Rise of Nighthawk

   Years of training and learning within the Xaviar school for gifted children had done a lot of good for Dianna. She had been invited to join the X-man forces but had declined. She wanted to go home and be with her family. She had made a few friends during summer breaks over the years. Tony and Josie were her two best friends. Josie wanted to be her lady on the mic, and Tony had a degree already in IT and engineering. He liked to tinker and make cool gadgets. He had graduated a year ahead of her, in 2004. She always knew he was smart and the school had only enhanced his intelligence. Dianna had never felt trapped or impeded by the school, in fact her closest friend here was a furry guy that looked like a red panda, he had come from China. Li had also been her first crush, he was a romantic. Now even though they were ending their relationship, they were friends always. 

   “Dianna please be safe, should you ever reach China look me up.” Li gave her his address at home. Then he pulled her in close and hugged her for the last time. His luggage was already loaded into the limo. He turned and got into the car. Dianna watched as the limo pulled away from her, her luggage had already been shipped home. This would not be her first flight home, but her first flight without escort from the school. As a matter of fact there was her teacher now. Gawds above he was handsome “Hello Mr. W.`` His smile brightened up the day shinier than the sun. Too bad he was married to Psylocke. “Hey Hawk, you ready for this flight solo?” She nodded and sub consciously brushed the lock of her hair behind her ear. What was once a mottled curly mess with black streaks. Now it was fully dark brown, almost black.

   “We have registered your flight path with the local air tower, you're cleared to go.” Dianna gave a hawk-like scream to warn her fellow classmates that she was taking off. Another gift had emerged while at school. She could manipulate sound the way Banshee could. Her unique vocal abilities to mimic the sounds of birds was part and partial to her body's structure. People shot back knowing that her take off often spread a bit of rocks with it, and none of them wanted their good clothing dusted today. She launched into the air with the desire for freedom of the air consumed her. No where did she feel the bliss that the clouds and sky could give her. As she flew she danced through the clouds and performed aerial acrobatics for anyone that might see her. 

   Dianna watched out for the commercial flights, and the watch she had would warn her if any flight other than governmental was approaching. That had been a graduation gift from one of the teachers at the school after she almost became engine fodder to a Boeing 747. She had bounced off the wing that day, and broke her arm and sprained both wings. If Mr W hadn’t been there she would likely have been dead. Her healing was fast and could heal her from some pretty severe damage. It however was not on par with Mr. Logan’s healing. It took her only 24 hours to recover and everything was put right by her own healing. But currently she was making sure she didn’t run into a plane, she was due home in 5 hours after all for dinner. “Now where is that Northern air current at?” 

   Dianna found her air current quickly enough and let the air push her aloft and move her north. Little more than 2 hours and she would need to turn West to head for home. Anderson Indian home of the comic strip Snoopy, and Charles Shultz. There were other comic writers, her favorite was Stan Lee. He wrote about heroes, and helping people for the greater good. His fictional works often reflected well known Mutants missions or acts of bravery. Mr Lee wasn’t afraid to show the reader how deadly those forays could be either. More than one comic held sad endings for some of those heroes. This made her well aware that helping others could lead to her own demise, and she was quite willing to give her life to help others. Something that made her father turn pale every time she mentioned it. Turning toward home and coming out from the jet stream that had brought her this quickly north her eyes were drawn earthward. She could see a fire burning and the acrid smoke reached her even here at 32 thousand feet. 

   Diving down from the sky was always exhilarating, but her mind was more on what was happening below and if her help might be needed. At 3 thousand feet she opened her wings and slowly leveled off around 800 feet above the earth. She could perform aerial acts that could boggle the mind like the bird she was named for; she was agile in the air and had the ability to snap back up in an instant. The smoke here made her cough and she pulled her protective face mask up over her nose. Her goggles protected her eyes and the hood of the body suit she wore kept her ears warm during flights. Dianna scanned the building top after all people usually thought that the roof was the best place for firefighters to get to them. They were correct in most cases. Unless… like now one of them had gotten cut off by fire erupting through the roof. She could see that the woman was going to die and quickly if she did not move to help. 

She dove again landing with a snap of her wings on the roof. She couldn’t believe she was uttering these words but they were fitting. “Come with me if you want to live.” the woman chuckled a bit hysterically and leapt into her arms. She could lift 3 times her weight that too had been part of her training. And right now she was thankful for that training. Grabbing right to the woman Dianna lifted her off the roof and flew to the ambulance that was located in the emergency vehicles grouped 500feet away. And set her down in front of a startled EMT. with a quick salute “Nighthawk sir, she should be fine but check her for any burns. It was hot up there.” she shot aloft. Best not to stay too long she thought. Authorities might have questions she didn’t want to answer.

It was around 4:30pm when she arrived in her back yard in Anderson, Indiana. Her father was waiting on the back patio with a cold lemonade and a plate of fruit and cheese for her to recoup from her long flight on. She was famished. Though she did smell of chemical smoke. He handed her the plate and smirked “Well hello Nighthawk, seems you are already making a name for yourself. You young lady have already made the news. And your antics are all over FaceBook.” he motioned for her to eat, and held up a towel. 

Oh gawds a shower sounded fantastic, and her shower was big. A walk in dream, created by her father to ensure she was able to really get clean. ‘Your friends will be here in an hour, go get clean and change into something comfy after you’re done. I am going to get the grill started and get dinner ready. Congratulations daughter, I am so proud of you sorry I couldn’t be at the graduation. The museum had a new shipment of artifacts come in today from Africa. And I needed to be there and check them in.” she looked at her father and gave him a sincere smile. “No worries dad, it made coming home all that much faster. I would have had to wait for you for a couple of hours if you had flown down for the ceremonial. 

She had finished the last strawberry and took the towel from him, the shower felt amazing. She was about to exit the bathroom when she heard Tony call for her. The call was not a pleasant sound.. “Dianna! Come quick!” As she entered the living room he was turning on CNN and the President was addressing the nation. “As of today all Mutants will present themselves at local registration centers. This is a mandatory requirement. If you do not register under my new executive order By June 30th, you will be detained and you will be sent to detention centers that are built to hold Mutants. I know most Mutants are very fine people, but we are looking into the fact that there are many that are trouble. Our experts are determining the best way to deal with criminal elements of Mutant society. We must deal with them with extreme force, they are a danger to society and a threat to our people.” 

Dianna Tony Jodie and her father all stared at the screen mouths hanging open. It was Jodi that first “Oh Shit!”. That broke the hold the TV had on them, suddenly Dianna didn’t really feel like celebrating. “We can go together Dianna, That way we keep an eye on each other. But let's go in the morning.'' The announcement placed a dark cloud over dinner but Dianna tried her best not to show it. She could tell the other three were determined to have a great time and dinner and not think about the future for Mutants. Registration meant controls, controls meant they could call her in at any time to answer for any supposed crime. How was she going to be a hero if the government wanted to control who and where she could help others. That night she and Tony lay on the trampoline and looked up at the stars “Tony life just became more difficult. How can we help others under what I am sure is a book of laws as to what we are able to do?” turning his head he looked at his friend and the smell of her feathers wafted up from beneath him as he was crooked in the first bend of her wing. Her wing made a great pillow for stargazing.

“Honestly my friend we will find a way. Even if I have to build you a stealth suit that hides your identity. I know you need to be what you dream of. You're already my hero Nighthawk, and I am sure that lady today thinks so too.” she sighed and looked toward the heavens, somehow she knew he was right. “Hey Tony can you move off my wing it’s going numb” he chuckled and sat up. She stretched her beautiful nighthawk like wing and groaned. “Lets get inside, the mosquitoes are eating me.” Her father smiled at her from the kitchen. Together they walked to the back door where the warm light of home was, and the safety that it offered her. 

Nighthawk became a name in the local county, often she was rescuing one child or another. Saving the neighbors cat, or helping out someone that needed her assistance. Dianna had a good working relationship with local police as she would help them detain the criminals they were having a hard time catching. Her friends and father had become her team. Helping her find where and when she needed to be. Currently she was looking down on a bank robber that had taken a teller prisoner in hopes of getting away.

She held herself aloft above him then when she saw an opportunity because the gun was now pointed at police she dove. Strait out of the sky and knocked the man to the ground with a blast of air and a good shove of her foot at his back. The teller while shaken up was safe with little more than a bit of cement burn where his palms had scraped the sidewalk in the scuffle. The local Police scrambled forward and detained the criminal. “Thanks Nighthawk, you made that way more easier.” His genuine response just made one more case that this, a hero of the people like “The friendly Neighborhood Spiderman” she was meant to be a hero. She loved this, it made her feel like her mutation was a destined arrangement. 

 She rose into the air gently watching her air speed so as to not throw debris all over the crowd. It was time to head back to home base, she could hear her stomach growling, this was the signal that it was time to return. She had a larger range now than when she had graduated a year ago, but flying without the air currents to move you meant more energy was spent. There was Pizza waiting. This thought drove her to fly just a bit faster. Below her she could see the freeway cars were backed up for miles. Wondering what could have brought that on she followed the cars to the front where the scene below was chaos. A cattle truck carrying livestock had overturned. Beef cattle were all over the road and charging the people below. Though people were trying to help more of them were being injured as cattle stampede in fear this way and that. Out of the corner of an eye she spotted 3 kids sitting on the side of the road near a car that had steam flowing from the radiator.

Charging toward the children was a very angry steer, he was gunning straight at them. She turned and shot between them grabbing the steer by the nose and turning it into the grassy median on the side of the road. Her appearance had made the kids gasp, She could see a government vehicle just 5 cars behind them and walked them by taking the youngest hand “Come on it isn’t safe here.” The federal officer was staring down the cars to see if he needed to help out any. Great, she thought, “A Suit” “Can you keep these kiddos safe while we get the cattle at least cornered and off the road.?” He had looked startled to see her. Her gray mottled apparel hid her identity and made it hard to see her aloft. Turning after depositing the children in his care, Nighthawk went about helping to clear up the cattle. Driving them back into a small rest area off the freeway where truckers had backed their trucks into a makeshift pen. “Here take this.” a man to her right said. Pushing a cheeseburger into her hand while another handed her a drink. “You look like you're about to pass out on us.” The man with the soft drink looked her over “What do they call you miss?”

Around the bites of Cheeseburger she explained she was Nighthawk, and thanked them for the food. Being a Super heroine was a hungry job after all. The men laughed at her. Once finished they waved goodbye to her. Now to finish that flight home, Pizza and a shower. Or maybe shower then pizza she smelled like cow, and sweat. The day had been long and that sunset made it all worth the hard work. She felt the Moon rising and the evening sky was cooling rapidly. The lights of home were warm and welcoming as she touched down on the grass and walked up the stairs. Like the moon ascension into the sky, today had proven that the Nighthawk had risen.