The City of Hawks is an ancient trade city built upon one of the continent's great rivers and resides relatively close to the center of the landmass. Hawk City is built into the bedrock of the mighty river, water is its life blood, it's roads and its greatest defensive asset. Though there are roads within portions of the city, most people get around by boat and even the grand entrance is a massive man made canal that allows ships and boats to enter and leave the city through the main gates. From there the canal splits over a hundred times. In the center of the city are the docks where larger ships dock and unload cargo onto small vessels that transport it to its final destination.

The City of Hawks is hundreds of years old and is rumored to be one of the first cities ever constructed. There are many statues across the city, dedicated to the Hawk Lords, beings of legend and myth that supposedly served as the first lords and defenders of The City of Hawks. None has seen a living example of a Hawk Lord in the turning of many generations, not since the Orcs were driven from the continent.

Recent speculation and rumor suggests the Hawks have returned and some are already in the city, which is now ruled over by a council of the wealthiest merchants to live there. There exists a ceremonial seat on the council for the leader of the Hawk Lords, a woman named Luna Hawk who is rumored to be descended from the Brother himself. If she exists, if any of her kind exists, there is no proof in modern times. Ancient weapons and artifacts left behind suggest the mythology of the Hawk Lords may not be entirely false but modern evidence does not prove their current existence.

The City of Hawks is defended by a well trained militia and each of the canal arteries can be cut off by underwater traps that will force ships and boats to run aground on great metal spikes that would break the keel of any ship to run upon them. The main canal itself is defended by these and a gate, a great metal chain that can be raised out of the water across the canal with each link the size of a cow.

Inside the city are numerous weapons batteries and armories and the scattered nature of the city allows the defenders to cut off conquered sections and effectively halt enemy progress to contained areas.

The culture of the City of Hawks reflects the rest of the Kingdom, with the exception of a more open mindset towards anyone that might look like they're part hawk.

Luna Hawk sat on the edge of her desk, speaking to someone on the speaker phone attached to it. She was working at the adult films production company she'd purchased not long after deciding to settle down with Alexander Rook and thus remove herself from the physical aspect of the work. "That's what I'd like to do yes." She said with a nod to the person on the phone. "Have we heard back from the WWE yet? Yes? They've agreed? Great, that's excellent. Ok so now we need to..." She paused and frowned as someone knocked on her door. "Hang on." She said, hitting the hold button on the phone.

"I'm on the phone what is it?" Luna Hawk asked.

"There's a problem with one of the girls." A male voice said on the other end.

Luna Hawk hit the hold button again. "Something's come up, we'll continue this later." She said and hung up. She hopped off her desk and crossed the room, opening the door to see one of her directors standing there. "What is it?"

"Well..." He said somewhat sheepishly. "Come with me and we'll talk on the way there." Luna Hawk nodded and followed quickly at his side. "She's pregnant" He blurted out suddenly.

Luna Hawk glanced over at him for a moment and then returned her attention to the hallway. "Us or someone else?" She asked.

"Her boyfriend." He replied.

"Shoot. I thought we talked to her about this? That abusive little prick needs to go before he does something we can't help her out of." She said with a sigh. They arrived at the stage room and the director opened the door. In there seated on the bed that occupied the room, a stage that had been setup to look like an apartment bedroom, was one of the new girls to the production company, an eighteen year old high school drop out who had come to Luna Hawk in desperate need for work. Her family had thrown her out and her boyfriend was an abusive little turd. She wore her filming costume, which in this case was a towel and nothing else. Her hair was wet and hung loosely at her shoulders. The man that played her boyfriend in the film, also an eighteen year old, was across the room past the cameras, getting a drink of water and talking to someone on his phone. The rest of the crew loitered around, pretending to be busy.

"Everyone out." Luna Hawk said firmly. The crew moved instantly, leaving the room as if the place was on fire. The girl's co-star looked up at Luna Hawk for a moment, nodded and walked out as well.

"Do you need me?" The director asked.

"No." Luna Hawk said and he slipped from the room as well, shutting the door.

"S...sorry." The girl said quietly, one arm straight on the bed for support and the other one clutching it near the elbow in a position of fear and shamefulness. "I ruined the whole day but I..."

Luna Hawk reached up and removed her helmet, placing it on the nightstand. She walked over and grabbed the director's chair and set it down in front of the girl. She sat there, watching her for a moment in silence. "When I hired you, I told you to tell me if something made you feel uncomfortable and you did, you have nothing to be sorry for. If I'm not mistaken it's in your contract that you be on birth control."

"Yes ma'am." She said quietly, trying to make eye contact with her boss and failing. "He made me stop taking it, he said it wasn't natural."

Luna Hawk shook her head. "He's not ok with you being on birth control, but having sex with men you've only just met in front of camera is fine?"

"He likes to watch." She said.

"I bet he does." She said, shaking her head a little. "Listen Samantha, you need to drop that dirt bag like he's on fire. I don't care if you have relationships while you work for me, it's your life...but I do care about your health, mentally and physically and I see what this guy does to you. The make up department has told me more than once about covering bruises on your face."

Luna Hawk leaned back in her chair for a moment. "When you came here, what did I say?"

Samantha bit her lip for a moment, recalling the conversation before she went on to explain it. "You said that this place exists to get girls like me out of the holes we're in and give us pride in ourselves and the tools and connections we need to make a life for ourselves when we're done here. You...you even paid for my apartment for the first few weeks while I was getting settled in."

"Yes." She confirmed. "We also pay twice the going rate for adult film actresses, we have acting classes and I expect my girls to act and not just pretend to act for ten minutes between adult scenes. The intercourse is real, it's not made up, it's not edited a thousand times and it's the one place I don't want anyone acting...but it's also safe. This place, this job, it's for you to get ahead in life. We have girls that leave here and go on to star in Hollywood because of the acting courses we pay for, some have gone into production and directing, others have gone totally different paths, we even have one who's going to college to be a medical doctor. We do everything but give you a hand out, this place exists to give you a hand up. Yes, you're doing adult film work in the process, but it's a means to an end and you can stop at any time, no questions asked. Tell me what you want to do with your life." Luna Hawk said.

"Well my boyfriend says I need to..."

Luna cut her off. "No, forget him for a minute. What do YOU want to do with YOUR life."

"I..." The girl looked away, Samantha wasn't used to thinking about what she wanted, she was used to thinking about what HE wanted. "I've always wanted to be a Marine Biologist." She said quietly. "I know it's stupid, I'm not smart enough but..."

Luna Hawk reached out and cupped her chin, gently tilting her head back up to make eye contact. "Don't do that. I've seen your High School grades, you're smart enough to be anything you want."

"He doesn't think so...he says..." Samantha started in.

"Forget him." Luna said. "Marine Biology? I'll set up some SAT classes and get you started on the path to getting into a university, whichever one you need to go to. We'll pay tuition."

Samantha brightened for the first time and smiled a little...it disappeared quickly. "What about the baby?"

"Contract gives you maternity leave, start taking it once you start feeling uncomfortable continuing."

"And...the father?" Samantha asked, a little fear in her voice.

Luna Hawk shook her head. "You won't see him again." She said and stood up, picking up her helmet and sliding it back on. "I'll send everyone back in if you're ready to continue."

Samantha paused and then nodded a little.

---------------------------

An hour later, at a small apartment in Gothic City.

Luna Hawk pushed the door open without so much as knocking. The useless turd that Samantha had called a boyfriend and that by nature if not usefulness was technically a father was seated on his couch watching TV with a woman Luna Hawk had never seen naked and asleep on the couch, other signs of their previous physical activities had been scattered around the room. He's a cheater too. Lovely.

"Hey!" He shouted, stumbling to his feet and pulling a pistol from his couch side table at the same moment. "Are you crazy?! You can't just walk into someone's..." He trailed off as his lustful eyes scanned over the body of the person who'd just invited themselves in...

"Although...I'm sure we could make an arrangement..." He said.

Luna Hawk crossed the room wordlessly, ignoring the loosely held gun. She pulled a chair over and sat down in it. She removed her helmet and set it on his table to the side of the couch next to some water he'd apparently put out earlier.

"Lady if you're not here to entertain me then get the hell out of my apartment." He said and brought his pistol in line with her face, just a few inches away from it. "Before i splatter your head all over my wall."

"One of the girls that works for me is dating your worthless hide." Luna Hawk said, once again ignoring the gun. "Since she might actually make something of her life, she's dropping your ass like a bag of wet sand. The baby you forced on her will never see you, he or she will never know just how useless their father was."

"You little..." he started, but Luna Hawk interrupted him.

"You're leaving the city." She shifted her eyes to the sleeping woman and then back to him. "If I ever see you again, I'll rip your face off and feed it to you."

"I'm gonna kill you!" He shouted. The woman woke, blinking in surprise at the situation and deciding that movement was best left for some other time, when a gun might not go off.

"Oh do shut up." Luna Hawk said. "You don't have the balls to pull the trigger on that little pop gun."

"Oh I'll show you the balls I have. Maybe I'll shoot you in the leg and show you exactly what I've got down here." he said, grabbing his crotch. "Women need to learn to shut up and..."

Luna Hawk reached out and grabbed his crotch, jerking him forward. His eyes widened and the gun fell from his hands. He tried to cry out in pain but it was overwhelming. "On second thought." Luna Hawk said, standing slowly. The woman decided it was time to leave, grabbed her clothes and made it out of the apartment.

"It takes three pounds of pressure to burst a human testicle." Luna Hawk said, watching him as some sort of pained sound exploded from his mouth. "There's one." She said...moments later it was followed by the other. "There." She said, releasing him as he fell to his knees in agony, grabbing his tortured crotch. "Now you won't be breeding anymore and leaving your degenerate genes in the gene pool." She crouched down and picked up his gun. She jettisoned the magazine and emptied the chamber before tossing the weapon off to the side. "Don't worry, Samantha will make an excellent mother."

Luna Hawk looked down at him for a moment and spit on his face. "If I see you again, your balls won't be the only thing you lose. If you EVER appear in Samantha's life again, you'll wish like hell I killed you today. That woman's going to make something of her life and I'm not letting dicks like you stand in the way."

She kicked him hard enough that his nose broke and he fell unconscious. "Something for the pain." She said and put her helmet back on. Once it was in place she turned and left the apartment.

I've been confronted with enemies that have armor simple weapons are no longer capable of penetrating, I also have encountered enemies fast enough to simply cut ordinary bullets out of the air. It's time to adapt. I've been spending weeks on new designs, actually months since they've been in the works but in the last few weeks I've stepped up my efforts.

The first adjustment is a simple one, I've swapped out my pistols for a pair of new weapons capable of altering ammunition and firing at blinding speeds all without having to change magazines, with no possibility of jamming and no parts to go bad. Metal Storm pistols have been in the works by various companies for years but never really hit the open market. I acquired a set of them and have modified them to my own purposes, using the design to build my own from the ground up.

These all Nth Metal pistols operate using the Metal Storm system in which rounds are 'stacked' in the barrel rather than loaded in a magazine. When the trigger is pulled an electrical impulse (normally using a battery but in my case, using my own energy manipulation through nth metal) activates the first round in the barrel. The weapon doesn't then have to use expelled gas to recoil and load a new round, increasing accuracy and the rate of fire dramatically. I can, for example, hold the trigger and fire fifteen rounds in less than three seconds, all at exactly the same location on the target without having to re position the weapon. Thanks to the change in firing mechanism each pistol is able to hold four barrels at a time. Each barrel holds varying rounds of ammunition depending upon type.

The first barrel holds fifteen rounds of standard Nth metal bullets. A tap of the side button will switch to the second barrel which contains specialized armor piercing rounds. These rounds are each coated in Nth Metal but contain a depleted uranium core. When the bullet makes contact with the target the weapon expends the core as a super heated rod that will melt through metal and ignite the contents on the other side.

The third barrel contains high explosive rounds filled with Greek Fire. If the enemy destroys the bullets as they go down range the rounds will fragment and spray Greek Fire. The electrical pulse contained within each Nth Metal coated bullet will ignite the gel and coat everything in its radius in exceptionally hot fire that will spread if someone tries to put it out with water.

The final barrel contains three rounds. These are miniature fragmentation grenades, pure and simple.

I sigh and set back on my work bench and lift up my next weapon. I've had one for awhile but it seems like it might be time to put an upgraded version into the field...it's a man portable missile launcher.

I fiddle with the settings a bit on the side using a screw driver and consider the weapon before me. This an armor piercing anti-tank rocket capable of penetrating anything short of adamantium. The rounds are dangerous and expensive, but with the armor running around out there lately, they're now necessary. Satisfied with my adjustments I put the weapon on its rack. I'll only carry it when I expect to go to war.

Now...I've got this rifle I've been working on also. It's a metal storm system just like the pistols and fires three barrels instead of four. The reason for this is to hold more regular ammunition. The regular round barrels contain thirty rounds instead of fifteen.

Finally, I built a Metal Storm grenade launcher, it works exactly the same way as the other metal storm weapons and has three grenade barrels. The first barrel fires incendiary Greek Fire rounds, the second fires armor piercing mass reactive rounds and the third barrel fires fragmentation grenades made of Nth Metal and charged with 50,000 volts of electricity, which spreads out across the various fragments to provide an unexpected but far from lethal shock value. A single squeeze of the trigger fires one round, depression will fire all five in the barrel in less than two seconds.

I no longer carry extra ammunition in the traditional magazine sense, but rather I carry swap-able tubes that replace the core of the barrel and are already pre-loaded. Since this doesn't require any action other than snapping out an old core for a new one, reloading time is dramatically reduced.

2026- Gothic City

I still remember how it happened...We were walking through the so called Safe Zone with their son. Alexander was back at the house, he still can't be seen with us in public if he's not wearing his Dark Vengeance gear, or the latest iteration of it anyway. It's important to keep up his two different identities. Until that night...I didn't understand why. I found out later through my own investigations that someone had figured out his identity, someone he'd hurt pretty bad in the past...someone that wanted to hurt him right back. It's funny you know, you survive for years fighting all sorts of villains, getting set on fire, shot, stabbed, thrown off a building, crashing through a building at high speeds...and it's the simple things that get you. Sort of like the war hero that returns home and dies in a car accident.

Solar Hawk was a wonderful mother, strong, compassionate...some of her temper faded with that role but it was still there. I'd never seen her happier than in the years since they had their child. She didn't really retire but she spent less time fighting and more time playing the family role. She did it, I think, because she was still from that old sort of mindset, but it seemed to work for her. I was still around them all the time, still shared a bed with them and I helped raise the kid when I could but I'm really terrible at that sort of thing.

He was ten and believe me, he had attributes of both parents. I remember one time he got sent home from the private school he went to because a kid was bullying someone and he stepped in. When the kid hit him in the face he proceeded to beat the tar out of him until he was pulled off by teachers. Anyway, he was walking with his mother and I through Gothic on the way back from school, it was a nice day outside for once and Solar Hawk insisted we didn't need a car and it was healthy for him to see the city and all the ugly truth about it.

He saw it alright...up close and personal. A car came zipping around a corner. Both of us heard it before we saw it and our sensitive hearing picked up the sound of a gun being cocked. I pulled out my pistol but she acted like a mother...She took her child in her arms, turned back to the car and wrapped her wings around him. The kid was the target...I don't know how she knew...maybe it's a mother's instinct. I fired at the same time they did. My bullets penetrated the armored glass of the windshield, hit the driver in the head and went through the throat of the gunner in the back seat. Unfortunately at the same time my shots were penetrating the driver's face more than a dozen rapidly fired forty five caliber bullets were firing down range from the rolled down car window.

The shots tore into Solar Hawk, not one single bullet missed. All were aimed at the height of a ten year old kid, so most of them struck her in the lower back. It was...I've seen worse, hell I've experienced worse, but I knew it was fatal. I ran to her side, somehow she was still standing. I gently pulled the terrified kid from her arms and had him stand behind me while I helped her to the ground. I looked to her White Lantern ring but she shook her head, it hadn't been working in four years...none of us knew why, but the ring had stopped working. I sent a message to Sentinel Hawk but she was hours away, she'd never arrive in time to make a difference. My other message was sent to Alexander.

Most people that heard about it never understood how she managed to stay conscious or alive long enough for him to get there. I knew how, she was a Hawk Lord and she was going to force death to wait until she'd had a chance to say goodbye. She died in his arms, her gold blood was everywhere and all over their son. I don't know how the bullets didn't go through her completely but they didn't, he was fine. Well..physically.

I did the only thing I knew how. I walked to the wrecked car, pulled the still breathing shooter from the wreck and put six bullets into his chest, each one charged with fifty thousand volts of electricity. The first shot was lethal, the other five were to vent my anger. I was able to follow evidence back to the man that sent them. You don't want to know what happened the day I found that man. Let's just say he's no longer alive...and neither is anyone he knew. That's one adventure I didn't let Sentinel Hawk or Alexander join me on. I don't mind the blood on my hands, but I wasn't going to let either one of them tarnish themselves with revenge. I know she'll be back, I don't know when though...I hope...I know she hoped too...that he's still alive when she does.

"Kendra, would you mind adjusting your pose a little, I don't like where the light is on your face." Now he tells me. They spend an hour telling you how to pose, then they tell you it's wrong. Light on my face huh? I wonder how many people look at this picture and go, gee, I sure like the light on her face. I have my helmet off to the side, it's in the shot just to remind people and sometimes I wear it in shots but not this one. This one is for one of those magazines that prefers not to have their models wearing anything. Thankfully they're smart enough to keep a small space heater in the room...probably because last time they refused I threatened to get my mace. "Sure." I say simply.

This pose seems popular this year, the old all fours seductive facial expression tried and true pose. You know the 'come do me' pose. Alexander's a big fan. When I first started doing this stuff I hated it, I hated myself for doing it. I thought it was demeaning and disgusting and that I was reducing myself to a sex object. It's funny how things change. I realize now that everyone's a sex object to someone and I've been mobbed enough by eager young girls that think it's cool that I'm so confident in my body *and* kick ass all the time to realize that not everyone sees the pinup posters and the old videos...or pictures in nude magazines, and only thinks about it like that. A lot of people, a lot of girls that are growing up...they see me as someone they want to be like. They tell me I'm strong and confident, that my willingness to bare all is a sign that I'm not afraid of my body and they want that kind of self confidence. In a world where everyone tells you what size to be, how big your breasts should be, what shape your ass should be in...and don't get me started on the thigh gap. Anyway, in that kind of world here I am on record telling the photoshop crowd where they can stick their computers, I've fired agents who thought I should get this work done or that work done. It's taken me two years to get to a point where companies realize I am who and what I am and that's it. Take the picture or leave it, end of story, touch it up and I walk.

Finally the cameras go off several bajillion times. This is actually hour three of this particular photo shoot. The last picture is taken.

"Ok everyone, break time." There it is. The photographer and his people all leave the room and someone hands me a robe. I slip it on for the warmth if nothing else. Time for a different side of things now. Teenagers send me letters like crazy, letters that sometimes pour their souls out to me...and...I meet with them, always in private and always after their parents sign a few forms. Today is a small group of teenage girls from a local highschool. They're all going through the awful teenage girl self image problems...some worse than others. Their teacher actually wrote me and she's here today too. She's concerned about them and I think she has every right to be. The door opens and the girls and their teacher come in. The girls look nervous and pensive, I see one of them bite her lip a little and pretend to look anywhere but at me. That's the one that doesn't like boys but is terrified of telling her parents. Her name is Samantha...I memorized all of them.

"Come in girls, have a seat and relax a little." I tell them and motion to where there are some chairs. I get up and walk around the room quietly while they spend some time looking over the equipment and in general being impressed they're in a modeling studio. My path 'accidentally' takes me by Samantha who has already isolated herself from the group. I put a hand on her shoulder and she tries to retreat, I tighten my grip...just enough that she doesn't pull back and instead looks up at me with terrified eyes. She's not afraid of me...she's afraid of herself. I smile and lean in really close and whisper into her ear. "I don't always favor boys either." Her eyes light up and I give her a knowing smile and squeeze her shoulder gently. Sometimes...people just need to know they aren't necessarily alone. Well...time to field questions.

I walk back to where I had been sitting as the girls find seats for themselves. I give them all a gentle smile and put my helmet down beside me. I don't say anything, I let them come to me, they need to know I won't push them. Their teacher gets that 'oh god what if no one says anything' look teachers get but I give her a very slight hand motion telling her to relax.

"What um..." One of the girls starts to say. Her name is Catya, she's pretty but somewhat awkward, still growing up into her more able body. "Go ahead Catya." I tell her. She smiles, her nerves die down and she finds her voice. "What does it feel like...doing this? I mean...don't you feel like...maybe a little judged by the camera people and stuff? Like...what if they don't like something?"

I grin. "Then they can keep it to themselves, or they can go take a long hike off a short cliff. I don't really care what they think, it doesn't matter in the slightest."

"But...why not?" She wanted to know.

"Well..." I begin. "Because, ok, let's say they don't think I have a good enough thigh gap and they want to photoshop it...that's a thing by the way, I've had someone say that to me. That means they want me to be something I'm not. I don't have a thigh gap, big deal, that's their problem. Name for me one important person with a thigh gap."

They name a few celebrities, the usual. "I said important." I clarify. "Those people, what do they do? They're rich, some of them are famous for being famous and they don't really DO anything, they just spend a lot of time trying have the perfect body and you know what? They can't, it doesn't exist. They will find that there is always something wrong. Do any of you remember Michael Jackson?" I get up and walk over to a folder I'd brought with me and put down an image of him from the 80s. One of the girls looks stunned.

"He was black?!" Bingo.

"That's what trying to get a perfect body does to you." I pull out a series of images of him from down through the years right up until his death. You can see the progress away from a health black man to an emaciated white...thing. "Next time someone criticizes how you look because you don't look like the perfect woman, remind them of two things. One, you're still developing and two, the perfect woman isn't a thing. There are people that don't find me attractive and that's ok. What matters is what I think. I go out and do these photoshoots and even some of the videos from before and I'm not thinking about how others will view me. I do it because I enjoy it." I can see it sinking in. This won't magically change their lives over night but my voice will reside in the back of their mind from now on, a gentle push back against the evils of a society obsessed with something that doesn't exist. Our little conversation goes back and forth for more than an hour. Eventually the girls all get ready to leave, I give each of them one of my fully clothed pin up posters with my signature on it, I also give them a two posters of Michael...one from the 80s and one from just before his death. Samantha though, I gently put a hand on her shoulder and look at her teacher. The woman nods and slips outside and the door closes.

"Your parents, do they love you?" I ask simply.

"Yeah..." She says with a little nod.

"Then it doesn't matter what you are or who you find attractive...and you know what? If it does for some reason? Their problem, not yours." I assure her.

"Did your parents know?" Oh that's a fun question.

"Which time?" I ask with a grin. "I had some parents reject me, I had some that never knew...but by and large, no matter how they felt about the subject...most of them accepted me and my tendency to like both sexes. Listen...Samantha...be you...that's the lesson from eighty two lives. All of my worst mistakes were when I wasn't listening to who I am, when I wasn't being true to myself. Take care of you, be who you are and let the rest fall where it may." I take her poster and add my phone number to it. "If you ever feel really bad, if something happens and you feel like you just can't take it like you said you sometimes feel in your letter. You call me." Her eyes go wide and I smile a little. I watch her leave and go back to prepare for the next hour of photographs. I slip out of my robe as the photographer enters the room.

"Ready?" He asked. I smile and nod.

Forty Eight Days after Greece...

Luna Hawk didn't return to Thanagar after Greece. In fact she vanished from the face of the Earth, only she and Amun-Ra knew where she had gone and he only because he always knew where his Hawk Lords were, especially his favorite one. Luna Hawk set off on self imposed exile on a quest to map the most remote regions of the world for reasons all her own. The truth was...she hated what had happened in Greece. She hated that she had stood on the wrong side of History. She left because she was afraid...afraid to face the people she had let down.

It's funny...as a Hawk Lord I fear no one. I have stood toe to toe with gods, I have had all manner of weapons cause grievous wounds. I have lived, died and lived again...over and over. I have even had my love die and got framed for his murder. None of that scared me but I feel as if fear is driving me now. As I sweep over the largest desert in the world with my helmet complaining about running low on memory, I wonder what I'm going to do next. I can't go back, can I? Maybe I can...it's taken me forty eight days to admit this...but I'm afraid the answer is no. I'm afraid I'll go back and...Alexander would have never joined Kai's side in Greece. I let him down. I let everyone down.

What do I do now? What do you do when you've let everyone you care for down because your god told you to do something? I'm a Hawk Lord...I was doing what the person who MADE ME told me to do. I served at Amun-Ra's side for thousands of years before Egypt came crashing down for the last time. I want nothing more than the restoration of my country, it calls for help, it needs help but...his help? The world has passed us by. There are no more legions of Hawk Lords, there are no more Pharohs or queens, no more chariots...just tanks, dictators and a bunch of crazy ass Muslims. At least I can see my god, at least I can argue with him...I think maybe that bugs me more than anything else. I didn't argue with him. I KNEW it was wrong. Forcing restoration on Greece is wrong. Today people want to choose for themselves, you can't just force it on them, you can't make them do something...it just doesn't work anymore. Heh...Amun-Ra has never been about free will, I can't even have babies without his permission.

I continue my flight, casually gliding perhaps thirty feet above the sand. It's hot as hell but I don't care, I'm a Hawk Lord, who the hell cares of its hot and I'm sweaty and I haven't changed clothes in forty eight days. Not like there's anyone out here to notice. It's funny, as I glide toward the canyon I remember something. There's no canyon in this part of the world. That's a little weird. I hover over the cliff face for a moment and consider my options...then I figure...what the hell? I glide down, flying towards the bottom of the canyon to see what's going on. When I land I can see it everywhere, the canyon...it was made by something. It's not a canyon at all actually, It's a huge impact crevice. I pause by the wall, alighting on my booted feet and press my fingertips against the wall. It's not abundantly warm...this was probably recent but not super recent. I wonder why no one has said anything about it on the internet? Surely it's popped up on Google Earth or something by now. Remember that plane that disappeared? They had internet people looking over satellite images? You're telling me no one has seen this...oh...of course. It's the world's largest desert, it's a simple matter to hide something from electronic scanning devices even if it's this big. You don't have to worry about prying eyes out here, just electronic ones. So you make a subtle jamming frequency and you're done.

Huh. You know the texture of this wall is unnaturally smooth. To do that you'd have to...be really...really hot. Like a laser, or a particle weapon...or a...I turn and look back the way I came. My helmet's lenses immediately dim to keep my eyes from taking in too much sunlight. I make a flying airplane motion with my hand and pretend to crash it, complete with a sound effect at the end and then I turn my eyes back down the canyon. It's long, miles long, it's more of a giant gash in the earth than a canyon. I spread my wings and take off again, this time flying low along the canyon floor towards the opposite end. I need to see what's down there. For the first time in forty eight days I'm running towards something instead of away from it. Even if it's just the end of a canyon, it kind of feels...

Oh, fluff buckets! Have you ever tried to dodge lasers? It's really hard. I swoop left and right and do a barrel roll as I bank left again and try to make a sudden sharp turn back the direction I'd come. I avoid the first volley but a laser bolt strikes between my shoulder blades and I slam into the ground. Everything goes black.

When my eyes open again I can feel the pain between my shoulders subsiding. I'm about to move when I hear voices almost directly over me and immediately freeze. I hold my breath too, just in case.

"Well there's one Earth hero down." The male voice has some sort of weird accent, it's hard to place.

"Easy as hell too. Unfortunate, she's real pretty. We could have at least captured her and had fun with her at parties." Another male voice. Note to self, kick in nuts.

"Yeah well, it is what it is. Besides we won't be having many parties for awhile. Boss man is mega pissed. He siphoned four commanding officers yesterday for this freaking mess. We were supposed to be the scouting force and there's practically nothing left to scout with. Talk about miscalculating your jump parameters.

Siphoned? Uh oh...

"Yeah...glad my job is simple, shoot at people that come by. Even if they are super hot." Seriously, do you think about anything else?

I focus my hearing since I dare not open my eyes, it would reactivate the lenses on my helmet and give the fact that Hawk Lords are hard to kill away. I hear some ambient noise and in the distance I can hear others moving around but they're pretty far off. No need to send more than a few men to investigate someone you shot down after all. They must not know anything about me or they'd know better. Ok...I can work with this. I reach out suddenly and grab their ankles. Before either man can make noise to complain I force myself to my feet, immediately dragging them off balance and sending them sprawling onto their backs in their moment of shock. I take off still holding onto them and accelerate rapidly, but I dare not break the sound barrier and give myself away more than I may already have. I adjust altitude upward and fly right out of the canyon at several hundred miles an hour. Both men are now freaking out, screaming and flailing. Yes, good idea, flail while someone is holding you several thousand feet above the sand. Hm...why am I still holding on? I let go. They scream all the way down and thanks to my wonderful since of hearing I get to hear the wet splatter noises as their bodies impact the solid rock/glass of the canyon floor six thousand feet below me. I have to tell someone. Time Siphons with an army on Earth? They have to be alerted.

I look towards civilization and bring up my GPS in my HUD. Back...I have to go back. It's my job...no...it's what I am. Wrong side of history or not, I am a Hawk Lord, I am a warrior made by the hands of a god to protect the people of Egypt. No...it's time to stop thinking that way. I was born to protect the people of Earth, all of it. My name is Kendra Saunders Hal and I have a planet to protect.