Hey guys, I'm experimenting with how I want this story to work. This chapter is going to have point of view changes that won't review past events. I'm just trying to decide what works best. Read on my home skillets!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Teen Titans characters nor anything to do with Streetlight Manifesto. I just freaking love them.
Jinx
My head shot up as I realized there was a person hovering above me, and I felt my head clash against his head. She watched as he lost his balance and fell over her desk's chair.
"Damn it Jinx!" Kid Flash yelled, holding his head in disbelief. I shot daggers at him, rubbing my sore forehead. It was his fault for coming into my room! I hexed him, sending my bookshelf hurtling down at him, heavy history volumes and all. She was a major history nerd. Sadly, he chose that moment to move and found his way behind me, picking me up and out of my bed as an entire row of bookshelves that lined my room began to plummet to the floor.
"What the hell! Look at what you've done!" I yelled, fully aware that it was my doing that caused the mess. He frowned at me and set my rather small frame down, careful of the books that now seemed to surround them. I almost felt a bit of loneliness as he let me go, the warmth of his touch leaving my body long after her released me.
"It's not my fault! And why do you have so many books?" He questioned me, puzzled.
"I like to read about history, alright? It's none of your business anyways. Why are you here?" I hid my small blush with a frown.
"I wanted to know why you were so depressed earlier... So I followed you. Why do you take that crap, Jinx? You never did before, and I don't get why you suddenly are now," he harrumphed. I looked him dead in his deep blue eyes, contemplating my response. What reason did I have to tell him about my problems? None that I could figure, just that he was annoyingly persistent and really needed a life.
"Give me one good reason to tell you." My gaze stayed even with his, hiding all of my emotions with a mask of cold, calculating intelligence. Nobody was allowed into my mind. Nobody.
"How about... I care about you? A-as a friend, at least," he stammered to her. *Did Kid Flash just stutter?* I wondered. I must have misheard it.
"As if. Heroes don't care about villains. Even villains don't care about other villains."
"How do you know that? Do you read minds? 'Cause I'm pretty sure you can't," he said, sounding completely serious. I picked a book up off the floor, opening and ignoring his question. I wasn't really reading it. I just needed to buy time to think. "Are you ignor-"
"Shush!" I snapped, cutting him off. Nobody ever really knew what I thought, and as a general rule of thumb, I enjoyed it that way. But today I made the decision to go against normalcy. "I... I'm a failure on their eyes. In my own eyes. I shouldn't have let you go, but I did. My punishment is well deserved. This is how we always treated each other back at the Hive. Failure was not an option is how you might put it. When you were doing the best, having the most success, you were on top of the world. But there was always someone waiting to pull you down under the water, to take your spot in the limelight. In this case, it was my entire team waiting for me to screw up so one of them could be the ringleader." He looked at me strangely, as if finally putting everything together.
"What kind of a life is that to live?" He questioned me as though I was stupid.
"The only one I had a choice to live. I've been committing monstrosities since I was able to walk. I might not have been trying when I was younger, but there's a reason why nobody in my family is alive anymore. My brother called me a freak... Five minutes later he fell down a stair case and broke his neck. My parents were so distraught... My dad took to drinking," a small sob nearly escaped me. I didn't ever talk about this, "and he started beating my mother every night, blaming her, not me, for my brother's death. I couldn't tell him the truth! I couldn't!" I was sobbing now, ridiculously so. What was wrong with me? This was old news, news I'd tucked away for years. Things he wasn't supposed to know, that nobody was supposed to know, poured from my mouth in a flurry of stuttered words. "My mom k-knew the truth and she h-h-hated me for it. She t-tried to tell him and he just kept hitting her and hitting her until she stopped begging and crying a-and finally... She stopped breathing." A waterfall of tears made their way down my puffy-eyed face, but I swallowed my loud hiccupping. Pull yourself together Jinx. Bad enough you just told the idiot your life story...now you're crying your face out like a weak child. You're a disgrace. I told myself, knowing that my inner voice was right. I was ridiculously weak.
Kid Flash stood across from me, a disgusting, pitying look on his face. I hated it, hated him for every ounce of sympathy he had in his body. I hated myself. He took a step towards me, arms open as if to hug me, to comfort me. "No! I don't need your pity!" I yelled at him, taking a step back. I felt every barrier within me cracking under the sudden emotional pressure built up inside, my powers spilling out just as my damned tears had. My eyes lit up, an ominous pink and purple hue, and the very walls around me began cracking. Foundations within the building failed, supports bent, and screws loosened themselves.
"Stop Jinx! You're bringing this place down!" He said, but I was too far gone. The light poured out from tattoos adorning my arms, tattoos that were normally covered by my villain costume. "Oh fuck it." He grabbed me up in his arms just as the light faded and the building began to crumble. "Hold on there Lucky," he whispered to me as he sped out of the shrieking trap of a home. That was the last thing I remembered as my vision faded to black and head became too heavy to lift.
Wally
I had no clue as to what happened, it had gone by so quickly. I'd never known what made people become the villains they were... But this was a class A scenario that would make for an evil person. Maybe not even an evil person. More like someone meaning well and stuck in crappy circumstances. I put her head in the crook of my arm to protect it as I ran out of the build and across town to where I lived. Looking around, I sped into the apartment complex and into a thankfully empty elevator. It had to be at least one in the morning now.
"Why does everything have to take place at night?" I pondered to myself as we slowly climbed to the third floor. My apartment complex wasn't the greatest... Actually, it was downright disgusting to someone who had high tastes. I hoped she didn't mind living in a half-assed apartment for a while. I had a bad feeling that she wouldn't be able to return to her home after this. Am I becoming the root of all of her problems? I just wanted to help her... I pondered. I had just wanted to see what she was like without all of the "I'm evil" act and whatnot.
Shaking myself out of thought, I unlocked my apartment door with a key I hid in my costume, opening it and walking into the dark, semi cramped space. I pushed away a pile of clothing and walked into my room, setting her down on the mattress. As I set her down, she unconsciously reached out at me and grabbed my arm. "Oh come on," I said, concerned what she might do to me when she woke up. I didn't really want to face that right now. "Fine." I threw off my mask and took off my suit, pulling on a black cotton pair of pajama pants. I felt so bad having to make her let go, her facial expressions slipping into a scared look. Slowly I slipped into the bed, pulling the covers over both of us and blushing as she wrapped her arms around my waist, placing her head on my chest. If she knew what she was doing...
I felt exhaustion seeping into my bones as I settled down, the feeling of her frame pressed against mine both comforting and warm. "Good night Jinx. Feel better soon," I sighed and fell into a sweet slumber.
Jinx
So much warmth and love... Surrounding me. I wasn't alone right now, and it felt *good*. I could have stayed in that warm embrace forever and a million years, if I hadn't opened my eyes. Instantly my cheeks were on fire as I found myself face-to-chest with Kid Flash. "What's going on!" I yelled and hexed him, making him fall off of the bed.
"Why do you have to do that all the time!" He yelled from the floor, and I peered over the edge of the bed.
"Explain yourself."
"You blew up your house, pretty much. After that, you passed out and I saved your ass. And you wouldn't let go of me last night, so I just slept with you. But not in a bad way!" He added quickly, trying not to make things any more awkward.
"Oh... Well, that sucks." Although I was calm on the outside, on the inside the memories came flooding back. Shame crept up my spine and I pushed my face into the bed. "I need to go. I've only caused problems for everyone," I said, wanting to stop causing everyone trouble. I didn't want to be the enemy of everyone.
"No, you don't. Where do you think you're going to go?" He grabbed onto my arm as I stood up. I wanted to shake it off and embrace him at the same time. I didn't really get a whole lot of contact nowadays.
"Anywhere I want," I countered, trying to wrench my arm from his grip. He frowned at me, probably annoyed at my stubbornness.
"I know you've got nowhere to go. You brought down your teams entire building. They're going to be hunting you anymore, most likely." Something inside of me deflated, and I felt defeat. I was screwed either way, and there wasn't any way out of this.
"So what do you suggest I do?" I asked, my voice tired sounding. I felt hopelessly lost, and I wasn't used to it.
"Stay with me for a while. Set out a life for yourself as a human, where nobody will know anything about you. It's going to take a while, but you'll be safe that way." I looked at him with doubt, not liking the idea of staying with the man who was supposed to be my enemy,
"So... Where do we start?"
"How about with what your name and age are. Mine is Wally West, and I'm twenty. What is yours?"
"Well, I haven't used it in a long time, but my name is Holly. Holly Telemann. I am nineteen, I think. I haven't celebrated my birthday since I was seven or so. That was around the time that I ran away from home," I replied, struggling to remember bits of information from long ago.
"Well hello Holly. It's nice to formally meet you, m'lady," he said, taking on a horrible accent that I couldn't help but giggle at a bit, "welcome to the normal life. I'm not asking you to end everything you do...I'm just asking you to retire Jinx for a while. Until things settle down, or something."
"I know. I guess that's the only option I have left. I suppose I'll need a job, but I don't exactly have a diploma. Graduating from the Hive doesn't give you a real high school experience." Was there really anything I could get hired to do?
"For now apply for jobs at places like retail stores and restaurants. Work on getting a GED. I'll get you some clothes and you can pay me back later," he told me, acknowledging the pained look on my face at the thought of another person spending their money on me. Suddenly my body called out its annoyance at the lack of food in it, grumbling loudly. "Uhh, let's go get something for breakfast. You can get washed up in the bathroom, it's on the other side of the living room. Not very hard to find places when your apartment has a living room attached to the kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom." He dug out some clothing, a pair of basketball shorts and a Streetlight Manifesto t-shirt. "I can't really help you out with a bra, but here are some usable clothes," he said and handed them to me.
"Thanks," I mumbled, walking to where a surprisingly clean bathroom was, especially compared to the rest of the apartment. I grabbed his washcloth and scrubbed the cruddy, ill-removed makeup from my face. When I toweled it off, I took a look in his plain mirror. "So this is me now. Holly. Holly Telemann."
