Second Chances: Green Lantern

Chapter 17

"Wait, you're saying this crazy guy, Vandal Savage, thinks that you're some kind of reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian priestess?" Winn asked after Cheryl told him, James and Carter about the guy who jumped her.

"Yeah and I don't know why." Cheryl said.

"Are you okay?" Carter asked his wife.

"Yeah, I'm fine, honestly he seemed more surprised that my mace hurt him than anything." Cheryl said.

"This is weird. I'm gonna run this by the rest of the hero community, see if anyone else has heard of this guy." James said, since he was positive that if this guy was some kind of immortal, then someone had to know something about this guy.

"Well, maybe I can help." a new voice said and they were all shocked when they saw Barbara Gordon roll into their secret lair.

"Barbara, how did you even find this place?" Winn asked.

"Did you really think that I didn't know about your secret life Winn? I grew up in Gotham and I was close friends with Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. I know bullshit excuses, since Bruce Wayne is the man who wrote the book on them." Barbara said.

"How well do you know Bruce Wayne?" James asked curiously, since he and Winn both knew Bruce's secret, but he wanted to know if Barbara did too.

"I used to be Batgirl before the Joker put me in this chair." Barbara said and that confirmed it.

"How long did it take you to figure out that I was Guardian?" James asked, suspecting that Barbara had always known.

"Honestly, I didn't really pay attention to your exploits until I got involved with Winn, and that wasn't until after you put that ring on." Barbara said.

"Were you just using me to find the Green Lantern?" Winn asked and Barbara turned to him.

"Of course not Winn. I would've dumped you as soon as I figured out where you were based if it was. I was originally planning on waiting till I'd earned your trust so that you'd bring into the fold on your own, but circumstances have changed with the latest killer in this city." Barbara said.

"Vandal Savage." Cheryl said and Barbara nodded.

"I sent a photo of the dagger we found at the crime scene by the docs to Bruce and he immediately confirmed it was him." Barbara said.

"Wait, have he and Bruce crossed paths before?" James asked.

"No, but Bruce kept a file on him. Just like how he has files on literally everyone who could be deemed a threat to this planet." Barbara said.

"Including Superman and Wonder Woman." James said.

"And your friend Hal Jordan. Bruce is nothing if not thorough. And it's not personal, he just wants to be prepared for every possible situation." Barbara said.

"Based on what Superman told me about him, I'd be disappointed if he didn't. But what do you know about this Savage guy?" James asked.

"See for yourself. I had a friend of mine in Gotham send over his file as soon as Bruce confirmed it was him." Barbara said as she pulled a file out of her bag and handed it to James.

"So?" Carter asked.

"Based on what I can tell, Vandal Savage is one of the most dangerous men on the planet and he's also in all likelihood the oldest man on the planet, since his origins date back to the Middle Kingdom in Egypt during the reign of Ramesses II where he was a high priest under the name Hath-Set. And the reason why he's still alive is because during the Second Dynasty, Egypt experienced a high level of meteorite activity and one of those meteors happened to be from Thanagar and it gave Savage his immortality." Barbara said.

"How the hell did Bruce learn all that?" James asked.

"I'm getting to that part. Savage wasn't the only one affected by the radiation. It also affected Prince Khufu and Priestess Chayara of the Middle Kingdom, since they were lovers at the time and Hath Set was jealous and killed them when he found out. And he did that at the same time the meteorite struck. While the radiation gave Savage his immortality, it affected Khufu and Chay Ara differently. It gave them abilities similar to Thanagarians, including wings and enhanced strength, but also tying their life forces to Savage and putting them in a cycle of reincarnation. That's how the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl came about. Every time they reincarnate and emerge with their powers, Savage tracks them down and kills them to maintain his immortality. Bruce did a lot of research to find that out. A lot of the most heinous and destructive acts in history were engineered by Savage just so he could kill the Hawks and now he thinks that your new friends are the newest incarnations, though it's unclear what happened to the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl, since the last time they died caused the cycle to be broken, since Savage wasn't the one who killed them." Barbara said.

"But if he thinks that Cheryl and Carter are the new incarnations of these guys, who knows what he'll be willing to do to draw them out." James said.

"Well, jokes on him, since we're not who he thinks we are." Carter said.

"But we also don't know how to stop him, since I get the feeling that the usual method won't work." James said.

"No it won't. Bruce's notes said that Savage is too dangerous to be contained and there's no way of killing him without the original Hawks here, since according to his research, only they can kill Savage using an artifact from the night they died." Barbara said.

"Well, we'll have to find a work around. Especially since when I hit him with my mace, it actually hurt him. What if it isn't limited to the original Hawks, but any Thanagarian weapons?" Cheryl asked.

"We'd need to run tests on that to be certain, but it is possible, since until you two came along, the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl were the only contact Earth's had with Thanagar." Winn said and James nodded.

"So Barb, you want back into this life? I'm sure Winn would appreciate your help?" James asked the police commissioner.

"Absolutely. My life has been way too boring lately." Barbara said.

"Well then, welcome to the team." James said.