So, here's chapter 2. This one is a little rushed so it's not my best. If I get enough criticism, I'll probably go back and edit it, so tell me what you think, just don't be nasty!
Chapter 2: Setting Off
"Y-you are so d-d-dead. Once my t-tech starts working again, I'm g-g-gonna make you wish y-you had never been b-b-born you S-snot-brain!" Gizmo yelled. Despite his threat, it was hard to be afraid with him sitting on the ground shivering like a leaf. Mammoth was in no better position, curled up in a ball with his teeth chattering. See-More would have laughed to see them reduced to such a pitiful state, but held his tongue out of fear that doing so would aggravate them even more.
"I'm c-c-colder than a tractor left in a s-s-snowstorm!" Billy Numerous chattered along with them.
"I h-h-hear ya, Billy!" his clone replied.
The only one not shaking or shivering was Kyd Wykkyd who stood off to the side with his arms crossed. So far, none of them had noticed him. But then again, he liked it that way; hiding in the shadows was his specialty. However, it didn't last for long.
"Kyd Wykkyd, there you are, I've been looking for you! Are you alright?" Angel asked anxiously.
He nodded before turning away from her. Her face dropped. "Listen, Kyd, about what happened earlier, I didn't leave you alone, I swear! After you left for a few minutes, the Brotherhood arrived and captured me. They forced me to join them. I didn't try to look for you because I was afraid they'd follow me and capture you too." She explained. He kept his back to her and looked away, pretending he couldn't hear her. It was childish, yes, but it made him feel better. "Please listen to me!" she begged, but he continued to ignore her. "You're acting really immature, you know Elliot," she muttered, crossing her arms as well. At this, Kyd Wykkyd flinched.
Billy snorted. "Elliot? That's your real name? Elliot?" Billy burst out laughing, his clone along with him.
Kyd Wykkyd turned and glared daggers back at Angel who remained unfazed. 'I thought I made it clear that was to stay a secret!' His face read.
"If you're going to act like that, then I refuse to uphold any promise I made prior to this," Angel retorted. "Honestly, I thought you'd act a little more grown up, Elli."
"AH HA HA HAHAAAA, ELLI!" Billy howled with laughter. Gizmo, Mammoth, and See-More seemed to have caught a bout of the giggles as well. On the other hand, Kyd Wykkyd looked like he was about to catch fire. If he hadn't been laughing, See-More swore he would have been a little scared. Never in the years of knowing him had he ever seen his friend get this furious before. Not even when they'd been roommates at H.I.V.E Academy, or when he'd play harmless pranks on his quiet teammate (a firecracker in his underwear drawer was harmless, right?) to try and loosen him up a little. See-More supposed it was something only Angel could do. Angel and Kyd Wykkyd had always been an interesting pair back in school. Kyd's intimidating looks never seemed to bother Angel, and in turn, he was the only one they knew who couldn't be affected by her emotional atmosphere power. He often wondered if maybe they hung around each other because of it.
'Now you're the one acting immature!' was the look he was now giving off.
"Well, you started it!"
'And whose fault is that?'
"The one who is currently wearing a Batman rip-off uniform. I never told you, but your choice in outfits is very unoriginal. Someone needs to give you fashion tips."
'What does that have to do with anything?'
At this point, the others had stopped laughing and continued to watch the two bicker, all secretly taking bets on who would win the one way argument. "They sound like an old married couple," one Billy whispered to the other. The other nodded in agreement.
"This is borin'! Come on Billy; let's see what else is goin' on 'round here!" the first said before taking off in another direction.
"Right behind ya Billy!" the other said, following. Kyd Wykkyd and Angel continued to fight, unaware of their missing teammate(s).
"Hey Mammoth, check it out, my tech is working again!" Gizmo announced gleefully. "I wonder who I should test it on?" he said while turning back to See-More. "This'll teach you to never ditch the H.I.V.E. Five, Gunk-muncher!" he said evilly.
Mammoth cracked his knuckles. "I'm gonna tear your eyeball right out of your socket! Let's see how well that eye works once it's black and blue!"
Uh-oh. See-More gulped, turned on his heel and took off running so fast, Kid Flash would have been impressed. Gizmo and Mammoth remained right on his tail though, shooting lasers and throwing anything Mammoth could get his hands on.
Meanwhile, the now four Billys had found another way to entertain themselves. One of them had found a camera out of nowhere and proceeded to take pictures of the others posing with the still frozen villains. "Say cheese, Billy!" he said with a finger on the flash button. "Cheese!" they answered in unison, one of them holding up bunny ears over Psimon's head. Angel and Kyd Wykkyd were still arguing, now completely off track of the original topic, and See-More continued to be chased by Gizmo and Mammoth, neither giving any leniency.
Over all, it was going to be a loooong night.
"So, how about this one Wally? It's an interesting style!" Jinx said eagerly, waving the magazine in front of him. Kid Flash yawned in response. This was the 23th one that they'd looked at in the last hour, or at least from where he started counting. He had to admit, he loved Jinx to death, but there were a few things about girls that he didn't understand. Like how they could get so excited over a picture in a magazine/catalog.
After the battle with the Brotherhood, the hero couple had decided to search for a place to one day call home, and perhaps even start a team of their own. While the Teen Titans allowed them to stay in the T-shaped tower for free, as long as they pulled their weight by helping with missions, Jinx and Kid Flash had searched through an endless number of magazines, newspapers, catalogs, anything that would offer any source of shelter. Kid Flash had been excited at first about the idea of owning his own place, but after the first two days of searching, his excitement quickly went downhill. Every place started to melt together. At this point, he couldn't even tell the difference between a shack and a castle.
"Didn't we already see one like that?" Kid Flash asked in a bored tone. "You know the one with the big thing-a-ma-jig on top?"
"You mean the one with the grey steeple with the garden out front? That one was pretty nice too, a dark Gothic style, and it looked sort of like a castle. It's definitely my type. Do you prefer that one too Wally?" Jinx asked.
Kid Flash blinked, still looking completely bored out of his skull and yawned again. "Whatever you want Babe. At this point, I really don't care."
Jinx rolled her eyes. Typical guy. "Wally, you're supposed to help me choose one, yet you're barely even trying." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Do you even care about me anymore?" she asked with a pouty look on her face.
Kid Flash sighed. He really wasn't in the mood to play this game. Slowly and reluctantly, he removed himself off his place on the couch, walked up to his girl and put his arms around her, giving her a light squeeze. She didn't return the embrace, but didn't reject it either. Instead, she remained completely still. "Jinx, whatever you want is fine. I'd give you the queen's palace in England if you asked for it, but please just choose one! It doesn't matter to me anymore, as long as you're happy," he replied calmly. "Look, we've looked at hundreds, maybe thousands of places already. Just pick your top ten favorites and then we can decide from there!"
Jinx continued to pout. "But there's too many that I love! I wish we could live in them all!"
He chuckled. "I know, but being a superhero doesn't pay that much I'm afraid. So, we'll have to stick with one. We better hurry and pick one out soon though. I talked to Beast Boy yesterday. He said, and I quote 'Dude! Just how long are you and your girlfriend gonna stay here? I'm always afraid that she'll see me when I leave the bathroom in a towel. Not to mention the fact that she alphabetized my CD's again, organized the fridge, cleaned my room, ironed my laundry, and scrubbed the bathtub! It feels like I'm living with my mother again.'"
"For the record, his room was filthy." Jinx muttered. Ok, maybe she had gone a little overboard. Then again, she'd been the only in the H.I.V.E. Five who wanted to keep the place clean. It wasn't easy being the only girl in a single tower surrounded by a team full of boys. Wait a minute! "That's it!" Jinx announced, turning in Kid Flash's arms. "Wally, I know where we can live! Why on Earth didn't I think of it before? The answer was right in front of me the whole time!"
"Care to fill me in?" Kid Flash asked, raising an eyebrow before pulling away and crossing his arms.
"We can live in the H.I.V.E. Five's old tower!" she said excitedly.
"You mean the one I wrecked in that one episode?"
"Yes! It's perfect! It's already completely built so we don't have to wait too long to move in. I used to live there so I know where everything is located. Plus, it already belongs to me so we won't have to fork out extra cash for purchase."
"It's also a huge mess after I came in and trashed the place." Kid Flash pointed out. "You seriously want to move into that dump? What about the house with the big what-cha-ma-call-it on the top? I thought you really liked that one?"
"That one is a little too old school, and besides we need something more practical if we're going to start our own team. The H.I.V.E. tower should work just fine as long as we put a bit of effort into putting it back together. All it takes is a few hammers and wrenches and we should be able to get started. You destroyed the whole place by yourself; I think you can put it back together too. Maybe Cyborg and the others can give us a hand with the heavy lifting and reinstating the technology. I can finally replace those nasty old curtains with something more stylish!" she gushed.
Kid Flash just stood there staring at her with his mouth hanging wide open as she continued through her long mental list of how to improve the tower. Like he said before, there were some things he would never understand about girls. Like how they could change their minds so easily and so quickly. He sighed again and sat down on the couch. Guess this means that the vacation is over, he thought tiredly.
Back in the Brotherhood base, the noise had finally begun to quiet down a little bit. See-More lay on the ground, thoroughly beaten with more bruises than he could count. Gizmo and Mammoth lay panting nearby as well, worn out from the chase and overuse of their powers. Kyd Wykkyd and Angel sat on either side of the three, not even daring to look at each other. Billy sat along with the rest of his clones flipping through the pictures he'd taken. Not one of them spoke. Each person just sat and listened to the steady breaths of the others, waiting for someone to say something. In reality, all were too afraid to address the same question that they had on their minds. So they sat in silence. But finally, after a few minutes, it was Gizmo who brought the matter to light.
"So…now what?" he asked.
"Beats me," Mammoth answered.
"I got nothin," Billy declared.
"Me neither," his clones followed up in unison.
"I honestly don't have a clue. I'd hoped one of you guys would have an idea," said Angel, grimly.
Kyd Wykkyd shrugged.
"Well," See-More started while cracking his spine back into place, "I guess we could start by heading back to the States."
"Yeah, but how're we 'sposed to git there? Angel and Gizmo are the only ones who can fly fast!" Billy chimed in. "B'sides, I git air sick."
"Hey Kyd Wykkyd, can't you just teleport us there?" Mammoth asked lamely.
Kyd Wykkyd shook his head. He began pantomiming with his hands, something about his powers not being able to reach all the way over the ocean.
"I suppose sitting in this base isn't getting us anywhere. The least we could do is walk out the front door," Angel stated. She got to her feet and walked towards the entrance before stopping to turn towards the others who stared at her dumbly. "Well, are you coming or do you intend to stay here with the rest of the popsicles?" she asked expectantly.
The boys just looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and following her. She was right about one thing. They weren't making much progress by hanging around the cold, damp headquarters. Though they were far from a perfect team, they were in this together and no one else would be willing to help a bunch of tired, defeated teenagers from a devastated academy. So, with hardly a shred of hope and not knowing what to expect next, the group of six teenagers grabbed whatever few belongings that they had left and stepped outside, ready to take on the world once again.
First, for anyone who's a little confused about Kyd Wykkyd's real name, supposedly that's the name that most people give him, so I decided to keep it too. I was a little worried about Jinx in this chapter. After I wrote it, I felt she might have been a little OOC, but then again she's a hero now, and I figure she probably had to either bully the other guys into keeping the tower clean or would clean most of it herself.
Also, if you have problems with the couples, then either deal with it or don't read. I'm just going off what's suggested in the show, and I really don't want to deal with any flames!
Until the next chapter! Hope it wasn't too hard to read!
