The Mount Tobar Observatory, rundown and left vacant since funding dried up, hadn’t played host to so much as a single visitor for years. Once a proud aspect of the growing Midway City, it now sat on the outskirts, dormant and forgotten except to transients. Tonight, however, to one such passerby the scientific research facility might look quite the opposite.
A skylight that had allowed the moonlight to filter through into the main reception area suddenly burst apart. Shattered glass rained down on the walkway leading up to the facility as a figure with a massive wingspan rose off into the evening.
The front door was kicked open a moment later by a cobalt blue boot heel. Ted Kord, inventor and adventurer, and known in some circles as the costumed Blue Beetle, ground his teeth as he watched the shell of his friend fly away.
“Damn!” Blue Beetle said. “Zatanna! I thought you had him bound in your mystic gobblety-gook!”
The mistress of magic, Zatanna Zatarra, rushed out onto the path behind him, her own face twisted in aggravation. “I did!” she retorted. “I had a secure binding on him, but something made him go haywire again! He’s too strong, Ted. He shattered my binding just like he did that window.”
They both pivoted to see another winged figure, this one distinctly female, launch out of the newly created opening. Hawkwoman, who had retrieved her nth metal harness a mere hour ago, barrel-rolled over briefly when she passed over Blue Beetle and Zatanna.
“I’ll chase him this time!” she called down. “Figure out what spooked him and catch up when you can!”
With a downward flap of her powerful wings, the armored woman was off like a rocket after her soulless husband. Within moments the darkening sky swallowed them up and the other Justice Leaguers were left behind to wonder.
“Spooked him?” Blue Beetle chewed the words over, trying to piece the mystery together. “As soon as that news report came on about what’s happening downtown he flexed and took off. You said Katar had no soul, right?”
“Someone stole it,” Zatanna clarified. “I felt…some kind of backlash against my spell. As if someone poked him with a cattle prod. Magically speaking, of course.”
“Of course.” Blue Beetle trotted over to a blue and silver motorcycle that he had ridden up to the Observatory. At the time they had assumed this would be a place of sanctuary where they could figure out what to do with Katar. The only good it had done was let them regroup for too brief a time. He kicked started the bike he had custom-made in his workshop, saying, “Think you can track him again?”
“Actually…” Zatanna concentrated a moment and then spread her arms. “Rehtet eht leaver!”
White and yellow specks of condensed magical energy, like fireflies of supernatural means, swarmed in front of Zatanna. They began to spread out and multiply, and then suddenly rushed together to form a long chain that started to stretch off in the direction that the Hawks had flown.
Blue Beetle commented. “This one looks different from your tracking spell.”
“No, not a tracking spell,” she corrected. “A tethering spell! Katar didn’t just break free on his own; he was summoned. I think whoever stole his spiritual essence still has it, and I think that person is summoning him! Follow the trail and we’ll finally see the connection between Hawkman’s body and wherever his soul has ended up.”
Pink energy whirled under Zatanna’s feet and she launched herself off into the air. Blue Beetle revved his engine and took off after her, praying that all of this would be over soon. Hawkman was brutal without his soul; he had no self-control and had already tried to kill all three of them. Hopefully he wouldn’t succeed tonight.
# # #
The Coin felt like he was finally in control of his life. As he smashed down the controls in the cockpit of his pink, Godzilla-sized piggy bank, sending one of its appendages hurtling into the side of a building, he knew that he would finally get the respect that he deserved.
As one of Midway City’s least well-known villains, the Coin was rarely identified as an enemy of the town’s hero, Hawkman. In fact, only one of their altercations had ever made it into the papers, despite the fact that he had been apprehended at least a dozen times over the years.
They laughed at his obsession over currency and the things that went along with it, but would they be laughing now? As he plunged the snout of his machination forward, knocking over a water tower and sending thousands of gallons of liquid running through downtown, he was the only one laughing now.
Without his dedication to research and his obsession, would he have crippled Hawkman and stolen his very soul? Even without the resources of the Gentleman Ghost, his absent partner in crime, he was sure he could have pulled the caper off. Even his fellow crook was ignoring him now, failing to show up for their rendezvous! No matter. The Coin was in control now.
He palmed the precious Genéh, feeling its power connecting him to Hawkman. He had summoned the brute and would use his hated foe as yet another instrument of destruction. In fact, he could make out the soaring hero now, approaching from the outskirts of the city.
“Strike them down!” the Coin shouted. “Make them fear you as I’ve feared you!”
Hawkman pumped his wings, his eyes glazed over and his mouth hanging open. The hollow warrior was at the mercy of the Coin’s power, unaware of the physical acts he was forced to commit.
He pulled his wings back tight to his back and dove down like a stone, dropping several hundred feet over just a few seconds. The people below him were fleeing in droves, terrified by the lumbering mechanical, if not comical, beast that was tearing through Midway City. It was like something out of a bad Saturday morning cartoon, only it was real, and it was horrific to behold.
Hawkman yanked his massive mace off of its place on his belt, cocking it back to drive straight into the skull of the nearest pedestrian. Some of the people looked up, seeing him approach, and began to cheer. Hawkman was their hero, their savor, their champion. They had no idea that he was now anything but, and that at his new master’s command he had come to kill them all.
Mindless, he selected his target and swung his mace forward.
“Katar!”
Hawkwoman smashed into the side of him, sending them both tumbling through the air like a pair of entwined eagles. She groped his waist, desperate to hold on and somehow bring him to his senses. While in her mind she thought it was hopeless, as not even Zatanna’s magic had uncovered a solution yet, in her heart she was dedicated to her husband and never without hope.
They jointly slammed into a lamppost and were separated, each hitting the sidewalk and leaving an impression in the cement. Groggy, Hawkman started to get up, but Hawkwoman smashed her own mace into the side of his golden helmet, knocking him back down.
She twisted around and screamed, “Everyone, get back!”
Hawkman started to get up again and she raised her mace again for another strike, but he lunged upward and grabbed her wrist, yanking her arm down and throwing her off balance. Despite his body being nothing but a shell, his natural warrior instincts were still there. He deftly tossed her over his hip and forced her face down into the pavement, yielding a third impact point in the cement. Cracks split open like spider webs, highlighted by a few drops of blood coming from Hawkwoman’s nose.
Hawkwoman hooked her mace around Katar’s ankle and pulled, throwing him off balance, but only for a moment as his massive wings spread and righted his center of gravity. He stomped down on her wrist, loosening her grip, and kicked the mace away.
His boot, guided by general mindlessness and the whims of a power-mad fool, was about to smash her skull into the pavement again…but a bubble of condensed water quickly formed around him and lifted him off the ground.
Hawkwoman got up onto her elbows to see Zatanna lowering slowly through the air to the street, her hands outstretched and her lips moving as she controlled the spell that had encapsulated Shayera’s husband. A line of yellow motes, floating like magical dust, stretched from Zatanna’s mind to Hawkman.
“The water should cut down his mobility,” the magician said. “Shayera, are you okay?”
“You’re making a habit out of coming to my rescue,” Hawkwoman replied. She sat up and reclaimed her mace as Hawkman thrashed about. She nodded to the trail of motes. “Another tracking spell?”
“No,” Zatanna said. “This time I think I finally figured out what might be going on. Let’s see if I’m right.”
As her feet touched down, she twirled her hands and shouted, “Rehtet eht esrevni!”
The golden motes of mystical energy swirled away from Zatanna, mixed with the ball of fluid that Hawkman thrashed within, and then burst outward over their heads. A new chain was formed, leading from Hawkman’s chest all the way up to the lumbering piggy bank automaton that was thrashing through downtown Midway City.
“He’s bound,” Zatanna said, “to whoever is inside that monstrosity.”
Behind the pink snout of the behemoth hog, the Coin swatted at the golden dust mites that encircled the Genéh in his hand, unable to get them to dissipate. He swore and saw that the heroes below had not only gathered and were obviously scheming against him, but had also captured Hawkman. His Hawkman.
He slammed his fist down on the controls and the enormous piggy bank stepped forward, nearly crushing the woman in the top hat. Hawkwoman, that damnable female counterpart to his greatest enemy, scooped her up in her arms just in time, however.
“Enough!” he shouted within the cockpit. He clutched the previous Genéh tightly and exerted his iron will, mentally nudging Hawkman to do his bidding. “Kill them!”
With a garbled roar, Hawkman flexed his wings and punctured the meniscus of his liquid cell. Streams of water poured out, and with Zatanna distracted, he soon found momentum and burst free. He gripped his own mace tightly and hurled it at Zatanna, smashing into her spine and dropping her to the ground harshly.
Hawkwoman was back on him in an instant, grappling. Their fingers joined in a fierce embrace and it was her strength against his, each augmented by the power of nth metal. His height gave him the only advantage, using his stature as leverage to push down against her. Her elbows buckled, but before she succumbed she shifted her weight and drove her knee into his abdomen.
Momentarily off balance from the blow, Hawkwoman pressed her advantage and flapped her wings down once, giving her just enough height to rise three feet above Hawkman. She clasped her own fists together and allowed gravity to pull her back down, swinging her fists down onto the top of Hawkman’s helmet. He looked up at her just in time for her to connect with his chin instead, and he spat blood out on the ground.
Brought to his knees from the strike, Hawkman clenched his fingers and prepared to drive an uppercut in retaliation, but Hawkwoman’s swift thinking stopped him cold.
“I’m sorry, Katar,” she muttered as she reached over him and slapped the buckle that connected between his shoulder blades. In an instant, the nth metal harness that not only strapped his wings into place, but also provided him with his enhanced abilities, fell away.
Snatching it away, Hawkwoman launched into the air again, out of reach from the now grounded Hawkman, who mindlessly tried to jump after her, but was only able to stumble and fall to the unforgiving ground.
“No!” the Coin exclaimed, watching from the safety of his automaton. He beat his fists against the control console, furious. “The odds are with me! ME!”
The Coin pushed a lever forward on the panel and a control yolk popped out of the dash. He gripped it tightly, ground his teeth, and positioned the targeting crosshairs on the heads-up display directly over the soaring Hawkwoman. With a wicked grin that was nearly devoid of human sanity, the Coin pulled the trigger.
The titanium cylinder that was painted to look like a cork, which was three meters in diameter, launched like a rocket from the lumbering piggy bank’s exposed belly. Hawkwoman turned at hearing the powerful rocket jets igniting and caught the brunt of the forceful hit square on, causing her to release the captured wings. The Coin cheered as Hawkwoman was driven into the side of and through a building, causing debris to shower the street below.
He turned the targeting system to lock onto Zatanna, who was already flying to help her friend, who the Coin was sure was now deceased, just as she deserved. With the cork launched, the yolk was now used to control his sinister penny-gatling guns. Two barrels protruded from where the titanium cork had been, and when the Coin pulled the trigger, hundreds of copper projectiles fired like bullets.
The pennies peppered the street, leading up to Zatanna, who erected a magical barrier to save her own life, but not before several of them tore into her right leg. She winced and became desperate to keep her shield up as the Coin continued his assault.
“You’ll never mock me again!” he screamed. “I will have the respect I deserve! I will—eh?”
Something had clipped itself to one of the viewports, some type of cable. As the Coin peered closer to discern just what exactly had attached itself to his automaton, a blue-gloved hand appeared and tapped on the transparent shield.
“Knock, knock!” the Blue Beetle said with a smirk as his head popped into view. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“Another one!” the Coin responded.
“I think you mean ‘the one and only,’ but I’ll let that slide.”
The Blue Beetle cocked back his fist and slammed it into the viewport. A small point sticking out from between his fingers, a shieldspike, much like what police officers used to shatter car windows, penetrated the viewport. Cracks spider-webbed out from where he had struck and he pulled his fist back for a follow-up hit.
The Coin stumbled back over himself, shocked at the sudden appearance of the cobalt hero. He covered his face with his forearms as bits of the viewport shield rained down on him. The Blue Beetle was on him in an instant, lifting him up by the lapels of his tweed sports coat.
“You’re finished,” the Blue Beetle said. He glanced down at the golden motes encircling the Coin’s hand. “Is this what you’re using to control Katar?”
Without waiting for a response, the hero pressed his thumb down onto a nerve point on the Coin’s wrist, forcing him to open him hand. The Blue Beetle snatched away the Genéh and tossed the Coin to the back of the cockpit.
Blue Beetle leaned out of the smashed-in viewport and held the Genéh outside, waving his hand furiously to catch his friend’s attention. “Zatanna!” he shouted. “Catch!”
He hurled the ancient coin down to the street below, and just as he released it, he felt something hard crack into the back of his skull. His Kevlar costume provided ample protection, but even with the padded suit he was still thrown for a loop when the Coin hit him with a huge wrench from the cockpit’s toolbox.
“Blast!” the Coin said as he tossed the wrench down on top of the inert Blue Beetle. “No matter! I’ll still crush them like the bugs they are.”
He deftly maneuvered the controls to bring the flat feet of his mammoth mecha-piggy bank toward the magician. He would stomp her into the street like a worthless worm, and then reclaim his prize that the arrogant blue one had taken from him.
With the penny-gatling guns stalled for the moment, Zatanna summoned the Genéh to her as soon as she saw Ted throw it out of the monstrosity’s head. It whipped through the air directly into her palm and as soon as it connected with her skin she finally realized exactly what had happened to her friend.
The motes dissipated and she looked closely at the ancient currency. She felt the magical connection it had to Hawkman, but she also felt something else. Another presence. With the ruins etched into the coin, she finally knew why her efforts to trace the stolen soul of Hawkman were fruitless.
Katar’s soul hadn’t been taken…it had been covered up by a lifeless entity.
She concentrated, focused her power where it needed to go, and shouted, “Eniwtnu!”
The Genéh shattered just as the lumbering foot of the automaton kicked her through downtown with the same force as a tank breaching a wall.
# # #
Hawkman opened his eyes, confused and disoriented. He heard screaming and looked up to see that not only was he downtown, but it looked as if hell had been unleashed on his city. The last thing he remembered was tracking down…who? Who had he been after? All that came to mind was disjointed memories about soaring over Midway City looking for Shayera.
Beside him was a translucent arm that seemed somehow familiar. He traced it to its owner, a sprawled our man wearing dapper clothing from several generations ago. A foe that he knew all too well.
“Gentleman Ghost!” he exclaimed.
He stood up and nearly fell back over again. He felt so weak. So powerless and vulnerable. His eyes widened as he clutched his chest, but grabbed only air. His badge that was normally strung over his pectorals was gone, and his harness with it. His wings were gone.
He steadied himself and looked down at his longtime enemy, the vicious villain that was barely visible. His top hat and monocle rested on a head that wasn’t there and he felt compelled to kick him while he was seemingly unconscious.
Where was his mace? His wings? Shayera? Why was he downtown?
None of it made any sense, but the horrible grinding and stomping noises from behind him finally caught his attention. He turned away from the Ghost to see the impossible: an upright piggy bank as tall as a building trudging through downtown, kicking over anything that got in its path.
He ground his teeth. The wind picked up, and as if by fate, a feather flew across his peripheral vision. He turned immediately and saw his harness flapping in the breeze, caught on a flag protruding from a restaurant marquee.
Hawkman looked up just in time to see the flat pink foot of the horrible creation closing down on him. He threw himself forward and somersaulted along the cracked street until he was out of harm’s way. The foot drove into the street like a pile driver, and he sprung up into a run, heading directly for his lost wings.
Copper peppered the pavement behind him as the penny-gatling guns trailed along, guided by the Coin. He bounded up onto the hood of an askew car, ran along its top, and jumped as far as his toned legs could thrust him. He reached out, catching the bottom of his harness with one finger, and pulling it down just as the trailing pennies caught up with him.
The copper pelted him relentlessly and would have torn into his flesh with ease…if he hadn’t reached the nth metal in time. Once more empowered by the otherworldly material, Hawkman fell into a crouch behind the car, slipped on his harness, and felt like himself again.
Without wasting time, he pumped his wings down and shot like a rocket straight up into the air, pulling his wings in tight to his body and spiraling upward. When he reached the elevation of the monstrous killing machine he arched his back and extended his arms, diving straight for cartoonish head.
The Coin saw him coming and yanked back on the controls to steer away from him, but it was too late. The speed that Hawkman now moved was incredible and his intrusion would be unavoidable. The Coin wordlessly screamed as Hawkman punched with his entire body straight into the automaton’s engorged belly, tearing through the reinforced frame with ease.
Metal screeched and gears were shattered as Hawkman punctured the skin of the man-made beast. The force of entry barely slowed him down as he tore through the internal mechanisms like they were made of paper. Grabbing anything he could, he ripped and tore apart the inside and worked his way upward.
In the cockpit, the Coin worked at the controls furiously, but even as he activated another defense measure it was taken offline by Hawkman’s chaotic behavior. He swore and tried pulling every switch, lever, and emergency button, but it made no difference.
Something erupted behind him. The teeth-gnashing sounds of metal bending back froze him in place. He turned, shaking, to see Hawkman emerge from beneath the cockpit, forcing his way up and through the flooring like some kind of invading virus. What shook him to the core, however, was the look behind Hawkman’s eyes.
“Stop!” the Coin begged. “It wasn’t my fault!”
Hawkman took one look at the Blue Beetle, unconscious, but didn’t say a word in reply.
The Coin back up against the control panel, his arms outstretched in a feeble attempt to hold Hawkman at bay. “Please! You have to understand. It was him! The Ghost! He put me up to this. I swear!”
“You partnered with a psychopath,” Hawkman retorted. “You’ve assaulted an entire city. My city.”
Hawkman grabbed him by the collar, hoisting him up with ease. There was pure menace in the hero’s eyes, and he pulled his fist back to deliver a blow that would act as retribution for all of the suffering the citizens of Midway City had just experienced.
But focusing beyond the Coin, looking past his shoulder and threw the open viewport, Hawkman saw his beloved Shayera float down to his level, gently riding the thermal updraft that permeated the city. She was battered, but alive. They locked eyes and Hawkman gently set the Coin down on his own feet again.
“I don’t know what you hoped to accomplish,” Hawkman finally said, “but it’s over now. You’re finished. And I’m back.”
# # #
“I don’t know how to thank you,” Katar Hol said.
Zatanna smiled, but then winced as she shook her friend’s hand. His own strength, even when he wasn’t wearing the nth metal harness, was incredible. Even if she hadn’t recently experienced being attacked by him, she would know that he was a deadly person to engage.
He noticed and quickly his hand back. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I guess I could start by not breaking your hand.”
“We’re glad you’re back to your old self again, Katar,” she said.
“Yeah,” Blue Beetle chimed in. “Now I can finally get back home. A billion-dollar company doesn’t run itself.” He hopped on his motorcycle and kick-started it. “Actually, it kind of does.”
Ted Kord was smiling through the pain. He had suffered a mild concussion, but thanks to some of Zatanna’s crafty spellwork, he was feeling fairly normal, if not a bit bumped round. As much as he appreciated having friends like these, he would be happy to get back home again.
“I think the board gets annoyed when I bother to show up for meetings,” he said over the thrum of the engine. “Anyways, see you mooks around!”
As Blue Beetle sped away down the path leading up to the Observatory, Shayera approached Zatanna, ignoring her hand and pulling her into a hug instead. “Thank you,” she said. “Honestly. Without you I would have lost him forever.”
She stepped back and Zatanna briefly reflected on the pair of Hawks; Katar’s massive arm wrapped around Shayera’s shoulders, pulling her tight as if he never would let her go again. And maybe he wouldn’t. There were few people that Zatanna had ever met that had the kind of kinship that the Hawks possessed.
“So, they tried to control Katar with some kind of ritual?” Shayera asked.
Zatanna nodded and held up the Genéh. “Except that neither of them new enough about magic to really do it correctly. This ancient coin overlaid Gentleman Ghost’s spiritual essence over top of yours, Katar. That’s why I thought your soul was gone. I was just reading the Ghost’s non-soul. It’s like your soul had been…redacted, for lack of a better term.”
“And the Ghost?” Katar asked.
“Gone,” Zatanna replied. “Although I’m sure he’ll be back.”
“Thank you again,” Shayera said as she squeezed Katar.
“Happy to help,” Zatanna replied, and she meant it. “You could thank me by taking over monitor duty the next time I come up in the rotation.”
They laughed and Zatanna bowed at the waist as only a performer can. She looked up at them just enough to reveal her eyes, then winked, and in a flash she was gone.
“Ever the stage magician,” Shayera said, then she turned to Katar, still held in his arms. “How are you feeling?”
“Strong,” he said, and he bent down to kiss her. When they parted, he added, “I feel like I have a new lease on life. Maybe I do.”
They turned together to face the Observatory, pondering its presence. It was a massive facility and it seemed like such a waste of space. They had used it before as a sort of refuge, but maybe it was time for it to become more than that. They loved the museum like it was a second home, but they had learned the hard way that it could be a target just as much as a sanctuary.
“Let’s work out taking this place over,” Katar finally said. “We could use a fresh start, I think. What better way than to come out here in the fresh, open air?”
“You think?”
“Absolutely. We could really spread our wings out here, and if there’s trouble downtown is only a minute’s flight from here. Bruce has his cave; Clark has his fortress. The Hawk’s need their own place, too.”
“I could get on board with that,” Hawkwoman replied. “It might even be a good place…to raise a family.”
Katar twisted his neck abruptly to look his wife in the eyes. She had removed her cowl so he could see deep into her pupils, watching his own confused expression reflected there. For a moment he said nothing, and when he finally remembered that he could talk, she kissed him.
Perhaps there was nothing more to say anyway.
EPILOGUE
He watched silently over the penitentiary, holding in his disgust. Such a place was ridiculous. Why incarcerate all of the worst criminals into a single location? They’ll obviously congregate, and likely hatch plans together. If not now, then when they get out their network will be all the stronger. It made no sense.
But this wasn’t any of his concern. He only cared about the newest arrival to the prison. With a fleeting thought, his incorporeal form swiftly moved within the concrete walls of the facility. Night was falling, a perfect time for him to enact swift vengeance.
While the Gentleman Ghost had been forced to piece together what had happened at the warehouse after the wretched Hawkman had followed his purposeful trail, and had been equally annoyed to have awoken from the limbo he had been trapped in to find himself downtown, he was now calm. It was part of his natural demeanor to remain so.
But tonight, he would be the opposite. As soon as the last embers of sunlight were gone, plunging the prison cell into total darkness, he would reveal himself. He regretted partnering himself with the Coin, the idiot simpleton that had somehow screwed up a basic incantation. The way he saw it the Coin was to blame for the entire operation.
And how dare he try to usurp Midway City? The gall this lower class of criminal had was appalling.
Invisible, he watched the Coin climb into his bunk in his dank little cell. The light was quickly dissipating. Soon, the Gentleman Ghost would reveal himself by haunting the pathetic little creature until he was insane.
Yes, insanity seemed a fitting punishment for such an inept fool.
Then, once the Coin was reduced to a babbling moron, he would set his sights on his hated enemies, the Hawks.
END
Thanks to everyone for reading! I’ve only ever possessed one Hawkman comic in my life, and it was right in the middle of that Hawkworld stuff. I always thought that Katar Hol could be a real frightening force if left unchecked. Yes, I borrowed the concept from Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow issues, but I wanted a plot that would show Katar really unleashed. He’s a fun character to write, but given the way I structured this story, you could make the argument that I haven’t actually written him yet (-:
- D. Golightly
June 2017
A skylight that had allowed the moonlight to filter through into the main reception area suddenly burst apart. Shattered glass rained down on the walkway leading up to the facility as a figure with a massive wingspan rose off into the evening.
The front door was kicked open a moment later by a cobalt blue boot heel. Ted Kord, inventor and adventurer, and known in some circles as the costumed Blue Beetle, ground his teeth as he watched the shell of his friend fly away.
“Damn!” Blue Beetle said. “Zatanna! I thought you had him bound in your mystic gobblety-gook!”
The mistress of magic, Zatanna Zatarra, rushed out onto the path behind him, her own face twisted in aggravation. “I did!” she retorted. “I had a secure binding on him, but something made him go haywire again! He’s too strong, Ted. He shattered my binding just like he did that window.”
They both pivoted to see another winged figure, this one distinctly female, launch out of the newly created opening. Hawkwoman, who had retrieved her nth metal harness a mere hour ago, barrel-rolled over briefly when she passed over Blue Beetle and Zatanna.
“I’ll chase him this time!” she called down. “Figure out what spooked him and catch up when you can!”
With a downward flap of her powerful wings, the armored woman was off like a rocket after her soulless husband. Within moments the darkening sky swallowed them up and the other Justice Leaguers were left behind to wonder.
“Spooked him?” Blue Beetle chewed the words over, trying to piece the mystery together. “As soon as that news report came on about what’s happening downtown he flexed and took off. You said Katar had no soul, right?”
“Someone stole it,” Zatanna clarified. “I felt…some kind of backlash against my spell. As if someone poked him with a cattle prod. Magically speaking, of course.”
“Of course.” Blue Beetle trotted over to a blue and silver motorcycle that he had ridden up to the Observatory. At the time they had assumed this would be a place of sanctuary where they could figure out what to do with Katar. The only good it had done was let them regroup for too brief a time. He kicked started the bike he had custom-made in his workshop, saying, “Think you can track him again?”
“Actually…” Zatanna concentrated a moment and then spread her arms. “Rehtet eht leaver!”
White and yellow specks of condensed magical energy, like fireflies of supernatural means, swarmed in front of Zatanna. They began to spread out and multiply, and then suddenly rushed together to form a long chain that started to stretch off in the direction that the Hawks had flown.
Blue Beetle commented. “This one looks different from your tracking spell.”
“No, not a tracking spell,” she corrected. “A tethering spell! Katar didn’t just break free on his own; he was summoned. I think whoever stole his spiritual essence still has it, and I think that person is summoning him! Follow the trail and we’ll finally see the connection between Hawkman’s body and wherever his soul has ended up.”
Pink energy whirled under Zatanna’s feet and she launched herself off into the air. Blue Beetle revved his engine and took off after her, praying that all of this would be over soon. Hawkman was brutal without his soul; he had no self-control and had already tried to kill all three of them. Hopefully he wouldn’t succeed tonight.
# # #
The Coin felt like he was finally in control of his life. As he smashed down the controls in the cockpit of his pink, Godzilla-sized piggy bank, sending one of its appendages hurtling into the side of a building, he knew that he would finally get the respect that he deserved.
As one of Midway City’s least well-known villains, the Coin was rarely identified as an enemy of the town’s hero, Hawkman. In fact, only one of their altercations had ever made it into the papers, despite the fact that he had been apprehended at least a dozen times over the years.
They laughed at his obsession over currency and the things that went along with it, but would they be laughing now? As he plunged the snout of his machination forward, knocking over a water tower and sending thousands of gallons of liquid running through downtown, he was the only one laughing now.
Without his dedication to research and his obsession, would he have crippled Hawkman and stolen his very soul? Even without the resources of the Gentleman Ghost, his absent partner in crime, he was sure he could have pulled the caper off. Even his fellow crook was ignoring him now, failing to show up for their rendezvous! No matter. The Coin was in control now.
He palmed the precious Genéh, feeling its power connecting him to Hawkman. He had summoned the brute and would use his hated foe as yet another instrument of destruction. In fact, he could make out the soaring hero now, approaching from the outskirts of the city.
“Strike them down!” the Coin shouted. “Make them fear you as I’ve feared you!”
Hawkman pumped his wings, his eyes glazed over and his mouth hanging open. The hollow warrior was at the mercy of the Coin’s power, unaware of the physical acts he was forced to commit.
He pulled his wings back tight to his back and dove down like a stone, dropping several hundred feet over just a few seconds. The people below him were fleeing in droves, terrified by the lumbering mechanical, if not comical, beast that was tearing through Midway City. It was like something out of a bad Saturday morning cartoon, only it was real, and it was horrific to behold.
Hawkman yanked his massive mace off of its place on his belt, cocking it back to drive straight into the skull of the nearest pedestrian. Some of the people looked up, seeing him approach, and began to cheer. Hawkman was their hero, their savor, their champion. They had no idea that he was now anything but, and that at his new master’s command he had come to kill them all.
Mindless, he selected his target and swung his mace forward.
“Katar!”
Hawkwoman smashed into the side of him, sending them both tumbling through the air like a pair of entwined eagles. She groped his waist, desperate to hold on and somehow bring him to his senses. While in her mind she thought it was hopeless, as not even Zatanna’s magic had uncovered a solution yet, in her heart she was dedicated to her husband and never without hope.
They jointly slammed into a lamppost and were separated, each hitting the sidewalk and leaving an impression in the cement. Groggy, Hawkman started to get up, but Hawkwoman smashed her own mace into the side of his golden helmet, knocking him back down.
She twisted around and screamed, “Everyone, get back!”
Hawkman started to get up again and she raised her mace again for another strike, but he lunged upward and grabbed her wrist, yanking her arm down and throwing her off balance. Despite his body being nothing but a shell, his natural warrior instincts were still there. He deftly tossed her over his hip and forced her face down into the pavement, yielding a third impact point in the cement. Cracks split open like spider webs, highlighted by a few drops of blood coming from Hawkwoman’s nose.
Hawkwoman hooked her mace around Katar’s ankle and pulled, throwing him off balance, but only for a moment as his massive wings spread and righted his center of gravity. He stomped down on her wrist, loosening her grip, and kicked the mace away.
His boot, guided by general mindlessness and the whims of a power-mad fool, was about to smash her skull into the pavement again…but a bubble of condensed water quickly formed around him and lifted him off the ground.
Hawkwoman got up onto her elbows to see Zatanna lowering slowly through the air to the street, her hands outstretched and her lips moving as she controlled the spell that had encapsulated Shayera’s husband. A line of yellow motes, floating like magical dust, stretched from Zatanna’s mind to Hawkman.
“The water should cut down his mobility,” the magician said. “Shayera, are you okay?”
“You’re making a habit out of coming to my rescue,” Hawkwoman replied. She sat up and reclaimed her mace as Hawkman thrashed about. She nodded to the trail of motes. “Another tracking spell?”
“No,” Zatanna said. “This time I think I finally figured out what might be going on. Let’s see if I’m right.”
As her feet touched down, she twirled her hands and shouted, “Rehtet eht esrevni!”
The golden motes of mystical energy swirled away from Zatanna, mixed with the ball of fluid that Hawkman thrashed within, and then burst outward over their heads. A new chain was formed, leading from Hawkman’s chest all the way up to the lumbering piggy bank automaton that was thrashing through downtown Midway City.
“He’s bound,” Zatanna said, “to whoever is inside that monstrosity.”
Behind the pink snout of the behemoth hog, the Coin swatted at the golden dust mites that encircled the Genéh in his hand, unable to get them to dissipate. He swore and saw that the heroes below had not only gathered and were obviously scheming against him, but had also captured Hawkman. His Hawkman.
He slammed his fist down on the controls and the enormous piggy bank stepped forward, nearly crushing the woman in the top hat. Hawkwoman, that damnable female counterpart to his greatest enemy, scooped her up in her arms just in time, however.
“Enough!” he shouted within the cockpit. He clutched the previous Genéh tightly and exerted his iron will, mentally nudging Hawkman to do his bidding. “Kill them!”
With a garbled roar, Hawkman flexed his wings and punctured the meniscus of his liquid cell. Streams of water poured out, and with Zatanna distracted, he soon found momentum and burst free. He gripped his own mace tightly and hurled it at Zatanna, smashing into her spine and dropping her to the ground harshly.
Hawkwoman was back on him in an instant, grappling. Their fingers joined in a fierce embrace and it was her strength against his, each augmented by the power of nth metal. His height gave him the only advantage, using his stature as leverage to push down against her. Her elbows buckled, but before she succumbed she shifted her weight and drove her knee into his abdomen.
Momentarily off balance from the blow, Hawkwoman pressed her advantage and flapped her wings down once, giving her just enough height to rise three feet above Hawkman. She clasped her own fists together and allowed gravity to pull her back down, swinging her fists down onto the top of Hawkman’s helmet. He looked up at her just in time for her to connect with his chin instead, and he spat blood out on the ground.
Brought to his knees from the strike, Hawkman clenched his fingers and prepared to drive an uppercut in retaliation, but Hawkwoman’s swift thinking stopped him cold.
“I’m sorry, Katar,” she muttered as she reached over him and slapped the buckle that connected between his shoulder blades. In an instant, the nth metal harness that not only strapped his wings into place, but also provided him with his enhanced abilities, fell away.
Snatching it away, Hawkwoman launched into the air again, out of reach from the now grounded Hawkman, who mindlessly tried to jump after her, but was only able to stumble and fall to the unforgiving ground.
“No!” the Coin exclaimed, watching from the safety of his automaton. He beat his fists against the control console, furious. “The odds are with me! ME!”
The Coin pushed a lever forward on the panel and a control yolk popped out of the dash. He gripped it tightly, ground his teeth, and positioned the targeting crosshairs on the heads-up display directly over the soaring Hawkwoman. With a wicked grin that was nearly devoid of human sanity, the Coin pulled the trigger.
The titanium cylinder that was painted to look like a cork, which was three meters in diameter, launched like a rocket from the lumbering piggy bank’s exposed belly. Hawkwoman turned at hearing the powerful rocket jets igniting and caught the brunt of the forceful hit square on, causing her to release the captured wings. The Coin cheered as Hawkwoman was driven into the side of and through a building, causing debris to shower the street below.
He turned the targeting system to lock onto Zatanna, who was already flying to help her friend, who the Coin was sure was now deceased, just as she deserved. With the cork launched, the yolk was now used to control his sinister penny-gatling guns. Two barrels protruded from where the titanium cork had been, and when the Coin pulled the trigger, hundreds of copper projectiles fired like bullets.
The pennies peppered the street, leading up to Zatanna, who erected a magical barrier to save her own life, but not before several of them tore into her right leg. She winced and became desperate to keep her shield up as the Coin continued his assault.
“You’ll never mock me again!” he screamed. “I will have the respect I deserve! I will—eh?”
Something had clipped itself to one of the viewports, some type of cable. As the Coin peered closer to discern just what exactly had attached itself to his automaton, a blue-gloved hand appeared and tapped on the transparent shield.
“Knock, knock!” the Blue Beetle said with a smirk as his head popped into view. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“Another one!” the Coin responded.
“I think you mean ‘the one and only,’ but I’ll let that slide.”
The Blue Beetle cocked back his fist and slammed it into the viewport. A small point sticking out from between his fingers, a shieldspike, much like what police officers used to shatter car windows, penetrated the viewport. Cracks spider-webbed out from where he had struck and he pulled his fist back for a follow-up hit.
The Coin stumbled back over himself, shocked at the sudden appearance of the cobalt hero. He covered his face with his forearms as bits of the viewport shield rained down on him. The Blue Beetle was on him in an instant, lifting him up by the lapels of his tweed sports coat.
“You’re finished,” the Blue Beetle said. He glanced down at the golden motes encircling the Coin’s hand. “Is this what you’re using to control Katar?”
Without waiting for a response, the hero pressed his thumb down onto a nerve point on the Coin’s wrist, forcing him to open him hand. The Blue Beetle snatched away the Genéh and tossed the Coin to the back of the cockpit.
Blue Beetle leaned out of the smashed-in viewport and held the Genéh outside, waving his hand furiously to catch his friend’s attention. “Zatanna!” he shouted. “Catch!”
He hurled the ancient coin down to the street below, and just as he released it, he felt something hard crack into the back of his skull. His Kevlar costume provided ample protection, but even with the padded suit he was still thrown for a loop when the Coin hit him with a huge wrench from the cockpit’s toolbox.
“Blast!” the Coin said as he tossed the wrench down on top of the inert Blue Beetle. “No matter! I’ll still crush them like the bugs they are.”
He deftly maneuvered the controls to bring the flat feet of his mammoth mecha-piggy bank toward the magician. He would stomp her into the street like a worthless worm, and then reclaim his prize that the arrogant blue one had taken from him.
With the penny-gatling guns stalled for the moment, Zatanna summoned the Genéh to her as soon as she saw Ted throw it out of the monstrosity’s head. It whipped through the air directly into her palm and as soon as it connected with her skin she finally realized exactly what had happened to her friend.
The motes dissipated and she looked closely at the ancient currency. She felt the magical connection it had to Hawkman, but she also felt something else. Another presence. With the ruins etched into the coin, she finally knew why her efforts to trace the stolen soul of Hawkman were fruitless.
Katar’s soul hadn’t been taken…it had been covered up by a lifeless entity.
She concentrated, focused her power where it needed to go, and shouted, “Eniwtnu!”
The Genéh shattered just as the lumbering foot of the automaton kicked her through downtown with the same force as a tank breaching a wall.
# # #
Hawkman opened his eyes, confused and disoriented. He heard screaming and looked up to see that not only was he downtown, but it looked as if hell had been unleashed on his city. The last thing he remembered was tracking down…who? Who had he been after? All that came to mind was disjointed memories about soaring over Midway City looking for Shayera.
Beside him was a translucent arm that seemed somehow familiar. He traced it to its owner, a sprawled our man wearing dapper clothing from several generations ago. A foe that he knew all too well.
“Gentleman Ghost!” he exclaimed.
He stood up and nearly fell back over again. He felt so weak. So powerless and vulnerable. His eyes widened as he clutched his chest, but grabbed only air. His badge that was normally strung over his pectorals was gone, and his harness with it. His wings were gone.
He steadied himself and looked down at his longtime enemy, the vicious villain that was barely visible. His top hat and monocle rested on a head that wasn’t there and he felt compelled to kick him while he was seemingly unconscious.
Where was his mace? His wings? Shayera? Why was he downtown?
None of it made any sense, but the horrible grinding and stomping noises from behind him finally caught his attention. He turned away from the Ghost to see the impossible: an upright piggy bank as tall as a building trudging through downtown, kicking over anything that got in its path.
He ground his teeth. The wind picked up, and as if by fate, a feather flew across his peripheral vision. He turned immediately and saw his harness flapping in the breeze, caught on a flag protruding from a restaurant marquee.
Hawkman looked up just in time to see the flat pink foot of the horrible creation closing down on him. He threw himself forward and somersaulted along the cracked street until he was out of harm’s way. The foot drove into the street like a pile driver, and he sprung up into a run, heading directly for his lost wings.
Copper peppered the pavement behind him as the penny-gatling guns trailed along, guided by the Coin. He bounded up onto the hood of an askew car, ran along its top, and jumped as far as his toned legs could thrust him. He reached out, catching the bottom of his harness with one finger, and pulling it down just as the trailing pennies caught up with him.
The copper pelted him relentlessly and would have torn into his flesh with ease…if he hadn’t reached the nth metal in time. Once more empowered by the otherworldly material, Hawkman fell into a crouch behind the car, slipped on his harness, and felt like himself again.
Without wasting time, he pumped his wings down and shot like a rocket straight up into the air, pulling his wings in tight to his body and spiraling upward. When he reached the elevation of the monstrous killing machine he arched his back and extended his arms, diving straight for cartoonish head.
The Coin saw him coming and yanked back on the controls to steer away from him, but it was too late. The speed that Hawkman now moved was incredible and his intrusion would be unavoidable. The Coin wordlessly screamed as Hawkman punched with his entire body straight into the automaton’s engorged belly, tearing through the reinforced frame with ease.
Metal screeched and gears were shattered as Hawkman punctured the skin of the man-made beast. The force of entry barely slowed him down as he tore through the internal mechanisms like they were made of paper. Grabbing anything he could, he ripped and tore apart the inside and worked his way upward.
In the cockpit, the Coin worked at the controls furiously, but even as he activated another defense measure it was taken offline by Hawkman’s chaotic behavior. He swore and tried pulling every switch, lever, and emergency button, but it made no difference.
Something erupted behind him. The teeth-gnashing sounds of metal bending back froze him in place. He turned, shaking, to see Hawkman emerge from beneath the cockpit, forcing his way up and through the flooring like some kind of invading virus. What shook him to the core, however, was the look behind Hawkman’s eyes.
“Stop!” the Coin begged. “It wasn’t my fault!”
Hawkman took one look at the Blue Beetle, unconscious, but didn’t say a word in reply.
The Coin back up against the control panel, his arms outstretched in a feeble attempt to hold Hawkman at bay. “Please! You have to understand. It was him! The Ghost! He put me up to this. I swear!”
“You partnered with a psychopath,” Hawkman retorted. “You’ve assaulted an entire city. My city.”
Hawkman grabbed him by the collar, hoisting him up with ease. There was pure menace in the hero’s eyes, and he pulled his fist back to deliver a blow that would act as retribution for all of the suffering the citizens of Midway City had just experienced.
But focusing beyond the Coin, looking past his shoulder and threw the open viewport, Hawkman saw his beloved Shayera float down to his level, gently riding the thermal updraft that permeated the city. She was battered, but alive. They locked eyes and Hawkman gently set the Coin down on his own feet again.
“I don’t know what you hoped to accomplish,” Hawkman finally said, “but it’s over now. You’re finished. And I’m back.”
# # #
“I don’t know how to thank you,” Katar Hol said.
Zatanna smiled, but then winced as she shook her friend’s hand. His own strength, even when he wasn’t wearing the nth metal harness, was incredible. Even if she hadn’t recently experienced being attacked by him, she would know that he was a deadly person to engage.
He noticed and quickly his hand back. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I guess I could start by not breaking your hand.”
“We’re glad you’re back to your old self again, Katar,” she said.
“Yeah,” Blue Beetle chimed in. “Now I can finally get back home. A billion-dollar company doesn’t run itself.” He hopped on his motorcycle and kick-started it. “Actually, it kind of does.”
Ted Kord was smiling through the pain. He had suffered a mild concussion, but thanks to some of Zatanna’s crafty spellwork, he was feeling fairly normal, if not a bit bumped round. As much as he appreciated having friends like these, he would be happy to get back home again.
“I think the board gets annoyed when I bother to show up for meetings,” he said over the thrum of the engine. “Anyways, see you mooks around!”
As Blue Beetle sped away down the path leading up to the Observatory, Shayera approached Zatanna, ignoring her hand and pulling her into a hug instead. “Thank you,” she said. “Honestly. Without you I would have lost him forever.”
She stepped back and Zatanna briefly reflected on the pair of Hawks; Katar’s massive arm wrapped around Shayera’s shoulders, pulling her tight as if he never would let her go again. And maybe he wouldn’t. There were few people that Zatanna had ever met that had the kind of kinship that the Hawks possessed.
“So, they tried to control Katar with some kind of ritual?” Shayera asked.
Zatanna nodded and held up the Genéh. “Except that neither of them new enough about magic to really do it correctly. This ancient coin overlaid Gentleman Ghost’s spiritual essence over top of yours, Katar. That’s why I thought your soul was gone. I was just reading the Ghost’s non-soul. It’s like your soul had been…redacted, for lack of a better term.”
“And the Ghost?” Katar asked.
“Gone,” Zatanna replied. “Although I’m sure he’ll be back.”
“Thank you again,” Shayera said as she squeezed Katar.
“Happy to help,” Zatanna replied, and she meant it. “You could thank me by taking over monitor duty the next time I come up in the rotation.”
They laughed and Zatanna bowed at the waist as only a performer can. She looked up at them just enough to reveal her eyes, then winked, and in a flash she was gone.
“Ever the stage magician,” Shayera said, then she turned to Katar, still held in his arms. “How are you feeling?”
“Strong,” he said, and he bent down to kiss her. When they parted, he added, “I feel like I have a new lease on life. Maybe I do.”
They turned together to face the Observatory, pondering its presence. It was a massive facility and it seemed like such a waste of space. They had used it before as a sort of refuge, but maybe it was time for it to become more than that. They loved the museum like it was a second home, but they had learned the hard way that it could be a target just as much as a sanctuary.
“Let’s work out taking this place over,” Katar finally said. “We could use a fresh start, I think. What better way than to come out here in the fresh, open air?”
“You think?”
“Absolutely. We could really spread our wings out here, and if there’s trouble downtown is only a minute’s flight from here. Bruce has his cave; Clark has his fortress. The Hawk’s need their own place, too.”
“I could get on board with that,” Hawkwoman replied. “It might even be a good place…to raise a family.”
Katar twisted his neck abruptly to look his wife in the eyes. She had removed her cowl so he could see deep into her pupils, watching his own confused expression reflected there. For a moment he said nothing, and when he finally remembered that he could talk, she kissed him.
Perhaps there was nothing more to say anyway.
EPILOGUE
He watched silently over the penitentiary, holding in his disgust. Such a place was ridiculous. Why incarcerate all of the worst criminals into a single location? They’ll obviously congregate, and likely hatch plans together. If not now, then when they get out their network will be all the stronger. It made no sense.
But this wasn’t any of his concern. He only cared about the newest arrival to the prison. With a fleeting thought, his incorporeal form swiftly moved within the concrete walls of the facility. Night was falling, a perfect time for him to enact swift vengeance.
While the Gentleman Ghost had been forced to piece together what had happened at the warehouse after the wretched Hawkman had followed his purposeful trail, and had been equally annoyed to have awoken from the limbo he had been trapped in to find himself downtown, he was now calm. It was part of his natural demeanor to remain so.
But tonight, he would be the opposite. As soon as the last embers of sunlight were gone, plunging the prison cell into total darkness, he would reveal himself. He regretted partnering himself with the Coin, the idiot simpleton that had somehow screwed up a basic incantation. The way he saw it the Coin was to blame for the entire operation.
And how dare he try to usurp Midway City? The gall this lower class of criminal had was appalling.
Invisible, he watched the Coin climb into his bunk in his dank little cell. The light was quickly dissipating. Soon, the Gentleman Ghost would reveal himself by haunting the pathetic little creature until he was insane.
Yes, insanity seemed a fitting punishment for such an inept fool.
Then, once the Coin was reduced to a babbling moron, he would set his sights on his hated enemies, the Hawks.
END
Thanks to everyone for reading! I’ve only ever possessed one Hawkman comic in my life, and it was right in the middle of that Hawkworld stuff. I always thought that Katar Hol could be a real frightening force if left unchecked. Yes, I borrowed the concept from Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow issues, but I wanted a plot that would show Katar really unleashed. He’s a fun character to write, but given the way I structured this story, you could make the argument that I haven’t actually written him yet (-:
- D. Golightly
June 2017