Sana grunted as the mans boot pushed her to the bricked wall behind her. It knocked the wind out of her but she had little time to recover as she ducked the fist that flew her way. She propelled herself forward and engulfed the mans body, using all her weight to push him down on the ground. She lifted him by his shirt, struggling to do so as he wasn't quite light, and him back down to knock him out. 

"Night Girl, thank you!" The couple who had been about to be robbed by the large man began to cry their gratitude. 

Still a little winded, Sana forced a smile towards them. 

"Sana the cops are on their way." The voice in her ear said, "You should get out of there." 

"The cops are on their way." Sana said to the couple, "I'd go wait for them by the street lights, it's safer in the light. Give them your statements and return home safely." She instructed them as she bent down and cuffed the man with zip ties she kept on her belt. 

"Thank you! Thank you!" They called back as they rushed away. 

Sana watched them go, waiting until she heard the sirens before she got her grappling gun out and shot it up to the adjacent roof. Once up on the roof she watched as the cops arrived, the couple leading them to where the unconscious man lay. She smiled as she heard them praise her for her quickly work, hopefully helping the cops swerve in her favor rather then continuing to see her as a menace. 

It had only been a couple months since she'd began fighting alongside her foster mom, Kim Yubin, or rather Night Woman. 

Sana had been kidnapped alongside her family when she had first met her. Night Woman had managed to save her but not her family. Becoming an orphan, she was taken in by billionaire Kim Yubin, and later discovered her secret. She begged for months to join her, wanting to put away the same kind of people who took away her family. No one should have to live with that kind of pain and Yubin understood better than anyone. 

She didn't become a hero right away. Yubin put her through months and months of training before she could even join her out on the streets. She was back up mostly and usually only allowed out on her own to handle small stuff like muggings and other disturbances of peace. She craved to do more of course but she'd follow Yubin's rules for now. 

"Got anything else for me Thomas?" Sana asked, blowing bubbles with her gum as she swung her legs on the edge of some building. 

Jihyo, or Thomas as Sana was instructed to call her when she was out, was one of the few people Yubin trusted with the secret. Despite her being younger than Sana, she'd been assisting Yubin before she had come around. She was a certified tech genius who could hack into anything. Yubin was a pretty impressive hacker herself but Jihyo was like a god with computers and was their eyes and ears when they were out on the streets. 

"It's almost midnight Sana, I think it's time you call it a night." She said, prompting Sana to groan. 

"Come on, one more." She whined. She'd be dead tired in the morning but saving someone's life seemed worlds more important than algebra. 

"Night Girl, I need your assistance by the docks." 

Sana perked up at the sound of the hard voice and quickly jumped to her feet. "On my way boss!" 

Night Woman hardly ever called her for help. She'd been defending the city on her own for years before Sana had joined, so it was rare for their to be a situation in which she couldn't handle. She quickly made her way to her motorcycle that Yubin had gifted her when she'd joined her in the fight, and made her way downtown. 

She found Night Woman staring down at a van being loaded by men wearing clown make up.

"The Ringmaster?" Sana whispered as she took the binoculars from Night Woman to see the scene for herself.

"There's no sign of her yet, just her men." 

"What are they loading?" She knew that she must have figured out what was being transported, Night Woman had been investigated the suspicious late night exports for weeks. 

"Weapons mostly." She answered in her same monotonously cold voice. 

"What are we doing?" Sana eyed the men warily, although she was impatient to be given bigger responsibilities, she'd never fought so many men before. 

"You, nothing." Night Woman said as she put away the binoculars in her belt, "You'll stay up here while I take them out one by one. If it looks like I'm in trouble, then I will allow you to come help. Understand?" 

"But-" 

"Understood?" She said more harshly and Sana knew she had no choice but to nod. 

"Understood." She mumbled.

Yubins eyes softened for a second but quickly focused as she turned to leap on the adjacent building. Sana watched her hop from rooftop to rooftop stealthily, the men below none the wiser. 

Sana secretly loved just sitting back and watching. When Yubin was in the zone she was fascinating to watch. It filled her with excitement and strong desire to work harder, to be, better. Long before their paths had crossed, Yubin had been her hero. Someone Sana had talked about excitedly with friends and admired while watching on the television. Now she was fighting alongside her.

One day she wouldn't just be her sidekick. She'd be a real partner. A hero on her own right.

She watched as she was told, with wide eyes as Yubin picked them off one by one. As the heroes they didn't kill anyone. It was morally wrong and it would make them just as bad as the bad guys. So Yubin simply knocked them out quickly, hiding their bodies behind the van before another came around the corner for her to take down. 

Sana jumped up as one man managed to grab Yubin and pull her away from his back, flipping her so she landed harshly on the floor. She watched anxiously, waiting to see if she would be needed. Others quickly joined as Yubin bounced to her feet and began to fight them off. Five men were nothing usually but she could tell that she was still winded from the earlier move. 

"Thomas are the cops on the way?" She asked, preparing to go down as she saw more men approaching with guns. 

"They'll be there soon." She responded. 

That was cue enough for her to shoot her grappling gun towards a light pole. Adrenaline rushed through her as she jumped, using all the strength in her abdomen to push her feet forward in order to kick down the man whose gun pointed towards Yubin. She landed to kick successfully, using the mans body as her cushion as she landed. Glancing down she noticed he was unconscious and she quickly threw a Nightarang towards a clown aiming a gun towards her. It knocked the gun from his hands and allowed her a moment of surprise to spring on him with a high kick. 

She ducked, she punched, she kicked, she fought with all her strength. This would be the first time she'd fought so many men alongside Yubin and she couldn't help but feel a brief moment of pride. This is what she had been dreaming of since the moment she had seen the news of the new vigilante. She was going to fight with everything she had and prove that she was ready for the responsibility. 

As she was taking in the moment, a figure in the corner of her eyes caught her attention. 

Before she could catch a proper look, smoke engulfed her as she quickly fell to her knees, coughing from the fumes. 

"Night Girl!" She distantly heard Night Woman yell before darkness overcame her.

*^*

Sana's head was pounding as she began to wake up. 

"Sana." A familiar cold voice greeted her as she began to fidget. 

"Night Woman." Sana croaked, sore from whatever fumes she'd taken in. Opening her eyes slowly, she was relieved to find that she was in her room. 

"You've been out for one day." Yubin said, handing her a glass of water as she sat herself up. 

Sana's eyes widened at the information. One whole day? What exactly had happened?

More importantly, was Yubin mad at her failure?

She peeked over to her cautiously as she sipped from the glass. She could see the same cold straight face but there was the softness in her eyes that always reminded Sana of the woman who had saved her and hugged her as she sobbed. A look that shows how much she truly did care even if she lacked the words to express it.

"What happened?" Sana asked, remembering the figure she'd briefly seen before her black out. 

Yubin uncrossed her arms and grabbed the remote for her TV, which she noticed was on, and unmuted the news currently playing.

"The internet is dubbing her "Black Swan", the recent mysterious villain to be seen assisting The Ringmaster. It's unknown exactly what she's capable of but footage has shown the cloaked villain knocking people out with black smoke and fighting police with graceful movements." The reporter spoke before the screen turned to footage of the commissioner, "All detectives and officers are working hard to find the identity of this new criminal. We assure you that they will be caught and brought to justice." 

"Taecyeon looks shaken." Sana noted of their friend.

"Yeah well, we already have plenty of masked criminals. We didn't need another." Yubin shuts the TV off, "Since our encounter with the Black Swan, I've been working on figuring what kinda compound you inhaled. I hope you don't mind but I took a blood sample." Sana shook her head, "I had my back turned when she struck so I wasn't able to catch it first hand but I assume it's only a matter a time. I'll be adding a respirator to your belt, make sure to always have it on you. We never know when we'll encounter her again." Yubin stood and awkwardly reached a hand to Sana's head, patting it gently, "Rest. I called in to your school for today and I'm giving you the night off. That's an order," she said before Sana could protest. "I've got a meeting to go to."

Sana noticed that she was in her usual day work attire of a pant suite, she wasn't one for skirts, and heels. She was certain that Yubin was one of the few woman to make the outfit actually look rather y. 

"Have a good day." Sana said as she reached for the remote and her laptop on her bedside table. 

As she started her laptop up, she instantly received a message from Skype.

Jihyo: You okay?

Sana: Just a slight headache... but alive

Jihyo: That's great! I was worried when Night Woman said you hadn't woken up yet. 

Sana: you know you can call her Yubin right? 

Jihyo: It's better if I address her formally. 

Sana rolled her eyes at her tech friends formality. It had taken her months to get her to call her Sana instead of Night Girl and she made it her mission to get her to do the same with Yubin. Yubin wasn't open with too many people and Sana wanted to help her not be so distant from the ones she was.

Her door creaked open as if on cue as Mr. Park walked in with tray.

"Ms. Sana, I'm glad to see you awake." 

Mr. Park Jinyoung was the butler of the family and had raised Yubin after her own family had been tragically murdered. 

"Glad to be awake Mr. Park. What do you have for me?" Sana looked excitedly at the tray he carefully places on her lap.

"Pancakes, fruit and orange juice." He stated, picking up her empty glass of water. "I'm sure you're starving." 

Sana nodded enthusiastically and dug into her food. While she ate, she turned up the volume for the TV so she could hear more about the mysterious Black Swan and whatever she had missed in her day of unconsciousness. 

*^*

The next day Sana returned to school. 

Missing school was normal for her, since her late night activities sometimes led to injuries or she overslept from having been up all night for particular cases. When asked, she'd shrug and say she just overslept and played hooki and everyone would go on with their day. As the foster child of a billionaire it wasn't unusual for her to ditch class, as all the richest kids did. 

She'd been outcasted at first. The media had taken it upon themselves to exploit her parents murder and follow her into her fostering with Kim Yubin. Eventually everyone warmed up to her and she was no longer a loner. She knew most of her classmates simply wanted to use her for her money and status but she'd managed to find a small circle for friends who were genuine with their friendship. 

Since she'd hadn't gone out on patrol the previous night, she managed to stay up during class and actually learn the lesson. She wasn't dumb by any means, but actually listening to the lecture was worlds better then having to read on dimly lit rooftops. 

When lunch came around, a familiar small head popped in through the doorway.

"Chaeyoung!" Jungyeon called, noticing her cousin. She jumped up and met the girl with a hug. Recently, she'd been abroad as her family dealt with the loss of her father. He'd been killed by some mobsters and Night Woman had managed to capture them just last week. Feeling safer with the threat locked up, Jungyeon had said her favorite cousin was set to come back soon. Sana was glad to see the short smiling girl again. Even if her eyes no longer shone as they did before. They'd eventually find their shine again, she was sure of it.

Sana stood with the rest of her friends to go meet the shorter girl. 

"Glad to have you back." Sana smiled sympathetically as she hugged her. They all said their greetings and Sana took notice of a girl about her height standing awkwardly by the door. Her hair was shoulder length and dyed a light brown, almost orange she'd say.

"Oh! Sana unnie, this Mina. She's in my class. I wanted to introduce you two since she speaks very little Korean. She just moved here from Japan." Chaeyoung introduced the shy girl who blushed as all their eyes turned to her. She bowed to them quickly, stuttering a hello in Korean. 

"Hello! Im Sana! You're Japanese?"

The girl looked up at her use of her native tongue. She nodded back at her stiffly. 

Sana smiled, "It's okay if you can't speak Korean. It took me a while also. But don't worry, I'll help you out." 

Sana studied the new girl closely, taking in her slim figure and the odd way she stood with her feet spread outwards, sorta like a penguin, and her straight nose that adorned a small mole with another one also just above her lip. She was beautiful. Probably the most beautiful girl she'd ever seen. 

"Thank you." She responded as delicate as an angel.

Sana could only smile as her heart skipped.