When we last left our heroine, she had just escaped the clutches of her apparent nemesis, the dark sorceress Raven Wing. A psychic shockwave disrupted Raven’s focus allowing Aria to slip free, but so wracked with pain was the villainess that she called out, begging the heroine not to abandon her.

Aria Blade bid a hasty retreat, but as the crisp night air washed over her gold-trimmed white costume and her exposed flesh, she turned to stare back at the ruin, Raven Wing’s pleading words echoing in her mind.

---

Author's Note:
Hi guys,
I know I said I didn't have a timetable on completing this, and to be honest? I still don't ;-) But I wanted to start getting what IS ready back up as soon as possible.

This isn't a 100% complete rewrite. I tried to keep true to the original spirit of an alternate-universe Robin/Nikki, and Chapter 1 I feel needed the least amount of work overall, but I did put a lot of work in on it these last few days. This is laying the foundation at this point. :-)

Enjoy!
~Zoe

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Staring back into that terrible abyss of a not-so-empty warehouse, I could feel a twinge of guilt. Sure, I saw the report. Everyone who joined Banshee’s taskforce knew why she turned to a life of crime. Why did she target me specifically though, and why did she beg me to stay after trying to kill me moments before?

“Aria Blade, there you are!” Commissioner Williams, our ‘mundane’ liaison to the local authorities’ voice shattered my contemplative silence. “What happened?! Is Raven Wing in there? Did you defeat her?” He barraged me with questions in rapid succession as he stepped closer, the tails of his weathered old trench coat whipping about in the light evening breeze.

I must have been out of my mind. Raven Wing tried to kill me on several occasions now with each mind game or trap more elaborate than the last, yet here I stood, willing to lie to the authorities on her behalf! I turned to face the Commissioner, shaking my head disappointedly. “I’m sorry sir. The tip was a false lead. Raven Wing wasn’t there.”

He frowned, staring over the rim of his coke-bottle glasses, even reaching out to pull at my torn shoulder pad with his free hand. His other held a styrofoam cup of steaming, black coffee. “But you look like you’ve been through Hell, and I was informed Psychic Strike infiltrated the premises to render assistance?”

I numbly nodded. I knew he wouldn’t just take it as being that simple. He had been working with supers for too long, and my costume had indeed been torn in the fight. The hem of my skirt had been ripped, and I broke a heel cleanly off one of my boots. Good thing I could fly, just like Mom.

“She left an arcane trap for me. Psy’s shockwave disrupted the energy flows and allowed me to escape. There’s no way of knowing if the trap’s deactivated though, so on Banshee’s authority, I’m ordering all mundane personnel to stay out of there for their own safety, sir.” That part wasn’t a lie at least. I mean, Raven Wing was disoriented, but now that she’d lost her quarry she was going to be furious.

“Right, then. Let’s pack it in! I’ll expect your report in the morning,” he added crisply. Good old Williams, always by the book. He turned to walk away. I simply nodded. The latex of my mask had begun to itch fiercely while Raven had me entangled, but now it seemed to be worsening. The moment the Commissioner turned his back, I peeled off one of my gloves, running a light-pink fingernail up underneath the offending apparel and scratching that annoying sensation.

Before he could turn back to thank me, I left the ground behind. Banshee would be waiting on a report as well, and unlike the Commissioner, I couldn’t lie to her. Somehow she always stayed one step ahead of me, even without Psy's assistance.

~oOo~

“Hey, Aria,” a deep male voice called out to me seconds after my bare feet met the pristine white tiles. We didn’t have a fancy name for our super-headquarters like the Amazons and their Hall of Hera or anything so awesome. Our team had been cobbled together as a literal taskforce to deal with Raven Wing so we, the mighty Raven-chasers, had a timeshare office.

But I digress. The voice belonged to Tank, the man with titanium skin and buns of steel. You may have just rolled your eyes at that nickname, but he came by it honestly. The dude bench-presses Abrams tanks. In the short time I’d known him, I watched him shrug off sniper bullets like they were peashooters. If something could put Tank down, the rest of us wouldn’t stand a chance, I figured.

Of course his skin wasn’t literally titanium, but thanks to a mad science experiment it may as well have been. His 6’6” form dwarfed me by a foot and then some as he plodded slowly over to me. He had more than usual too, as with my broken boot heel, I stood barefoot on the cold tile floor.

“Hey Tank,” I offered meekly. I knew exactly what he wanted.

“Banshee’s been looking for you. Word of advice? Lure her into the soundproof chamber.” His dark face contorted into a warped grin at his terrible joke, and twists of dreadlocks flew outward as he threw his head back and laughed.

“Oh don’t YOU start too!” I snapped back, but sighed a moment later, offering an apologetic smile. Tank cracked wise all the time. I should have been used to it by now. I certainly didn’t need to be taking my frustrations out on him, of all people. “Sorry. It’s just been one of those nights. I won’t keep Mother waiting.”

He nodded, still chuckling as I passed. “And stop flirting with the enemy for God’s sakes!”

My cheeks turned BRIGHT red at that as all thoughts of forgiving him faded entirely. I had to draw the line somewhere! He was right, though. It’s true that Raven Wing seemed to have developed an obsession with making me blush. The last several times we met, she found new and disturbing ways of, dare I say it, hitting on me! As if I’d be interested! She was kind of cute for a super-villain though.

I frowned, furiously shoving those thoughts from my mind as I meekly padded down the long hallway. By now everyone else had gone home for the night, save a skeleton crew of security. One of the benefits of having your secret base under a timeshare office is it’s so embarrassing, no one would ever believe it to be true.

“Ah, there you are darling,” Mother’s soft, melodic, and calm voice belied the coming storm. She pushed a few strands of silvered hair back behind her ear as she stood from her desk and approached me. I flinched as pale, slender arms embraced me…? Wait, what?

“Mom?” I asked hesitantly. I had expected the butt-chewing of a lifetime for what I had done, rushing in there alone as I had. Instead she simply held me close to her. My knees buckled, and I succumbed to her motherly embrace, burying my itchy face in her shoulder. Despite her slender build, mother held me up easily, stroking my back.

“Aria, I was so scared for you. Why didn’t you wait for backup?”

“The note said to come alone, or else she’d kill the hostages. Mom- I mean Banshee, you know she’s crazy enough to do it!”

“Yes, but that’s why we have a psychic on our side, remember dear?” She waited until I found my balance again then cupped my face in her hands. Her steel gray eyes locked with my jade greens as though searching for something. “She didn’t hurt you did she? I mean… ‘hurt’ you?”

I sighed. “No Mother. For the last time, there’s nothing going on between us! Just because Maria thinks she saw something while crawling around in that psycho’s head, doesn’t mean anything!” I tried to sound demanding and insistent: emphasis on the word ‘tried’.

She smirked to herself, but it quickly faded. “Yes, I suppose,” she trailed off as she released me, turning to cross back to her desk. For all that my mother Banshee was the toughest woman to carry the Banshee moniker in the long line of Banshees, she had a lady-like, delicate grace I couldn’t help admiring, and even envying.

The magic that transformed me into her daughter gave me this gorgeous body, but none of the refinement. That, along with how to run in high heels, I was forced to learn on my own. I reached up to carefully untie the mask, leaving my platinum blonde wig in place for now. Mother abruptly frowned.

“It appears you have a mild latex allergy. I TOLD that fool not to give you a latex mask until you had been properly tested,” she sighed and shook her head slowly.

I of course, had no idea what she was talking about, at least not until I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the polished frame housing her doctorate’s credentials. There in the warped, elongated, golden reflection I saw the beginnings of a rash. I shrieked, quickly covering my mouth before I could do any more damage than knocking a frame off the wall.

“Oh God, it’s hideous!” I whined, poking at it in some desperate, blind hope that it might just magically disappear.

“Now darling, it’s not that bad. You should be thankful it’s just a mild allergy and not a true weakness.”

“Oh yes, I’m sure Raven Wing would have a field day if she found out she could weaken me with rubber.” I sneered sarcastically, causing my mother’s alabaster cheeks to turn just a hint of rosy peach.

“Young lady, I’ll thank you not to even think such things! No daughter of mine is going to be … be …”

“Be what?” I paused for a long moment letting the implications of what I’d just said roll through my mind. I could feel my own cheeks burning now. “MOTHER! Ew! I’m going home now!”

“Not so fast,” she answered, holding up one delicate finger. That was all it took for her to command my attention. Without her, I would be nothing. I loved, respected, and admired her deeply. Besides, we had a psychic on the team. If you thought lying to YOUR mother was hard, try lying to someone with the manipulative skills to convince a psychic to spy on her own daughter.

“I want to know what happened with Raven Wing. Why did you lie to the authorities?”

“How did you…” Of course. “Maria," I frowned.

Psy, still dressed in her purple-with-gold-lightning-bolts super suit meekly faded into view. The beautiful Latina psychic may have become one of my best friends since joining the team, but that wouldn’t get her off the hook. Her devil red lips pursed a moment before breaking her silence. “I’m sorry! She threatened to boot me off the taskforce if I didn’t tell her everything. And you know Raven did have you in a pretty tight spot. If I hadn’t stopped her…”

“We can talk about it later,” I commanded neutrally, “But can I please ask you to step out for a minute, and not sneak back in to eavesdrop? This is kind of personal.”

“Okay,” she offered hesitantly. She stopped beside me, reaching out to place her hand on my shoulder, but I shrank away. The last thing I needed was her mischievous butt trying to sneak a peek. She pouted though, and seemed genuinely hurt by my distrust. I just couldn’t risk it; what I had to say was for Banshee’s ears alone.

“Alright, so what’s so important that you would lie to the authorities and run your own friend out?” Mother asked in a neutral tone. She folded her arms, staring at me expectantly. My breathing slowed as I took a seat across from her and slowly removed my banded, white gloves. I buried my face in my hands, causing the fake blonde bangs to fly forward, tickling my fingers.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” I mumbled, muffled by my own palms. “I know she’s like, evil incarnate, but I… I feel sorry for her.” I slowly shifted my gaze upwards. “It’s not like she wanted what happened to her to happen. What that man did to her was sadistic and monstrous.”

“But that’s never stopped you before. What happened to you down there?”

“She … She begged me, pleaded for me not to abandon her,” I finally exhaled. “It was after Maria psy-bombed her, disrupting her concentration and leaving her a babbling mess on the floor. She grabbed the hem of my skirt… Momma, she was crying, like, bawling. She looked so utterly helpless!”

“Crocodile tears, too, I’m sure. Sweetheart, you must understand, people like her are dangerous, demented lunatics,” she responded with no small amount of skepticism. “I understand now what this is about.”

I let my gaze falter, even as I clamped down on my bottom lip, nearly drawing blood. “Y-you do?”

“Yes. It’s all perfectly clear to me now. Raven Wing chose you to try and turn you against your team. Maria can see past her guile easily, and let’s face it, Tank is too old and too bitter, as am I. And Volcaness is too…”

“Bitchy?”

“… I prefer that you not use such language, but yes. So as of right now, you’re off the case.”

“What?!” I leapt to my feet, my poor bare feet. I forgot I’d taken my boots off after breaking a heel, and the sudden cold shock sent me literally flying upwards.

“Don’t you use that tone with me young lady, and come down from there,” she scolded, but her expression softened as she stood. “This is for your own good. Now get into your civilian clothes and get home. I have some paperwork to file,” she sighed. “I’ll overlook your lying to Williams this time since you at least managed to convince him to keep the area clear.”

That was probably as close to a reprieve as I would be getting. I tried pouting, but she ignored it, and I knew I wouldn’t win by arguing, so I quietly moped out of the room. Maria, waiting outside, immediately threw her arms around me.

“I am so, so sorry!” she began, but I shot her a sad smile, interrupting her pleas.

“No, I’m sorry for throwing you out like that. Friends?”

“Friends, chica, always and forever. So what happened?”

“I’m off the case,” I whined. “She’s probably right though. Raven would’ve used me against you guys, using my naivety to destroy the team. I mean I already lied to the Commissioner, and I would have lied to her too. I’m just going to go change, then head home.”

She offered a solemn nod as she let go of me, and I quietly made my way down the long, sterile hall. As I entered our ‘showers’ locker room to change, I started to reflect on how I became wrapped up in this whole mess to begin with, how I thought I’d be some awesome, muscle-bound hero with sonic abilities, a combination of Mom and Dad’s powers. I had been born powerless, and as an only child Fate had different plans for me. ‘Screaming Freedom’. That’s the name I wanted, but Mother insisted Aria Blade would sound more lady-like.

The weird thing though is being transformed into her successor fulfilled another dream for me; a secret one I’d never told anyone. I smiled a little as I pulled my white tank top down over my head. My naturally black tresses flowed freely without ‘Aria’s’ wig in the way. That, along with my tattered costume, I packed into a discrete, battered old army bag and headed out, without so much as a good night to Maria or the other team. What did it matter now that I was off the taskforce?

For the second time that night, the chill wind whipped at my exposed flesh. I pulled my heavy suede jacket closer as I walked onward. It seemed unseasonably cool, and I suddenly wished I had a cup of coffee. I didn’t want to go home yet, but I didn’t have anywhere else I could go, so I made the arbitrary decision to visit a small park between here and there. Normally a girl in a park at night would just be asking for trouble, but as someone who engaged regularly in Kung Fu battles with masked super villains, I could handle a mugger even without my sonic shriek.

As I passed through the park, I found myself aware of a faint sound, like sobbing. I looked around to see a girl about my age by a small, time-worn fountain. She looked like she’d been in a fight, but in the dim light of the nearby street lamp, I couldn’t get a good look at her face. She pulled her red leather coat more tightly around herself, but as she shifted I caught a glimpse of a purple-and-black plaid miniskirt as well.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked. She rather frantically jumped to her feet. I could now see her stiletto combat boots as well as her fishnet stockings more plainly. She stared uneasily at me, so I held up my hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. You just looked…” I hesitated, and her eyes widened. “Like I feel.”

She breathed a heavy sigh, and slowly she sank to the ground again. She drew her knees close to her chest, setting her forehead against them in silence.

“I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone,” I spoke gently, and buried my hands in the pockets of my jeans as best I could, as I turned to walk away.

“No, wait,” came a soft, barely audible response. “Stay?”

I looked back at her, and nodding slowly, I took a few tentative steps closer, sitting down on the concrete bench beside her. Upon closer inspection, even in the dim light I could see she wasn’t wearing any makeup at all. Her lip looked like it had been busted in a fight or a fall, and she was definitely in some kind of pain.

“Do you need an ambulance?” The superhero in me took over at this point. She quickly shook her head, turning away from me. I sighed to myself. I so did not need this tonight. “Fine, whatever,” I responded, perhaps more coldly than I intended. I didn’t want to take my bad mood out on this weird girl, but she wanted me to stay, but didn’t want to talk. Finally I eased myself down from the bench, bracing my back against the fountain’s base beside her.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I just got fired from my er… internship. The perfect end to the perfect day.”

Ever so slowly she turned, her hazel eyes locking onto me. She shifted to a kneel and hugged me lightly. I admit I cringed, as I wasn’t expecting the sudden hug. The girl stood and walked away. By the time I could get to my feet though, she had vanished into the shadows.

“Like I said, perfect end to the perfect day,” I grumbled, and turned to head home.

~oOo~

A full two weeks passed after the incident with the strange girl. In that time all sightings of Raven Wing completely died out, as though the sorceress who fought so hard to make so many suffer had dropped off the face of the earth. Psychic Strike and I, on a routine patrol through the streets of New Heathridge City, discussed the disappearance and the disbandance of the taskforce…

“I really didn’t think I hit her that hard,” Maria — sorry, Psychic Strike mused, breaking the silence that had settled between us as we maintained our cruising altitude some fifty yards above street-level. One of the boons of being the daughter of a living ghost, and inheriting her powers, was the ability to fly. Psy, being a telekinetic and telepath, could simply lift herself with her mind.

“I don’t think you did either. It’s like it shook something loose. I can’t get the incident out of my head. I mean it’s getting so bad I’m having trouble sleeping now.”

“You know I could fix that for you,” she teased, grinning an impish little grin.

“No thanks. Volcaness is still gunning for you after you tried that on her,” I chided playfully.

She started to giggle. “What? How was I supposed to know she was a closet lesbian? Just because I go walking around in people’s minds, doesn’t mean I can find out everything about them! If she were into guys that dream would’ve made her never want to wake up!”

“Raven Wing! It’s Raven Wing, run!” shouted a frightened civilian from below. Psy and I looked at each other and immediately swooped down. As we touched down we spotted the shadow sorceress in all her glory, standing almost nonchalantly on the street corner, her namesake wings spread wide, and a wicked grin on her painted lips. Since when did Raven Wing wear makeup?

“Come to me, my pretty pretty!” she cackled and took flight. Psy and I attempted to head her off, but we had to swerve away at the last minute to avoid a mid-air collision with each other.

“Okay playtime’s over. Psy, you go that way and do your weird bend-light-invisi-thing. I’ll try and steer her closer. If you see your shot take it.”

“I CAN hear you, you know?” Raven snidely remarked as she looked back over her shoulder at us. “And no, your little girlfriend won’t save you this time. I have a SPECIAL surprise for her.” She abruptly spun about to face me, cupping her talon-gloved hand to her face. “Ooohhh Mooooon-goooooo!” she sang in an ear-shattering tone that would have made Mother proud.

On its cue, a great, shadowy mist washed over the very sky itself. It began to swirl and churn into a terrible vortex. I stopped mid-air to stare at the frightening spectacle, as the shadows converged into a single, vaguely humanoid entity — a forty foot TALL vaguely humanoid entity of what appeared for all intents and purposes to be pure shadow energy.

“Go get help! I’ll hold it off!” Psychic Strike shouted at me as she entered within range, lashing out with psionic energy at the creature. I’d almost swear I heard it laughing at her as it swatted her aside.

I suddenly felt a sharp pain across my head though, and the sensation of falling. I couldn’t even find the energy to shriek. I shut my eyes waiting for the inevitable, when I suddenly felt a set of arms around me.

My ears rang and I felt lightheaded and weak, but I could hear the flapping of wings. I opened my eyes just long enough to see Raven Wing smiling softly down at me. Oh God.

Blackness followed.