As a friendly reminder, Anonymous Void is posting the first chapter of his latest Teen Titans story, Dawn of Generation Lost. AV, you better not leave me hanging by not posting.
Cassandra hated her job.
It was so incredibly boring. It was the same thing day in and day out. Mail came in; it was sorted; it was delivered; more mail came in; rinse and repeat.
The monotony was killing her.
Of the people that had been here when she started, many had left. It was clear they were onto bigger and better things—hopefully. There were some that were still here, like Gus and Fran. They seemed determined to get full pensions, or however that phrase went. Ones like Terry and Abby had left. Shawn was still here, but there was no telling if he would be staying for much longer.
Faintly, she wondered if she could say the same.
More people had been hired on, but Cassandra hadn't really bothered to learn who they were. There was a loudmouth named Tommy that had tried hitting on her—and she had made it quite clear she had no interest in him. There was a John who was adamant that this was a temp job, that he was interviewing with anyone and everyone, but had no success. There was an older woman, Margaret, who just couldn't quite understand how to sort the mail as she continually put envelopes in the wrong carts.
Not exactly a group she wanted to get to know.
As she sorted her latest pile, she let her mind wonder. She wondered how she was going to handle her situation with Harper and Stephanie. They were becoming restless, just like she had when she had been in their place. While the latter was more behaved, even she was getting antsy. Only her acknowledgement of the dark-haired girl's capabilities when compared to her own was what kept the blonde girl in line.
Harper, on the other hand…
How would her father handle this?
Well, he had given her a solution last night. Now that she had time to think about it, she was second-guessing herself. What had sounded like a good idea before didn't sound so good anymore. And since when did she second-guess herself? It was completely unlike her.
As she mulled over this, she pulled out a letter and then paused. There, on the envelope was the name Bruce Wayne. Clearly this was meant for her father. Setting it to one side, Cassandra stared at the remains of her pile.
Alright, she needed to shake things up.
Snatching up the letter, along with a couple of piles for the carts, the dark-haired girl went about placing the various stacks in their appropriate carts. She saved the Bruce Wayne letter for last purposefully. Eventually, she was only left with the letter, giving her the excuse to find the cart where it belonged.
She found it near Fran…great. Finding a few more envelopes addressed to Bruce Wayne, she placed the letter next to them and carefully examined the cart. There were quite a few letters and packages—but was it enough to perform a mail run? She hadn't physically delivered any mail to the executive floor. Usually John took the executive floor cart, but he wasn't here today…
You know what? Yes, there was enough to make a mail run.
Grabbing the handle to the cart, Cassandra began wheeling it out, ignoring Fran as she moved by her. Thankfully, Fran ignored her too, so she was in the clear. If more mail appeared for the top floor, well, it would just have to find a new cart to be placed in.
The brakes to the bus squealed as the yellow vehicle slowed to a stop. The chatter amongst the teenagers were deafening, unwilling to let up even to the fact that they had reached their destination.
"Everyone! Listen up!" the teacher, Mrs. Braun, shouted. The bus quieted down, though there were still pockets of whispers and giggles. It was never truly quiet. "I want everyone to be on their best behavior. Any trouble and we're going back to school where everyone has a giant packet of homework waiting. I want one line, single-file."
A hand shot up. "Yes?" Mrs. Braun asked.
"I need to go to the bathroom," a girl requested.
"There will be time for that once we're inside. Now, let's get to it."
Stephanie just stared out of the window of her seat, seeing random people in suits walking by, completely ignoring the yellow school bus. The ride here had been fine and the blonde found herself catching up with some of her old friends. It was weird that she hadn't spent a lot of time with them, but hey, when you had an exciting life like hers, something had to fall off.
She was sitting near the front of the bus, so it wasn't long before her and her seatmate were standing up, filing in behind the students in front of them. They trudged to the front of the bus before making a sharp turn and dropping down unnecessarily long steps.
Seriously, who thought those steps were a good idea? It was a miracle first graders were able to get on board without needing mountain climbing equipment.
A tall building loomed in front of her as she reached the sidewalk. Her classmates were being led to the wall, lining up against it. Stephanie followed along, turning around to rest her back against it. From there, she could see her classmates exiting the bus to follow along.
"You never told me you were going to Wayne Enterprises," Harper said from her side.
"I don't see—" Stephanie began to say before she stopped, jerking her head to find the blue-haired girl standing to her right. "What the hell are you doing here?!" she exclaimed.
Harper flashed her a smirk. "What does it look like? I'm on a field trip."
The blonde girl was flabbergasted by this. "B-but you don't even go to my school!"
"That's why it's called hooky. Besides, it's not like I'm gonna learn much from my publicly-funded school. So why not go do something interesting and tour one of the biggest companies in the city?"
This was so not happening. Seriously, this was a bad idea. Harper did not belong in a group like her class. Her blue hair and her punk get-up fitted better at a rock concert. Stephanie and her classmates were dressed in "business casual," whatever that meant. She was actually wearing a blouse and a skirt and…oh God, Mrs. Braun was coming this way.
"You need to go," Stephanie hissed. "Mrs. Braun is coming this way and—"
"I ain't afraid of no Mrs. Braun," Harper retorted.
Before Stephanie could respond, Mrs. Braun shouted, "We're about to go in, everyone! We have a few minutes, so if you need to use the facilities, do so. Once the tour starts…"
The teacher trailed off as she saw Harper. The blue-haired girl just gave a tight-lipped smile and waved her hand. "Do I know you?" Mrs. Braun questioned.
"Nope," Harper answered her.
"Then what are you doing here?"
"I have an appointment with HR and I saw this line forming up. Thought I'd kill a couple minutes hanging with y'all before I went about my business."
"Then I'll kindly ask that you don't bother my class. Go to your meeting."
"You're about to go in, so I'll just enter with you. No reason for us to elbow each other on the way in."
Mrs. Braun just stared at her before she went back to addressing the class. "As I was saying, once the tour starts, there will be no breaks until lunch. If anyone tries to break away from the group, you will be pulled aside and have to spend the rest of the trip in the lobby, where you will then have that big packet of homework to do when we get back. Do not challenge me on this."
"Man, she's a hard ass, isn't she?" Harper whispered to Stephanie.
"Did you think I was kidding?" she hissed back.
"Alright, everyone! We're going in!"
All the students plus Harper turned to their left. It took a moment before the line began to move, but the whole time Stephanie felt her stomach churning. She just knew there was going to be one last encounter with Mrs. Braun as she would be holding the door open.
And as expected, the teacher was. Again, she gave Harper a strange look, but the blue-haired girl ignored it as she passed through into the building. Stephanie was partially distracted upon entering the lobby, finding it massive. All around were Wayne Enterprise employees hurrying around, heading to elevators off to the right, or the towering staircase up ahead. Between the students and that staircase was a front desk, a few employees manning it. To the left were leather couches and chairs, used by random people as they chatted, or were completely empty.
For just that moment, Stephanie was just like her classmates, taken back by the magnificence of this place.
"Damn, this place is big," Harper remarked.
And there went the moment. Fuck.
After a sharp bing rang out, the doors to the elevator slid open. A small reception area appeared before Cassandra's eyes, the dark-haired girl pushing her mail cart into the room so that she wasn't stuck riding the elevator down. The elevator doors had been known to have a short timer when closing; she had been forced to take the "scenic" ride a couple of time—scenic meaning she had to ride the elevator up and then down before getting to where she needed to go.
A small sitting area was to her left, a longer hallway to her right. A reception desk was towards the far-left corner, where a young man sat. He looked up at her, a small frown on his face. "Can I help you?" he asked.
Apparently the cart full of mail wasn't enough of a giveaway as to why she was here. So Cassandra approached the desk, stopping in front of it as she looked down on the secretary. "I'm delivering the mail," she told him sedately. No point in being rude about this.
"Oh, you can leave that all with me and I will see to it that it reaches the appropriate parties," the secretary said. Well, that wasn't the answer she wanted.
"I was told to make certain everyone received their mail," she then said. That was true; in fact, Terry told her to literally place the various envelopes and packages in front of the receiving party so that there was no possible way anyone could say they didn't receive their mail. Apparently there had been some incident that caused a lot of fuss, so the solution was to uniformly place every last piece of mail either in the hand of the recipient, or directly on their desk.
"And I will ensure it gets delivered," the young man reassured her. Not seeing any point in trying to fight this anymore, Cassandra gave in, reaching into the cart and picking up a stack of envelopes, placing them on the reception desk. She did this a few more times, including the boxes, until the cart was empty.
"Cassandra? Is that you?"
She recognized that voice. Turning her head, she saw an aging black man, her father's right-hand man, Lucius Fox. He was standing by the elevator, a surprised look on his face that quickly turned into one with a smile.
Turning to fully face him, she bowed her head to him. "Good morning, Mr. Fox."
Fox walked up to her, not once letting his smile waiver. "And to what do we owe your unexpected visit?"
Cassandra gestured to the mail. "Just a delivery."
"So I see. You wouldn't also happen to be here to see your old man, would you?"
There was a startled, gagging sound. The two turned their heads to look to the secretary, who looked like he had choked on…something. He didn't look like he was drinking water, or eating anything, so that was a strange sound for him to make.
"Are you okay, Stephen?" Fox asked., raising an eyebrow.
Stephen had one hand wrapped around his throat, waving his other hand as a gesture to not worry about him. "Sorry," he gasped. "Something…went in the wrong hole."
"That doesn't sound good."
Deciding to take the focus of the conversation away from the choking Stephen, Cassandra said as she returned her attention to Fox "Only if he is available. I don't—"
"I'm sure he'll make some time!" Fox moved to her side, placing a hand on her shoulder as he began to guide her to a set of doors opposite the elevator. He led them right up to the doors, grabbing the doorknob of one and gave it a turn. The door opened and they entered the room.
The sight of her father's office greeting them, the man himself sitting behind his desk. He only glanced up once, returning his eyes to whatever work he was busy with, only to stop as he did a double take. "Did you bring me another stray, Lucius?"
"I think this one belongs to you," Fox returned the joke. "I found her playing with Stephen and thought she may want to see you."
Bruce tossed his pen down as he leaned back into his seat. "Well, it is definitely a welcomed surprise. What brings you up here, Cassandra?"
The dark-haired girl raised a hand up and jerked a thumb to the door behind her. "Mail delivery," she deadpanned.
"Hmm, I hadn't realized they were allowing you to bring that up here."
"The cart was full. I just took it."
"Enjoying yourself so far?"
The look Cassandra gave him said everything. In case he didn't receive the message, she said, "I hate it. It's so boring down there."
"I would imagine so," Fox chuckled. "Compared to how you spend your nights, everything else just pales in comparison."
That was a thought she hadn't considered. The excitement of Batgirl was something she enjoyed immensely. In fact, ever since she began this job, she found herself craving it more and more. Of course, she hadn't been able to go out lately…
"I want out," she declared then. "I need to do something…different."
Bruce raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'something different'?"
"It…it's the same thing, over and over." Why was it she felt like she was grasping for words? Especially when her father knew how she felt about the job. It wasn't like she kept it a secret. "I feel like I'm…like I'm…not being challenged enough."
"You feel like you're not being stimulated enough," Fox supplied for her.
Her father looked thoughtful at this. "I wish I could do more for you, but your resume is rather lacking. This is your first job and you don't have much experience in anything other than organization. I can't exactly put you into accounting or marketing."
Those weren't the words she wanted to hear. After all, he had crafted her a resume that got her a job here in the first place. Why couldn't he make another for her that got her some better job?
"We do have other areas," Fox pointed out, an unexpected white knight. "What about EVS?"
"EVS?" Cassandra questioned.
"Environmental Services," her father clarified. "I hadn't thought of that one. You would be on the move throughout the building, so you wouldn't be stuck in the mailroom."
"And what exactly would I be doing?"
"Cleaning and maintaining the building."
Cassandra's eyes dimmed. "You want me to be a janitor."
"EVS technician."
"No."
"You need experience, Cassandra," Bruce reminded her.
"And I can get it somewhere else. What else is there?"
"I think your little one is finding her claws," Fox chuckled.
"She always had them," Bruce replied. "She just knows when to use them."
"Then how about this? Clearly she wants something faster paced and stimulating. While we do have limitations on what those options are due to her work background, I think there's something that can be done."
"And that would be?"
"Karen's about to go on maternity leave. I'll be needing a temp until she gets back."
Bruce frowned. "Are you certain about this, Lucius?"
"It's only temporary. Besides, if she struggles, it won't be forever. If she succeeds, we can place her in a similar position somewhere else in the company. It wouldn't be the first time we extended a temp."
Cassandra had no idea what the two of them were talking about, nor who this Karen was. However, it did seem important and she wasn't going to distract them.
Finally, "It seems you have a golden opportunity here, Cassandra," Bruce told her, which made her feel hopeful. "Lucius is going to need an assistant until his current one returns from maternity leave."
"What…does this assistant do?"
"It's similar to what Stephen does for your father," Fox told her. "You'll be in charge of organizing my day, arranging appointments, filing paperwork, coordinating with other departments just to name a few. I will warn you there isn't much room for mistakes, so the learning curve will be short."
"So you want me to be a secretary."
"It's either this, or back to the mailroom," Bruce pointed out.
The words flew out of her mouth faster than her brain could comprehend them. "I'll do it."
"Great!" Fox declared. "I'll have Karen make all the arrangements. We'll have you start tomorrow. Karen's about to pop, so the sooner we get the transition started, the better."
"O…okay."
"Well, this has certainly been a productive day for you." Bruce stood up, moving around his desk as he came to stand next to the two of them. "I think this calls for a lunch break, don't you, Lucius?"
"But it's not close to lunch time," Cassandra pointed out.
"Call it brunch," he shrugged his shoulders. "Besides, we have a couple things to talk about with your new position."
"But what about Gus and Fran?"
"We'll just tell them you're taking your break early." He then promptly wrapped his arm around her shoulders, directing her back towards his office door. "Would you like to join us, Lucius?" he then asked his right-hand man.
Fox waved his hand in front of him. "Unfortunately, I'm expected in the lobby about now. Perhaps we can make it up once Cassandra's acclimated."
"Then we're off. Hold the fort while we're gone."
"Welcome to Wayne Enterprises!" a loud voice announced. A thin woman that looked like she had been a mom to two troublesome kids, but refused to show it, greeted them. She seemed to have a permanent smile etched onto her face. "We are truly happy to have all of you here!"
"Oh, this is gonna be good," Harper murmured next to Stephanie. Because the blue-haired girl seemed fully intent on crashing this field trip, Stephanie was staying glued to her. Someone had to maneuver her around Mrs. Braun and Harper had shown very little self-preservation when it came to the teacher. So she had the two of them hiding in the back, away from any curious looks.
At least, she hoped they were.
"Now, before we begin this tour, allow me to introduce myself," the guide said. "I'm Tammy and there is no one here that knows every secret of this building like me. Today, I'm going to show you the inner workings of a global conglomerate the likes you've never seen before."
"Goodie," Harper drawled.
"Shhhhhhh!" Stephanie hissed. "If you're going to be here, behave."
"Or what?" the blue-haired girl challenged.
Well, that had escalated quickly. Honestly, there wasn't much she could threaten Harper with. She was a street-tough girl and Stephanie…wasn't. Tattling wasn't going to work and snide, mean girl comments would get her punched sooner rather than later.
Too bad Batgirl wasn't around…
As if inspiration struck her, the blonde girl replied, "Or I'm volunteering us both for wall squats—as long as B.G. wants."
Harper narrowed her eyes. "You wouldn't. You hate them as much as I do."
"And I will gladly burn if you don't stop acting like a prick."
The two girls held each other's gaze. Thankfully, Harper relented. "Pfft, fine. I will get you back for this."
Crap, damned if she did, damned if she didn't. She couldn't wait to see what embarrassment was in her future. Thankfully though, Harper didn't push it, allowing her to return her attention back to Tour Guide Tammy.
"Now if you all will follow me, we'll begin our tour on the third floor—accounting," Tammy was saying. She began backpedaling, leading the class towards the elevators. As one mass, they followed behind her. "Now, we're going to need to take a couple elevators, so once we arrive on three, please don't start wandering around. You can and will get lost if you don't know where you're going."
Which meant there was going to be a chaperone on either elevator. Crap, they needed to be on the one without Mrs. Braun. Perhaps hiding in the back was a bad idea.
As Tammy reached the elevators, she hit the up arrow button. "Are there any questions so far?"
A number of hands raised up. One of them just so happened to be Harper's. Immediately, Stephanie jerked her elbow right into the girl's ribs, causing her to flinch as her hand dropped. "The hell," she hissed at the blonde girl.
"The hell are you doing drawing attention to us?" she shot back.
"I have a question for the aging Barbie doll. Don't I get to participate?"
"No, since you're not even supposed to be here!"
A smirk grew on Harper's face as she began to raise her hand back. A threatening look appeared on Stephanie's face as she raised her elbow up, ready to jab it again. The two fell into a stalemate, with Harper holding a half-raised hand and Stephanie a bent arm.
That was when one of the elevator doors opened. Cutting off whatever Q-and-A was going on. "Oh my, excuse me," a voice said.
"Mr. Fox!" Tammy exclaimed. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting you to show up."
"That's alright." Glancing towards the front, Stephanie caught glimpses of an old, African-American man. A couple people slipped around him as they exited the elevator. "I see you have another group, Tammy."
"Yes, Sir! We have St. Catherine's High with us today. Everyone, allow me to introduce you to the Vice President of Wayne Enterprises: Mr. Lucius Fox!"
Clapping filled the lobby as Stephanie's class began to clap. The blonde girl did the same, though half-heartedly. She had to keep an eye on Harper after all. "St. Catherine's?" Lucius Fox remarked as the clapping died down. "Then Wayne Enterprises is honored to have such visitors with us today."
However, what should have been an amazing moment meeting an executive of Wayne Enterprises was suddenly side-tracked it. As if her classmates had de-aged to toddlers, the words, "Is that Bruce Wayne?" squeaked out and suddenly they were all chattering nonstop.
Stephanie, sadly, couldn't help herself as her head jerked away from Harper to get a sight of the infamous billionaire. Walking around the group was indeed a gorgeous—yes, gorgeous—man, Mr. Bruce freaking Wayne himself. She had seen pictures of the Wayne heir before—who hadn't? But to see him in the flesh, well, let's just say she couldn't help but swoon a little. Just a little, mind you. It was mostly because he noticed her class gazing at him in awe, causing him to give them a small smirk and a quick wave of his hand.
A big part of the reason why it was only a little swooning was because there was someone at his side, whom he had an arm wrapped around her shoulders.
That someone had shoulder length black hair and Asian facial features. She stood out as she was dressed casual in comparison to the sharply-dressed Bruce Wayne.
That someone who just happened to be freaking Batgirl.
Instinctively, Stephanie jerked an elbow into Harper, causing the girl to yelp. "Hey, I wasn't even doing anything," she protested.
Stephanie just pointed, with emphasis, at Bruce Wayne and the undisguised Batgirl. With a frown on her face, Harper looked, then looked just as shocked as the blonde girl. "That can't be," she gasped.
Yet it was. A moment later and Bruce Wayne and Batgirl had walked by the group and were heading right for the entrance. Stephanie and Harper turned to keep them in view, watching them until they left the building.
"Okay, seriously, what the hell is going on here?" Harper hissed. "What is she doing here, like she's one of Wayne's bimbos?"
That's right, Bruce Wayne had the reputation of being a womanizer. Batgirl looked like she couldn't have been any older than the two of them, which brought up a whole bunch of questions that didn't put him in a good light. The word grooming came to mind in a lot of them.
Thankfully, one of Stephanie's classmates happened to ask the question that was on both of their minds. "Who is that with Mr. Wayne?"
Though she had faintly heard it due to the shock she was in, Stephanie found herself whipping back around, focusing on Mr. Fox. If there was anyone that had the answer…
"Oh, just his daughter going out to lunch with him," Mr. Fox answered. "So how about I help Tammy here with your tour? I believe there is a lot you can learn today."
Daughter? Batgirl was Bruce Wayne's daughter?! Some unsettling thoughts were forming in Stephanie's head. A quick glance to Harper told her the blue-haired girl was having similar thoughts.
Whatever happened on this tour, it would pale in comparison to this random sighting. Wayne Enterprises just got dull, which should have been impossible.
Stephanie was the first to admit there were far better detectives out there. However, she felt an intense urge to do more digging. She had a piece of a puzzle that no one else had.
If Batgirl was the daughter of Bruce Wayne, did that make…?
To Guest: Who knows? I rather doubt it since it took a show of distrust for Huntress to leave the first time. She's just being salty at the moment.
