(Red X)
Walking to the edge of the roof, he positioned himself in a good angle and pressed the button on his belt. He flickered into the building across the street. Teleporting like that had always been a little disorienting, one part exhilarating, one part nauseating. He really should send a gift basket or something to that kid who made it one day; he had been taught him a lot about technology, but this suit was pure genius.

He walked down the dark corridor, not bothering with the invisibility function – the thing sapped away Xenothium almost as quickly as teleporting did. Not that it would be an issue for much longer; he was here to lift a supply of the red chemical that would last him for some time. The fact that a client wanted some research files from this lab, whose location he had divulged to Red X had been a stroke of luck.

He couldn't quite understand the logic of holding a lab that used Xenothium in the middle of a metropolis though. It was true that hiding in plain sight could be effective, but security here was far too lax. Not to mention, the danger working with such a chemical posed to the population. And the heroes liked to talk him down so – he was clearly doing the city a favor by taking the dangerous substance off of the hands of such immoral and irresponsible people. Nevermind that he lived in the city too. And was probably even less qualified on paper to handle substance than the scientists in the lab.

Finally reaching the lab hallway, he raised his hand to the scanner by the door; the X on his palm flashed red and the scanner screeched at him. A noise he was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to make. Pausing for a second longer, the thing finally stopped, and he heard the doors click. Pushing them open, he made his way down to the basement where the Xenothium was stored. After making his way through another two scanners, he opened the refrigerating container, revealing a treasure trove of the stuff, more than he had seen since his first encounter with Professor Chang back in Jump City.

Eyeing the six containers staring back at him, he unslung the bag that he had on his back. Carefully lifting the entire rack that held the canisters, he slipped it into the bag and sipped it close, putting it on his shoulders once more. He had had to make emergency refills of the stuff before, but preferred not to – spillage was dangerous, and the stuff was hard to find in the first place. Anyway, he wasn't really suspecting any trouble in the first place, and if any showed up, it wasn't like he was harmless without his suit powers. He mentally calculated what he could currently afford – one more go of teleportation, about sixty seconds of invisibility, a single barrier-disrupter, tens seconds of a power beam, or a about a half dozen of any given X-weapon, not counting standard X-shurikens of which he could use ten or his blades, which didn't eat up much given that he didn't activate their spin function. Otherwise, his night-vision and heat-vision functions didn't really cost much power, nor did his palm scanner. Oh, and his electric palm, which did actually eat power, but it wasn't like he ever had to use that one continuously.

Finally having his itch sated, Red X promptly made his way back out of the lab section of the building and began heading for the office of the lead scientist. Whistling to himself, he opened the door to the office, only to see a pink blast heading toward him. Quickly darting back outside, he twirled around so that he was on the wall adjacent to the door frame, pink flash following very closely behind him. As it crackled into the bulletin board on the wall, papers and pushpins scattered everywhere, and the entire bulletin board (which actually quite large) fell off onto the floor violently. Meanwhile, the printer below it, which seemed to have taken some off the blast as it dispersed, busied itself crackled and hissing before emitting sparks and catching fire….which wasn't particularly good for the hall that was now cluttered with flammable stuff, thanks to the tragedy that befell the bulletin board and it's many, many papers.

Uh, interesting, he thought absently to himself. He would've put the bag down before going back inside, but, well, the fire probably made that a bad idea. He quickly darted back inside the office, dodging two more blasts for his trouble. After sparing a look behind him to make sure he nothing heavy was going to fall on top of him or that he didn't have another fire to deal with, he turned to deal with whomever it was that was in here. Normally, he'd have fun for a bit, but the Xenothium in his bag was making him nervous. He didn't want to see what would happen if one of those pink blasts would do if they hit it – his suit may be resistant to some powers like that, but his bag did not.

"Hey, don't I know you from Jump? Red X, wasn't it?" came the voice of his attacker.

"What gave it away?" he asked drily. The suit didn't really make it difficult to guess his moniker. Still, looking at her, she did seem familiar, with her pale skin and pink hair.

She didn't exactly give him much time to think about it, though, as she fired three more blasts in rapid succession. He took care to dodge all of them, as well as the shattering liquor bottles on his right and the falling bookcase to his posterior. He moved in close, hoping she was just a ranged fighter. Or to at the least, minimize how much she could use her power.

All that pink. I think I might actually remember her from Jump, he thought as he dodged another blast. Wasn't her name based off her powers? Hm. Probability-based, from the look of things. Luck? Lucky. That had to be it. Well, if it's not, it is now.

"Look, Lucky, not that I would love to play some more, but –"

He didn't get to finish as the girl's face twisted into a brief scowl followed by a wicked, maniacal grin. The electric pink pulsed in rings around her, giving him a very bad feeling.

"My name is Jinx," she said waspishly, before releasing the built-up energy. Not exactly having many options to escape the blast, given the fire (which had actually found it's way into the room at that point and had begun to feast on the spilt alcohol and books on the floor), he made a calculated risk. Waiting until the blast was almost on him, he activated the teleportation feature, flickering behind Jinx.

This dance is beginning to be more than it was worth. He looked over to find that the computer that had the files he was supposed to collect had suffered the same fate that the printer outside. Sighing, noticed the girl clutching a flash drive in her right hand.

Grabbing her wrist, he briefly pulsed the electric palm function. She let out a short yelp, body seizing for a moment, and as it relaxed, the jump drive fell into his waiting hand.

"Sorry for the shock, Lucky," he cracked, then retreated onto the window sill of the open window at the back of the office. Leaping out into the air, he twisted so that he was facing Jinx, and flicking the glowing-eyed girl a lazy wave, he teleported back to the roof of the building across the street.

Activating the zoom function, he saw the girl's shocked expression turn into an irritated as she herself ran to window and scaled down the building into the street below. Satisfied that he hadn't left someone to burn to death, Red X turned and ran, springing over rooftops until he got back home.

Once back home, he shed the backpack and made sure his window and doors were all secured. After doing a sweep of the house, he took the Xenothium out of his bag and placed it into his own small lab-grade refrigerator. Taking off the Red X mask and his own mask beneath it (yes, he was that paranoid), he put them on a stand and then proceeded to do so for the rest of his uniform. After a quick shower, he changed into his street clothes and took the flash drive over to his computer, hoping that the girl had been there to do the same job as him – his client hadn't warned him of possible competitors, but then, they hadn't really had a sit down conversation about it. The job details had been sent to one of his many contact accounts, and after checking everything out, Red X had just accepted it – the Xenothium being too good to pass up.

One thing the client had been specific about was the files – down to the exact file names, and it seemed they matched up with the ones on the flash drive. He wondered briefly about how his employer had knowledge that specific. It seemed to him that if they knew that much, someone must be on the inside. Then again, maybe they wanted to protect that person – maybe they were that person. Then again, it could be the government using him as a third party to avoid being directly involved with such a raid. It amused him to no end that they took a hard stance on "villains" in the public, but still made use of his services. Then again, he'd never really identified as either hero or villain, and the people he worked his tended to be closer on the morally ambiguous side of things as well. Either way, he doubted it was them – even they wouldn't willingly hand that much Xenothium over to a criminal.

The thing he was really worried about was whether or not the nature of his break-in would strain the deal – a fairly sizable sum of money had been offered in exchange of the files, in addition to the Xenothium, but his thefts normally were more subtle than a trashed office and a burnt hallway. Or building – he'd see what the news said about that matter tomorrow.

Satisfied that everything was still settled for the moment, he disconnected the flash drive and put it in the Red X belt, letting his mind wander to the other villain he had encountered. Thinking some more on her, he finally remembered who she was, beyond her name and rather troublesome powers. She was that Hive girl that had lead a small team in Jump City before the Brotherhood had moved in. She was also the only other villain he knew of beside himself who left the Brotherhood too. Though, he recalled she had defected to the other side whereas he himself had always simply been on his own side. The Brotherhood was amusing for a time, and there were some promising rewards (some of which he claimed) if you worked for them, but the world domination thing was never really something he was about. Something about a tyrannical rule under the Brotherhood seemed really restricting, actually. Not to mention, not nearly as fun as the way things currently were under the status quo – yes, Red X liked things how they were, with the authorities being too slow to keep up with him, the heroes providing a fun diversion along the way, and the thrills and cool gadgets abound that came from the lifestyle of a thief.

He made his way back into the other room, where his suit and Xenothium were, closing the door behind him. He prepped the workbench and himself then grabbed a canister of the Xenothium and laid his suit next to it. While going adding the substance to the suit and running a diagnostic, he wondered to himself who Jinx had been hired by. He decided it didn't matter. Unless his client refused to take the files, in which case, his competitor might.

Finishing up with his suit, he put it and the remaining Xenothium away, locking the room as he left it. He then decided that he'd spend the rest of the night out, he put on a jacket and headed out of the apartment.

(Nightwing)

He waited patiently in the parking garage for his appointment, propped up against his cycle. Which was late. Back a few years ago when he was still Robin, he would have be irritated and tracking down the other party, expecting betrayal. But the years had softened his temperament somewhat, so instead he quietly seethed in moderate annoyance.

About fifteen minutes later and just when he was about to go out and search, he saw a figure coming out of the door on the far end of the garage. A few years back he also would've already had a speech prepared to chew said figure out. Not that he didn't have one tonight, but her arrival made him unclench enough to bite back his anxiety. Small steps.

Still, regardless of her nature, he was glad to see she was alright so he plastered a smirk on his face and called out to her.

"Something go wrong?" he asked.

The pink-haired girl didn't deign to answer until she had closed most of the distance between them.

"He didn't go straight for the office when he came inside; he had a backpack on, so I'm guessing he nicked something else from the place first. And then there was the struggle afterward," she said, smiling as a smirk grew on her face. "That office may as well be a fire-pit. Maybe the floor, maybe the building. Depends on how long the firefighters take."

He scowled. Being responsible for arson wasn't really something he had planned on that night. Definitely wasn't the image he was going for. Sure, he wasn't the one directly responsible, but he was the one who had planned the mission. Pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing, he asked her to elaborate.

She shrugged. "My powers aren't always the most predictable, you know?" she said, smirk still firmly in place. "And besides, I had to sell it."

He shook his head; he knew very well that her powers weren't just limited to probability. He recalled plenty of times where he had been on the receiving end of a "simple" concussive blast. This was what he got for contacting her with this, not that he couldn't really be choosey at the moment. "So he did buy it? And he has the flash drive?"

"Of course," she said, slightly offended. The scowl lingered on her face. "I don't think he remembered who I was."

"He's pretty self-absorbed. Besides, it's not really important if he knows you not. He does know me, which is why I needed your help on this."

She shot him an annoyed look that he pretended not to notice. He put on his helmet. Tossing his spare one to Jinx, he got on the cycle. "Come on. There's something else we need to do tonight."

She quirked an eyebrow and gave him a wry look.

"Business," he clarified.

She rolled her eyes but didn't protest, putting on the helmet and climbing on the back on the motorcycle. After she was in place, he turned it on and kicked it into gear. The good thing about the his cycle was that it was fast and easily wove through traffic; perhaps, though, the better thing was that is was his, which meant that if people on the street saw it, they got out of the way, meaning he hardly had to do any weaving at all.

He came to a stop outside of a shady little bar on the bad side of town, and they both got off the cycle. He took off his helmet.

Taking off her own helmet, Jinx asked, "So why are we at Jake's? Doesn't seem like your kind of place?"

"There's someone in here I need to speak with. I need you to wait in the alley over there," he said, pointing at the one next to the club, "I'll be out in about fifteen minutes. Any longer and something's wrong."

She gave him a look. "You brought me here so I could stand in a rank alley while you have a beer and chat up a source?"

"I'm not going in for a beer," he said, pointedly. "Fine, make it no longer than ten minutes."

"You know for someone who used to be a team leader, you sure keep things close to the chest," she replied, not budging.

"For someone who used to be a team leader, you don't seem to get the whole team thing in general" he shot back.

She gave him yet another look. It should be expected; she never really got over betraying her teammates from Hive. For a moment, he thought maybe he went to far, but she slunk off to the alley, muttering about how two people didn't qualify as a team.

He made his way inside and to the bar and waited for the bartender to get finished with the other patrons. When he was, Nightwing slipped him the other half of the payment he owed him. He usually didn't resort to buying information off of people, but he was working with a short timeline for this case, and the man was discreet.

"Thanks for the information; it was good," he said. "So is that guy here tonight like you said he'd be?"

The barkeep nodded and jerked his thumb at a scraggly-looking guy in a hoodie who was nursing his beer at a table nearby. He didn't notice Nightwing as he walked up to him. He put his hand on the man's shoulder and gripped hard.

The man jerked his head up in surprise and promptly went further into shock as he saw who was gripping his shoulder.

"Let's go outside," said Nightwing, not too harshly yet firm enough to make it clear that it wasn't a question.

The two walked out of the bar and back outside in front of the cycle.

"So tell me about the job you did last Thursday," he said flatly.

The man blanched at the request. "I, uh, I don't know what you're talking about."

He sighed, resisting the urge to slam the guy against the wall and tell him he didn't have time for lies. "Really? You, two other guys, a knife to truck driver's throat, followed by a missing box from the back of said truck? Ringing any bells?"

Nightwing could see the man breaking into a sweat at that point, who opened his mouth and croaked out, "R-Randy was the one came to me with the job. W-we didn't even s-see the guys we were working for."

"So how'd you get paid? Where did you drop the box off?"

The shaking man suddenly got a look that Nightwing didn't like. "I'm not going to tell you. You're – you can't do anything to me. You're Nightwing, a hero. I, uh, I think we're done here."

"You know I was trained by the Bat, right? Not exactly pacifist, that guy," he said. Grabbing him by the collar and pulling him close, he growled, "I'm not either."

Fear and anxiety flashed back over the man's features, and he swallowed hard. But he still didn't cave. "You may rough me up a bit. But you won't kill me. These guys will –"

He heaved a heavy sigh slung the man to the ground. "Fine; we do this your way," he called out to the alley. Looking back down at the man, he said, "Don't say I didn't try to give you a chance."

At that moment, Jinx's eyes lit up from the shadows, revealing a grin on her face so large and maniacal, Nightwing had to suppress a shiver as he thought back to the Joker and his days in Gotham. Slowly walking out toward them, she let loose a number of her pink blasts, killing the street lights around them and leaving the place in darkness, save for her glowing eyes.

"Alright, alright! I'll talk. Whatever you want to know. Just call her off, will you?"

"Alright then," he said, hauling the man to his feet. "So talk."

The guy licked his lips and swallowed again, casting an eye back at Jinx. The girl had stopped her advance, but her eyes were still glowing – she was even letting some of her energy crackle off her person for good measure. He had almost forgotten how well Jinx played the part of the maniac – he'd have to remember to bring her along in the future for times like these. He was just fine with playing the part of the intimidator. He always had back with Titans, but there was something about a crazy smile and glowing eyes that loosened people's tongues fairly quickly.

"We weren't paid in person. When we dropped the box off, the money was waiting at Randy's place. Randy said the guy who came to him with the job was, uh, and pretty tall and wore a brown trench coat and sunglasses. That was all he said about him. I didn't ask anymore than that."

"Where'd you drop off the box?"

"The old warehouse on Fifth Street at the edge of the city."

"And did you see what was inside?"

"No, Randy said the guy told him the deal would be off if we looked inside."

Nightwing let go of the man. "You should probably lie low for a while if you don't leave town. Either way, these guys won't be loose in the city for much longer," he told the guy. Turning the Jinx, he said, "Let's go."

The two got on the cycle and left, leaving the dumbfounded man behind on the curb. Pulling back into the parking garage, the both got off the cycle.

"You sure didn't get much from that," Jinx said. "Why not ask where that Randy guy is?"

"Dead. Found him over the weekend. And the third one skipped town after he found out."

"So what are you going to do?"

"There are some security cameras around the area. I'll go through the recordings and see if I can find something. Maybe check the warehouse in person, see if they left anything behind. I doubt it, but it may be worth it to check."

She nodded. He expected her to scoff at the detective work, but she just looked pensive instead. Jinx was an odd one. Not that he was really an expert on the human psyche.

"Well, contact me if you need help with any of that. If not, I'll be waiting for the call when you're ready to go after these guys," she said walking off to the door she had walked through before.

Nightwing pressed a button on the cycle; panels shifted and the blue lights went out, leaving him with a nondescript, black motorcycle. He drove it to a personal storage unit and parked his bike in it. Closing the unit, he changed into a set of clothes he had waiting for him, putting his suit in bag, which he slung over a shoulder. Walking back outside, he locked up the place up and walked to his apartment nearby.

Once home, he put up his suit and went straight to the surveillance room. While not exactly the most moral thing to do, he had tapped into the cameras around the city and set up several of his own as well. He found the ones near the warehouse the man had told him about and wound back to when the box had been dropped off, preparing for a long night of staring a camera footage.

It would've been nice to have had help, but he didn't trust Jinx enough. After she and Wally had split up, she had tried to stay with the heroes, but at the time, the core Teen Titans were breaking up, and he was helping Batman deal with a major meltdown in Gotham. So she eventually broke away, showing up in strange places doing questionable things. Sometimes, her story checked out and she was working covertly for some other heroes, but other times it seemed as if she were freelancing for criminal organizations. Hers was an interesting case, though, given that most heroes (even some in the entirety of the Titans) didn't trust her, and she was blacklisted by large number of criminals associated with those in the Hive and who had teamed up with the Brotherhood. So while he needed assistance, he didn't trust her enough to bring her back to where his apartment. Though, given what he was dealing with he may have to get over the paranoia– a number of key individuals had gone missing after being targeted by these people. And among them was Rachel Roth.