The planet Thanagar, home of an advanced civilisation, a planet of floating cities above dense and misty canyons, that orbited the star Polaris. From a far, it looked peaceful, but this was not the case. The mixture of slaves and alien humanoids that had lived on Thanagar for years were attacked by an invasion of beings known as the Manhawks. These monstrous beings were hawk-bird humanoids who stole some of Thanagar’s technology for the thrill of it. The crisis was avoided when one of the ruling members of the planet, Paran Katar, set up a police force. Around the same time as this, the Thanagarians had discovered a gravity defying metal, known only to them as the ‘nth metal.’ It’s properties were described as endless but were only well and truly known for giving the person who held or touched it the ability to defy gravity and super-strength, against all odds. The Thanagarians valued the nth metal dearly therefore. Equipped with the nth metal at their belts and attatching metal wings to their backs, the police force could now take care of the invading criminals by using the nth metal and their artificial wings to fly into the sky and pursue them. With the Manhawks exiled to another planet, research on the nth metal and it’s properties continued, though it was running out. Soon, only a few Thanagarians could bear them and they would have to wear a tiny piece on their belts. They need to farm more nth metal. There was not enough on the planet Thanagar so Paran Katar established a programme to obtain more. To do so, they would have to colonise other planets. Katar scouted out Earth from his observatory and concluded they needed to move to the Solar System to find more of the nth metal. He appointed his son, Katar Hol and his wife, Shayera Thal, who had previously been in the police force, to scout out planet Earth and find more of the nth metal. Paran never actually told Katar about this. In fact, he used an a different excuse, one which was, in reality, more serious. Katar and Shayera attatched themselves to an incoming asteroid, which floated them towards the Solar System. As it approached Earth, it broke into little meteorites: three pieces. Katar and Shayera found themselves crashing into a sandy desert on Earth: Egypt.
Egypt, ancient times, around the 3100+ BC time. A giant crater lies in the centre of the hot sandy desert. In the distance a number of pyramids are being built by slaves hard at work. In the crater, a large chunk of rock and Katar Hol wearing his Hawk helmet, and nth metal belt below. His artificial wings looked half broken, jagged at the end. He looked down on his belt. The nth metal was gone. Then he looked around the area. Shayera was gone.
“Hello?!” He shouted, his voice echoing across to the pyramids. “Anyone here?! Shayera?!”
A young man in rags approached him. He wore nothing except a piece of long cloth that was wrapped tightly around his waste and went down to his legs. He spoke a strange tongue, foreign to Katar.
“He said ‘Who are you?’ He also saw us falling from the sky and thinks we’re some kind of gift from the gods.” The voice came from Shayera, who looked like she had been walking for some distance.
“How did you know that, my love?” Katar asked.
“The nth metal. It translates their dialect into our language and vice versa. They know what I’m saying right now.”
“Er, yeah, funny thing…I seem to have lost my piece of nth metal. It must of flown off into another one of the craters in the distance.”
The young man spoke again. “He wants us to come with him to the pyramid over there, where his leaders and other buddies want to investigate our weird behaviours.” Shayera said. She took the nth metal off of her belt and cut it into two with her dagger. She put one of the pieces back onto her belt. Katar took it.
“Thanks.” As he placed it on him, he began to understand what the young man was saying as he took Katar and Shayera to the pyramid: all about Ancient Egyptian society: their gods, their pharaohs, their pyramids slaves built, their food and dates, the river Nile, all made Katar very interested in this human society.
As they approached the pyramid, they could see slaves hard at work. A block of sandstone fell from below by accident. Katar ran in to save the day, saving about five workers from being crushed. By lifting the block on his own, the young man thanked him but said he must have had enormous strength: normally it took many men to do lift a block. The workers outside the pyramid from that moment, started to worship them like gods. Once inside of the pyramid, they were greeted by the ruler of this place. They decided to keep their identities secret. Katar took the name ‘Khufu’ after the young worker he had met whilst Shayera changed her name to Chay-Ara. The so called ‘king’ was surrounded with priests, who all took a liking to the bird-man and bird-woman, as they called them, except one, by the name of Hath-Set. He was deeply angered by the king’s submission to these two strangers. The King was old and was looking for a new ruler. After Khufu and Chay-Ara demonstrated their powers in front of him, he started to believe they were gods themselves, especially seeing their flying powers. In surprise moment, he bent down them and ordered for Khufu to be declared ‘prince’ of the region. When Khufu said that it was the metal with the powers, the former king said to him that Khufu was chosen.
Meanwhile the high priest Hath-Set who had been angered by the king’s submission, folded his arms and plotted. This Khufu had mentioned about a piece of metal he had lost in the desert…maybe I can find it.
That night, Khufu and Chay-Ara were crowned and sat on a marvellous throne. In the years that followed, Hath-Set deserted them. He searched the sands for this piece of nth metal that fell to Earth religiously. Khufu’s dynasty went on, from 2589 BC to 2566 BC: 23 years, meanwhile. Eventually, Hath-Set found the nth metal in the 23rd year, an ordinary year by Khufu’s standards. He forged a dagger, believing it to be incredibly sharp and lethal. Hath-Set had been well established as his main rival, sending horrible gifts and trying to poison feasts. He and his priests had hidden in the deserts. Hath-Set then tried to get into Khufu’s good books, by writing letters that praised him. Khufu rewarded him with an invitation to another feast, one which celebrated the marriage ceremony of Khufu and Chay-Ara. In Khufu and Chay-Ara’s private room, Hath-Set crept in, like a jackal.
“What are you doing?” Khufu asked, as he saw the little devil approach him.
“This!” Khufu yelled. He stabbed Khufu in the back with his nth metal dagger. Behind their bed, stood Chay-Ara, horrified, tears streaming. “You are the true ones to have betrayed us!”
“I should have known. You can kill me…but you can’t kill Chay-Ara.” Khufu gave Chay-Ara a loving look before smiling and falling to the ground.
“No…” Chay-Ara cried. She stood in front of Khufu’s bloody body. “I love him. Kill me with him!” Hath-Set stabbed her and the deed was done.
Present Day, Midway City, US state of Illinois. After a recent expansion into the countryside, the city is massive with many houses and skyscrapers popping through the clouds. Though there’s lots of living space in this great city, don’t let it’s urban roads and suburbs fool you. Musicals are held in a group of concert halls and stages in the richer part of town making it a prime location for actors and actresses, as well as musicians. In the backdrop, are mountains with an aviary and a observatory filled with astronomers. There is a large harbour too with ships coming in daily. It seems as if this city has it all. But our story won’t continue from the rich broadway style part of Midway, or the harbour, or even the tall mountains you’d expect a Thanagarian to crash into. It will begin on the boarder between the rich and poor parts of the city, in the dark alleyways and streets, there is one shining hope-the old museum. With it’s large stone pillars and otherworldly feel, it has stood for hundreds of years collecting artefacts from the past.
Carter Hall was the curator of Midway City’s biggest and only well-known museum. He was extremely interested in history, having collected countless artefacts from all sorts of places around the world and of all time periods, though admittedly, there wasn’t much history on Midway City that he could find artefacts on. He had a deep fascination for Egyptian artefacts, the museum containing many blocks of sandstone collected from pyramids and sarcophaguses dotted all around the museum. With his brown block of hair and beard he had been a curator for quite some time and work with the best historians from around the world, his team coming to situate in this museum. Carter waited in anticipation for the new intern: a woman by the name of Kendra Saunders.
Kendra arrived in Midway City early in the morning. Her family had come from Louisiana, but she had not known too much about them, as most of them had passed away as she grew up. Arriving in a grey business suit and fedora hat with her long auburn hair , she decided to pay for a room in the hotel on the other side of the street where Midway City Museum was. There, she could get to the museum as quick as possible. Arriving at the grand entrance, she opened the clunky old door slowly. There, she saw lifetimes of artefacts in a row. Some artefacts had been placed into individual expeditions-there was one for Roman artefacts and ones from around the US expansionism into the West from the 17 and 1800s going off at the sides. She approached an expedition with Egyptian artefacts that were right in front of her. She saw a man in a black jumper standing admiring some hieroglyphics on a sandy slab in front of him. He turned around.
“Ah! You must be Kendra. Is that right?” He asked her.
“Yes, that’s me.” Kendra replied.
“You came early. Great! How do you like the museum?”
“It’s wonderful.” She said, looking around. “I’ve always been interested in history.”
“Same.” He smiled at her. “Where are you from?”
“Louisiana.” She told him. “Though much of my family have died…I don’t know too much about them…”
“Ah I see…” Carter thought to himself. “So that work you wanted. As part of the internship, you’ll spend about 2 months in the museum with me getting to know the other curators and historians, showing the public around, that sort of thing.” At that point, an old man with white hair and a beard approached them. “This is Professor Astor. He’s one of my colleagues around here. He’s been around for a long time.”
“Hello.” Astor said to Carter and Kendra. “Nice to meet a fellow studier of history!” He smiled. Then he gave a more serious face. “I have found something interesting on the Hawk costume…”
“Hang on wait…” Carter put his hand up to Astor. “Let Kendra see the Egyptian artefacts first.”
Kendra gazed at each one of the artefacts: sarcophaguses, masks, cat statues, coins, building blocks of pyramids, and the golden mask of a particular pharaoh.
“Which Pharaoh is this?” She asked.
“Khufu. He called himself Prince Khufu back in the day. We’ve only recently found it. Long gone, they said. But me and the team found it during a search in Egypt. The authorities let us have it.”
“Show her the Hawk costume.” Astor butted in.
“There is a secret part of the museum I do not normally show people but the staff.” Carter said to Kendra.
“Hawk constume?” She asked.
“It’s based off of the Egyptian Horus…it’s a helmet and suit made for flying…” He marched Astor and Kendra over to his secret room and Kendra looked amazed. In front of her was a kind of golden metallic helmet of a bird and a belt with a strange glowing piece of metal on and a large mace next to it. There were also two metallic wings. She saw that there were in fact two sets of the gear. The other one seemed more feminine. Astor hadn’t even seen this and he opened his mouth wide to show his shock.
“This reminds me….of something I saw on TV about Midway City a while ago…there was some man in a bird suit flying around stopping crime. He was on the news...wasn’t his name Hawkman?” Kendra was utterly confused.
“Yes, he was called Hawkman. He’s been stopping crime for a good while now. I believe this is the same suit he used. Have you heard about Hawkgirl too?”
“Wasn’t Hawkgirl his partner for a while? I heard she disappeared…”
“This is all nonsense isn’t it?!” Astor laughed. “A fictional hero associated with Midway City? You’re all mad!” He laughed again. “I swear Carter, you’re doing this just so you can get more people into the museum. Our revenue has been going down lately. It’s perfectly understandable.”
“No, Hawkman exists. You just haven’t seen him in real life.” He said to Kendra and Astor.
“I kinda have to agree with Astor here. It’s getting late now, I better go back to the hotel.” She said as she walked off.
“Aren’t you going to tell her?” Astor asked Carter.
“Tell her what?” Carter and Astor gave each other a strange look.
“Hey, let me just take that Hawk outfit. It’s a pile of trash anyways.”
Carter looked at Astor suspiciously. “Why do you want it?” He stared at Astor even more. “I think I know why you want it.” They gave each other the evils even more. “You’re right, it’s all a load of junk. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ll give you it tomorrow.”
As Kendra went down the stone steps of the museum back to the hotel, she heard loud sirens. The police were on the side of the curb. On the opposite side of the street, she saw a bank with the window cracked wide open. Running out of the building was a man so agile, the policemen behind him couldn’t keep up. He eventually faced the policemen in a fight, and knocked both of them out. He ran up the road to where Kendra was.
“Hello woman…” He said, grinning at her with a grey beanie on his head, stubble showing. He raised his fist to her. “Give me ya wallet!” He yelled and grabbed her.
Kendra screamed. “Alright, alright!” She shouted in a high pitched voice. She threw him her wallet full of money.
“Money…ha ha…” He ran in the opposite direction and Kendra started crying. When there was no hope, a shadow appeared across the road as something swooped down. Kendra thought it was some bird, some owl or bird of prey. As it surfaced, it seemed to be a man with metal wings wearing a mask. He had a belt on and trousers, but no sign of anything on his chest, or if he were, it was very little. The thief flinched. The bird humanoid grabbed the thief and chucked him into a car. He then grabbed Kendra’s purse and threw it to her. Kendra caught it.
“Thanks…” She said. “Are you…”
“Hawkman’s the name.” He grunted, in a rough but whisper-like voice. He picked up the thief with inhuman strength, something very hard to do, and took him to a group of police officers.
“Thanks Hawkman.” One of the plump old policemen said to him. “This is Carl Sands, regular offender. We’ll take good care of him…this time…” They threw the now weak looking thief into the back of a truck and that was that.
Hawkman flew into the air before Kendra had time to thank him. She sighed. She walked back into the museum. “Did you see that?” She asked Astor, who was looking amazed at the doorstep.
“Yes. Hawkman is real, after all…I tell you…I knew it all along…”
“Where’s Carter?” Kendra asked.
“Here.” He walked into the room with the same colour trousers as the Hawkman and he bore a similar resemblance.
“Tell me about the Hawkman then…”
So Carter sat and explained about the city’s only superhero. “Some say he came from a planet called Thanagar thousands of years ago. His people were attacked one day by. Bird creatures. They stole their technology and found a metal called the nth metal which was said to give them super strength and the ability to fly with their metal wings…”
“So the nth metal is real…” Astor smiled.
“He landed in ancient Egypt with his wife but inevitably, he was killed by the Egyptian priest Hath-Set. But Hath-Set killed them with a dagger of nth metal…they were cursed for eternity. They were reborn…time after time after time…sometimes as history’s greatest figures…Khufu…admittedly...was one.”
“Khufu was the first Hawkman?”
“So you’re a Hawkman and Hawkgirl fanboy.” Astor laughed.
Carter looked at Kendra. He walked out of the room and then into the room the Hawkman Kendra had seen appeared.
“Carter?” Kendra was confused.
“Yes it’s me.”
Kendra gasped. “Are you…Hawk…”
“Let me answer your question.” Carter walked over towards the skeleton of a triceratops and lifted the whole set of bones as they were into the air. He then flew up with them and landed onto the ground and placed the bones exactly where they were. Kendra and Astor clapped.
“You’re Hawkman!!!” Kendra said, excitedly.
“Why did you not tell me this before?” Astor asked. “I have been here for a long time now.”
“I didn’t want my secret to break. You two must never tell ANYONE.”
“I won’t…but then…where’s Hawkgirl…”
“As you know, we reincarnate when we die…it’s all true…but I haven’t seen her in ages. When I was killed almost 100 years ago now…I came to life and remembered all my past lives…but she…I’m sure she didn’t…The last Hawkgirl was known as Shierra Sanders…she was my wife too. I loved her…but she got killed in an accident against one of our enemies…” Carter looked at Kendra deep into her eyes. “When you first applied…I thought that you might have some relation to her…your last names are very similar…but then I remembered that Shierra would always try to conceal her identity…hence why you’re not Sanders…but Saunders…to hint to me…you are Hawkgirl…”
“What? How can I be Hawkgirl? I’ve never met you…I would have remembered…” Kendra was in disbelief.
“That’s what she would say…you see…I was always the one to remember her in history…she would always need me to help her…I belief it’s because Hath-Set always kept coming back for us.”
“What’s that?”
“Hath-Set reincarnated too, you know.” Carter placed a round circle of nth metal into Kendra’s palm. “This is why I invited you.”
Astor suddenly grabbed the metal. “And this is why I applied to become a museum worker before you even reincarnated!” He shouted. Now with the metal in his hands, he felt all powerful.
“What are you doing?” Carter asked.
“I remember it all now…my father…he’s reincarnating all the time…he’s out there in the big bad world…but no one knows of his suffering. He’s died and reincarnated more times than you can ever think…and where did this suffering start? You.” He pointed to Carter. “You started this when you overthrew him in his pyramid with his real master…he was embarrassed that day in Egypt…”
“You’re Hath-Set’s son…from his Doctor Hastor days?”
“Indeed.” Astor grabbed a staff behind him. Energy flowed through him. A deep voice could be heard. “Yessssss…I am still alive…Carter…or should I say…Hawkman…so many names…so many battles…” A green ghost appeared. He entered Astor’s body.
“What’s he doing to him?” Kendra asked.
“Hath-Set is a master priest and magician…he’ll summon all the spirits he can to defeat me…or us…”
A green energy flowed out of Astor’s staff he fired it at Hawkman but Hawkman took to the skies. Circling Astor, Hawkman did and grabbed Astor. Astor took a good blast and Hawkman went tumbling down. Kendra looked at the hurt Carter. She had to do something. She ran at Astor and pushed him into a wall. She grabbed the nth metal.
“Here!” Hawkman shouted. He tossed her a belt and metallic wings. With ease, Kendra managed to attatched the wings onto her back and the belt with the nth metal too. She flew straight towards Astor and threw him across the room. Astor blasted her and she went flying down. Hawkman now had the opportunity to attack and did so. But Astor still blasted at him. Still, Hawkman could not get rid of him. Kendra came round the back and together, with Carter, they tossed Astor into a wall. The ghost that Hath-Set had created came out as both of them realised Astor was dead.
“You may have defeated me today…but I’ll be back…for the nth metal…and for revenge!” The green ghost yelled. “Take care of your new Hawkgirl…”
Kendra and Carter looked at each other with a newfound respect for each other. “So I am Hawkgirl.”
“You know what, you can stay the night here with me…I think we both know what we are supposed to be now…I don’t think I can work alone…I realise I was always meant to fight alongside Hawkgirl.” Carter explained.
“Fine, I will. I suppose if I will have to remember what happened…and continue where we left off…If this is what was meant for me…then I will have to accept it…if I was chosen and no one else…”
Egypt, ancient times, around the 3100+ BC time. A giant crater lies in the centre of the hot sandy desert. In the distance a number of pyramids are being built by slaves hard at work. In the crater, a large chunk of rock and Katar Hol wearing his Hawk helmet, and nth metal belt below. His artificial wings looked half broken, jagged at the end. He looked down on his belt. The nth metal was gone. Then he looked around the area. Shayera was gone.
“Hello?!” He shouted, his voice echoing across to the pyramids. “Anyone here?! Shayera?!”
A young man in rags approached him. He wore nothing except a piece of long cloth that was wrapped tightly around his waste and went down to his legs. He spoke a strange tongue, foreign to Katar.
“He said ‘Who are you?’ He also saw us falling from the sky and thinks we’re some kind of gift from the gods.” The voice came from Shayera, who looked like she had been walking for some distance.
“How did you know that, my love?” Katar asked.
“The nth metal. It translates their dialect into our language and vice versa. They know what I’m saying right now.”
“Er, yeah, funny thing…I seem to have lost my piece of nth metal. It must of flown off into another one of the craters in the distance.”
The young man spoke again. “He wants us to come with him to the pyramid over there, where his leaders and other buddies want to investigate our weird behaviours.” Shayera said. She took the nth metal off of her belt and cut it into two with her dagger. She put one of the pieces back onto her belt. Katar took it.
“Thanks.” As he placed it on him, he began to understand what the young man was saying as he took Katar and Shayera to the pyramid: all about Ancient Egyptian society: their gods, their pharaohs, their pyramids slaves built, their food and dates, the river Nile, all made Katar very interested in this human society.
As they approached the pyramid, they could see slaves hard at work. A block of sandstone fell from below by accident. Katar ran in to save the day, saving about five workers from being crushed. By lifting the block on his own, the young man thanked him but said he must have had enormous strength: normally it took many men to do lift a block. The workers outside the pyramid from that moment, started to worship them like gods. Once inside of the pyramid, they were greeted by the ruler of this place. They decided to keep their identities secret. Katar took the name ‘Khufu’ after the young worker he had met whilst Shayera changed her name to Chay-Ara. The so called ‘king’ was surrounded with priests, who all took a liking to the bird-man and bird-woman, as they called them, except one, by the name of Hath-Set. He was deeply angered by the king’s submission to these two strangers. The King was old and was looking for a new ruler. After Khufu and Chay-Ara demonstrated their powers in front of him, he started to believe they were gods themselves, especially seeing their flying powers. In surprise moment, he bent down them and ordered for Khufu to be declared ‘prince’ of the region. When Khufu said that it was the metal with the powers, the former king said to him that Khufu was chosen.
Meanwhile the high priest Hath-Set who had been angered by the king’s submission, folded his arms and plotted. This Khufu had mentioned about a piece of metal he had lost in the desert…maybe I can find it.
That night, Khufu and Chay-Ara were crowned and sat on a marvellous throne. In the years that followed, Hath-Set deserted them. He searched the sands for this piece of nth metal that fell to Earth religiously. Khufu’s dynasty went on, from 2589 BC to 2566 BC: 23 years, meanwhile. Eventually, Hath-Set found the nth metal in the 23rd year, an ordinary year by Khufu’s standards. He forged a dagger, believing it to be incredibly sharp and lethal. Hath-Set had been well established as his main rival, sending horrible gifts and trying to poison feasts. He and his priests had hidden in the deserts. Hath-Set then tried to get into Khufu’s good books, by writing letters that praised him. Khufu rewarded him with an invitation to another feast, one which celebrated the marriage ceremony of Khufu and Chay-Ara. In Khufu and Chay-Ara’s private room, Hath-Set crept in, like a jackal.
“What are you doing?” Khufu asked, as he saw the little devil approach him.
“This!” Khufu yelled. He stabbed Khufu in the back with his nth metal dagger. Behind their bed, stood Chay-Ara, horrified, tears streaming. “You are the true ones to have betrayed us!”
“I should have known. You can kill me…but you can’t kill Chay-Ara.” Khufu gave Chay-Ara a loving look before smiling and falling to the ground.
“No…” Chay-Ara cried. She stood in front of Khufu’s bloody body. “I love him. Kill me with him!” Hath-Set stabbed her and the deed was done.
Present Day, Midway City, US state of Illinois. After a recent expansion into the countryside, the city is massive with many houses and skyscrapers popping through the clouds. Though there’s lots of living space in this great city, don’t let it’s urban roads and suburbs fool you. Musicals are held in a group of concert halls and stages in the richer part of town making it a prime location for actors and actresses, as well as musicians. In the backdrop, are mountains with an aviary and a observatory filled with astronomers. There is a large harbour too with ships coming in daily. It seems as if this city has it all. But our story won’t continue from the rich broadway style part of Midway, or the harbour, or even the tall mountains you’d expect a Thanagarian to crash into. It will begin on the boarder between the rich and poor parts of the city, in the dark alleyways and streets, there is one shining hope-the old museum. With it’s large stone pillars and otherworldly feel, it has stood for hundreds of years collecting artefacts from the past.
Carter Hall was the curator of Midway City’s biggest and only well-known museum. He was extremely interested in history, having collected countless artefacts from all sorts of places around the world and of all time periods, though admittedly, there wasn’t much history on Midway City that he could find artefacts on. He had a deep fascination for Egyptian artefacts, the museum containing many blocks of sandstone collected from pyramids and sarcophaguses dotted all around the museum. With his brown block of hair and beard he had been a curator for quite some time and work with the best historians from around the world, his team coming to situate in this museum. Carter waited in anticipation for the new intern: a woman by the name of Kendra Saunders.
Kendra arrived in Midway City early in the morning. Her family had come from Louisiana, but she had not known too much about them, as most of them had passed away as she grew up. Arriving in a grey business suit and fedora hat with her long auburn hair , she decided to pay for a room in the hotel on the other side of the street where Midway City Museum was. There, she could get to the museum as quick as possible. Arriving at the grand entrance, she opened the clunky old door slowly. There, she saw lifetimes of artefacts in a row. Some artefacts had been placed into individual expeditions-there was one for Roman artefacts and ones from around the US expansionism into the West from the 17 and 1800s going off at the sides. She approached an expedition with Egyptian artefacts that were right in front of her. She saw a man in a black jumper standing admiring some hieroglyphics on a sandy slab in front of him. He turned around.
“Ah! You must be Kendra. Is that right?” He asked her.
“Yes, that’s me.” Kendra replied.
“You came early. Great! How do you like the museum?”
“It’s wonderful.” She said, looking around. “I’ve always been interested in history.”
“Same.” He smiled at her. “Where are you from?”
“Louisiana.” She told him. “Though much of my family have died…I don’t know too much about them…”
“Ah I see…” Carter thought to himself. “So that work you wanted. As part of the internship, you’ll spend about 2 months in the museum with me getting to know the other curators and historians, showing the public around, that sort of thing.” At that point, an old man with white hair and a beard approached them. “This is Professor Astor. He’s one of my colleagues around here. He’s been around for a long time.”
“Hello.” Astor said to Carter and Kendra. “Nice to meet a fellow studier of history!” He smiled. Then he gave a more serious face. “I have found something interesting on the Hawk costume…”
“Hang on wait…” Carter put his hand up to Astor. “Let Kendra see the Egyptian artefacts first.”
Kendra gazed at each one of the artefacts: sarcophaguses, masks, cat statues, coins, building blocks of pyramids, and the golden mask of a particular pharaoh.
“Which Pharaoh is this?” She asked.
“Khufu. He called himself Prince Khufu back in the day. We’ve only recently found it. Long gone, they said. But me and the team found it during a search in Egypt. The authorities let us have it.”
“Show her the Hawk costume.” Astor butted in.
“There is a secret part of the museum I do not normally show people but the staff.” Carter said to Kendra.
“Hawk constume?” She asked.
“It’s based off of the Egyptian Horus…it’s a helmet and suit made for flying…” He marched Astor and Kendra over to his secret room and Kendra looked amazed. In front of her was a kind of golden metallic helmet of a bird and a belt with a strange glowing piece of metal on and a large mace next to it. There were also two metallic wings. She saw that there were in fact two sets of the gear. The other one seemed more feminine. Astor hadn’t even seen this and he opened his mouth wide to show his shock.
“This reminds me….of something I saw on TV about Midway City a while ago…there was some man in a bird suit flying around stopping crime. He was on the news...wasn’t his name Hawkman?” Kendra was utterly confused.
“Yes, he was called Hawkman. He’s been stopping crime for a good while now. I believe this is the same suit he used. Have you heard about Hawkgirl too?”
“Wasn’t Hawkgirl his partner for a while? I heard she disappeared…”
“This is all nonsense isn’t it?!” Astor laughed. “A fictional hero associated with Midway City? You’re all mad!” He laughed again. “I swear Carter, you’re doing this just so you can get more people into the museum. Our revenue has been going down lately. It’s perfectly understandable.”
“No, Hawkman exists. You just haven’t seen him in real life.” He said to Kendra and Astor.
“I kinda have to agree with Astor here. It’s getting late now, I better go back to the hotel.” She said as she walked off.
“Aren’t you going to tell her?” Astor asked Carter.
“Tell her what?” Carter and Astor gave each other a strange look.
“Hey, let me just take that Hawk outfit. It’s a pile of trash anyways.”
Carter looked at Astor suspiciously. “Why do you want it?” He stared at Astor even more. “I think I know why you want it.” They gave each other the evils even more. “You’re right, it’s all a load of junk. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ll give you it tomorrow.”
As Kendra went down the stone steps of the museum back to the hotel, she heard loud sirens. The police were on the side of the curb. On the opposite side of the street, she saw a bank with the window cracked wide open. Running out of the building was a man so agile, the policemen behind him couldn’t keep up. He eventually faced the policemen in a fight, and knocked both of them out. He ran up the road to where Kendra was.
“Hello woman…” He said, grinning at her with a grey beanie on his head, stubble showing. He raised his fist to her. “Give me ya wallet!” He yelled and grabbed her.
Kendra screamed. “Alright, alright!” She shouted in a high pitched voice. She threw him her wallet full of money.
“Money…ha ha…” He ran in the opposite direction and Kendra started crying. When there was no hope, a shadow appeared across the road as something swooped down. Kendra thought it was some bird, some owl or bird of prey. As it surfaced, it seemed to be a man with metal wings wearing a mask. He had a belt on and trousers, but no sign of anything on his chest, or if he were, it was very little. The thief flinched. The bird humanoid grabbed the thief and chucked him into a car. He then grabbed Kendra’s purse and threw it to her. Kendra caught it.
“Thanks…” She said. “Are you…”
“Hawkman’s the name.” He grunted, in a rough but whisper-like voice. He picked up the thief with inhuman strength, something very hard to do, and took him to a group of police officers.
“Thanks Hawkman.” One of the plump old policemen said to him. “This is Carl Sands, regular offender. We’ll take good care of him…this time…” They threw the now weak looking thief into the back of a truck and that was that.
Hawkman flew into the air before Kendra had time to thank him. She sighed. She walked back into the museum. “Did you see that?” She asked Astor, who was looking amazed at the doorstep.
“Yes. Hawkman is real, after all…I tell you…I knew it all along…”
“Where’s Carter?” Kendra asked.
“Here.” He walked into the room with the same colour trousers as the Hawkman and he bore a similar resemblance.
“Tell me about the Hawkman then…”
So Carter sat and explained about the city’s only superhero. “Some say he came from a planet called Thanagar thousands of years ago. His people were attacked one day by. Bird creatures. They stole their technology and found a metal called the nth metal which was said to give them super strength and the ability to fly with their metal wings…”
“So the nth metal is real…” Astor smiled.
“He landed in ancient Egypt with his wife but inevitably, he was killed by the Egyptian priest Hath-Set. But Hath-Set killed them with a dagger of nth metal…they were cursed for eternity. They were reborn…time after time after time…sometimes as history’s greatest figures…Khufu…admittedly...was one.”
“Khufu was the first Hawkman?”
“So you’re a Hawkman and Hawkgirl fanboy.” Astor laughed.
Carter looked at Kendra. He walked out of the room and then into the room the Hawkman Kendra had seen appeared.
“Carter?” Kendra was confused.
“Yes it’s me.”
Kendra gasped. “Are you…Hawk…”
“Let me answer your question.” Carter walked over towards the skeleton of a triceratops and lifted the whole set of bones as they were into the air. He then flew up with them and landed onto the ground and placed the bones exactly where they were. Kendra and Astor clapped.
“You’re Hawkman!!!” Kendra said, excitedly.
“Why did you not tell me this before?” Astor asked. “I have been here for a long time now.”
“I didn’t want my secret to break. You two must never tell ANYONE.”
“I won’t…but then…where’s Hawkgirl…”
“As you know, we reincarnate when we die…it’s all true…but I haven’t seen her in ages. When I was killed almost 100 years ago now…I came to life and remembered all my past lives…but she…I’m sure she didn’t…The last Hawkgirl was known as Shierra Sanders…she was my wife too. I loved her…but she got killed in an accident against one of our enemies…” Carter looked at Kendra deep into her eyes. “When you first applied…I thought that you might have some relation to her…your last names are very similar…but then I remembered that Shierra would always try to conceal her identity…hence why you’re not Sanders…but Saunders…to hint to me…you are Hawkgirl…”
“What? How can I be Hawkgirl? I’ve never met you…I would have remembered…” Kendra was in disbelief.
“That’s what she would say…you see…I was always the one to remember her in history…she would always need me to help her…I belief it’s because Hath-Set always kept coming back for us.”
“What’s that?”
“Hath-Set reincarnated too, you know.” Carter placed a round circle of nth metal into Kendra’s palm. “This is why I invited you.”
Astor suddenly grabbed the metal. “And this is why I applied to become a museum worker before you even reincarnated!” He shouted. Now with the metal in his hands, he felt all powerful.
“What are you doing?” Carter asked.
“I remember it all now…my father…he’s reincarnating all the time…he’s out there in the big bad world…but no one knows of his suffering. He’s died and reincarnated more times than you can ever think…and where did this suffering start? You.” He pointed to Carter. “You started this when you overthrew him in his pyramid with his real master…he was embarrassed that day in Egypt…”
“You’re Hath-Set’s son…from his Doctor Hastor days?”
“Indeed.” Astor grabbed a staff behind him. Energy flowed through him. A deep voice could be heard. “Yessssss…I am still alive…Carter…or should I say…Hawkman…so many names…so many battles…” A green ghost appeared. He entered Astor’s body.
“What’s he doing to him?” Kendra asked.
“Hath-Set is a master priest and magician…he’ll summon all the spirits he can to defeat me…or us…”
A green energy flowed out of Astor’s staff he fired it at Hawkman but Hawkman took to the skies. Circling Astor, Hawkman did and grabbed Astor. Astor took a good blast and Hawkman went tumbling down. Kendra looked at the hurt Carter. She had to do something. She ran at Astor and pushed him into a wall. She grabbed the nth metal.
“Here!” Hawkman shouted. He tossed her a belt and metallic wings. With ease, Kendra managed to attatched the wings onto her back and the belt with the nth metal too. She flew straight towards Astor and threw him across the room. Astor blasted her and she went flying down. Hawkman now had the opportunity to attack and did so. But Astor still blasted at him. Still, Hawkman could not get rid of him. Kendra came round the back and together, with Carter, they tossed Astor into a wall. The ghost that Hath-Set had created came out as both of them realised Astor was dead.
“You may have defeated me today…but I’ll be back…for the nth metal…and for revenge!” The green ghost yelled. “Take care of your new Hawkgirl…”
Kendra and Carter looked at each other with a newfound respect for each other. “So I am Hawkgirl.”
“You know what, you can stay the night here with me…I think we both know what we are supposed to be now…I don’t think I can work alone…I realise I was always meant to fight alongside Hawkgirl.” Carter explained.
“Fine, I will. I suppose if I will have to remember what happened…and continue where we left off…If this is what was meant for me…then I will have to accept it…if I was chosen and no one else…”
I would like to thank @Mockingchu and the others for allowing me to start this series and how it's going to be added to the ever expansive Eternal universe. This is a new series that will be uploaded (hopefully weekly) whenever I have time. Expect many more episodes and many more seasons to come! Very exciting!
And I know it's long...I had to explain a lot of things and set things up...i'm sorry I went over the suppossed word count by quite a bit. I promise the other episodes won't be like that. This is more of a background episode. All the action will come later. There will be a number of historical references over the episodes too, but not all of them, of course!
@Mockingchu's Batman: Eternal: https://pokecharms.com/series/batman-eternal.4946/
@Generation Sect's Superman: Eternal: https://pokecharms.com/series/superman-eternal-s1.5925/
@HydreigonBorn37's Red Hood and the Outlaws: Eternal: https://pokecharms.com/works/episode-1-red-dead-redmeption.48340/
And I know it's long...I had to explain a lot of things and set things up...i'm sorry I went over the suppossed word count by quite a bit. I promise the other episodes won't be like that. This is more of a background episode. All the action will come later. There will be a number of historical references over the episodes too, but not all of them, of course!
@Mockingchu's Batman: Eternal: https://pokecharms.com/series/batman-eternal.4946/
@Generation Sect's Superman: Eternal: https://pokecharms.com/series/superman-eternal-s1.5925/
@HydreigonBorn37's Red Hood and the Outlaws: Eternal: https://pokecharms.com/works/episode-1-red-dead-redmeption.48340/
