Cryptid Bruce. Kind of in the same vine of a previous post.
When the large scale cage was first discovered, the League had kind of hoped that it was empty, even Clark couldn't really hear anything beside the rustling of the vegetation inside, moving with the large ventilation system.
The large claw marks on the glass said otherwise.
Not wanting this thing to get out if dangerous, but also not wanting it to stay in the hands of one Lex Luthor, and possibly be harmed, someone had to go inside.
That someone, became Hal, confident in his ability to track it down, capture it in his construction, and wanting this to be over with as fast as possible, he entered the cage's small side door with a constructed key.
The first few seconds kept eerily quiet, nothing seemed like it was moving, but the second Hal came close to the epicenter of the cage, a loud screeching was heard, almost deafening.
The lantern was quickly attacked in a flurry of movement, too quickly to get a visual on an actual form with all the leaves, branches and decorative trees. The screeching became louder, and the glint of almost metal like claws sparkled against the white overhead lights.
The second a yell of pain instead of shock came from Hal, Clark entered the cage, his superhuman speed far exceeding that of the creature's. "Fucking hell!" Hal nursed a sharp claw mark across his chest, without quick reflexes it could've taken a chunk out of him. "What the hell is that thing?"
The thing, had taken to cry loudly again, but instead of anger, it sounded more desperate. It had a human enough shape, arms and legs, but with giant wings almost double the size of Shayera's, a dark black that, if he wasn't flailing around so much, was stark against the almost shining gray on the underside. It's face was almost entirely covered in fur, like it was wearing a cowl or helmet, only revealing the pearly white jaw with it's shining white sharp teeth showing up as it was trying to bite at anything and everything.
"We are here to help." The only response was more screeching and wailing. Futile against the tight grip Clark had on him. "Guess he's not understanding correctly."
"We can't leave him here." Diana walked up, clearly taking pity on the creature, looking closer, it really did desperately try to get away and had been trapped for an unknown period of time.
When they had first heard about the unknown auction, they had thought maybe Luthor was trying to sell kryptonite and not a living creature. It was almost two weeks since they had gotten that intel, and that was only for the auction's set date and not when the maniac had acquired it.
"We'll have to take it back with us. We can't just leave it here."
"um hello?? It attacked me the second it could!" Hal said, aghast, looking sceptically as the creature once again slammed it's jaws shut sharply, even as the wings were smacking Clark in the face, the iron grip he had on his neck wasn't moving. Huh, the feather's a really soft.
Diana simply waved Hal off, resulting in an offended gasp, crouching down to look closer, her curious eyes meeting the clearly glaring white eyes of the creature. "We will monitor it's condition in the WatchTower, it didn't appear from nothing."
Even offended, Hal still complied with making a containment box around the creature and Clark, who had taken to hugging it so it wouldn't hurt itself or disrupt the walls.
The stay on the WatchTower wasn't much different, contained in the meta secured glass cells, it had taken to once again wail endlessly. Refusing food entirely even when J'onn confirmed it was indeed safe for this creature to consume. A shifter. Rare, but not unheard of, extremely territorial and extremely aggressive towards outsiders.
Though aggression was the last thing Clark would say it's wails sounded like. It sounded so, sad. It's cries had short breaks, where it's fluttering wings would stop entirely like it was listening for something, a response. It's form hadn't changed, but it was clearly taking a toll on it to keep restricting food while also slamming it's body repeatedly against the walls, which was also the reason why a guard was assigned to watch over it. Which because as the only one not taking a weirdly scientific interest (Diana and J'onn) or wasn't extremely adverse to have anything to do with it (Hal and Barry), the rest simply not seeing the need to babysit a giant bird, the responsibility usually fell to Clark.
He would spend his time, talking openly about his current due papers for the planet, or simply observing the creature.
It was weird, even though there was absolutely no reason to assume that the creature could understand him, it felt like he was being listened to even among all the screeching and wailing.
Clark also didn't know what came over him when he let out an inhuman sound himself. A much lower register than anything it had released in the past week it had been there, but the second the sound reverberated through the kryptonian's chest, the wailing stopped entirely.
It's head snapped sharply towards him, the fluttering and clawing at the edge between glass and floor faltering entirely. It's eyes staring so intensely that Clark could feel a dark red flush explode over his face. Why the hell did he do that?
When it began slowly rising to it's full height, also something it hadn't done before, it gradually came closer and closer, letting it's wings glide along the floor lazily. Also strange as the only thing it had done beside being loud, was preen it's wings endlessly, gathering a neat pile of all it's lost feathers from it's lack of eating.
A new sound filled the air, a sound much clearer than any other before, light chittering with the slight clattering of it's teeth biting together. Even without visible pupils, Clark could tell that it was looking over him differently, studying him anew.
It didn't feel great to be towered ever though, so when Clark rose to his full height as well, squaring his shoulders. It tilted it's head, almost like a questioning puppy. The whooshing echoed slightly as it's completely unfolded it's wings, spreading them wide enough that the end of the primaries were bending slight as they met the wall. They really needed to get a bigger cage if they had to keep it for longer, though that would also make it easier to get speed to throw itself against the walls.
He was brought out of his thoughts when the chittering became louder, it was almost close enough to touch the glass with it's chest. Pushing down his flustered feeling at once again having to chirp himself, he replied again with his own deep rumble. Met once again with even more chirps and teeth clattering.
With no idea what this meant, the day passed. More accurately, days had passed.
The more Clark visited, the more relaxed the creature became. The more comfortable he became. J'onn had taken the time to confirm his gender as calling him an it had become weird when they spend so much time together. He had actually begun eating, and they had even caught him sleeping on the feather pile more than once on the surveillance now.
What better way to ruin this peace than to have the WatchTower be attack by multiple assailants at once.
"Give back our father at once!"
Even across the entire base, the wailing could be heard clearly, but this time, it got several responses.