Location: A.N.I school. sector 7, tower 31.

“Who can tell me what the problem on the board indicates?” the teacher requests.

“Ah yes, Nikita,” the teacher looks at a student with a raised hand.

“XY cubed – with 7x squared variable,” a lightly toned voice spoke- it belonged to girl with dark brown eyes, and light brown hair. While her appearance was well kept- beautiful straight hair – it was otherwise somewhat basic, and would have appeared plain had her beauty not been what it was. She wore a singular bracelet on her left wrist on an otherwise simple uniform.

“Oh right- i put down the wrong answer, actually…. you’re right. haha, good job.”

“Oh man, she’s smarter than the teacher…” one of the boys said. They would’ve called her a brainiac or another name, but she was too mild mannered and pretty to be teased. Instead they would try their best to impress her by studying themself.

---

Nikita {Jess} got her food and sat at a table alongside another girl, Crissa.

"Hey Cris,"

"Hey Niki," Cris responded playfully, as befitted her persona. Crissa had been the first one to appraoch Jess when she arrived three months ago. Initially Jess had thought that Crissa would be a good cover, but surprisingly- she hadn't given Crissa enough credit.

"I heard that you're joining in the party tonight..."

Jess smiled politely- to others they wouldn't have pushed more, but Crissa wasn't others.

"it's just for work," Jess replied.

"You know parties are a great way to meet people," Crissa hinted while pointing a fork at her.

"I'm not interested..." Jess brushed off the idea with a slight wave of her fingers.

"Oh come on," Crissa spoke, "there's definitely gotta be someone.." and took a bite.

Jess paused for only a second in thought about a boy she'd known. The moment wasn't lost on Cris who sat back in victory.

"Aha!," she paused, "There is?"

To Jess - Cria was a worthy opponent.

"Uh... there may be a boy i knew from a while ago..."

"Aha," Cria spoke, "So... Niki really does likes a boy!"

"uh, he's just someone i knew when i was a kid."

"Childhood friends," Cria spoke looking up dreamily.

Jess couldn't hold in the smile... but she remained quiet and took another bite instead. This was why Cris was such a difficult cover. She had an uncanny ability to spot something amiss.

---

Jess bantered as she walked among the halls alongside Crissa, and a couple other girls.

"Watch out..." One of the girls spoke guiding Jess to avoid someone in the middle of the hallway.

A younger man- with more ragged appearance and slightly disheveled dropped some things on the ground. Those surrounding him looked on with disgust.

"Dont touch him, you might catch his *Zeth disease..."

Another girl chuckled but Jess ignored them and knelt down to help the young man.

"Eww," the two girls moved ahead, leaving Crissa and Jess behind.

"Oh, thanks..." the young man looked up hastily as he noticed her helping him pick up his things.

"You're welcome..." Jess spoke with slightly angered, "Don't let them phase you..."

"Ah haha, they're right though... i'm just low rank..."

Jess frowned as he picked his things while looking down and turning around to walk away. Such was the life of the lower ranks within the tower.

"Hey," she spoke before he walked away, "status isn't everything."

He scratched his head, "Egh..."

After a second she realized how dumb that probably sounded- as if she were mocking him while he felt the effects of his status and she recieved the benefits of her own.

He just gave a shakey, "haha," in reply- but before leaving he gave his name, "I'm Dan." and then rushed off.

It seems Crissa wasn't interested much in the exchange and seemed to simply just be waiting for Jess without any sign of something happening.

Crissa looked at Jess and spoke playfully, "You know... if you associate with commoners it'll grant you less opportunity for advancement."

Jess glared daggers at Crissa in response.

"Hey now- i was just letting you know. I didn't mean anything by it," she raised in hands to show surrender.

Jess studied at her for a moment then decided to let it go and the two walked on.

"But i guess that's part of your charm..." Crissa said dreamily.

Jess relaxed a bit, "Stop it.. haha."

---

School closed out and Jess gave a wave to her friend before catching the transit line. Memorizing the bus system was difficult at first- but soon turned into an advantage - as public transport was a necessity.

She got on board of a mag-lev to the main *drop zone*. She flashed her student badge to the security to which the man nodded. She then ran it through a scanner bot which granted her passage to the lower floor and her living district.

---

A man in a cloak looked through a lens toward his target. It was an exact match of Jess Sozo.

"So that's her," the man spoke as he looked at the holographic profile that emmited out of his wristwatch.

Of course she was listed under an alias- Nikita Famwell. Had it not been for the intelligence- she would have fit in quite nicely amidst the masses. But she was in fact his target. After spotting her- he disappeared into the

--

Vincent and Tech arrived at the base of the tower system. From here -passage would get more difficult- and now would be the only chance to communicate before the mission.

Vincent sent a *CC* across an encrypted channel to Jess.

The link would be sub-visual -using the face of an avatar in place of actual faces. They would also be using codenames and voice alterations. His avatar was a lizard with a cowboy hat and a red bandana. The voices would have slight alterations for security purposes.

Her avatar appeared- a silver bipedal cat.

He spoke a passphrase,

"My, the city sure has changed."

"Ah, but the owls are still around..."

Tech whispered to Vincent on the side- "Wait... what owls?"

-

Having confirmed identities- Vincent looked to Tech for a moment inquisitively.

Tech looked for a moment at a personal computer he was holding, "Yeah, go for it."

Vincent then dropped his avatar and revealed his true face.

"Heya Je-..." he paused a moment, "...River."

Her cat avatar looked at Vincent inquisitively "You're not using your avatar?"

"Tech is with me..."

"Oh, just a minute..." her avatar changed into her real image.

For the first time in a year he got to see her face.

Vincent got a look at her. light brunette hair- hazel eyes- accented by her attire and very slight touches of makeup. It was a classical beauty and she was stunning...

"Wow," Tech spoke from the side of the CC link.

Vincent knew exactly what Tech meant. It had been months since he'd last seen her.

"Hey... Royal Black," Jess paused, wanting to say his real hame for a minute.

Vincent knew exactly what she felt, "Hey...River."

-

Jess looked down at her dress., "well...what do you think?" Jess said apprehensively. It seemed she wasn't very confident in her clothing.

"You look..." Vincent said, "... amazing..."

Her eyebow raised a moment.

She sighed out relief asked, "i just can't wait to get out of this..."

Tech spoke from the edge, "You look great River."

"Haha," Vincent laughed, "

--

"Wow," Tech spoke from the side of the CC link.

Vincent knew exactly what Tech meant. It had been two years since he last saw her.

"Hey... Royal Black," Jess paused, wanting to say his real hame for a mintue.

Vincent knew exactly what she felt, "Hey...River."

“I can’t wait to get out of this,” Jess spoke referencing the dress she had to wear.

“You look... good,” Vincent returned.

Jess blushed: however, she would have been a lot more comfortable in more casual clothes.

“So is this the kind of girl that you're into then?"

“Uh…” he wasn’t sure how to respond to that, “I don’t think it’s.... that.”

Jess raised an eye for a moment, but he didn't say anything further about it. rather he went back to business. In fact this wasn't supposed to be a liesurely call, but one to sort out any problems or details before the mission.

"It's a big mission- you're ready?" Vincent challenged.

While Jess knew that other people challegned her youth she knew better about it than Vincent. For him it was more of competitive question. Jess' similarly competitive nature was sparked, "of course. are you?"

"psh," Vincent gave her a smile.

Tech coughed and Vincent looked in his direction. He turned to Jess on the CC again.

With a tilt of his head and a shrug, "i'll see you soon then."

"See you soon," Jess spoke picking up on the signal.

"Fox-fire out."

"River out."

Tech looked at his watch. The conversation was supposed to have lasted under a minute, but instead they'd spent two... it wasn't an issue normally- but had the message been intercepted- it would have been trouble for both parties.

"Eh hem..." Tech spoke.

Vincent decided to ignore him altogether. Tech's real name was Jacks- but he'd earned the nickname Tech by his expertise in electronics and other stuff. Eventually- he was picked up by Sx3 for his skills. He was a prodigy. Vincent knew that Tech wouldn't have let the line get intercepted.

At the bottom of the tower- where they stood, it was cold and dark... wind blew through remants of an ancient city. At one point this area was known as New York City, now it was simply -sector 7. The tower stretched way behind the among the broken down buildings surrounding them... eyes peered through some broken glass. It was nothing that Vincent and Tech paid mind to. The outcasts of the city lived here. Tech was once pulled out of one of these buildings.

Stretching far above them and far above the relics of an ancient city- each cylinder stretched a mile across and two miles high. The towers were originally developed with one floor. As commerce advanced so did its height. Eventually it capped off at 12 floors plus a top cylinder half sphere covering the top.

Entering was the easy part. Gates covered different sections. The top allowed for air travel. Walkways crossed between different towers. Passing through the bottom gate- trains. With as much commerce as there was, it wasn’t too hard to get in.

The hard part would come later. Blending in, checkpoints, the actual mission, and leaving. For this- Vincent didn't need assistance by Tech- this was his natural affinity- but after arriving at the top floor of the tower with the Elites - intercepting and accessing the party would take Tech's expertise.

The top of the tower was vastly different then the inside of it. The top of the towers had access to the outside and natural light from the sun. More extravagant buildings for the Elites stood here, and the community was well kept, just like any othe rich neighborhood. Closer to the middle and bottom- the housing was much smaller- cramped- the only view of the outside was a wall that projected images of what earth supposedly looked like at the time. It wasn't the same.

Because of the living standards and freedom that came with being Elite- many people desired the position at the top- For this reason, the education system was competitive. With such an adamant focus on competition within the schools- the economy thrived and developed quickly.The main restructure of the 'old world' was the need for a stable economy. In that regard, the Allies succeeded.

However, there were 'debilitating aspects'.

--

Mark looked at the time on his wristband- It was approaching five... He and the president of the North American sector of ANI would be starting their negotiations soon.

For more than one reason- their conversations were kept private.

As directed by the liaison Mark Sohzo approached a safe grounds for meeting. He looked around- with all the safety measures in place- he wondered how it would happen.

He wasn't naive. He knew that this meeting was a death sentence, but his hands were tied. The only thing he could do is enact certain protocols after his death.

--

Jess walked up to Ricks Gethran in front of his large mansion. He was the diplomat she was responsible for informing throughout the function of the event. He was an older gentleman, around before the development of the towers, probably mid seventy. He was responsible for diplomatic relations with other Cities. It was an important position and he was well respected by those he was in contact with.

“Hello Nikita,” He spoke as he met her. “My, do you look lovely. I do think I will be the most envied old person at the event.”

Jess smiled, “How are you sir?”

“This will be a large party won’t it Nikita.”

“Yes sir,” she took on her more formal tone, “there will be many guests.”

“I hate crowds,” He frowned, he paused for a moment then direct his attention said politely but commanding, “I expect you to handle the people for me if you can.”

“Of course sir,” she replied.

Everyone at parties had their own agenda. Rick was one of the few without one.

“Well, let’s get going, Nikita,” he said as he entered into the taxi prepared to fly them.

Jess entered in alongside the diplomat. Jess’s cover was the daughter of an undercover family in the Allies’ system. She posed as an on-call aide to the diplomat. Between twenty and thirty, the position of allied youths would be to follow a mentor during the times they weren’t at school or partying. To work for a diplomat required a relatively clean and knowledgeable background.

Jess would work tirelessly to maintain tabs on all that she could in the diplomatic aspects as well as Underground. She learned most of it from her father, who had trained her to be knowledgeable of politics as he wanted her to be a representative of the towns; she was well versed in multiple languages and dialects and could fake a lot of different identities. She had a unique skillset, but was generally shy. Rick was a good match as far as diplomats were concerned for her cover.

They flew off into the darkness towards the top of the hemisphere where the event would be. From the top you could actually see the moon and stars, compared to the depths which hid them in the city that stretched above it. Even at the top of all the sections, there were massive buildings that hid the sky underneath the layers of Elites housing and the schools and police and government bodies that occupied it.

-

Vincent had the hard part. As the main operative, he would have to enter the opening that Jess hopefully had time to reach: undetected by people and sensors and guards. After he got in he would change to match the party, get past security and into the main room which only the leading elite who monitored the trains had access to, install the device and escape without the detection of the elites. If he got caught they would most likely scan the premises and find the scanner as well as trace the source. The mission was crucial to intelligence for second strike and that’s why he was chosen.

Vincent sat in the back seat, looking out the window. As the Flier went stealth and flew up the city sectors he got a look. The city was always night, lighted synthetically. Each sector held dark alleyways and flashy lights in their own area. The buildings were all assorted apartments. They reached the top dropped Vincent off as close to the building as possible then they went to their own stations. Tech installed the re-router.

--

As they entered the party, Jess slowly introduced all the people that would shake hands with Rick Garten; eventually they got a spot on the side and Jess told him she’d go to use the restroom. Something looked different than expected. She noticed guards watching the premises but they seemed ready for something. She needed to tell Vincent.

As she headed down to the restroom area, she broke apart once she was out of view and took out her de-sensors and placed them on the glass of the building wall.

She had it timed that Vincent would be able to enter just about thirty seconds later.

--

Vincent climbed through the window- a change of clothes had showed Vincent in a dapper looking uniform fitted to those Elite youths. Jess looked at him for a quiet moment before getting back to the task at hand.

“Hey Vincent, I think something’s wrong.”

“I noticed there was extra security- I’ll take a look from the inside.”

"I need to go back," she replied. Vincent nodded. The difficulty with the mission was the need to maintain presence with her Elite 'master'. She moved back to the room leaving him there to take care of what he needed.

He walked slowly behind, following the premises, getting a scope of what was at the mansion.

--

Vincent scanned the area, he took different positions posing as a partygoer. Most of the diplomat’s children attended the parties and were the most active individuals, usually dancing and trying to find ways to meet up with other youths. Vincent noticed extra security as well as the sensors that seemed to be scouring the area. 'Nikita' was aiding her diplomat with information on the party and other people inside, Vincent went up to Jess while she was talking with Ricks.

“Excuse me sir,” Vincent spoke to the diplomat, “May I have the honor of asking your aide to a dance?”

“Certainly” Rick replied,” It’s very rare to see a young person with such respect nowadays.”

Vincent went up to Jess, “May I have the honor of this dance?”

Jess smiled, trying to play it off, she pretended not to want to as much, “Well, sure I guess. Maybe just a dance, I’m kind of busy at the moment.”

“Ah, go take two,” Rick replied.

They started dancing; Jess was smiling. His footwork was actually good, and suddenly they became the center of the floor.

He whispered in her ear, “We might need to adjust our approach.”

After another few steps, he continued, “You were right; the security is all different than planned for.”

“Should we regroup?”

“No, I have a plan. It involves a distraction and i’ll give you this to take care of.” It was the identity chip that scanned as the leader’s hand and the bug that would track the whereabouts of the Elite’s action."

She took it from him.

“When do you want me to do this?”

“As soon as you get the signal”

“And what’s the signal?”

“When the building next to this has an accident- you’ll hear it.”

As the dance ended he leaned her back and kissed her on the hand.

“Thank you for the dance, ma’am”

She curtsied and went back to Rick.

“What was a polite young man,” Rick replied.

Jess watched as he walked away into the crowd of people.

"how is it, dating nowadays?" Rick asked.

"i don't know... i don't do it," she replied

"but for him, you'd make an exception?"

"yep. i would," she replied assuredly.

"Hm i see..."

She led Rick around, meeting up and introducing him with different diplomats. Suddenly- a large explosion sounded and shook the building.

She watched the guards move off in a hurried direction towards the exit. As she guided Rick to safety, she pretended to get split up from him in the crowd. She moved quickly in the direction of the main offices.

--

Vincent walked away from Jess and into the crowd. He spoke on the com to Tech, “Is the device functional?”

“Yes it’s in operation, just need you to give the ok. “

“As soon as you hear the explosion, start it up.”

“Is that part of the plan?”

“It is now,” Vincent spoke.

Vincent escaped back out the window and onto the speeder he'd detached from the main vehicle to get there. He tried to maintain stealth as he flew next door in the office building. Supposedly from what he’d read on the on board computer files with the layout of the premises this one would be empty.

He pulled out a couple time bombs from the carriage portion of the stealth 'bird' . There wouldn’t be anyone there between these hours and it would give him time to cause a scene and get them to follow him and Jess a way into the main office without notice.

“Where do you want me?” Tech spoke.

“It would be best if you were outside suspicion, I’ll meet you a little more south of the main tower. How about level five at this location,” He gave him a location to meet.

“Good.” He got on his speeder and got away from the initial location of the bombing and in plain sight of the guards surrounding the main building.

“Hey you!” he shouted at some guards stationed outside of the premises.

“Long live the revolution!” he said and the bombs went off. He took his speeder and few out from the floor.

--

The mission complete, Jess went to find Rick. She spotted him amongst the partygoers looking pale from the activity.

“Sir, are you alright?”

“Yes Nikita. Thank God you found me.”

That was new for her. She didn’t know any Allies even knew about 'God'. Perhaps it was an expression.

As she consoled a few of the people around and told them that things were fine, she overheard a conversation by the guards that were involved.

“It seems whoever it was outran about fifteen guards on a speeder and got away,” he spoke.

“I heard it was one of those Underground terrorists.”

“It’s just scare tactics. They’re trying to install fear, but they know they can’t get anywhere close to the action.”

“Yeah,” the other guard spoke, “but we were warned there would be something going down. Good thing too...”

--

After the mission- Vincent had gotten back to 'outpost' outside the 'city' where upon arrival had little time for relaxing.

Vincent relayed the events of the mission along with the details in different security and his change of procedure- via a holo link-up.

In front him in holographic form stood the 'Council' of the Underground, All the major heads were there including the current leader Ragu.

“You did what!?” said the new leader, Ragu, of the underground.

“Well it worked,” Vincent said.

Rage seemed to turn red at the response. “I’m tired of your lack of consideration- it weighs on the point of insubordination,” he seemed like he was about to recommend his execution with the tone he had; even though execution wasn’t a proper course of action.

“It’s seems like a logical change of plans sir,” someone responded.

Vincent listened a little tired- something about him risking compromising one of their highest assets and daughter, and 'irresponsible', 'reckless' while he was just pooped out and only stood there; outrunning the group of Allied security had taken a toll.

"As of this moment, you're-" Rayga Martinez stated.

Another leader spoke up, “We aren’t an oppressive government or even a military. We have to expect that things won’t always go the way we want but the objective gets met with Vincent. We need him. We’re not able to suspend him indefinitely.”

“Point taken,” Ragu said somewhat darkly. It was pretty obvious that he liked the power and being countered by someone 'beneath him' frustrated him deeply, “We’ll put him on temporary suspension."

Vincent was dismissed and left respectfully, which is to say for Vincent, disinterested. Despite things going badly in front of the council and him losing some privileges in the UG, Vincent now had the time and excuse to keep tabs on Ragu- so it worked out in the long run.

Overall, he was happy. Things went well, despite the seemingly negative reprocussions of the mission update status. Jess was due back any time and when she got back he wanted to get some ice-cream and celebrate.

---

She must have been on edge herself. From her side of the update, she'd have to relay the details of information gathering itself as well as a status update- however, after a little while in the holo-room, she had left it and gone to her room.

He made up his mind. He was going to ask her out.

Vincent walked down the corridor leading up to Jess’s quarters. He felt happy and he was going to do something with Jess.

He knocked on the door.

He heard scuffling as Jess opened up the door and greeted him, “Hey Vincent," she adjusted her hair, "How’d it go?”

“Oh you know; I got temporarily suspended from missions and was assigned cleaning duty.”

“What??” Jess closed the door behind her as they talked in the hall.

“No biggee. Now i get to spend more time here with you,” he smiled.

She smiled back , “That’s not even fair; they actually congratulated me for the work I did.”

Vincent smiled, “Well you are the commander’s daughter. Beside that you’re easy to like.”

Jess smiled, “Well, if they don’t like you, that’s their problems."

Vincent smiled, “Do you want to go out for ice cream?”

“Sure,” she said.

--

Jess got out of the room and closed the door behind her after a quick check in the mirror. She didn't generally worry about what people thought of her appearance, which could have come in the fact she didn't really have to.

She was excited but tried not to show too much energy. Jess had seen him like this a few times before, but he was almost a new person when he was like this. Either way she like who he was regardless.

They walked their way to the cafeteria in the underground. There was a little section with deserts and assorted things that only cost a little of the underground currency. Vincent and Jess both had a lot. They could make their own ice cream. He got vanilla and she got chocolate.

Jess smiled in his direction. It had been a while since she got to be with him. She wondered if it would always be like this. Upon his attitude, she knew that he'd treated the Allies that he'd killed with respect. He closed their eyes after killing them. Deep down he was actually a good person even if he didn't think so himself.

Vincent looked at her.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she responded.

They started taking a walk looping around the Underground.

--

Vincent asked her about her future, wondering what she had in store, “So, when all this over, what are you going to do?"

“I don't know. I think I’m going to go to an independent nation and maybe help the country develop into something better.”

“That’s cool..." she had lofty dreams, while he didn't have any besides his revenge, "you have big dreams. I like that.”

“So, how about you, Mr. stands alone. Anything in particular?"

“Uh,” Vincent didn’t know how to take the remark, “I’ve thought about it enough not to know. I guess I like to write..." she didn't know his plan of revenge. He gave a little thought and then replied, "Maybe I should just join you in what you’re going to do. It sounds more interesting and maybe I can work with people there.”

“Maybe you should,” Jess gave him a sheepish smile.

Vincent grinned but then a thought troubled him. How am I going to tell her about her father?

“Hey Jess…”

“What’s up?”

“Err it’s about your dad…”

Before he had a chance to tell her, a couple recruits rushed by.

“-I'll tell you later."

“There’s an emergency down in the hanger,” they said to Vincent and Jess.

Vincent regretted not telling her however that changed quickly as they rushed to see what the bustle was. As they got there they saw the medical staff taking in Jadiva Aria and someone they didn’t recognize. Something seemed wrong, the person was passed out from something and they were monitoring his vitals. They too seemed a little tired.

A speeder and a grounder were lying next to the group.

“We were on our way back from recruiting new people from a village when suddenly…” Jason said.

--

"Target in sight..." a small breath escaped and the faint breath rose in the cold weather. The distance was perhaps three miles.

Even the protection of this meeting couldn't keep an eye from this distance. After all- it would be an impossible shot.

Or it would have been...

Except for the advance in technology. Smart bullets, had the ability to curve using a BMI connection to the shooter. Which wouldn't have changed much- as humans can't percieve all the details that come through in that little time. Unless it's an augmented human. Details of the terrain showed numbers and coordinates, the heartrate could be slowed, the brain waves enhanced, the body mechanized. Raven was such an 'augmented human'.

"Shot authorized."

and with that- a gun fired.

---