What Little Information We Have

Happy Harbor, Rhode Island

4:37 P.M. EDT

Robin arrived at the Cave last of the three members who didn't live there. He felt very, very peeved, and the blitzkrieg going on between Artemis and Wally was not going to improve his mood at all. Even with his expert hacking skills and honed reasoning, Robin hadn't been able to find enough constructive information about the Nightingale to satisfy his curiosity.

The Daleville PD police reports coupled with information from the Bat computer had given him very little to work with, at least it had been far more useful than the speculation running around on the internet and in newspaper articles.

From what little he had found, he reasoned that the Nightingale could be as old as eighteen but no younger than ten. The information concerning her fighting skills was rather sketchy, but Robin was sure that she had a fair amount of acrobatic training and was knowledgeable in an assortment of martial arts. Her weapon of choice was a whip, which doubled as a form of transportation. Though rather inconclusive, he was certain that she used another weapon capable of stopping a foe in their tracks. She also seemed to have an ability to fade into shadows as well as if she had been trained by Batman.

"What'd you booby trap my diet soda for anyway?" Artemis screamed at Wally.

"Because I wanted to see if it actually worked," replied the speedster sheepishly.

Robin groaned. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to give the Encyclopedia of Immaturity to Wally for his birthday. Though settling a dispute via cardboard warfare had made life at the Cave considerably more interesting, especially if Artemis decided to participate (she usually won, of course.)

"'You wanted to see if it'd work'," Artemis mimicked. "Well, you should have tried it on someone who doesn't have long hair." Her voice sounded dangerous and venomous.

"But you're the only one who drinks diet soda!" protested Wally.

"Urgh, you're impossible to live with!" shouted Artemis as she stormed off to go practice her aim.

Artemis was not angry. No, she was furious. Ever since Wally had gotten that stupid encyclopedia, she had been the target of many pranks. Though she wasn't the only one subject to these stunts, she was getting the brunt of it.

Her aim could testify to that. Whenever she was angry at something, anything, target practice was always the way to take it out on a physical object. The poor targets at the Cave were about ready to be thrown out and replaced, not that she cared any. New targets only meant that she'd have a new challenge of destroying those too.

As Artemis started to calm down, she began to ponder over the newspaper article she'd read. She couldn't help but wonder if they were going to have the Nightingale as a new teammate. Batman had to have seen the paper and he must see the potential of the bird girl.

If he'd recruited Artemis, what was to stop him from recruiting a vigilante?

Daleville, Connecticut

4:53 P.M. EDT

One … two … three. Briana's bola wrapped firmly around one of the basement's support beams, exactly where she'd wanted them to land.

The mid afternoon light that seeped in through the windows hardly dissipated the shadows all around her. Not that she minded any, shadows were often her ally when night fell and the Nightingale took fight.

Faster, I've got to throw faster, Briana commanded herself. With the low hum of the washing machine and the rhythm of whatever pop song was playing on the radio, the sounds of Briana's training session were completely masked and that was all she could do at present. Train and prepare for whatever the night had in store for her.

"S.T.A.R. Lads, delivery at night via armored truck, protected by heavily armed guards, thief with cat mask - 'Lion Face' - capable to taking down said guards with no effort, Lion Face armed and very dangerous, Lion Face after something big, definitely big money." That was the list of facts and clues that Briana had been able to glean from her memory, but she needed more if there was to be any chance of solving this mystery. Briana kept revising these facts as she practiced her aim.

The detailed picture of a local thief who went by Scourge - Nightingale's number one enemy - had just about had it. If only taking down the punk in person were as easy as practice. Not to mention, Briana predicted that Scourge would make a thievery attempt sometime that night, but she wonder if recent events had changed any of that. If his targets had changed at all, for Scourge was always after items that would bring in the most cash. Well, she would have to find out later on.

Briana walked to the support beam and untangled the nylon cord that connected the three golf balls that were spray painted dark green. She had been throwing her home made weapon for over thirty minutes now, after having made a futile attempt to make heads or tails of the many questions running around inside her head.

Briana knew that in order to understand why Lion Face was after … whatever, she needed more facts. From what she could figure, the best place to start looking for motives was to find out who Lion Face actually was and what item S.T.A.R. Labs was receiving. After those facts were uncovered, the connecting threads would surely follow.

A smirk graced Amanda's face as she snuck out of the orphanage. This unprecedented event that Briana had gotten herself into would certainly work in their favor.

With Briana preoccupied and her deduction skills aimed trained on the mystery at hand, she and Johnny might actually stand a chance of throwing a surprise party for Briana's birthday. They had been planning and scheming for months, only discussing it when Briana was deep in a nap or somewhere a good hundred yards away from them.

This year they had actually been able to hide their plans from Briana thus far, something that they had never been able to do before.

The reason Amanda thought this success possible was they had planned the process of hiding this information months before even starting to plan the party. Now they just had to conceal it just a little longer as they executed the last stage of their scheme.

She was sneaking out of the orphanage to meet with Johnny about the most important detail of them all: Briana's presents.

Amanda knew that it had been several years since Briana had gotten a birthday present or a present in general. From what Amanda knew of the kid, Briana probably hadn't gotten one since her parents' deaths; almost a complete seven years ago give or take a few months.

During this stage, Amanda was in charge of formulation a list of ideas while Johnny's objective was to create the requirements and limitations of the presents.

They had both agreed though that the present or presents could not in any way, shape, or form be useful to the Nightingale. While, yes, they would have done almost anything to help Briana's nightly endeavors, Amanda and Johnny agreed that Briana needed to act her age sometimes. But no matter how many times they tried to get Briana to be a kid, they'd failed.

What Briana could possibly desire that would qualify as a toy, preteen paraphernalia, or a form of teenaged aimed entertainment eluded Amanda. She wondered if Johnny had any thoughts about what action figure or toy Briana could want. But that didn't mean she hadn't gotten some ideas.

Maybe they could get her some new clothing or something that would help Briana in her hobbies that didn't include nightly battles with thugs and coming back as tired as snot with a continuous stream of bruises, cuts, and other wounds that Amanda was sure that Briana had received but refused to seek medical attention.

Amanda could help but wonder as she made her escape if this would have been her reaction to a little brother or sister. If she would have been as passionate about a younger sibling's protection as she was Briana's, (even though she had little to no control over Briana's safety.) If she would have gone to all this trouble to make a sibling's birthday their special day; a day that celebrated them and their originality.

She knew that her parents had probably never considered having another child because Amanda by herself had been an overflowing handful. Not to mention being a good cop of Gotham City didn't ensure the safety of any family member.

That was the very reason that Amanda had ended up in Daleville and not a Gotham City orphanage, to keep her safe.

Roy Harper, also known as the hero Red Arrow, stared blankly at his laptop computer in dismay and anger. The Gotham Gazette had gotten one thing right about the Nightingale; there was more information about the Batman than there was about her. Whether that was because Batman had been a hero long enough that there was more knowledge about him or if the Nightingale was just that good at covering her track, Roy didn't know.

Quite frankly, Roy wouldn't have given a damn about the reason right then, because he needed to know more about her and he needed to know now.

Internet search after internet search turned up fruitless. Either he got information that he already knew or that was completely incorrect.

He'd seen what she could do from the rooftop of a Wayne Industries building. The Nightingale, whether she knew it or not, had gone toe to toe with Cheshire and come out practically unscathed, a feat that even he had yet to accomplish. Though that only caused him to wonder: why? Why hadn't Cheshire killed the Nightingale? Why had Cheshire let Nightingale win?

More importantly, why hadn't he intervened? He'd just sat in the cover of darkness and watched the fight commence, and done absolutely nothing. Roy had let an amateur hero, a copy-cat, a wanna-be superhero, something worse than a sidekick, fight a deadly assassin.

I honestly wish I could have written more, but I am lacking in inspiration right now. Please feel free to leave a review telling me what I did wrong or right or any suggestions or tips you've got. I promise the Team and Nightingale will meet up before chapter ten if not before, and hopefully a little more action and less cabin fevor in up coming chapters. I am also having trouble with the Team dynamics.

Rayner out