A lone figure once more found herself standing on the edge of a rooftop six stories above the street below. But this time she was dressed in a way that no one in her daytime life would except that of the members of her family. She was like one born from a shadow wearing a black long sleeved tunic that reached to her knees with slits up the sides to her waist for movement. Black leggings with black knee high boots adorn her lower half while black gloves conceal her hands to the elbows and a black utility black hung about her waist. A purple bird emblazoned in flight sat on her chest with its wings reaching up beyond her shoulders to create the hood of her tunic. Blue gray eyes though were hidden behind the white lenses of a dark purple domino style mask that seemed black in the darkness.

The night was silent until her comm went off startling her out of her thoughts, "Hello?"

"Hey Ann?" a voice asked in her ear. "You still on for the movie tonight?"

The young woman, Ann, bit her lip hard having forgotten that she had agreed to go out with a guy tonight. And that she had made it so that when out for her evening activities she had connected her phone comm link; something that she would have to stop later.

"I'm so sorry Mark." she told him quietly. "I completely forgot about... game night tonight. You know with the family."

"Thought you said things were tense with you and your family." Mark responded suspicious.

"Sorry Mark. Gotta take a rain check."

"Ann-"

Ending the communication, Ann sighed tilting her head back to look up at the sky above, no stars to light darkness. The clouds and smog from the city's factories and daily activities made it difficult for those who lives in the city to see the glitter of the stars in the night sky. And as she stood there, she began to lose herself in dark thoughts as she had before her twin had found her. A scream broke her from these thoughts echoing around her in the stillness that the darkness created.

"And that's my cue." she whispered pulling her hood up and taking off.

She ran along the edge of the roof until she was flying through the air, flipping over an a gap of an alley to another building. As she jumped to the next building she tucked and rolled before springing up onto her feet once more with a small smile on her face. This was one of her outlets a way for her to let go of her normal life and be something else or at least someone else. To be able to make a difference in the world in a not so typical way and give light to those who have lost themselves in the darkness. As she flipped through the air catching herself on a fire escape before climbing to the roof where she stopped. Listening closely to the sounds around her, she tried to block out the normal everyday or rather every night noises for those that would lead her to the cry she had heard.

"Help!" came a woman's voice. "Please! Someone! Help!"

Running toward the end of the building Ann peered down into a semi dark alleyway to see a large man slowly walking toward a woman huddled on the ground. Rage built within her yet she kept it within trying to contain her emotions in a glass box where she placed all of her feelings. Without a thought of what could happen she jumped down from her perch landing on the man's shoulders and by using him as a springboard flipped through the air to land on the ground. The man unable to keep his balance fell face first into the concrete as Ann maneuvered herself so that she could better protect the woman. She steeled herself as the man grunted pushing himself back up onto his feet with fury in his eyes when he spotted her.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked loudly. "Cause I know yer not the Bat."

"Oh you know just your neighborly do gooder doing her civic duty to this wonderful city." she answered dodging his fist. "But if you want to learn my name get in line."

"I'm gonna break you girl."

"Go ahead and try."

He charged with a yell toward her yet with her smaller frame she somersaulted through his legs hitting him in the knees as she passed. Springing to her she made to kick him in the head a smirk on her face and a soft cackle left her lips. Catching him in the temple, he fell to the ground in a heap which surprised her but not by much. Waiting a moment, Ann turned to the woman who was shaking in the corner of the alley wide eyed and afraid of what had just taken place and what could have happened. She moved slowly not wanting to freak the poor woman out anymore then she already had been by the man and the fight.

"Are you alright?" she asked stopping a little ways away as the woman nodded slowly. "I put in a call to GCPD, they'll be here soon."

The woman didn't say anything instead her dark eyes widened at something over Ann's shoulder. There was no time for her to turn as a bang filled the silence and pain exploded in the young woman's back. She fell forward onto the ground as the woman screamed and the man began to laugh manically though not as psychotic as she had heard before from someone else.

"Not so tough now are ya Girlie?" the man asked as Ann cursed herself for not tying him up when she had the chance.

Thanking her twin for the Kevlar design of her suit, she still cursed herself for her own stupidity and rookie mistake. The bullet hadn't broken through the suit but she knew that she'd be sporting a nasty bruise in the morning from it.

"I've had worse." she responded rolling across the ground before making it to her feet.

The man fired more shots as she flipped and jumped away from him dodging all but two of the remaining bullets. Hissing in pain, she no handed cartwheeled toward the man latching onto his neck as she twisted in the air to kick the gun out of his hand. He though had other plans, grabbing her by the throat and threw her away from him into the brick wall. She fell to her knees gasping for air that had been taken from her on impact, a hand on her side.

"Yer nothin' Girlie." he told her pulling out a knife. "Ya never shoulda showed up here."

Ann let out a cackle glaring at the man the white lenses of her mask turned to slits to the glare meaning even though he couldn't see his eyes.

"You have no idea who you are messing with." she whispered getting up. "Actually you have no idea how much trouble you're in."

"Yer insane Girlie." the man said waving the knife in front of him.

"Heard that before."

Her hidden eyes watched the knife closely, even bruised with the possibility of some cracked ribs she was not going to let this guy get the jump on her again. It wasn't some pawnshop knockoff that he was brandishing about though she had a feeling that he knew how to use this weapon better than the gun. Pulling a birderang from her utility belt she rolled to the left as her swung wildly at her with a growl. Getting some distance on him she threw her weapon at him disarming him successfully wondering why she hadn't thought of doing that when he had the gun. And even though he was disarmed he charged her like a bull except she danced away from him gracefully jumping over his large frame. As he turned to swing at the costumed girl, she grabbed something from her belt and threw them at his legs. The bolas wrapped around his legs causing him to fall once more and with a solid kick to the head, she knocked him out to prevent him from raving or shouting stupidly. And this time she handcuffed him in order to make sure that he would not be able to do anything like the last time she had taken him down.

"W-Who are y-you?" came a frightened voice.

Turning Ann found the woman still shaking in the same spot yet now that the man was tied up she seemed to have found her voice. Pain flared in her side yet she pushed it to the back of her mind stepping back into the shadows.

"Nightingale." she answered quietly before disappearing completely.

The woman watched amazed as the young masked woman left disappearing just as she had appeared out of the shadows. She wondered if this was the Angel in which the media talked about even though she had said he name was Nightingale who saved those who couldn't save themselves.

"Thank you." she whispered as sirens filled the silence around her.

Two rooftops away Nightingale stopped falling to her knees holding onto her side face contorted in pain. Blood dripped onto the roof beneath her as she tried to take in a shaky breath considering she could barely take a deep breath.

"Bats' gonna tear into me." she thought. "If the boys don't get to me first."

Getting to her feet she swayed shaking her head to try to clear it of the dizziness and light feeling that told her the wound was worse than she had thought. She knew the Cave was too far out of reach for her in her condition and going to her apartment would be suicide unless Dick had already called it a night and gone home.

"Gotta find someone..." she thought making it to the end of the rooftop looking down. "If I'm right about where I am then Jay should still be around somewhere I hope."

Knowing what she was risking by continually moving she jumped to the next rooftop biting her lip when she landing. Pushing herself she ran along trying to keep to shorter jumps so she could stop biting into her bottom lip which was now bleeding freely. Jumping once more she realized too that she had misjudged the distance in her state making it only three quarters of the way before gravity wrapped its claws around her.

Without a sound she reached out before she fell...