On Feathery Wings
by Glitch Girl

Nighttime in the city...

This is a part of town that few people go. There is desperation here, hopelessness, fear... It is a place where people feel the need to lock their doors, as the few police who venture out this far are often more crooked than the criminals they claim to police.

A shadowy figure glides overhead, a silent silhouette against the moonlit night.

She is hunting.

There is a commotion below in the poorly lit streets. Her eagle-like sight sees the three thugs surrounding the old man, pushing him around roughly. They're demanding money; she's seen this scene many times before. It never gets any nicer.

She dives from the sky like a hawk, the black feathers of her cloak almost buzzing with the passing wind. With a bird-like scream, she plows into one of the thugs, knocking him several feet into the empty street. The others turn in surprise, their guns are drawn.

They hide behind guns, she thinks bitterly, cowards.

Her movements are fast. She darts at them like a humming bird, moving left as their guns point right, ducking and weaving. With a battle cry of "Evil must fall!" she strikes at one's face with her talons. He recoils, dropping his gun as he clutches at his eyes, as if he can remove the darkness that now covers them. She crouches low and sweeps his friend's legs out from under him. The blind one is almost bawling now; his blindness leaves him open for a kick to the head that sends him crashing into a cluster of garbage cans. Another kick sends his partner to unconsciousness.

A bullet flies past her ear; apparently she hadn't hit the first one hard enough. She's not feeling forgiving tonight, and with swan-like grace, she draws herself up to her full height, staring at him coldly. He's rattled; he doesn't know what to expect, but he tries to bring his gun to bear as she extends her hand forward, energy glowing around the palm. Before he can pull the trigger once more, he's hit by a chill that reaches his very marrow. The gun falls limply from his nerveless grip and clatters to the pavement. He joins it a moment later.

She looks at the old man. He's frightened, but he seems mostly unharmed. His skin is dark, like hers, and for a moment, she sees her father in his eyes. Then the vision passes, and he's a stranger once more.

"Go home," she says quietly.

He's still shaken, struggling for words. Finally he manages a small thank you. He wants to say more, but by then, she is flying skyward once more.

There are plenty of heroes who will fight by daylight, but what about the night? What about the small crimes and injustices that take place away from the sun.

This is her time and her duty. She can sense that evil is near in the streets below her. She can hear it whisper her name in the shadows with a mixture of fear and suspicion. "Beware the Blackbird..." they say. "You never know when she's watching you."

If they only knew she used to be one of them not so long ago. She had been criminal and a thief, a piece of scum by choice. Her family had been so upset, so shocked at the way she stole without guilt, without remorse, as if the world owed her more than her lot in life.

The last time the police came to their door, searching for her... It was her third strike, and that meant leniency was not an option, not this time.

The thought of his daughter as a common criminal that had been eating at her father for months finally broke his heart literally, and she knew she had only herself to blame. As she squeezed his hand, feeling his life slip away as they waited for the ambulance to arrive, she knew she'd killed him as sure as if she'd taken a gun and pulled the trigger herself.

She'd given up stealing that night. She almost gave up living as well, spending her days on the apartment roof watching the birds, trying to make the hurting stop. It felt as though her heart had frozen and died. Her days past without purpose, her waking hours hollow, and her sleep troubled and restless.

Then there was the light, the purple glow that came from nowhere and filled her with a kind of power she'd never experienced before. And suddenly, a moment of clarity: she knew what she had to do, what she was going to do.

She had been part of the problem, now she would be the solution.

Below her, she hears a woman's scream. Her sharp eyes scan the block from the air and finally spot the mugger and his victim.

She dives...

Nighttime in the city.