Chapter Two
"MERCY!"
A pair of gray eyes shot wide open at the sound of her mother's voice.
"MERCY! I GAVE BIRTH TO YOU! I CHANGED YOUR DIAPERS! COME FEED ME!" Her mother, of course. She was lying in her hospital bed in the living room, screaming at her as always.
Mercy looked over at the clock on the wall, and scowled. The woman always woke up and started screaming right away, with absolutely no thought as to how much their angry neighbors would feel about it. Anymore complaints and Mercy would have to drag her mother to another complex- which was difficult when you had a paralyzed mother and hardly any money.
Every penny of the money Mercy made as Night was spent on her Mother's horrible debt and medical expenses. She cared for her mother hand and foot, risked her life and well being for her, and she was repaid with constant screaming to be fed and changed, insensitive slurs, and the constant reminder that this was all her fault. She had been driving after all.
"GODDAMNIT MERCY, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!" Mercy closed her eyes for a moment, sighed, and then sat up in her bed, cracked her neck slowly, then her wrists, and lastly her back before standing up, then reaching down and touching her toes. She then, slowly, and tediously walked out of her room, her long midnight braid swinging behind her.
"There you are you-"
"Good morning to you too, Mother. What would you like to eat?" Mercy said robotically. She repeated the phrase every morning to her mother, and always received some sort of insult as a response.
"Well, while you were being a lazy bitch in bed, I got up and made myself some eggs and bacon." She spat out the words with venom. Mercy bit her tongue as she pulled out a frying pan, and then opened the fridge to take out the eggs and bacon.
"How do you want your eggs, Mother?" She asked, she still sounded as if she was in pain.
"Like you don't know, dumbass, it's always the same goddamn way." Of course, sunny side up- break the yolk and you'll never hear the end of it.
"Of course, Mother." Mercy had to resist the urge to snarl the sentence. She flicked on the gas, and quickly lit it with a match, then started the bacon, tossing in three pieces, and the covering it with a special cover. After she got the bacon started, she leaned down, and pulled out another pan to make the eggs in. She went through the same motions every morning, said the exact same thing, and then went to school, came home, and did it all over again that night. It was when her mother finally went to sleep she would slip on her costume, and steal priceless pieces of technology and timeless gems.
Whatever she did, was for herself not her mother. The sooner she could pay off the debt her mother had mounted over the years, the sooner she could put her in a nursing home- or an asylum for that matter.
No more than ten minutes later, her mother's breakfast was ready, and she sat down with it, carefully cutting the egg in half and allowing it to cool before she dared to feed it to her mother.
"I'm waiting." She snarled, her ugly teeth bared.
"I don't want you to burn your tongue like last time, Mother." The urge to snap was growing as she spotted the clock hit seven. She needed to leave for school soon. The nurse was late- which was no surprise since her mother drove off every nurse they had ever hired in the past. If the nurse didn't show, she'd be stuck at home with her Mother, which was the absolute last thing she wanted.
"Just feed me bitch! If I could stick my foot up your ass right now I would!" She hissed, her teeth clenched as Mercy finally picked up the plate, stabbed an egg, and then fed it to her mother. Mercy got the feeling she was going to have to stuff the food down her mother's throat soon enough.
Her mother quietly chewed her food, and opened her mouth silently each time she wanted more. There was a knock at the door.
Mercy practically sprinted from her seat, and opened the door without even taking the time to glance through the peep hole. The nurse stood there, a look of dread on her face when she saw Mercy.
"Morning…" Mercy said with an apologetic look on her face. The nurse just frowned, glared, and then pushed past her, slapping a fake smile on her face as she walked towards Mercy's mother.
"Good morning Ms.-" Mercy's mother swore at the woman, demanding that she continue to be fed. The nurse scowled as Mercy ducked into her bathroom, showered for school in record time, braided her hair, dressed, applied her signature cat eye eyeliner, and then grabbed her backpack.
"Thanks Greta. I'll be home at the same time. Your check is on the counter under the vase." Mercy slammed the door to the apartment without another word, and sprinted down the hall towards the street. If she didn't hurry, her bus would leave without her.
Sure enough, just as she reached the front doors, she saw her morning bus pull away. Mercy didn't hesitate to sprint after it, running in the middle of the road in her black knee high boots, dark jeans, and black leather jacket paired with a thick, oversized knitted scarf.
"Wait!" She yelled. She soon realized that chasing the bus was hopeless, and returned back to the sidewalk to hail a cab. They were much more expensive, and she avoided them at all costs, but being late to school was not an option. Star City High did not seem to think that having a Mother paralyzed from the neck down was not a good enough excuse to be absent from school every time a nurse quit- which was quite often- or late. She had been mailed a truancy warning in the mail last week, and was not about to risk repeating her junior year of high school again. She was supposed to graduate early- with honors- and she wasn't about to give that up.
Because every last penny of those scholarships were going to go to putting her abusive mother in a nursing home, or, Mercy swore she would dive off of Star City's tallest building.
A cab stopped, and just as she reached for the handle of the cab, another did as well. She was prepared to tear the hand off of the body it was connected to if she had to, until she looked up, and her eyes met with a pair of blue ones.
"My apologies, ma'm." He said kindly, his blue eyes piercing her gray ones. He practically stunned Mercy, which was difficult to do, seeing that she dived off of buildings and took down men three times her size every night.
"Oh no, you're fine." She breathed as he opened the door for her. She eyed him for a moment longer, and then stepped inside the cab. He began to close the door with a smile on her face, and then just before it closed, he leaned in, and said:
"Have a good day, beautiful." The door closed, and Mercy felt her face turn pink as the cab began to pull away from the curb, leaving the handsome red-headed man on the sidewalk as he watched the cab pull away with a smirk on his face.
Mercy could not help but stare at him as he grew smaller and smaller.
"Where to, lady?"
-0-
"Authorizing, B-0-6, Red Arrow." The Zeta tube announced as Red Arrow entered in the middle of the Young Justice League's afternoon training session. Those not sparring at the moment turned to look at their new guest, and one of them greeted him with a cheery wave.
"Hey Red!" Chirped the Boy Wonder himself as he sparred with Black Canary, completing a back handspring and then another to avoid her strikes.
Canary looked towards Red Arrow, and then withdrew her attacks, calling off practice for the rest of the night. She pulled on her black jacket, and then walked towards him.
"I take it you're not here to just say hello?" She asked as she walked forward, straightening out her jacket as she did so.
"No. I'm bringing a mission to the League." He held out a thumb drive, and then tossed it to Canary, who eyed it for a moment.
"I ran it by Batman last night, if he shows up-" She was cut off by the Zeta tubes announcing another arrival.
Batman himself appeared from the Zeta tube, carrying himself as he always did a solid, stoic look on his face.
"Speak of the Devil." Red Arrow muttered as Batman approached. The Young Justice members heard his arrival, and rushed forward, awaiting their next mission. Batman approached Canary and Red Arrow, and then nodded in greeting. He looked directly at Red Arrow.
"The files?" He asked, holding out his hand. Red Arrow jerked his head slightly towards Black Canary, who held out the thumb drive. Batman took it out of her hand, plugged it into a port, and then began typing as soon as the holographic computer appeared in front of him.
"Red Arrow, this is your mission, the floor is yours." Batman announced as he stood tall once more, and looked towards Red Arrow, his voice deep and monotone.
Red Arrow hid his surprise well, and then eyed the group in front of him.
Kaldur, Robin, Wally, Conner, M'gann, and Artemis stood before him, waiting. All that could be heard for a moment was the sound of Wally chewing on a handful of chips rather loudly.
Red Arrow cleared his throat, and then motioned to a blurry photo of Night on the screen.
"For nearly every night this past six weeks, I've been chasing this thief, who so far has been dubbed Night due to his dark clothes and… favor of late night burglary." Red Arrow sounded a bit miffed at the last statement. He was basically admitting that a simple thief had been evading him every night for weeks.
"Every night it's a new item of value of any sort. It could be particle cannon one day, or a priceless piece of jewelry, or an artifact from a museum. If it's worth anything, Night will go after it." He pressed a holographic button, and a closer photo of Night came up, along with a long list of stats.
"These are the skills I've noted during my scuffles with the thief. Long rang knife throwing, mixed martial arts, close range combat with knifes and basically any object nearby, highly skilled acrobatic skills, speed, agility, but no sign of metahuman abilities. He leaves no signature, but, I'm assuming, every single one of his blades are dipped in cobra venom, had have a perfect circle," An image of the blade and a toxicology report appeared on the screen. It was a black blade with a perfect silver circle engraved at the top of the handle, just above a carefully arranged wrapping. "Which…. I'm not sure what it stands for."
"He's already gotten away with over two million's worth of Star City's most prized possessions. And frankly, I'm tired of him slipping away from me each time." He practically snarled, causing the team to give him an odd look.
"Night's usual haunting hours are around midnight." Began Batman, picking up where Red Arrow had left off. "We've set up a fake Hope Diamond at the Star City Museum of the Arts, more than likely, Night will strike there."
"He's not easily fooled. He'll know in a moment's notice that the diamond is a fake. He always checks the authenticity of the item. For all we know, we could only have thirty seconds to capture Night with minimal fight." Speedy announced.
Robin stepped forward, a smirk on his face as he pressed his fist into the palm of his left hand, his stance indicating he was ready to take on the seasoned criminal.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's bring on the aster."
-0-
School had gone by as usual, even after Mercy's spectacular morning. She had entered, received her usual taunts and whispers behind her back, and then flew through her first three classes with her usual ease. It was the rest of the day that gave her trouble.
Fourth period, someone decided that throwing an energy drink across the room to see if they could possibly make it in the trash can would be a fantastic idea- and it crash landed on Mercy's desk, causing it to splash on her, and soak her Literature essay that was due the next period.
She attempted to turn in the essay, but the teacher demanded she rewrite it, and assigned her mandatory lunch tutorials for the day so that she could. Therefore, Mercy missed lunch as well, leaving her hungry for the rest of the day. Tech went by just fine, except for the fact that someone had stolen the power coupler on her device, which also happened to be her final exam grade. Her teacher had said he could order another, but it wouldn't be in for another week, leaving her to sit in class utterly useless, and forced to rush at the end of next week- the last week of school- to finish a project that was worth over half of her semester average.
But- at the end of the day, she collected herself as she walked to the bus, remembering that tonight was the night for business. Tonight, largest paying client would be handing over nearly $100,000 for her to steal from the Star City Museum of the Arts.
She didn't rush home like the other kids at school did. But took her time, getting off the bus one stop early so that she had to walk a block to get home, and taking small, slow steps.
She promised the nurse she wouldn't be late- and she wasn't planning on it, she always kept her promise. But today, more than usual, she dreaded coming home. Today had been less than wonderful, and granted it may be Friday, but for her that meant more rigorous jobs, and on top of that, she had two right one after the other on Saturday. How she was planning on evading the city's pep squad, she didn't know, but she was going to do whatever she could do so.
When she finally got home and opened the door to her apartment at exactly 5:00, the nurse practically ran out the door, reporting that her mother was freshly changed and fed and she had slipped her a sleeping aid that would keep her asleep for the rest of the night. The rushed words came to her like the sound of the hallelujah chorus in her ears. Her mother would be asleep for the rest of the night. Oh, the joy. She would have time to do her homework in peace, and anything else she wanted.
She settled on practicing her throwing in her room, and ordering a brand new set of weapons to add to her collection under the floorboards.
Over the years, Mercy had managed to collect an armory's worth of knives and lethal weapons and poisons underneath the floorboards. Weapons ranging from hundreds of throwing knives, swords, bowie knives, cobra, cotton mouth, jellyfish venom, and nameless illegal instruments.
She pulled out her favorite set, a pack of twenty small, black throwing knives with circles at the end of the handle she could spin them around her finger with. She didn't bother to cover her miniature armory back up with the floorboard; it wasn't like her mother was going to walk in. No one would walk in for that matter, and her blinds blocked out any view of her from any angle. She had checked herself.
Mercy leaned back in her chair, allowing it to teeter dangerously on its back two legs as before propping her feet up on her makeshift nightstand she pushed in front of her whenever she practiced her aim, or was preparing to go do a job. Her Kevlar and body armor was already laid out for the night, along with her face mask and the scarf that went over it. Her shoes were on the floor next to her tights and the Lycra shirt she wore underneath her armor.
Occasionally, Mercy would toss the knife in the air, catch it between her fingers by the blade, and then throw it at her target, almost always knocking the other one that had just been in the center onto a pillow she had placed on the floor specifically so the knives did not make a sound when they fell.
When Mercy felt it had been a while since she had moved from her position, and she had sorted out her thoughts for the night, she glanced at the clock.
It was already ten thirty at night, and so far, she hadn't heard a peep from her mother. She walked towards the bathroom, cleaned herself up, and unbraided her long, dark hair.
It fell around her shoulders in waves, having been braided all day, and she sighed, her gray eyes inspecting her image in the mirror for a while.
Her hair cascaded down her back and stopped at her lower back, carefully trimmed and kept by Mercy herself, but she braided it every day in order to keep it out of her way. Her gray eyes were what she believed to be average and mundane. Her full lips were too large, and her nose was just a little too round.
"What am I doing?" Mercy suddenly looked at herself, confused in the mirror as the though flitted through her mind. These were things her mother told her. She shook her head, and eyed the clock again as she reached for her brush.
It read 10:55.
It was time to start getting ready.
Mercy braided her hair, and then carefully pinned any loose hairs back that might obstruct her vision, and then walked over to her bed.
"To be Eternal is a great honor…" She breathed as she pulled on her tights, recalling something her mother had told her when she was young, and had just discovered her Mother's reason for being gone for weeks at a time and leaving her with their neighbors. "Because anything that is Eternal means that it has, and always will triumph over all who stand before it."
Oh you guys. I see you've be reading this story and I love it!
Say... one review and I post the next chapter? ;)