Hi my name is Hexing Haley although this is not my first fanfictoin, it is the first one that I have uploaded for people other than my friends to see, and I want to know what other people think. Please comment even if it's for criticism, I'll appreciate it! Thanks .

I don't own Batman or any other related characters – sadly they all belong to DC comics.

Nightwing's Daughter - Chapter 1

Nightshift

Exhausted, but please I dragged my tired body up the steps to my apartment in the middle of Jump city. I fumbled with the keys in my bag and, finally extracting them, opened the door and tumbled gratefully inside.

So tired I thought as I sat at my desk, clumsily removing the desired materials from my bag. My happy mood subsided somewhat when I saw the work I had left to do. A 2000 word essay on 'The influence of media in today's society.' True it didn't need to be in until next week, but I just wanted to get it done. Even if it's just as draft, Write it! I thought determinedly.

For the next 2 hours or so I stumbled through my report. Referring to the notes that I had made with the help of my dad's uncle, who was a reporter. They made it a lot quicker and about half an hour later I found a completed essay sat in front of me.

Relived, I put away my notes and headed to the living room. I turned on the TV before collapsing on the settee. I vaguely wondered what I would be doing tonight. Helping friends or family? Whichever needs me first I suppose. With that I fell into a dreamless sleep.

I was a light sleeper; I'd known this ever since I was young. I could be woken by the slightest noise. So when I was woken by the sound of gunfire, I thought I was really getting shot at. Bleary eyed and panicked I jerked so violently I fell with a huge THUD on the living room floor. It took me a while to realise that the murderous sound was coming for the news report on my TV. I crawled towards the set and watched a story unfold in front of me.

A break in at the ACE chemical plant in Gotham. I checked the clock on the mantelpiece, I'd gotten 4 and a half hour sleep, I felt good for it. Would I be a hindrance? No, I decided I wouldn't. I was better rested than other nights I had gone to work.

I checked my phone. No messages. But still… picking myself up off of the floor, I wondered upstairs at a quick pace to start my night shift. I got changed quickly, and was outside on my bike in record time and with no one seeing me. I was half way to Gotham before I started to think about the situation at hand.

How fast would either team get there? How fast before they got to work? Were they aware that I was on call tonight? If so what would they want me to do once I got to the scene?

As I got into the heart of Gotham, the traffic got heavier and slower, luckily I was on a bike so I could weave in and out with ease. People got out of their cars to hurl abuse at the mad motorbike driver. But the taunts died in their throats and were replaced with cheers of encouragement as they saw it was me. I picked my way through the cars as fast as I could, heading for ACE chemicals.

The entire building was cordoned off when I arrived. Plant workers and reporters pressed excitedly up against the make sift barrier hurriedly put up by the cops at the scene. I pushed my way through the crowd; I was quiet small, so found it difficult at first. When people saw me however, they parted, allowing me to reach the front with ease. I smiled to myself. Perks of the job. I thought.

I got to the front and addressed the officer closest to me as I ducked nimbly under the barrier. He turned around, shock momentarily covering his face when he saw me. As I walked towards the entrance I caught words like 'The Joker', 'New deadly plot evolving chemicals' and 'B.O.R.N'. The last word caught my attention the most. At least I won't be doing this… whatever it was on my own. "Thank you officer… Jones was it? I double checked his name tag, yep. "Just make sure that no one else enters this building." With that I walked in and shut the door behind me.

As I entered the metal building my skin grew bumpy. It was cold. Colder than the chemical plant should be. Hmmm. I caught sight of my reflection in the surface up ahead of me, completely covered, good. I nodded my silent approval and then pushed on. As I passed a slightly ajar door I heard a familiar laugh that made ice cascade down my insides, that laugh could only belong to one person. The Joker. "Not a bad night hey frostie? We caught all but one of the bat family!" Through his renewed manic gleeful laughter he continued. "Still would have been nice if I had the set… Hey Nightding, where's that pretty little Sparrow that always follows you around?"

When there was no immediate reply I heard a thud and a grunt. The Joker had obviously just hit Nightwing in order to get a response. From where I was standing hidden by the door I could make out Nightwing's figure, suspended in mid-air with his back to me. I could only assume that Batman and Redhood were in another part of the room. "Well she's not here is she you psycho? I don't know where she is, but mark my words when and if she gets here, you're in trouble." Even though slightly winded, I could hear the smile in Nightwing's voice. The Joker must have been able to see it because shortly after there was another thud.

A new voice reached my ears, it was cold, clinical, but there was something else to it… robotic? With a slight gasp I realised why the plant was so cold. I knew who the second man was. Dr. Freeze. Not good, I had never gone up against him on my own before. Even if Batman and The Redhood where in the same room as Nightwing, I could only assume that they too were tied up and hanging from the ceiling. "Now, now Joker you don't want to spoil the goods do you? If they remain in tack, I guarantee, you'll have the girl before the night is out." Oh, he would, would he? Not likely.

"True, true. But you can't stop me playing with my other toys." Judging by the amount of noise the Joker's footsteps made, he had moved across to the other side of the room. Into an area that I couldn't directly see. "Be nice to me, I don't like my face being beat up, it's hard to heal." Redhood! That meant that Batman had to be close. Somehow I had to get in there and rescue the three.

As I began to formulate a plan I was aware that the two villains had begun to taunt the three heroes of their 'mater plan'. It involved freezing the reactor that regulated the temperature of the chemicals in the plant. Thus making the chemicals in the pipe to semi-freeze, making the pipes crack with the strain of expanding chemicals. This would happen all over the plant. Causing a massive explosion. With nothing to stop them the chemicals would flood and destroy the greater Gotham area. At the appropriate places the three burned the two villains with comments that would have been funny in any other situation.

I moved slightly, now through the gap in the door I could see that the two evil men had their backs to me. If I was going to act It would have to be now, if their plan was as good as they made it out to be, then we didn't have much time. Judging by the overall temperature of the plant, Dr. Freeze had already begun to freeze the reactor over. The gap in the door wasn't big; I would have to make at least some noise in order to enter the room. I was hoping that the two men would put the noise down to the expanding ice and pipes in the room.

I went for it. Pushing myself through the gap with as little noise as possible. I was right the two had put the disturbance down to expanding ice. I crept up behind Nightwing, Batman and Hood saw me. They distracted the two bad guys with more taunts so they wouldn't turn and see me. I reached Nightwing, placing a hand in the small of his back. "Hey, anything broken?" I whispered. He didn't even start. "No." I set to work at cutting him free. When I was about three quarters of the way through he stopped me. "I should be able to break these myself. Go and stop the reactor." I nodded and sunk quietly into the shadows created by the vast walls.

I skirted along the edges of the room, staying in as much shadow as possible. The room was icy and I skidded a couple of times but thankfully didn't fall. As I ran in front of a section of wall directly in front of Robin – which was lighter than the other sections due to a smallish window – he flashed me one of his devil-may-care smiles. That caught Dr. Freeze's attention. "Dear boy what are you looking at?" He span around. I couldn't hide in time, there was no cover. I wasn't about to become the victim of some witty opening line citrusy of a walking ice pole. So I stepped forward and started the conversation. "Dr. Freeze I don't believe we have had the honour of meeting yet." He looked me up and down for a split second before his eyes came to rest on my mask. A grin crossed his face.

"No my dear I don't believe we have, I have however heard quiet a lot about you. You are held in high regard by these three." He gestured to Batman and Robin behind him and then to Nightwing to the left of me. "The Joker calls you 'Sparrow'" he looked pointedly at the Joker before turning back to me. "But i think he does this in order to spite the man behind you." I turned to look at Nightwing, I hadn't really had chance to look at his face earlier. He had been beaten up pretty bad. His lip swollen and his left eye bigger than it should be under the mask. This was the Jokers work.

"My name was 'Sparrow' but as i got older, I got better at my job so wanted more independence. I got a new uniform and changed my name. The Joker likes to remind my mentor that I'm not so little anymore, that i don't need him in order to complete missions. This however isn't entirely true. Just because i have a new name, doesn't mean that I stopped needing my teacher."

"Well well my dear, what a story. May i inquire as to what your new name is?" he looked expectantly at me. I moved to my left to stand defensively in front of Nightwing. I glanced over Freeze's and the Joker's heads to the Dark Knight and the newest Boy Wonder. I straightened up and fixed the two bad guys with my best bat glare.

"It's Starling. Silver Starling."