Meant to put this out sooner. Again, YJ=not mine, sadly.
His fingers stop short of grazing the key, wrists suspended above the keyboard. Beside him, the almost comically large processor whirrs as something flashes across the screen. The boy adjusts his glasses, smiling. "That wasn't so bad," he spoke out loud in the darkened basement, cracking the joints of his fingers as one by one files were being ripped to his personal folders. So much for added security.
He had a rather impertinent face, with still maturing features calling back a childish age. His hair had been shaved by personal choice and was steadily growing back, prickly to his fingers as he raked them down his scalp. "It's done," he murmured, when the last of the files was saved. He quickly severed his connection and covered his tracks, making sure to tie any lose ends.
"Now, to read those files…" His watch beeped. He made a face, "Drat. Mom's coming."
He turned around in his chair and powered down the monitor. His 'master lair' as he liked to call it, was in the furthermost region of his mother's basement, a singular room that had been used to store his father's clutter. Had being the key word here, now the only thing in that room which he now called his were his processors and the monitors tied to them. He quickly made his way up the stairs, making sure that the door to the lair was well shut before he raced past the old boxes.
His mother was barely reaching for the door when he met her at the top. "Ah—Avery, hun, you startled me."
He shrugged and she only barely caught a glimpse of the dark basement before he shut the door behind him. "Dinner ready?"
She nodded, "Yes, hun. Did you get your homework finished?"
The boy nodded, taking a sharp left to the kitchen, the smell of food reminding him he had a gut to feed. Almost grudgingly, he sat down as his mother set down a plate in front of him.
He muttered a brief thanks and dug in.
"You alright?" Lux touches a hand to Jinx's shoulder. Her olive skin is tinged with a sickly yellow, her lips pressed in a hard line. She tugs at a woven tendril of hair, an anxious habit, and shakes her head softly, "I hate flying…it's always this."
"We'll get there soon. Anything I can get for you in the meantime?"
"My powers are rooted to the earth; I'll recover as soon as we land."
Lux glanced out of the small window to her left, the city beginning to come into view. "You think you can make it to the states?"
Jinx stared ahead, "How long are you planning to stay in India?"
"We, Jinx, we. We're a partnership now, remember?"
"How could I forget?" she said, with evident amusement.
"As it is, we're staying for a couple of days. We need to rest up for what's to come."
"So how far have you planned this out?" Jinx asked.
Lux half-shrugged, "As far along as I am able to. I've got a valuable contact back home…I'm pretty much going at his pace."
"He's…the one that found me, right?"
Jinx furrowed her brow. Whoever it was had to be good, real good. She had been certain to erase her tracks until she found a place that no one had touched for years. She saw Lux lean towards the window, a brief utterance leaving her lips. "No one is ever truly out of reach."
When they land the pilot guides them down the creaky steps, Jinx now looks infinitely better and Lux exchanges parting words with the pilot. "Glad you found your friend, Miss," he tells her, and she expresses her own relief in reserved words.
They walk away from the concrete landing and into a shabby building, a woman behind the counter greeting them in passing. It's mostly empty now, a few stray passengers waiting for their own tiny aircraft to take them to tourist destinations. This place is a pit stop to them, the city outside doesn't draw much of a tourist crowd.
"Let's get a taxi. No way I'm walking in this heat."
"Crud."
Avery reached for the communicator under his desk, dialing the two digit code as he began a mantra of curses. By now his mother had cleared the table and finished the dishes, the dinner a thing of the past. He found time to mentally knee-jerk at her inquiry of his extra-curricular activities. Always, always he told her that he liked being down in the basement by himself (which was as factual as it got because no way was he going to tell her he was doing some very illegal things) and as long as he procured a straight-A report card (he did) what did it matter?
There was a click on the other line, a female voice answered, 'I was wondering when you'd call.'
"Where are you?" He insisted.
'We're barely at our hotel room. Something the matter?'
"We? So you found her."
'"Yeah. I must say I'm impressed.'
He felt pinpricks on his cheeks, quickly clearing his throat to keep from flushing further, "Y-yeah well. I have intel on your next member…and it doesn't look good." He held his breath slightly, having met Lux once he knew she wasn't one to be messed with. Still, her reply seemed to have no trace of anger, merely a questioning.
'I thought you'd said they'd be moving her in days.'
"Her lawyer is petitioning Belle Reve to keep her there. Unless something changes you aren't getting anywhere."
Her voice grew slightly frustrated, 'So I'll have an incomplete team, just what I need. How about blockhead?'
"Bludhaven."
Lux paused on the other end of the line. From her spot on the edge of the bed her shadow stirred beside her and uttered the words she refused to speak.
"Home."
Reviews are, as always, welcome. I had a lovely reader ask about the characters and I figure I'd add some background. To begin with, Lux is mine. I figured an OC would help transition the other (mostly) non-OCs better. Mordred is the name of her shadow that she can manipulate at will.
Jinx is from TeenTitans...but I did make her slightly more faithful to the original comics and I just added Gizmo who will vary from the comics/show somewhat.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy a wonderful New Year's and I'll post another chapter next year (hahaha):)
