NOTE: After the Episode 'Betrothed.' However, not canon after that :P
"Hurry up, sludge monkeys! We gotta get outta here while we still have our loot!" Gizmo whined as his robotic back struggled to lift his tiny frame carrying the mountainous load of jewels.
"You know why we are here, Gizmo. None of these crappy stones are important," Mammoth grunted as he continued to dig through the piles of gems, "We are after one stone and one stone only." Even so, the little dude had a point; the silent alarm was long tripped. Soon they would be having company they were no particularly interested in keeping.
"I dunno, Mammoth," Jinx sighed happily, "I think any of these stones will do."
"Naw, witch girl," Mammoth replied, "It has to be-ah Ha!- this one!" Mammoth heroically lifted a powerfully bright red gem above his head in triumph.
"It's about time, Scumlicker," Gizmo smiled, "Let's get the crud outta here."
The trio moved with quickness to get out before the Titans arrived. The last thing they wished to face was a full police force and the resident goody-goody gang.
"Brother Blood is goin' ta be so proud of us!" Mammoth nearly squealed.
Suddenly, Jinx stopped running. "Uh, where's the gem?"
Mammoth looked at his now-empty hands, "Aw dookie..." He looked up and saw a figure flying away with their stone. "Get her!"
"It's okay," a voice reassured, "we can get all three of you at the same time."
"Robin..." Jinx snarled.
"Jinx."
"Really so haughty that you think you can take us all by yourself?" Suddenly she was knocked down by a burst of dark energy. Simultaneously, Gizmo and Mammoth were knocked down by two blasts from a very familiar sonic cannon.
"Oh, please. You should know the drill by now," Robin replied as Starfire appeared by his side. "Besides," he narrowed his eyes behind his mask, "you know I could."
Shakily, Mammoth stood. "Go get the gem! We can hold our own here!" He threw a punch at Cyborg.
Without waiting to be told twice, Jinx was out the ceiling window.
"Starfire! Follow her!" Robin belted out.
Starfire obliged and chased after the living hex. "I ask nicely for the final time!" Starfire called out to the girl running before her, "Cease and desist this pointless action!"
Jinx cracked a grin and stole a glance behind her, "Oh, now why would I do that, dearie? What could good offer me?" she pointed at a nearby sign, "It's not like all the good you have done has given you any good karma lately!"
The sign toppled and crushed the former alien princess beneath it.
"Sorry sweetie," Jinx cooed and blew a hex-kiss to the fallen hero, "Looks like you have run a string of bad luck." Then she continued after the flying figure wither her gem. "Get down here!" she demanded intensely. She jumped up and threw another hex toward the flyer; a hex she had never tried before.
At that that moment, the roof beneath her gave way due to the battle below. Mammoth's prone form was airborne for a good few seconds before plummeting to the roof. With a devastating crash, his body hit the roof. Jinx was surprised he didn't completely break through it. The building code's been upgraded. She thought to herself.
"Hey, Jinx." Mammoth said sheepishly as he struggled to stand. "Didja catch 'er?"
"Well I-"
"SNOTLICKER!" Gizmo's high-pitched squeal preceded him. Soon he was right there with Mammoth... attached to Cyborg's back.
"Would you get off'a mah back, you little midget?" Cyborg tried in vain to remove the leprechaun-sized genius from his back.
"I had no idea you had rocket feet!"
Mammoth rolled his eyes just as Raven approached carrying Robin in dark energy.
"Think you can hold them off a bit longer?" Jinx asked as she started to back away from the growing melee.
Mammoth grunted in response and rushed at Raven, tackling her.
"Raven!" Robin cried out, "throw me!"
Raven mustered all of her willpower to focus on throwing Robin at Jinx instead of getting the hairy and smelly behemoth off of her.
Robin felt himself being lifted from the black bubble and then felt himself being hurled through the air and spectacular speed. A little too fast! Can't you slow me down? he thought to his telepathic friend.
Raven frowned as she struggled to break free of Mammoth's grip, You take what you get, circus boy.
Robin sighed but understood Raven's situation required all of her concentration.
Up ahead of Robin, Jinx was making her way to where the flying figure had fallen. The hex she had thrown did exactly what she wanted; render the flying person grounded for a good long time. But the stupid Teen Twits had to mess everything up! she grumbled to herself, good thing that fall must have knocked this idiot out for awhile. As she approached, her theory was correct. The thief was just collecting her wits. "Blackfire." Jinx snarled.
The Tamaranian Exile weakly flashed her sultry grin. "Nice to see you again, Jinx."
"Cut the crap and give me what I stole!" Jinx lashed out at the roof and some of it toppled away. That's sure to give bird-boy back there some problems for awhile.
"Oh, now why would I do that?" Blackfire started her pouty routine as she propped herself on her elbows.
"Hand it over. That flirt crap you always pull doesn't work with me." Jinx reached her hand out for the red gem.
"It doesn't?" Blackfire asked again, this time pushing her chest forward.
"No. I don't roll that way." Jinx's other hand lit up with purple hex-energy, "Besides," she added with a glint of mischievousness in her eye, "Your sister's bigger."
Blackfire's pouty face instantly transformed into rage and she lunged forward only to be knocked back by a red and yellow blur. "Great, now it's a party." Blackfire spat as Robin stood over her.
"Hey! How'd you get over that gap?" Jinx readied her energy as she felt another fight coming on.
"You really don't know me or my team, do you?" Robin asked sarcastically as Starfire floated down to his side.
"Sister!" Starfire wasn't sure if she wanted to wrap her arms about her sister's body in an embrace or wrap her fingers around her sister's neck and wring it. Either way, she craved physical contact.
"Oh... ah haha..." Blackfire nervously laughed, "Sister... how, er, wonderful to see you again under much, ah, less threatening circumstances."
Starfire glared at her older sibling. "We have given you numerous chances at reform, sister dear, but you have scorned them all!" Starfire raised her hands and prepared her starbolts.
Instinctively, Robin readied his bird-a-rangs as Jinx readied her dark magic. With all the energy and strength still relatively sapped from her body, it was all Blackfire could do to raise one arm to cover her head. Suddenly a shadow dropped before her, separating her from the other three attackers.
Robin was wide-eyed and Starfire was just as shocked. Before them crouched Red-X.
"What are you doing here?" Robin snarled at his living mistake.
"I was in the neighborhood." was Red-X's only reply.
Jinx prepared a hex for the independent thief, "You eyein' my gem, 50 cent?" she called out threateningly.
Red-X made no response. He threw his arm down and there was a flash of red light followed by billows of smoke and then an explosion. As soon as the debris and smoke cleared, Red-X and Blackfire were gone.
Jinx looked at Robin and Starfire and they looked at her and began to advance. "He-hey.. now we didn't really steal anything, right?" she raised her hands in defense. "We left everything else and didn't get away with what we wanted... so why fight us, right?"
Robin was about to charge when Starfire stopped him. "It is approaching Christmas." she said simply.
Robin stopped in his tracks and thought to himself. Batman would still have no mercy upon the criminal scum in Gotham even on Christmas day. But I am not Batman. And that was a fact he loved. "Go on, get outta here before I change my mind," he said to Jinx with a slight smile.
Jinx, felt relieved and dashed off.
"Now perhaps on our way back to the others you may inform me on why my sister was so offended when Jinx told her that her chest was not as large as mine?"
From where she was standing, Jinx could nearly feel Robins blush and embarrassment. That's going to be one hell of a conversation, She snickered to herself.
Stories above the Titans and the fleeing Jinx, Blackfire was admiring her new gem. "Thanks for the save." She said off-hand to Red-X, "If you really want to go out with me, why don't you just ask? We really should stop meeting like this."
Red-X huffed and held out one hand. "The gem."
Blackfire's eyes widened and her lips turned pouty once more, "Aww, pwetty pwease wont you let a poor sinner keep what she has rightfuwy stowen?"
Red-X reached forward and wrenched the red gem from her grasp.
Blackfire flared her nostrils then sighed, "I'm never the real reason you show up, am I?"
"Business before please." the enigmatic thief responded.
"Oh, poo! How about you and I stir up the order a bit?"
"You're powers will return soon enough."
"Wha-?"
"That hex Jinx placed on you disrupted your powers. You're human for the time being."
"That little bitch!"Blackfire cursed. She turned back to Red-X only to see him disappearing in smoke again.
"Tonight just isn't your night, is it, Princess?" He held up the red gem and then vanished from sight.
Blackfire wasn't sure if she should feel helpless, angry, or turned on at the experience. She decided on anger and ripped a steel pipe from the framework of the roof. He's damned right... that was near impossible to rip out.
At the Titan Tower, Robin made a beeline for his room; for the vault. Red-X's appearance was unsettling at best. Not only had that thief completely upset Robin's philosophy on what makes a person a hero and what makes them a villain, but the fact that Red-X dared show his helmeted mug even near the Titans led Robin to believe that Red-X had a new belt and more xenothium.
"But that's impossible. I have the only belt capable of controlling the unstable element. Right?" He opened the safe, paranoid that the belt would be absent from its case. Upon inspection, Robin blew a sigh of relief, "Still there. Good. Even so... I should move it. Red-X was able to get in here before without the aide of the suit. Now with that suit... no doubt he will have even less trouble." Even without the xenothium power cell, the suit had dangerous and powerful equipment. After all, why would Robin make a suit that was completely dependent on one element?
He took the belt from the safe and thought about the best place to hide it. Somewhere no one would ever think to look.
Unbeknownst to Robin, Red-X was watching. He wasn't close to the tower, no. In fact, he was on the other side of town, but the security cameras at the Titan Tower were simple to hack. Not nearly enough encryption. He watched intently as Robin took the belt from the safe and moved it to the unexpected location of Beast Boy's room. Red-X nearly laughed. He had to give the Boy Wonder credit; he would have never looked there.
"Oh, boy..." Red-X chuckled. He had spent a good while putting his new suit together and the only parts missing were that belt and a single rod of xenothium. He looked behind himself and admired his handiwork: an entire laboratory and crime center outfitted with the latest tech, stolen of couse, and gadgets. He was damn sure Robin would be envious if he knew. It had been hard to find the equipment he needed to be able to operate as if he had the belt. Wrist-mounted grapple guns, smoke pellets, explosive discs, and red 'x' shaped shurikens were not exactly items you could pick up at the local mall. But it was all worth it. His surprise appearance to the Titans was enough to make Robin paranoid enough to move the belt. "And soon it shall be mine."
A/N: So, what did yo think? This is completely separate from my other Fan Fic about the Justice Lords, so don't look for any references. Love it Hate it? Let me know!