A/N: Aaannd I'm back! I came up with the concept of having the Fantastic Four taken to the Glasshouse instead of H.I.V.E. a while ago, and since it's June 1st (exactly one year until H.I.V.E. 9 finally comes our way) I decided I'd get to it. Since Raven's flashbacks are few and far between, it probably won't be as long as my last story, but since everybody loves Raven and the Furans I'm sure you'll all find it in your hearts to forgive me ;-). Happy reading!

Anastasia sat back from the laptop in front of her and turned to the man beside her.

"Have you seen this?" she said with a note of excitement as she gestured to the screen.

Pietor leaned forward. His good eye scanned the screen with mild interest.

"I know what you're thinking," he began.

"She'd be perfect!" Anastasia insisted. "Those systems are meant to be impossible to get through, Pietor. Think what we could do with somebody like that."

"And how do you know this is a she?" Pietor enquired, looking amused. Clearly his sister had been doing some research.

She snorted. "She may have fooled the media, but she can't fool me. It's perfect, can't you see?"

"I guess we haven't had new projects for a good while," Pietor said thoughtfully. Ever since their greatest 'project' had failed spectacularly, the regular intake of recruits had gone down significantly. "But we should get some others, too."

"Well, that couldn't hurt. Tell you what, here's an idea. You get into G.L.O.V.E.'s systems and find us some more recruits from there, as many as you like, and then we'll go fetch this girl."

Pietor sighed. "Have you forgotten how hard they are to get through?"

Anastasia nearly smiled. "I suppose you should find some who can hack while you're at it. "

"Found something?" Anastasia asked as Pietor entered the room with a laptop and a triumphant air.

"Three somethings to be precise." He sat the computer down and brought up a window. "That Trinity girl you were wanting is an Alpha candidate. As are all of these."

Her steely eyes flickered across the names on the screen. "What do we need those two for?"

"Firstly, they are rather too capable to be put in H.I.V.E.'s hands. Second, some hackers couldn't hurt."

"If we get to them before H.I.V.E. does, we could avoid another failure and make ourselves some quite formidable new assassins. Especially now that we have two very dangerous enemies who dislike us." Anastasia made as if to stand up.

"Now?"

Anastasia looked terrifying and unstoppable as she picked up a pistol. "They'll be off to get them in less than a week, Pietor. Get Heinreich to keep the kids in check."

Even though Pietor was nowhere near as keen as she was to just up and go, it was true that their greatest enemies were still at large and sometimes there was just no stopping his sister. He made a small sound of resignation and followed her out of the room.

The window slid shut with a quiet click as a tall girl dressed in black swung her body over the frame and began to scale downwards. Even if they weren't asleep, it would take a hurricane to get her parents to check on her. As nice as the fame she'd gotten over the past year was, it was rather too anonymous to get them to pay any attention to her. She'd learnt to deal with that by now.

In seconds she had dropped down onto the porch and hiding in a bush. Very few people came by at three in the morning, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Concealed by the shrubbery, she crept across to the end of the street and kept going until she reached Santa Monica Boulevard. There were quite a few more people here, so despite the fact that the majority would be too drunk to notice her, this was the time to turn invisible. Whipping her head to both sides, she sprinted to the wall of a restaurant, slipping into the shadow it cast, and climbed up the wall quickly and gracefully. Once she was on the roof, she kept a low stance as she moved across the rooftops until she reached her destination. Tiffany and Co's Los Angeles store wasn't huge - in fact in comparison to her other exploits it was positively tiny - but it had been almost a month since the Wraith's last escapade, and she didn't want to keep her fans hanging (if you could call them that). Besides, she was eager to find out if the handgun rumour was true.

Shelby spotted a tiny shaft that she would barely fit through just as she heard the tiniest of noises. Sticking to the shadows, she turned - and froze. A man and a woman, both dressed in sharp business suits and - more importantly - holding pistols stood there calmly, as if they'd been expecting her.

The woman smiled. "Hello, Shelby," she said in a strong Russian accent that gave the friendly words an extremely unfriendly edge. "Or do you prefer the Wraith?"

Her eyes flickered from the man to the woman to the streets below her as she wondered how they could see her.

"Don't be so stupid," the woman continued, still smiling and still terrifying. "We're not going to hurt you unless you don't do as we say."

"That's not very reassuring," Shelby frowned as she reluctantly stepped forwards. "Who are you?"

"I am Madame Furan, and I have an offer. You clearly have a talent for becoming invisible, and my brother and I would find that very useful. Come with us and we shall train to become much more than you could ever hope to become with mere jewellery heists."

Shelby opened her mouth to explain that thanks very much, but that wasn't really her thing, and if they didn't mind she'd be on her way now, but she didn't. Madame Furan, whoever she was, had singled her out as talented and presumably come all the way from Russia to recruit her, while her parents wouldn't pay attention to her if their lives depended on it. Besides, she doubted that the pistols were there for decoration.

"All right."

"Oh good," Furan said. "I'd hate to have come all the way to California for a dead body." Shelby suddenly wondered if she'd made the right choice.

.

Wing was sitting on the edge of a sofa with a book in his hands. He hadn't seen his dad in days now, and was becoming increasingly more bored - this was his third time reading Black Rain. By now he was craving excitement, but when he heard the unmistakeable click of a safety catch that desire seemed to melt away. The book fell to the floor with a thud as he looked at the imposing strangers who were suddenly standing in the living room.

"If you'd be so kind as not to attack us," Furan began. "It's been a long journey."

Despite her request, Wing assumed a defensive stance. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

"Because of you," she replied with a cold smile. "More specifically, your talents. If you come with us now we can turn those talents into something much greater."

The words themselves were friendly and inviting. The way she said them wasn't.

"And if I refuse?"

"Then you die."

Wing firmly believed that there were things far worse than death. However, thirteen was so young to die and death was so finite.

"I would prefer to stay alive a little longer."

.

"...she's always holed up with a computer, it's ridiculous. She won't want to come. But I do - obviously - can you give me the details?"

Laura closed the recording with a somewhat smug expression.

"Very impressive."

That hadn't been the computer.

"Hello, Laura. We could use those skills."

Slowly she turned to see that she was no longer alone.

"Um..." she looked apprehensive. "Could I have some more explanation?"

The woman - she was clearly the one doing who did the talking - smiled. That didn't help. "I am going to give you a choice, my dear. Come with us and we will train you. Or Pietor can shoot you." She was clearly not joking.

"That's not a choice."

"You will learn soon enough that there is no such thing, Laura. Come along."

'

Otto sat on his hotel bed, his laptop in front of him and the television blaring.

"Quite frankly, you can take your problems and shove them. Thank you."

Grinning, he typed in a few more commands before shutting the computer and turning around. A tall, foreign-looking man held it out for him.

"Thank you," he said. "Wait - what?"

"You're very welcome."

Otto looked extremely confused. "Who - why - what -"

"It's nice to meet you too," the woman said. "Clearly you enjoy causing chaos. Would you like to help us do just that?"

"In what sense?" It seemed like a silly question - she obviously didn't have pranking the Prime Minister in mind.

"This and that," she replied. That was explanation enough. "Oh, did I forget to mention? If you say no you die."

"Fair enough."

"Hand to hand combat, swap partners after five minutes, go!"

That was the first thing Otto heard as he dropped into the pit. He barely had time to acknowledge the words before a tall boy covered in scars sent a powerful kick towards his jaw.

"Nice to meet you too," he muttered, just dodging the blow before throwing a punch towards the boy's stomach. Although he'd dealt with bullies of all sorts over the years, fighting was never really something he'd looked into very much - he'd never excelled in that area, and Otto didn't like to do badly. Unfortunately, he didn't appear to have much of a choice. He blocked attacks half-heartedly for a few moments, trying to think; he couldn't fight strong, so he would have to fight smart.

The next time a punch came towards him, he took a step closer. The punch landed in the air behind him as Otto quickly reached out for a pressure point at the boy's neck. Thinking that he was going for a headlock, he caught Otto's arm instead of stepping backwards - and let go just as quickly as he dropped to the floor, unconscious.

In an instant Pietor Furan had appeared. "What did you do to Aleksei?"

"Knocked him out."

"Yes, I can see that," he said impatiently. "How?"

"I pressed a nerve ending."

Pietor laughed, which only made Otto feel more uncomfortable. "You are weak, but you use your brain. Not all opponents can be defeated that way. Change partners!"

He didn't move fast enough to pick a partner and ended up with a pretty Scottish girl who had apparently suffered the same fate. She hesitated before moving to punch him.

"That is not an attack." Pietor was still there. "That is a child playing. Again, properly."

She made an apologetic face before punching again. There was more force in it, but Otto could see it coming and blocked it fairly easily.

"You are not even trying."

This time she landed a powerful kick to his chest, causing him to almost double over. Otto guessed that she was envisioning him as a different target.

Pietor gave her a small nod, then turned to Otto. "What are you waiting for? Attack!"

He finally walked away.

"Just pretend it's him," Otto muttered as he went in for a wave of attacks.

Shelby entered the dormitory she'd been assigned to. It was small and cramped and looked like a prison cell.

"You're the new kids?" A girl asked as she and three others flopped down on their bunks.

Shelby nodded.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Good luck." She was snoring a few seconds later.

"This isn't what I had in mind when they said they'd train me," Laura, who was in the bunk beside her, said with a groan.

"No kidding," Shelby replied, turning to face her. "I was thinking, you know, underground Mission:Impossible secret location full of high-tech spy equipment and robots and climbing arenas and whatever."

"How can you even talk so much?" Otto's advice had proven too effective, and the bruise on his jaw was making speech difficult.

"I need to hear words that aren't insulting my fighting ability," Shelby replied. "And you are?"

"Otto."

"Wing."

"Pained."

"Hi there pained," Otto said, "nice to meet you."

"Please don't - it's Laura."

There was an awkward silence for a few moments.

"So," Otto said quietly, "any ideas on how we get out?"

"Oh, I have one," Laura said. "In a coffin."

"If they are training us to fight, it must be so they can send us on missions," Wing suggested.

"So we just stay until we're good enough to get sent out?" Laura sounded desolate.

"If you like, I could teach you at a slower pace," Wing said. All three of them had been paired with him at one point, and had noticed that he was the only one out of the new group that had any idea what to do.

"Me too please," Shelby said quickly. "Anyway, it can't be all bad. I for one wouldn't mind being able to kick that much ass. And I must say I rather like the uniform on me." Laura snorted.

"It's not just that, though," Otto pointed out. "Haven't you seen the other kids? They're hardly even human any more. I don't want to go all I-am-nothing-but-a-killing-machine."

"It seems to me like that is what they want," Wing agreed. "So I agree that we should try and avoid that fate."

"Fair enough, and I certainly don't want them to win," Laura sighed, "but I hardly think these kids were brought here thinking, I can't wait to become a heartless instrument of murder!"

"I think they were brought in younger than we were," Shelby said. "But yes. They've clearly been doing this a while. So what? Let's just go along with it, act like we're believing everything they say, et cetera et cetera. Soon enough we'll get to go out."

"Looking forward to it already," Otto said tiredly.