Author’s Note—Thanks for your patience guys!  I’ve been busy, so I made up for it with a double post!  Hope you enjoy.  The story should be wrapping up soon—but look for a preview of Hawkgirl’s next adventure at the end!

 

Hawkgirl was up at dawn patrolling the skies.  Every living thing was now a suspect.  Byth could change into any of them.  It took a few hours for the city’s surface to warm up and for thermals—hot pockets of air that aid fliers—to emerge.  But after two hours of heavy flapping and gliding, Hawkgirl was soaring with the falcons in the city.

                Her radio beeped.  “It’s Jordan.”

                “Any updates?”

                “Emmett’s status hasn’t changed.”  This disappointed Hawkgirl.  “You mentioned something yesterday about puncture wounds on the bodies.  Or forensic teams confirm this.  We even found the means—Thanagarian syringes that aren’t too different from ours.”

                “You think that’s how he killed them?”

                “No, because he was drawing blood, not injecting anything lethal.”

                Hawkgirl nodded.  “That’s how he’s able to turn into anything.  That’s his weakness.  He’s got to be able to take a blood sample.”  Hawkgirl began to think.  “We know he had two human bodies, an eagle, and dog.  Any other native animals we need to worry about?”

                “Not really…”

                “Oh good.  Then I think it won’t be too hard to defeat him.”

                “Uh…Hawkgirl…we do have some animals here that are not native…”

 

*              *              *

 

                “Make way for the beast!”

                Byth was enjoying this.  Back on Thanagar, he was inferior.  Without his wings, Byth was an outcast, and was considered weaker than his winged brothers.  But here on Earth—what a change!  And with the DNA of wolves and lions and hyenas and bears…the possibilities were endless!  Crowds of humans were running from him, grabbing their children and their loved ones and stampeding to the exits.  They were like cattle.  Stupid, stupid animals!

                Furthermore, Byth was learning more and more about his powers.  He discovered that he could restrict his changing to portions of his body.  He was now over eight feet tall, with massive grizzly arms ending in claws, but other than that he appeared in his true form.  Which was good, since the bear’s eyesight was so poor.  The strength flowing through him…the blood pumping through his body…it was so intoxicating…

                “Seven Hells!  What have you done to your body, Byth?”  Hawkgirl was skimming the skies overhead.  Byth snorted.  “It’s actually an improvement.  You were never much of a looker.”

                “Why don’t you come down and say that closer to me?”  Byth grinned and waved one of his massive claws.  “It wont hurt that much.”

                “Thanks for the offer.  But you’re ugly enough from here.”  Hawkgirl turned on the mace.  It began crackling with a charge.  “This time you’ve gone too far, Byth.  Two humans are dead because of you.  And a third one is in the hospital.”

                Hawkgirl heard a faint cry from near Byth.  There was a small girl huddled beneath a table.  Byth grinned at the sobbing child, then turned back to Hawkgirl.  “So?  These humans are inferior to me.  You’re inferior to me, Officer Hol.  You think you’re still the top cop, huh?  Well, you’ve never faced a criminal like me!”

Hawkgirl screeched as she plummeted down.  As she lifted her mace, one of Byth’s massive paws grabbed her by the neck.  Hawkgirl could feel the massive claws on either side of her neck, digging into her skin.  Byth slammed Hawkgirl onto the ground.  He laughed, scooped up the crying girl in his arms, and lumbered off.

Hawkgirl pulled herself back up.  “I can’t keep fighting him like I’m back on Thanagar.  I’m fighting him alone now…I need a plan.”  She looked at Byth.  He grinned back at her, showing a mouthful of grizzly fangs.

“You said I failed to kill to the human cop?  A pity.”  He suspended the girl in his claws.  “I’ve killed stronger humans than this one.”

Hawkgirl—Shayera—couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  This wasn’t the Byth she knew and disliked.  This Byth she hated.  “You are crazy.  You—you’re not the Byth I fought back on Thanagar.”  Byth stopped smiling.  “Whatever was in that pill you took…it’s changing your mind and your body.  You aren't even Thanagarian anymore! You're a genetic freak!”

“No!” He stood up, foaming at the mouth.  “I'm better than you! Better than any of these land-crawling, fleshy pukes!”  Byth dropped the girl, pinned her down with one paw, and tried to rip at her with the claws on the opposite hand.

Thinking quickly, Hawkgirl threw her mace at Byth’s head.  It struck him hard at the right temple.  Byth recoiled back, applying pressure to his aching head, and Hawkgirl dove after the girl.  One hand grabbed the child around the waist; the other grabbed the mace by the leather strap at the bottom.  She adjusted her wings and quickly flew out of Byth’s hitting range.  The sundress was ripped at the bottom, and there were a few scratches.  “Are you alright?”

Eyes opened wide with excitement, the girl nodded.  She wrapped her arms around the Thanagarian’s neck.  “Thanks to Hawkgirl!”  Shayera grinned.  This was her first real perk of being a superherione.  She could see Jordan up ahead, running towards her, with his officers behind him.

“Hawkgirl!  We were missing one zoo guest—you found her!”

Hawkgirl dropped the child into a policeman’s arms.  Then she landed in front of Jordan and his two top policemen.  Jordan spoke first.  “Byth’s loose in the zoo.”

Hawkgirl opened her wings wide.  “I noticed.  I’m going back after him.”

She was a few feet in the air before a voice made her turn around.  “Damn you, Hol.”  Byth was on the roof of a shop, changing his body into that of a jaguar.  He lowered his shoulders, bunched up his leg muscles, and pounced at Hawkgirl, still in midair.

“Hr!”  The weight of Byth’s blow forced the air out of Hawkgirl’s lungs and the mask off her face.  The pair landed near the edge of an exhibit.  They continued to skid, the concrete tearing into Hawkgirl’s pants and ripping her skin.  Byth lowered his ears as he realized he had overestimated Hawkgirl’s weight and the two were going to fall into the exhibit below them.

“Whoa!”

“Roar-r-r-r-r-r-r!”

SPLASH!

Few things are as unappealing to Thanagarians as water.  Even Byth, in his animal body, felt the instinctive fear of the murky pool he had dropped in, and was dog-paddling on the surface.  Hawkgirl was not so lucky.  The weight of the mace was dragging her deeper down.  She was too panicked to do anything until she hit the bottom.  Her mace was attached to her belt, but she could not release it.  Seven hells, I’ve got to get rid of this mace before I drown!

Something rubbed again her back.  Something…scaly.  Hawkgirl spun around.  There wasn’t much to see in the murky water, but she could make out the shapes of several giant swimming reptiles.  They were all at least seven feet in length, and they used their massive tails to move through the water with absolute mastery.  Can this get any worse?

It could.  Hawkgirl looked up.  The sun silhouetted Byth, still paddling on the surface.  And the silhouette was changing.  It was changing into one of the reptiles.  Hawkgirl struggled to pulled the mace off of her.  Meanwhile, Byth’s metamorphosis was complete and he slowly moved into the shadows.  Another swam past her, and she could see the massive tooth-lined jaw.  Hawkgirl was getting frantic.  She was running low on air, and the mace wasn’t loosening.  And worse, the water was stinging the torn flesh on her wings and the blood was making the animals frantic.

Byth struck.  He emerged from the shadows of the water like a bullet.  His jaw clamped onto Hawkgirl’s leg.  The pain was incredible.  He was trying to tear at the flesh by spinning his body, but the teeth only managed to tear at the clothing.  He tried again, trying to use the muscles in his jaw to snap Hawkgirl’s back.  Hawkgirl twisted around just far enough for Byth to miss her skin.  His teeth clamped around the belt.  Byth, thinking he had caught Hawkgirl, spun around and broke the belt in two.

The was Hawkgirl’s chance.  She didn’t know much about swimming, but kicking to the surface seemed most logical.  It was slow work—her wings dragged her down.  Byth, with Hawkgirl’s mace and belt stuck in his teeth, followed her.  Hawkgirl made it to the surface and began gasping for breath.  Her hair was a mess and covering her face.  “Well, I hope this works.”

Byth broke the surface and opened his jaws again.  Hawkgirl was ready.  She moved to the left and wrapped her hands around the neck and pulled the handle of her mace out of his jaw and grasped it with her fingers.  The head of the mace was still in Byth’s mouth.  “Here goes,” she shouted.

She turned the mace on.  A bolt of energy ripped through Byth’s body, causing the crocodile to spasm in pain.  The pulse spread to Hawkgirl, who could only grit her teeth.  Several of the crocodiles nearby were hit too and began swimming away in a panic.

For two minutes, Hawkgirl kept her hold on Byth.  He was not going down easily.  Her own muscles were aching from the current running through her.  Finally, Byth’s eyes rolled back, one last spasm shook Hawkgirl, and the giant crocodile began sinking into the water.

Hawkgirl paddled weakly to the edge of the concrete wall at the edge of the exhibit.  I hate water.  Her muscles were still shaking from the electric shocks.  “Hey Jordan,” she said weakly.  “How nice of you to finally show up.”

The police officer lowered his hand to help Hawkgirl up.  “Nice work, Hawkgirl.  But how did you survive the shock?”

Hawkgirl laughed.  “Military training.  We’re not allowed to use a mace until we learn to stand its sting.  So,” she said, grinning, “am I a superhero yet?”