up against his eye again. I wondered why he always seemed to reject my thanks.

"Still, you didn't have to. So thank you." I remarked. He seemed to accept my thanks this time as I started towards the door.

"Are you sure you'll be fine?" I asked, turning back. He nodded.

I wasn't really convinced. I gave him a small hug before I left, and walked down the hallway to the Zeta tube and toward home.

The next day, after training, Hawkman had an interesting proposition for me. "Hawkgirl, how would oh like to come back to the city with us and patrol with us?"

I practically jumped at the offer. I couldn't stop smiling as I accepted in the calmest voice I could muster. I was going to patrol with Hawkman and Hawkwoman! It was a dream come true.

Hawkman gave a look at Hawkwoman, who exhaled deeply and said, "but this isn't permanent. It's just a...trial run."

My spirits sank a little bit, but I was still excited. I couldn't exactly fly as I had before, but I was leaping and gliding all the way to the Zeta tube.

Their city turned out to be somewhere called Chicago that had lots of tall building that I wanted to fly around. The two Hawks took off into the air effortlessly, but I still had to leap up onto buildings and climb up into the sky the hard way.

They did fly slow for me to keep up, but I was still jealous that my wings still didn't work all the way.

The Hawks showed me the ins and outs of patrolling, which included a lot of watching, waiting, and flying around the city. The flying part sort of made up for the others, but I wanted to find some action.

I soon found some. Hopping onto a building, my ears picked up an alarm sounding. Hawkman and Hawkwoman also seemed to hear it too, and we all flew through the streets to see what had happened.

I saw a couple of people in dark clothing with only their eyes and mouths visible, holding guns and bags of something. I leaped down to the street, running below Hawkman and Hawkwoman, who kept flying above.

I caught one guy's attention, as I spread my wings and jumped forward and knocked the gun out of his hand first.

"Try again later when you have a concealed carry license," I heard Hawkwoman engage the other guy behind me and I felt better. I caught the masked man's weak punch and tossed him back into the shop where he escaped. I launched forward as he got back up, and hit him over the head with my wing.

"Tch, almost too easy." I remarked and turned back to Hawkwoman. "Come on, give me a challenge!"

We were back up in the air shortly after, and I was back to running along the rooftops. I didn't feel tired though. I felt alive.

We stopped a couple more robberies, before I heard something else coming from a bridge.

"Drop your weapons, or we will open fire!" Someone was talking through a megaphone.

"Come over here and make us, pigs!" Someone yelled back. We decided to check the commotion out.

There seemed to be a stand-of between some gang and the police that we saw perching on the corner of a building. I was about to rush in, but Hawkman stopped me with a hand.

"Wait, we don't want a firefight." That's exactly what I want! He nodded to Hawkwoman, who leaped off the edge and flew behind the thugs.

I followed her lead, going in stealthy, and took out two guys diving with my wings, before using my sai to disarm another person's handgun and threw the gun at another's head, as I made the first guy double over with a punch and send him to the ground with a hit from my knee.

I brought my arm up to block a gunshot from another person. I was about to rush him too, but Hawkwoman beat me to him and knocked him out with her mace.

I looked over to the police, who had begun to move in as Hawkman took the last few of the men.

With Justice apparently restored to the bridge, I was about to jump back to the city when I saw something on the ground. It looked like...shadows?

I glanced back at Hawkman and Hawkwoman, wondering what could be happening, as they seemed to be ready for a fight. I wasn't.

I heard a laugh. An eery, ghost-like laugh that felt like a cold wind moving through the air, although it was still summer.

"Hello, Hawkman…Hawkwoman…" the voice sounded like it was coming from all directions at once. I then looked at the middle of the bridge to see some sort of man that was made of dark, see-through stuff. Wait, was he-

"Oh, who's this?" The man turned to me. I could tell he was staring even though he had no eyes. I fell silent at his presence.

"So, the mighty Hawkman finally took on a little kid to help him around." He looked like he was smiling and eyeing me like a predator would. "I will say this…" he lifted his hand, where he flicked his wrist and his fingers turned into razor-sharp claws on his command. "I've been in the need for a new punching bag!"

He lunged at me. I couldn't seem to move. Thankfully, Hawkwoman split his shadowy form with her mace, as he reconstructed himself behind me.

All at once, my brain went into overdrive, as I used a burst from my wings to fly backwards as the shadow-man lunged at me again. When he kept up the chase, I slashed at him with my sai, but it had little effect compared to Hawkwoman's mace. I raced along the bridge, using my wings to stay barely ahead of the shadow-man.

Hawkman then fell from above and occupied the man while I hid behind a police car. I had to rethink my strategy. From what I could see from the battle, physical attacks weren't going to work on the shadow-man. So what did work on a shadow?

I also managed to see that each attack broke the man's form like wind before reassembling. That gave me an idea. I began looking for a makeshift weapon.

"Hey, Shadow Man!" I yelled, jumping from my hiding place and catching his attention.

"That's Shadow Thief to you, whelp!" He shouted and then lunged. I sidestepped his attack, beating my wings to escape. As he neared the side of the bridge, I lifted to end of a rock divider and tossed it at him with all my strength.

It disoriented him for a moment, but the concrete slab passed through him as he tilted his head in silent question. I started leaping again.

Well, that definitely didn't work, I thought calmly, contrasting the chaos I was currently in. I dashed behind another car as I rethought my strategy again. Hawkman and Hawkwoman weren't faring much better, as the Shadow Thief seemed to pass through every attack. Except for their maces…

I figured it out. Somehow their maces disrupted the Shadow Thief more than regular attacks did. I wondered what I had to do to get my hands on a mace like theirs.

I immediately regretted thinking that, as the Shadow Thief overpowered Hawkwoman, disarmed her, and sent her flying back against the car next to where I was. I ran over to see if she was alright.

She was alive as I heard her breathing, but I couldn't do anything before I was caught in some kind of shadow-rope thing that held my body and wings tight. My injured wing burned in protest. I struggled to escape, as the Shadow Thief came nearer to me.

"Let this be a lesson to you. No one. Messes. With the Shadow Thief, child." He said, his voice a calm dissonance.

I bared my teeth at him. "I'm not a child, ink-man." That seemed to anger him. Unfortunately, it also made him tighten my restraint.

"You won't hurt her!" Hawkman's voice shouted, and then he swung his mace at the Shadow Thief, who was caught off-guard. His shadow form was cut in half as his body went flying backwards and released me from the shadow-rope.

With new energy, I braced myself to face the Shadow Thief again as he got up, still in his shadow form. I saw Hawkwoman's mace laying on the ground from where she dropped it a few feet away from me.

"I don't understand, why waste your time beating up a small, helpless child like me?" I feigned innocence as I drifted closer to the weapon on the ground. The Shadow Thief seemed to already know I was heading for it, though, as he slapped it away with a shadow hand.

I dashed for it, as the man followed, although he had more difficulty than me because of Hawkman.

I reached the mace first, and grabbed the handle like it was my practice mace. It weighed about the same.

With my new weapon, I launched myself at the Shadow Thief, swinging the mace furiously. This man had hurt my mentors, and now he was going to deal with me.

I sent a powerful hit to the Shadow Thief's head, which made him fly backwards.

"I never introduced myself, Shadow Thief," I said as I stood over his weak and defeated form, raising the mace above my head. "I am the Hawkgirl, a clone born from the DNA of Hawkman and Hawkwoman. And don't. You. Forget it." I snarled the last bit, and brought Hawkwoman's mace down on his chest, making his shadow form disperse into a bunch of small shadow tendrils that escaped back into the city.

I panted lightly from the battle, although I was largely unhurt. My wing burned, but that wasn't anything new.

I walked back to Hawkwoman, who was currently resting against a police car, as I returned her mace.

"You fought well, Hawkgirl," she complimented. She shook her head as I tried to give her the mace. "Keep it, you earned it."

I was shocked. "But this is the yours-"

"And now I pass it to you." She sat up to place her hand on mine on the handle, closing my fingers around the grip. "Today you fought like a true Thanagarian. I'd be honored for you to have this weapon." She smiled at me for perhaps the first time, as I couldn't help but smile back.

"But, what'll you use now?" I asked, concerned, as she stood.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I don't need a weapon to beat you in training." She replied with an edge I've become used to hearing during training.

"Come on, let's get you home, and you back to the Cave." Hawkman spoke, referring to Hawkwoman and myself. We walked until we were completely off the bridge, and the Hawks took flight and I scaled a building to get back to the Zeta tube.

I can't wait to tell the team about this, I thought as I felt the weight of my new weapon in my hand as I jumped the rooftops of Chicago.


A/N: Here, have some filler feat. the Hawkfamily and Xavier. \(^_^)/

I think I am going to follow "Denial" since it takes some time after "Infiltrator" so the days during episode and filler chapters wouldn't bleed together. I will do some of Hawkgirl's own arc during "Downtime," though, since that's kind of the nature of the B-plot.

As always, reviews, followers, and favorites are greatly appreciated.