NEW YORK CITY- East Village in Manhattan
Autumn
One year, two months, one week, and four days later…
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People who had known her about a year ago would have to take a second glance to recognize her now. She wasn’t the same old Rachael , a.k.a. the “Falcon”, that she used to be. And it wasn’t just that her hair was dyed a lackluster black, that she wore amethyst contact lenses, or that she was paler than before. No, it went further than that. It was her thinned out frame that was without the toned and healthy build it once had, the tired and baggy eyes that had replaced the playfulness and hope that had once been there with a sad numbness(making the brilliantly colored contacts seem oddly out of place), the once expressive face was now almost completely stoical. She kept her head down to avoid being noticed, playing it off as if she was just a shy soul. It seemed like she was someone else entirely and, for the most part, she was.

Instead of “Rachael”, the nametag on her worn-out red waitress dress/uniform stated that she was “Sophia”. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight bun and heavy bangs skimmed along her eyebrows. Her clean face was without any makeup, save for some cheap chap stick for her red and weather irritated lips, and today she seemed to be wearing a look of permanent boredom. She was working on one special case at the moment and she hadn't been able to find a single lead for two or three weeks now, so things had become quiet in her world. Anytime she would find something that seemed useful, it just lead to a dead end.

Rachael started taking off the beige jacket that she wore over her uniform as she entered the ’Moon Walk Diner.’ She looked up briefly as her well trained eyes scanned the place out of habit. She made her way behind the diner’s counter past a large, gruff middle-aged man at the register who wore an apron and a nametag that said “Bill”.

“Your late, Sophie .” Bill grunted, not even bothering to look her way as she walked past him. “You haven’t been late once since you’ve worked here.”

“There was an electrical shortage in my apartment building last night.” She went through a swinging door behind the counter that went to the back room and came out a few seconds later, tying an apron on. “My alarm clock didn’t go off this morning and I accidentally overslept.” She stretched her hands and smoothed out the front of the apron, proceeding to pull out a small notepad from it’s pocket.

Bill now turned to look at the young girl, inquisitively. His heavy-set jaw and thick mustache twitched slightly and his brows furrowed together in thought and in concern. After a moment, he turned back to the counter and opened the cash register. “Just don’t let it happen again.” He took out a small stack of bills and pulled out two or three twenties. “And here. Pay your utility bill and get your electricity turned back on. This ain’t charity though, it’s comin’ out of your next paycheck.” He handed the money to her and she accepted it. Her expression unchanging, she uttered a soft “thank you” and put it in a pocket inside of her uniform before going off to wait the tables.

She saw the top of a dark brown/black haired head over one of the tall booths in the back and started her way over to see if whoever it was was ready to order. “Good morning. My name is Sophia and I’ll be your waitress. Today’s pie is lemon and we have a special on our breakfast sampler. Order any extra side for fifty cents. Now, what can I get for you.” She didn’t even bother to bring her eyes up although she gave a small smile for manners sake. She just pulled a pencil out from behind her ear and held it to the note pad as she waited for them to order.


There was an odd silence and she looked up. “Is everything alright. Do you need more time to…” Her words trailed off quickly and she froze as she looked at the familiar face.

“…Rachael?”

Adam hadn't been certain why he'd decided to go in this resturaunt on his way back from a stake-out. He'd been looking in on a drug pusher, hoping to figure out where he was getting his supply from, but so far the whole thing had been an exorcise in futility, he'd given up a few hours ago when his target had left and started back to the dojo and his home.

Or...that was the plan until his stomach began growling, and so, with minor reluctance he picked the first open diner he passed having already removed his uniform to go back to normal clothes.

He'd been studying the menu in front of him for a few minutes when he heard a voice speaking too him, and for the sake of manners had raised his drooping eyes to hers and had to blink several times.

She looked different, yes, but then again, a year was a long time. Her voice however, had been harder to alter...or maybe disguise? That was his clue. Bone structure too, is hard to hide.

It seemed unlikely, but he still ventured to guess...if not...well...it would only be somewhat embarrassing.

"Rachel?" He hazarded, sweeping his eyes over her one more time, ignoring the nametag 'Sophia', after all, bats had a LOT of extra identities, and he'd even employed the name 'Miles Crawford' on a few occasions. "Is that you?" He had to resist adding 'Fearless leader' or 'bosslady' to the end of his question...just in case...

Still, he was almost certain.

Rachael opened her mouth, but she was speechless. She hadn't seen anybody from that life--the "superhero" part of her life in awhile. She closed her mouth again, unable to think of what to say.

"Hey Soph', you alright?"Bill called out, leaning over the counter so as to peer back to where she and Adam were at.

"Everythings..."Rachael began to mutter. She craned her neck around a little towards his direction and responded loud enough for him to hear. "Everythings fine, Bill. I'm fine." But he didn't look to convinced. Still, he just as soon not meddle.

"Well hurry up. We've got other coustomers and this morning shift is already short-staffed.

She nodded and thumped her pencil on her note pad nervously. She finally turned back around and cleared her thoat. "If your not ready to order yet, I can come back in a few minutes." She said, looking him straight in the eye--partially trying to predict what he would do and partially trying to decide what she should do as well. God, sometimes she felt like she was just going crazy. She couldn't even hardly respond to a question from an old friend.

Adam still wasn't fully certain it was her, but why would she get all twitchy and nervous from the name 'Rachel' if it wasn't who he though?

This perked some of his earlier fatigue away as puzzle pieces began falling into his mind. Unfortunately, detective work was HER area. He just busted skulls.

"Well...ah...right now just something loaded with caffine please? And...if you have waffles, i'd LOVE a plate." He said, still seeming suspicious of the situation, but willing to play the 'average customer' rule.

"And maybe you could tell me what such an attractive young lady is doing in a place like this?" He asked, to most it sounded like idle flirtation, but to someone with an inside track it was obvious he meant he wanted to know what had happened to her.

"Just getting lost, I guess. Not like I have anything better to do."She wrote down his order with a polite smile pasted on her face as she regained some composer(sp? I'm too sleepy to use spell check :P). There was no sense in playing 'cover up' afterall. "Your order should be right out, Adam." And with that she went back towards the counter.

She leaned through the backroom door and told them his order before heading on to her next table.

About five or so minutes later she, she brought him a pot of coffee. She could play the game.

Adam seemed relieved when she used his name. He'd been right, so that was a good step, and meant he'd really worked up his ability to recognize others.

"Lost eh?" he asked as she returned with his order, he frowned at the coffee, he'd never been fond of the taste, and his eyes darted looking for sugar. "Well...maybe after your shift ends I can help you find your way home?" He offered to her.

"Sorry. Coffee is the only caffiene we have here, unless you want a soda. But even then the choices are limited." She grabbed a handful of creamers from her front pocket and put them on the table with the coffee pot.

She raised an eye brow as she cleaned a nearby table off. "Tch. I don't need a guardian angel, hon. I can 'find the way home' by myself." She eyed an elderly couple sitting in the next booth over. "But I have somewhere I have to stop by when my shift ends at twelve and your welcome to come along and keep me company, hm?" She put a few glasses and plastic baskets from the table on a bussing tray and set them to one side as she wiped the table clean. "Be right with you." She informed the elderly couple who sat waiting for service.

"I know better than most people that you don't need a guardian angel Fearless Leader." Adam said using his Young Justice nickname for her. "And, I think I can manage to keep myself awake until twelve for the sake of catching up with an old freind." He offered a slight wink before adding most of the packets of creamer to his coffe and taking a drink, trying to down it fast to avoid tasting it. "Though if you have Vault maybe you could let me get wired on that instead of coffee?"

Despite his best efforts he still made a face at the drink. "Oh...and do you have waffles?" He reiterated the question from his first order while glancing around for a clock to see the time.

"Don't have any Vaults here. The convienent store down the street should have it though...and don't call me that." She said with a serious look in his direction. "You waffles should be out in a minute, actually." A man from the back with a retro stlye paper bus boy cap left a tray on the counter for her before slipping back through the swinging door. "ah, there they are. Be right back."

She brought him his waffles and, and with only a few curteous word, headed off to her next table.

(Think we should fast forward to 12 pm?)

(Sure, some skippage might be good)

"Right..." Adam nodded, accepting his waffles gratefully. "I'll have to give you a new nickname then." He commented between forkfuls of the food.

Eventually of course, he did finish his meal, and left money on the table, plus a generous tip for 'Sophia' before commenting he'd be back soon and leaving for the store to get his caffine fix and a newspaper to last him until noon.

When noon rolled around, Rachael clocked out and changed in the Diner's bathroom into a pair of clothes that she usually kept in her work locker just in case she didn't feel like wearing her uniform back home to change before heading out again.

There was a pair of worn jeans that were ripped a little at the right knee and had two or three small paint stains here and there. At one time they had fit well, but now they were a little loose and she secured them with a black belt. She also wore a green rockband Tee Shirt and a pair of old sneakers. Her hair was down and came to about her shoulders and she wore a sinlge silver clamp on her left ear. It wasn't much, but it was enough.

Coming out of the bathroom, she first returned the duffle bag that had held the clothes(now w/ her uniform in it)to her locker in the back and then headed out towards where Adam was waiting for her near the diner door. "You ready?"

"Of course." Adam commented with a grin as he stood near the door frame and folded his newspaper. He reached into his pocket pulling out a second bottle of Vault before tossing it to the former...he had to rack his mind for a second, Robin was the Boy Wonder...so what did that make Falcon?

He decided to let that line of thought for for the moment before opening the door for her. "So, where exactly is it you're staying if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh uh...just a small place down on Avenue Q" She answered as she adjusted the shoulder strap of a small plain purse on her arm. Avenue Q wasn't really that great of a part of town. The crime wasn't any worse than it was anywhere else in the east village, but it was mostly alot of old run down buildings. It hadn't been gentrified and 'cleaned up' yet like Like Avenue A, B, C, and so forth had. "Can't really afford that much on a waitresses budget, though." She twisted the cap off of the Vault Adam had handed her and took a good gulp of it.

"So what have you been up to lately. " She asked as she tried to steer the conversation away from her.

"Eh, I spent a year globe trotting and training, met a nice young heroine in Tennessee, and managed some interesting, if unbelievable, adventures." He said with a grin. "I probably do count as one of the best martial artists on the planet at this point."

It wasn't hard to mistake the amount of pride he was taking in his improvements.

"Hell, I could go on all day about some of my crazier training exorcises, but you probably wouldn't believe me, and it'd probably bore you to tears. But ah...you look...different." He commented. "You cut your hair?"

She gave a small genuine smill. It brought her some comfort to know that at least someone had had a good year. And it felt good to see his enthusiasm. Even if she wanted nothing to do with the cape and costume thing ever again, it was still good to hear that it was going well for him.

"Yeah..." She tucked her hair back behind her ear with one hand and ducked her head down slightly. "It isn't great....I just needed a change though." Plus, the appearance changes make it easier to hide from a few certain someones. She thought to herself, but didn't say dare say aloud. It wasn't his problems

"Mmm, variety, spice of life and all that jazz." Adam commented, walking close enough to show they knew each other, but not close enough that someone watching would think they were an item. After all, wasn't she dating someone?

'Need to keep up with superhero gossip.' He thought wryly.

"So," He said, fumbling once more for a topic. "...Ah...what're your plans right now?" A safe topic, and, he realized, a good one. He'd fought some of the biggest baddasses in the cosmos with people like Falcon, but barely knew ANY of them he realized.

"I'm meeting up with someone at the life cafe. They supposedly knew someone I've been looking for. A ah, 'missing persons ' case." She shrugged her shoulders. "Right now it's the closest thing I have to a lead."
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
On a rooftop not to far away from Adam and Rachael, a dark figure hunched over near the ledge of the building, just out of sight. He watched carefully as the two headed out of the small diner and down the street. The dark figure narrowed his eyes and took a small photo of Rachael in her waitress uniform out of his black and blue glove sleeve. "Thats her. They're heading north."

"Well follow them" Came the low gruff reply over a com-link.

"Oh? Need any help? I mean yeah, I know that anything using detective method is your type of business, but I might still be helpful somehow. Like for backup." Adam comments.

"That's an area I REALLY need improvement on anyway, and who better to observe in action than one of the best detectives I know?" He asked, then paused. "Is it at ALL possible for two heroes to talk about something besides 'business'?" He added.

She shifted uncomfortably. "This is just street work, plain and simple. No costumes. It shouldn't come to blows. " She sighed and looked up at the clear sky before looking to see the approacing cafe. "And in the slightest possibility that it does, then the plan is to just get out of there a.s.a.p."

"Eh?" Adam asked, turning his full attention to her again. "So...who are you looking for? If it's no costumes, and no fighting, my only strength, can I at least ask who you're trying to find?"

Rachael hesitated for a moment, but finally decided it was ok. Reaching into the small purse she carried, she pulled out a picture and handed it to Shinobi. The picture was of a lean but muscular young man with sandy brown hair, brown eyes, and a mischiveous and fun-loving grin. He showed quite a resemblence to Rachael.

"Michael Simmons, age 28. An agent of A.P.E.S. who was sent here on assignment. He went missing about four months ago. I've been trying to find him for three months now. " She rubbed her neck. She hadn't let a single person in on her case yet. It was personal. "He's *echm* He's my older brother."

"Ah. Well, that's...a helluva situation." Adam managed lamely. "but from what you're saying it sounds like the trail is pretty cold. What kind of lead takes you from a government agency to a dingy diner?" He found himself asking. After all, finding one's sibling would be a nerve wracking experience, and to spend three months on it alone would frazzle anyone to near their breaking point.

"Can't imagine what i'd be trying to do if my sister went missing for that long..."

"It's...hard at times." she admitted painfully. "If he's dead...god, I don't think I could go through all of that again. This is better than the alternative."...and then the logical mask slipped back on.

"But no, I think he's hiding out somewhere. The body was never found. You know as well as I do that unless a body is found, than you can't be to sure that someones dead. Plus, I searched the apartment the government was putting him up in myself. "

She stopped as they approached the door of the Life Cafe. "When were younger, my brother used to hide his comic book collection from me under the wood floors of the house we used to live in in Florida." She popped her fingers one by one as she watched people walk in an out of the cafe. "His apartment had hard wood floors, so I tore some of them up where they sounded hollow underneath. It didn't take me long to find a box full of documents and profiles on various local gangsters and some super villians. There was also about half a dozen or so usb flash drives, but they're all encrypted. I haven't been able to figure the code key out yet....but I think my brother knew something was going to happen. But...even if he is dead, then I want to find his killer." she ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes momentarily in thought. " The guy I'm meeting is supposedly an expert in cryptology."

"Aww...what does 'supposedly' mean? I'm one of the best" A gangly looking twenty-something year old man with dark blond hair smiled as he approached the two. He had a laptop bag slung over his shoulder and a notebook or two stuffed with papers with him. "I'm guessing your Miss Weiss? You didn't tell me in your email that you were bringing someone with you. " He pushed his glasses up. "Did you bring the money?"

"Yeah. Lets talk about this inside though." Rachael said and opened the door since he obviously had his hands full.One of the best her butt. She hadknown the best and they could hack circles around this guy. But she didn't want their help now and hacking had never really been her thing, so she needed his assitance.

Her brow furrowed underneath her bangs as her eyes skimmed the nearby rooftops. She was starting to feel like she was being watched and, in her experience, it was a feeling that was usually right and not followed by anything good. As the other two walked in she followed peering over her shoulder once more before closing the door behind her.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Nightwing didn't stick around outside the building for long. The half-pint could handle herself just fine and even so it looked like she was with that Shinobi fellow.

After they had all went into the modest cafe, he headed back down the way he had come. "Everything seems fine. I'm heading back to her place though. See if I can find any sort of evidence on her brother's case files." He told the Bat on the other side of the com-link. Rachael's brother used to work as military intelligence before he became a field agent, so Nightwing had a good idea that any pertinent information he had would be on a external hard drive. Barbara had requested that he email copies of any data he could find so that she could decipher it. After he did that, he would get out of Rachael's place.

He felt a little uncomfortable about spying on someone who was like a kid-sister to him. But they were all a little worried about her and ,plus, all information pointed that Agent Simmons had been investigating something huge that involved some of the big crime lords of New York and Gotham. If so, it would be too huge for Rachael to handle by herself.

Adam nodded along with Rachel's explanation of the situation. Unable to think of any comforting words to provide his freind with, he simply let hert continue to express her concern while turning over some of the facts in his own mind.

"Well my visit kind of...sprung up on her." Adam admitted, having the decency to look sheepish. With his own total focus on the situation at hand, with Rachel and the encryption breaker, he didn't seem to notice anything amiss.

They sat down at a table in the corner or the restaurant that was covered in 'Life Magazine' and 'RENT' memorbilia. It was a cozy enough little place, although a little touristey. The crown that hung out there was mostly twenty-something art and film students and 'Rent-heads' as they called themselves.But the place wasn't to busy at the moment.

Rachael ordered a cup of minestrone soup and a glass of water as ...'Derek' she believed was his name, set up his laptop and pulled out a dvd-rom, layin it by his computer.

"Do you have any of the encrypted data you want decoded with you? I'd like to demonstrate what the program I created can do. "

Rachael handed him a small usb drive stick from her purse and he hooked it up to the laptop.

Derek gave a low whistle. "Man, who ever encoded this did a good job." He scrolled through one of the documents in the drive's folder. It looked like giberish to the common eye, although there were small patterns within the letters used.

"I notice you're complimenting the data you're trying to figure out." Adam commented idly, not sure if he should leave or not, but figuring he could assess from Rachel's comments if she wanted him too. "In my experience, that often means a large chance you can't figure out the coding."

"Oh trust me, I can figure it out. " Derek said a little arrogantly and narrowed his eyes at he scrolled through the data. "But that doesn't mean I don't admire good handy work." Rachael payed no mind to Shinobi for a moment, but kept her eyes on the computer.

He picked up the cd. "I could figure it out the old fashioned paper way, but that would take a few days...maybe a week. This program does the trick tho'. " He waved the disc around a bit and then put it in the laptops cd/dvd drive and opened up the program. In moments letter patters became highlighted on the screen and the computer scanned for possible word matches.

In about ten minures or so a copy of the document was made, only now Just one or two names and especially large words. "It mostly recognizes word patterns. Code-keys are a little harder to decipher. But at this stage that can be done by hand easily.

He read a few lines from the top of the document and looked confused. "What is this for, any?" He asked.

But Rachael quickly interupted "Nothing I feel like mentioning." She stated and reached over, closing both documents and taking the usb drive out of the computers port.

She put the USB stick back in the purse and pulled out a wallet. She took out two hundred dollars worth of folded over twenties and placed them in front of Derek. "This is the amount we agreed on, correct?"

"Well, uh, yeah. Thats it." Derek took the dvd-rom out of the drive and put it back in its case before handing it to her. what was her hurry.

"Good. It was a pleasure doing buisness with you. "Though if it really was, it didn't show in her voice. She didn't even bother to shake his hand as she stood up quickly. So much for lunch. She had a feeling like she needed to leave as she spotted someone at the bar that bode well for them if they didn't high tail it.

"We have to go." Rachael told Adam as she pushed her chair back in and threw her purse over her shoulder calmly.

"Well uh...keep up the good work..." Adam said quickly, as he followed Rachael to the door seeming confused by her change in demeanor as he let his eyes sweep the room they were in looking for anyone watching them a little TOO hard.