The Scourge of Daleville
Daleville, Connecticut
11:39 P.M. EDT
Robin listened with rapt attention as Red Arrow told him what had taken place the night before.
He surmised that the Songbird of Daleville must have some skill to go up against Cheshire and come out unscathed.
When Red Arrow finished, he asked, "Why do you want to know about the Nightingale?"
The bird boy had to think for a moment. Why was he so interested with the Nightingale?
"She's a person of interest on this mission," replied the Boy Wonder, but, in all honesty, he didn't know himself. Maybe because she was a mysterious figure that had only recently come to his attention or maybe because the Batman had pointed her out and that alone was saying something.
No matter what the reason, though, he was determined to discover the Nightingale's identity.
"You're trying to find her?"
Robin nodded. "Correct."
"Good luck with that, the damn wanna-be can disappear faster than I can shoot," Red Arrow told him. "That's probably what's kept her alive for so long."
"Good to know," the bird boy answered.
Aqualad stood at the door like a sentry. He took much delight in knowing that this mission was going smoothly.
A quiet mission would be a nice change of pace. For the longest time their missions had teetered on the brink of failure until the last second.
Though the quietness of this mission did trouble him, if the assassin Cheshire was involved their mission's success or failure was of some importance to someone and it was unusual that Cheshire had yet to attempt to steal what S.T.A.R. Labs was holding.
What were the Shadows waiting for? Or was this merely a distraction for something else taking place in Daleville?
Nightingale moved stealthily through the shadows, slowly circling the labs building. She wanted to know exactly who was in Daleville, and then the 'why' would follow presently. She had almost completed her sweep and was looking down in the alley on the opposite side of the building from where she had started.
Mentally, she had a total of five heroes. The four she had previously spotted and the one in the alley below.
Though, the heroine below was not the only person in the alley. From her perch Nightingale spied a groggy police officer who had apparently had been napping a moment before.
Gale sat in the shadows as she observed the officer. She would like to know who he or she was and were they stood on the issue of her nightly endeavors.
All was silent around the labs, and it was having a calming effect. So Gale nearly jumped out of her skin when a shrill cry rang through the neighborhood.
What the hell? she thought gliding through the shadows to investigate.
"What is that?" asked Kid Flash.
"Whatever it is, turn it off. It's too loud," Superboy said loudly.
While his team did not know what the sound meant, Robin did.
"It's a burglar alarm," Robin supplied. Only one question crossed his mind - what was going on? If anything he had expected S.T.A.R. Labs to be broken into but someplace else?
"A burglar alarm?" a confused Artemis questioned.
"Should we look into it?" Zatanna wondered aloud, figuratively.
There was not a moment's hesitation when Robin answered, "I'll check it out."
Nightingale landed in the shadows on the roof of the two story building whose alarms were blaring. From there she surveyed the scene before her.
The police car that she had spotted earlier blocked off one entrance of the alley, while the other was blocked by a chain link fence.
Much to her surprise, the officer pointing a gun at the would-be thief was none other than Stephen Miles.
Stephen looked like an older, taller, darker haired and more muscular version of Johnny. He was the same age as Brian would have been if her brother still lived. Before Brian had … died, he and Stephen had been friends. She had always wondered if Stephen had become a police officer because Brian had been killed, much like she had become the Nightingale. The only difference between she and Stephen was he did good work legally.
Unfortunately though, Stephen's arrival only complicated things. Considering that most rookies always felt that they had to prove something to the other officers and the best way of doing that was by bringing in the most wanted criminals in the city, the top most being the Nightingale with Scourge as a close second.
There was another surprise that the scene behold, a more dangerous surprise.
"Scourge," she growled softly.
The would-be thief was none other than Scourge. He was lanky, flexible in more ways than one, and completely unpredictable. He was at the least sixteen years of age if any of Gale's guesses were correct, and he had muscles that shouldn't be underestimated despite their size.
He wore a red ski mask to cover his face, and, for reasons beyond her comprehension, a black leotard with eerie red stripes on his forearms. Along with that he had on leather pants which were held up by a black belt that had multiple sheaths for his throwing knives and a number of pouches that held different gear which he used to get into the places he robbed.
"Freeze!" declared Stephen. "You're under arrest."
"Am I, Officer Stephen?" Scourge questioned in a tone of voice that would have belonged to a fox if one were to talk.
Gale did not have any time to react or intervene when Scourge dodged the bullet that had been carefully trained on him. Scourge was quicker than either Stephen or Nightingale had expected, for not a moment after dodging the bullet he landed a flying kick on Stephen's chest.
The force of the kick sent Stephen sprawling backwards and his head collided with the hood of the police car. He collapsed, unconscious from the blow.
Silently, Nightingale prayed that Stephen was alright. She would never forgive herself if one of her friends' siblings suffered the same fate as her own when she could have stopped it.
Even from the height she was at, Gale could see the murderous gleam in the black eyes of the villain. She could not wait for any longer, she had to intervene now.
"Hey, Scourge," Nightingale yelled whilst materializing from the shadows. The blaring alarm had finally stopped. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
Scourge looked up at her with a devilish smile that obviously meant no good. As always, Scourge expected the Nightingale's challenge. "Like you?"
"Who else?"
Inwardly, she prepared herself for a grueling and painful fight. The two combatants were a physical match for the other and as for brains and trickery they were on par with one another, their willingness to do anything it took to win, however, were on different levels.
Nightingale would never kill or severely wound her opponents, but Scourge was willing to do all that and more. He would kill, though Nightingale had never known if he had ever done so. Scourge would maim people, she knew that a little too well. She had gotten more than one scar from his throwing knives. He had been the reason she had crafted the armor she wore. Scourge had maimed more than one police officer who had tried to apprehend him.
For these reason and more, Nightingale did not allow him a moment's preparation for the fight. Within seconds, she had landed on the police car and began to engage him.
Though she should have had the upper hand because she was higher than Scourge, he used the hood of the car like a ladder to get to her level and kick.
She staggered backwards to avoid the attack, but nearly fell of the car. Gale knew that Scourge wouldn't allow her regain her balance. Instead of attempting to stay on the car, she merely back flipped off, surprising Scourge with this maneuver.
Scourge would be on top of her again in a minute, so she took advantage of the space between them by bringing her weapon of choice into this conflict. Her whip was out and inflicting damage on Scourge as only a bullwhip could.
Her bolas would have brought him down faster, but she didn't want to risk using them until the end of the fight. Tonight she could not afford to lose any of her weapons.
Whip cracking, Scourge backed away as the two combatants circled each other cautiously, looking for an advantage, an opening. Apparently, Scourge saw one first for he came charging at her.
She pulled her whip back and snapped it at his legs, but suddenly Scourge wasn't there. It was a trick, a feint.
A heavy boot collided with her chest, and the wind was knocked out of her as she landed on hard pavement.
Yep, I'm definitely going to feel that come dawn, she thought jokingly in order to liven up her spirit.
"Has the little bird gotten her wings clipped?" Scourge questioned mockingly, pulling a dagger out and pointing it in her face as he stood triumphantly over her.
"Not quite, Scourge."
Desperately, she grabbed his hand that held the dagger as she simultaneously lashed out as him as best she could with her legs.
Scourge would either have a bruised tail bone or back thanks to several of her awkward kicks that had accomplished their purpose: getting Scourge off of her.
Quickly, she rolled over on her stomach and grabbed her whip that she had let go of when Scourge had pinned her.
She only got at the most fifteen seconds of respite before Scourge was back on his toes and at her throat again.
The fight went on as it often did, with Gale cracking her whip to give herself space and then one or other of the two closing it again as they exchanged a flurry kicks and punches.
It was not long before both combatants were desperate to end the fight, so Nightingale should have anticipated Scourge producing a throwing knife that glinted in the moonlight and throwing it just as she prepared to snap her whip.
"Ah!" She failed to restrain the cry of pain caused by the knife cutting through her glove and slicing flesh.
"Oh, did that hurt?" Scourge taunted cruelly, instantly letting her know that there would be no time to retrieve her fallen whip. "Then you don't know pain, little songbird."
Nightingale smiled slightly to herself. Good, Scourge supposed that by wounding her, he gained had the upper hand. He was getting cocky, too cocky. He thought that he would win, but, like always, Nightingale would out think him.
This was exactly the frame of mind that she wanted Scourge in. Even with the wounds Nightingale had collected over the course of the night, she could win.
The smile vanished when Scourge took advantage of her moment's analysis to unsheath more knives and throw them.
Nightingale was up within moments and running quickly to evade the deadly projectiles. Finding that this was not enough, she dove at the ground and tumbled to safety. Behind her she could hear the cold steel strike the wall behind the space she had once occupied.
She snapped her head round to see what Scourge intended to do next. Just like he should, Scourge charged at her.
Perfect, he was completely opened the strong kick she landed on his chest, and Scourge was completely caught off guard by her defensive attack.
The kick winded Scourge, but she could not let him have any mercy tonight.
One … two … three, she punched him repeatedly as hard as she could without losing a beat.
He was about down, but Gale needed him unconscious. With her bracer, she struck a heavy blow to his temples and the victory belonged to her.
With Scourge out of her way, Gale could finally get a moment to breath and nurse some wounds.
A pure smile graced Gale's face as an idea formulated itself in her head. This was definitely going to rub Officer Miles the wrong way, but, boy, would Johnny have a laughing fit when he heard about this.
Man, Stephen's going to have a headache the size of China when he wakes up, she thought as she inspected his tool belt and found what she was looking for.
Scourge was going to be looking for revenge when he got out of jail, but that didn't make any less fun for her as she put a pair of hand cuffs on Scourge's wrists.
With Scourge in shackles, she slowly walked towards where she had dropped her whip. As she walked Gale tested her muscles to see what would cause her pain and what wouldn't. She scowled as she looked at her glove. A small, dark, wet patch had begun to form around where her glove had been torn. The throwing knife had done more damage than she had thought.
She reached into her pocket to retrieve some medical gauze to patch up the wound, but she never got the chance.
"Who are you?" a disembodied voice demanded gruffly. Gale froze and her body went rigid, mentally she prepared herself for another round of pain.
"I am the Nightingale, Songbird of Daleville," she replied boldly, surveying the surrounding shadows. God only knew how much she loathed being caught in the opened like this. She was completely venerable and blind to any attacks, but she continued confidently, "And you are?"
"A creature of the night more dangerous than you," the voice answered, giving Nightingale something more to analyze.
Male. The voice belonged to a male. Its owner had a rather big ego as far as she was concerned. Despite his efforts to sound older, the voice sounded like it belonged to a teen possibly no older than herself.
There were no other vigilantes in Daleville that she knew of. Could it be possible that one of the sidekicks had come to investigate the alarm as well? More than likely.
Silently, she kicked herself for not letting one of them investigate and take on Scourge instead.
"Then, creature of the night, what do you want?" She closed her eyes and let her ears do what her eyes could not: track any audible movements from the source of the voice.
"Your identity," he replied, and slightly infuriated Gale. But she did not let her emotions get in the way of discovering more about him. Just by listening, she could tell that he was moving, moving quickly and almost silently.
"Give me a good reason, and I might consider answering."
Suddenly, all the barely audible noises she heard a minute ago ceased, like he had stopped moving, but, from behind her, she heard the person say, "Is this enough reason for you?"
Nightingale spun on her heels, and got the surprise of her life. She had expected to see one or other of the teen heroes she had spotted, but not one whom she hadn't.
Materializing from the shadows was none other than Robin, the Boy Wonder, protégé of the Dark Knight himself.