Chapter 3: My Name is Raven
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Raven threw her purse on the bed and sat down. She had been out all day and all she did was buy black gloves and had some tea at the Dionysi Café directly across the street from her appartment. It was now 9:00 at night and she's still got stuff to do. This is when she goes to get her assignments every night. That is, for this month. Next month it is different, and they have to figure out where to go to find her.

This however, is relatively early. Usually she would go at 11. But because of all the festivities with Grayson Inc, if she got any assignments about them she wanted them before hand.

"Agent, come here." She called him over. The machine obeyed her and she opened the hatch on the opposite side where a little blue dot was of the spherical robot. The little blue dot indicated the camera, and essentially it's eyes.

She stuck her fingers in there and began rewiring him like she does every night. His memory circuts were fiddled with and soon he was down, not to remember anything he sees or hears in her house during the evening. He wouldn't speak either.

She gently closed the hatch and pushed him out of the room.

She took a deep breath, "Azerath Metrion Zinthos." She rose off the ground and crossed her legs. Her black suit started to appear on her feet and crept it's way up her legs. Her hands and arms did the same. Soon her whole body up to her neck was re-clothed in the black body suit with a deep purple diamond on the chest.

She stopped levitating and walked over to her mirror. Raven snatched up a black hair tie and tied her hair into a ponytail. Then looked into the mirror. She looked deep into her own eyes and soon her eyes glowed and a the black mask with purple eyes replaced her face.

"Time to start the day."

....................

She stood on the beach behind the plateau of rocks and dirt waiting.

Please someone come. I can't stay here for much longer.

She looked out into the water. This beach and the water about 15 miles out was protected land. She was trespassing in a reservation. She did it every night. Nobody stopped her.

She loved it.

She loved the privileges that came with this job. The satisfaction of destroying people she despises and hates to her core. And she gets to go anywhere, do practically anything, and with all the power kept inside her, get away with it.

But today she wasn't feeling as happy as she usually was. Today she was feeling, off. Of course she knows what she's doing is illegal. It's morally wrong.

Last night she had the recurring dream she had at least once a week. Well, a recurring memory more like. The day she had decided to take up this job. That's when it didn't feel good. She didn't know how to block out those kinds of things. The sight of blood had made her uncomfortable and her marksmanship needed a lot of work.

She hated this memory. She hated thinking about why she started in the first place.

Then stop thinking about it dammit. Focus. The moon... I have three minutes.

" 'Scuze me." A male voice interrupted her thoughts. Nightengale whipped around with her hand behind her back, ready to make a gun. The man had a scull mask with a red X on his face, one of the sides of the X slashing through his eye, making it look like a scar.

"Who are you?" The gun was in hand, hidden from sight.

"Name's Red X, Nightengale. My boss has an assignment for you." Red X said suavely. 

"Who is your boss?"

"Slade Wilson. You've probably heard of him." She surely has. And she was taken aback by it.

Slade Wilson.

"I have." But she couldn't be sure. She whips out her hand gun and points it Red X's head, silencer and all. "But I don't trust anyone the first time I see them. And that X on your head makes one helluva target."

"Yeah yeah. I saw the news this morning. What did he refuse to give you your money?"

She shrugged. "Doesn't matter to you." She cocks the gun. "How much are you offering?"

Slade said one million but she's going to think I'm joking.

"One million will work just fine." She replied.

You don't need to see his face to tell how shocked he was. He asked in awe, "How did you–?"

"That's none of your business, X. Keep your nose out of places where it shouldn't be or I'll blow it off." She threatened. "Where's Slade want to meet?"

"His office. I take it you know how to get in there without me?"

"Depends. What floor is it on?" She asks pretending she doesn't know the building like the back of her hand. This would be the final test. His office, the one he uses privately, is on the 34th floor. His main office is on the 30th floor.

"34th."

She begrudgingly holsters the gun. "Let's go. Azerath Metrion Zinthos." She surrounds them in a black bubble and they ends up in the janitors closet on the 34th floor of the Wilson Corperation's main building.

"Why the hell are we in a janitors closet?"

"What would you rather I teleported us in the middle of the hallway?"

"No. But...how do you do that? Teleportation tech hasn't been finalized yet."

"What did I say earlier?"

"This is my business if you're just going to teleport me places! Especially since I'm not the one who can freaking read minds!"

"Keep your goddamn voice down! Say one more thing and I'll shut you up myself!" Red X didn't say another word. "Thank you. Now hold still."

He grumbled as she turned them both invisible. "We're invisible to anyone who happens to walk down the hallway."

"But not to each other." Red X added. Nightengale simply rolled her eyes and walked through the door without opening it. She wasn't going to humor his stupidity. He blindly followed her, and to his suprise, went through the door the same way.

I'm just gonna stop asking.

He'd better. Or else he's going to get my heel in his teeth.

They reach a large door and Nightengale strides through it with confidence.

"Wait!" Red X whispers and the people around him stop.

"Did you hear something?" A blonde woman asks her colleague.

"What? Marie you're hallucinating. I didn't hear anything." The man replies.

"I could swear I heard something." Red X looked at the door and followed Nightengale, not wanting the incredibly dumb people behind him to walk straight into him.

Nightengale uncloaked the two and revealed themselves before the head of the company.

"I found her, Wilson."

"Clearly. If you had taken any longer I would have assumed she killed you." He replied without turning his chair around. Slade gazed out the window over the city, in which he had a direct view of the new Grayson Inc offices. The lights were ablaze in preparation for tonight's ceremony.

"I was about to." She folded her arms and leaned on one hip, giving him the death stare out of the corners of her eyes.

X just rolled his eyes in response.

"Where's the other one?" X asked.

"Other one?" She butted in. Slade crudely ignored her.

"He'll be here soon." Replies X.

"What other one?" She asked again, getting more and more annoyed and livid with every passing second. Slade didn't answer.

I swear if he's doing what I think he's doing...

The buzzer from the intercom went off.

"Slade? I'm here." Said a young man's voice.

"She's here too. Come in." Slade pushed the button to open the door and let him in.

The door opened and in came a young man, looking about her age, in a black leather jacket with a black hoodie under it. The hood was up, obviously to avoid being seen. Nightengale couldn't help but wonder how he got in the building looking like that.

"Take your hood of, kid. Stay a while."

"Fine. But don't call me that." He pulled off the hood and revealed his tanned, light gold skin; bright blonde hair; and striking electric blue eyes. He was handsome to say the very, very least.

Nightengale got a rush if emotions all at once. Emotions that were foreign to her. She felt her cheeks get hot under her mask. Thank God they can't see her face.

But all the same, he seemed extremely familiar. She just couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Ok, cut the crap. I know what you're doing, Wilson and I call bullshit. I am not working with anybody. I don't care how much you offer me. I'd kill myself before I'd work with anyone else."

"You won't have to split it if that is your issue." Her alleged "partner" bargained.

"No, that's not my issue." She created a gun with a silencer already attached and pointed it in the man's direction. "My issue is accomplices, buddy. You should know this, Slade. I trust no one." She glared at the man.

"Woah woah woah take it easy there! Look, I don't need the money! I'll help for free!" His baby blues caught her violet glows.

"I. Don't. Care." Her eyes thinned.

"You might change your mind when you find out your assignment." Slade interrupted. His gray hair shone in the moonlight seeping through the window. Nobody answered. Red X grinned under his mask. "Your assignment, Nightengale, is to get as much information on the four Grayson heads." He leaned over his desk. "And kill them."

Nightengale's eyes lit up under her mask. Just what she was waiting for! Finally!!!

As she contained her excitement, Slade continued with his briefing: "You will need Matthew here to work as a double agent to get the information you need. You will also be going in yourself and collecting intel. I will not be monitoring you. I assume you don't need to be watched like a mere child."

Nightengale put the gun down in awe.

The man, who Slade called Matthew, stood shocked. But the shock soon faded into acceptance.

Nightengale was extremely excited on the inside. She got to do an inside mission to kill the Graysons! But her excitement stalled. She had to do it with a partner.

"If you're not monitoring me then why the hell do I need him?" She asked jabbing a thumb Matthew's way. He looks at her innocently.

"Because he's been working as a double agent for years for different companies. And he's been in those offices numerous times. He'll be more of an asset than anything else, Nightengale. If you do this without him, you only get 10 thousand."

Nightengale was fuming. She could only get the million if she did it with him.

She groaned loudly, making her disdain quite clear.

"Fine. You better pay me that million. Let's go, Matthew." She orders contemptuously.

Nightengale teleported herself and Matthew out of the building into the alley next to the building.

"This isn't gonna end well for you, Slade." X says.

"Yes it will. Especially when she finds out who Matthew is."

The two stared at eachother in the alley.

Nightengale was examining his face. Trying to pick up clues to who he is. She wasn't going to read his mind. Despite her hatred for partners, she has rules. Partners need to be able to trust eachother. They need to have confidence that the other will execute. Or else the entire mission falls apart...

At the same time, Matthew was examining her mask. He had to slightly look down and she had to slightly look up. Eventhough he knew this woman was older than him, he felt small around her. Like her mere presence is stifling, suffocating.

He always admired that masterpiece she wears. He always wondered how she got the eyes to react to her eyes under it. How they glowed whenever she wanted them to. The mask was a true work of technology ahead of its time.

She gave a long, heavy heave of a sigh.

"What?"

Nightengale kicked him to the wall and pinned him against it by twisting his shirt. She even lifted him off the ground a tiny bit.

"Look, pretty boy, you need to trust me, and I need to trust you. Right now, I don't trust you. So," she hooked her foot on the back if his knee and he fell to the ground. She squatted down for her face to be level with his. "We need to make a deal. Anything you see on this mission, and part of me, my secret identity, or my personal life, you keep secret and during and after the mission. And I will do he same in return. Got it?"

"Got it." It didn't take him long to answer. "I didn't plan on telling anyone anyways. So long as you don't try to kill me, I'm fine with you." He replied. She just rolled her eyes under the mask and scoffed. But a part of her was intrigued. He did not seem apprehensive about her at all. He was gleaming with confidence and assertion, despite how much of a suck up he was being to her.

"I'm hoping you're not as stupid as I think you are." She put her hand to her face and took off her mask. The striking purple of her sharp eyes cut into him. She gave him a serious look. Unflinching. Unmoving.

He stood wide eyed. He never thought he'd ever get to see Nightengale's face. And she was beautiful.

"Woah... I mean...uh, no. I highly doubt I am." For some reason her cheeks got warm at his response. And now the mask was no there to hide it.

She watched as in a single second his eyes shot from facial feature to facial feature and then right back at her eyes to continue the conversation.

Yes. Definitely a lot of confidence.

What is wrong with me?

"Zip it." She glared at him again. Dashing her thoughts and burying them in a deep grave.

"I promise I won't tell anyone!" He blurted out. She tilted her head to the side, ready to begrudgingly listen to whatever he was about to say. "You're right." Her eyes perked up. "We need to trust eachother. But I have a feeling you still won't like me by the end of this."

"Huh." She crossed her arms and held her head high, raising her chin to him. "You're not as stupid as I thought you were." Then she realized she still had one more thing to tell him. "Hm."

"What?"

"Are you absolutely sure you can keep my secrets?"

"Yes! I'm telling you yes! I'm not going to tell anyone. I have no interest in seeing you dead or in jail."

Wait, what? Hmm...

She sighs. "My name—my real name—is Raven."