Love Birds

Chapter Two

-Athena POV-

Ra's Al Ghul smiled and wrapped his ancient arm around my shoulder. It was the happiest I had ever seen him. Did I really deserve to be recieving that look? I stared at the group of assassins staring up at me. They all mimicked my mentor's expression. No, I didn't deserve this.

"My star protege has made us all proud today. Everyday since we took her in as a child, she has trained to be our top assassin. Today, she has completed that task exactly. Athena Thomas, you have learned everything that we could teach you here in the League of Assassins. Now, with great honor, you will be moving onto Honor Island. The next step of your training to become the master assassin will begin on an unknown island off of the coast of Australia. You will remain there until the mentors of Honor Island feel that you have completed their type of training," the way Ra's Al Ghul said this, made me shiver. I didn't let anyone see the uncertainty that flashed across my face. My mentor wouldn't subject me to any type of training that I wasn't ready for. The training I would recieve would not be something a highly trained fourteen year old assassin could not handle. I knew that for certain. "She will be trained to her limits. I know that Athena will make The League of Assassins proud and become the assassin that we all will be proud of." I stood tall, refusing to look at the young students that I had clearly passed in skill and technique. The only pair of eyes I decided to meet was Talia Al Ghul's. She was the only friend I had during my six years with the League. She was the daughter of the Grand Master. Even though she wasn't the one being honored by her father and the whole League of Assassins, she didn't look at all jealous. She was the only girl near my age that was close to my training, even if she was twelve years older than me. She would need a few more years to reach my expert level, but she was still one of my best friends. I didn't want to leave her, but my training was more important than personal human friendships and feelings. I had spent six years learning that.

I was led off of the the overlook and down to the level that all of the students stood. They bowed in respect. I bowed back. No one clapped like they would at the circus, they just bowed. I climbed on the helicopter that was prepared. Ra's and Talia stood by the plane. "Good bye, Athena!" Talia pressed her favorite knife into my hands. I bowed in apprecation and handed her my favorite blade. Ra's gave me a mask and put it over my eyes.

"Do not ever take this off unless you are alone or with someone you trust. It will protect you and everyone you care about," Ra's said. The points on the grey and red mask reached down my cheeks and into my hairline. I watched as the helicopter lifted off and the place I called home for six years got smaller and smaller.

************

I snapped out of my thoughts. I really needed to stop reverting to the past through day dreams. I was trained to never focus on my past, but rather just know the struggles that made me.But, the day dreams were becoming more frequent since I left my most recent stage of training. I couldn't afford to think about what happened to me.

Sitting down at my computer, I began searching the evidence that I had gathered from the bastard that killed my family. In the last moments of his life, he told me that he worked for a gang called The Black Sharks. I suspected this since the moment I saw the crest when I was eight, but I never really had the chance to confirm it. He told me that every member of the gang had to get the crest tattooed behind their ears and they had to be beaten for ten minutes. The beating would always leave every single one of them with a long scar down their backs and a cut on their wrists. He wasn't very high up in the gang. He told me that he was only a hired thug, forced to do the jobs that the boss of the gang gave him. I asked him, well Nightingale asked him - what had happened to Athena Thomas's parents, but all he said was the boss told him to kill her family. It was a miracle that their car was raided by assassins on duty in China. The truck I had been transported in and tortued in for months was discovered by the League of Assassins and they rescued me, taking me into Ra's Al Ghul's hands. He decided that the best way to get back at his enemies, who were The Black Sharks, was to take their prisoner from them. Ra's had been training me to be his master assassin but also to find the leader of Black Sharks. The goon I had tortured for information in a bar in Blüdhaven, the one who had pulled the trigger on my dad's head, had told me that every gang member was paid handsomely as long as he swore that he would rather end his life than reveal the boss. So, after I ended his life, I decided that the only way to get the boss's attention, was to kill all his members.

I searched Gotham residents who had been to the hospital with a huge scar on their back, a scar on their wrist, and a tattoo of a shark behind their ear. My suspicions were confirmed when there were about one hundred and fifty gang members in Gotham. And those were just people who weren't capable of healing their own wounds! Obviously, some of the gang members took refuge in Blüdhaven. There were way too many members to take out on one night alone. I would need to start now.

My Nightingale costume was calling for me. I didn't take off my mask all day, for I had no reason to. I didn't go out and I didn't have any company. I was new to Gotham, staying in a hotel two blocks from Crime Alley. I had made a quick move out of Blüdhaven before anyone could find me. I heard a story of a man named Batman who was sworn to protect Gotham City. I wasn't really a criminal so the Batman would have no need to go after me, but I would love to do something that no other criminal has ever done. Find out who is behind the mask. I quickly changed into my costume and jumped out of my window.

The streets of Gotham were littered with people at night. I jumped from roof to roof, looking for the target I had found. Mr. Frankie 'The Strorm' Shotton! He was one of the dealers in the drug side of Black Sharks. He enjoyed cocaine, muggings, and prostitutes! I heard some whimpers and quiet screams coming from an alley.

"You wanna dance, old man?" I was giving indication of my computer recognizing the voice. I had a built in computer on my wrist brace. I had hooked up the computer to my ear piece, so when it had done a task I had programmed, it would tell me. The voice was none other than The Storm.

"Mind if we change partners?" I spoke in my most innocent voice. Frankie looked back at me, surprised to see me. I pulled out a throwing knife from the back pocket of my belt and tossed it at the corner of The Storm's shirt. It was like a tack to the wall. I threw five more, pinning him against the alley wall. I grabbed the wallet and other belongings that the Storm had stolen from the powerful looking man. "Here," I tossed them over to the man without meeting his eyes. I was too focused on my task at hand.

"W-who are you? Are you another Robin?" He asked, holding his wallet to his chest. I held my arm against Frankie's neck and looked back at the victim. Who was Robin? I looked him in the eyes, no expression on my face in particularly.

"Tell anyone who asks that I am the Nightingale." The man nodded and ran off back into the dangerous night of Gotham. I pressed my arm tighter against The Storm's windpipe when I felt him rip his shirt from my throwing knife. It only takes eleven pounds of pressure to crush a human windpipe, after all. I smirked as I squeezed his throat with the back of my fore arm. He choked for a second but then crumpled down at my feet. Dead. I took pride in seeing his life end so easily. Now, his drugs wouldn't be able to ruin families and peoples' lives. He wouldn't of been very important to the gang if he wasn't smart enough to go for more than a simple mugging.

I left his body in the alley with no trace of me. I made sure no strands of hair had dropped and no traces of identification of me could be found. I slipped my throwing knives back into my belt. I wore gloves that provided no finger prints. It would be hard to find any records of my actual identity, since none existed, but I could never be too prepared. I was a master computer hacker and hid my tracks of all my secret identities with extreme haste, but I didn't know how smart and skilled this Batman really was. And now I had to figure out who this Robin was. Did she wear a costume like me? Was she trained by the League of Assassins, Honor Island, and the School for Superior Boys as well? Did she know who I really was? And most of all...was she a threat?

I climbed on top of an old looking building with twelve gargoyles on it. It looked abandoned which would be a perfect place to watch over the streets and do some research. I quickly scaled the twelve story building and stood on the edge of the gargoyle's head. I opened up my wrist computer and began searching Robin. I found a link about Batman and began diving into it. I heard a distant sound. A sound like a foot on the stone near me. I closed my computer and pulled out Talia's dagger that was strapped to my side. When I was certain the threat was in my range of vision, I turned and pounced. I tackled the threat off of the building. I could feel by the muscular shape of the body that it was a man about nineteen years old. He was in a black Nomex suit with a blue bird logo on his chest. He had to black escrima sticks on his back and a utility belt. I grabbed his sticks off his back as we dropped down. I kicked his face, sending him flying down farther. I turned on the camera in my mask and started recording. The man activated a grapple gun and swung to another building before he hit the ground. I used my grapple gun as well, landing me on top of the Gotham water tower. I recorded as he swung away. Now, who was that? I thought. I would have to retreat to my hotel and try to figure out who that boy was.

~~~~~~~I like this chapter I hope you guys did too! It's kind of long...anyway. Vote, comment, and follow!~~~~~~~~~~~~