Diana picked up the photograph and studied it twice. As the new Goddess of Arts and Literature, she noticed that the cave painting showed real skill—a few economical lines had captured a fleeting moment with impressive fidelity.
A spacecraft had visited Earth in a distant age. It had seized two unlucky individuals, but as it burned through the atmosphere, fragments of its hull had scattered across the surface below.
"That metal gave the ancient tribes extraordinary power," Thea said. "They vanished from our history and set out for worlds of their own. After they left, the remaining populations reproduced and diversified—and that lineage became us, the modern human race."
"The Mu civilization. Then the Gendayans, gifted with psionic ability. The Lemurians, masters of mental control. Those three prehistoric civilizations form a clean sequence." She tapped the photograph. "But between the fourth civilization—the warrior Atlanteans—and us, the fifth-generation humans, there's a gap. That gap exists because of this ship."
Thea felt a quiet melancholy about it. From her personal vantage point, the reality Bruce had altered was actually the real one. If the Hawk Tribe and the Bear Tribe had never left, current history would have been unrecognizable.
"You had me investigate and authenticate a Bat Tribe that straddles fact and myth," Barbara said. "What impact does it actually have on the present?" She was Batgirl—she preferred enemies she could see and hit. The concept of "altered realities" gave her a headache.
"My read is that the Bat Tribe is coming back. They represent a dark force that is still gathering strength—once they're ready, it will mean catastrophe for Earth and for the wider universe. We're not talking about a distant timeline. They have a beacon in our world; their attention has been fixed here for some time."
Barbara furrowed her brow and worked through this for half a minute. "But Bruce only just got back…"
"That's how time works," Diana said gently. "From our perspective, Bruce returned recently. But measured on the timeline, the Bat Tribe's existence is something that happened a very, very long time ago."
"Exactly. And it isn't just the Bat Tribe that's coming back." Thea held up another photograph. "I think the Hawk Tribe is about to return as well. We have a Hawk Tribe beacon here too." In the photo were a man and a woman, unmistakably—Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-Ara.
"What are you planning to do?" Diana asked.
Thea already had her answer. "The world associated with the Bat Tribe is in chaos—I haven't been able to find the right approach for it yet. But the Hawk World is accessible. I want to send a scouting mission in, take stock of the situation, and see whether it poses any threat to Earth."
In her memory, that world—honestly it should be called a bird pen, not a Hawk World—was a fairly unremarkable place, home to two or three winged figures of no great power. But she wanted to study its structure. Her own pocket world currently had its stone golem destroyed, with life beginning to develop in various directions—a rough start toward a small world, but she had no clear sense of where it was going. Looking at Hawk World could give her useful reference material.
And if an opportunity arose to absorb Hawk World's source energy into her own world, all the better.
Barbara heard the plan this time and understood it clearly—this was a preemptive strike. Batgirl found that approach considerably more appealing than digging through old papers in a library. She was on board.
Thea thought it over. The mission wasn't large in scale and didn't look especially dangerous. She decided to bring the entire female wing of the Justice League—make it a group outing.
Three days later, a collection of heroines gathered in Central City.
Why Central City? Because Thea couldn't locate Hawk World on her own. There were quite a few minor realms like it—some formed naturally, some carved out by powerful individuals—and with no coordinates to work from, getting inside was beyond her reach.
The reason for Central City was that it was home to an absurdly powerful teleportation specialist: Vibe, Cisco Ramon.
Pure teleportation was straightforward—Thea could do it, Raven could, Diana could manage it with some effort. But sensing the destination before opening a path required Cisco's ability specifically.
Locate the target, open a portal—Vibe's power was exceptional, held back only by his own stamina, much of its potential still untapped.
Since the S.T.A.R. Labs facility had been blown up by Scarface, this modest apartment served as Team Flash's operational command. Cisco and Caitlin's bosses had all departed, leaving no one to pay their salaries. Iris was still in the thirtieth century having a baby—not that it would have mattered anyway, her job was gone. Wally West was unemployed with no income to speak of and no savings to fall back on. As for Bart Allen, he was basically a walking child-labor violation; no one would dare put him on payroll.
All of them were surviving on Barry's salary from the Central City Police Department. By any reasonable measure, it was a grim situation.
Given that Hawk World would likely involve some combat, Felicity—who had no combat ability—was kept on Earth. Batwoman, who had announced her retirement, along with Aquaman's companions Yawara and Cassina, who had gone into seclusion together, were likewise absent.
Every other heroine made the call.
Thea, Diana, Supergirl, Batgirl, Catwoman, Shado, Stargirl, Wonder Girl, Black Canary, Zatanna—and from the Justice League International, Fire and Ice, whose friendship was starting to look less than platonic—plus Caitlin Snow, a.k.a. Killer Frost, from Team Flash, Mera (Aquaman's wife), Lois Lane (Superman's wife), Cassandra Cain, Raven, and the newly joined Green Lantern Jessica Cruz.
Eighteen heroines in total, plus Pandora, who had been closely involved with the group and had personally witnessed more than a few ancient legends, and—as the guiding beacons for this mission—Hawkman Carter Hall and Hawkgirl Kendra Saunders.
"I, uh—I'm just going to step out… I think there's a fire on East Street." The Flash took one look at the assembled crowd and made his exit.
Cisco wanted to do the same. Then he registered the full situation: Pandora, Hawkgirl, and twenty women in total, all of them fully armed—swords, shields, weapons of various kinds—staring at him. He had spent years cultivating a degree of composure, and it evaporated instantly.
"Clang." Hawkgirl produced her mace. It was two sizes smaller than the one she'd carried with the Star Sapphire Corps—that old weapon had crushed skulls like watermelons; now it barely looked fit for hammering nails—but she was still holding it in front of his face.
Cisco nearly jumped out of his chair. What exactly was this woman planning to do?
Caitlin and Thea held back their laughter while someone calmly explained the situation.
Ancient civilizations! The words lit up immediately in Cisco's mind. His curiosity was overwhelming. He desperately wanted to come along—but twenty women and one man did seem like an unusual arrangement…
"Come with us," Hawkman said, with complete sincerity. "There should be a great many ancient ruins out there." Cisco noticed, belatedly, that Hawkman had clearly identified him as a fellow male and was trying to bring him along for company. His intelligence was more than adequate to parse what wasn't being said aloud. He too, apparently, felt outnumbered.
Cisco weighed it internally. In the end, his curiosity about prehistoric civilization won out over social awkwardness. It'll be fine if I keep my head down, he told himself.
Thea gave a quick rundown of the mission objectives.
"Trace an extradimensional space through the metal?" Cisco confirmed, then closed his eyes and began searching.