Chapter 3: Taking Flight
"Can you believe that I'd never seen Paris before we came out here? It's absolutely gorgeous!" Angel gushed. The six bewildered H.I.V.E. students stood in the night in front of the Eiffel tower. The lights that covered the structure shined brightly, blinking like dancing stars. It reminded Angel of the lights of the airplanes that flew during the night that she'd sometimes pass whenever flying. Unfortunately, most of the other guys didn't seem very interested. Gizmo yawned loudly, while Mammoth cleaned his ear with his pinky finger. See-More whistled idly to himself and Kyd Wykkyd appeared to be looking at something else. At least Billy had gone over and started taking pictures. That proved that he was somewhat interested, right? Or maybe he was just bored, she admitted silently. Yeah, that was probably it. Angel huffed. "Will you guys please say something?"
"So, we've left the base and are now outside. What now?" asked See-More with a blank look.
"Our best bet is to try and find an airport and get out of here. The sooner we get home, the better," she suggested.
"Why the hell would we wanna go home? France is great!" Billy cried happily.
OK, maybe he had been interested after all. That was a first. "You really want to stay? We would never make it here!" she argued.
"Daw, what 'da you know?" Billy asked sarcastically in his annoying southern accent. "You girls 'r always pr'tendin to be so smart, like you're better than men or somethin',"
"OK smart guy, why don't you ask that man over there for directions to the nearest train station?" she asked challengingly, pointing at a man seated nearby the group.
"Will do!" he answered quickly before running over and approaching said man. "Scuse me Bubba, but which way to git to them locomotive station?"
"Qu'est-ce? Je suis désolé, je parle français, allemand et italien, mais pas l'anglais, " the man said.
"Right! Got it!" Billy answered eagerly before turning around and running back to the others. "He said he didn't know, and to ask someperson else."
"That's not what he said!" She nearly screamed. Angel had prided herself for being patient and slow to anger, but these guys were really beginning to drive her up the wall. She wondered how Jinx could put up with it.
Breath Angel, just breath, she instructed herself before taking a deep breath and turning towards the rest of the group. "OK, do any of you guys know French?" she asked calmly once her temper had died down a little bit. Mammoth and Gizmo just looked at each other scratching their heads. See-More shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. Kyd Wykkyd, for his part actually raised his hand and nodded. Well, at least he was listening to her again.
She sighed. "Let me rephrase that question. Do any of you guys speak French?" His hand came down. "Didn't think so. That settles it. We're heading back to the US. We need to find an airport with a plane that can take us back home or else we're stuck here."
Thankfully, the others didn't argue with her and nodded in consent, except for See-More who waved his hand above his head. "I have a question!"
"Yes See-More?"
"What do we do about them?" he asked pointing his thumb over a group of gathered people behind them. Angel nearly fell over in shock. Almost every person in the group had either a camera or a camera phone and was snapping pictures of the teenage villains. They all spoke in a variety of languages, some of which the teens had never even heard before in their life.
Ugh, tourists, Angel thought disdainfully before swatting one away as he started to pull at one of her wings. Billy was having a great time posing with a couple while they continued to photograph him.
"Hey, stay away from my tech you Booger-heads!" Gizmo yelled.
"Yeah, like you really need these." Mammoth said to a particularly tubby man before snacking on the bag of chips he'd swiped from him.
"Hey, hey, watch it man! How would you like it if I stuck my finger in your eye?" See-More snapped.
Kyd Wykkyd scowled at a small family after he heard their son ask his parents if he could get "Batman's" autograph. The family backed away slowly from his glare.
Finally, after putting up with the tourists for a few minutes, the team looked at each other for a minute, nodded, and then sprinted as fast as they could away from the group, dragging a reluctant Billy with them. While they ran, Angel commanded through panted breaths and flaming eyes, "First things first, we all need to find a change of clothes and fast! Is that understood?"
This time, they all agreed, no questions asked. All of them were smart enough to know just when a girl had had enough, and none of them were really in the mood to get yelled at.
Kid Flash was doing something that he hated doing more than anything: dragging his feet. Normally, he would be speeding through life, doing whatever chore was necessary around wherever he was living at the time, and then take off to fight crime. Sometimes he would take a "quick" run around the city, see the sites and return home to think of something else to do in his free time since travel was never a problem. After his relationship with Jinx began, his schedule changed slightly. He would still perform whatever necessary chores and fight crime, but instead of going for a run, he would spend time with Jinx, which now took up most of his free time. But that never really bothered him. That is, until now. Today, he dragged his feet slower than any other point in his life. Why?
"Wally, come on, there's more stuff over here!" Jinx cried, beckoning him over.
He groaned inwardly. "Coming Sweetie," he answered unenthusiastically. Behind him he could hear muffled laughs of onlookers. He swore he could feel them pointing at him as well. As much as he wanted to turn around and give them a piece of his mind, the stack of wooden boards, metal sheets, and whatever hardware he currently held in his arms kept him from doing so. Why me? He thought to himself.
The day after Jinx made up her mind to renovate the underground H.I.V.E. tower, she'd gotten him up early so they could get an early start. Kid Flash had rolled over and out of his bed and landed on the floor, where Jinx had proceeded to shove him into the bathroom, telling him to hurry up and get ready so they could get to the store as soon as possible. He remembered brushing his teeth, eyes droopy, limbs aching, and now secretly sympathizing with the other members of the H.I.V.E. Five. He never knew Jinx could be this pushy. Once he'd finished in the bathroom and changed into his uniform, Jinx had dragged him out of the tower (without breakfast!) and taken him to the nearest hardware store, where they'd been for the last three hours, bringing him back to his present state. While Kid Flash was normally cheerful, optimistic, upbeat, and, dare he say, one of the funniest guys he knew himself to be, today he just felt like hitting something. Particularly his bed. As he followed Jinx around the store, he heard a guy passing him make a whipping sound. If he hadn't been carrying the stuff, he seriously would have punched that guy in the face. Nobody messes with a tired, hungry, cranky, super powered teenager!
"I can't believe I'm saying this to you, but hurry up Wally! Don't you normally hate dragging your feet?" Jinx asked condescendingly.
"Yes." He said as they made their way over to the paint section.
"Hmm, the living area back at the tower was normally gold and silver. Maybe violet would be a better. It would liven up the place, add some color. Or maybe navy blue would match the new lamps we picked out. Do you think this color would be a little strange in the living room?" Jinx looked at him, holding up a colored card.
He felt like his arms were going to give out any minute now. "Jinx, don't you think we should check out the H.I.V.E. tower first before buying all this stuff?"
"No, we need to buy some supplies first so we can get started when we get there. I already know we'll need all this so might as well buy it now. Then when we've used up everything, we can buy more supplies as well as anything else we forgot to get from today."
"M-more?" Kid Flash said pathetically. Someone, kill me now, he thought miserably. "What else could we possibly need?"
"Oh, the paint should be the last of it for now! Then we'll be finished."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously! Now, which paint color is better?"
"The navy. Can we speed this up?" he asked eagerly.
After a couple more minutes, the paint was ready, and after a few minutes more, all the equipment was paid for. The couple now stood outside the hardware store with the supplies in hand. "There, we're finally done! Can we go home now? I'm starving!" Kid Flash complained.
"First we need to drop all this stuff at the H.I.V.E. tower. It should be about 20 minutes from here. From there, it should be about 40 minutes to get back to the Titans' tower. Then we-" Jinx stopped talking the moment she noticed her boyfriend's face. His hair was a mess; sweat was dripping down his forehead, there were bags under his eyes, the list went on and on. In summation, he looked rundown, a look which didn't suit him. She walked over to him, put an arm on his shoulder and gave him an apologetic grin to let him know she understood. "I guess we could head back to the Titans' tower and grab a bite to eat before we start renovating."
He brightened immediately. "I was hoping you'd say that!"
But as they started heading back, Kid Flash stopped in his tracks. The continued laughter behind him really was becoming annoying. He would laugh if the other person was laughing with him, but not at him! Laying his stuff down for a moment, he turned to the three men behind his back to finally give them a taste of his strength, when all of a sudden, the fake waterfall behind the men collapsed. The three were instantly soaked in water from the broken pipe that the waterfall had been attached to. Confused, Kid Flash turned to Jinx to ask if she saw what happened. Before the words could leave his lips however, he noticed her eyes were glowing a light pink.
"You're welcome!" She smiled cattily before giving him a peck on the cheek.
He returned it with a thankful smile. "Love you too Babe!" OK, maybe this shopping trip hadn't been so bad after all.
"Ugh, someperson got another barf bag?" Billy asked miserably. "I think I'm gonna hurl again."
"We haven't even taken off yet!" See-More stated.
"It don't matter, I git air sick real easy! Urp…"
"Ew, keep it in the bag Barfbrain!" Gizmo yelled.
"Don't say barf. Bleh!"
"Keep it down you guys; you're going to get us caught!" Angel scolded.
"Right, whatever Mom!"
Kyd Wykkyd peered over the top of his book to catch a glimpse of the others. He didn't really care what they were talking about he just found it entertaining to watch them every now and then. Gizmo and Billy had started arguing while Angel was trying to break it up, but was only managing to make it worse. See-More was attempting to tell jokes to calm everyone down, but no one seemed to be listening, and Mammoth had managed to fall asleep on a pile of luggage. Seeing as the conversation wasn't going anywhere, Kyd Wykkyd went back to his book.
After the group had escaped the terrifying tourists, they managed to slip into an alley where they attempted to map out their next move. Once everything had been decided, they broke into a small clothes store, stole one outfit per person, and split before the cops even knew they'd been there. Then, they'd snuck onto a small train and waited until they'd arrived at an airport. Luckily, the airport it went to happened to have flights going to the U.S. Though he didn't get airsick like Billy did, Kyd Wykkyd had nearly gotten sick from trying to sneak on-board the plane. Who knew it could be so difficult? They had to steal a ton of air tanks from the airport supplies, disguise themselves as luggage, and once they were on the plane, they had to remove some of the extra luggage so that they didn't weigh down the plane. And to top it off, Gizmo had to set up his holographic projector to hide them. At least he now understood why so many people disliked airports so much. Too much of a hassle! Oh well, he supposed they had to be thankful that they'd gotten on without any problems.
Going back to the book that he had swiped from one of the shops (and thankful that he'd taken a few French classes at the academy), Kyd Wykkyd attempted to continue reading, but the noise was starting to become unbearable. Plus, the clothes he was currently wearing made him squirm slightly. It wasn't that they were uncomfortable they just weren't his usual ones. The team had chosen a small no-name store to steal from, instead of from all the designer stores nearby. Despite some complaints, all agreed that stealing designer clothes would have made them stand out too much, and would be too uncomfortable anyway. From the small store, Kyd Wykkyd had gotten a black shirt, a pair of jeans, some sunglasses, and a grey hoody which he now used to cover his head out of habit. Thankfully, his own shoes hadn't clashed with his outfit, so he kept them on, as did the others. Stealing another glance at the rest of the group, curiosity compelled him to take a look at what they'd chosen since they'd been in too much of a hurry for him to look before. Billy had taken a red plaid shirt with some jeans, as well as a straw hat (not surprising) to cover his sandy colored hair. He kept his sunglasses on though, claiming that he felt "naked" without them. Gizmo had taken a small white t-shirt that said "Genius" on the front (go figure) and the only pair of shorts that fit him. Angel had taken her helmet off, letting her short, slightly wavy blonde hair hang loose, and wore a pair of sunglasses that covered her own gold eyes. Her outfit consisted of a yellow tank top with a light blue jacket over it and a long red flowing skirt that came up to her knees. See-More had put his helmet back on after they'd boarded, which matched his green, long-sleeved, hooded zip-up jacket and tan cargo pants. And last, but not least was Mammoth who wore extra-large jeans, a white muscle shirt, a black jacket, and a baseball cap to cover his head. He also carried the duffel bag that carried all of their old clothes. Kyd Wykkyd had to admit, to him, they all looked and acted like a normal group of teenagers, except for the fact that they'd stolen away on a plane. Speaking of plane, he wondered what was taking them so long to leave.
Right on schedule, the H.I.V.E. students felt the plane move underneath them, signaling them for departure. Thankfully, this caused them to finally quiet down and focus on grabbing onto something for support.
"Uh, 'xactly how long is this here flight sposed to be?" Billy asked nervously.
"Hmm, we're flying from France to New York? I'd say that it'd be about eight hours," Angel answered.
"Gulp, aw man," Billy garbled, beginning to turn green. "I don't think I'm gonna make eight 'ours"
And there you have it, chapter 3! I really wish it didn't sound so rushed in the end. I'm hoping the next chapter won't be like that. For the next chapter, I plan to focus on the thoughts of the H.I.V.E. members, Jinx included. This way you readers out there can understand each character's take on the situation and what their plan is (at least that's how I hope for it to come out!) . The plane ride is going to be eight hours after all.
Anyway, reviews please!