Chapter 4 'Training'
"Raven are you okay?" Robin asked stooping down next to the dark girl as Jericho gave them all one last nod before heading out.
"Just peachy," Raven answered, obviously annoyed.
"Do you feel well enough to find the room of training with us friend Raven?" Starfire asked flying over to her friend and looking down at her with a hopeful smile on her face.
"Training?" Raven asked confused as she allowed Robin to help her up. "Are we all just humoring Slade now?"
Cyborg glanced up towards the monitor that was still covered by the bed sheet. "Jericho told us that he's got a plan, but we're going to have to follow up with playing these games Slade has planned if we want it to work out," he replied to the dark girl.
Robin nodded in response. "And the majority of our competition is down in the training room now. Jericho suggested that it would be wise to see who they are before the games start."
"How do we know that we can trust him exactly?" Raven asked skeptically.
"He's our friend Raven," Beast Boy began innocently, "If we don't trust someone we're not gonna have any luck winning this thing with Slade, right?"
"Whatever," Raven scoffed.
Beast Boy opened his mouth to reply to her but was quickly cut off by Robin giving him a look that clearly stated it wasn't time to argue with Raven today.
"Look, it can't hurt to size up our competition and if these games are real Slade already stated that they're not going to happen for another four days. I don't think any harm is going to come to us by checking out the training room," their leader answered as he stared his team down.
"Dude, are you sure Jericho said fourth floor?" Beast Boy asked looking around the empty hallway and then at his fellow teammates with a confused look stretched across his face.
"I'm sure of what he said Beast Boy," Robin said with a sigh, "Just be careful in case there are any traps."
Raven rolled her eyes from under her hood at them all, implying that she had stated this before they left the safety of their hospital room.
"HEEEEEEYA!" A loud scream filled the titan's ears from down the hall which followed with a loud clatter of what sounded like metal crashing to the ground.
All at once the five teens took off sprinting down the long hallway until they reached a mirrored window that displayed the inside of the training room. The villains were displayed on one side, the heroes on the other. In between them was what looked like a strip of glass, but obviously had to be something much stronger in order to hold off these powerful beings from killing each other right then and there. By the looks of it there was an enormous tension that filled the room. The villains were just about leering at the heroes on their opposite side and the heroes didn't seem to enjoy their evil eyes. In fact, from the looks of it the other titans were looking extremely angry with the villains as well.
The sound of metal scraping the floor filled the five titan's ears again and their eyes quickly darted to where the sound was coming from. As it turned out the pink haired sorceress seemed to be the only one taking the training seriously from the titan's side. She was using her hexes to knock down the metal barriers in a perfectly angled direction so they flew into the course dummies snapping their heads off in a row.
The villains on the other hand were all over the course as if it was a new playground and they were a busload of five year olds. Gizmo and Mammoth were working as a team to dismantle the dummies with some contraption Gizmo had obviously designed, Adonis was in the corner lifting weights in his suited up armor, and Mumbo was about ten feet away from Adonis tweaking his magic hat to become a deadly weapon that could toss swords and knives around with the flick of his wrist.
"Whoa," Cyborg began staring down at the scene in awe. "Should we like…go in or…" he began as he gestured towards the door.
"Cyborg's right," Robin said snapping out of his trance. "We need to show the villains they're not going to be able to control us in the games. Titans GO!"
"Dude, Robin, we're not in battle mode right now," Beast Boy interjected.
Robin glared at the green boy before pushing past him and pulling the large steel door open coming face to face with one of Slade's minion guards. The boy wonder quickly grabbed hold of one of his bird-a-rangs to defend himself but the guard held his hands up in surrender before Robin could attack. He squinted at the guard unsure of what to do. It was then that the guard pointed to which door they should enter in the training zone to be on their specific side.
"So that's how they're keeping the villains and heroes apart," Raven mused in her monotone as Robin shot the guard a glare before turning around and pulling the handle with such force the door flung open.
"Well, look who showed up!" Speedy's voice called out from below the long staircase that was displayed off to the side of the training area.
"Yeah, we uh, got a little lost," Beast Boy said laughing nervously. "So what's up aqua-dude?"
"Not much green man," Aqualad said walking past the changeling and ruffling his hair.
Beast Boy shot him an annoyed look before smoothing his hair back into its normal mildly spiky place.
"So…anyone know why she's destroying those things?" Cyborg asked directing his attention towards Jinx who was still working on her skills.
"I think what friend Cyborg means is…why is Jinx the only one who is participating in the training?" Starfire questioned.
Bumblebee shrugged, "She was going at it when we showed up, I'm not even sure the girl knows we're here," she answered with a somewhat worried look in her eye.
Robin raised a masked brow at the girl before looking back over to Jinx. "Well, it would be helpful if she would slow it down and strategize with us for a few minutes," he commented.
"Oh, trust me, I don't think she's going to stop training for much of anything," a voice behind Robin replied.
The leader jumped in shock before spinning around to see a blur of yellow and red.
"Hola Senior Kid Flash!" Mas and Menos greeted the speedster as he re-appeared in front of the titans.
"If it isn't my two favorite racing buddies!" Kid Flash exclaimed bumping fists with the twins before smiling back up at the five original titans. "You're not going to slow her down…at least I wouldn't count on it."
Robin narrowed his eyes at Kid Flash and then flicked them over to Jinx who was still on the move. "If she's going to be considered a titan in these games and expect our help the least she can do is talk to us for a few minutes to get things sorted out."
Kid Flash smiled weakly at his friends before letting out a small sigh. "Look, she's going to kill me for mentioning this to you guys but she's really worried about these games."
"No more than the rest of us I'm sure," Raven added in her monotone looking somewhat bored with the conversation.
"No, really," Kid Flash interjected, "Just…look at it from her point of view. There are twelve villains to hunt us down in this arena. If you just so happened to be as spiteful as the villains and have an old friend who was now playing for the opposite side in these games who would be the first person you sought out to get revenge on?"
"Yeah but most of the villains will be looking to destroy the teen titans, not their old teammate, right?" Cyborg asked.
A loud screech filled the eleven titan's ears as Jinx dropped the last piece of metal and succeeded in performing two back flips before trotting towards the titans slowly.
"Jinx," Raven said acknowledging the pink haired girl.
"Raven," Jinx stated back with a nod. "Look, I know what you guys are thinking," Jinx began sighing, "You're probably wondering how you could ever trust me after all of the stunts I've pulled on you."
"Well, now that you're bringing it up…" Beast Boy began with a small laugh.
Raven quickly jabbed the green teen in his side to abruptly cut off his laugh before nodding to Jinx, "Go on," the empath stated.
"I just want you guys to know that I'm not a traitor," Jinx spoke firmly. "I'm not going to turn on you in the games like you might think. And trust me I don't blame you for thinking it, after everything I've done in the past I deserve it, but I hope you can take my word for it."
Robin stared at the sorceress for what seemed like three minutes before his lips finally twitched into a smile. "You did help us defeat the brotherhood of evil," Robin stated. "So, I guess if Kid Flash thought you had it in you to be a titan I'm going to have to believe him."
Jinx let a small smile roll across her lips before squeaking out a small 'thank you'.
"Hey you crud sniffing titans!" Gizmo's voice cut through the air from the other side of the wall, apparently the unbreakable glass did not have the luxury of being sound proof. "You think sitting around all day making nice with each other is going to help you in Slade's games? Just how dumb are you?" He asked pushing his face up against the glass.
"Why don't you go back to designing an automatic car seat for yourself?" Cyborg shot back.
The boy stuck his tongue out at the machine hybrid before setting his eyes on Jinx. "You sure you don't wanna come back to the HIVE Jinx?" he asked, venom in his tone.
"Not a chance," Jinx snapped back.
Gizmo let out a frightening little laugh before turning his back to the titans and wondering off in search of obstacles in the arena.
"Alright titans, the best thing we can do is to train while we formulate a plan for the game," Robin spoke up. "So let's break up into groups and practice switching partners. You never know who you might need to be allied with to stay alive. Alright, titans go." Robin quickly took the alien princess's hand and directed her over to one of the obstacles before anyone else could claim her. It was plainly obvious that they were going to be together for the games from the beginning.
Jinx let out a small sigh of relief before readying herself to turn and look for the speedster but from the corner of her eyes she spotted a flash of green. Turning back to see the villains she witnessed Cheshire use her knifed hands to slice one of the dummies straight through the abdomen. If that wasn't bad enough, directly after the cat-like girl watched the dummy's upper body fall to the ground she tilted her head up towards Jinx and in one swift motion she flashed her claw-like hands in a small wave at the pink haired girl. It was in that moment that Jinx had never felt more frightened for her life.
Ta Da! Look at me actually updating for once in my life. This is giving me hope that I'll be able to put more chapters on my other two stories soon. So if any of you are interested in them as well as this fanfic, look out! I'm back! Probably for a month or two until I start chemistry this summer, but I'm going to crank out as much as I can for you guys while I'm not too busy.
Anyway, let me know what you thought! Please? You'll be rewarded with cookies if you do!...okay maybe not cookies…but you'll at least get another chapter sooner if you tell me what you think about it so far.
Xoxo-Megz