15 Years Later
"…..and this sexy gal is Raven Branwen, otherwise known as Shinobu!" Lisa rattled on excitedly, barging into Raven's room completely unannounced and dragging the bug cape along with her, disrupting Raven's workout. "We previously thought the casino heist was going to be a cinch, not knowing it belonged to Lung of all people, so Raven decided to sit that one out in favor of finding a discrete place to forge her weapons, and before you ask no…. she's not a tinker. Raven just has a sword fetish and refuses to use, and I quote 'cheap metal toothpicks that can't even slice bread'."
"W-What!" Taylor sputtered in disbelief, gapping in awe at the sight in front of her.
Raven was currently doing pushups while in a handstand position, and if that wasn't extreme enough for you, she also had a giant barbell containing a ridiculous amount of weights balanced perfectly still on her bare feet, a feat no normal person could ever hope to accomplish.
"…..go away." Raven grunted in an irritated tone, sweat dripping down like a leaky faucet into a puddle on the rubber matt, "893….894," Raven grit her teeth, struggling to continue with her intense workout, Tattletale's presence having shattered the previous momentum she had painstakingly built up.
Taylor made to leave but was stopped.
"This lucky birdy struck the power jackpot!" Lisa explained, completely disregarding Raven's request and draping her arm over Taylor's shoulder. "Basically, she can use some sort of energy to do a variety of cool things. Things like creating a portal to teleport places, walking on thin air, coating both her body and weapons in it to enhance its power and overall durability, it also acts as an invisible shield that protects against physical attacks and apparently makes her immune to my powers," Lisa pretended to pout, but they could clearly see a smile threatening to break out. "Last and most ironically the ability to transform into a cute little raven."
"Tch." Raven clicked her teeth in anger, it's been a year since she joined this ragtag group of thieves and Lisa still found ways to get under her skin.
With the acquisition of the original Raven's memories becoming a hero was made practically impossible for the reincarnated soul. Unfortunately, those memories weren't limited to just combat knowledge like Rayleigh's was, but nearly her entire goddamn life! Everything from her crappy childhood days to becoming the leader of a tribe of bandits, the experience of reliving those memories greatly influenced her new life, essentially molding the soul into a Raven 2.0 with slightly better morals.
Sadly, this life wasn't a walk in the park either.
If being passed around from foster home to foster home wasn't shitty enough, Raven had the unfortunate pleasure of being outed as a cape…. well sort of. They don't know of her villain alter-ego as Shinobu…. but apparently red eyes aren't exactly in the norm when it comes to eye colors in this world. Sure, telling people that they were colored contacts worked most of the time, however there were some people who never bought the lie, opting to keep a close eye on her in hopes of catching her doing something out of the ordinary.
Fortunately, the unwritten rules came in to play and prevented those people from openly calling her out on it. Not specifically for her benefit of course but to save their own hide. Outing a cape is practically a death sentence, be it a hero or villain the cape community will come crashing down on them.
But that did nothing to stop some of the bigger idots at her old school from asking.
They would be trying to be all secretive about it and fail miserably, slipping notes into her locker or even being so bold as to pull her to the side and beg to be the Alfred to her Batman…. heck, there was even this one wierdo who stalked her for an entire week…. though it could be for an entirely different reason which Raven doesn't want to think about.
It took a considerate amount of willpower to not strangle the brat.
Multiple complaints and a threat of getting the police involved later the matter was promptly solved. Within a couple of days, the kids' parents came kneeling to Raven, begging for her to not press charges in exchange for transferring the boy to another school, along with a huge wad of cash to close a lid on this matter.
Raven not wanting too much attention on herself took the money.
Then there was also a problem with the ABB actively trying to recruit her, identifying Raven as an Asian based on appearance alone. Raven obviously refused to join those flunkies but was later forcibly recruited into the Undersiders by their ever-mysterious boss.
That bastard liked to play dirty and had two of his minions legally adopt her.
Going to the heroes was never an option as they required solid evidence of foul play, and by how professional the fake married couple acted their records were probably squeaky clean. Raven knew it was an uphill battle and caved in, deeming to bow her head in shame for time being and planned to get back at that sneaky asshole once an opportunity presented itself.
"Fuck!"
Raven cursed in frustration, wobbling unsteadily for a bit before pushing off the ground and thrusting the weights up high in the air with them almost crashing into the ceiling. Doing a quick front flip to get on her feet Raven caught the barbell midair, then lowered it gently onto the floor.
"…. What do you want Lisa!" Raven growled out bitterly, her mood ruined by not meeting her set quota. Grabbing a bottle of water and chugging the whole thing within a few seconds.
Smiled cheekily Lisa turned to Taylor
"Don't let that bitchy attitude of hers fool you…. Rav's a total sweetheart on the inside, she just has trouble expressing her emotions properly!" She declared with a mischievous grin, making Raven's eye's snap over in a venomous glare, causing Taylor to instinctively step back in fear from the sheer intensity of it.
In response Lisa clasped a finger over her nose dramatically.
"Ewe…. you reek like rotten eggs! Go take a quick shower and meet us in the living room in 5 minutes, we're going out to celebrate our little bug here joining the crew!"
Lisa pushed a grumbling Raven into the bathroom and slammed the door.
Taylor could only gap in shock.
"W-"
"Raven is sandbagging her abilities" Lisa stated smugly, answering Taylor's unasked question. "We can't show off too much firepower or risk the PTR cracking down on our heads. Right now, they see the Undersiders as a minor nuisance in the grand scheme of things, mainly focusing their resources on the noticeably bigger threats like the ABB or Empire 88." She explained, dragging a stunned Taylor to the living room where Brian and Alec were watching tv. "As far as the heroes are concerned Raven is just a class-2 brute."
The group went on to explain all the pros and cons of being an Undersider to the skeptical bug cape, Lisa laying it on extra thick how much better it was to be a criminal instead of a stuck-up hero or a normie.
Everything was going on swimmingly until Bitch came in the room and sicked a dog on her, injuring Taylor and making her stomp out of there in a fit of anger despite their desperate protest.
When Raven learned of this, she could only facepalm at the sheer stupidity of the situation.
I mean seriously, what kind of poor excuse of a villain organization gives an outsider a tour of their main base of operation and exposing their secret identities to them without any sort of collateral or blackmail to fall back on…. its only common sense. Then to her further disappointment, neither Brian nor Lisa felt the need to warn the bug girl about Bitch's mental problems until after she was attacked! Now there's someone out there who hates our guts and has the information needed to destroy our civilian lives.
Fantastic!