Alone again in Mavis’s office, Sarah Hall changed to her Hawkgirl uniform.  It was nice to move her wings about again.  She stretched them in front of the mirror.  “Ah!  What a cramp!”  Her mace was lying on Trent’s desk.  “Well…I better not bring the mace.  Mavis said it might scare the little squeakers.”

 

*              *              *

 

“Can you really fly?”  Hawkgirl opened her wings and flapped a few feet in the air.  Her wings blew a strong breeze through the youngsters’ hair.  “Wow!”

The children surrounded Hawkgirl again as soon as she landed.  One child was wearing a Batman shirt.  He tugged at her left wing to get her attention.  “I bet Batman can beat you up.  He can beat anyone up.”

Hawkgirl grinned.  “Really?  Can you tell him to come and fight me?”  The little boy grinned.  “Maybe one day I’ll fight him—but we’re both on the same side, you know.”

One girl was too shy to speak in front of everyone.  Instead, she whispered into Hawkgirl’s ears.  “My brother thinks I should like Supergirl…but I think you’ve braver!”

Hawkgirl was enjoying every minute of this.  Her writing skills were somewhat lacking (Mrs. Emmett had given her a crash course in writing her own name), but all the children were eager to met the new superhero.  Some had families in Gotham or Metropolis…but now, Midway had a new hero.  They had a new hero.

“Hey, Hawkgirl?”

Shayera turned around.  There was a slightly older boy behind her.  “That was pretty cool, the way you did in that space-crook.”

Hawkgirl looked at Emmett for help.  His son, after all, was somewhere in the crowd of children.  But his expression didn’t change.  “‘Did in’?  What do you mean?”

“You know, ‘did in’.  Destroy, exterminate, whatever you want to call it.”  The child made several jabbing motions.  “Buzz-z-z-z-z-z.  Fried that sucker.  Shows him what happens if you mess with the Magpie.”

Hawkgirl shook her head sadly.  “Well, I think I would do things differently if I had the chance—what did you call me?”  Without wasting another moment, Hawkgirl kicked her foot into the boy’s chin, sending him bleeding across the room.

Emmett was shocked.  “Hawkgirl!”

“Emmett!  Get these kids out of here!”

“But—”

“It’s Byth!”

Sure enough, the boy was growing taller.  Byth was grinning as he lifted his head up.  “Seven devils, Magpie.  I keep on coming back.  Isn’t it freaky?”

Emmett was calling for backup.  Several of the adults were leading the children to the exits.  But Byth had set off the alarms.  The same doors that trapped criminals after they stole a treasure from the museum had now trapped all the civilians within Byth’s grasp.  “Hey, Officer Hol.”  Hawkgirl spun back to face Byth.  “You say you’d do things differently if you had a chance?  How naïve.”  Slowly, Byth’s hands were elongating.  “And do what, pray tell?”  Webbing was forming between the digits.  “Land me in jail…again?”  His legs were shriveling away.  “A lot of good that did on Thanagar…how many times did I escape?”  A giant, scaly tail emerged.  “So what else can you do?  You’ve already taken my wings away.”  Byth’s face was flattening.  “Kill me?  You failed to do that.”  A forked tongue appeared from his mouth.  “You see, ‘Magpie’, you done everything to me.  And I keep coming back.”  Byth was now over twenty feet long.  His body was serpentine, with massive bat-like arms.  “Thanagarian Justice has failed.  Human Justice…hiss…they tried that on Thanagar…and look where it brought me.  S-s-s-say goodbye…Officer Hol!”

Hawkgirl remained right in front of Byth.  She was only thing standing between Byth and the crowd of children.  “S-s-s-s-step aside, Magpie!”

Hawkgirl didn’t wavier.  “Byth!  You picked the worse spot on Earth to pick a fight with me!”  She switched from English to Thanagarian.  “Come to me!”

Byth grinned.  “Come?  I’ll come all right—”

He was interrupted by the noise from above.  Over two hundred birds of every species came storming through the small vent openings near the ceiling.  And they all headed towards Byth.  He found himself being torn at by the talons and claws and beaks of birds all over his body.  Hawkgirl had mysteriously vanished.  Gritting his teeth, he dove after the crowd.  He knocked down several people, snapping at their heels like some reptile, until he found a glass wall and backed up against it to fend off the birds.  “A few mangy pigeons and sparrows—is that why I should be afraid?”

“No.”

The glass behind Byth shattered.  He turned to see what cause it.  Hawkgirl had used her helmet to brake through the glass, shattering it into fragments.  Her eyes were glowing with rage, her lips formed a snarl, and her red hair seemed illuminated by the new sunlight pouring in.  But it was what she was carrying that made Byth cold to the bones.  How could someone so little carry so much?  In her left arm was a massive shield, while her hand carried a massive mace.  In her right hand was a morningstar of equal weight, which she swung around as easily as a ball of yarn.  On he back were strapped several spears, a long bow, and several arrows.  Around her waist dangled an array of swords and daggers.  “This is why you should be afraid.  Don’t ever fight the Hawk in her Aerie!”

Emmett took advantage of the situation, and led as many people as possible through the exit Hawkgirl had made.  “I’m staying with you!” said Jordan, who had just arrived to find Hawkgirl already at work.

“Get these people out of here!  I’ll stay here!”

Byth used his tail to knock Hawkgirl to the ground.  The added weight on her did make it harder to get up.  But she made up for it with her arsenal of weapons.  Byth found two spears sunk deep into his flesh before Hawkgirl was back on her feet.  And the birds were still attacking.  Desperate, he spread his wings and made for the glass roof.  I need to get to the roof.  The bits of glass cut into his skin as he made his way onto the museum roof, but Byth was too scared to care.  “She’s going to cut my wings again!  She’s going to cut my wings again!”

Hawkgirl followed, shooting arrows along Byth’s back as the sun was setting over Midway.  “You asked what I was going to do to you, Byth.  You want to know?  It’s not Thanagarian Justice.  It’s not Human Justice.  This…this is my justice!”  The morningstar hit Byth in the jaw, which promptly broke in two.  She blocked a blow from his tail with her shield, and then swung the mace.  “You are going to live through this, Byth…but you will be so broken and battered I swear by the seven heavens you will not be able to harm anyone every again!”

“Officer Hol!”  SLAM!  “Officer Shayera!”  WHAM!  Byth’s reptilian body was shattered and bruised, blooding oozing from a dozen wounds.  He’s skull was smashed to one side, and that eye was dim and half shut.  “Magpie!  Mercy, please!”

“Mercy?  You’re not dealing with Officer Hol anymore.  We left her back on Thanagar.  Or maybe she left after you killed the humans.  Either way, I have a new name.”  Shayera raised her mace high above her head.  “I…am…Hawkgirl!”

The mace cracked Byth shoulder, and he crumpled onto the ground.  He groaned in pain.  Slowly, the scales drew back, the tail shrank, and the legs reformed.  Byth’s eyes widened in fear.  “What is happening to me?”

Hawkgirl realized Byth was not controlling this change.  She stepped back, horrified.  “The technology…you’re losing it…its withdrawing…”

“No!” screamed Byth.  But his body did not obey him.  Byth was crying and foaming at the mouth.  “No!  I was so powerful…I had wings!  Seven hells, seven devils, please!”  His bat-like wings were beginning to shrink.  He looked back up at the Hawkgirl’s, whose eyes were filled with both horror…and sympathy at Byth’s wretched state.  “You can’t take away my new wings.”

And with that, Byth ran across the museum roof.  And before Hawkgirl could say anything, Byth jumped over the edge, his awkward wings the last remnants of his previous powers.  Hawkgirl ran to the edge herself and dove down to catch him.  But her body was not as aerodynamic, and Byth had a head start.  In less than seven seconds, Byth crashed onto the great stone steps leading towards the museum, a bloody heap of broken bones, wings spread outward at odd angles in some futile attempt to fly away from it all.