Ode to Nightwing

Chapter 1: The Rain Washes Away the Sins

        I stumbled into the street, ready for the truck that was barreling down the street to crush my body with it's velocity. The rain was pouring down from the heavens, and I didn't want to be on this Earth any longer. Not after what just happened in that alley. The driver didn't see me, but I didn't care. Why would I? The night cloaked my body, sheltering me right before I was to be illuminated in the headlights of the truck. My clothes clung to my body, my dress soaked. My hair was splayed all over my face, and I could see through some strands as the truck kept on coming.

        Someone or something wrapped itself around my waist, and I'm pulled out of the road, away from the truck that could have crushed my body against its front. I land on the sidewalk, a whip like thing around my waist. I blink the rain out of my eyes, and glance at my waist, trying to figure out why this contraption was around me. Why it saved me from the release I thought I wanted. The truck roars by on the street as I watch, the rain making my eyesight blurry. "Do you have a death wish?" I glance behind me, startled, and I stare into the shadows, not seeing anybody. I turn my attention back to the rope around my waist. I found the end of the cord, and I held it up, starring at the bird- shaped symbol that hung from it. 

        "What the heck?" I whisper to myself as I brush more rain out of my face. 

        "What's your name?" The shadows ask again and I move my body so that I was facing the alley.

        "I don't feel obliged to tell you what my name is." I answer, and I feel stupid talking to the shadows, because maybe I was just hallucinating that there was a person even there.

        "I just saved you from getting splattered all over that truck, and you don't think I should know your name?" The shadows laugh, and I can tell that it is a man around his early twenties or late teen years.

        "I don't even know if you are actually there, or if I'm talking to shadows, hallucinating." I laugh and rub my fingers over the bird symbol. "I've heard rumors about this symbol, and about the person it belongs to." I say as I look up to the alley.

        "And what do the rumors say?"

        "He was shaped by the night, formed into what he is today. Not many have seen him, because he rides in the night, protecting the people of the city alongside the Bat." I say clearly, wanting to say that for so long.

        "Does the rumors say anything about his stunningly good looks?" The shadows ask and I smile a little bit, forgetting a few moments about what I had just attempted to do.

        "I don't think so, but I could start a rumor." I try to peer into the shadows to see the famous Nightwing. "I need to know, am I really talking to the famous Nightwing, or am I hearing things right now?"

        "That all depends on if you are going to spread some good rumors or bad ones." The voice whispers and I glance at my hands, which were still gripping the insignia of Nightwing.

        "I don't think I'll be able to spread any rumors. I don't have any friends." I mutter, forcing a smile.

        "Can I ask you a question?" I see a leg kneel down before me, but nothing else. The leg was clad in black leather, but it was probably something much much more tougher than regular leather. 

        "I guess."

        "Why did you want to die tonight?" I glance through the rain up at the shadows, startled by the question.

        "Most of the people I know would say I did it was because I wanted attention," I pick my words carefully,"but I was- I just faced-" I try to search for words, but my mind does not want to remember the traumatic event that happened a few minutes before.

        "It's okay if you don't want to tell me, I'd understand."

        "If I told you, you would feel obliged to help me, because you think of me as a puny little girl."

        "I doubt that. Even if you are wearing a floral dress."

        "If you really want to know, I was almost taken advantage of." The only sound that greets me is the sounds of cars, trucks and the rain pounding on houses and metal. 

        "You are right, I do feel obliged to take care of you now. But I do not think of you as a little girl."

        "Now, answer my question, because I need to know if I have a concussion. Am I really talking to Nightwing? Or, well, you?"

        "You!" I turn my head before crawling backward, away from the man that had a bloody cut running down the side of his face from where I hit him with a broken beer bottle. It was my only other option really. "You witch!" The man shouted as he stumbled over to me, and I crawled away, gripping the insignia tightly in my grasp. "You cut me!" The man keeps on ranting and I crawl into a dumpster. I quickly try to stand, but I someone grabs my arm roughly. I'm spun around and pushed into a wall. "I'll make you pay for that." I try to push the man's hands away as he tries to bring up the edge of the dress.

        "I don't think she wants your company." The man pressing himself against me turns around and I see a man clad all in black with a lightning blue nightingale on his chest. The man wore a mask over his eyes and his black hair was damp with the pouring rain.

        "And you think she wants yours instead?" The drunken man stumbles towards Nightwing and I glance around and grab a pipe off of the alley ground. I grip it firmly before smacking the drunken man in the back with all of my might. He falls onto his face and Nightwing just glances down at him before crouching and putting two of his fingers against the man's neck.

        "He'll live." Nightwing states calmly before he glances up at me, raising an eyebrow. "You can put that down now." 

        I drop the pipe and it clatters to the floor, chiming in the rain as it hits the concrete. "So you are real."

        "I hope I am, or else I have a lot of thinking on what I have been doing over the past few years."

        "I didn't think you were sarcastic."

        "I didn't think that you would actually hit this man with a lead pipe."

        "Then I guess we are even." I fix my dress before pushing my soggy hair out of my face, wiping my eyes also.

        "Maybe we should get you home." 

        "Don't have one. Not really. Mother and father are dead and my uncles a drunk. He likes to punch. I would rather live out in this rain than go back there."

        "You must have somewhere else to go."

        "Do you really think I would be standing out here, in the pouring rain, trying to run from my life and kill myself, if I had somewhere else to go?" Nightwing stays silent. "Okay then. I am going to go find a diner that is still open, and try to sweet talk the owner into giving me some coffee." I walk off and back to the street, eyeing the diner across the street.

        I hear an engine start up, and a light from behind me shows me my shadow in front of me. I turn around and back away from the opening as a black motorcycle pulls up next to me, Nightwing riding it. He hands me a helmet, "Batman is going to kill me. Get on."