rough rough draft: chapter 4 Raven

Chapter 4

“He kissed me! That arrogant rat kissed me!” Kate’s nostrils flared. She pulled the wig off and flopped on her bed.
“Kate, I think the fact that there is a rival company stealing our jobs is slightly more important than some boy stealing your first kiss,” Hisame said exasperated. Kate flushed scarlet.
“Who said that was my first kiss? I am just enraged about his audacity,” Kate argued.
“Ok fine, now what about the wings he had on?” Hisame asked.
“They were black, and looked like a copy of mine, but they didn’t take nearly as much time to grow as mine do,” Kate said seriously. Someone must have leaked information. This was serious though, never before had there been a rival company.
“Alright, get some rest,” Hisame said and left Kate’s room.
Kate changed her clothes and threw her dirty ones in the hamper. She was too tired to even take a shower, she knew in the morning she’d regret not taking one at night. But at the moment she didn’t care, she fell asleep with the image of sparrow on her mind and a smile on her lips.
The next morning Kate rose from her bed groggily. She dragged her feet to the shower, and let the water wash over her for over an hour. Once out of the shower she was more awake, she changed into clothes after remembering telling Zero she’d watch her that day.
As Kate was backing her car out of the garage, she heard a voice squeal,
“Kate!”
“Oh no,” Kate moaned and turned her head to the right to see her other neighbor Olivia Ilken. Olivia Ilken was the 42 year old lady who lived in the house on Kate’s right. Olivia had a mixture of white, brown, and red hair. She was hardly ever seen without her bright shiny pink lipstick on, or her fake eyelashes. She lived alone, with the exception of her dog, Tyke. Tyke was a white toy poodle, who she coddled and cared for like a child. She often put bows on his fur and even painted his nails. She was carrying him at that moment.
Kate rolled down the window and forced a smile.
“Hi Miss Ilken,” she called out the window, hoping Olivia Ilken would notice that Kate was obviously going somewhere and leave her alone.
“Oh Kate, dear remember last time I was over? Yes I’m sure you do, well remember that coffee mug I left over here? The one with the picture of Tyke I had painted on? Well dearie I really need it back. You see Janelle Swarthy had a mug with her dog painted on it at bingo, and well I said I had one as well, and she didn’t believe me! She called me a crazy coot and said that I was just copying her! In front of everyone at bingo. Oh I had never been so embarrassed, so you see I must have it back since Bingo is tonight and I must show everyone that she is rude, and that I’m not crazy,” Olivia Ilken told Kate, as though Kate wouldn’t just give her back the mug without a very good reason.
“Ok Miss Ilken I’ll go get your mug,” Kate told her. To Kate’s disappointment Olivia Ilken followed her to her house, obviously intending to go inside.
Once inside, Olivia Ilken went to sit in the living room and looked around the room.
“Brown, yuck such an ugly color, you should have more pink in your house. I can’t ever get enough pink, that’s why I painted my whole house pink,” Kate nodded and went to the kitchen to get the mug which Olivia Ilken so desperately needed. Tyke decided to follow Kate to the kitchen.
“Oh! You’ve got a little shadow! A little shadow except it’s white!” Olivia Ilken laughed, as if it was the funniest thing ever. Her laughter had an echoing effect, and seemed to penetrate through the walls.
“I’m sorry you have to live with her,” Kate whispered to the dog, which almost seemed to nod.
“Oh and Kate don’t feed Tyke anything, I have him on a special diet. Janelle would just tear me up to no end if Tyke got overweight, you should here her at Bingo ‘My dog is in the finest health, my vet told me he could even be in competitions’,” Olivia Ilken mimicked.
“Now I know why you followed me,” Kate said to the dog and went to the fridge to find leftover chicken to give him. She put some in a bowl and placed it on the floor where Tyke seemed to gobble it hungrily. While he ate Kate found the coffee mug in the very back of a cupboard. Having shoved it there hoping not to have to look at it again.
Kate brought the mug, along with a full and content dog.
“Oh, good you found it. Now we can chat and I can tell you how I plan on embarrassing Janelle at Bingo,” Olivia Ilken said excited.
“Oh, no! You’ve caught me at a really bad time Miss Ilken. I was just about to leave, we’ll have to do this another time otherwise I am going to be late,” Kate said quickly. Olivia Ilken looked saddened but quickly brightened.
“Oh ok I’ll come over another time and that way I can show you some plates and bowls that I had painted to match the mug!” Olivia Ilken trilled.
“I’ll look forward to it,” Kate said weakly.
After managing to get Olivia Ilken to leave, Kate finally got in her car and left the house.
Despite the drive being an hour, Kate definitely was glad she drove instead of using the Tran. Her head was dizzy from thinking about the night before. Kate hadn’t explained to Zero about Sparrow, and had just told her that the jewelry box wasn’t there.
“We can’t give up looking! It has to be here somewhere!” Zero had freaked, but Kate was firm about them leaving.
When Kate neared the abandoned road that led to Headquarters she pulled over and put her disguise on. Headquarters was humongous; a white building that covered over 10 acres, but that was only above ground. The building had many different adaptations, and departments. Kate pulled her car into a garage especially for her which sloped into an underground office that looked down on the garage. The office had been made next to the obstacle room so she could go there any time she wanted. Once she entered the obstacle room she saw Zero was already hard at work.
. . .

Zero had come to these two doors many times; the obstacles before it were now simple and mere annoyances. She looked at the doors, one purple one black. Then she thought about what Raven had said the night before.
“You have to look at the problem as a whole.” Then Zero realized it, it was so simple. Raven had never said how many doors she could open. In fact Raven never mentioned the two doors separately. There was a reason for the door handles turned towards each other, and there was a reason for there always being half a feather. She was supposed to open the doors as one. So, Zero stepped up to the doors and put a hand on each door knob. She opened them, and instead of two separate rooms there was one; and instead of a half there were two. Zero walked up to them and picked them up. Zero looked at them and put them together. A flash of purple light blinded Zero and then the maze was gone. Kate looked up from the whole feather when she heard clapping. Raven was standing off to the side clapping; Zero walked over to her and held out the feather. Raven shook her head.
“You keep it, it’s your prize. So, from now on always think out of the ordinary. Good job, you can take a break,” Raven said. Zero looked at the feather; it was a multitude of shades, changing in the light. Much more complex than it looked, but still it was just a simple feather. Maybe everything was like that, simple on the surface, but not at all as it seemed.
. . .
Despite having told her to take a break Zero went on to the gym and exercised. So, Kate was now at home, reading on the window seat that over looked her backyard and the vast uncultivated land behind it. Sometimes a deer or rabbit would come down into the yard and nibble on a blade of grass. Kate honestly loved being home more than being any place else, the thought that her mother had lovingly decorated and cared for the house made it seem comforting, as if her mother was embedded in the walls. Kate sighed and set the book down on her lap. She watched the birds flit around the feeder, blue jays, robins, and occasionally cardinals.
The door bell rang and Kate got up, hoping that Olivia Ilken was not there to fulfill her promise, and went to the door. It was Cammi and Jack.
“Kate! Have you seen the news? There is another person like Raven!” Cammi exclaimed and went to the living room to turn on the TV. Jack didn’t look particularly thrilled and went to get a drink from the kitchen. Kate settled down next to Cammi and watched along.
A pretty brown haired reporter was at what looked to be a book store.
“This is the scene where a new thief, who calls himself Sparrow was videotaped taking a book that, had a very personal value to the owner and was not for sale. Mr. Birkshire, the owner of the book shop, has declined to comment as to what the book is about, but did release a image of himself with the book in the event that it is seen somewhere,” A picture of a younger Mr. Birkshire came on screen with him holding a white book with gold lettering it only had three letters on it; KHK.
Kate’s mind raced, Sparrow was after things that belonged to someone with the initials KHK.
A dark video, obviously at night, came on with Sparrow in front of the store. He used a smoke bomb and looked up at the camera as the smoke surrounded him; he smiled arrogantly at the camera as the smoke engulfed him. The video ended and the reporter came back on.
“It is unknown if he has anything to do with Raven, the mysterious girl who stole a brooch from a celebrity heiress, and then proceeded to fly off with wings like a bird. Raven had left a Raven feather in the heiress’s car with the name Raven engraved on it. Sparrow has done something similar,” Pictures of a flying Raven flashed, and then a picture of one of her feathers showed.
“Sparrow left a gold coin with the image of a sparrow and the name sparrow on it. Police are asking for any leads to be called in to the police station. A reward of $5000 dollars has been set. In other news, school will begin in half a week…” The coin showed on screen and then Cammi turned the TV off as the story changed.
“Isn’t that crazy? Who’d have thought that something like this would happen in our small city? You have to admit he looked awfully cool. I wonder why a book is so important though…” Cammi said.
“Well who cares!” Kate said angrily. Cammi looked up, surprised.
“I mean he is probably an arrogant jerk that is just copying Raven,” Kate covered.
“Hmm maybe,” Jack said as he entered the room. He smiled pleasantly.
“Do you think he is connected with Raven in any way?” Jack asked.
“They probably are I mean look at all the similarities. His name is of a bird, so is hers. He left a signature item behind, so did she. I mean they have to be working together or something,” Cammi figured.
“No way would she work with him, she was way before him anyways; and now he is copying her. She is so much better, just watch, if she ever sees him again she’ll totally win!” Kate vowed.
“They were seen together?” Cammi asked confusedly.
“Oh, um no I mean maybe they have, who knows?” Kate said
“Maybe they’re rivals?” Jack offered.
“Yes, most definitely,” Kate nodded.
“So have you gone school shopping yet?” Cammi asked Kate.
“Umm yea, I bought stuff all through out the summer,” Kate had done a lot of shopping since she hadn’t had good jobs to look forward to.
“Cool we’re all set too, our mom went shopping yesterday,” Cammi said.
The door bell rang at that moment and Kate went to the door. This time it was Olivia Ilken, with Tyke of course.
“Kateee darlinggg, Tyke and I have come to visit you!” she sauntered into the living room and stopped once she saw Cammi. Cammi and Olivia Ilken did not agree with each other and usually argued about anything they could.
“You are a young and fit young man, why don’t you get up so I may sit?” Olivia Ilken was not talking to Jack but Cammi. Cammi glared at her furiously.
“I am not a boy,” Cammi spit out. Olivia Ilken looked closer at Cammi.
“Oh yes my mistake, I thought with that short hair you were surely a young boy,” Olivia Ilken said, although Kate didn’t believe she couldn’t tell.
“You know I’m not a boy you old hag,” apparently Cammi didn’t believe her either.
“You may as well be a boy, what with your hair and the way you dress, no femininity at all!” Olivia Ilken declared, as though that made it true.
“At least I’m not a conservative!”
“Yes, you’re a liberal who is much worse,” Olivia Ilken threw back.
“Who wants fruit?” Kate asked, everyone looked at her and Jack struggled not to laugh.
“I’ll get us some fruit,” Kate said and went into the kitchen. She cut up all her favorite fruits and put some in a bowl; she even added cantaloupe despite her hatred of it. When she went back into the living room Olivia Ilken had taken Jack’s seat and was talking to him avidly about how she had embarrassed Janelle at bingo. Kate set the bowl of fruit down and sat next to Cammi.
“Horrible old bat,” Cammi said, obviously about Olivia Ilken. Kate shrugged and watched as Cammi and Jack grabbed handfuls of fruit. Just as she was about to get some fruit, Olivia Ilken asked for a drink.
“Go home and get one, you decrepit fool,” Cammi said the last part quietly. Kate got up and went to the kitchen to get her a drink. Kate knew what to get her because every time she came she always asked for the same thing. As she was heating up some herbal tea Tyke came in and made a whining noise.
“Ok I’ll get you some food,” Kate said to Tyke. After the tea heated she took it out to Olivia Ilken.
“Thank you dearrr,” Olivia Ilken said and slurped it gratefully. Kate noticed the bowl of fruit was half gone.
“Hey save some for me,” she aid to Cammi and Jack. They laughed lightly and Kate went back to the kitchen to get Tyke his food. Kate took out some tuna that she never ate, and Hisame obviously couldn’t eat. Tyke sniffed it but decided to eat it. As Kate waited for Tyke to finish she heard Cammi and Olivia Ilken arguing again. Kate rolled her eyes and took out some juice for herself.
While she was waiting Kate thought about how there seemed to be something odd about the whole Sparrow thing. How did he find out about the job at the mansion? And why did he want the book at the bookstore? Who was KHK? Did it have anything to do with the letter she read? Letter…
“OH NO!” Kate shouted and raced to the laundry room adjoining the kitchen. Kate opened the washer and pulled out her pants from the job at the mansion. They had been washed. She gingerly pulled out a wad that was the letter from the jewelry box.
“What’s wrong Kate?” Cammi said worriedly. Kate threw the pants back in the washer and turned to Cammi.
“Uh I…washed my lights with a red top,” Kate shut the washer so Cammi couldn’t see that there was dark clothing in there.
“Oh that’s too bad…” Cammi said still confused about why Kate shouted.
Olivia Ilken appeared in the kitchen and set down the cup that she had drank out of.
“The tea was loveeely darling, me and Tyke must be off, I am expecting a sweater that I ordered to have Tyke’s face on,” Olivia Ilken explained as though Kate particularly cared why she was leaving.
“Ok bye. Cammi you can just wait in the living room I’ll be there in a minute, and don’t eat all the fruit,” Kate said. Kate looked at the lump of paper and hoped that when it dried it wouldn’t be ruined. After a moment she remembered the jewel in the front pocket, worried that it might be scratched she pulled it out. The jewel shone with brilliance and was not at all scratched. Kate held it in her hand and went out towards the living room. Kate was intercepted by Cammi and Jack in the hallway.
“Hey we’re going to go now, talk to you later, ok?” Cammi said.
“Umm ok,” answered a bewildered Kate.
“Bye!” Cammi and Jack said, as they quickly ushered out the door. Kate shrugged at their behavior and continued to the living room and plopped down on the couch. Kate held the jewel up and let the light pass through it creating purple light. Kate set it down on the coffee table and picked up the bowl of fruit. Kate looked in and shrieked. All that was left was cantaloupe. Kate seethed and set the bowl down. No wonder Cammi and Jack left! Kate made a mental note to get them back somehow.
“Kate,” Kate turned around to see Hisame on the fireplace mantel.
“This is getting serious; The Company sent a message to me. They want you to headquarters immediately,” Hisame said seriously. Kate nodded and went to prep herself. As she pulled on some gloves she knew she would have to take the silver bullet.
Hisame decided to come along to headquarters, which took Kate by surprise.
“You’ve never gone to headquarters before,” Kate stumbled.
“I’ve never had a reason to before,” Hisame responded
. . .

Raven was waiting in a room for a conference to begin. A thought occurred to her.
“Hisame go find Zero, she’s probably somewhere in the building, bring her here,” Raven said, Hisame nodded and left the room.
The conference was to be with other top Angels. One of them was stuffy and stuck up, Raven couldn’t stand him.
The conference room was bleak, the windows were shuttered closed, and the furniture was gray and economical. It was very stern and business like, much like Kate’s father. Him being the one who probably designed it.
The click of the door told Raven someone was entering. Kate rested her head on her arm and clicked a pen top.
In came, not one person, but three. Steel, Rose, and a woman Raven had not seen before. Raven groaned inwardly at the sight of Rose, a guy that Raven disliked greatly.
Rose was notorious for taking jobs that involved planting false information in big companies. He was known not really because of that, but the way he went about it. He usually dressed as a woman to infiltrate the companies and then left a dozen roses for the head executive, the roses being his calling card.
Yet outside of his missions he himself was odd, Raven couldn’t help but think he may have been raised at a circus for the way he dressed and his personality. At the moment he had on black dress shoes and leather pants, as well as a red sequined shirt with orange feathers trimmed around the neck of the shirt and the sleeves. She thought the shirt belonged to a lion trainer more than an ANGEL. His hair was another source of amusement, yet again seemingly from the circus; it appeared as though a flame thrower had caught his hair on fire. His hair was a bright orange, which rivaled day-glow, and chunky blonde highlights in it. His face pattern was a Rose that twisted up the side of his face
Raven remembered the first time she had met him years ago, he had the same love for sequins but the feathers had not yet come into the equation. Ah, the good old days, Raven thought to herself.
“Raven! Look at you babe!” Rose squealed. Raven rolled her eyes while anyone else in the room pretended not to hear him.
“Babe, you really should brighten up your hair color, that dark purple wig is depressing. We don’t have to act all comatose just because this job is supposed to be serious. Just look at me!” Rose raised his hands in the air and struck a pose, the woman Raven didn’t know raised her eyebrows and Kate smiled.
“Raven, this is Emerald another elite ANGEL. I’m sure you have heard of her,” Steel introduced the mystery woman.
“Hello,” Raven made a small bow with her head, Emerald smiled and nodded back. It was customary for he higher ups to bow when they wanted to show their respect, and Raven had the utmost respect for Emerald. On the list of top 5 ANGELS Emerald out ranked Raven, and even Raven felt it was rightly so. Emerald had been with the company for 9 years and was a supremely talented ANGEL. She had done many more missions than Raven and was very accomplished. She was also a top engineer of equipment, and had helped bring Raven’s wings to life.
Emerald’s name held true to her appearance, her face had an emerald on her left cheek. Her hair was medium colored green with darker green streaks. The wig was cut so that the hair angled and was shorter in the back and was longer in the front. Her skin was a porcelain color but some blush on her cheeks gave it color. Her eyes were green also but a very bright green Raven thought rivaled the leaves of a flower. Her lips were painted a red-brown color. Her face was beautiful and doll-like, her complexion flawless and her eye lashes dark black. Unlike Rose her clothing was much more normal, a brown turtle neck and jeans with black boots. Very classy and chic, much like a model on a magazine.
Although it was summer Headquarters was so heavily air conditioned Kate wasn’t surprised about the sweater.
They all sat down at the table and Steel pulled out a folder and started rifling through it. The door opened and a stunned looking Zero came in following Hisame. Everyone but Raven looked surprised, Raven didn’t bother looking up and pulled out the chair next to her which was opposite Emerald. Zero seated herself and tried to not look confused.
“This is Zero, she is my subordinate and she will be joining us for this meeting,” raven explained to the curious looks of the other people.
“Zero, you’ve met Steel. This is Emerald,” Raven told Zero.
“And I’m Rose,” Rose said with a flourish of his hands.
“Yes, well he’s not so important,” Raven shot him down. Zero had on her usual look of understanding and nodded.
“Alright is everyone here that needs to be here?” Steel asked, more to Raven. Hisame jumped on the end of the table opposite Raven.
“Yes I suppose,” Raven shrugged. She was sure Zero was bursting with questions, but she had enough sense not to say anything.
“The introduction of a rival company has become something to worry about. Only one operative has been seen and not much is known about him. The rival company has released their name along with the operatives on his calling card. The operative’s name is Sparrow and the company is called Dauntless Endeavor,” Steel told them. A projection screen came down and a light projected the coin that had been shown on the news.
“If you’ll notice, on the side it says Dauntless Endeavor Co.,” The thick side of the coin sure enough had Dauntless Endeavor Co. etched onto its side.
“Only one person has come in contact with Sparrow, Raven, would you like to tell us what you know about him?” Steel looked at her. Zero, who undoubtedly had heard about Sparrow, was obviously confused. Raven sighed and sat up, she rather wished she didn’t have to talk.
“Sparrow seemed to have knowledge of the job before even we did. When Zero and I arrived at the Castillo mansion none of the security, which Mr. Castillo had been so up to date on, was working. Even odder was it appeared Sparrow had been waiting for Zero and my arrival, he easily could have taken the target before we did, but he didn’t. So that has led me to believe he wanted his presence known. He had arrived at the Castillo mansion early enough so he could turn the power off, which was the Achilles heel of the security,” Raven said. Zero was now beyond confusion and had a mixture of realization on her face, probably from realizing why Raven had wanted to leave the mansion even though they had not yet gotten the jewelry box.
“I assume you did interact with Sparrow? If he did want his presence known,” Emerald said. Raven nodded.
“He was arrogant, I noticed that right away. At first I thought he belonged to our company, and had simply gotten wind of the job and wanted to attempt it or something. But he clearly told me he was from another company, although he did not say the name of it. He was very clearly not a rookie, although his attitude and arrogance was appalling,” Raven said spitefully.
“Did he say or do anything significant?” Emerald asked; it almost seemed as if she was smiling. Raven thought back to him kissing her and quickly shook her head.
“Umm no he didn’t do anything, or say anything, not really, nothing important,” Raven babbled, Zero raised an eyebrow she had not seen Raven like this before. Raven was sure now that Emerald had a small smile on her face.
“I did see some of his equipment, he had a chap stick which could… um disrupt communication frequencies…” Raven bit her lip and pinched her arm. She was being foolish, getting worked up over a kiss. Raven regained composure and continued speaking. “He also had a pair of wings, almost exactly like mine, except better. They seemed to assimilate almost instantly and cause no discomfort when growing,”
“So, someone needs to find out where Dauntless Endeavor is anchored, and then I can go in and find out about them,” Rose said, he had been twirling his flaming hair around his finger.
“Yes well that might be rather difficult since we know very little about it,” Steel told Rose, who in turn shrugged.
“Sparrow was captured on video tape and so we do know what he looks like, we also have a picture of something he had taken from a bookshop. Raven I’m sure can tell us what the other item looked like,” Steel said and a picture of the old man from the book store was projected on the screen. The initials KHK seemed to glare at Raven on the screen.
“The other item was a jewelry box that was covered in jewels. What’s more interesting is that the jewelry box also had the initials KHK, and in that same curvy writing. Perhaps sparrow is after items like this, items that have KHK on them; they may be connected,” Raven suggested.
“Yes, we have some researchers looking into that, we would have more to go by if someone had actually gotten one of the items…” Steel said not intending to blame Raven, but that was how it came across.
“Wait did someone want us to get the book?” Raven asked.
“Umm, no,” Steel tried to cover, but Raven knew something was up.
“Did we know there was another item like the jewelry box?” Raven asked suspiciously.
“Well…yes. There are various items, but since we were not employed to retrieve any we wouldn’t just go out and take them…” Steel admitted.
“But that could help destroy the other company!” Raven said.
“We do want to monopolize the industry we have created, but we are not going to remain popular with clients if we do things that may seem to threaten them,” Steel said.
“If we keep it quiet they won’t need to know!” Raven was furious that they weren’t willing to do some snooping; the only clues at the moment were these KHK items.
“Mr. Thorne would prefer that we let new clues present themselves,” Steel said. Raven crossed her arms and sulked. If they weren’t going to prevent the other business from making a rise, she would.
“Here is a picture of Sparrow that was released on videotape”. Steel changed the picture and a devious looking Sparrow smirking at the camera, showed.
Zero made a sudden intake of breath, Raven looked at her. Zero’s mouth was open and her eyes were fixed on the screen.
“Is something wrong?” Raven asked her, she didn’t answer for a moment but finally tore her eyes away from the screen.
“Nothing,” Zero looked down at the table thoughtfully. “I just had not seen a picture of Sparrow yet,”
Raven wasn’t sure if she believed that, but dismissed it anyways.
“So Mr. Thorne wanted you all here for different, but equally important reasons. Rose, you will be investigating the book and jewelry box, see if you can dig up any information on them and their past owners, as well as what KHK means. Emerald, based on any information Raven gives you, you will be responsible for creating equipment that can rival Sparrow’s. As well as studying any evidence Rose brings you. Raven, you, having been the only one in contact with Sparrow, will be focusing on future missions that may bring you in contact with Sparrow. Any information Rose can give you, and any equipment Emerald can design for you, must be utilized to its fullest extent,” Steel them all. They all nodded in turn, except for raven, who was still upset.
They started filing out of the room, Zero rushed out first, and she seemed very distracted after seeing Sparrow.