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Hey People !
Waow, what can I say ? I published the first chapter on Wednesday, and on Saturday (early) morning, I had already 3 story alerts, 1 story favorite and 1 review. Not too bad, in only three days.
So let's go directly to the THANK department, shall we ?
THANXXXX to FLSHGORDON003 and KOFEEJINX for following this fiction
SPECIAL THANXXXX to KARATEGIRL01 for favoriting it
EXTRA SPECIAL THANXXXX to CHAOSRIN for both following AND reviewing it
Ya guys all made my days since then and I express you my deepest gratitude for showing interest in my fic'.
Also, while I'm appreciative to ya all, I would like to encourage ya to imitate Chaosrin and leave reviews, if you like a chapter. Following and/or favoriting a story is evidently flattering, and make the author's day, BUT the best of all rewards are the reviews. It enables ya guys to state / precise WHY ya liked the chappy, WHAT ya found cool in it and also what can be IMPROVED (constructive criticism). All this constitutes a precious help for an author, as it helps him/her seeing what are the strong and weak points of his/her story. So yeah, I would be even more grateful to ya if ya did leave reviews next time ya enjoy a chappy. Why not already after reading this one ? ;)
That's it for the introducing speech, now's time to
N'JOY !
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"And there it is !" concluded Gizmo, arms crossed, smiling. He sure was proud of his plan for their new robbery. "You guys got everything ?"
"Yup !" merely replied Billy.
"Clear enough !" answered See More.
"No problem !" added Mammoth.
Then came silence.
They all turned to Jinx and noticed that she was staring away dreamily, her mind set on a far different topic than the mundane one of the robbery.
"Hey Jinx !" the mastermind called louder, his voice somewhere between a normally loud utterance and a real yell.
The horn-haired sorceress jolted and turned her pink irises towards the leader.
"You didn't listen to a word I said, did you ?" he said naughtily.
"Of course I did !"
"Then what's your role in the plan ?"
He was standing, arms crossed, looking menacingly at her.
"To break the lock of the cash escort's armored car, so that See More can use his Flash Eyeball to blind the guards and allow Billy to knock them out, while Mammoth will take care of carrying the bags of cash to the outside."
Gizmo goggled.
She had it all correct.
She may have look absent-minded a minute ago, but she definitely had been listening to the whole plan.
"Did I forget something or make a mistake somewhere ?" she asked, smirking as she crossed her arms (her turn now to cross them !)
The small guy shook himself out of his stupor and fixed his eyes on her.
"No, no, you got it all right…"
She decided to make the most of her advantage.
"So you accused me unfairly, didn't you ?" she continued, her smile growing wider.
He looked at her, silent for a few seconds. Then frowned at her.
"Okay, okay, I was wrong. There, ya happy ?"
She took her chin between thumb and forefinger, faking reflection, as if she was deciding whether she would agree to wipe the slate clean.
Finally, she narrowed her eyes and smirked some more.
"I will be happy… only when, additionally to admitting your mistake, you will have apologized !"
He made a shocked face.
"Hey, come on, Jinx, anybody can make mistakes !"
She snorted.
"Sure. Who said the contrary ? But when you accuse someone wrongly, you have to make amend… by apologizing !"
Gizmo let out a pretty violent sigh and grumbled under his breath.
"Eh, she's right Gizmo !" said Mammoth.
"Yup, Man, she is !" confirmed Billy Numerous.
"Definitely !" concluded See-More.
The mastermind took a good look at each of his vis-à-vis in turn and, realizing they all supported their female teammate, he showed signs of vexation.
"Okay, okay, okay, fine ! I-AM-SORRY ! Better now ?" he screamed.
" Much better." she simply replied with a smirk, and walked away, pleased with herself, feeling lighter now, while she had been a tad anxious before, thinking of…
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"RAVEN !"
The empath gritted her teeth and quickly opened her eyes, frowning as she was way bothered by the loud yell of the changeling.
She had been meditating by the large picture window enabling the Titans to watch the city from their Tower, and then the alarm had started to blare, yet she had been swiftly finishing her meditation, a matter of a few seconds… and during these few seconds preceding her moving to the operations table, he had been screaming her name to make her come down for the briefing !
The grey girl uncrossed her legs, still levitating nevertheless, and floated down towards her friends.
Once landed, she glared at the morpher, mouth arched down.
"Beast Boy, do NOT scream like that when calling me ! I can perfectly hear if you simply raise your voice ! And please avoid calling me when the alarm is still sounding : I may be meditating, but I DO hear sounds anyway, and I therefore do not take long to come down and join you all ! In other words : you DON'T have to call me ! Just wait for me to arrive ! Did you understand ?"
Her stare was so hard on him that he backed away a bit.
"Eh eh… errr… sure ?" he stuttered, smiling nervously, sweatdropping.
Robin had pressed the red button and, on the large screen affixed to the wall, a criminal scene appeared : an armored car was immobilized, across the street, and several people were walking towards it.
"The H.I.V.E. Five !" Robin grumbled belligerently.
"These guys seriously miss butt-kicks !" exclaimed BB.
"Well, why don't we help them by giving them some ?" proposed Cy, smirking.
Both friends guffawed.
Raven shook her head, sighing.
"Boys…" she monotoned. (A/N : Yeah, this is indeed a 'wink' to the two times she says this : once in SWITCHED and once in CAR TROUBLE… and it made me smile so wide when I saw her expression as she uttered that !XD)
"What is it, friend Raven ? Is there a problem with boys ?" innocently asked Star.
The sorceress looked at her stoically, having learned to deal with her alien teammate's gullibility.
"Star, there always is some problem going on with boys…"
"TITANS, GO !" ordered Robin.
And in a flash, they were gone from the common room.
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Jinx had forced the doors of the armored car open with a particularly powerful pink wave of hers, and after See-More had blinded the guards, Billy Numerous soon had them knocked out.
Mammoth climbed inside the vehicle and seized two large bags, while Billy and See-More took care of one together, as a single person alone couldn't lift such heavy bags.
Gizmo made a remote-controlled small metal vehicle pull in, just by the armored car, and his teammates began loading the bags in it.
Soon, Mammoth brought the last bag of money and stuffed it into the vehicle, then rubbed his hands several times, indicating that he was done and that they could therefore leave.
"And there it is ! We've got enough for a while ! Now let's hurry out of here and - "
He was cut short as the vehicle got encased in dark intangible matter and, leaving the road, slowly started to float upwards.
The H.I.V.E. Five jerked their heads around…
..and sure enough, behind them, in the distance, were the silhouettes of the Teen Titans !
A familiar figure was levitating above the other four members of the group, a blue cloak billowing in the soft breeze, arms stretched towards the gang, black auras around the hands.
Jinx swallowed as she recognized Raven's outline.
"Damn witch !" yelled the mastermind, shaking his fist in direction of the sorceress.
Another silhouette took off and stopped by Raven, while a third one turned into an eagle and rose in the air as well.
The two remaining Titans got back to their vehicle – a motorcycle and a car – and all five superheroes took the direction of the five bad guys. Or, more precisely, of the four bad guys and the one bad girl.
And soon, the battle started, each Titan facing his/her own villain.
Raven had to deal with a small laser cannon shooting in multiple directions, that Gizmo kept on targeting at her.
Jinx did her best to adapt to the various shapes that Beast Boy took, once sending pink waves at him, once avoiding his attacks.
Cyborg cast his laser beam at See-More, who used a gigantic eyeball as shield and then made
the latter roll in direction of the half-robot.
Mammoth had to deal with the formidable power of the Star Bolts, together with the green rays the Tamaranean shot from her eyes.
As for Robin, he was busy trying to escape the ubiquitous presence of Billy Numerous, who was here, there and everywhere. (A/N : this is a private "wink" to the Fab Four, who have written a song called HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE, back in 1966)
Soon enough, the Boy Wonder had been outnumbered by the red-clad clones.
Soon enough, Jinx had cast a super-attack towards Wolf-BB and had him fall pretty hard on the concrete.
Soon enough, Star had neutralized her large foe thanks to her most powerful power orbs.
Soon enough, See-More had the Teen Titans Tech paralyzed by way of his new Still Flash eye glare.
And soon enough had Raven destroyed the small boy's cannon, using her energy to wring the device and thus make him totally harmless.
TT and HF were almost on a par, but the baddies had one more victim to their credit.
But that was not counting with Rae's great powers.
The cloaked female teleported by See-More and her eyes cast her own dark rays straight into his own, blinding him and thus stopping the paralyzing effect on Cy.
Then she teleported to Billy Numerous and had countless black tendrils come out from under her cloak (A/N : does that sound familiar, Dr. Light ? XD), each then seizing one of Numerous's replicas and holding it firmly prisoner.
Next, she appeared by Mammoth and trapped his feet in a large dark rectangle resting on the ground, and which he clearly couldn't move out of.
Gizmo had seen the whole sequence and knew that the Dark Titan would soon materialize either by Jinx or by himself, so he quickly pulled a small electronic bangle that he tied to his wrist.
He looked up from said wrist just in time to see Raven show up opposite Jinx.
That's what the mastermind hoped for : that the half-demon would choose his pink-haired teammate instead of himself, for her next onslaught ! That way, he would have time to catch that damn grey-skinned girl by surprise with his latest invention !
Jinx stared at the slender figure opposite her, and at those violet eyes silently watching her.
For some mysterious reason, while Rae had attacked on the spot the male members of HF, and neutralized them in seconds, regarding Jinx, she didn't do anything and merely looked at her, paying much attention to the other wizard's reaction or moves.
"Why don't you attack m- AAAAAAH !"
Raven's body had just been struck by a white beam, which had trapped her body in a shimmering white envelope. As a result, the poor victim's body had arched forward before collapsing down, her hood falling back from her head.
Jinx looked at Gizmo, who had his arm stretched out at Raven and was laughing.
"SO, HOW DO YOU LIKE MY NEW INVENTION, WITCH ?" he bellowed on a self-confident tone.
The white beam imprisoning Rae was naturally coming out of the metal bracelet Gizmo had put on.
Jinx felt her heartbeats race and a sudden pain clenched her chest.
"GIZMO ! STOP !" screamed the pink-haired one.
The smile vanished from the bald boy's face.
"WHAT ?! WHY SHOULD I STOP ?! YOU PITY HER OR WHAT ?!" he yelled.
His female temmate bit her lip.
"NO, I DON'T ! BUT I'LL FIGHT HER MYSELF ! LET ME TAKE HER DOWN MY WAY ! PLEASE !"
Will he buy it ? Will he believe what I just said ? God, please have him stop it !
She felt worry crush her heart, as she helplessly watched Raven writhe under the pain. She felt anguish, as she hoped she would have convinced Gizmo.
"OKAY THEN !" he said after a while, and turned his beam off. "KILL HER !" And after a couple of seconds, during which he recalled Jinx's weakness last time, he added : "NO HESITATION, THIS TIME !"
Nervous, she licked her lips as she heard that, and turned her attention to the sorceress now slowly getting up, wincing as she still felt a bit of the beam's effect in her body.
Her hood was still down and Jinx could see the violet irises staring at her, a slight frown showing her confusion.
Why isn't she attacking me ? Gizmo asked her to, yet all she does is look at me intensely… Am I impressing her or what ? It's the second time she seems… like hypnotized ! What's wrong with her ?
"JINX ! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR ?"
The "cat-eyed" grey teen jolted and suddenly took her arms up, in direction of Raven, whose eyes grew wider.
Then slightly moved them to the right, imperceptibly modifying her aim…
Raven lifted her arms as well, but not fast enough : pink waves left Jinx's hands…
…and flew short by the Goth's head, crashing against a wall far behind !
The violet-haired girl felt her temperature lower, realizing that danger had barely missed her !
Jinx moved her arms again towards her fellow wizard, and the later summoned a dark shield just as her foe, swiftly moving her arms slightly to the left, released new pink waves…
…which again narrowly missed the half-demon, demolishing a car behind !
Raven's frown intensified, as she saw, puzzled, her adversary fail to touch her for the second time.
The pink-haired sorceress then aimed at the violet-haired one for the third time…
… and for the third time, just missed her target, the pink attack almost brushing the violet hair !
Rae was definitely perplexed regarding those three misses in a row.
What makes her move her hands each time, prior to releasing her power ? It's obvious that she changes her aim right before letting her attack out, therefore she misses me. But she does it willingly, she clearly does ! But why would she want to avoid hitting me, since we're enemies ?
Jinx's teammates were also surprised to see her misfire that often. She rarely ever missed her target, and now did… three times in a row ?!
"CAN'T YOU AIM BETTER ?! YOU MISS HER EACH TIME ! IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO DO BETTER, I'LL DO IT MYSELF !" yelled Gizmo.
Jinx was sweating, her throat pretty dry, and her heartbeats banging still as fast. She took her arms down and merely stared at the violet eyes, at the grey skin, at the violet hair, at the slender body.
Rae, as for her, still hadn't attack, too surprised by the attitude of the other female wizard. And she also let her arms down, allowing the black shield to disappear. It had actually never been of any use, since the enemy was NOT willing to aim her onslaughts where she should…
Then, the most unexpected happened : Jinx turned around and ran away as quickly as she was able to, leaving everybody, Titans and Hives, completely baffled !
Gizmo let out a curse and, taking out a remote, directed it at See-More then pushed a green button.
A green ray came out of the remote and hit the African-American.
The next second, the Eye-man was standing by Gizmo, magically teleported.
The mastermind then aimed at Mammoth and pressed again. The large enemy received the green ray as well and, immediately after, he was right beside Gizmo and See-More.
"BILLY ! REMOVE YOUR DOUBLES SO I CAN FIND YOU !" screamed the bald midget.
The addressee did as he was told, and soon only one Billy Numerous was imprisoned by a dark tendril.
A pressure on a button and a green ray later, the "multiplier" was with his friends as well.
"Hey ! Come back !" shouted BB, running in their direction, then morphing into an eagle which flew in their direction.
"Sorry, but we can't stay any longer ! You win this one, but next time, we'll make sure to bring you down, Titans !"
"You stay HERE !" ordered Robin, running to them as well.
But Gizmo had already thrown a small ball to the ground.
As the ball shattered, it freed a huge smokescreen in front of the Hives, which immediately spread and prevented the Titans to see their adversaries any longer.
The green eagle hovered before the smoke, screaming out its upset.
The cloud didn't last that long, but once it had lifted off, the four enemies evidently were out of sight !
"Damn !" cursed Cyborg under his breath.
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"She's going to pay for what she did !" threateningly repeated Gizmo, shaking his forefinger.
"Yeah, she has to pay ! She just ran away from the battlefield ! She never acted that way ! Did Jinx turn into a coward ?" Billy Numerous loudly said.
Mammoth hadn't breathed a word up to then, but when he heard his friend being potentially insulted, he felt that he could not just let it pass.
"Listen, mates ! There obviously is something that perturbs her about Raven. She has been hesitating to fight her twice, and she finally ran away after a few attacks only. I think we should talk to her about this, and try to see what the problem is."
The small genius glared at the big mutant.
"She hesitated and she fled from the battlefield, as you said, but she also missed her adversary three times in a row ! Three goddamn times ! No less ! That's unworthy of a H.I.V.E. Five member ! If she's unable to fight her opponents, then she hasn't got the "level" anymore, and so she's got nothing to do with us anymore !"
Mammoth couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You want to kick her out of the group ?"
Gizmo didn't reply.
"Look, Mammoth, I don't want to see Jinx out neither…" began See-More "…but if she can't measure up anymore, then… can she still claim she's a villain ? Being a villain means being able to stand against the "good guys", so if she hesitates several times when facing the enemy, or misses several times, or even flee… I mean, a villain can't allow these things to happen ! I don't hate Jinx, but she might as well stay out of our business if she becomes of no use in battles !"
The muscular one was seething.
"I can't believe it ! We've been friends with her for so long now, and because she suddenly fails twice, you even refuse discussing the matter with her and start evoking her departure from the group. Is that how you treat a long-time friend ? By kicking her out when she is experiencing difficulties ?"
The other three remained silent after that.
"Listen, Mammoth…" finally spoke up the leader "…we didn't decide yet if we're gonna keep Jinx in the H.I.V.E. Five, but we have to consider the possibility of her departure, should she still fail us in battles. But even if she leaves, that doesn't mean that we can't remain friends with her."
Silence then fell over the foursome for good, as they walked home through the dark streets of Jump City.
The large mutant was preoccupied.
Where was Jinx ?
How was she ?
What was on her mind ?
And why did she have all those problems lately ?
She had never had problems or hesitations in fights, she always knew what to do and did it efficiently.
And there, all of a sudden, she was behaving totally differently, totally unlike herself.
What was the problem exactly ?
He sighed as they arrived at their headquarters.
There was no light inside, since Gizmo had to turn it on. This meant that Jinx apparently wasn't home.
That, or she was in her room, having switched off all other lights.
"She's not there…" said Numerous, stating the obvious.
"I'll still go check in her room. Perhaps she's already in bed…" Jinx's only real pal informed the rest of the gang.
No one said anything.
He slowly followed the corridor, feeling really bad and sad for his dear friend, and hoping she wasn't devastated.
He came to a halt in front of her door and knocked.
Silence.
He knocked again.
Still no sound.
Perhaps she's already sound asleep. Or she's weeping in her pillow and doesn't want to reply anything.
"Jinx, it's me. Can I come in ?"
But there still wasn't any reaction from within.
"Jinki, I'm coming in, okay ?"
He opened the door without being answered and walked in.
The room was in the dark so he had to switch on the light.
His eyes went straight for the bed, as she could hardly be elsewhere, given that the room had been in complete darkness up to now.
The bed wasn't occupied.
Yet it wasn't completely empty.
On the pillow was an envelope.
Mammoth walked over and picked it up, turning it in his hand.
No outer writing anywhere.
It wasn't sealed, so he simply lifted the flap and picked the leaf waiting inside.
There were only a few lines written, but they told everything… and made Mammoth's heart start to hurt !
I KNOW I'VE NOT BEEN MEASURING UP LATELY.
YOU CERTAINLY ALL ARE VERY DISAPPOINTED
BY MY RECENT FAILURES AND AVOIDANCE.
I UNDERSTAND YOUR DISAPPOINTMENT.
YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO HATE ME.
AND, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I KINDA HATE MYSELF
AS WELL, AND FEEL SO ASHAMED…
I'VE BEEN PONDERING THINGS A LOT TODAY,
TRYING TO TAKE STOCK AND REFLECT ON MY
FUTURE.
IT WAS EVERYTHING BUT EASY TO DO. BUT I
CAME UP WITH A DECISION :
I'M LEAVING THE H.I.V.E. FIVE AND WILL SEE
WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE FROM NOW
ON.
SORRY THAT I CAUSED TROUBLE & THAT I'M NO
LONGER WORTHY OF THE H.I.V.E. TEACHINGS.
GOOD LUCK, BE FINE.
J.
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And so, just like that, Jinx leaves the H.I.V.E. Five…
Mammoth will be despondent for the loss of his dear friend. He certainly didn't expect such a radical reaction from her. Poor of him ! And yeah, he, just like Jinx, is OOC, but I thought that it'd be interesting to have that kind of brute (in the show) become, in my fic', the friendliest of teammates. It's always intriguing to go against the standards and "aim" at the unexpected.
And what curious behaviour from Jinx, who chooses to deflect her onslaughts to avoid hitting Raven… Pretty unforeseen an attitude, eh ? What's behind all this ? Oh, I know you know…! And you'll soon have confirmation of that. Well, "soon"… we'll see. ;)
So, what will become of Jinx now ? That's the great question. Any idea, anyone ?
I hope you enjoy the story so far, and in case you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate you sharing them with me. I can't guarantee I'll follow them, it depends on my opinion on them, but I still may, so don't hesitate.
Ah, also, about the structure of this chappy : I wanted a gradation from humor to tragedy, so I decided to start with a funny part, then make it more dramatic, and end up with the saddest part. It really evolves from "sunny skies" to "tempestuous skies", and life is sometimes that cruel… a way to entrench the fiction into reality, although that may sound somewhat paradoxical… ;)
So, how 'bout reviewing this chapter ? Each of ya ? I'd be most grateful to ya'll if ya did. Coz nothing is as pleasing, as motivating as reviews. It doesn't have to be long, but please, for God's sake, avoid the banal ones such as "nice chapter", "luv your story", "please update" or "continue". These are not actual reviews (although I admit that they are supportive) : reviews should briefly let the author know WHAT ya liked in the chappy and WHY ya liked it, as already stated in the intro to this chappy. So it requires more than just a few general and common words. And I'll be really happy if ya guys all take the time to let me know how ya felt about this all. :D So, say what ? Review ? =)
Be fine !
Peace, Love, Ecstasy !
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