Chapter 2: Watch Your Step
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The little electric alarm clock blared it's annoying little alarm and was promptly shut off.

She moaned from under her pillow.

"Good Morning Ms. Roth." Said her Robotic Agent.

"Ugh..."

"Are you alright Ms. Roth?"

"I'm fine." She mumbles from under the pillow. "I just had a late night."

"Well, you may want to get dressed. You have your doctor's appointment in an hour." The Agent is basically a glorified servant. The first model made in 2025, it can do a myriad of things to enhance it's owner's life.

"Seriously? I thought it was at 9? Ugh..." she slinks out of bed and plods into the shower. Once she's done she plods right back to her bedroom, she shower seemingly doing zip to wake her up.

"Agent, why is the TV on?" She asked.

"Important news about Nightengale is being aired, Ms. Roth."

"I told you you don't have to call me that. Raven is fine."

"But it is in my programming to call you Ms. Roth." It says in it's proper, masculine robotic voice.

"Remind me to reprogram you tonight." She started brushing her wet, purple hair as she listened to the rather handsome newscaster speak about the infamously elusive assassin.

All the public knows about her is that she's a female between the ages of 20 and 25 (she's 26.)

Even with the greatest technology of the nation's new New York City, Jump City, she has still managed to elude and evade them for almost 5 years.

2030 is the year of Maglev. In addition to Maglev-trains, the first rideable one being made in 2004, Grayson Inc has developed Maglev-motorcycles, Maglev-Buses, trucks, all traveling on metal tracks embedded in the roads.

Finally, the newscaster gets to the segment Raven was waiting for.

"Last night Nightengale struck again. Terra Markov, Brion Markov, and Abraham Markov, were found on the side of the road in the Leap District, assumably on their way to invest in a groundbreaking product. Their throats were slit and their limousine was nowhere to be found. The bodies are being taken in for an autopsy. Across the city her work is seen again in an unusually messy scene at the top of the Mad Tricks building." The camera shifts over to his female news anchor.

"Yes a messy scene indeed. We will spare you the details, but the head of the company, more commonly known as Mad Mod, was found dead around the same time the Markovs were, along with plenty of his guards with bullet wounds in their heads."

"And with the unveiling of the new Grayson Inc facility in the city today, many people have been wondering, will Nightengale try to assassinate the 4 Grayson Inc tyc–" Raven shut off the TV.

"Ms. Roth, why did you shut off the television?" Agent asked.

"I already heard this from somebody, Agent. The 4 of those spoiled brats will be dead before the week's out." She states putting her hair into a neat bun. "Besides, I don't have time to watch the news."

She walks over to her closet and pulls out her clothes. A fitting, deep v-neck, black top with quarter sleeves, a rich, dark green skirt with a brown belt and a gold buckle, and her favorite pair of maroon, spring boots. She finished off the ensemble with a black sun hat to cover her face and sunglasses. She grabbed her purse, threw it over her shoulder. "Please make breakfast, Agent. I'll be back by 10." She locked the door.

"Of course Ms. Roth." The little, round, metallic ball hovered over to the kitchen and two thin arms came from it, ready to get to work.

Nightengale was the most mysterious woman on the west coast. Nobody knew who she was or where she would strike next. She was unpredictable and extremely difficult to capture. She was the most wanted woman around and had a bounty of a million dollars on her head. Dead or alive. Alive was the more likely option though. Nobody knew how she created her signature black beams and orbs of energy. Were they technology? Or perhaps something more, interesting? The technology was certainly around at this day and age for her to do so. Even if it wasn't available to the public yet.

But as for Nightengale, this was not the case.

Despite all her mysteries, Raven knew everything about her. Everything the public did not. The reason for this is simple. She is Nightengale. She's managed to stay under the radar for the last 5 years, leading a double life ever since she got out of college.

She works as an engineer for Grayson Inc's most prestigious rival, The Wilson Corporation. She was pretty good at her job. Actually, she was the best in her department. Everyone always asked her advice and to check and double check their work, which she was a harsh critic of.

As for her rivals, naturally she hated Grayson Inc. altogether, including the individuals who made it. She was more of a cynical and negative thinker than anything, which caused her to become so opinionated about her many reasons she hates the company and the 4 people running it.

Dick Grayson is CEO of the company and it's namesake. Most people call him Robin because he almost always wears red. His ego infuriates her. Sometimes he was actually pretty humble, but she just couldn't stand how full of it he acted sometimes. Mr. Big-Rich-Business-Man.

His foreign wife Koriand'r, which translated means Starfire, works in aesthetics. She makes sure everything looks consistant and pleasant to look at. She tended to be very naïve and that was what bothered Raven the most. She was also know to be an optimist, which always irritated her too. The woman was too soft, wouldn't and up for herself, and worst of all, was almost always putty in her husband's hands.

The half man half human Victor Stone, or better known as Cyborg, the first of many to come. He ia the technician and the engineer. He made most of the products. He works with Robin in hands-on projects to make the best products possible. She hates him for the reason of his proficiency in his field. He is, admittedly, is better than her at her job. The most satisfying thing in his case would be for her to completely upstage him before she carved out his own grave in the floor of the building.

Finally there was Garfield Logan, AKA Beast Boy. Hair, skin, and eyes green because of an antidote to a sickness that could have killed him as a child, he could turn into any animal he so pleased because of this. This was sadly a normal occurrence for people these days to be given abnormal qualities because of a medication or an antidote. Medicine has evolved and de-evolved at the same time.

He works in advertising. He has impeccable social skills and works on appealing to a target audience. She hates him due to his obnoxious fanbase. Because of these social skills, girls of all ages loved him. She considered him a parasite and an annoyance.

Luckily for Raven though, her natural hair color is a common color for people to be born with or dye nowadays. So her deformity is masked much better than his is.

Raven longed to just get an assignment from somebody to take the five of them out, but she doesn't kill unless it's necessary for her mjssion. That's outside of her code. So she must wait. She knows that she will get one soon though. So many people have talked about it and someone was bound to attempt to reach out to her.

She walked down the street, the quiet hum of the maglev cars zooming down the street at more than 100 mph. She looked around at the tall buildings and the people around her.

They're the same as me. But they're not. She thought. During the day we're the same, but at night... she dashes the thought and soon, she's at the doctor's.

"Good morning Ms. Raven. Dr. Beecher will be waiting for you." She nodded at the woman and headed to the elevator.

It'll be fine Raven. Show no pain. Like you always do.

The elevator opened within seconds of her getting in.

She walked to the end of the hall to her doctor's office. She knocked on the door and a black woman with two puffs on her head opened the door. She wore a black and yellow top underneath her pristine white doctor's coat.

"Morning Raven."

"Morning Karen."

She entered and sat down on the bed lined gently with the thin was paper.

"How are we doing today?" She asked while she tried to get the stethoscope out of cabinet.

"I'm fine."

"You sound tired."

"I just had a late night." She pressed the cold stethoscope to her bare chest.

"Deep breath in......good. Now breathe out......perfect! Again." She repeated this twice. Then she tested her reflexes.

"Are you alright? You seem kinda down." Dr. Beecher asked.

"Its nothing." Raven dowmcasts her eyes to focus on the stethoscope around Karen's neck.

"You know, you can talk to me, right?

"I know." She sighs.

Karen continued her work: "Hmm. Alright, well we're almost done. Let's just check your shoulders." She's had many shoulder injuries in the past. Karen has made it a habit to check them to make sure nothing is wrong.

But this is exactly what Raven was afraid of.

She pinched and pressed the other one and Karen finally got to the injured shoulder. She moved Raven's arm up and down, back and forth, to test the ball joint. She smiled.

"Looks like you didn't injure anything too bad this time." Little did she know Raven was screaming on the inside.When she had gotten home she collapsed in the bed from exhaustion. So many cases, so little time. Not even enough time to remove a bullet. When Karen was rolling her shoulder, the bullet was rolling right along with it. Grinding against the fractured bone and it's little fragments. How she managed to pull a straight face is almost impossible to tell.

"Yeah..." She replied slowly.

"You're all set. Just remember those vitamins alright?"

"Sure." Raven grabbed her purse and rushed out.

She took a deep breath and walked to the nearest newsstand.

"Newstablets for a dollar-fifty! Come get your newstablets! Come read up on the latest Grayson Inc news!" Yelled the man at the stand. Raven smoothly strolled by, grabbing the disposable newstablet and paying for it in one fell swoop. She looked at the newstablet and began to read, starting with the headline in all caps, 'NEW GRAYSON INC BASE OF OPERATIONS IN JUMP CITY'

"Dick Grayson also known as Robin and his colleagues and good friends Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy, have the ceremony of their new facility scheduled for this evening at the site itself. Beast Boy himself has taken on the responsibility of coordinating the event, so it is sure to be an exciting experience. Sources also say that he has a special suprise planned for the investors of the company and his own personal fans."

Blah blah blah. Is this all they can talk about? She thought. Maybe it would benefit me to attend. Where's the damn tower at anyways?

"The ceremony starts at 9:45 PM at the newly dubbed Grayson Tower at 3468 Athenian Ave."

"That works. As long as I don't get any assignments." She says aloud.

She became distracted, for no particular reason, and began to cross the street without paying attention. She was brought back into reality by a car almost running her over. Yet the driver didn't honk. She just waved sorry and continued on her way. But not before making eye contact with the driver.

The driver smirked behind his sunglasses and the windshield.

"That's her."