Jane: Thank you for the reviews in response to your questions about the "reported sighting of Shayera"…..well your about to find out. ;)
Chapter 3
Letting slip
Ground Floor - Outside LexCorp
The six heroes appeared in a blue flash and immediately the dark knight begun his investigation, after a few moments of checking the perimeter Batman gave his brief analysis "The full news report stated that Shayera broke through Lex Luthors office on the fifty seventh floor, im hoping im not the only one who has noticed that there are no broken windows anywhere upon LexCorp tower" he informed.
"Well, despite the rumours I can tell you from experience that the media don't like to publish stories purely for the sake of it" added Superman calmly whilst looking around for Batman.
"Where's he gone" asked Superman concentrating to detect the dark knight with his super hearing "he's making his way to Lex's office, It doesn't matter how many super powers you have, he always finds away to slip away" finished Superman readying himself to stop Batman before Flash placed a hand on his shoulder saying "this is what Bats does on a daily basis big guy, lets leave it to him to it and see if he finds anything, were attracting a bit of media attention here" interrupted Flash gesturing to the approaching mass of the photographers, reporters and cameramen.
Lex's office
"One day earth, you'll realise that the world will be better of left to the care of those who are meant to rule it" muttered the bald billionaire whilst sipping on a glass of whisky.
"One day you'll realise that they still are in charge and we are not above the laws of the world" came a rasping voice
"Batman? How did you get here and what do you want? Sighed Lex topping up the glass.
"I'd have thought that with all of your money you could afford a slightly decent security system" said Batman as he stepped out of the shadows.
"I do not fear you Batman, I don't know how you've remained so successful in your operations at Gotham, I know you Batman, you can talk as tough as you like but you cant kill anyone and im to well connected to be put away, so how can I help you" finished Lex in mock admiration.
Ignoring what Lex had said, Batman continued "A few moments ago, there was a news report stating that Shay-Hawkgirl had broken into your office and was holding you hostage, believe it or not I was here to make sure she didn't do anything…..rash"
Lex started laughing hysterically at this, Batman narrowed his eyes slightly and restrained himself from punching Lex whilst he waiter for him to calm down "Oh Batman, I think you have been spending to much time with the Joker, Hawkgirl, she was the most useless member of your little team, no unique power and any powers she has one of the others always surpass it, now you see that T.V over there, it's programmed to come on whenever a programme or a news bulletin about me or LexCorp is aired, any channel, anywhere in the world" finished Lex
Batmans eyes widened a little at the mention of anywhere in the world before narrowing t their usual glare.
"Batman?" asked Lex looking round "of course he's gone you don't see him arrive, so why see him leave…Whats that?" looking over to his T.V he noticed a small black Batarang with a red light flashing "Oh" the T.V then exploded rather un-dramatically "well that did a lot" muttered Lex sarcastically, the smug smile disappeared when the sprinklers kicked into gear, soaking his suit, destroying the paperwork on his desk and most annoyingly of, all ruining a twenty three year old malt Whiskey.
Outside
Batman grinned to himself quickly before reverting to his usual stony expression as he approached the rest of the league currently been mobbed by media.
"Were going back to the watchtower" rasped Batman
"What did you find-" begun Superman
"Now!" interrupted Batman activating the teleporters remotely as the group then disappeared in a blue flash.
As they materialized in the teleport array Batman immediately strode off, leaving a confused and slightly angry league to catch up.
"Batman will you slow down" and "Where are you going?" could be heard been muttered amongst the Leaguers as the approached the hangar bay, were upon arrival everyone noticed what had riled him up so much.
"She's gone" confirmed Batman looking to the empty spot were Shayeras Ship was.
"But the new report-" begun Flash
"It wasn't real, it was a distraction, we saw the report on her ships monitors and assumed it was a live broadcast, when Infact it was probably some sort of program, we already know her "collapse" was fake, she probably activated the report as she snuck off" concluded Batman with a small hint of admiration.
"You don't seem overly annoyed by this, Bruce?" asked Diana
"Not many people slip past me Diana" muttered Batman in reply
"Hey look there's something on the ground where her ship was" said GL approaching the tiny object
As the rest of the league gathered around the object a light came on and a hologram projected above the device, Batman quickly called out "find away to trace the device, it might be connected to her ship some how"
Nothing other than the blue light projector of the hologram could be seen but the voice of Shayera could be heard By the time you discover this I will already have disappeared, im sorry for the little stunt I pulled, there were a couple of things I needed to grab from the watchtower before I left, oh and thank you for clearing out my apartment in midway city it made finding my stuff a lot easier, I have no idea what to do at the moment about the Thanagarian presence I'll simply have to wait for there first move, I've patched the Thanagarian channels to the monitors room, so they can still make contact, now that you no longer have my ship, also I transferred all the files I said I'd allow you access to, over to the monitor room computers as well. I will do whatever needs to be done to prevent anther conflict, if they are here for me, I will turn myself in…Goodbye.
"Did anyone find anything" asked Batman the second the device fell silent
"I managed to get a trace, it's just pinpointing the location now….Oh…..that's interesting" replied J'onn
"What, where is she?" asked GL and Batman at the same time.
"I guess she was expecting us to try and trace the device, its placed well over twenty thousand possible locations over the earth and still rising, this was obviously meant to throw any kind of hope of locating her aside, she may not even be on the earth now" added J'onn.
"She must've left the moment we had our backs turned, she must not of heard anything that Katar said" deduced Batman "Split up and try to find what it was she took, John you brought the stuff from Midway so check that stuff for us, everyone else split up" added Batman striding off as the rest of the league begun to split in different directions.
Watchtower Shayeras room
John hesitated before entering the room, mentally preparing himself for the memories that would come flooding back as he entered the room. He entered the room and looked round, Shayeras room they called it, just an empty room with a bed and some boxes piled against the far wall. John approached the boxes and from his new knowledge of her noticed just how much of a detective she was, the worlds most important headlines of the past four years she had been on the earth, cut outs of Superman, Flash, Batman and himself with various articles and hundreds upon hundreds of case files from the Midway city police department. One article caught his eye titled Midway finally gets it's own hero he laughed to himself at the photo unlike his, Clarks or Wallys first hero headline with them doing unimaginable feats with their powers, Shayeras was just her and some of the Midway city police including the commissioner stood at the steps of the museum.
As he was thumbing through more articles, he came across a tattered book with some Thanagarian language printed across the front, using his ring to translate it simply read lieutenant Shayera Hol - Mission Log and Journal flicking through it quickly he stopped it at a random page dating to just under seven years ago.
Assignment No. 278
Location: Rasalos - Gordanian Command Outpost
Mission Objective: Find and destroy the Gordanian Commander, Intelligence states the Outpost is currently in the process of withdrawal, Small garrisoned force no larger than 200 gordanian foot soldiers.
Officers in charge: Captain Thragan, Lieutenant Talak and Lieutenant Hol
Wingmen: 72 elite "201st Hunter squadron" Wingmen
Personal Notes: My final assignment as a lieutenant and an easy assignment, working with the 201st makes it more so given there near undefeated squadron status. I knew I'd make it to captain before Hro, final time I'll take orders from that old fool Thragan, the amount of times me and Hro have saved a mission from failure.
Captain Hol, not bad considering how much of a spectacular mess I was at officer training.
John laughed to himself as he read the notes "that's the Shayera I knew, not taking orders from no one, wonder why she's still lieutenant, must've punched the captain" he mumbled to himself as he turned the next page. The first thing John noticed was the change in style of the handwriting, gone was the perfectly need handwriting that the ring was translating, the letter sizes were all over the place some words were spaced a few fingers width apart and others were almost trailing into the next.
Easy assignment! Minimal opposition forces! We told that fool Thragan to pull out and report the new Intel. The forces are over ten times what the original Intel suggested, but that old fool and his "Thanagarians never abandon a mission"
They knew we were coming they had to, the moment we stepped of the ship we were surrounded, we tried to mount a resistance but we were overwhelmed in seconds they killed that fool Thragan and most of the 201st as well, I only counted 9 including me and Hro. I don't know why but they find it amusing to let us write in our logs….
Trying to keep track of time now is impossible, I haven't seen any of my fellow Thanagarians, but I have heard them, I've tried to count the time from each of the sessions. One hour of torture, I thought it couldn't get worse but pain is nothing, even if it seems to be every second hour. What they do for the other hour, im their "entertainment" I can only hope that Thanagar can send a task force before they move us. My ears are ringing, the only sound I can hear are the screams of my fellow soldiers….
John stared in shock at the book, as he was reluctantly about to continue there came a knocking at the door crap thought john as he made a quick sweep of the room finishing just as Batman strode into the room, John quickly placed the book in a back pocket.
"I was just finishing Batman, she has taken her military armour, her Hawkgirl mask, a few sets of clothes and a photo book" informed John
"It took you twenty minutes to notice two items of such size missing? And a photo book?" replied Batman
"She was obviously in a rush and the room was in a state so once I noticed what was missing I quickly tidied up, oh and yes she had a photo book, some of the league, some of midway but mostly just some photos of various sunsets and species of bird" partially lied John
Batman narrowed his eyes almost the minute John started talking but remained silent however simply stated "of course" and left the room leaving a rather confused John alone.
A/N: So recap, Hawkgirl 1-0 Batman, Hawkgirl still thinks the Thanagarians been back has something to do with the "invasion", Batman is suspicious (when isn't he), Lex has watery whisky. I could've gone on quite a lot with the missions log part I was going to write a lot for it in this chapter but I've decided to make it a recurring theme so expect more insights into Shayeras past.
Note: Im not that informed on the planets of the JLA so I'll probably make most of them up, hence: Rasalos
Random Jack Out