"I am going to remember this date...the one day that Belle Anderson is actually late for a business meeting." Anthony Stockwell drawled into his phone from his office located in 2 World Trade Center.

Belle herself was rapidly navigating the few blocks herself to the World Trade Center Complex while talking on her cell phone. "Oh sure rub it in why don’t you? When I get my hands on the car that smacked into my Viper I’ll wring his neck! Thankfully I’m in walking distance, I’ll be in your office to sign that contract in less than fifteen minutes."

"I’ll be coun..." Anthony’s voice fizzled out and the air was filled with the scream of a jet engine and the roar of fire...

Belle had no time to wonder about the dead phone in her hand. She was too busy sprinting down the blocks to see what had exploded. She rounded the last corner and framed at the end of the street was the World Trade Center. "Oh sweet Gods...No..." She breathed completely frozen in sheer horror. It appeared that the top twenty or more floors of 1 World Trade Center were in flames, thick black smoke was pouring out of shattered windows.

Then it hit her.

The waves of panic, fear, anger and pain hit her. Thousands of minds pounded on her telepathic defenses like never before, her knees buckled and Belle slumped to the ground, grabbing her temples in an effort to block out the screams and the howls of the suffering and the fear-stricken. With a sheer will power she brought her powers to the forefront and shut the walls within her mind tight. Still pale and shaken, Belle attempted to get to her feet. A fellow businessman spied her on the ground.

"You okay, miss?" He was pale and shaken himself; Belle didn’t want to know how bad she was looking. He offered her his hand and Belle gratefully took it as he helped her back to her feet. All around them people was standing in shock at the sight 110 floors above them.

"I’ll be okay. Thank you. Did anybody see what happened?" Belle asked as she dialed Anthony’s cell phone number; he was in the other tower, but he better get his ass out of there anyway.

‘Somebody said it was a plane...a big jet rammed into the tower..." came a female voice from the crowd.

"Oh Gods." Belle hissed under her breath as the phone on the other end rang and rang. "Come on...answer damn it!"

"Stockwell!" snarled the irate voice on the other end at last.

"It’s Anderson. Get your butt out of that building now!" Belle snarled back.

"What’s going on out there? It’s absolute mayhem in here, powers flickering people screaming..." Anthony was throwing things into a briefcase while tucking his cell phone under his ear.

"I’m not sure how it happened, but the top twenty or so floors of the North Tower are on fire! Forget grabbing things, get out of there!" Belle was practically yelling into the phone in her hand.

"I’m gone!" snapped Anthony back and he hung up. Snapping his briefcase shut he joined thousands of others as he fled down the emergency stairs.

The minutes ticked by at a grueling pace, every fire engine on the island it seemed was converging on the base of the World Trade center, fire fighters armed with hoses and other gear stormed the building in a desperate effort to reach the flames and save lives.

Belle could do nothing, this was a job for the men and women of New York’s emergency services, and they were the best in the country if not the world. She knew many of them, a few dozen personally and she was confident that they would prevail. She moved to another office building and joined countless others on the rooftops, unable to turn away from the spectacle above her.

9:05am EST

"Boss!" yelled F-X in desperation into her headset receiver. "Hey, talk to me out there! What is happening? I think we have one of the few working phone connections left in the city!" She stole a glance at the nearby television where the footage of the second plane hitting the tower was being replayed. She shuddered; the Agency was the best the in world, how could have this have happened here? How could have they not known this was coming?

"I’m here, F-X." Belle’s shaky voice finally answered. "What news do you have?"

"Same as you, we are tracking those flights now. There may be at least two others out there..." F-X’s voice trailed off as both she and her employer considered the implication of two more crashes.

"Assist the FAA as much as possible, F-X, we got to find those jets before it’s too late." Belle stole another glance at the towers, black smoke was beginning to spread all over lower Manhattan, she better head out of here and really get to work. "I’ve got a job to do."

"Understood, Boss," came the only reply before the line turned off.

For the next hour Belle Anderson was never off of her phone long enough to make her way home, it was ringing off the wall. She had received calls from fellow businessmen and women, one from a very panicked Richard Grayson who was stuck in London till who knew when, an equally panicked Dick Grayson and the rest of the Titans. Due to the sudden lock down of Manhattan Island, neither the Titans nor the JLA could approach the site of the disaster...

It made the feelings of helplessness all the worse, and there was worse to come.

Belle was cut off from most of the major news broadcasts as she wasn’t going any distance from the World Trade Complex, she heard through word of mouth about a third plane that struck the Pentagon and a suspected fourth that had crashed in Pennsylvania. Belle thought that was the end of it. The FAA had locked down all flights, the only planes in the air were military fighters. She was already back down to ground level and getting ready to walk back to her apartment.

They could now put of the fires and begin the clean up, she was getting ready to call her people again to get the ball rolling on Emergency Assistance when the dark hand of fate played another card to show them all that the nightmare was far from over.

It took a better part of an hour for Anthony Stockwell to get out of the tower. He was thanking his lucky stars that he got out of there; he was well beyond the ring of emergency vehicles and almost to the barricade that the NYPD around the towers when he heard an ominous rumble from above him. He took a look over his shoulder and began to run for his very life. The top floors of the south tower were pancaking and taking the rest of the building with it!

Belle was in the middle of the street when the rumble from above got her attention. "Oh no..." she hissed as the huge 110 story tower began to crumble, huge chunks of debris were flying everywhere.

People around her began to panic and stampede away from the huge choking cloud of dust that was snaking through the streets. She turned to run away as well when somebody smacked into her, knocking her to the ground. Almost as fast, she felt herself being grabbed and dragged along. Belle caught a glimpse behind her and saw a huge chunk of debris heading for her and her would-be rescuer. Acting on reflex she motioned to the object with her hand and her TK sent the thing soaring back to the tower.

Just before the huge dust cloud completely blinded their visions there was a door to a building nearby, both ran for it at the same time. Seconds later the door shut behind them and the only sounds were the pair of them coughing to free their lungs of the dust and ash they inhaled. Belle looked up and blinked a few times not quite believing what she was seeing.

"Anthony Stockwell?" she rasped.

The man turned and also blinked a few times. "Anderson?" He looked down and saw to his amazement that he was still holding his briefcase. "Wanna sign that damn contract now?"

Belle blinked at him for a few minutes and to her amazement she began to laugh. She was laughing so hard she had to lean against the wall for support before sliding down it to the floor. As suddenly as she had begun laughing, she found herself sobbing. Her tears mixed with the ash and dust on her face as she sat on the floor of this unknown building after witnessing the greatest disaster the city of New York had ever seen, as well as mentally enduring all those who died it both the crashes and the collapse.

Belle had no clue how long she was sitting there, but when she had finally regained a measure of control she noticed that Anthony was sitting on the floor next to her and he wasn’t dry-eyed either. "How could this have happened here?" He choked.

Belle blinked, she was considered to be among the world’s greatest heroes, one of this very city’s protectors and ran the most comprehensive intelligence and covert operations organizations in the world and the only answer she could give was: "I... I don’t know..."

The fall of the second tower almost seemed anti-climatic to Belle. It was almost expected, like conjoined twins, one tower couldn’t survive without its brother and it died as well. Since all auto traffic was shut down Belle, like many others, walked either off the island or to their homes across the island. She lived miles away, near Central Park and it took her the better part of the day to get home.

The only time she had her phone on was to allow Anthony to call his wife and assure her that he was fine and heading home. At least that was one small victory, and she needed all that she could get. After he was done, she shut it off and started walking. The silence of the city was deafening, there was barely a soul on the streets and the only sound was the clicking of the street signals as they ran on automatic control.

At last she had reached her apartment by early afternoon, her message machine was full. It took her another hour to play and reply to all the messages. The Travis family, Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon, her grandfather, MJ and the rest of the Patrol... The list went on. She kept the calls short, curt; most understood Belle was in no mood for talking...at least not yet.

After everybody she ever met was satisfied that she was alive and well, Belle slowly removed her begrimed business suit and hit a wall panel. Silently the wall gave way and a small secret room was revealed, there on a mannequin was her ShadowWing costume. She put it on without even thinking about it and in a matter of minutes she was out of her apartment and swinging through the buildings, making her way to her favorite perch in the entire city.

The Empire State Building.

She maneuvered her way to the steeple and perched on some of the airship hooks that still remained even after the plans to moor the huge blimps here were scrapped. She then faced south and began to weep again.

Where two grand towers once stood, all you could see was smoke and ash highlighted by the various spotlights as they desperately tried to fight the remaining fires and locate survivors. The city was so quiet that you could hear the yells and the signals that the emergency crews were using even from her position, you couldn’t make out much...but the fact that could hear them, gave her pause to shudder.

ShadowWing heard the buzz in her communication gear before F-X’s voice shaky come over the microphone in her ear. "Boss, I know you didn’t want to be disturbed... but I think this is the exception..." She gave no answer either way so F-X patched the call through.

"What do you think you are doing?" rasped Batman’s voice into her ear.

"Grieving...normal emotion to have in a situation like this." ShadowWing replied in flat tones.

"Are you going to do anything else? Aside from sitting there on top of the Empire State Building and blaming yourself for this?" he replied.

"Already have... I’ve sent dozens of my people out there to keep the emergency supplies flowing to where they are needed the most, dozens more assisting the Federal Task Force with the investigation. And as soon as I can grasp the fact that I just felt at least a thousand people die today and can cope with feeling a thousand more slip away I’m going down there and joining the ranks of searchers and rescue workers." ShadowWing answered the remark, her voice was gaining strength with each work spoken.

"Just checking," came the curt reply before the line went off. ShadowWing stood up and swung her line back out and quickly covered the few miles between her and what was left of the World Trade Center Complex.

Without a moment's hesitation she walked right for the makeshift headquarters and straight for whoever was in charge. Most of the workers there looked at the hero with raised eyebrows and wondered what she was doing here. "I’m here to help." She began. "I can read minds and move a fire truck across a football field with a thought, where do you need me?"

The worn National Guardsman in front of her had very little love for heroes and was wondering where the hell she was when the disaster had hit. He was on the verge of ordering her butt off the site when he noticed something, though her costume was immaculate, free of the dust and grime that covered the rest of them. However her hair and what he could see of her face were coated with it.

She had been here after all, and like countless other firemen and rescue workers, who had just grabbed the uniform and ran here, joined the rest. Her uniform just happened to be different. They also needed all the help they could get. "Follow me...I’ll show you where we need some stuff moved, we just got the first of the National Guard units here..."

ShadowWing gladly followed him to where several other National Guard and Reserve Units were carefully digging through the debris layer by layer before it was removed for sifting at another site. After a quick lesson on how they were proceeding ShadowWing got to work.

ShadowWing was sitting back on the balls of her feet taking a minute to rest, suddenly a yell went up her eyes flew open and she spied a huge steel beam falling from above aimed right for a small reserve group. Acting on reflex she motioned with her hand to the huge chunk of metal and it stopped in midair moments before impact. "Where do you want it?" she muttered through clenched teeth. A few others quickly helped her guide the thing to a nearby container where she dropped it in with a huge crash.

She lowered her head and braced her hands on her knees to catch her breath. When she looked back up she spotted one of the Reserve Unit members standing next to her; she thought that he was there to thank her for the save till she spied his name patch. She then winced. "Uh oh..." She muttered.

"I wasn’t imagining that piece of debris doing a U-turn earlier today was I?" grinned Anthony Stockwell no longer dressed in a business suit, but in the standard fatigues of a member of the Army Reserve Unit.

"No," answered ShadowWing. "You weren’t."

His face softened. "Thanks."

"For what?" ShadowWing gave him a half smile. "I’m just here doing my job, same as you."

Anthony nodded; no other words were needed as the pair of them went back to work.

Even in the midst of destruction and chaos, hope appeared in small ways. A few survivors appeared here and there showing how strong the will to live was. As the hours passed, more and more costumed heroes made their way to the site and joined the search and clean up. The Titans, and Green Lantern, who also called New York home, were the next to arrive. Finally an understanding came about that heroes come in all shapes and sizes, those in masks were the first to admit that they were only following the example set by the true heroes among the emergency and rescue workers.

True the city that they called home had taken a terrible blow...